Social justice. Israel.  Two issues that deeply engage and spark action in the Jewish community, yet are kept apart in our institutions and, for many of us, in our own lives and activism.

Why is it so hard to talk about Jewish social justice and Israel? Are the two issues incompatible? Does separating them from each other impact our communities and our own identities?

This open, non-political, facilitated dialogue will enable you to meet and wrestle with this subject with a wide variety of other young social and Israel activists.
Leave your mark.

For more information, visit www.nif.org/leaveyourmark.

This event is brought to you by Makom and New Israel Fund, with the following co-sponsors:

Hilltop 26 is the name of an illegal settlement outpost atop a tranquil, windswept hill just outside Kiryat Arba, in the southern West Bank. From its top, one can see the red roofs of the Jewish settlement to the south and, in the distance, the outskirts of the holy city of Hebron. Over the past two months, adolescent settlers from Kiryat Arba have built a structure atop Hilltop 26 that they use as a clubhouse for eating, studying and hanging out. Although Hilltop 26 was dismantled in 1999, it has been consistently inhabited by settlers, whose ultimate aim is for it to be incorporated into the settlement of Kiryat Arba. Despite being classified by the Israeli government as an “illegal outpost,” Hilltop 26 is actively protected by the Israel Defense Forces.

In this time of heightened discussion regarding Israeli settlement expansion, a topic that figured prominently in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Barack Obama earlier this week, the conversation often centers on the challenge of removing settlers from settlements and outposts. This focus is misleading. Instead, attention should be drawn to how the IDF is both actively and passively involved in the creation and maintenance of outposts throughout the territories, as the body implementing decisions on the ground. Ta’ayush, the Arab-Jewish partnership group based in Jerusalem, has been documenting the expansion of illegal outposts throughout the southern West Bank.

Read More: HAARETZ - Birth of a Settlement

Last summer, the Israeli government announced a new effort to “rebrand” the country in the eyes of the world, and it hired a prominent British public relations firm to help out. In addition to various forms of cultural outreach designed to highlight Israel’s achievements, this effort included having a men’s magazine publish a photo spread of several women from the IDF (including the former Miss Israel) in various fetching poses, a decision that didn’t go over all that well back in Israel itself. You can read all about it here, here, or here.

The Gaza operation, the sham peace process, and the recent election of the Netanyahu/Lieberman government aren’t making the “rebranding” effort any easier, of course. And if you want to know why this new hasbara campaign isn’t likely to work, start by reading English journalist and military historian Max Hastings’s sobering account, published last week in the Guardian. Drawn from an appearance in Balliol College’s Leonard Stein lecture series, Hastings recounts his own evolution from an enthusiastic cheerleader for Israel to a disillusioned critic who strongly supports Israel’s existence but openly opposes many of its present policies. Where once he “loved those people, and boundlessly admired their achievement,” he now describes himself as “one of those foreigners who progressively fell out of love with Israel.” I know the feeling.

The problem, as Hastings makes clear, is the reality of the occupation and the brutal treatment of the Palestinians that goes hand-in-hand with it. This situation can’t be disguised by more energetic public relations efforts. There are too many video cameras and human rights groups documenting Israel’s actions — including Israeli groups like B’tselem. There are too many bloggers willing to write about the conflict from varying perspectives, and too many scholars and journalists like Hastings — plus a growing number in the United States — who no longer accept the outdated image of Israel as a plucky and virtuous David facing a looming and bloodthirsty Arab Goliath. That image was easy to sell in 1948, perhaps, and it remained fairly convincing after the Arab states offered the infamous “Three Nos” at the 1967 Khartoum summit. But it’s a much tougher sell after Lebanon in 1982 and 2006, after Gaza in 2008-2009, and after the Saudi and Arab League peace proposals in 2002 and 2007 don’t even elicit an official response from Jerusalem.

Israel’s achievements over the past sixty-one years are undeniable, and the officials responsible for the rebranding campaign won’t have any trouble finding artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs to write feel-good stories about. But the dark side of the story won’t go away — 40-plus years of an increasingly brutal occupation, the construction of the apartheid wall (or if you prefer,”separation fence”), much of outside the 1967 borders, thousands of dead Palestinian civilians, a series of failed wars since 1982, and the repeated squandering of genuine opportunities to make peace. And every year the number of settlers grows. I don’t hold Israel solely responsible for this tragedy, but they are neither powerless nor blameless.

Read More: FP - Why “Rebranding” Israel, Won’t Work

J Street Is Leading Pro-Israel PAC, Filings Show, Though Year-Old Group Has Attracted Criticism

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 17, 2009

When a group of Jewish liberals formed a lobbying and fundraising group called J Street a year ago, they had modest hopes of raising $50,000 for a handful of congressional candidates.

Instead, the group’s political arm ended up funneling nearly $600,000 to several dozen Democrats and a handful of Republicans in 2008, making it Washington’s leading pro-Israel PAC, according to Federal Election Commission expenditure records. Organizers say 33 of the group’s 41 favored House and Senate candidates won their races.

“It certainly exceeded our expectations,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s executive director. “We didn’t know what level of success we would have. But we think this is a message whose moment has come.”

Riding alongside the ascent of President Obama and other liberal Democrats, J Street blends old-style politicking with a media-savvy approach aimed at altering the U.S. political debate over Israel and other Middle East issues.

The group bills itself as the “political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement” and argues that the debate over Israel in the United States has tilted to the right despite the liberal sympathies of most Jewish Americans. J Street supports a “two-state solution” for Israel and the Palestinians and generally favors diplomacy over military force, according to its Web site and statements.

Read More: WP - New Liberal Jewish Lobby Quickly Makes Its Mark

Hebrew schools have long discouraged American Jewish children from thinking critically about Israel. This Passover season, it is time for a change.

“Pot rabbi has higher calling.”

So screamed a New York Post headline on Aug. 19, 2005. In the leafy suburbs north of New York City, Rabbi Steven Kane, the longtime spiritual leader at Congregation Sons of Israel, had been arrested for driving under the influence. Police found nearly an ounce of marijuana in the clergyman’s possession.

In Briarcliff Manor, a wealthy enclave organized almost entirely around child-rearing, Kane’s predicament became the talk of the town. In a world where cars are a frequent 16th-birthday present, many parents lived in constant fear of high school students driving while impaired. After the arrest, it was hardly unreasonable for congregants to question Kane’s fitness as a moral leader. Several community meetings were held to discuss the rabbi’s future. “People listen to what a rabbi says and does,” one disgruntled former congregant told the New York Times. “When you have that position in the community and you get arrested while driving under the influence, it really throws a wrench in the standing you have in the community. Those are really poor choices you are making.”

I knew Rabbi Kane. I grew up attending his synagogue, spending several hours a week there at Hebrew school, supplemental Torah study, and then, for a short time, participating in a Jewish teen youth group. Rabbi Kane blessed me at my bat mitzvah ceremony, placing his large hands on top of my head and chanting over me in Hebrew: “May she find favor before God and people everywhere. And let us say: Amen.”

Read More: AMERICAN PROSPECT - The Questioning Spirit

As a progressive Jew, I find myself compelled in part by Spencer Burger’s column in last week’s edition of the Maroon to point out the all-too-frequent polarization of debate about the Israeli-Arab conflict. What he and, by extension, the Chicago Friends of Israel (CFI), in addition to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), argue, sometimes tacitly, sometimes explicitly, is that the other organization always uses “propaganda” and “demagogues” to support their views and that one’s opinion on the conflict must fully align with one of the groups’ positions. This tone of discourse is pernicious and virulent and undermines any hope of respectful, constructive dialogue. I aim to express an alternate point of view shared by many others, one that does not so much stand in opposition to the CFI and SJP as it stands in favor of a pragmatic and peaceful approach to constructive dialogue about the issue.

What the CFI and SJP both fail to acknowledge is that like any contentious issue, constructing a false dichotomy in the conflict is both disingenuous and dangerous. Faced with the choices available on campus, a student might conclude that a “pro-Israel message” (part of the mission statement of CFI) and “justice in Palestine” are mutually exclusive. This conclusion is counterproductive and regrettable, to understate. In fact, there exists rampant extremism on all sides of the issue. For every Mads Gilbert or Hamas, there is an Alan Dershowitz who advocates the wholesale destruction of Palestinian villages or an Avigdor Lieberman who calls for Arab Israelis to sign forced loyalty oaths to Israel as a Jewish state (a plan The Economist called “unabashedly racist”). Criticism of rival organizations for their choices of panelists is therefore fundamentally flawed if it is not accompanied by denouncement of the extremism to which one might be more sympathetic.

Read More: UofC MAROON - Between bias and a hard place

I have exciting news - In the next month, UPZ will join forces with J Street, the political arm of the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace movement!

Together, we will be able to build a strong, well resourced student movement that will be part of the J Street family of organizations.

The new structure will do a lot for our efforts to amplify the voice of progressive students interested in a reasoned debate on campus about what is best for Israel’s security, peace with the Palestinians, U.S. policy toward the Middle East as well as the Israel debate here in America.

Click here to make a gift of $15 to help us hire 2 new campus organizers for the East and West Coasts.

From a small startup launched by Meretz USA, Ameinu, Habonim Dror and Hashomer Hatzair back in the fall of 2004, the UPZ now has a presence on over 15 campuses across the country, with additional programming reaching nearly 25 other colleges and universities. We’ve made significant headway over the years to empower pro-peace students on college campuses nationwide and we couldn’t have done it without your support.

As we proceed through this transition, we will need a new name and we want your input! If you have an idea for a new name, please send us your suggestions to info@upzshalom.org. The lucky person who suggests the best idea will win a t-shirt emblazoned with our new name.

J Street has already had, in one year, a real impact on the landscape of American policy, politics and communal debate when it comes to Israel and the Middle East and together, we’ll be able to expand our efforts on campus in a bold new way.

Click here to make a gift of $15 to help us hire 2 new campus organizers.

Thanks for being here with us from the start and we hope you’ll join us as we march forward.

In Peace,
Tammy Shapiro

WASHINGTON — On its one-year anniversary, J Street, the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement, announced today that it will be launching a campus outreach program in the fall. The J Street family of organizations, which already includes a 501(c)(4) lobby and a legally independent political action committee, JStreetPAC, will add a charitable arm later this month that will sponsor campus organizing and other educational programming.

“For too long, college campuses have been the scenes of shouting matches rather than constructive and healthy dialogue about what best serves Israel’s and America’s interests,” said J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami. “Faced with the polarization on campus over Israel, students are tuning out and disconnecting from Israel and the Jewish community. J Street’s campus program will provide space for students who support Israel but still want to debate openly and freely the hard questions surrounding the conflict.”

In its first year, J Street has attracted over 105,000 online supporters, while its legally independent PAC raised more than $578,000 in contributions for 41 endorsed candidates this past cycle.

The new J Street educational arm will build on and expand the program started by the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ), a network of student activists across the country. The student group will promote pro-Israel advocacy on college campuses, with a focus on achieving a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution. UPZ already has a presence on over 15 campuses across the country, with programming reaching close to 40 campuses. J Street plans to increase the program dramatically starting in the 2009-2010 academic year.

“We have been able to accomplish quite a bit over the past few years with limited resources, but this new partnership presents an opportunity to expand our efforts in exciting new ways,” said UPZ Executive Director Tammy Shapiro. “UPZ’s activists and leadership are excited to join J Street in its mission to broaden the debate on campus and beyond about what is really best for the U.S. and Israel’s future.”

Click here to see the press release on J Street’s website.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians will not restart peace negotiations with Israel until its new government accepts a two-state solution.

The Palestinian Authority president, speaking Sunday during a visit to Baghdad, also said that Israel would have to stop building in West Bank settlements and remove roadblocks in order to resume talks.

Abbas’ Baghdad visit is the first by a Palestinian leader since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. It is a first step in improving ties between the Palestinian leadership and the government of Iraq. Palestinians had good relations with ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

Some 15,000 Palestinians live in Iraq, according to the United Nations — less than half the number that lived there under Hussein, when they received preferential treatment. Many reside in refugee camps, where they fled during the violence following Hussein’s ouster.

Read More: JTA - Abbas: No Negotiations Until Two States Accepted

Listen Here: CT - Kobi Skolnick joins ALLMEP’s Avi Meyerstein and Parent’s Circle’s Aziz Abu Sarah on Radio