J Street barred

Thank goodness the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations today voted to bar J street, the anti israel group claiming to be pro Israel, from its membership.

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Conference-Of-Presidents-votes-against-J-Street-inclusion-350972

FYI, As the Conservative movement continues to slide radically in participation by American Jews (11% for Jews under 20 and down over 200 synagogues in the last decade or so,), its Rabbinic association, the Rabbinical Assembly, endorsed admitting this enemy of Israel into the Conference. http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/rabbinical-assembly-support-j-street-membership-conference-presidents. The Union for Reform Judaism also did but that is to be expected from them.
Read here some of the evil of J street.http://israelgreatest.blogspot.com/p/j-street-poses-grave-dangers.html

Top ten traitorous, dangerously anti Israel aspects of J street

1.     Follow the money J Street has accepted funding from sources—such as George Soros and many from the Arab world, including Iran, —who are openly anti-Israel, and have kept this fact secret so as not to alienate its centrist supporters. J Street officials got caught misleading reporters on overseas Arab and Muslim funding and then launched a clumsy spin campaign. Then they got caught misleading other reporters about Soros funding and launched another clumsy spin campaign. 

2.     J Street insists that all major pro-Israel organizations be open to speakers who favor the BDS movements, supporters of the single secular binational state approach, and those who oppose Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people J Street only wants people to hear views to the anti-Israel hard left of its position. It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as Prof. Alan Dershowitz.

3.      It has taken positions that undercut Israel’s security and that virtually no Israeli center-leftists support. It placed its imprimatur behind the despicable and mendacious Goldstone Report by bringing Richard Goldstone to Capitol Hill and introducing him to members of Congress. 

4.     March 21, 2014 In a development that is not sending shockwaves through the pro-Israel community, J Street has declared its support for the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. J Street’s belief is that the U.S should use its status as Israel’s only ally to pressure it to make concessions to a Palestinian Authority that has repeatedly demonstrated its unwillingness to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. 

5.     Some of J Street U campus branches began to drop the “pro-Israel” clause of the organization’s slogan

6.     Iran sanctions:. Within hours of Netanyahu’s crystal clear speech that the deal between Iran and the west is a “bad deal, a very, very bad deal,” J J Street sent out the message through thousands of emails, and on its website, urging Americans to tell their senators to “take a time out from moving ahead with new sanctions. J Street throws its sheltering arms around the mullahs in Iran and tries to help browbeat members of the U.S. senate into easing Iran’s slide into the nuclear weapons club – a club whose doors should and must be shut to any nation that threatens to “exterminate” or “wipe off the face of the Earth” another nation, especially Israel – it makes it impossible to do anything but grimace at their tag line: “pro-Israel, pro-peace.”

7.     J Street shamelessly and relentlessly push the Palestinian Arab propaganda line which claims Jews living and breathing beyond an arbitrary armistice line is the primary cause of unrest in the Middle East.

8.     The self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” liberal advocacy group J Street is soliciting funds for congressional candidates who are openly hostile to Israel while simultaneously targeting for defeat explicitly pro-Israel lawmakers.

who do not agree with its radical Middle East agenda, according to aWashington Free Beacon analysis of J Street’s election year strategy.

Among the more than 50 candidates endorsed by J Street is a sizable delegation of lawmakers who have expressed hostility towards the Jewish state.

9.     J Street launched campaigns to defend anti-Israel media campaigns and anti-Israel art and anti-Israel artists. Its PR flak defended Mary Robinson. Itbrought into the fold an apologist for the Muslim students who went after Ambassador Oren at UC Irvine. A J Street delegation held meetings with Palestinian diplomats in Ramallah on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day over Israeli objections and then Ben-Ami bragged about the trip in the Jerusalem Post. One of their board members met with Hamas.

10.  Dershowitz called J Street’s branding of its message as pro-Israel “dishonest.” “It is a fraud in advertising to call J Street pro-Israel,” he said. “An organization that calls for the US to censure Israel at the UN is not pro-Israel. An organization that praises [judge Richard] Goldstone is not pro-Israel. An organization that calls for taking any military measure against Iran off the table is not pro-Israel. It should stop defrauding the public.”

Celebrating Israel's 66th

Celebrating Yom Haatzmaut Israel's 66th birthday coming soon
Did you know?
• ...That Israel has the 4th longest life expectancy in the world: 82.0 years. More than the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.
• ...That there are 26 official Muslim States, 18 official Christian States, but there is only 1 Jewish State - Israel.
• ...That relative to its size, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on Earth, it has absorbed 350% of its population in 60 years.
• ...That Israel has more Nobel Prizes per capita than the United States, France and Germany. It has more laureates, in real numbers, than India, Spain and China.[1]
• ...That Israel's capital city, Jerusalem, is a holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
• ...That Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain of trees, made more remarkable by the fact that it is 60% desert.[1]
• ...That 93% of Israeli homes use Solar energy for water heating, the highest percentage in the world.[1]
• ...That Israel scientific research institutions are ranked 3rd in the world.[1]
• ...That Israel is ranked 2nd in space sciences.[1]
• ...That Israel is one of the ten countries in the world capable of launching its own satellites.[2][3]
• ...That Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin.[1]
• ...That Israel has the 3rd highest rate of entrepreneurship amongst women in the world.[1]
• ...That Israel has attracted the most venture capital investment per capita in the world, 30 times more than Europe.[1]
• ...That Israel leads the world in patents for medical equipment.[1]
• ...That Israel has more NASDAQ listed companies than any other country, besides the US. More than all of Europe, India, China and Japan combined.[1]
• ...That in proportion to its population Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute numbers Israel has more startup companies than any other country besides the US.[1]
• ...That Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world.[4]
• ...That Israel is the 8th happiest country on Earth.[5]
• ...That Israel has one of the best healthcare systems in the world according to OECD.[6]
• ...That Israel is ranked 16th in the Human Development Index. It's the highest standard of living in the Middle East, and the third highest in Asia.[7]
• ...That Israel is ranked 27th in terms of Gross domestic product per capita with $32,297.[8]
• ...That Israel is among the top three countries in cyber attack defense.[9]
• ...That Israel is the country which offers the best conditions for clean technology startup companies after Denmark.[10]
• ...That Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to population in the world.[11]
• ...That Israel is the second-most educated country after Canada.[12]
• ...That Israel is the Middle East’s only "free" state, according toFreedom House annual report.[13]
• ...That almost 1/3 of all Israelis do volunteer work.[14]
• ...The proportion of women among R&D workers in Israel is approximately 23.4%. This puts Israel in second place behindDenmark. Women earned 37% of all degrees granted in science andengineering in Israel, one of the highest proportions in the world.[15]
• Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs in 2011 held 14 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel’s ambassador to Finland and the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. Oscar Abu Razaq was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Interior, the first Arab citizen to become chief executive of a key government ministry. Ariel Sharon’s original cabinet included the first Arab minister, Salah Tarif, a Druze who served as a minister without portfolio. An Arab is also a Supreme Court justice. In October 2005, an Arab professor was named Vice President of Haifa University.
• Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. More than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel’s founding, there was one Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools.29
• The sole legal distinction between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel is that the latter are not required to serve in the Israeli army. This is to spare Arab citizens the need to take up arms against their brethren. Nevertheless, Bedouinshave served in paratroop units and other Arabs have volunteered for military duty. Compulsory military service is applied to the Druze and Circassian communities at their own request.

Nazis and Iran

JERUSALEM –  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the country's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust by issuing a stern warning Sunday to the world to learn the lessons of the past and prevent another Holocaust.

At the opening ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Netanyahu linked the Nazi genocide to Iran's suspected drive to acquire nuclear bombs and its leaders' repeated references to the destruction of Israel and its denial of the Holocaust. Netanyahu said that just like before World War II, there were those in the world today who refused to face uncomfortable truths.

"In this place I have said many times that we must identify an existential threat in time and act against it in time and tonight I ask 'why in the years before the Holocaust did most of the world's leaders not see the danger ahead of time?' In hindsight, all the signs were there," he said.

"Has the world learned a lesson from the mistakes of the past? Today we are again faced with clear facts and before a real danger. Iran calls for our destruction, it develops nuclear weapons."

The stated links between the Holocaust and Iran showed how more than six decades later, the mass murder of Jews during World War II is still a central part of Israel's psyche. The nation was created just three years after the end of the war, and hundreds of thousands of dazed survivors made their way to Israel.

Six million Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust, wiping out a third of world Jewry. Today, fewer than 200,000 elderly survivors remain in Israel.

When Iran nuks Israel and us. Why won't Obama stop them? Jewu 645 Rabbi ...

Trust this man?

Trust this man?
1. Abbas PHD dissertation denies Holocaust.
2. This week he makes alliance with terrorist group Hamas in control of Gaza, knowing they sent thousands of missiles at random targets in Israel, who call for death to Israel and Jews everywhere, and whose charter officially calls for Israel's destruction, which forces the end of "peace talks"
3. Honors suicide bombers as martyrs
4. says Jews cannot live in historic Judea and Samaria where Jews have always live
5. says he will never admit Jews have right to Jewish homeland on the land the Bible promises the Jews
6. official maps don't list Israel
7. Allows curriculum in PA schools which is expression of  vicious anti-semitism

now says Holocaust was terrible. Glad this former Holocaust denier changed him mind. Left still blames Netanyahu for talks ending and increasingly supports BDS, to weaken and destroy Israel
Talmud says world sometimes appears upside down

Abbas aligns with Hamas

Why can't "peace talks " with Palestinians ever work? Because even the "moderate" leaders ones just want to kill Jews.
From CUFI
"Earlier this week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to form a national unity government with Hamas.  In so doing, Abbas crossed a bright red line that should disgust all who seek peace.  Hamas is a terrorist organization that is recognized as such by both the United States and the European Union.  To this day, Hamas refuses to recognize the State of Israel and refuses to renounce terrorism.  Quite to the contrary, Hamas has claimed credit for suicide attacks that have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and has launched tens of thousands of missiles into Israel.  The Hamas charter doesn't only call for the death of all Israelis; it calls for the death of all Jews.  By reaching out to Hamas, Abbas has turned his back on peace."

But our SOSTATE

Kerry blames Israel of course.

Obama result: Egypt back with Russians

US Presidents for 50 years have been able to keep Egypt and Russia apart. Our disastrous President blew it again (but perhaps he wanted this)

Ehud Ya’ari of Israel’s Channel 2 News reported on Tuesday night, that Egypt and Russia will be signing an unprecedented military agreement.

In this agreement between Cairo and Moscow, Egypt will receive 24 of Russia’s advanced Mikoyan MiG-35 fighter jets, along with military and strategic advisers, as well as training for the Egyptian Air Force.

The deal is worth $3 billion.

It follows in the footsteps of a $2 billion arms deal that Egypt signed with Russia in February, and was primarily funded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The deal itself has been in the works since November, as JewishPress.com reported when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Cairo and Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and developed in response to decreased US military aid to Egypt.

This deal is a major setback to US policy and diplomacy in the Middle East, and is a direct slap in the face for U.S. President Obama


posted by rabbi jonathan ginsburg

Who is Goliath?

Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

Who is Responsible for the Suffering of the Palestinians?

Michael Brown | Apr 11, 2014

 

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There is no doubt that there is real suffering among the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank (which is actually ancient Judea and Samaria). The question is who, precisely, is most responsible for their suffering?

Certainly, Israel is far from blameless in its treatment of the Palestinians, and it helps no one when we overlook or whitewash Israel’s failings, as some Christian Zionists are prone to do.

But is Israel primarily responsible for the difficult living conditions faced by the Palestinians today? Absolutely not. The blame lays squarely at the feet of the Palestinian leadership.

Consider that in 1936, Haj Amin Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, later a collaborator with Hitler and the father of many of today’s radical Islamic movements, had this to say about living in peace with the neighboring Jews: “There is no place in Palestine for two races. The Jews left Palestine 2,000 year ago, let them go to other parts of the world, where there are wide vacant places.”

In contrast, in 1937, David Ben Gurion, later to be Israel’s first Prime Minister, said, “We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their place. All our aspiration is built on the assumption – proven throughout all our activity in the Land of Israel – that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.”

Ten years later, when the U.N. had proposed separate states for the Jews and the Arabs, Golda Meir said, “We are happy and ready for what lies ahead. Our hands are extended in peace to our neighbors. Both States can live in peace with one another and cooperate for the welfare of their inhabitants.”

And Ben Gurion invited the Arabs living in what would be the new state of Israel to remain among them as partners (which many of them did, and they have grown from 200,000 then to 1.6 million today): “If the Arab citizen will feel at home in our state . . . if the state will help him in a truthful and dedicated way to reach the economic, social, and cultural level of the Jewish community, then Arab distrust will accordingly subside and a bridge will be built to a Semitic, Jewish-Arab alliance.”

In stark contrast, Azzam Pasha, Secretary of the Arab League, would have none of it, calling instead for an all-out war against Israel: “It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.”

And so, the five surrounding Arab nations attacked Israel and were defeated in a war that was costly and difficult for everyone, resulting in about 800,000 Jewish refugees who fled from the neighboring Muslim countries and about 600,000 Arab refugees who fled from the war on Israel.

What happened to those refugees? Most of the Jewish refugees were absorbed by the fledgling State of Israel; the Arab refugees were not absorbed by their neighboring countries.

Why? Because they were used as human pawns against Israel, to the point that in 1959, the Arab League passed Resolution 1457: “The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries.”

That’s why, until this very day, there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in countries like Lebanon and Syria, never integrated into the larger population or absorbed as citizens with full rights.

How dare the anti-Zionists blame Israel for this atrocious treatment of the Palestinians. The fault lies with their own leaders who have betrayed them in their hatred of Israel. (This is why historian Efraim Karsh entitled his very important book Palestine Betrayed, where much more relevant information can be found.)

As recently as 2004, Hisham Youssef, spokesman for the 22-nation Arab League, stated that, “Palestinians live in very bad conditions. That official policy is meant to preserve their Palestinian identity. If every Palestinian who sought refuge in a certain country was integrated and accommodated into that country, there won’t be any reason for them to return to Palestine.”

Do these leaders really care about their suffering brothers and sisters, or is their opposition to Israel, fueled by the theology of radical Islam, more important to them?

In 2012, the Palestinian Mufti, one of the senior Islamic leaders, repeated a well-known Muslim Hadith (authoritative tradition): “The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”

More recently, in a recent program on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas cleric and parliamentary member Yunis Al-Astal cited the Quran in guiding Muslims to “massacre” the Jews. (See Palwatch.org for more details.)

With statements like this, which are seconded by many Palestinian leaders, does Israel really have a peace partner among the Palestinian leadership?

As journalist Caroline Glick wrote, “Nearly every day a Palestinian leader announces that the Palestinians will not make peace with Israel under any circumstances. These statements are part of the public record, and all are published to great approval in the Arabic media. Palestinian children regularly appear on PA-controlled television children’s programs, calling for the annihilation of Israel and demonizing Jews as subhuman. Summer camps are named after terrorists.”

And as Israel has released thousands of Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of peace, even though many of these prisoners have the blood of Israeli men, women, and children on their hands, they are hailed as heroes when they return home. This is a terribly painful slap in Israel’s face, and yet another stumblingblock to peace.

As for the billions of dollars of support that pours into Hamas and the Palestinian Authority from America and Europe, only a small portion of it finds its ways into the hands of the people, instead being used to pad the bank accounts of the leaders and to further their war on Israel.

Of course, as followers of Jesus we should care for both Palestinians and Israelis, and we should give ourselves wholeheartedly to bring justice to the victims and relief to the suffering, whoever they may be.

But let us not forget where the ultimate blame lies for the suffering of the Palestinian people: It lies at the feet of their leadership, and shifting the blame to Israel will do these suffering Palestinians no good at all.



posted by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

Brandeis capitulates to Muslim radicalism

Brandeis University has rescinded its offer of an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born activist whose work has focused on the barbaric misogyny rampant in Islamic societies, like the one in which she was raised. Capitulating to a campaign by CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and voluble studentand faculty protests, Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence yesterday withdrew the honor. He has publicly shamed a courageous woman. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism funding case involving Hamas.

Please read the eloquent and noble response of Ayaan Hirsi Ali below, and then please reach out to the Brandeis administration and express your outrage at this shameful action.

President Fred Lawrence - lawrence@brandeis.edu 781-736-3001

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s statement:

“Yesterday Brandeis University decided to withdraw an honorary degree they were to confer upon me next month during their Commencement exercises. I wish to dissociate myself from the university’s statement, which implies that I was in any way consulted about this decision. On the contrary, I was completely shocked when President Frederick Lawrence called me—just a few hours before issuing a public statement—to say that such a decision had been made.

“When Brandeis approached me with the offer of an honorary degree, I accepted partly because of the institution’s distinguished history; it was founded in 1948, in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, as a co-educational, nonsectarian university at a time when many American universities still imposed rigid admission quotas on Jewish students. I assumed that Brandeis intended to honor me for my work as a defender of the rights of women against abuses that are often religious in origin. For over a decade, I have spoken out against such practices as female genital mutilation, so-called ‘honor killings,’ and applications of Sharia Law that justify such forms of domestic abuse as wife beating or child beating. Part of my work has been to question the role of Islam in legitimizing such abhorrent practices. So I was not surprised when my usual critics, notably the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), protested against my being honored in this way.

“What did surprise me was the behavior of Brandeis. Having spent many months planning for me to speak to its students at Commencement, the university yesterday announced that it could not “overlook certain of my past statements,” which it had not previously been aware of. Yet my critics have long specialized in selective quotation – lines from interviews taken out of context – designed to misrepresent me and my work. It is scarcely credible that Brandeis did not know this when they initially offered me the degree.

“What was initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming. Yet the slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles. The ‘spirit of free expression’ referred to in the Brandeis statement has been stifled here, as my critics have achieved their objective of preventing me from addressing the graduating Class of 2014. Neither Brandeis nor my critics knew or even inquired as to what I might say. They simply wanted me to be silenced. I regret that very much.

“Not content with a public disavowal, Brandeis has invited me ‘to join us on campus in the future to engage in a dialogue about these important issues.’ Sadly, in words and deeds, the university has already spoken its piece. I have no wish to ‘engage’ in such one-sided dialogue. I can only wish the Class of 2014 the best of luck—and hope that they will go forth to be better advocates for free expression and free thought than their alma mater.

“I take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported me and my work on behalf of oppressed woman and girls everywhere.”

posted by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

Delusion about peace

Delusion:
I heard these 2 lovely Israel female IDF reservists speak yesterday about their lives and services in defense of Israel and they both ended on notes of optimism about peace because each have had interaction with a few Palestinian children that were fine. I know they have to say that on their speaking tour but its nonsense. My question to them:
You both ended with optimism after talking to us for an hour about all the Palestinian rockets, suicide bombers, deaths of your friends, how they use children as shields, hide their weapons in mosques and hospitals etc. You admit Hamas is a terrorist group, controls Gaza and continues to fire missiles. Abbas, the supposed moderate, refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, says no Jews can live in Biblical Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria, honors murderers of Jews and the MAJORITY of Palestinians by poll SUPPORT suicide bombers and missiles. You affirmed they teach hatred of Israel in their schools. How can you be optimistic?

The ladies said they knew all those, mumbled a few responses about a few experiences with nice Arab children, (even as they told us one of their great grandfathers was the only doctor in a while area treating Arabs and Jews and was murdered by his neighbors, whom he had treated in the riots of 1929) and reasserted their close about optimism. .

The "peace talks have collapsed". Obama and the world will blame Netanyahu. The Palestinians never intended to make peace. They want to destroy Israel. The Palestinians were invented by the Arabs as a tool to aid in Israel's demise. Their is no history of any Arab nation of Palestine.
J street and other pro Arab groups pretend to be pro Israel but parrot Obama and Kerry;s blame Israel first strategy.

Be optimistic if you like. Its an illusion. The Palestinians if ever achieve sovereignty will be ever a greater threat to Israel's security and make Israel 9 MILES wide.

What Just Happened to the Peace Talks?!

The Arabs didn't miss an opportunity for peace. Their goal has always been something else entirely.
By: JoeSettler
Published: April 4th, 2014
To anyone who has been through a few rounds of these peace talks over the years, it was kind of obvious that they were going to have to collapse. What wasn’t obvious was how, when or what excuse would be given.

Abba Eban once incorrectly said that the Arabs “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” I say incorrectly because he assumed that the Arabs must have the same desire and goal for peace as he did, and they just keep messing it up.

But that statement is wrong because the underlying assumption is wrong. The Palestinian Authority is not interested in peace. At least not in the way Abba Eban understood it.

The Palestinian Authority was obtaining the release of some very horrible terrorists, a lot of them, and even lots more of them in the future. If the leaks were even partly true, they were, in their salami method, getting some seriously bad concessions from Israel, and they were doing it with the help of the most friendliest, pro-PA, anti-Israel government in US history.

And all they had to do was keep talking.

Yet they threw it all away.

Why?

It wasn’t because they weren’t getting major concessions in the talks, they were, and over time they would have gotten even more.

It wasn’t because they were being forced to offer any concessions in return – because they weren’t.

Well, except for one nonnegotiable.

Netanyahu demanded they acknowledge Israel as the Jewish state.

This would mean ending the fight, and recognizing the Jewish right to the land of Israel, and admitting that Israel was making concessions to the PA. But primarily it meant declaring an official end to the war and trying to destroy Israel.

Look at one of the precondition demands the PA made yesterday.

They demanded that 15,000 PA citizens be granted Israeli citizenship. Does that really jive with the narrative that they want their own state for their own people, or does that jive better with the fact that they still want to destroy Israel and overrun it with Arabs? The answer speaks for itself.

The PA collapsed the peace talks, most likely because they were reaching that point, just like they reached that point in the past, where they had to decide, do they want to be a normal, productive country, or do they want to continue to try to destroy Israel.

The answer is clearly the latter, and perhaps partially, because they have no culture to be the former.

But unfortunately, as experience shows, this doesn’t mean the end of the peace talks. It means the end of this round, and at some point they’ll be started up again.

Perhaps after (yet another) unilateral declaration of statehood. Perhaps after a UN vote. Perhaps after another intifada (which Israel will win). Perhaps next week, if the US gives them a big present.

And the game will continue. The talks will restart, and they’ll reach the point near the end, where they’ll collapse again, for only one reason, because a signed peace agreement won’t allow for the destruction of Israel.


posted by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg