Carter, Kadish, and Oh the Tsuris!

It has been a bit of a strange week on the Israel issues front. First, former President Jimmy Carter decided to personally solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by meeting with Hamas and relaying his demands, oops, I mean THEIR demands, to Israel. Should Israel give in entirely, Hamas will consider "peace," which as was clarified recently means a "tactical peace" during which Hamas would work toward gaining military advantage so as to be more effective when breaking the "peace" at a later time. The real negotiations happened when Carter came to Israel and relayed Hamas' demands, namely, "Give us what we want or we'll continue to attack your women and children with qassams and bombs and we'll blow up your crossing posts, your means of continuing occupation and oppression of our people by supplying our population with necessary humanitarian aid!" Israel's response to Carter was of course, "Couldn't you have wandered around Sderot for a while? It's fun there. The 'color red' alert means the game is starting and you need to run into the open and try to catch the qassams before they hit the ground."

Pardon my sarcasm. I know that President Carter at least had some hope, however misplaced, that he could indeed have made a positive impact toward bringing peace, though one could argue that peace would be more for Hamas than for Israel. Clearly, President Carter's foray into Israel-Hamas relations could not have been a bigger waste of time, unless its purpose was to allow both Hamas and Carter to vent about their disdain for Israel.

Then, of course, on the heels of the Carter visit, Mr. Kadish was arrested and charged with espionage dating back 25 years. Not that he has been conducting espionage FOR 25 years, but that it occurred 25 years ago. Furthermore, it appears that whatever "secret" documents, not "Top Secret" documents like Jonathan Pollard, were involved, they are likely now no longer "secret." This arrest some suggest was aimed at making a Presidential pardon of Jonathan Pollard more difficult. Others suggest that it was timed to undermine President Bush's visit to Israel for its 60th anniversary celebration.

I would argue that it is more likely that the timing of the arrest is meant to pressure Israel into revealing its nuclear capabilities as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan that was supposed to begin taking shape with President Carter's visit and that the two events, the arrest and Carter's visit, were coordinated. Yet, there is an even more likely source of pressure, James Baker III or Brent Snowcroft, who some say may be John McCain's choices as Middle East envoys and who were prominent players in the Reagan Administration.

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19275220&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=618959&rfi=6

You may remember James Baker for his "F--- the Jews! They don't vote for us anyway." You may not have seen his even worse 1992 statement, ""Don't worry, Jews remember the Holocaust, but they forget insults as soon as they smell cash." N.Y. Post, March 6, 1992.

Another possible reason for charging Kadish at this point was the revelation of photos related to the Syrian-Korean nuclear reactor that did not exist and which the US refused to support Israel when it attacked. Perhaps, there was concern that the US would be accused of failing to work with its closest ally and holding back vital security information? Another possibility is that Kadish is the one responsible for relaying information on the Syrian nuclear reactor to Israel and that some did not want Israel to possess that information for fear that it would do exactly what it did, namely destroy the reactor while drawing attention to strong links between Syria, North Korea, and Iran relating to cooperation on producing NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Perhaps, the US State Department or another agency did not want this information, so contrary to the recently revealed NIE on Iran, to be brought to light and was not happy, even embarassed and angry, when it was?

That said, Israel should not have spied on its ally in the past and should not in the future. It just gives people like these reasons to hate Israel and Jews. Furthermore, there are clearly elements that do not care about supporting Israel as an ally, if not outright anti-Israel elements, at work in the US State Department and intelligence agencies, who will seize every opportuntiy to demonize Israel.

Jewish leader calls CUFI 'extremists'

Yet another issue that I disagree with Rabbi Yoffie on. He sees ISNA as a better friend of Israel than CUFI. Fortunately, a large number, if not most, of my colleagues in the Reform movement disagree with him. CUFI has stated that they will support Israel in its decisions even if they are for a two state solution and even if they include territorial concessions with which CUFI disagrees. That CUFI opposes giving up everything to the 1967 border is hardly an anti-peace position. Once again, Rabbi Yoffie seems to be playing to his left wing friends, particularly in those left leaning Christian denominations who are arguing for divestment. The URJ is battling UMC anti-Israel actions at the same time as combating Israel's supporters who don't agree with the URJ on domestic US issues. Israel and our local Jewish communities need the support of our Evangelical Christian friends in changing the local debates about Israel, just as we need the support of our Liberal Christians friends in changing the local debates about social issues of concern to us.

One CUFI event a year hardly is an answer to AFSC which brings a long list of anti-Israel crusaders to town, from Norman Finkelstein to Anna Baltzer, from President Carter to Mazin Qumsiyeh, and that does not include all of the people that Sabeel, the organization connected to our Anglican friends, brings to town who get the ear of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the UCC churches.

It is time to tell our domestic issue friends that they need to reconsider their Israel-Palestinian positions, not for us to reconsider ours. Israel needs all the friends it can get in a VERY hostile religious environment.

We need not agree with everything CUFI says any more than we need agree with everything that the UCC says or AFSC says to work with them. We need to work with people on every side and to find allies where and when we can. To abandon Christians who are willing and able to stand up to left wing bullying and demonization of Israel so that they will be happier with us when we show up to NOW and NARAL demonstrations is simply wrongheaded. We can both be friends on some issues and disagree on others.

Just my two cents,

-David

Jewish leader calls Evangelists 'extremists'

Leader of Reform Judaism in US Eric Yoffie says movement mustn't work with Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee because latter rejects Israeli land concessions to achieve peace with Palestinians, disparages other religions

Associated Press
Published:
04.03.08, 07:44 / Israel Jewish Scene

The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism said Wednesday that synagogues in the movement shouldn't work with the Rev. John Hagee, a Christian Zionist, calling him an "extremist" on Israeli policy who disparages other faiths.

Good for Israel?

Christian Zionists: Ahmadinejad is new Hitler / Yitzhak Benhorin and AP
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Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said Hagee and his group, Christians United For Israel, reject any Israeli land concessions to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

Reform Judaism supports creating a Palestinian state; Hagee sees a biblical mandate for the territory so End Times prophecy can be fulfilled.

Yoffie also condemned Hagee's views on Roman Catholicism and Islam. The San Antonio pastor has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler, among other comments.

Hagee has vehemently denied he is anti-Catholic and said his remarks have been mischaracterized.

But Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, distanced himself from Hagee last month, after the pastor endorsed him, following uproar over Hagee's views of Catholicism.

"On Israeli-Palestinian politics, John Hagee and the CUFI are extremists," Yoffie said, in a speech to Reform rabbis meeting in Cincinnati. "In expressing contempt for other religions and rejecting territorial compromise under any and all circumstances, their views run against the American grain."

The Union for Reform Judaism represents more than 900 North American synagogues.