Bonny Forrest named JFS San Diego’s chief operating officer

Bonny J. Forest

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)– Jewish Family Service (JFS) has named Dr. Bonny J. Forrest as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Forrest will oversee the organization’s more than 50 programs that operate out of 15 locations throughout San Diego County, with an additional office in Palm Desert that serves the Coachella Valley.

Dr. Forrest has more than 20 years’ experience as a psychologist and attorney.  She has practiced and conducted research as a pediatric neuropsychologist and has led clinical programs in other nonprofit organizations.  Most recently, she was the Director of Early Childhood Programs at the San Diego Center for Children and, before that, a Director of Developmental Services, Clinical Programs at Rady Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Forrest earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University, and completed fellowships at the Yale School of Medicine and the National Institute of Mental Health. 

A passionate advocate for children of limited financial means, she is also the developer of Project SKIP (Screening Kids for Intervention and Prevention), an on-line program designed to increase access for all parents to screen children for social-emotional, cognitive, and developmental delays, including autism.

Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. Forrest practiced for many years as a lawyer in California and New York, primarily with the New York firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and with Greenwich Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch.  While completing her doctorate, she led the pro bono program at Shearman & Sterling, another New York-based law firm, and spearheaded the organization of a charitable foundation for the Whitney family. 

Jill Borg Spitzer, ACSW, LCSW, Chief Executive Officer of JFS, noted that “Bonny is an ideal match for this organization. She brings a background in law, psychology and management to JFS, which are important attributes to have at this time in the agency’s history.” 

Dr. Forrest said “I could not have found a greater home.  JFS truly has an incredible team devoted to justice, kindness, quality, and integrity in every aspect of what they do for our community.”

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Preceding provided by Jewish Family Service

Letter to Editor: Rachel has her law signed, blocking ‘libel tourism’

Editor, San Diego Jewish World

Great news! I am delighted to inform you that the SPEECH Act (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act) – a law which I initiated and promoted over the last two years – was signed into law today (Tuesday, August 10)  by the President.

This new law will uphold First Amendment protections for American free expression by guarding American authors and publishers from the enforcement of frivolous foreign libel suits filed in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections.

No longer will libel tourists be able to suppress the rights of American scholars, writers and journalists to speak, write and publish freely in print and on the Internet.

• The SPEECH Act is of monumental importance to national security and the protection of free speech.

• The SPEECH Act allows Americans to expose the enemies of freedom and democracy without fear of foreign intimidation.

• The SPEECH Act protects all Americans in the manner that the First Amendment was designed to guarantee.

Congratulations and thank you all of the legislatures, their staffs, and the many individuals and organizations that helped with this historic legislation.

Rachel Ehrenfeld
New York

Assessing U.S. Counterterrorism Strategies: An Interview with Michael Chertoff

-Reprinted from Summer 2010 issue of inFocus Quarterly–

On May 27, inFOCUS editor Matthew RJ Brodsky interviewed Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security from 2005-2009. As secretary he developed and implemented border security policy, homeland security regulations, and a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served as the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 attacks. Today, he is senior of counsel at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, DC.

iF: The Obama administration decided to abandon the term “war on terror” in favor of “overseas contingency operation.” Is this a semantic shift, or does it have practical consequences?

MC: Actually, I don’t know if that’s accurate. I don’t know that they have abandoned it. Sometimes I hear them use it and sometimes I hear them not using it, so I don’t want to characterize what their position is.

I think that the problem with the war on terror is that it is treating terror as a tactic. Although I think we all know what we mean when we say it, but I mean if you want to be literal it’s not literally accurate because terror is a tactic. I think that we are at war. I do think that the enemy is radical Islamist ideologues and their network. Obviously, al-Qaeda is part of that network but there are other parts of that network as well. And, we are in different degrees of war. We are in a hot war with some and a cold war with others. So it’s a little more complicated than the sound-bite but I think it is more accurate.

iF: Just yesterday the president’s top counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, described the violent extremists as victims of political and economic social forces. But he said that those plotting attacks in the U.S. should not be described in religious terms. So if America’s adversaries are very clear in how they define us as enemies, why is it so difficult for the U.S. to identify with whom we are at war? Is the administration currently missing the boat here?

MC: Well again, I spent a lot of time when I was secretary talking to people, including many Muslims, about what is the right way to refer to adherents to the ideology that we’re fighting. And, there is an Arabic term, takfirism, which means basically the view is that everybody who disagrees with me is an apostate and should be killed, which is probably the most accurate but unintelligible. I don’t think you can avoid the fact that the people in this ideology are arguing, incorrectly, but nevertheless arguing, that they are reflecting a religious mandate. And so what I like about the term “radical Islamism” or “extremist Islamism” is that it makes it clear that we’re talking about Islam not as a religion but as a political doctrine – and that we’re talking not about all political Islam but extremist political Islam.

That being said, if we are not willing to be candid about the fact that it is a self-described movement that claims religious roots, then we’re not being honest about what it is we’re facing. Similarly, when I was a prosecutor, we did organized crime. I’ll never forget Governor Cuomo criticized us for using the term “La Cosa Nostra mafia.” Then I was the U.S. attorney prosecuting a case called the “Commission Case,” and we had tapes where the guys on the tapes said: “we’re the mafia, we’re La Cosa Nostra.” And so when the tapes got played in court, Cuomo got embarrassed. And Rudy [Giuliani] was Italian. But nevertheless he acknowledged that the group itself, while not emblematic of Italians by any means, did select only Italians or people of Italian lineage to be made members, and that was a self-imposed rule. So you can’t ignore that; that was part of how the group set itself up. So, to me, radical Islamism or extreme Islamism is probably the right balance to have.

iF: Do you see a pattern in the recent spate of terrorist incidents at Fort Hood, the Christmas Day bomber and Times Square. What do these mean?

MC: Well, we’ve had homegrown terrorists before. If you go back to 2002-2003, the Lackawanna Six – the people that we convicted up in Oregon and Washington. It does seem like there’s an uptick. And I think it’s attributable to two reasons. First, there’s been a self-conscious effort on the part of the extremists to recruit Americans or lawful residents because its gotten much harder to bring foreigners into the country. And second, I think that there’s been a tendency for some populations that have been alienated in this country to become a little bit more active. I think we’ve got much less of that than the Europeans have, by a considerable measure. But we’re a large country and you’re going to find some people who are alienated, and this ideology is one attractive way for them to deal with their alienation.

iF: In January the Pentagon released its report on the Fort Hood massacre carried out by Major Nidal Hasan. Defense Department Secretary Gates said there were “shortcomings” in the Department’s ability to defend against internal influences. In his speech after the failed Christmas Day bombing, President Obama said there were “systematic failures.” Janet Napolitano said, “the system worked.” Which is it? What is the state of our counterterrorism capabilities?

MC: I think our counterterrorism capabilities are good and they’re very much better than they were prior to September 11. They are not perfect, and I think in some cases what you see is human error – people who just didn’t see something they should have seen or perhaps didn’t work as urgently as they should have worked. And that’s what my focus would be. You need to drive this as a matter of leadership; it’s got to be a front-burner issue. The second piece is that you need to continually adapt. The tactics and strategies that worked last year are not all going to work this year because the enemy has adapted. So there’s a need for continuous improvement and focus. And you also finally have to support your field operatives. You know, the people you’re sending out in the field – you’ve got to have their back.

iF: Are we doing that?

MC: Well, I think the decision to go back and revisit the issue of prosecuting CIA agents after that was previously declined was probably not a helpful message. Right now, according to the newspapers, we’re using armed force against people in Pakistan and Yemen. So assuming that to be true, I hope and I would expect that we have the backs of the people who are doing that and in a year or two somebody’s not going to come back and say: “Whoa, wait a second. This is murder and we’ve got to investigate that.” To me, it’s leadership, it’s adaptation, and it is supporting your troops. Those are the three pillars of staying ahead of this.

iF: Did the decision to quickly pivot to charging the Christmas Day bomber as a criminal interfere with investigators’ ability to obtain the maximum amount of information? Was it the right decision?

MC: I can’t answer that because I wasn’t in the room. I think what they did with the Times Square bomber shows a more deliberate and thoughtful approach. Now, sometimes the answer may be that you give a person his Miranda rights because you’ve exhausted everything you can get out of him and, you know, in some of the cases we had we had been investigating people for months. So we had wiretaps and stuff, so we knew everything. The point is that it’s got to be a thoughtful decision; it can’t be a reflex to automatically default to the criminal justice system.

iF: The attempted car bombing in New York on May 1 has been traced back to a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who spent five months in Pakistan last year. The Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. What do you make of the fact that nearly every attempted or successful terror attack on Western targets in recent years has been traced back to Pakistan in some capacity?

MC: Well, the Christmas Day would-be bomber was Nigerian who went to Yemen. And we’ve had cases of Somalians. I think that Pakistan is probably still the epicenter of where this extremism is planning and training. But I think we have to watch Somalia, we have to watch Yemen, and we even have to start watching North Africa. I was in North Africa about a week ago and there’s a growing concern there about al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, which is involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping. That group could become the next Yemen. So this is a spreading problem; this is not limited to one geographic area.

iF: The United States has been using unmanned aerial drones to target al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas. Some have questioned the legality of these “targeted assassinations” while the Obama administration has insisted they are lawful acts of war done in conjunction with the Pakistani government. What is your take?

MC: Well, assuming this to be true, what’s reported, I’m not going to confirm anything, but assuming that to be true I don’t have a problem legally with using force when you’re at war. But some people on the left have not at least hitherto accepted that we are at war, so they’re going to have to figure out how they deal with this issue. I don’t have a problem with it.

iF: Attorney General Eric Holder has been widely criticized, first for deciding to try terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court in New York City, and then for reversing his decision earlier this year. What do you think is the appropriate venue for trying terrorism suspects – civilian court or military tribunal?

MC: I think for people who are captured oversees, I would put them in a military commission. Unless they’re American citizens who under the current law are not allowed to be in a military commission. But if you’re not an American and you’re captured oversees, I see no reason to import you to the United States. Now, people captured in the United States present a different set of issues…

iF: Even if they’re foreign-born?

MC: Even if they’re foreign-born presents a different set of issues. But, certainly if you’re captured oversees I think it’s the right course to put them in a military commission. And frankly I don’t think you need to bring them into the U.S. to do that. I think you can try them somewhere else.

iF: What do you make of the decision to close Guantanamo Bay?

MC: I think it’s going to turn out to be a lot harder than was originally projected. Part of the problem is this: In a way, the easiest way to deal with it is that if someone’s been convicted and they’ve gotten life imprisonment or execution, that’s the easiest thing. You could then put them in a U.S. facility; lock them up at a place like Florence and that would be that.

The people who have not been tried yet or who are being detained, that’s the hard problem because what do you do if at the end of the day you can’t make a criminal case under U.S. criminal law? Do you release them in the U.S.? Do you deport them? Well, look what just happened in Great Britain. A week ago an immigration court in Britain said we have two terrorists that were acquitted, or there was insufficient evidence to charge them with a terror plot. But the court said: these are terrorists. One is clearly a member of al-Qaeda and the other is clearly ready to carry out al-Qaeda’s orders. But, under European law, because there is a slight risk they can be mistreated back in Pakistan, we’re not going to send them back but they have to remain in Great Britain. Now what? Are they going to put them under these control orders? That’s controversial, too. Well, we don’t want to have that in the United States. I can guarantee you that would be a huge mistake. So, before you start bringing people from Guantanamo into the United States you better have all the legal ducks in a row as to what happens if people can’t be convicted. And I don’t think we’re there yet.

iF: What do you make of the report of the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Lebanon-based Hezbollah? Is this a “game-changer,” as the Israeli’s have insisted? How should the U.S. respond and does Hezbollah present a threat to the United States or American interests?

MC: Without commenting on the specific report, I think Hezbollah, as I think I’ve said publicly before, is in terms of sophistication the most powerful of the terrorist groups. I mean, they are much more sophisticated than al-Qaeda. They have not attacked Americans directly to my knowledge since the Khobar Tower in 1996. But they do have a growing presence in this hemisphere, which they’ve been in the process of gaining over a period of decades now. I think that the issue has always been: at what point would they engage in hostilities with the United States? I think a lot of that is frankly tied to where we are with Iran. So I think they’re a piece of a larger geo-political issue having to do with Iran and its relationship with the United States and its relationship with the other countries in the region.

iF: Some have argued that the creation of the Homeland Security department merely adds one more level of bureaucracy and red tape to the government. How essential is the department to keeping the U.S. safe? Does it help or hinder the flow of information between governmental agencies?

MC: Actually, it made it much easier. We used to have the various pockets of things that were involved with border and infrastructure security scattered in different departments. So you had a piece of the border stuff in the Department of Justice, another piece in Treasury, another piece in the Department of Transportation, and they never worked together. They had uncoordinated plans. By bringing this department together, we for the first time built a coordinated border plan, which is one of the reasons that – contrary to what you hear on the news – we’ve actually had significant decreases in flow across the border in the last couple of years. We now share platforms between the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. They share intelligence, they have joint planning, and they have joint exercises. So I think like any other maturing organization there are some growing pains, but I think it is significantly far ahead in terms of coordinating on border and infrastructure security than was the case when they were in separate departments.

iF: Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.

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Preceding reprinted with permission from inFocus Quarterly published by the Jewish Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

ADL denounces Iranian website as ‘cesspool of anti-Semitism’

NEW YORK (Press Release) — Calling it a “virtual cesspool of anti-Semitism,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned an Iranian Web site dedicated to Holocaust denial and called on the United States to publicly denounce the Iranian regime’s blatant anti-Semitism.

The “HoloCartoon” Web site purports to offer a historical narrative of events occurring before, during and after World War II. Instead, it is rife with anti-Semitic imagery, Jewish conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial and factual inaccuracies.

“HoloCartoon is a pernicious Web site replete with vicious anti-Semitism and caricatures of Jews fabricating the Holocaust story to advance their goals, and depictions of Jews as murderers and manipulative money worshippers,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. “Its pseudo-history makes a mockery of the Holocaust and the site is little more than a virtual cesspool of anti-Semitism.”

The Web site is hosted on an Iranian server and, according to media reports, is sponsored by a non-governmental cultural foundation. The material is reportedly based on a cartoon book on the Holocaust published in Iran in 2008.

“This type of anti-Semitism is the calling card of the Iranian regime and a reflection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who continues a drumbeat of Holocaust denial and Jew-bashing,” Mr. Foxman added.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ADL called on the United States to publicly denounce the blatant anti-Semitism which the Iranian regime fosters and permits to be disseminated throughout the world.

“That this Web site is live demonstrates the approval of the Iranian government,” the letter stated. “With this easily accessible Web site, the hatred which first appeared in book form for Iranian domestic consumption now has global reach.”

HoloCartoon says it is “Dedicated to all those who were killed under the pretext of the Holocaust.” In a preface, the creators state, “This book tends to denounce the conspicuous lies of the ‘planned murder of 6 million Jews during the Second World War’ allegedly called ‘Holocaust.’”
 
Editor’s Note: Images from HoloCartoon are available on the League’s Web site.

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Preceding provided by Anti-Defamation League

Commentary: Welcome action by Congress reexamining aid to Lebanese Armed Forces

By Shoshana Bryen

Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday,  in the wake of the killing of an IDF officer inside Israel by Lebanese Armed Forces personnel, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced that Congress would block the disbursement of $100 million in U.S. military aid to Lebanon.  Lowey chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee that authorizes such funds.  Similarly, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) applied a hold with concerns about “reported Hezbollah influence on the Lebanese Armed Forces.”
 
According to The Jerusalem Post, “Berman entered his hold the day before the deadly incident, which he said only confirmed his reservations. His office also wants more information on Hezbollah’s role in the LAF, how diligently U.S. weapons are kept track of and how well the LAF cooperates with UNIFIL. ‘Until we know more about this incident and the nature of Hezbollah influence on the LAF – and can assure that the LAF is a responsible actor – I cannot in good conscience allow the United States to continue sending weapons to Lebanon,’ Berman said.”
 
The hold may, in the end, only be temporary. But credit where it is due.
 
For more than a year, JINSA has worried about the influence of Hezbollah on the Lebanese government, where it holds a “blocking third” in the Cabinet. While the U.S. government and UNIFIL have insisted that a bigger and more competent LAF would be expected to “secure the borders of Lebanon” and enforce UNSCR 1701 – which calls for all of the militias in the south to be disarmed – we have never believed that Lebanese soldiers could be induced to kill other Lebanese in the interest of keeping the Israeli residents of the North safe. 
 
It’s only too bad that 45-year old LTC (res.) Dov Harari of Netanya had to be killed before Congress stopped to consider the problem. Great follow-up for Congress would be to reconsider other American “train and equip” missions.  We wrote in May:  

“The current counterinsurgency model provides millions of dollars in American military aid to the PA, Lebanon and Yemen along with American trainers, and billions of dollars to Pakistan and Afghanistan with our troops on the ground or in the air. We are training locals to kill the people we want killed – Taliban, al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. But each group we call terrorists may have a place in the framework of those countries and entities, in which case shooting them will just make them angry.”

We said, then, of Lebanon: Lebanon wants quiet at home and to remain part of the “rejection front” against Israel. Hezbollah in the government and in collusion with the Lebanese Armed Forces provides that.
 
It is unreasonable for the United States to assume that our enemies are someone else’s enemies and that they will dispose of them because we want them to – it is unreasonable for Israel to assume the same.  One of the deepest beliefs that JINSA has is that the United States and Israel are allies in fact if not by treaty because – whether in the Cold War or the war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them –  the same ideologies, same trends, same enemies threaten us both at some level.
 
Neither country should assume others share our concerns.

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Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.  Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.

ADL says children born in Israel to foreign workers should be permitted to stay

NEW YORK (Press Release) — The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday called on the Government of Israel to extend, on humanitarian grounds, the protection of legal status to all of the children of foreign workers now in Israel rather than create a distinction which would result in 400 of them being deported from the country. 

ADL noted it would be more humane to apply Israel’s new policy for determining the legal status of children of foreign workers in the future.   
 
On August 1, the Cabinet established criteria for children of foreign workers to remain legally in Israel.  Under this new policy, an estimated 800 children of foreign workers will be permitted to stay in Israel, but the approximately 400 children who do not meet these conditions are to be deported from the country.      
            
“The issue of status for the children of foreign workers is complex, and the Government of Israel has had to weigh numerous considerations, including the impact on Israeli society, current Israeli immigration law, and the impact on the families of these foreign workers,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. 

“That being said, the 400 children now in Israel who do not meet the guidelines for legal status as determined by Israel’s new policy should be ‘grandfathered in’ and permitted to stay on humanitarian grounds.  Going forward, this new policy can be implemented.”

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Preceding provided by Anti-Defamation League

San Diego County to participate in V-J Day 65th anniversary

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—Last Friday the US Senate and on Monday, July 26th US Congress unanimously approved “Spirit of ’45 Day” a new National Day of Remembrance to recall the victory celebrations at the end of WWII.

This year “Spirit of ’45 Day” coincides with the 65th anniversary of Victory over Japan or VJ Day on  August 14, 2010, but in future years will occur on the second Sunday every August.  Everyone asks, “Why wasn’t this done before?”

A Victory celebration will be held at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park with activities from 10 AM until 2 PM Saturday that include: WWII-era music, concessions, and the opportunity to meet and talk with WWII Veterans and hometown heroes.

At noon, there will be presentations by Congressman Bob Filner, the author of the Bill, California Assembly member, Nathan Fletcher, a County Proclamation by Supervisor Greg Cox; WWII Veterans Stu Hedley Pearl Harbor Survivors Assoc. San Diego, BGen. Robert Cardenas Air Force retired, Jerry Kranz, Marine in 1st Wave Iwo Jima, and a City Proclamation will be read by Ron Lacey, representative from Mayor Jerry Sanders.

The public is welcome to attend and celebrate the victory brought about by sacrifices made by the Veterans of World War II and their families. “We are celebrating the success of this Bill recognizing the anniversary of a day in our calendars that has been overlooked for decades,” says Dan DeMarco, event chair. Hundreds of cities are set to take part in launching the Spirit of ’45 Project, a result of a year-long national initiative to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII. The hub of the San Diego celebration will be at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center and similar event is planned at the Chula Vista Veterans Home. At 7PM, at the Kiss Statue, now a memorial to Edith Shain, the Nurse, there will be a 1 hour event  Buglers will sound Taps which will be played across the USA from the East to West Coast in a rolling pattern for the first time in history.  This is the final place of celebration for the day across the continental USA.

“This celebration encourages all veterans and hometown heroes to tell us about their experiences that day. We want our young citizens to appreciate what they will learn from our elders and pass this along to future generations,” says Capt. Will Hays, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Veterans Museum. The Spirit of ’45 Day honors the legacy of service of America ‘s “greatest generation” and is mobilizing youth to help men and women who remember the day WWII ended to submit their memories to a Web site where they will become part of the nation’s permanent memory.  

The Veterans Museum and Memorial Center ‘s celebration event will be the first annual event.  Many WWII Veterans including  Pearl Harbor Survivors, Purple Heart, POW, and hometown heroes including Rosie Riveters and Nurses will attend and share their stories. All WWII Veterans, their families, friends, and patriots are invited.

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Preceding provided by Dan DeMarco, event chairman

Commentary: A conciliatory Gazan voice emerges

By Ira Sharkansky

Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM — Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish appeared on a prime time Israeli news program, speaking in fluent Hebrew, representing the possibility that there might, after all, be a Palestinian Nelson Mandela. 

Abuelaish (or Abu al-Aish) is the physician who held appointments in both Gazan and Israeli hospitals, and lost three of his eight children during the IDF onslaught at the beginning of 2009.

The topic of his interview was a new book, I Shall Not Hate (Random House), which also represents the theme of numerous public appearances. He told of relocating to the University of Toronto, where he says that he has found peace for himself and his remaining children. His wife died of leukemia during 2008, prior to the Gaza invasion.

Abuelaish represents both the hope and frustration of Palestinians and Israelis. He is by no means the only individual to have separated himself from the insular and hateful culture that is all too prevalent among his people. There are several anti-Islamic Arabs expressing admiration for Israel on clips circulating through the internet, as well as commentators from throughout the Middle East whose work is translated on Memri . My own circle of friends, colleagues, and students includes individuals who prefer to remain below the radar of public scrutiny while they work as Arabs in the Jewish sector, in East Jerusalem, or the West Bank.

Abuelaish stands out due to his work as a physician with Israeli and Gazans, personal tragedy, and appealing demeanor. He also appears to be apolitical, and has removed himself from the Middle East.

Reference to Mandela is not meant to legitimize a comparison between Israel and South Africa. That is the stuff of the mad and ignorant, or crafty activists desperate for a slogan. Mandela’s relevance is a symbol of moderation and accommodation. There are plenty of those among Israeli Jews, with a capacity to recruit a substantial majority of the population if conditions ever become appropriate, and to deal with those who would say No in Hebrew. There are at least a few among Palestinians, but one of the crucial differences between their setting and South Africa is the Muslim mass, a religion with a component that is hateful of others, plus the infrastructure of politics, wealth, and theology stretching out from Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia across the region from Morocco to Indonesia.

One can argue if the story of Abuelaish is one of optimism or pessimism, or is anything more than an indication of one human face in a region usually reduced to one-liners.

One of Thomas Friedman’s latest columns deals with other human faces: a Gazan infant treated in an Israeli hospital, publicized by one of the Israeli television personalities who used to travel throughout Gaza until kept from there by the IDF and his own good sense. The light in this story is the success of the treatment and the full payment received from an Israeli Jew whose son had been killed during military service. The sadness is what the child’s mother told the Israeli journalist. She described being criticized in Gaza for having her son treated in Israel, and hoped that he would grow up to be a suicide bomber. “From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves.”

Friedman goes from the personal stories to his own record as a critic of Israel. Then he warns about   “. . . something foul in the air. It is a trend . . . to delegitimize Israel — to turn it into a pariah state . . . If you just landed from Mars, you might think that Israel is the only country that has killed civilians in war — never Hamas, never Hezbollah, never Turkey, never Iran, never Syria, never America. . . .Destructive criticism closes Israeli ears. . . Destructive critics dismiss Gaza as an Israeli prison, without ever mentioning that had Hamas decided — after Israel unilaterally left Gaza — to turn it into Dubai rather than Tehran, Israel would have behaved differently, too. Destructive criticism only empowers the most destructive elements in Israel to argue that nothing Israel does matters, so why change? . . . if you still want to be a critic (as I do), be a constructive one. A lot more Israelis and Palestinians will listen to you.”

If there is anything positive in all of this, it may take a long time to emerge from what is negative. There is plenty of the latter in the Middle East, and among the Know Nothings of Western Leftists. Insofar as many of the Leftists may have drawn their inspiration from Friedman’s own self-righteous harping against his favorite target (Israeli settlements), he may be as much a part of the problem as a remedy.

My own assessment is that it is a time for well-intentioned hyper-actives in the White House and elsewhere to redirect themselves toward another mission for the next few years or decades. I will never say never, but it appears to me that now is not the time to engineer a breakthrough for the sake of the Holy Land.

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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University

Netanyahu says U.N. flotilla panel may not interrogate IDF soldiers

JERUSALEM (WJC)–Israel has threatened to pull out of a UN inquiry into the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound ‘Freedom Flotilla’ after the UN secretary-general said there was no agreement that the panel would refrain from calling Israeli soldiers to testify.

Last week, Jerusalem agreed to participate in the UN probe. Officials said Israel’s agreement was conditional on the panel relying on reports from Israel’s own military inquiry, not direct testimony from IDF soldiers.

However, at a press conference at UN headquarters on Monday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was asked whether he agreed not to call Israeli soldiers before the panel. “No, there was no such agreement behind the scenes,” he replied.

In response, the Netanyahu’s office issued a harsh statement. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes it absolutely clear that Israel will not cooperate with, and will not take part in, any panel that seeks to interrogate Israeli soldiers.”

The government had appointed the retired senior diplomat Joseph Ciechanover to join the UN panel and was preparing for the start of its deliberations on Tuesday when Ban made his remark, throwing plans into turmoil.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday took “full responsibility” for the raid, saying the government had foreseen the potential for violence when it decided to launch the operation. Testifying before the Israeli investigative committee chaired by former Supreme Court Judge Jacob Turkel, Barak said he accepted full responsibility for the instructions given to the military over its interception of six Gaza-bound ships.

“I carry overall responsibility for everything that took place in the systems under my command. I carry responsibility for the orders given on the political level,” Barak told the panel.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

Charges may be brought against alleged Treblinka guard

MUNICH (WJC)–A 93-year-old man living in southern Germany could be charged with participating in the murder of Jewish prisoners in the Nazi slave labor camp Treblinka I during World War II.

According to the news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’, prosecutors in Munich are to decide soon whether to bring charges against a man identified as Alex N. for his alleged activities as an SS guard of the camp.  Born in Ukraine and having lived in the Bavarian city of Landshut since the end of the war, N. was granted German citizenship in 1991.

Investigators at the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg provided information leading to the current investigation. The slave labor camp was located near the death camp Treblinka II, in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Alex N., who reportedly trained at the same Nazi SS facility as Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, offered testimony at the Demjanjuk trial in Munich last February. Demjanjuk is charged with helping to murder 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp. Alex N. reportedly has bragged over the years about having shot Jews.

A few weeks ago, Germany filed charges against another witness in the Demjanjuk trial, Samuel Kunz, 90. He was charged with helping to murder 430,000 Jews in the Belzec death camp in occupied Poland. Two men under investigation died recently, never having stood trial: former SS officer Erich Steidtmann, 95, of Hanover, and Adolf Storms, 90.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

A third case reportedly is now under investigation in Bavaria. Klaas Carel F., 88, was convicted in the Netherlands of murdering 22 civilians. He fled from a Dutch prison in 1952, and has been living in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. Prosecutors are looking into whether they can sentence him based on the Dutch conviction.