Seven Stunning Facts I Learned Visiting Israel
I recently returned home from an unforgettable two-week trip to Israel with the Young Jewish Conservatives. We spoke to members of the Israeli Knesset and Foreign Ministry, we traveled to places such as Hebron and Sderot that most American tour groups do not visit. Some lessons I found worth sharing:
1.) “Save a Child’s Heart”, is an Israeli charitable organization that performs pediatric heart surgery for non-Jewish children in desperate need of help. Free of charge. Since its inception in 1995, the organization has saved the lives of 3,000 non-Jewish children, 50% of whom came from Gaza, the West Bank, and Iraq.
I asked a member if the organization helps the image of Israel in the Palestinian territories: “We hope so.”
2.) There are only two U.N. refugee agencies in the world. The United Nations Relief and Works Administrations (UNRWA) was created to serve five million Palestinian “refugees” (this figure includes the descendants of the original 500,000 Palestinian refugees from the Israeli War of Independence); it employs 30,000 workers. The UNRWA has never resettled a Palestinian.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created to assist every other refugee in the world; 100 million people have been considered displaced over the last 50 years. It employs 7,000 people, but has resettled tens of millions of refugees.
3.) Many on the Israeli political right do not value the American-Israel relationship, thinking it causes more harm than good (they are not big fans of AIPAC), and they are not just talking about the Obama era. Many of them, including Moshe Feiglin (Netanyahu’s political rival in Likud), think America attaches too many strings to its support. They think America routinely coerces Israel into making one-sided concessions, and Israel needs to become independent of America and more self-reliant in the international arena. Mr. Feiglin told us that he does not care if Romney or Obama wins the election, as Israel can take care of itself.
Gil Hoffman, Chief Political Correspondent of the Jerusalem Post, told us that many on the right in Israel actually want President Obama to be reelected, because he has proven himself to be a failure with regards to the peace process and they therefore are confident Israel will not relinquish any land as long as he is president. Conversely, they fear that Netanyahu would trust a President Romney, which could accelerate the peace process and lead to Israeli concessions. Mr. Hoffman told us: “There is no peace process because of the President of the United States.” For this same reason, many on the Israeli left are worried Obama will win reelection.
4.) Many Arabs in the “occupied” territories actually work in construction for Israeli settlers. According to Rabbi Ben Packer: when settlement construction slows down, Arab employment decreases accordingly.
5.) Many Israelis I spoke to are very bitter about the continued detention of Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy who has been imprisoned in America for 27 years. Many in the Israeli government wanted Shimon Peres to refuse to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama unless Pollard was set free. Moshe Feiglin told us he did not feel like celebrating American independence on July 4 while his “brother” Jonathan Pollard was still imprisoned.
6.) A member of Likud in the Israeli Knesset, Ayoob Kara, makes Bibi Netanyahu look like leftist Jeremy Ben Ami. Mr. Kara is extremely hawkish on matters of Israeli security, and does not believe in a two state solution because “it would cause war.” He believes that Israel “must be strong and must remain Jewish,” and he spearheaded the movement to pass the Israeli allegiance law that the left railed against.
He conveyed his loyalty to Israel by saying: “I would give up all my uncles and brothers for Israel.” He told us that the problem with the Middle East is Islamic fundamentalism, and that this region of the world is not ready for democracy — a critique of the “Arab Spring”.
Mr. Kara’s views are significant because he is not Jewish. He is a Druze Arab, who illustrate by their very existence that Israel is hardly the apartheid country that Jimmy Carter and other leftists claim.
7.) Out of the 120 member Israeli Knesset, a record 16 are currently not Jewish, including Haneen Zoabi, who was on the Gaza Flotilla. Despite participating in an act of war against her country, she still remains in office. Israel bends over backwards to protect its minorities, even those who are enemies.
Israel is a real country with a working democracy (only a minority of “countries” today can claim this). Treat Israel as an adult, not a child (US policymakers do the opposite). As for Mr Pollard, send him back to Israel when he has served out his (life) sentence.
I am an Israeli and the author of this piece is quite perceptive. Most of what he says is dead on.
About Druze Arabs, they serve in the IDF and, if anything, are more trusted than the average soldier as comrades by other soldiers. I myself have a druze commander on reserve duty. If I had to choose one man to trust my life to, it would probably be him.
About UNRWA and the UN: there is a saying in Israel, coined by the Israeli satirist Efraim Kishon over 50 years ago: “he’s as useless as a UN observer”.
1) If there are too many strings attached then go find a different and better offer from someone else. Otherwise it sounds like my daughter whining “It’s not fair!”
2) Jonathan Pollard can rot in prison. If Israelis don’t like that then tough – he broke the law.
Israel is more than welcome to flip us the finger and go it’s own way. But if you accept the package don’t whine about the strings attached.
Re: nos 1,4, qnd 7; they will not receive coverage as they do not fit the narrative.
As regards Pollard; he accepted the risks when he accepted the job. Sort of like a boxer complaining the other boxer keeps hitting him.
About Pollard, Israelies think he served enough — nearly 30 years. The point isn’t that he’s innocent, but the disproportionality of the continued punishment. You know who, by the way, is the strongest group AGAINST releasing Pollard? You guessed it — US Jews, or rather their leadership (not the average US Jew), who are so scared of being accused of “dual loyalty” that they will let him rot in prison.
One point in favor of Pollard is that unlike Ames, for example, his treason did not cause any Americans to die. He gave Israel information it needed but not (unlike those who spied for the USSR or similar countries) information that caused the death or arrest of American spies abroad. Treason? Absolutely. But he served almost 30 years, for a crime that didn’t cause the death of anybody, and I think that’s enough.
Pollard has been punished more than any other spy in recent U.S. history, far out of proportion to what others have served. And, as noted, his wrongs did not lead to U.S. deaths. He admits his own guilt, as do his supporters, but it’s the severity of the sentence that is unbelievably asinine. For those clamoring for him to remain in jail for life, do you want the same for the others that were given but a few years for worse crimes? If so, fine, but I don’t see you screaming for longer sentences for the other spies against the U.S, including those that caused much graver harm. Hell, right now, someone in the White House is leaking damaging stuff, so damaging that even the leftist Senator Feinstein is railing against the leaks.
As to those who also say that Israel should quit whining about U.S. interference….”Israel” is not a monolithic country, politically, any more than the U.S. is…there are differences of opinion, and that’s all this is saying. There are those in Israel who WOULD like to get away from the U.S., while the government still has not, though that IS changing, as the Israeli government has reached out to other countries as it feels it cannot trust the U.S. under Obama. So, Earl, they are following your brilliant advice.
Hey, remind me again … what was the name of that US Navy ship that the Israeli Air Force bombed the crap out of, injuring American sailors? And Israel was never held to account?
Remember that?
Apparently not.
Here. Let me help you out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
Read the head count on the dead. Then get back to me, pal. RSN, ok?
That’s right. The name of the ship was “Liberty”.
Funny that, huh? Yuk Yuk.
The Liberty, favorite target of whining idjits, was passing intelligence directly to the Egyptian Military.
Now, which treasonous party- State Dept. or Democratic- was giving the orders?
(Sigh)
Not this nonsense again. It was a case of friendly fire (as they all say, “friendly fire isn’t”). A military SNAFU where information from one Israeli unit (recognizing the ship as American and breaking off the attack) didn’t get in time to the next unit (which still believed the ship was Egyptian).
Oh, forgot the link:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/liberty1.html
Israel officially apologized and paid reparations. As it should have, since it screwed up. But between this and a deliberate attack there is a huge difference.
Using the “logic” of the original poster, Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur were all traitors who were “never held to account” because they all commanded forces that, in some cases, fired on each other and killed each other. The best explanation is still the simplest one: SNAFUs happen in war, and “friendly fire isn’t”.
By the way: why is it that a military screw up from 45 years ago somehow “proves” Israel is an evil US enemy, while claiming thousands of American dead from Islamist attacks somehow shows Islam is unfriendly to the USA is “Islamophobia”?