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Coalition Agreement Sets Stage for Moderate Israeli Government
by Robert Berger

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima Party and the dovish Labor party have signed a coalition agreement. It includes a pledge to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank over the next four years. Under Mr. Olmert's plan, about 70,000 Jewish settlers would be removed from their homes. At the same time, Israel would annex big West Bank settlement blocs. Mr. Olmert (pictured with Labor leader Amir Peretz) says he would prefer to do this as part of an agreement with the Palestinians. (Voice of America)

Additional Headlines

"Iran's President on Par with Hitler"

Israeli Satellite to "Spy on Iran"

Secretary Rice: Hamas Must Renounce Violence and Terrorism

U.S.: Hamas, Iran Rekindling Hatred of Jews

Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick used a U.S. Holocaust remembrance Thursday to warn of new efforts by Iran and the militant Palestinian group Hamas to incite hatred of Jews. At a national commemoration at the U.S. Capitol, Zoellick said, "In its response to the recent terrorist Passover bombing in Israel, Hamas continued to justify terrorism and feed hatred. Equally troubling, today the modern Jewish democracy that emerged from the Holocaust faces a new threat from an Iranian leader who denies the very existence of that Holocaust...who threatens to wipe Israel and its people off the map...and who seeks nuclear weapons." (AFP/Yahoo)

It Won't Last
by Danny Rubinstein

The increasing rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, the isolation of the Hamas government in the regional and international arenas and the serious financial crisis the government is facing: All these indicate that this government will not be able to hold on. The more difficult problem is that at the moment there is no sign that anyone will be able to replace it. (Ha'aretz)

Ben-Gurion and Bethlehem: Professors Bridge Mid-East Divide
by Martin Patience

Two university professors aim to change the way the conflict is taught, by exposing Palestinian students to Israeli history lessons and Israeli students to the Palestinian version of history. The project is the work of Dan Bar-On, a social psychology professor at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, a city in southern Israel, and Sami Adwan, an education professor at Bethlehem University in the West Bank. (BBC News)

UC Irvine: Israeli Minority Speaks
by Reut R. Cohen

"I am a proud Israeli citizen," said Ishmael Khaldi. "I am [also] part of the Arab world. Khaldi, an Israeli Bedouin who served as a political analyst for the Israeli Defense Forces and worked with the American Embassy, speaks to thousands of college students around the world concerning the unique relationship of Israeli Bedouins to the state of Israel. "We identify ourselves as Israeli, like every other Israeli." Unfortunately, for the majority of American college students, Khaldi's perspective is a unique one and often ridiculed because it is not the traditional view of the media. (New University Paper)

Brandeis Criticized for Honoring Kushner
by Gabrielle Birkner

Brandeis University is being criticized for its decision to award an honorary doctorate to playwright Tony Kushner, a critic of Israeli government policies. Mr. Kushner, who has called the founding of Israel a "mistake," and has accused the Jewish state of "behaving abominably towards the Palestinian people," is among seven people who are slated to receive honorary doctorates from the Waltham, Mass.-based university, which has Jewish roots but is nonsectarian. (New York Sun)
See also ZOA Criticizes Brandeis Award Pick by Jonathan Krisch (The Hoot)

Cornell: Student Assembly Debates Iran Stance, Resolution Creates Turmoil

After nearly two hours of debate last week, the Student Assembly (SA) decided to table voting on Resolution 29: Resolution Condemning Iranian Nuclear Proliferation until their next meeting on Thursday, May 4. Resolution 29, which has provoked campus-wide petitions and discussions, is proposed by three students: Tim Lim '06, president of the SA, Jamie Weinstein '06, president of Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee and Sun columnist, and Sarah Boxer '07, vice president of publicity for the SA "If the SA passes the resolution, more local officials will be urged to act," said Weinstein. "Iran is the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world, and this effects Cornell." (TMCNet)

Point-Counterpoint - What Is the State of Relations between Israel and American Jewry?

Deeper Than We Know
- Editorial

As the Jewish state prepares to celebrate the 58th anniversary of its independence next Wednesday, May 3, America and Israel are home to the two largest Jewish communities in the world - arguably the most vibrant and powerful Jewish communities the world has ever known. They are different beings, these two communities. One is a sovereign state of enormous vitality and strength. The other is a confident, influential minority within the world's greatest superpower.
For all that, the partnership between them is almost limitless in its potential. Never have cross-border understanding and cultural exchange been easier than in this age of instant communications.
In truth, we do not communicate much. Sometimes we talk, mostly past one another. Sometimes we use each other - American Jews as Israel's best ally, Israel as American Jewry's emotional symbol.
The underlying ties are stronger and more enduring than the surface would suggest. If few American Jews consider Israel central to their Jewish identities, the vast majority feel a kinship.
As we've learned from the experience of Birthright Israel, it doesn't take much a quick, 10-day tour of the Holy Land will do, it seems to awaken something unexpectedly powerful inside most Jews.
Our bonds run deeper than we know. The challenge for the next six decades is to nourish them, and let them nourish us. (Forward)

A New Dialogue with the Diaspora
by Avi Beker

The political changes to the Israeli party map created an enormous gap between the positions of a small group of activists in the Jewish community and the vast majority of the community, and it will take time until the change is fully comprehended there.
Sociologists claimed that Israel had become a kind of "civil religion" for Diaspora Jewry, especially in the U.S. where the activities on behalf of Israel were institutionalized in fund-raising and political lobbying.
Like in Israel, the 1990s were a period of adaptation and uncertainty for the Jews of the Diaspora. The Oslo accords created tension between the leaders of those organizations and the leadership in Israel that was trying to foment political change among American Jews.
The next government will have to prepare the groundwork with elements of the Jewish lobby. On more than one occasion, Israel's friends in Congress have complained that they find it difficult to spot a common denominator in the cacophony of messages they receive from Jewish organizations.
It is vitally important that the dialogue with world Jewry not focus on the "big bangs" of Israeli politics, but rather on the deeper content of contemporary Jewish identity. (Ha'aretz)

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Sunday, April 30, 2006

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