| |  | | | August 7, 2005 | 
|  The Human Cost of Israel's Disengagement
Against the background of more than four years of terrorist bloodshed, Israel has initiated its Disengagement Plan in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, both to enhance its security and to put the peace process with the Palestinians back in motion. The plan requires a considerable sacrifice on the part of some 1,700 families, or about 8,000 people, who must leave the homes and livelihoods they have built over the course of several decades. (Israel's Foreign Ministry) Read More.
See also Gaza Pullout: Cooperation or Resistance? by Archie Tse (New York Times) | | AWOL Israeli Soldier Kills Four Israeli Arabs by Ken Ellingwood
A 19-year-old AWOL Israeli soldier opened fire on a bus in the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram in northern Israel on Thursday, killing four people and wounding a dozen others in an attack that Israeli officials quickly labeled Jewish terrorism. The shooter was in turn beaten to death by an angry mob. (Los Angeles Times) Read More.
See also Sharon: "A Reprehensible Act by a Bloodthirsty Jewish Terrorist" (Prime Minister's Office) | |  Digging Deep for Proof of an Ancient Jewish Capital by Steven Erlanger
Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar (pictured) says she has uncovered what may be the fabled palace of the biblical King David. She has uncovered is rare and important: a major public building from around the 10th century BCE, with pottery shards that date to the time of David and Solomon and a government seal of an official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. "This is one of the first greetings we have from the Jerusalem of David and Solomon," said Gabriel Barkay, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University. (New York Times) Read More. |
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|  Conflicts of Interest by Martin Peretz
The Palestinian Authority has so many times obliged itself to Bill Clinton, George Bush, and the Israelis to stop official incitement against Jews and Israel. But the most grotesque and genocide-provoking hatred for the Jewish people and their state continues to flood the official marketplace of what you might not want to call ideas. I've known this for years, and American journalists have known it for years, but it has gone largely unreported. It's not their kind of story because it ruins the story of Palestinian moderation, to which so many reporters, columnists, and editorialists are wed. (The New Republic) Read More. | |  Zionism is in the Eye of the Beholder by Henry Chu
Yisrael Harel says what's at stake in the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip is the very heart of Israel: the Zionist enterprise that brought Jews back to their homeland after centuries of exile. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is having none of that. "I am not prepared to listen to absurd claims that the disengagement from Gaza is the end of Zionism," he countered. The decision to abandon Gaza has called into question long-held beliefs about the meaning of Zionism, the founding ideology that led to Israel's creation as a Jewish state on the land of the ancient Hebrew patriarchs. (Los Angeles Times) Read More. | |  Alone at the Dance by Mortimer B. Zuckerman
The Middle East peace process is hopelessly deadlocked, but the key players pretend otherwise, hoping that wishing will make it so. What everyone knows but doesn't like to admit is that the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, have, once and for all, given in to the gunmen. Sharon plays strong, determined to complete the disengagement. How sad that there is no comparable leader on the other side, someone with a vision of what a Palestinian state might be and with the courage to save the Palestinian Authority from being a fig leaf for an increasingly anarchic terrorist state. (U.S. News) Read More. |
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|  South Korean Terror Victim Wants to Continue Studies at Hebrew U
Seho Chang, a South Korean student who was seriously wounded in the Mt. Scopus bombing three years ago, has not let his misfortune dissuade him from continuing his education in Israel. After the attack, he was unconscious for a month. Following that, he underwent a lengthy period of medical treatment for the burns and internal wounds he suffered. Recently, he received his M.A. degree in "The Bible and Its World" at the Hebrew University. (Jerusalem Post) Read More. | |  Manchester: Israel's Situation Complex, Tense, MCC President Daube Says After Trip by Christine McCluskey
Manchester Community College (CT) President Jonathan Daube says one of his strongest impressions from his recent trip to Israel with other American college presidents is how impossible it is to simplify the complicated situation there. He visited regional, community-college-like institutions like Emek Yezreel College and its president, Aliza Shenhar. Shenhar has spent time in Connecticut and has an honorary degree from the University of Hartford. Last month, she talked about "how higher education represents some students' only and last chance: Nobody should be left outside," Daube recalls. (Journal Inquirer) Read More. | |  Arizona Will Host Israeli Fellow at Hillel by Zach Colick
This year, Hillel will host an Israeli fellow who will work to develop Israeli programs, talk and meet with students about Israel, spread the Israeli and Jewish cause around campus and get students signed up for the Birthright program, a one-time free trip to Israel for Jewish teens. (Daily Wildcat) Read More. | |  MCNY's Students Train in Advanced Security in Israel
17 Metropolitan College of New York students took part in a 10-day training course at the esteemed Israeli Military Industry's Academy for Advanced Security. MCNY students had the opportunity to study with prominent Israeli experts to understand the steps necessary in preparing for both local and national disasters. Specific topics included; inter-agency response to chemical terror, media's response to a national disaster, and the response of medical communities to terrorists attacks and biological threats. (Jewish Press) Read More. | |   Harvard Student Takes Break to Join IDF by Elana Brownstein
20-year-old Harvard student Asher Fredman, would, under normal circumstances, begin his junior year of college this coming fall. Instead, he's chosen to enlist in the Israeli army. "If not now, when?" Fredman said of his decision to take a leave of absence from college. Much to his surprise, Fredman didn't receive any negative reactions from his friends at Harvard, both Jewish and non-Jewish, when he told them of his intention to join the army. (Picture: Fredman protested the massacres in Darfur last March.) (Jerusalem Post) Read More. |
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| Harvard: Ivy League Dialogue by Malka Schaps
Harvard has over 700 alumni in Israel, some of them Americans who have made aliya and some Israelis who have studied abroad, particularly at the Kennedy School of Government and the School of Public Health. Harvard's Business School alumni organization gives an annual leadership award, jointly with the Wharton Business School at University of Pennsylvania. For many olim, the willingness to put up with the hassle of moving to Israel signals some desire to be at the center of the Jewish world, and for us that desire was nurtured at Harvard. Malka Schaps teaches at Bar-Ilan University and is president of the Harvard Club of Israel. (Jerusalem Post) Read More. | |   Ryerson: Different, Yet Similar by Sandie Benitah
Soon after Sept. 11. my class assignment was to write an article about reaction at our school to the terror attacks in the United States. I interviewed the head of the Palestinian student group on campus, but before I did, I set my cellphone ringer to the highest volume so he could hear Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, loud and clear, as he told me about all that is wrong with Zionism. My actions at Ryerson did not change anybody's mind about Israel. We can't help but be impassioned. But I hope that my voice will learn to speak passionate words of truth and hope instead of anger and revenge. (Canadian Jewish News) Read More. | |  Coping with the Campus Intifada by Gil Troy
Has the modern campus become a hostile, anti-Israel environment, where Zionists must fear to tread? To champion Israel on campus effectively, hysterical overreactions are no better than apathy or complacency. Overall, this is actually a golden age for Jews in universities. Yet, amid the sunny reality, ugly anti-Zionist clouds loom. The Columbia and British boycott controversies reflect a broader problem. The Middle East experts' rigid orthodoxy demonizing Israel and glorifying Palestinians has made Israel-bashing a popular professorial pastime. (Jerusalem Report) Read More. |
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|  Ricky Martin Meets with Israeli Consul in NY by Diana Bahur-Nir
Quite a few eyebrows were raised among America's Jewish community last month when popular singer Ricky Martin performed for a group of youngsters in Jordan, wearing a Palestinian kaffiyah. However, the singer met with Israeli Consul to New York Arye Mekel this weekend in an attempt to iron out the difficulties Martin said that in order for him to correct the impression left on the Jewish community. Martin said he plans to perform in Israel as part of his European tour in the Spring. (Ynet-News) Read More. | |  Eilat's International Jazz Festival - August 22-25
For 18 years the Red Sea Jazz Festival has been a success story with international dimensions. Over the years, the Festival has established itself as a unique phenomenon, as the best festival in Israel and as one of the best festivals in the world. The festival will include some 50 concerts, by foreign as well as Israeli jazz bands, playing in "halls" constructed out of sea-containers. (Red Sea Jazz) Read More. |
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|  UCLA/Weizmann Neuroscientists First to Correlate Actual Brain Activity with fMRI Signals
Neuroscientists at UCLA and Weizmann Institute of Science are the first to show a relationship between functional magnetic resonance imaging signals (fMRI), a heavily used research and clinical tool, and actual brain cell electrical activity in humans. The findings appear in the August edition of Science. At UCLA the research team recorded responses of two pre-surgical patients wired with electrodes as they watched a 9-minute clip of the Clint Eastwood movie, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." They then used the data to accurately predict the configuration of fMRI signals measured in 11 healthy subjects as they watched the same clip while lying in a MRI scanner thousands of miles away near Tel Aviv, Israel. (Medical News Today) Read More. | |  Ben-Gurion: Israeli Success in Curbing Hepatitis A to be Model for Other Countries by Allison Kaplan Sommer
When Israeli epidemiologists decided to take a radical new approach to fighting Hepatitis A three years ago, they knew it was a gamble. But their decision to make Israel the first nation in the world to offer free vaccinations to all of its toddlers against the virus has paid off tremendously, with a stunning drop in the incidence of the disease across the country. (Israel21c) Read More. |
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|   Penn: Fleischer Key for U.S. in Jewish Olympics
Penn center Jen Fleischer scored 23 points for the USA as the Americans defeated Israel in the women's basketball gold medal game of the Maccabiah Games, known as the Jewish Olympics. Fleischer led the team in scoring en route to a 78-53 win over the Israeli team. (Daily Pennsylvanian) Read More. | |   Washington at St. Louis: Kressel Gets Chance at Olympic Tryout by Jim Varsallone
Jamie Kressel helped the U.S. women's open softball team win the gold medal at the 17th Annual Maccabiah Games in Israel, and in the process, gave herself a chance to play in the 2008 Olympics. The Israeli coaches were so impressed with the U.S. softball players' dominance that they invited them to try out for the Israeli national team. (Miami Herald) Read More. | |   North Carolina State: Velez Goes Gold Twice
At the Maccabiah Games in Israel, N.C. State senior swimmer Dan Velez set a competition record in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:03.76 to take home the gold medal for the United States. Velez also won a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke and added another gold medal by swimming the breaststroke leg of the United States' 400-yard medley relay. (Technician) Read More. |
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|  The Rise of Captain Marvel by Sheli Teitelbaum
He saved Marvel from bankruptcy, and oversaw the move of its 5,000 comic-book characters from page to screen, and East Coast to West. But as his 'Fantastic Four' break new box-office records, Israeli-raised Avi Arad is still aiming for the stars. Today, the company brings in over half a billion dollars in revenues a year. (Jerusalem Report) Read More. | |  "Nothing Will Prevent My Aliyah" by Miri Chason
Some 200 new immigrants from Canada and the U.S. arrived last week aboard the El Al flight organized by the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization. Among them were Eitan Konstin and Debby Shapira. Konstin, 22, said that initially his parents were not supportive of his aliyah plans. "They offered to buy me a Porsche and give me $100,000. Eventually they understood." Debby Shapira, 23, said she prefers Israeli men. "The American men are missing something, a certain maturity that the Israelis posses," she said. "I would not be surprised if I marry an Israeli." (Ynet News) Read More. |
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More Views on the Gaza Disengagement
| The Demographic Rationale by Yossi Alpher
The only really persuasive and sustainable rationale for the Gaza disengagement is that it begins a process of disentangling Jews and Arabs so as to ensure that Israel remains a Jewish and a democratic state. Those policymakers, mainly in American and Europe, who insist the withdrawal will usher in a new peace process appear to be on shaky ground. Ariel Sharon invoked the withdrawal precisely in order to avoid a new process, which he fears will constitute a slippery slope toward territorial concessions he does not want to make. The withdrawal could precipitate more terrorism, particularly in the form of rocket and mortar attacks, from either Gaza or the West Bank. (New York Jewish Week) Read More.
Giving In To Terror by Naomi Blumenthal
Hamas now has the majority of Palestinian support in the Gaza Strip, and it has been using the so-called cease-fire to rebuild the terrorist infrastructure that we had destroyed by use of targeted killings. We had succeeded in targeting the terrorists who had blood on their hands and who were preparing the next terror attack, whether it was in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or Netanya. The message of our leaving is that we are giving in to terror. We are leaving without getting anything in return. If the goal of the Palestinians had been to build a good society, a democratic society with a developing economy, that would have been good. But this is not the case. As for the Israelis who are now uprooted from their homes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, they are going to face the most difficult time psychologically, economically and socially. Some of them will not recover and they wonder why and for what they are paying this very high price. (New York Jewish Week) Read More. | | The Warfare Continues by Yossi Klein Halevi
The terrorists will present the withdrawal as a victory for terror, part of an arc of withdrawal under pressure that began in Lebanon, extended to Gaza and may well continue on into its next phase, the West Bank. The war, then, will continue. The advantage is that this time, we won't be fighting in Gaza to protect settlements lacking international legitimacy, but Israeli cities. Will that matter for Europe or the United Nations? Perhaps not. But it will matter for Washington and, in the end, that's what matters. If we're heading toward some form of continued warfare with the Palestinians, why give them something for nothing, as Sharon's opponents sensibly ask? The answer, for those of us in the Israeli center who support Sharon, is that the point of unilateral withdrawal is that we are disengaging from a dead-end negotiating process. For the first time we are establishing our own borders, without waiting for Palestinian approval. That, too, is the meaning of the West Bank fence. (New York Jewish Week) Read More.
For Palestinians, Challenge, Fear by Danny Rubinstein
The Palestinians' biggest concern is that the day after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will be a day without continuation. In other words, the concern is that there will be no other such Israeli disengagement, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared. If the day after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the Palestinians do not succeed in winning further land concessions, Mazen's regime and the Fatah movement will deteriorate significantly, Hamas will get stronger and terrorist attacks will increase considerably, especially in the West Bank and Gaza. And what brought this about? The Palestinians have only one explanation: Terror, suicide bombings, and the mortar and Kassam rockets launched at Israeli towns caused the Israeli prime minister to consider withdrawal. For Palestinians, the day after is one in which they will be faced with a challenge - establishing law and order in Gaza. It will also be a day of reconciliation between Hamas and the PA. (New York Jewish Week) Read More. |
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