Feb. 7: "Pre-Occupied: Myths About Israel & International Law" with Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich

News of an upcoming program, on Thursday, February 7.  Hope you will plan to attend!  Question & Answer session to be included.

 

 

 

Distributed by jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

 

Amb. Oren: Jewish apartment complexes aren't preventing peace - Palestinians' refusal to negotiate is

Back in 2005, Israel uprooted all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, evicting their 9,000 residents, in order to advance peace. But in the seven years since, Israel has been targeted by nearly 9,000 terrorist rockets from Gaza. Clearly, settlements are not the reason. Rather, it is our enemy’s determination to deny the Jewish people the right to independence in our ancestral homeland. – Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren

Stop scapegoating Israeli settlements 

Jewish apartment complexes aren't preventing peace — Palestinians' refusal to negotiate is

By Michael Oren / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 4:15 AM

RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS

Apartments are seen in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim near Jerusalem.

Back in 2005, Israel uprooted all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, evicting their 9,000 residents, in order to advance peace. But in the seven years since, Israel has been targeted by nearly 9,000 terrorist rockets from Gaza. Clearly, settlements are not the reason. Rather, it is our enemy’s determination to deny the Jewish people the right to independence in our ancestral homeland.

That is why Palestinian Arabs fought for decades to prevent the establishment of Israel in 1948 and why, over the next 20 years, Arab armies tried to destroy us — before there was a single settlement. That, and not the settlement issue, was why the Palestinians turned down Israeli offers of statehood in the West Bank and Gaza in 2000 and 2008.

And that is why last month, Hamas in Gaza launched yet more rockets at Israel, and why the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority refused to negotiate with us for the past four years. Instead, it unilaterally declared sovereignty in a UN General Assembly resolution that denied any security for Israel or recognition of it as a Jewish state.

Israel, for its part, recognizes the Palestinians as a people who could have a state if their leaders agreed to sit with ours and work out the complex issues between us. One of those issues is borders, and it includes the settlements, which have created — to use President Obama’s words — “new demographic realities on the ground.”

Those realities include Jerusalem neighborhoods built after 1967, home to more than half of the city’s Jewish residents and only a few minutes’ drive from downtown. Successive Israeli governments have insisted that Jerusalem remain Israel’s united capital. “I know that this is a difficult issue for Palestinians,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint meeting of Congress in 2011. “But I believe with creativity and goodwill, a solution can be found.”

Then there are the West Bank settlements. These communities provide strategic depth to our borders which, before 1967, were as narrow as 8 miles across. But the West Bank — Judea and Samaria — is also the birthplace of our people, our tribal lands. The West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Hebron and Jericho appear in the Bible, but Haifa in modern Israel does not.

The settlements reflect the right of a people to live in its homeland. We are willing to qualify that right — painfully — if the Palestinians agree to live with us in peace.

Still, all of the settlements account for a very small percentage of the West Bank. Most of them are concentrated in blocs that have become suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Everyone — Americans, Israelis and Palestinians — understands that these blocs will always remain part of Israel, even if a Palestinian state is negotiated.

All of the building recently approved by the Israeli government was in Jerusalem and these blocs. So, too, were the preliminary plans for construction in the area known as E1, which were approved last week.

E1 is a stretch of desert, less than 2 miles long, connecting Jerusalem to its suburb of Maaleh Adumim, home to 40,000 Israelis. Every Israeli prime minister in the past 40 years, including Ehud Olmert and Yitzhak Rabin, has planned to build in E1 in order to prevent Maaleh Adumim’s isolation.

That construction will not, as the Palestinians claim, divide the West Bank. Just look at a map: E1 in no way obstructs Palestinian Ramallah’s access to Jericho and Bethlehem. In a negotiated two-state solution, short tunnels under E1 can also connect Ramallah with the Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

In his congressional address, Netanyahu acknowledged that “some settlements will end up beyond Israel’s borders” after a genuine peace agreement. Israel is committed to achieving that goal, and settlements will not be an obstacle. Together with Obama, whose support for Israel’s right to defend itself and demand for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks has been unswerving, we stand ready to do the difficult work of peacemaking.

Even today, after all the terrorist rockets and denial of our rights, we remain at the negotiating table, waiting for the Palestinians to join us.

Oren is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/stop-scapegoating-israeli-settlements-article-1.1217232#ixzz2Em8XZyvz

 

 

 

U.S. SENATE CALLS FOR CUBA’S IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE OF ALAN GROSS

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 6, 2012

Contact: Garrette Silverman (Moran) – 202-224-6521

Sue Walitsky (Cardin) – 202-224-4524

 

U.S. SENATE CALLS FOR CUBA'S IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE OF ALAN GROSS

Resolution passes just after 3rd Anniversary of Alan Gross' arrest in Cuba

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution (S. Res. 609) introduced by U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and co-sponsored by 30 of their Senate colleagues, calling on Cuba to immediately and unconditionally release Marylander Alan Gross. This is the first time Congress has taken the step of passing a resolution condemning Mr. Gross' arrest and calling for his release. The resolution, introduced on the 3rd Anniversary of Mr. Gross' arrest in Havana, Cuba, also urges the Cuban government to address Mr. Gross' medical issues.

 

"The U.S. Senate stands united in the position that Alan Gross should be immediately and unconditionally released so he can return home for medical treatment and to support his family. Enough is enough. The Cuban Government continues to demonstrate why bilateral relations between our two countries remain frozen. Alan and his family should no longer be forced to suffer the consequences of political gamesmanship," said Sen. Cardin.

 

"The Senate's passage of this resolution sends a loud and clear message to Cuba: it is past time for Alan Gross to come home," Sen. Moran said. "For more than a decade, I have worked to open Cuban markets to American agriculture. This year, however, I stepped back from these efforts because the Cuban government has a responsibility to cooperate with the United States on the unjust detention of Alan Gross. The path to improved America-Cuba relations has always been difficult, but it is that much more difficult and unlikely until Cuba lets Alan come home."

 

"I am so grateful for this extraordinary outpouring of support from the U.S. Senate," said Judy Gross, wife of Alan Gross. "I know that with its strong support, I am one step closer to bringing Alan home."

 

Alan Gross was arrested on December 3, 2009, and after a two-day trial, was given a 15-year prison sentence by Cuban authorities for facilitating communications between Cuba's Jewish community and the rest of the world. Mr. Gross was in Cuba working as a sub-contractor for the United States Agency for International Development, helping a small, peaceful, non-dissident community. He was doing the type of work he had done his whole career in international development – helping others in need.

 

A 63-year-old husband and father, Mr. Gross has lost more than 100 pounds since his arrest and suffers from severe degenerative arthritis that affects his mobility, as well as other health problems. The Cuban Government has denied requests by Mr. Gross for an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing. Members of his family have also faced serious illnesses during this time.

 

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JCRC Statement to Legislators working on budget cuts: Keep the needy in mind. 12/2/2012

Statement from the JCRC/ Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines

 

The JCRC knowing that hard decisions need to be made and in keeping with the prophetic directive of the Jewish tradition to care for the poor and to feed the hungry, urges decision makers in this year of budgetary difficulty to do their utmost to remember and support those who are hungry and in need in our communities, especially children, as they consider ways to reduce local, state, and federal budget deficits.   (December 2, 2012)

 

Including representatives from Jewish communities throughout Iowa, the Jewish Community Relations Commission (JCRC) is the non-partisan, community affairs committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines.   Contact: jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

JCPA: UNGA Vote on Palestinian Non-Member Observer State

For Immediate Release:  November 29, 2012

Contact: Benjamin Suarato, Communications Associate                                                
bsuarato@thejcpa.org; 202-212-6031; 518-810-7225(c)

Symbolic UN Vote is the Wrong Way to Palestinian Statehood

Today’s vote in the UN General Assembly giving the Palestinians status as a non-member observer state was a regrettable distraction from efforts to bring about negotiations with Israel, the only path to legitimate statehood and peace, said the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“We would like to be congratulating and warmly welcoming UN recognition of a Palestinian state; not just as a non-member observer state, but as a full member of the world body. But as Israel, the United States, and the Quartet have asserted time and again, a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only come about through direct negotiations between the parties, not unilateral and symbolic steps at the UN,” said JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow. “We hope that President Abbas - who disregarded pleas from President Obama and others to avoid this counterproductive path - will not seek to take advantage of this new status to continue or expand the diplomatic offensive against Israel. Of particular concern is possible use by the Palestinians of the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice as weapons against Israel. Instead Mr. Abbas should accept Israel's longstanding invitation to negotiate without any preconditions.”  

“Palestinian statehood must be achieved in a way that ensures the security of Israel if there is to be lasting peace and shared prosperity,” said JCPA Chair Larry Gold. “This will be reached at a negotiating table, not in the halls of the UN in New York. In the meantime, as a stable Palestinian partner remains a prerequisite for progress toward peace, we hope Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's promising efforts to create a security apparatus and  successful economy in the West Bank, which can sustain a future state negotiated with Israel, will continue to receive support.”  

JCPA, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 14 national and 125 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.  The JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is a member of JCPA.

 

Distributed by the JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines      jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

 

Dec. 4 Holocaust survivor and author to speak at Temple B'nai Jeshurun 6:30 pm

 Come hear Marion Blumenthal Lazan,  Holocaust survivor and author of  Four Perfect Pebbles,

 

Tuesday,  December 4    6:30 pm – 7:30 pm at Temple B’nai Jeshurun,  51^st Street and Grand Avenue in Des Moines.

 

Marion’s Holocaust story is one of perseverance, determination, faith and hope!

          

 

 

Sponsored by Bankers Trust, the JCRC of the Jewish Federation, and Temple B’nai Jeshurun.

JCRC/Federation condemn terrorist bombing today in Tel Aviv

JCRC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines unequivocally condemn today’s horrific public bus bombing in Tel Aviv.   We stand in solidarity with Israel and her people and reiterate Israel’s right and moral obligation to defend its citizens even as she pursues peace with her Palestinian neighbors.   

Picture: Emergency workers assist victims of today’s bus bombing in Tel Aviv.  <The Israel Project>