As a proud alumni of the Wingate Institute, a passionate Zionist, and a past student of many of the talented Olympians murdered at Munich, it’s important for me to pay respect to those victims who have shaped me into the passionate and dedicated person I am today.

Forty years ago, today, I was 18 years old, in love with watching and playing sports, and was one of Amitzur Shapira’s trainees. Amitzur was a committed athlete, and an event stronger coach. His passion for seeing his students excel was evident not only for future Olympians, but for all his students. I remember seeing him one week before he left for the games. My class wished him good luck, told him to come back with team medals, and told him that we will be watching his team and cheering loudly. Many of us, including myself, made it a point to tell him to come back ready to train us….we wanted to be Olympians, too! Hugs (and sprints) were exchanged, and he was off… off to see years of coaching pay off.

…September 5th 1972… a morning phone call from a classmate telling me to watch the news, followed by LOTS of conflicting reports… but one thing was certain, a terrorist attack in Munich against the Israeli delegation to the Olympic Games has occurred. The drama unfolded with us glued to the Television, waiting to hear what is happening with the hostages, who the hostages are, and for many of us…is our teacher coming home. We learned about the dreadful truth in the early hours of September 6th. All the hostages had been killed. Amitzur is not coming home. Mourning, shock, and somber took over the State of Israel, and the many students impacted by the victims.

A terrible tragedy, followed by a resilient country who continues to achieve excellence and strength. Such is Israel. Such is our people hood. Amitzur and the rest of the victims continue to touch lives, be remembered, and empower young generations of athletes today. I am truly honored that I had the opportunity to learn from such an incredible and inspiring man. Am Israel Chai. Forever Remembered.

This massacre was not just an assault on the Israeli team, but on the integrity of the entire Olympic Games as a whole.  Members from the terrorist organization Black September scaled the fences at the Olympic village and took Israeli hostages because security was so relaxed at the “Happy Olympics”.  After bargaining for the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners they finally settled for a plane to Egypt.  German officers and snipers were not prepared for the number of terrorists that arrived at the airport and had no way of communicating with one another.  All of the remaining hostages were killed after getting caught in the raid between German authorities and terrorists.  Needless to say this tragedy could have been avoided had security been more organized and the necessary precautions taken.

Ankie Spitzer (a widow of one of the Athletes Andre Spitzer) has been fighting with the IOC for 40 years for the minute of silence.  She has not only attracted over 80,000 signatures for her petition worldwide but has gained the support of Canadian and Australian members of Parliament.  The Zionist Federations together with the Department for Diaspora Activities of the World Zionist Organization are asking you to remember the 11 athletes and trainers and stand on Friday morning July 27^th at 11 am to honor the lives lost.  You can watch the ceremony streamed life on www.zionist.org.uk and on www.iZionist.org/en.

Many are familiar with the new TV show called The Voice that has quickly gained popularity in the United States.  The show has also become a fast hit in Israel and other countries around the world.  The Voice consists of a panel of four famous judges sitting with their back to the stage as they listen to blind auditions and fight for the artists they want on their teams.  With each passing round artists from each team are eliminated until finally one winner is left standing.  But does it really matter how much talent each contestant actually has?  It seems to me that most of these vocal star shows are similar in that the winner isn’t and doesn’t necessarily go on to be the most successful, but can simply be marketed to the public.

Popular Israeli musical artists, Aviv Geffen, Sarit Hadad, Shlomi Shabat and Rami Kleinstein, judged the contestants singing abilities, while Michael Aloni hosted the program. During the blind audition, Reiter’s singing abilities were considered to be so exemplary that she even got Kleinstein to stand up and dance while she was singing.  It remains to be seen whether or not Israel’s The Voice Season 1 Winner Kathleen Reiter makes the most of her new found fame and can successfully break into the music business.  It has been proven time and time again that in the American equivalents of The Voice Israel such as programs like American Idol many non winners have gone on to become even more successful than those who took home first place.  While winners of American Idol such as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have stayed in the limelight other winners from later seasons such as Fantasia Barrino and Kris Allen have faded into the background.  Stars like Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert who were put on the map by American Idol have gone on to receive record deals and acting jobs despite the fact they didn’t claim the title.  It will be interesting to watch for other Voice Israel contenders Tzachi Halevi, Raz Shmueli, and Chanan Ben Simon to see if the show was enough to fire up their careers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkxQpstHR4

This is not a clarion call for the Jewish community to wake up and smell the politically conservative flowers. Rather, it is a call for our community to recognize that Progressive Jews are right on Israel and wrong regarding their critique of the Jewish community.

Israel is not perfect and, it is my opinion that the Jewish Progressives are 100% right that this fact should not be hidden from inquiring minds. Whether on Arab-Israeli’s, women’s, and religious rights, Israel has a lot of space for growth. Many Progressive Jews want an Israel that is Jewish and democratic, and maintains separation between Synagogue and State. This is a noble, commonsense, and tricky aim. But it is not dissimilar from many nations in the West, such as England, which is Anglican, democratic, and maintains the freedom of conscience for all. Nor is it all together removed from the culturally Christian liberal democracy we enjoy in the US.

Regarding Judaea and Samaria, the Progressive Jews are equally correct. By example Israel has taught three generations of Palestinians what democracy looks like. When polled on which form of government they would model theirs on, Palestinians overwhelmingly choose Israel. Yet, since 1967, Israel has alternated its control between mixed military rule incorporating archaic Ottoman, Jordanian, and Israeli law with terrorist gangs from Tunis it empowered to rule in its stead. Arab onslaught against Israel and politics aside, the American Jewish community should not condone a legal regime we would balk at living in and which bears a striking and unfortunate resemblance to apartheid.

While Progressive Jews are right on Israel, they are wrong on the American Jewish community. Jewish Progressives and organizations such as JStreet constantly and consistently state that they represent the silent majority of American Jews and that they have been left without a place at the Jewish community table. Yet the majority of American Jews are uninformed, unaffiliated, and tuned out. To claim this lack of engagement as a default endorsement of one side is the definition of chutzpah. The majority of American Jews remain outside the AIPAC vs. JStreet debate because they do not know the Jewish communities nuances, its internal political debates – indeed they barely know about the Jewish community at all, let alone Israel.

Juxtaposed accusations that the mainstream Jewish community is silencing the “Israel conversation” is the fact that mainstream Jewish communal organizations such as Federations, Hillels, Moishe Houses, JCC’s, Synagogues, and many others have all fostered a community of inclusion. These and other Jewish organizations have hosted speakers and events that include Breaking the Silence, the New Israel Fund, JStreet, and public intellectuals critical of Israel such as the late greats Tony Judt and Christopher Hitchens.

As if there is a hidden right wing nationalist conspiracy behind each corner, Progressive Jews exclaim “J’accuse!” and seem to expect some heretofore unrevealed hidden document proving that they are in fact the silent majority and treated like a persecuted minority. They impugn the integrity of a community that has repeatedly proven its commitment to diversity and pluralism in order to silence detractors.

That they can not understand that not everyone in the organized Jewish community shares their views speaks volumes.

Supporting, through financial commitment, socio-political movements towards freedom in Israel is to be applauded. Bringing Israel’s and the Jewish people internal policy disputes to the halls of Congress is inexcusable. The debate over how we can improve Israel, our ancient homeland, and the Jewish people, is a very different discussion from what, as American citizens, our policy goals should be regarding our nation’s friend and ally Israel. There is one legislative body already dealing with the internal Israeli political issues from a government perspective – the Knesset. All American Jews who wish to pressure government rightward or leftward on Israel should and can make aliyah and vote.

As someone who is politically involved, I am well aware of the allure of attack tactics aimed at gaining concession and/or discrediting ones opposition. It is as unhealthy for the Jewish community as it is in the larger American political arena when we elevate talking points and sound bytes, ignoring basic facts and civility. Whether it is an attack on someone for being critical of Israel or accusing the Jewish community of exclusivity because not every Israel board includes a representative of JStreet, it is unacceptable and frankly juvenile.

Moreover, even where one to disagree that these are jejune cat calls (they are) or real issues (they are not), the Jewish community should recognize that these side shows distract us all from the real goal of engaging the unengaged and reaching out to develop a full bodied, complex, deep and meaningful connection with Israel for all American Jews.

Ishmael Khaldi was the first Bedouin in Israel’s foreign service. He has served as Israel’s deputy consul general in the US Pacific Northwest and has been Middle East and Arab affairs adviser for Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman since August 2009.  He has recently been appointed the Counsellor for Civil Society Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in London.

To read the full post, please visit http://www.thecommentator.com/

It’s in times like this when I’m tempted to think that I could live like this forever. I could soak up the rays and eat delicious food with no cares. Sitting on this mountaintop, I could spend the next (God willing) 96 years in perfect comfort. Even though I’ve been able to relax and enjoy myself, I know that this is a life I never really could allow myself to live, when my comfort comes while others suffer. This wealth and privilege that I enjoy is something that so many in this world could never even imagine. Whether it be abused workers at FoxCon or oppressed people who live under dictatorships that the USA props up, these peoples’ pain is, in fact, what allows me to enjoy my comforts.

Similar thoughts emerged this January when I was in Israel. As I traveled the country on the public buses I felt quite safe. In fact, I spent the vast majority of my time enjoying the company of friends, doing work that I love and playing with two of the cutest babies in the world. I have truly been blessed.

What I barely thought about, until one night towards the end of my trip, was the Palestinian territories. With the separation barrier so effectively eliminating the thought of Palestinians from life in Israel, it felt too easy to ignore the conflict that I was a part of. Even though at times I was within mere kilometers of the Palestinian territories, I rarely had thoughts of what was going on there.

Of course, I know what’s happening on the other side of the wall. Palestinian farmers’ lives are made impossible by restrictions placed by the Israeli government and by the terrorism of Jewish settlers. Checkpoints, attacks, economic insecurity and severe restriction of liberty is the standard of life there. While I ate my hamburgers and falafel in Tel Aviv, Palestinian farmers struggled under the yoke of oppressive circumstances.

So even though I feel intense emotional satisfaction in the knowledge that I, my friends and family can feel financially, socially and physically safe in the country we love, I also feel intense pain at the expense of that security. How can I possibly choose to live in a place where my comfort comes at the deprivation of comfort for others?

There is certainly plenty of blame to pass around for the plight of the Palestinians. Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Britain, the USA, Russia, China, Iran, and many others play a major role in the global political chess match that pits Israel against Palestine. Yet, at the end of the day, I do not think that Benjamin Netanyahu is a potential partner for peace with the Palestinians. The democratically elected government of Israel cannot, in my opinion, be considered but amongst the foremost perpetrators of injustice in the territories.

The conclusion I’ve reached is tentative, but is one that I feel good about. For me to live in Israel, I must choose to inconvenience myself. I already know that I’ll be living more modestly than ever I have before. I already know that I’ll be devoting my time to the work of movements for social justice, both within Israel and within the territories, but I think I’ll need to do more. Perhaps it will mean participating in weekly protests with the Sheikh Jarah Solidarity movement. Maybe it will be something else.

No matter what I choose, the fact is that to live in Israel, I must allow myself to live uncomfortably. I must choose to make the reality of life in the territories impact me regularly. Only in this way can I ensure that I am not choosing comfort over caring; I am making sure that my security does not come at the expense of others’ pain. Dealing with this need will be a serious factor in whether Israel becomes a place where I can live for a long time, or whether it will be a short diversion from my middle-class American existence.

If you have any suggestions for how to deal with this, please let me know…

“The almond trees are beginning to bloom and flowers are popping up everywhere… and I think to myself – Ein li eretz acheret… I have no other land.  Tu B’Shvat h’giya hag la’ilanot!”

Read the full post by visiting http://thesinainarrative.blogspot.com/2012/02/tu-bshvat-in-israel-now-i-get-it.html.

Today I was given an opportunity to hear what made one life extraordinarily special. When someone touches those around her with an infectious vibrancy and warmth, the results are astounding. When that life is taken early, it is a tragedy beyond words. And yet, when that person is loved and cherished, her ruach (her spirit), reaches out far into the future.

Today was also a reminder that the beauty of a person lies not just in the people she loves, but also in what she stands for. A belief in the power of creativity. The choice to work tirelessly for an idea whose time has come. As important as the relationships a person has, these core values of a person are tied inextricably to their character and their personality.

It is when facing the idea of my own end, that I often ask the most difficult questions. The void that I imagine in non-being is so empty that it lacks meaning, direction, purpose or memory. It lacks both time and space. In the face of this void it can be hard to fathom the value of a life well lived. On the other hand, when confronting this emptiness, I have seen that the sheer will to live a meaningful life can overtake the darkness. The spirit of life that one compels the universe to accept as meaningful truly is meaningful.

It is in light of this that I believe there may be no more honest moment than the moment in which one faces her own death. When she is ready to join those who have come before her, does she go willingly? Does she stand fast to her beliefs in the face of the end? Does she continue to touch the souls of those around her?

As I prepare to move to Israel this autumn, the question of a good life is, for me, the foremost question. In my life, I hope to bring joy to others when they need it and sometimes when they don’t. I want to love and be loved, each in heaping portions. I hope to laugh in the face of fear and to sing in the face of sadness. I pray for the strength to cherish each moment and each person in my life.

I must also exist beyond the community directly around me. A good life will require me to take bold action around the things I believe in and care about. It will mean that I will try to change the world, even when I sometimes think I can’t. It will mean asking hard questions about my place in Israeli society. I will seek to make Israel a more just place. I will share the fate and the destiny of the Jewish people.

A final thought… When faced with our own mortality as a people, whether the threat be global warming or Iran, assimilation or religious intolerance, the Jewish people must not only ask how not to die. We must also ask how to live. When we compel our ruach into the universe, it must be a ruach of justice, a ruach of joy and a ruach of love. If we choose to embody these values, even in the face of that which frightens us, we may be blessed with the chance to live a good life.

As a radical leftist and a Zionist, I am not surprised by this development, but I am nonetheless upset. I won’t even get into my feelings about whether one can reconcile being Leftist and a Zionist in America today. You can read my earlier blog post for that (http://vizionsofzionism.org/liberalism-zionism). Here are some of the seriously problematic elements (from the of slightly bothersome to completely outrageous and Anti-Semitic) of the resolution that passed yesterday:

1. This movement claims to be “Anchored in universal principles of human rights”.

While groups like this will often support policies like affirmative action, or indigenous rights which provide support to a previously oppressed group, they are opposed to Jewish autonomy. Why does this compute? After all aren’t the Jews a historically oppressed minority? Is it that they fault the Jewish people for have rebounded too well from our history of repeated oppression?

This statement continues in especially scary fashion: “Palestinians, too, are part of the 99% around the world that suffer at the hands of the 1% whose greed and ruthless quest for hegemony have led to unspeakable suffering and endless war. Corporate power has not just profited from our suffering but has colluded in maintaining Israel’s occupation and apartheid to perpetuate an unjust order that profits oil and military companies and multinational financial institutions.”

Am I imagining things, or is this statement intentionally playing on images of greed and control that have haunted the Jews throughout history?

2. They state that “the BDS movement, established in 2005, is deeply rooted in decades of Palestinian peaceful resistance to colonial oppression and is inspired by the South African struggle against apartheid as well as the civil rights movement in the US. It is adopted by a near consensus among Palestinians everywhere, with all the main political parties, trade unions, professional syndicates, women’s unions, student groups, NGO networks and refugee advocacy networks represented in the BNC, the reference for this growing movement to end Israeli impunity.”

The statement that BDS is adopted by near consensus among Palestinians everywhere stands in direct contradiction to the idea that BDS is deeply rooted in peaceful resistance. With Palestinian factions in the West Bank and Gaza using largely violent tactics against Israel, BDS’ support from movements like Hamas can only be seen as an extension of their violent, anti-Israel worldview.

3. “We call upon all the spreading social movements of the world to think critically when considering their attitude towards the Israeli ‘social justice’ protests…”

This summer, I became immensely proud of the Israeli people, when they stood up to demand Social Justice with a strong voice. Yet, Occupy Oakland feels that it is their place to actively question this movement, even though they level no such criticism at other movements.

They continue, “ …which have almost completely ignored the key issue at the heart of all of the problems faced by ordinary Palestinians and even Israelis: Israel’s costly system of occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people. Without putting an end to that multi-tiered Israeli system of oppression, our entire region will never enjoy a comprehensive and lasting peace, one that is based on justice and human rights.”

What’s much worse than the undermining of a Jewish movement for Social Justice is the implication that ALL VIOLENCE in the Middle East rests squarely on the shoulders of Israel. If Israel would only end its “Apartheid”, all of the tyrants of the Middle East, it seems, would turn into cuddly puppies.

4. “Could the $24b of military aid provided to Israel in the period 2000-2009 not been better spent on schools, healthcare and other essential services? Did Israel not play a major role in prodding the US to launch and continue its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at immense human and material cost, mainly borne by the poorest in those countries?”

Rather than understanding that various super-powers use Israel, the Palestinians and other groups in the Middle East as pawns in their own conflict, Occupy Oakland chooses to perpetuate the horrendous myth that Israel drove the US to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They imply, resurrecting DANGEROUS stereotypes and accusations, that Israel is using political power over the USA to collect money and to position the USA into regional war. In fact, the US gives foreign aid to countries in the following order: Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan. The common thread here is that this money is used to exercise control by the USA over a particular region, by giving aid to countries who are allied with the USA.

My viewing of Inglorious Basterds was somewhat of an exception to the way I normally watch movies. The scenes were suspenseful enough, the action compelling enough, that for the most part, I was drawn in. I didn’t question it as I went along, but allowed it to soak up. In fact, at the end of the movie, I couldn’t really come up with the words to describe what I had seen. I could only really say “wow. That was… good”.

“But,” he asked himself, whilst referring to himself in the third person, “why was it good?”

Aside from the high production value, interesting plot, and devastatingly intense emotional experience, the main theme seemed to be catharsis. In the last scene, with two of the Basterds shooting Hitler’s already dead body full of bullets, and the theater burning down as the young Jewess in hiding announces herself to the room of dying, panicking Nazis, I couldn’t help but feel this amazing sense of, well… schadenfreude. It wasn’t just the awesomeness of watching evil people experience the evil that they themselves had inflicted on others. There was something deeper. Something intensely Jewish about the feeling.

You see, the Holocaust, for me, has often been a story of weakness. “On a Wagon, bound for market”, the song opines. Images of the holocaust in my mind are generally those of sheep going to the slaughter. Proud Jews, who had become integrated into society, simply denied what was happening to themselves. They had been so German that they were more German than the Germans themselves – it couldn’t really be happening. With this narrative in mind, stories of brave, heroic, self-determining Jews are faint glimmers. Sure, there are those tales of Jews fighting back. The Warsaw ghetto uprising demonstrated courage in the face of death. The art of Terezin showed the will to create art in the face of brutality. Yet, at the end of the day, none of these tales quite make up for the 6 million Jews who, by-and-large, went quietly to their deaths.

In “Inglorious Basterds” Tarantino indulges us backhandedly, not only in this particular narrative, but in a particularly American response to this narrative. In order to find Jews who defend themselves with fervor, he invents a group of fantastical, Western-style guerrillas. That this group is American is particularly crucial in understanding the particularity of the enjoyment of the film. The Bear Jew, wielding his bat, evokes images of Sandy Koufax. Yes, there were real Jews fighting on D-Day and in other scenarios. Yet, one gets the sense that it is only in this fantasy that the kind of Jew who could fight for Jewish survival exists. Koufax, after all, was not a German killing warrior. His big contribution to Jewish self-determination is “I don’t roll on Yom Kippur”.

No, this rag-tag group of German-scalping hooligans is not an intensification of the stories of the real Jews who fought in WWII. Instead, it is a projection of the most intense action that American Jews of today could muster, if ever we had too. As an American watching Inglorious Basterds, it’s tempting for me to revel in the imaginary. How much fun to imagine a motley crew of American Jews gruesomely killing those who would seek to destroy us. Yet, I remember that there was and is a real answer to this feeling of powerlessness, that doesn’t involve a million-dollar baseball contract (The first, if I recall correctly).

Shall we we forget, there were, in fact, Jews who took it upon themselves to create the conditions for their own freedom and determination? In the Warsaw ghetto, it was the Zionist youth movements, who were already trying to build a different kind of Jew, who ultimately made the decision to die fighting instead of lying down. In the forests, it was the partisans. In America, the Zionist Youth movement Habonim made the following call to its members:

“Zionism approaches the zero hour.  Americans no longer idly sit idly by and watch the whirl of events from an ivory tower. The whole democratic world is carrying out a life or death offensive. Zionists, too, must be engaged in that offensive… Our chaverim will take their places in the armed forces of our country. Some will volunteer; others will be drafted. All will go willingly, fully conscious that they are fighting their war, and no devotion is greater than the devotion to a cause with which one identifies one’s self… On the Zionist front, too, we must take the offensive. An “all-out” effort will be the only valid one.”

-MERKAZ HABONIM, December 1941 (Excerpt from Arise and Build)

Even while Zionists lead the charge of Jewish defense in America as in Warsaw, in Israel, there was bold action being taken as well. Depicted (albeit quite mythically itself) in the book and film Exodus, there were people who came to Israel in order to create a place where Jews could be a self-determining people. They aimed to create a new kind of Jew, one who did not depend on the good grace of the society she lived in, but rather who built and owned the means of production, both of material goods and of culture. They settled and tamed the land, built factories and trains, developed folk dances and music.

And more – the Jews did take their revenge on the Nazis! Do we forget the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann. A man was snatched out of hiding in Argentina and flown to Israel to be tried and executed. This is the real-life version of Tarantino’s fictional escapade!! Yes there was (and is) violence in Israel, but it isn’t the kind of violence where you have at least some fun before you go to your death. It a part of creating something new, something meaningful, something that was meant to last. It is a sad and somber violence, that we hope to see end soon.

In Eretz Israel, there are and were people who actively create a new Jewish reality. Heroes like Ari Ben Canaan of Exodus are not far from the reality of the many young Jews who brought thousands of illegal immigrants past the British Guard of Mandate Palestine. These Jews refused to be alien artists, scientists, doctors, etc., within another culture, but became the creators of a renewed Jewish civilization. That civilization is facing challenges now, but those challenges are being addressed at every level of society by self-determining, Jewish communities.

Opposed to this is Basterds, a cathartic release for those who wish to be reassured as they choose to blend their Jewishness into American society. It’s a reassurance that says to us “We may be doctors now, but on the inside, we have some serious Nazi ass-kicking potential”. It allows us to get comfortable in America.

But for what? Why should we be any more comfortable in America than we were in Germany? And why should the potential to fight anti-semitism be the thing that allows us that comfort?

I’m not saying that there’s another Holocaust on the horizon. Rather, so long as we tolerate this myth, that an American cowboy-Jew (or baseball-playing-Jew, or the politician-Jew) is the height of Jewish self-determination, we limit our potential as a people. In the 1940′s the renewal of Jewish life in Eretz Israel was far more remarkable than Tarantino’s imaginative farce. The creation of an entirely new culture around a resurrected language was remarkable. Draining the swamps and making the desert bloom proved to be just a tiny aspect of the capacity of the Jewish soul.  So the next time you watch Inglorious Basterds, ask yourself this question: Do you want identify with these imaginary Jews, engaging in an imaginary world of imaginary self-determination? Or, would you rather be a part of the real-life version?