"Gown-gate:" the scandal of Israeli-made graduation gowns in Jordan!

Yes, it is true that everything Israel is, does, says, produces, exports, imports, etc. is political, is controversial at a fundamental level. If supermarkets in France sell orange juice from Israel, it's a political issue. If an Israeli ballet company performs "Don Quixote" in Worcester, Massachusetts, it's a political issue.  One professor at my own university even refuses to support a coexistence education program for Israeli and Palestinian youth, arguing--in front of her own students in a public forum--that any program involving Israelis, even children apparently, represents an unacceptable violation of the "cultural boycott" of all things-Israel.   Yes, that's right, she believes that all right-thinking people should boycott peace camp, because there are Israeli teenagers involved.

Yet the fact that everything about Israel is so hyper-politicized says much more about Israel's enemies than it does about Israel.  Unfortunately, after 60+ years, the majority of Israel's neighbors cannot abide any acknowledgment, implicit or explicit, of Israel's legitimacy among the family of nations.  They will not accept that Israel has a right to exist within any borders, or even acknowledge the empirical fact that Jewish sovereignty in the region persists and shows no signs of disappearing.  They will not deign to refer to "Israel," but will only spit out the words "Zionist entity."  Jordan is one of the two Arab countries that actually has a peace treaty with Israel, and yet even there, outrage has erupted on the discovery that some university students were graduating wearing gowns made in Israel.

"Jordan school using Israeli-made gowns," Benjamin Joffe-Walt. Yediot Aharanot. July 4, 2010.


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An Open Letter to Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

From a Turkish-American:

"An Open Letter to Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," The Investigative Project on Terrorism -- IPT News. July 1, 2010.

Qanta Ahmed on the toxic impact of Jew-hatred in Islamic societies

Qanta Ahmed, a Pakistani doctor and author, reflects on the damage that obsessive Israel-bashing is doing to Muslims and Islamic societies.

"Israel and the Flotilla: On the Dangers of a Binary View," Qanta Ahmed. The Huffington Post. June 20, 2010.

Palestinians are now objectified political pawns, rather than a people. While we are comfortable with the longstanding objectification of Palestinians by Israelis as the 'other' in the form of a security threat (after all Israel must balance a constant struggle to determine the needs of a terrorized Israeli citizenship over the needs of an exploding ever-younger ever impoverished, increasingly radicalized Gaza population) we fail to encounter our own sinister objectification of the Palestinians which we accomplish so effectively all by ourselves. This objectification is not only held by their revolving, corrupt leadership, but also by an objectifying Muslim world. We the Muslims need the Palestinians to remain locked in their plight so that they might continue to serve as the Ummah's scotoma (a blindspot) which literally prevents us from seeing our own more immediate distresses, distresses which might demand our attention and perhaps even require societal interventions . We would be lost, disarmed, and stunned without an external locus for our rage which is so piercingly trained on Gaza and the West Bank, so piercing in fact that Darfur barely warrants a sidelong glance.

Does this exonerate Israel? No. Does this implicate Muslims? You bet.

Let me continue the self-flagellation.

During this same period of Flotilla Face-Offs with the IDF, Pakistan, my nation of matrilineal and patrimonial heritage has witnessed the extraordinary massacre of 120 moderate, pacifist Muslims, followers of the Ahmadiyyah movement that subscribes to peaceful, pluralistic Islam. Specifically, they embrace non-violence, condemning violent jihad. They were massacred, in cold blood, in worship, by fellow citizens, fellow Pakistanis, fellow Muslims. Most of the murdered were elderly, and male. Hundreds more were injured, some of whom are still dying this week. Emergency services did not arrive for over two hours. Pakistani police stood back, apparently allowing the carnage to occur, supposedly too afraid to engage. Awaiting special operations commandos to intervene, in their uncertainty, perhaps their tacit tolerance, Pakistani police became silent accomplices to the massacre. Many of the pacifist Muslim worshipers died of uncomplicated hemorrhagic shock within mere minutes of advanced medical care.

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Moshe Kantor: situation of Jews in Europe ‘at its worst since end of WWII’

In an effort to understand Jewish politics in other parts of the world, as well as to strenghten my French language skills, I've been tapping into the European Jewish press lately.  Here is a recent report that makes me very grateful to live in the U.S.  This is not merely a Jewish story--the more one learns, the more it becomes clear that the Jew is the canary in the mine shaft.

"Moshe Kantor: situation of Jews in Europe ‘at its worst since end of WWII’" Yossi Lempkowicz, European Jewish Press [English version]. June 29, 2010.

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Throwing cold water on Thomas Friedman's glowing reports from Fayyad HQ

"A little rain on the Palestinian parade," Nathan Brown. Foreign Policy. July 1, 2010.

Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, and fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, argues that reports of the scale and success of Fayyad's "state-building program" are greatly overstated.

I, for one, would be happy if Thomas Friedman, Hussein Ibish, and other Fayyad promoters were right in their assessment of the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister.  For the PA to make headway in establishing rule of law and other basic functions of governance would represent a rare "postive-sum" gain in the region.  It may even be rhetorically prudent to play up Fayyad's success, at least in some quarters. Surely, it would be better for everyone involved if those who claim to support the Palestinians were to put their energies into the kind of work Fayyad is said to be doing, instead of the counterproductive and hateful anti-Israel mobilization that seems to dominate their agenda. 

However, there are also dangers in putting too much stock in Fayyad's efforts. In particular, as Brown suggests, hyping Fayyadism can make one discount the importance of the diplomatic plane, and generally to reduce the political to the economic. 


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Debunking Kristof's one-sided depiction of West Bank

Posting at Elder of Ziyon, Zach Novetsky ably debunks Nicholas Kristof's angry diatribe against Israel in yesterday's New York Times.  Would that such an eminent writer as Nicholas Kristof bothered to conduct even half the research before writing his fancy column as Zach Novetsky has put into his response... 

In sum, as Zach puts it, NK

spoke to an advocacy group and happily parroted what they told him to say. This is not even close to anything approaching journalism.

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Profile of former Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Abraham Center for Middle East Peace

Allison Hoffman at Tablet (a must-read publication in my book) profiles Wexler's work as the new President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.  The Center's work includes public opnion in Israel and meetings with the spectrum of important players in the Arab-Israeli peace process, such as it is, from Israel to the West Bank to Jordan to Turkey to Bahrain.  Wexler and Abraham hosted the schmooze between Mahmoud Abbas and a host of American Jewish leaders when the PA President visited Washington, D.C., early last month.

On the Abraham Center's site, I recommend the helpfully-illustrated page on possible land-swap scenarios. The border issue is one of the Center's specialties.

       "The Bridge," Allison Hoffman. Tablet Magazine. July 1, 2010.


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