False Dichotomies

“For months now, the diplomatic chatter has been bubbling under. And now, the Saudi initiative, premiered inauspiciously during Operation Defensive Shield, is being re-launched. It offers Israel normal ties with Arab countries in exchange for full withdrawal from all land captured during the Six-Day War, as well as a solution to the refugee question based on UN general assembly resolution 194. It formally accepts the international consensus - embodied in security council resolution 242 - on the desired solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is the only show in town. But what are the chances of its success?” Read on at Comment is Free.

The Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement. Check it out here.

“If you go down to the souk today, you’re in for a big surprise - especially if you thought the concept of slave labour to be nothing more than a shameful, distant memory. Because, in and amongst the colourful stalls selling everything from in-season sabra fruits to knocked-off electrical goods, a silent army of pre-pubescent ghosts hover, earning a pittance by hauling customer’s purchases to their cars for up to 15 hours a day.

These are the Basket Children - so named for the trade they ply, making less than a pound an hour carting heavy loads on the orders of uncompromisingly stern shopkeepers. None of the kids are Jewish, and all of them hail from poor communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Their work is made doubly difficult by the fact that they are illegally employed, making them both liable to arrest and also not covered by anti-exploitation legislation. Their bosses know this, and have no qualms about taking advantage of their predicament. Many of the boys I interviewed spoke of being unceremoniously ripped off by their employers, who frequently withhold their wages or dispute the amount of hours worked by the children.” Read on at Comment is Free.

“Normalisation is the desire to be a country like any other. Israelis are fiends for it. Whatever the circumstances, they see it as their birthright - the final piece in the Zionist jigsaw. Israel’s most virulent critics take the opposite view. Whatever the circumstances, they wish Israel to be made into the exception. And last weekend’s festivities in Tel Aviv, in which the drab goalless draw in Ramat Gan was only a sub-plot, provided the perfect opportunity to further assess Israel’s place in the world.

The match was an unequivocal hasbara success for Israel. For England, this was just another tiresome away game. For Israel, this was one of the biggest games in the country’s history, and a chance to welcome the mythical England supporter - tattooed and bevvied-up, but cheerful and decent all the same. Despite this, most countries tend to greet English fans with fear. The Israeli authorities, however, preferred to adopt Jay-Z’s dictum that sensitive thugs need hugs. English flags were paraded throughout Tel Aviv, supplies of beer were increased dramatically, and free transport was laid on. A special one-day festival was held in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park, with fun and frolics, including a chance for some of England’s fans to see if their beer bellies could defeat their leaner Israeli counterparts in some friendly wrestling.” Read on at Comment is Free.

“Al-Rafah Microfinance Bank, one of the major financial institutions in the Palestinian Authority, is seeking to open branches in Israel, thus becoming the first Arab bank in the world to do so.

Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that the bank’s shareholders have recently appointed Attorney Eitan Liraz to represent the bank in Israel and lead this venture into the Israeli capital market.” Read on here.

Liberty is, to live upon one’s own Terms; Slavery is, to live at the mere Mercy of another and a Life of Slavery is, to those who can bear it, a continual state of Uncertainty and Wretchedness, often an Apprehension of Violence, often the lingering Dread of a violent Death. (Cato’s Letters)

As Passover approaches, Jews ought to think intensively about slavery and liberation. My trip last week to Bethlehem in the company of rabbinical and yeshiva students certainly prompted uncomfortable reflection on these themes. The sojourn was organised by the Encounter Program and included tours of the Separation Wall and villages and farms under threat of confiscation. We saw demolished homes, and the disruption to the economic life of Bethlehem. As a group we were addressed by a local professor of Islam at Bethlehem University, by a Fatah member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) for Bethlehem, and by the Christian deputy mayor of Beit Sahour, whose daughter was killed by the IDF in a botched hit on Hamas gunmen. The picture we were given was one-sided, but not unreasonably so: it comprised an eloquent demonstration of what one might call the moderate Palestinian case against Israel. Continue Reading »

“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hopes to mobilize the world’s brainpower to solve one of its most troubling problems: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

MIT officials are inviting individuals or teams from any country to participate in its “Just Jerusalem” competition. The contest aims to find a way to make Jerusalem just, peaceful and sustainable by 2050 so that Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in a city both consider their capital.

The school will accept entries between March 31 and Dec. 31, The Boston Globe reported. MIT will announce the winners next March.” Read on here.

“I am a Zionist because of my reading of Jewish history and oppression. I want the Jewish people to survive and thrive. Historians have counted the number of Jews living in the Roman empire two thousand years ago and, using demographic analysis of the people with which we lived throughout the centuries, postulated that there should be 250 to 300 million Jews in the world. However, there are approximately 14 million of us now. Genocide, forced conversion, and oppression have dwindled our numbers. I do not believe that Zionism is supposed to mean the end of the Diaspora or that Zionism is the natural culmination of our history. However, a homeland at peace with its neighbors would allow the Jewish people to flourish.” Read on at Engage.

“Civil rights groups have demanded that the attorney general lay down rules to restrict the activities of the Shin Bet security services against the Arab community and its political groups.

The Shin Bet has declared that it intends to disrupt the activities of any groups that seek to change the Jewish or democratic character of Israel, even if they use democratic means.” Read on here.

“This weekend Manchester and London bore witness to four more knife murders. Communities minister Ruth Kelly was quick to reassure the public that these were all “isolated instances”. Whilst she is no doubt correct that these are not gang-related attacks, that they are isolated is anything but reassuring. The violence, which, as Jackie Ashley wrote this morning, has the appearance of being on the increase, and the very fact that it seems to be indiscriminate and unmotivated, is a chilling indication of the kind of society that many city-dwelling British youths now inhabit - a rampantly individualistic society, in which each boy does everything he can to prove that he has no sense of morals or attachment to the society around him.” Read on at Comment is Free.