Time for Plan B for Mideast conflict

Op-ed: Palestinians will never accept any peace plan, no matter how reasonable it seems to Israelis and Americans.

Lawrence J. Epstein for Ynetnews

The quixotic, well-meaning search for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is futile, and it always has been. That statement is not offered as an ideological trumpet call for annexing the West Bank or an emotional cri de coeur. Rather, it is meant to provide a realistic perspective, one needed to see future prospects with clear eyes.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope Secretary Kerry is able to effect a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Most Israeli Jews would welcome a two-state solution that protects Israeli security and provides the Palestinians with a homeland where they can rule themselves. I agree with this view. But, with the best intentions, the most brilliant of plans, and the most earnest willingness to work hard, neither Secretary Kerry nor anyone else will find a way to conclude a peace treaty. That is because the Palestinians will never accept any plan, no matter how reasonable it seems to the Israelis and the Americans.

In 1905, Naguib Azoury , a Maronite Christian, wrote what became the first significant analysis of the Zionist movement from an Arab nationalist viewpoint. The book, commonly called "Le réveil de la nation arabe" ("The Awakening of the Arab Nation"), includes a preamble with an apocalyptic appraisal of Arab-Jewish relations. The awakening Arab nationalism and the Jewish attempt to restore a nation in their ancient homeland were, Azoury claimed, destined to clash permanently until one of the movements permanently defeated the other. Azoury expressed the Arab view openly and perceptively. But his conclusion was simply not believed by the Jews, by the Americans, or by the Europeans.

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The next Kotel battle: Reading from the Torah

By HALLEL ABRAMOWITZ-SILVERMAN for JPost.com

I am a progressive religious liberal Jewish woman and as I go into the army 10 hours from now, these are some of my hopes.

It’s Rosh Chodesh Adar bet and I’m at the Kotel.

I’m joined by family and friends, including one friend who, in her uniform with a gun strapped over her shoulder, and a tallit wrapped around her, danced to the psalms of Hallel.

Thirteen months ago my mother, myself and eight other women were detained by the Jerusalem police for wearing prayer shawls at a similar Rosh Chodesh service. The men and women in their blue uniforms were under orders to strip us of our prayer shawls.

The injustice was so blatant, especially to world Jewry, that after over 24 years of banning women from this practice, the public outcry and the courts finally allowed this most basic of religious practices. This is a huge victory for pluralism and tolerance.

However, on this day, my IDF friend stood by my side and I was honored with a non-aliya to the Torah in honor of my upcoming induction.

Instead of the regular prayer, I sang a makeshift blessing over the siddur from which we read the story of Pinhas.

Pinhas was extreme, he murdered couples to keep the daughters of Israel from intermarrying.

His extremism blinds him to anything outside his passion and point of view. Radicalism is also the story of Purim. Achashverosh decrees the murder of all the Jews in Persia and then, hafuch! – decrees the death of the would-be murderers Haman and his sons. All balance is missing.

Extremism is the reason I didn’t celebrate my army induction with an aliya to an actual Torah at the Kotel. The sliver of Jews who control that place with an iron fist do not allow me, or any woman, to read from a Torah at our holy site.

And it’s extremism that scares me. The religious extremism of Pinhas and the political extremism of Achashverosh.

I am a progressive religious liberal Jewish woman and as I go into the army 10 hours from now, what I hope for is the Sinaitic model of mamlechet Cohanim where we are all called to engage in Torah and the Jewish relationship with God, just as we are all called to protect our nation with the guns we carry in the IDF.

It is not lost on me that my induction to serve the Jewish state coincided with the mass haredi (ultra-Orthodox) demonstration against enlistment.

Half a million men, dressed in their blackand- white uniforms, not only object to donning the green uniform of our country, but also object to my free expression of how I want to serve God and celebrate the New Moon. I hope to be back at the Kotel on Rosh Chodesh as often as the IDF will allow me, but my real hope is that the right of women to read from the Torah will be achieved.

The author is a Honorary International Vice Co-Chair of Rabbi's for Women of the Wall, and she recently drafted to the IDF. She can be followed on twitter at @purplelettuce95.

Netanyahu: Israel Longs for Peace With the Arabs

 Ryan Jones for IsraelToday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday went somewhat outside what some would describe as his “comfort zone” and waxed eloquent about how Israelis long for peace with the Arabs and the benefits that an end to the conflict will bear.

“We all have so much to gain from peace. Peace would be good for us. Peace would be good for the Palestinians,” Netanyahu told the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gathering in Washington. “But peace would also open up the possibility of establishing formal ties between Israel and leading countries in the Arab world.”

The Israeli leader went on to explain that “many Arab leaders – and believe me, this is a fact, not a hypothesis, it’s a fact – many Arab leaders today already realize that Israel is not their enemy, that peace with the Palestinians would turn our relations with them and with many Arab countries into open and thriving relationships.”

“Think of the possibilities,” Netanyahu urged his audience, noting that the “combination of Israeli innovation and Gulf entrepreneurship, to take one example,” could bring about a solution to the region’s water and energy problems and catapult the Middle East forward on the international stage.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu continued, it would seem Israel does not have in the Palestinian leadership a partner that is ready to achieve that glorious future. “President Abbas, recognize the Jewish state and in doing so you will be telling your people the Palestinians … the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own is beyond dispute,” Netanyahu said in a direct plea to the Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority immediately made clear that it does not share Netanyahu’s vision for the future.

In remarks to the AFP, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath called Netanyahu’s speech “an official announcement of a unilateral end to negotiations” and a contravention of the “rules of the peace negotiations.”

Shaath reiterated that the Palestinian leadership would never agree to recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people, nor would it relinquish its quest to flood sovereign Israel with millions of so-called “Palestinian refugees.”

Meanwhile, report circulated that when Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday, the latter promised to put increased pressure on the Palestinians to meet the terms of a new American framework proposal, which includes many of Israel’s conditions for peace.

In seizing Gaza-bound missiles, Israel prevented a game-changer

The Iranian rockets were likely on their way to Islamic Jihad militants, not Hamas, to provide them with a capability to strike greater Tel Aviv.

By Amos Harel for Haaretz

Only one thing went wrong during Israel’s naval raid in the Red Sea Wednesday morning – the timing. It’s easy to imagine that it was slightly disappointing, at least to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Had it taken place during his address to the AIPAC conference in Washington on Tuesday, he really could have gone to town. It was all there in a nutshell, everything Netanyahu has been warning us about for years: Iran, Syria, long-range missiles, the threat in the Gaza Strip. The axis of evil is alive and well, and against all the odds our brave warriors go forth and neutralize these threats far from Israel’s borders.

But the missed PR opportunity need not detract from the significance of the operation itself. Intercepting a ship carrying long-range missiles bound for the Gaza Strip was a first-rate accomplishment, from both the intelligence and the operational perspectives.

In Israel’s ongoing war to keep advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of terrorists, which has included air strikes attributed to Israel near the Syrian and Lebanese borders, this is an impressive success. It would not have been possible without the close coordination of the state intelligence agencies and superb intelligence analysis. Also critical to its success were the excellent operational capabilities of the Israel Navy in general and the elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13 in particular.

Another factor that must be considered is the calculated risk taken by the prime minister, the defense minister and the chief of staff. The Klos-C can be added to the list of boats that were successfully intercepted in the Red and the Mediterranean seas, including Karine A., Victoria and the Francop.

The volume of goods smuggled from Iran to the Gaza Strip has declined down in recent years, a result of naval interceptions and air strikes against weapons convoys in Sudan, attributed in the foreign media to the Israel Air Force.

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IDF Captures Top Hamas Operative in West Bank

From Algemeiner

JNS.org – Israeli soldiers operating in Hebron on Tuesday night arrested Ayyub al-Kawasma, a senior Hamas operative who has been on Israel’s wanted list since 1998, Israel Hayom reported. The joint operation of the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency was carried out by the IDF’s elite Duvdevan unit.

Kawasma, 50, is believed to be a top leader in the Hamas military wing in the West Bank. Formally Israel’s most wanted terrorist, he is alleged to have taken part in organizing numerous terror attacks during the Second Intifada, which caused hundreds of Israeli casualties.

A statement by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that Kawasma, who had been serving time in a Palestinian prison since 2010, was released some two weeks ago and immediately began planning terror attacks against Israel.

According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Kawasma was arrested while attending a family event.

Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip toward Israel on Tuesday night exploded on the Gaza side of the border.

John Kerry Makes No Apologies

Delivers his best speech on Israel to his toughest audience yet

By Yair Rosenberg for Tablet Magazine
John Kerry has come a long way since deciding to take on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as the defining endeavor of his diplomatic career. Tonight at AIPAC, he delivered a ringing and robust defense of his efforts to resolve both the Iranian nuclear threat and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but in a key that even the most skeptical of Israel’s supporters could understand, if not entirely accept. Showcasing the subtle sensitivity to Jewish insecurities he has honed giving interviews to Israeli media, coupled with his familiar stentorian tones, Kerry managed to make his policy points while avoiding the landmines that have bedeviled him and many other diplomats.

He opened with a paean to Israeli and American exceptionalism, calling both democracies “lights unto the nations,” and reassuring the assembled delegates that “as Israel faces significant challenges to her future, it is America who will stand firmly by her side.” Then came the turn to Iran, the greatest source of tension between AIPAC and the current administration. “We will not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon–period,” Kerry avowed, to a standing ovation. Only after catering to the crowd’s comfort zone did Kerry defend diplomacy, with one-liners carefully crafted to dispel any accusations of naivete. “This is not a process about trusting Tehran, it is about testing Tehran,” he said. “And you can be sure that if Iran fails this test, America will not fail Israel.”

Finally, Kerry pivoted to peace. “No one needs to explain the importance of peace and security to a mother who has just sent her daughter to the army,” Kerry said, taking care to avoid the patronizing tone that has often characterized the rhetoric of Western diplomats towards Israel and her supporters. He praised Netanyahu’s “demonstrated” courage and “guts” in pursuit of peace, as well as Palestinian President Abbas’s staunch opposition to violence. And he acknowledged Israel’s fears of being pressured into a deal that would bring a Potemkin peace. “When Bibi looks me in the eye and says, ‘I can’t accept a deal with the Palestinians that doesn’t make the people of Israel safer,’ we agree 100 percent,” Kerry said. “We will never let the West Bank turn into another Gaza.” (Conveniently, he avoided mentioning the words “settlements” or “occupation.”)

For good measure, Kerry then joined the BDS-bashing brigade, unequivocally rejecting the movement calling for blacklisting Israel, and following in the footsteps of AIPAC President Bob Cohen and Sen. Chuck Schumer, who earlier in the evening deemed the BDS movement “a modern form of what we call anti-Semitism.” Kerry piled on: “We must also stand together and with a single voice reject arbitrary and unwarranted boycotts of Israel. For more than 30 years, I have staunchly, loudly and unapologetically opposed boycotts of Israel, and I will continue to staunchly, loudly and unapologetically oppose boycotts of Israel. That will never change.” AIPAC may not have won on Iran, but it’s clear that both the administration and Congress are happy to condemn the highly unpopular BDS movement as a consolation prize.

Kerry closed on a personal note, recalling a visit to Masada many years ago. There, at the urging of his guide, Yadin Roman, Kerry shouted across the desert “Am Yisrael Chai”–the nation of Israel lives–and listened to its echo reverberate across the plain. Both Israel and AIPAC, he said, secure that survival. And peace, he implied, would ensure it.

Documentary on oldest Shoah survivor wins Oscar a week after her death

(JTA) — A documentary about the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor won an Oscar one week after she died.

Alice Herz-Sommer, who died in London on Feb. 23 at the age of 110, was the subject of “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” which won the Academy Award for documentary short on Sunday night.

The Prague-born Herz-Sommer, a concert pianist, was a prisoner in Theresienstadt.

In accepting the Oscar, the film’s director, Malcolm Clarke, said he was struck by Herz-Sommer’s “extraordinary capacity for joy” and “amazing capacity for forgiveness.”