Jerome J. Blaz http://www.jta.org/user/profile/46451 I am an American Jew who lived for ten years from 1948-58, a founding member of Kibbutz Kissufim, a sociologist and a retired antiquarian bookdealer. I am married, have two children who were born in Israel, and four grandsons. I live in Southern California, but I am a native Chicagoan. en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Another reason for Chuck Percy's defeat was not only the impression that he was not in "Israel's corner" but that Paul Simon, a liberal Democrat who ran against him was thought to be Jewish. He wasn't, and often mentioned that he is active in his church, but what he was and what he was thought to be was not the same to most voters who didn't read the fine print. Simon was also pro-Israel, and Percy became a toxic item regarding his pro-Israel credentials. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I don't understand the uproar over George Soros supporting J Street. I read that this one and that one expressed an opinion this way or that way, followed by the implication that this was an act of bravery or at least bravado. When Sheldon Adelman financed a rightwing group like "Im Tirtzu" which attacked the right of professors and other academics to expressed opinions the "Im Tirtzu" people decided were not quite "kosher," there was no uproar over Adelman, a man who has shown his ability to support rightwing groups in Israel, which probably are regarded by him as doing a "Mitzvah." So if George Soros doesn't use that vocabulary, he probably believes that handing some cash over to a liberally-oriented group like J-Street is also the equivalent of a mitzvah. I believe that some people are just too ready to make everyone who doesn't agree with him a "post-Zionist" if not an anti-Semite. I happen to believe that the playing field on which Jews can express their beliefs is a little broader than that. Jerry Blaz 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Why a Jew in Peki'in needs to be totting a gun on his shoulder is beyond me. Jews have lived together with their neighbors back in the early 1950s when I first visited Peki'in. It was and is a pacified area, and I know of no bad things happening in Peki'in on the basis of someone being Jewish. And in Akko, this has been true three times over. These Jews are settlers in the sense of those Jews in the West Bank who think they are recapitulating the Wild West. The only horses they can ride is the wannabee ideology of a merry-go-round horsey. I hope God knows what mischief these misplaced settlers will cause us. Jerry Blaz 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Mada el-Carmel issued a statement with which I emphatically disagree. However, there is other work that this organization does that can make it meritorious. If all the institutions where papers are written are to be examined on the basis of one report, we would find all the institutions posul. The only answer to the claim against Mada el-Carmel is to prohibit fundraising for all academic and quasi-academic institutions. The Coalition of Women for Peace is a coalition. I'm certain other coalitions receive American-Jewish funds that have within them elements that some may believe to be "anti-Israel." And "Break the Silence" is trying to get answers to many of the questions raised by the action of the IDF in Gaza. The IDF has recently published a 160-page booklet on the subject, and this may help clear up the questions raised by Cast Lead. In fact, it may be a direct result of the work of "Break the Silence," making their efforts meritorious. During the Shamir government, we heard that it was a "shande and a Xirpa" to say something critical about a government of Israel, and I listened, and though I disagreed with it, I kept quiet. Then when the Rabin government came in the same sources were very critical, and added to the atmosphere that may have led to Rabin's assassination. So I have taken to heart, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." We should get full information. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I really got the drift of the level of political awareness and cognizance of the group when Blumenthal asked the plump girl (with her large boobs apparently there as "wares for display") who Benjamin Netanyahu was and she couldn't answer. Imagine sitting in the midrohov of Jerusalem and not knowing who the head of the government of Israel is and spouting off about the head of government and state of the U.S. as if she did. This video did Israel no favor displaying such a drunken mob who were not excited by a sheikh but a bottle. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 There is an irony involved in this. According to the Oslo agreement, there was a time-table that is, of course, long overdue. But IF this time-table had been followed and the subsequent agreements once reached with the PA had been culminated and the implementation of a two-state solution was in force, there is no doubt that the construction on Modiin Ilit would be perfectly fine, because there had been an agreement to cluster all the settlements, etc., close to the "green line," therefore close to the border of the State of Israel, This would have been accompanied by a transfer of Israel lands from other places such as the area around Halutza in the Western Negev, which would afford the Arab population in Gaza needed space. But because of the problematic political structure that permitted governments to fall too frequently and the resulting procrastination on resolving the issues between Israel and the Palestinians, building on Mod'in Ilit is a political problem now. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 First of all, there hasn't been a meeting between Netanyahu and Obama yet, and we don't know what separates Israel and the U.S. We do know what Israel has agreed to and what the Palestinian Authority has agreed to, and even a "unity government" which isn't going to happen tomorrow, will have to accept these agreements. It will mean that Hamas, as a part of the PA, will have to fight, not sponsor or encourage or condone terrorism. It means that its current dependence upon Iran will have to end. Otherwise, it will not happen, because it is against Israeli policy and U.S.law. And the Fateh knows on which side its bread is buttered. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I believe that under the present possible lineups of those who would sit together in a government, while certainly not my ideal, I would go for the Kadima-Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu coalition. I believe that it should concentrate on providing civil marriage for all and any Israelis wishing that type of marriage, even if one is registered as a Jew, and one, like many of the Russian immigrants, cannot marry as a Jew under the rabbis' rulings. While I believe that the very presence of Lieberman in the government will be provocative for the Israeli Arabs, I do not believe it will past legal muster, so in reality, it is hypothetical and ugly. If after passing civil marriage, Lieberman's party insists on voting for a racist law, Kadima can leave the government and leave Netanyahu's government in extreme jeopardy. But at least one longstanding problem will be solved, marriage for those people not recognized as communicants of any of the respective state relligious authorities. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00