Paid for by Charles Bronfman, ‘Jewish Stars’ Attack Pro-Settlement Report
Latest update: December 12th, 2012
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Charles Bronfman is paying for the revival of a star studded, 2-state solution promotion tool.
Photo Credit: Claudio Calligaris
Forty U.S. Jewish leaders sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing concerns about the findings of an Israeli judicial committee that said Judea and Samaria settlements are legal.
The letter, initiated and organized by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), was delivered Sunday to the Prime Minister’s Office.
“As strong advocates for Israel’s security and well-being as a Jewish and democratic state, we are deeply concerned about the recent findings of the government commission led by Supreme Court Jurist (Ret.) Edmund Levy,” the letter read. “We fear that if approved, this report will place the two-state solution, and the prestige of Israel as a democratic member of the international community, in peril.”
IPF, which used to be the darling of former president Bill Clinton, who used an IPF gala in 2001 to unveil his Clinton Parameters for Arab-Israel peacemaking, has greatly diminished in influence and presence in recent years. But a June report by JTA suggested the organization is being pulled out of mothballs to become the prestigious pro-2-State Jewish powerhouse which J-Street just isn’t.
The group that has restarted IFP is made up of Jewish stars in search of a steady employment: Aaron David Miller, a former negotiator in the first Bush and Clinton administrations, Eric Yoffie, who just ended his term as president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), who is retiring from office. With funding from philanthropist Charles Bronfman, the resurrection appears all but certain.
Charles Bronfman is Co-Chairman of Birthright Israel International, a successful program providing an educational travel experience to Israel for young Jewish adults aged 18 to 26.
The IPF rhetoric is the same old tired stuff, extremely 1999:
“A two-state solution – an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip existing peacefully alongside Israel – is an imperative.”
As if the past ten years or so, with thousands of Palestinian rockets and mortar shells dropping on Israeli civilian populations, are not even a speck of schmootz on their rosy glasses, as if the evacuation of thousands of Jews has not led to untold suffering for both Jews and Arabs, as if every Israeli attempt to urge on a concession has not been met with torrents of violence, the 2-staters push on:
“It is the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ensure Israel’s security and future as a Jewish and democratic state. It is also in the interests of the United States, Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.”
But would to do if the Arabs once again react to Israeli peace gestures with fire? Not to worry, IFP has a solution:
“Israel’s security is a core American interest,” they declare (now, that’s a relief). and: “Terrorism, violence and incitement are central impediments to peace in the region and should be collectively and explicitly renounced. Similarly, rockets targeting innocent civilians along Israel’s northern and southern borders should be condemned by the United States.”
There you go – if Jews start getting killed all over the place, God forbid, this will not go by without the strongest condemnation from the U.S. government!
Signatories on the IFP letter to Netanyahu include the aforementioned Charles Bronfman, who is joined by fellow-philanthropist Lester Crown; Marvin Lender, the former national chairman of United Jewish Appeal; Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University; Bernard Nussbaum, former White House counsel; Richard Pearlstone, former chairman of The Jewish Agency ; and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
This group of Jewish leaders between jobs has discovered the platform that would pay their rent for the foreseeable future, and will utilize their skills in one direction: getting Israel back to a position of weakness, torn by internal conflict over the future of the settlements, and once again exposed to Arab violence.
The IFP gang is receiving its first important task, to throw its full, prestigious weight against the findings of an exceptionally distinguished jurist, retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy. The Levy committee 89-page report released last week has established what has been known for decades, that “Israel does not meet the criteria of ‘military occupation’ as defined under international law” in Judea and Samaria, and therefore settlements and outposts there are legal.
IFP deals with Levy with the kind of flippant approach Bill Clinton would have appreciated:
“Securing Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state requires diplomatic and political leadership, not legal maneuverings,” they wrote Netanyshu.
See, this is not about justice, it’s about getting things done. What things? Well, justice for the Palestinians, of course.
And, as always in the U.S. Jewish left’s dealings with Israel, there’s the unveiled threat:
“…our great fear is that the Levy Report will not strengthen Israel’s position in this conflict, but rather add fuel to those who seek to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.”
See? In the end it’s not about solutions, or about priorities, or about—God forbid—the rule of law. In the end it comes to if you don’t do as we say you’ll die.
Finally, somewhere on the list of 40, you’ll rather incongruously find Conservative Rabbi Daniel Gordis, President of the Shalem Center, who’s been making such a profound case all over You Tube for Israel’s need to exist, debating Peter Beinart who sees the settlements as the mother of all evils – what happened to Gordis? Is he over his conflict? Did he go over to the dark side?
Anyway, at this point it is clear that Israel would do much better with fewer friends…
UJA content was used in this article.
tell a friendAbout the Author: JewishPress.com Senior Internet Editor Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published two fun books: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.
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One Response to “Paid for by Charles Bronfman, ‘Jewish Stars’ Attack Pro-Settlement Report”
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Bronfman, take a hike, please. We don't want you, we don't need your advice, or your filthy money. You haven't sent your kids to serve in this man's army. You think that your money gives you the right to dictate to us. Well, at the end of the day, you sit on the toilet and do your business there just like the rest of us. Tomorrow, you could lose your entire fortune. So don't even begin to hallucinate that you're better than us.
I think Birthright is brilliant. I just don't get why this elaborate, very expensive pushback against the Levy report. Maybe because it actually pulls the rug from under the 2-State "dream."
What a raw deal!?..so as long as, Israel gives up the right to secure her borders annex land that legally promised in internat’l court.Israel will recieve “PEACE” for, as long as, it takes the ink to dry and,(here’s the frosting on the cake) spotty coverage (in the US) of condemnation in exchange for rocket fire and quite possible deaths (G_D forbid)I say ANNEX AND BUILD!! secure your borders.
god bless israel.
What will it be? Bronfman or Moses who said, "you shall make no covenant with them"? (Deut.7:2)
Those "?*&%^*$#!" should mind their own business or support -defend Jewish and Israel's historic, moral, spiritual and legal rights on the land. The two state (non) solution is in fact a 3 state bad solution 2 Arab and one Jewish. Don't they understand that "peace" with Arabs and Muslims is virtually impossible… that they never will come to terms with the existence of a Jewish state..which breng us to conclude that Bronfman and Co. also, as the Arabs and the world, want the termination of the Jewish state.
A 'two-state' solution is an 'imperative?' Sounds like he wants us to commit suicide. What do you expect from them anyway….many of their children are probably not married to Jews. And they probably support 'same-sex marriage.' Just leave us alone. The majority of those on the Nefesh B'Nefesh recent flight which brought 229 Jews were Modern Orthodox. We will determine the fate of our Land.
When are all Jews going to see the US talks requiring Israel to give land for peace is a brutal failure. The Arab goal is the end of the state of Israel not peace.
Diplomacy which consistently requires Israel to bow down to Arab and Muslim interests at the expense of the freedom of it's own citizens is an egregious over simplification of treaties already in place since1918.The legitimacy of The sovereign state of Israel is a documented fact. Since there has been no mention of daily rocket attacks as if they were to be accepted as a right of the Muslim terror organizations is an example. Jews need to stand up and be willing to use whatever force is necessary to protect the Jewish state it's citizens and growth.
The Muslims show their oppressive intentions by killing , burning Christian churches , denying Rabbi's wearing of Kip pas on the temple mount, swaying during prayer.
Die Anu! If we learn from the holocaust it is only when the Jewish people fought that the state of Israel came about. Time for passive resistance is at an end.
Thank you, Yori Yanover, for brilliantly and succinctly, stating the case AGAINST two states. King David tells us NOT to rely on man. When we die, our plans come to an end. Just look at ALL of mankind's "Treaties." How long do they last? Look at "treaties" signed with Israel's neighbors. Not even worth the paper…or the match that turns them into ash. G-d gave us our bodies and souls. We're NOT ALLOWED to commit suicide or even place ourselves in danger. A two state solution with one state advocating hate and our destruction is National Suicide. If we would FINALLY rely on G-d, the problem would be solved.
The group that Bronfman represents is the most despicable. They are the "enemy within". You can fight the enemy at the gates because you know who they are and they make no bones about their desire to destroy you. But the enemy within, presumably your brothers, do everything in their power to emulate those at the gates.
These 40-unJews do not speak for me.
Israel has to deal with the threat of Syrian beasts and their WMD dangers and Charles Bronfman and a bunch of leadershipless Jews, who have not the foggiest idea that all the land from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea legally belongs to the Jewish Nation are worried that Jews retain land that is theirs and on which Arabs lived illegally for 19 years? Give us a break, with friends like you Israel's enemies will do very well.