NIF's Liel Does the Temple Mount

Over at Globes, excerpts from an interview with Rachel Liel, the outgoing New Israel Fund executive director in Israel:-

Isn't that the method of governments, to avoid being confronted by questions?

"Absolutely. We saw it only recently with the story of the Temple Mount and the metal detectors. Instead of answering questions they said 'they are inciting against us' and 'acting against us' and they always look for the scapegoat - and we at NIF are an excellent scapegoat. The Likud has been in power for so many years, yet it still feels as if it is a persecuted minority and a victim and doesn't give answers to people that ask sensible questions."

What questions?

Three Israeli Arabs, resident of Um Al-Fahm (and I won't ask of they attended NIF-sponsored programs), form a terror cell and murder two Israeli policemen, Druze, and the most logical thing to do is first, assure security. Jews go through metal detectors at the Western Wall and all over so why cannot Arabs?

As for the feeling of a persecuted minority? Minority, no but quite persecuted.

Next,

...I can say that there is an awakening in our camp. I feel that it is not only people on the left that are stirring and that is a source of hope for me. There is a feeling that people are fed up. More and more people feel that what is happening in Israel is not good with corruption, chauvinism and extremism, the messianic feeling about the Temple Mount, with ugly racism, and even the style - talk like that of Yair Netanyahu. 

If I tale the messianism out and frame the campaign strictly as one of free assembly, religious coexistence, rights, legal responsibility and all the other terms liberals champion, why does she still denigrate the struggle for the fulfillment of the law? 

The third:

...For sure the lessons from the murder of Rabin have not been learned. There are a lot of scenarios that might take place. Think of the Temple Mount. The dialogue is very violent, the incitement is clear, so don't be surprised. If they call [NIF supported] people planted infiltrators - then perhaps you have to eliminate a planted infiltrator. Pay attention to what you're saying. That's not the way to conduct an argument."

With the promotion of the NGO Law, NIF conducted a campaign against Ayelet Shaked headlined 'Minister of Hatred.' Wasn't that incitement, something you yourselves are against?

"I regret the Minister of Hatred. Today I wouldn't do such a thing.

Excuse me but who is employing violent dialogue and inciting?  The Arab Muslims, no? Sheikh Raad Salah, no? The Islamic Movement North, no?

Is this the new Israel they want?  Illogical, less Jewish and Zionist?

^ 

What 'Non-violent Campaign'?

There is a new narrative myth being promoted (although trumpeted previously) [and now this, too - "Palestinians learn value of non-violent protests in mosque security standoff with Israel"]:

a successful campaign of Palestinian non-violence overcame Israel, forcing it to remove not only the metal detectors placed outside the Temple Mount's Gate of the Tribes but also the surveillance cameras, a measure King Abdallah had suggested back in October 2015 with then US Secretary of State John Kerry's approval and with Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's agreement.

I had a Twitter exchange with NIF's Naomi Pais on the issue:

Here is some material I collected from the The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) site just from the days of July 25 – 29, 2017 which excludes the main attack at Halamish/Neveh Tzuf:

Other Terrorist Attacks
On July 20, 2017, a Palestinian attempted a stabbing attack in Tekoa. (south of Bethlehem) targeting Israel soldiers at a check post. There were no casualties. The soldiers shot and killed the terrorist. The Palestinian media reported he was Muhammad Hussein Ahmed Tanuh, 26, from the village of Teqo'a. Fatah in Teqo'a issued a death notice for him and erected a mourning tent (Facebook page of Teqo'a al-'Aan, July 20, 2017). Senior Fatah figure Sultan Abu al-'Einein, a member of Fatah's Central Council and advisor to Mahmoud Abbas, went to Teqo'a to pay a condolence call on the terrorist's family (Ma'an, July 24, 2017). Note: The condolence visit was an expression of Palestinian Authority (PA) support for popular terrorism, familiar from previous terrorist attacks. 

Senior Fatah figure Sultan Abu al-'Einein, who went to Teqo'a to pay a condolence call on the terrorist's family (Ma'an, July 24, 2017). On July 24, 2017, a Palestinian stabbed a man near the central bus station in Petah Tikva (central Israel). The man was an Israeli Arab from the town of 'Ar'ara (central Israel), and was seriously wounded. The Palestinian who stabbed him, 21, from Qalqilya, who was in Israel illegally, was detained and taken for questioning. He said he had carried out the attack for the sake of al-Aqsa mosque.  

Protest demonstrations were held at many sites in Jerusalem (the Lions Gate, Issawiya, A-Tor, as well as the Qalqilya checkpoint), Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Several hundred protestors participated at each location, clashing with Israeli security forces. There were reports of several Palestinians killed and several hundred wounded. Several dozen demonstrators were detained. Several Israeli security force operatives were also injured.

Hamas issued a call to prevent Israel from carrying out any program or attempt to enforce a new situation on al-Aqsa mosque and its gates, and to continue the campaign of rage against the installation of "smart cameras" or other security measures.

Fatah also issued a statement rejecting any change in al-Aqsa's status quo, including alternative solutions (official Facebook page of Fatah, July 25, 2017). 

Other Riots, Clashes and Popular Terrorism

In the meantime, in addition to the riots throughout Judea and Samaria because of events on the Temple Mount, Palestinians continued throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. The Israeli security forces continued their counterterrorism activities throughout Judea and Samaria, detaining several dozen Palestinians suspected of terrorist activity and seizing weapons and objects used in riots. The more prominent occurrences were the following:

• July 24, 2017 – Palestinians threw stones at an Israeli vehicle near the Beit Hagai Junction (southern Mt. Hebron). There were no casualties. One of the vehicle's windows was shattered.• July 23, 2017 – During an operational activity near Jerusalem, Border Policemen saw a vehicle parked at the side of the road. Examining it they found two young men from east Jerusalem and boxes of the kind of fireworks used as weapons in riots.• July 23, 2017 – A resident of the Arab village of al-E'izariya (near Ma'aleh Adumim) was killed after having been wounded by an IED he was trying to throw at Israeli security forces.• July 22, 2017 – A young Palestinian from Hebron went to a roadblock near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. He aroused the suspicions of the Border Policemen stationed at the roadblock. While they were searching him a knife fell out of his clothing; he was detained and taken for questioning. During initial interrogation he claimed he had taken the knife to see if he could pass the security check without its being discovered.• July 22, 2017 – Palestinians fired shots at a synagogue in the community of Avnei Hefetz in Samaria. A search of the area revealed a shell casing. There were no casualties.• July 20, 2017 –The Israeli security forces detained a 25 year-old Palestinian woman from the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qassem (central Israel) who had recently moved to east Jerusalem. She was planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the Jerusalem region. 

In other words, the terror and violence was in full swing.  This, remember, was not the entire period.

Source

Or in other words, the new leftist, pro-Pal campaign is, as usual, based on lies.

UPDATE:

Israel arrested 15 people overnight Wednesday East Jerusalem suspected of connection to clashes that took place...around the Temple Mount that ended last week. The total number of those held over the protests is now 48.  According to a police statement releasd on Thursday, the arrests were carried out by police officers and border guards in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Wadi Joz, Ras al Amud, Beit Hanina and A-Tur.
Thirthy three people were arrested ealier on in the week, of which the detention of 31 has been extended by the courts. In 19 of the cases prosecutor's statements have already been filed, and a total of 9 indictments made.  The police said that all those arrested so far are considered to have taken an active and dominant part in the clashes. A number of policemen were also wounded in the violent riots which saw firebombs, stones and fireworks thrown as part of widespread protests 

^

Sokatch Socks 'Em

I found this here, in a story of NIF director being questioned about NIF's funding targets:

Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund. "She is precisely the kind of person Israel should be proud to host as a guest. This shows that the ultra right-wing government is shamelessly using a political litmus test to decide who can enter the country and who cannot. We will not accept an Israel that is for ultra-nationalists only."

For the record, NIF has a litmus test, one very political and ideological, for funding its recipients.

They must be "community-based", liberal, progressive, etc.

I know.

I attempted to obtain funding for Israel's first scientific-based media monitor NGO, Israel's Media Watch, but was refused.

^

My Response to Sokatch

Here, at the Sh'ma blog:-

Dear Editor,

Politically progressive Daniel Sokatch portrays the criticism he and his previous and current organizational connections have made or even attempted to make concerning Israel as some sort of underground resistance effort, characterized by whispered conversations in elevators or boardrooms, and complains of self-censorship (”Silence Amid a Famously Garroulous People” Sh’ma, November 2012). To his thinking, diversity on the Israel-conversation “isn’t reflected inside many Jewish spaces”. While I can in no way suggest that I have enough establishment, non-establishment or even anti-establishment experience to compare with Sokatch, I would nevertheless opine that what Sokatch is doing would seem to be a misrepresentation. From the out-borders of groups actively seeking to undermine Israel’s diplomatic and political position, its security and its economic requirements, some of them funded by the New Israel Fund, to the Jewish community councils and on to the inner sanctums of Jewish communal intermeshing, there is no silence but rather a roar of finger-pointing and a loud very public conversation that seeks to denigrate Israel using the embarrassment factor to the extreme.

To purport the massive, well funded, well publicized and well diversified campaign to counter the policy choices made by a democratically elected government, supervised by a High Court for Justice, and reviewed by a free press in Israel is preposterous. 

Sokatch’s Israel is polarized between a “forward-thinking, outward-looking, democratic and prophetic vision enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence” and a “harsh, exclusionary ultra-nationalism”. The hype may be a helpful instrument to raise funds from well-meaning but naive and ill-informed Jews but it is a deprecatory slur. His support for the campaign to avoid any monitoring of the so-called “human rights” groups, even legislation much less harsh than that in place in America, is indicative of this semi-Janus-like posturing where on the one hand, Israel’s democracy is supposedly either in danger, threatened and deteriorating yet, on the other, always seems to get things right. I would put it that if there is anything truly anti-democratic in this ‘dialogue’, between liberal/progressive American Jews and Israel, it is the heavy hammer of incessant criticism in the pages of the leading newspapers as ads or opinion pieces; in outbursts at assemblies where Israeli politicians speak, or attempt to speak; in the funding provided for groups seeking to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish-Zionist geopolitical entity; as well as many other aspects of a decidedly malicious effort.

Yisrael Medad | November 6, 2012, 5:18 pm

^

What Does NIF Stand For?

Some think this is anti-Hareidi, NIF = New Israel Fundamentalism.

I think it is anti-New Israel Fund:

What do you think?

^

The New Israel Fund's Campaign of Terror

If you go here (in Hebrew), you can see how the New Israel Fund is launching a terror campaign against its right-of-center rivals.

While their ad terms the actions of the "Price Tag" phenomenon as terror, their text doesn't.  It avoids it.  Was their a change of mind but too late to alter the ad?

Do all the sponsoring/participating organizations agree that the actions are "terror"?

Is the throwing of rocks by anarchists also terror?*

Have the organizations been bought by NIF money into a radical leftwing frame?



____________

* at last Friday's demo at Nebi Salah, I have this information from a resident of Neveh Tzuf:

They came from Nabi Salah to block the road 1.5 - 2 hours before Shabbat when most guests arrive. The residents here had nothing to do with them - the shomer yom waited inside the gate to prevent any assault on the fence but the soldiers appeared quickly and took them away. For us, the incident was over.
I reported this to Yediot's Akiva Novick and to Josh Breman's Y-Net.
Tazpit has footage.

^

New Israel Fund Apologist

Chemi (from Menachem) Shalev:

Now I’m sure that with the benefit of hindsight the NIF probably should have been more circumspect and should not have funded, even if it was only partially, some of the organizations that eventually collaborated with the Goldstone Report or spend their time monitoring IDF “war crimes”.

But these organizations comprised only a miniscule part of the NIF’s activities, as everyone knows, including, I suspect, the NIF’s accusers.

Ain't that sweet?

^

B'tselem and NIF and the MFA on Transparency Legislation

As a colleague phrased it,

The Associate Director New Israel Fund believes that Israel should stop being a Jewish state — even in the basic sense of having a majority Jewish population — because only with a majority Arab population will it be truly democratic.


The New Israel for which the New Israel Fund strives is an Arab Israel.


The New Israel Fund believes that democracy forbids Jews being a majority in any state, even Israel.

In other words, I'm adding, the NIF is anti-Jewish Israel. 

You don't believe it.

You don't believe it?

Believe it:

From Wikileaks:-

¶6. (C) B'Tselem Director Jessica Montell, who estimated her 9 million NIS ($2.4 million) budget is 95 percent funded from abroad, mostly from European countries, told PolOff on February 10 that she did not believe the legislation would pass in its current form. ACRI's International Communication and Development Coordinator, Melanie Takefman, also told PolOff on February 10 that she believed the troublesome legislation would be amended and that the NGOs would likely be able to influence the draft legislation so that it would achieve its goal of greater transparency without restricting the NGOs' ability to operate. Both denied any need for greater transparency, but said they would welcome it if it applied equally to all NGOs, including NGO-Monitor and especially Jewish settler organizations.

¶7. (C) New Israel Fund (NIF) Associate Director in Israel Hedva Radovanitz, who manages grants to 350 NGOs totaling about 18 million dollars per year, told PolOff on February 23 that the campaign against the NGOs was due to the "disappearance of the political left wing" in Israel and the lack of domestic constituency for the NGOs. She noted that when she headed ACRI's Tel Aviv office, ACRI had 5,000 members, while today it has less than 800, and it was only able to muster about 5,000 people to its December human rights march by relying on the active staff of the 120 NGOs that participated. Radovanitz commented that the NIF was working behind the scenes through many NGOs to prevent the NGO legislation from passing in its current form. She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic. She also said the NIF was currently re-evaluating its strategy and was hoping to create a movement rather than just a lot of NGOs. She said the NIF had no plans to build a human rights constituency within the right wing of Israeli society, though she believed politics had shifted to the right for the foreseeable future.

¶8. (C) The Ministry of Justice Director for Human Rights and Relations with International Organizations, Hila Tene, told PolOff in a February 10 meeting that she and the MOJ team that sit on a weekly legislative review panel would be strongly advising against the proposed legislation. She did not believe the broad definition of political activity would be included in the draft that would emerge from the Constitution and Law subcommittee. She also mentioned the vast amount of proposed legislation by the current Knesset that has failed to ever become law. The MFA Director for Human Rights and UN Issues, Simona Halperin, also told PolOff on February 11 that the MFA would be advising against the legislation. She asked for comparative legislation from the U.S. regarding NGOs and the registration of foreign agents.

All nice Jews, eh?

UPDATE

For Immediate Release
September 5, 2011
Wikileaks: US Cable quotes NGO Monitor and NGOs;
NIF official:“disappearance of a Jewish state would not be [a] tragedy”

JERUSALEM – A confidential cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv released by Wikileaks, contains controversial comments by a New Israel Fund (NIF) official, relating to Israel’s future as a Jewish state...
“These comments from a high ranking NIF official reiterates the serious questions regarding NIF’s commitment to Jewish self-determination and Israel as a Jewish state,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “NIF is the most powerful non-governmental actor in Israel, and its policies affect millions of Israelis, without providing any accountability or checks and balances...
More broadly, the cable reflects the centrality of the lack of transparency regarding European government funding for Israeli political NGOs reflects, including their role in the “war crimes” accusations used in the discredited Goldstone report...According to the cable, Radovanitz further stated that “NIF had no plans to build a human rights constituency within the right wing of Israeli society, though she believed politics had shifted to the right for the foreseeable future.” On this point, Prof. Steinberg added, “This reinforces extensive evidence that the current leadership of the NIF sees their primary function as a narrow political opposition group, rather promoting democratic and civic values in all sectors of Israeli society.”

NGO Monitor also notes that the cable identifies Radovanitz as a former employee of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), a recipient of nearly $1.3 million in NIF funding in 2009-10. Radovanitz was also the manager of Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI), and is on the board of Hamoked: Center for the defence of the individual, another NIF organization that promotes “war crimes” and similar allegations.

_______________

UPDATE

The NIF response:

...Ms. Radanovitz is no longer an employee of the New Israel Fund; she left her position almost a year ago. Her comments, as reported by Wikileaks, are her personal views. They do not reflect the policies or positions of the New Israel Fund. We valued Hedva’s contribution to NIF, but it also true that her viewpoints diverged from those of the organization...

Here's her statement.

I wonder how long she was employed.

And she was hired after being Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights/Israel, a fairly nasty anti-Israel group.

VS adds to me:

How did Hedva Radanovitz's "personal views" affect NIF grants in the period of her employment?

Can we get a list of all their current employees whose private views are similar to those of Hedva Radanovitz?

Who was responsible for hiring Hedva Radanovitz, an individual whose personal perspectives are apparently so contrary to NIF principles? What happened to him/her?

What steps have you taken to ensure that your employees are not personally undermining the NIF's mission in their free time?

^

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Elton John's Yellow Brick Road goes, in part:

You know you can't hold me forever,
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open

...So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl

That came to mind when I was referred to a BBC report, which included a reference to Gisha:

Egypt will permanently open its Rafah border crossing into Gaza beginning Saturday, an Egyptian official reported Wednesday...All the country's security apparatus will be involved in the security of the border, he said.

Rafah Crossing has been a portal to the rest of the world for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents since Israel "...all but closed Erez Crossing to Palestinians" four years ago, said the Israeli non-governmental organization Gisha, which advocates on the issue of Palestinian freedom of movement.

Erez Crossing is on the border between Gaza and Israel. Passage through it has been limited to "extraordinary humanitarian cases, especially urgent medical cases," which has prevented Palestinians from traveling between Gaza and the West Bank, the group says.

Rafah was closed after the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured in June 2006; it stayed largely closed until last June, when Egypt opened it after an incident in which nine activists aboard a flotilla of ships carrying aid to Gaza were killed, according to Gisha.

As a friend noted, will Gisha be taking credit or will they deny any responsibility when the weapons and terrorists that will use this border-crossing are involved in attacks on Israelis?

Well, what do you think?

But what about that yellow brick road reference?

Ah.

Who conduits money for Gisha?

Oh, oh:

We appreciate your contribution to Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.

Donations from the US may be made by:

3. donation through the New Israel Fund:

Tax-exempt donations to Gisha of $100 or more may be made through the New Israel Fund, which is recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization under the U.S. tax code.

Contributions should be clearly marked as donor-advised to Gisha 5276 (in the memo of the check and in an accompanying note), and the check should be payable to the order of the "New Israel Fund".

The address for checks is:

New Israel Fund
P.O.B 91588
Washington, D.C.
20090-1588 USA

** We apologize, but the New Israel Fund cannot accept donor-advised donations online, and it cannot accept donor-advised donations of less than $100.**

4. Matching Gifts:

The Federal Employee Identification Number for the New Israel Fund is: 942607722.

Can I ask: will NIF take responsibility for any deaths, injuries or property damage as a result of feeding money to a group which is entralled that the Rafah Crossing is open and most probably will thus permit arms, weapons and such to be entered into the Gaza Strip and used against Israel?

Will they?

^

Shhhh. New Israel Fund

Remember him?:

Makhoul gets 9 years in jail for espionage

Israeli Arab writer, activist to spend time behind bars for contacting foreign agent, spying for Hezbollah. Most serious charge removed in plea bargain

And remember this?

The state claims that Makhoul's admission has put an end to accusations of political persecution, some of which were voiced by Makhoul's attorneys during his time in detainment. Makhoul, 52, was arrested in May, and criticism of the manner of the late-night detainment immediately ensued.

Here is Richard Silverstein's weird take:

Makhoul is innocent and wasn’t proven guilty...Makhoul is guilty of nothing more than having contacts outside Israel with other Arab peace and environmental activists

And here is Haaretz:

The verdict stated that Makhoul handed intelligence to a Hezbollah agent on Shin Bet installations in the Haifa region and on Mossad offices in the center of the country. He also attempted, the verdict said, to pass on information about a military base and sought details about the residence of Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin.

But let's go back to this: that Makhoul was director general of the charity Ittijah (Union of Arab Community-Based Associations), acknowledged officially by the UN.

Caroline Glick noted that

...Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not simply accuse the likes of Ir Amim, B’Tselem, Adalah, New Profile, Breaking the Silence, the Public Committee Against Torture, Human Rights Watch, Ittijah, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Gisha, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights in Israel of being on Europe’s payroll. He said that these groups “help terrorists, and their main aim is to weaken the IDF and its ability to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.”

The notion that Israeli NGOs may have ties to terrorists is without a doubt political dynamite.

NGO Monitor states:

Ittijah has received funding and support from sources, including the Ford Foundation, the EU, and NGOs such as the New Israel Fund and Christian Aid, whose own politicized activities have been analyzed by NGO Monitor.

And here, too.

And who suggested that groups of American Jews meet with Ittjah?

The Reform Movement's Religious Action Center.

Shhhh.

^

NIF Will Gladly Tolerate Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions and Fund Them

Found:

What is NIF's position on boycott, divestment and sanctions?

NIF supports an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories as a central tenet of the strategic framework in which we operate. The tactics known as 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' (BDS) are designed to pressure Israel to end the occupation, but NIF believes these tactics to be unproductive, inflammatory and ineffective because of the difficulties in defining an approach that is not overly broad, does not delegitimize Israel and will achieve the long-term goal.
Although we will continue to communicate publicly and privately to our allies and grantees that NIF does not support BDS as a strategy or tactic, we will not reduce or eliminate our funding for grantees that differ with us on a tactical matter. NIF will not fund BDS activities nor support organizations for which BDS is a substantial element of their activities, but will support organizations that conform to our grant requirements if their support for BDS is incidental or subsidiary to their significant programs.

(Kippa tip: NP)


Just a little bit non-kosher?

^

Beinisch Goes Slumming

Here's Justice Dorit Beinisch (center right), President of Israel’s Supreme Court, meeting with major funders of post-Zionism, anti-Yesha campaign leaders such as Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford (center left). In the back row from left to right are Israel Executive Director of the New Israel Fund, Eliezer Yaari; NIF Board VP in Israel Neta Ziv; Ford Foundation Deputy Vice President, Program Management David Chiel; Ford Israel Fund Director Aaron Back; and NIF CEO Larry Garber.



Wow.

(Kippa tip: INN)

- - -

The New Israel Fund Blog and Blogroll

Get your left, radical, progressive, outlook right left here:-


Blogroll

•Bernard Avishai
•Coteret
•Dan Sieradski
•Dimi's Notes
•Failed Messiah
•Haaretz
•Half & Half
•Ill Will and Everything Else
•Israel Policy Forum
•IsraLeft
•Jewcy
•Jewesses with Attitude
•Jewschool
•Joseph Dana
•Judaism Without Borders
•Lisa Goldman
•Magnes Zionist
•Makom
•Meretz USA Blog
•New Voices
•Peace Now Blog
•Promised Land
•Rabbi Andy Bachman
•Rabbi Brant Rosen
•Rabbi Brian Walt
•Realistic Dove
•Religion and State in Israel
•Religious Action Center Blog
•Shalom Hartman Institute Blog
•South Jerusalem
•Tikun Olam
•Velveteen Rabbi
•Yedioth Ahronoth
•Yuval Ben-Ami

Jewish Social Justice

•American Jewish World Service
•Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps
•Hazon
•Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
•Jewish FundS for Justice
•Jewish Organizing Initiative
•Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
•Jews United for Justice
•Keshet
•Mazon
•New Israel Fund
•Progressive Jewish Alliance
•Rabbis for Human Rights – North America
•Repair the World
•Shalom Center

Ben-Dror vs. New Israel Fund

If you'll recall, Ben-Dror Yemini published a letter attacking the NIF from within, from a participant at one of their sponsored Shtil seminars. Here.

Were it not for the presence of politics, we all would have had so much in common. But the radical left was so present in the room that it seemed obvious that everyone was speaking in one voice. All the sentences began with "we" and not "I". It seemed like no issue was complex nor were there different views regarding the issue. The IDF was a conquering army, Israel was a colonial state, only the Palestinians suffered and this was the only real issue at heart.

It has been two weeks since and I am still disturbed by what I have experienced...Is the Fund itself openly working towards removing the "Jewishness" from the State? Is the Fund trying to turn Israel into a country for all her inhabitants alongside a Palestinian state? Is the Fund backing the fact that the aim of the Palestinian society sector within "Shatil" is to strengthen the expression of the Palestinian nation, and that on the Jewish side of the spectrum the aim is to strengthen freedom of religion and not Jewish identity and the national expression of the Jews in their homeland? Is the Fund backing the fact that Shatil's sector for immigrant absorption is dealing just with that and not promoting or legitimizing immigration? I cannot help but wonder why the Fund defines its political right limitations (for example, the advert looking for social activists for the Golan Heights was postponed by the notice board of Shatil), but does not restrict its political left: for example, denouncing any form of violence or violation of the law by organizations and their activists.

Are you aware of this "atmosphere" amongst the leaders of organizations which the Fund supports? Can the Fund give coverage to the issue of loathing and denouncing Israel and its institutions? I have never participated in struggles or protests, only with building and developing. My allegiance to the Fund and Shatil was uncompromising after the publication of the report. I was their strongest defender and I absolutely identified with their goals and activities. I can say unequivocally, that this has been one of the main causes of the feelings of my feelings of late.

I am not complaining about specific people...I feel that you, as manager of the Fund, would want to hear and know these things. Perhaps the Fund and all of its leaders should currently be hearing this voice not from a high perch of criticism but rather from its legitimacy in the eyes of social activists such as me. In the eyes of people who up until today, thought that they belonged to the liberal left but cannot be part of it or its activities anymore without feeling that they are harming their existence as Jews in a Jewish state. I know that your previous home was the Jewish federation of San Francisco and I also know that one of the aims, amongst others, of this organization, is to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This is a good enough reason for me to believe that you still represent this vital goal today. These are tough times to be an Israeli both at home and abroad. I as an Israeli Jew, who believes in "Tikun Olam" and trying to build a more just and egalitarian society and who has devoted and will continue to devote her efforts to achieve this goal, could not carry on in life without writing this letter to you with all its honesty and pain.
I hope to hear from you soon,

All my regards,
Shlomit
Israel

Details: here; and here; and here.


Just you should know (pardon my Yiddish inflection), there's a full-page ad by the other participants, from the most radical lefties, crying they've been done foul. I am not going to translate it (it's in Hebrew).





Ben-Dror has (devastatingly) responded here in Hebrew.

His bottom line: you're bad even if you do good things, just like the ambulance driver saving a victim but on the way to the hospital causes a traffic accident himself.


- - -

Not-Naomi

Remember all that hullabaloo concerning the "antisemitic" Im Tirzu anti-New Israel Fund poster portraying Naomi Hazan with a horn (since the Hebrew word for horn, keren, also means "fund")?

Well, this is not Naomi:-

It's a model who is wearing a fashion creation by French designer Eric Tibusch.

If this is the level of fashion, I can see why Naomi really got angry.

On the other hand, since NIF people are really way upper-middle class and all that, you'd think Naomi with a horn wouldn't be that outrageous.


- - -

This is Democracy? You're Kidding, Right?

Welcome to a balanced, pluralistic and open discussion of the burning issues in Israel, brought to you by the...New Israel Fund:-

Not exactly, eh?

Read This Advert

This one.

(In PDF)

I Was Mentioned - And Edited Out

Do you remember this post of mine on that panel at the London Jewish Book Week?

I claimed it was unbalanced and promoted self-hating Jews.

Well, here's the video and I am mentioned at 4 minutes in.


Seems, though, something about me was cut.

- - -

Alpher's Alpha: Going Omega or OMG!

What tickles the NYTimes editorial board more than a contributor who claims that

...Israel is dealing with a right-religious-settler-Russian coalition pushing a reactionary agenda.

Well, one who claims that

this political alignment could be dominant in Israel for some time to come.

Who is the tickler?

He is Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and for a long time has been co-editor of bitterlemons.org.

I am acquainted with Yossi. He invited me to meet, at the beginning of the Oslo Process with Rashid Khalidi, of Columbia University and the friend of Obama and Yezid Sayegh (author of "Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993" and Professor of Middle East Studies, Department of War Studies, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London) at the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in French's Hill neighborhood. That was the last meeting. I was too "extreme".

Getting back to his piece, he continues his moaning:

The political left has virtually disappeared, discredited by failed peace gambits. At the same time, the conservative, ultra-orthodox sector is growing rapidly in numbers. So is the Israeli Arab population, which, in the shadow of a failed peace process, is becoming increasingly hostile to the idea of being a minority in a Jewish state — thereby stiffening the reaction of the Jewish majority.

But now, he moves in to defend the progressive, radical Left that has been seeking, through money, to control Israel's civic society and from there to the political echelons:

...The Israeli right perceives an international onslaught against its bastions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It has resolved never to permit a repeat of the withdrawal from Gaza. Hence it is attacking its critics and beefing up its grip on the instruments of power. And this reaction further amplifies Israel’s international isolation, creating a vicious circle.

The most blatant aspect of this right-wing campaign is its focus on the Israeli civil-society groups that monitor government actions and decisions. A bill that has already passed a preliminary vote in the Parliament would require all Israeli NGOs that receive support from foreign governments to publicly declare themselves “foreign agents” if they seek to “influence public opinion or ... any governmental authority regarding ... domestic or foreign policy.”

Of course, he wasn't upset when the opposite of this: "The rightward shift of Israeli society is changing the shape of fundamental state institutions" was taking place, led and directed by the Left.

"Left", you know, is right, pure, humanist, etc.

And this is rich:

The Netanyahu government complains loudly about Palestinian incitement against Jews (which is, in fact, decreasing) while its policies encourage or ignore growing anti-Arab incitement in Israel.

And who promotes, funds and encourages this incitement?

The very bodies Alpher seeks to defend.

Alpher?

Omega.



- - -

I Had A Bit Role Last Night in London

I was informed that at last night's discussion panel, sponsored by the New Israel Fund at the London Jewish Book Week, - which assured its balance, pluralism of opinion and fairness (not really) - whose participants were Francesca Klug, David Newman and Daniel Levy, this happened:

The meeting was not too bad...500 people there. Francesca Klug praised the Goldstone Report. [Jonathan] Freedland tried to wind them up by quoting from your blog about the meeting and saying 'Yisrael Medad - a Settler".

And what had I blogged?

Read it.

Fame.

(Just kidding. But I enjoy annoying my ideological opponents, especially when they know they are in the wrong.)