Z STREET

Prof. Alan Dershowitz Helps Philly Make its Case for Israel

Tuesday, 07 February 2012 17:26

Mon Feb 06, 2012
— by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Professor Alan Dershowitz came to the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday evening, February 2, 2012, to accomplish two goals: one, to continue in his role as American's most outspoken, knowledgeable "celebrity" to "Make the Case for Israel" (the title of his 2003 book); and to tell Penn pro-Israel students, the Penn administration and the larger Philadelphia pro-Israel community, that they are model Israel advocates. He accomplished both. Dershowitz at Penn

Last semester a few students conspired to create an organization on Penn's campus with the goal of hosting a conference there to promote the boycotting of, divesting from and sanctioning of Israel ("BDS"). Rather than create panic, however, their efforts forged an otherwise virtual impossibility: a community acting in almost complete unison to showcase Israel and educate those willing to be educated so they too would join the ranks of supporters, rather than vilifiers.

There were those in the Philadelphia community who wanted Penn not to support such a conference by granting it use of its facilities, but the school administration refused to go that route, while still very clearly disassociating itself from the BDS message and goals. A virtual community-wide response was to support the efforts of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia which led the response off-campus, working with Penn Hillel on-campus, which created a myriad of events and initiatives to showcase Israel. Together the Federation and Penn Hillel brought in Dershowitz as the event unifying the university and the community at large in solidarity with Israel. It all came together exactly as the planners hoped.

In addition to the Dershowitz event, "We Are One With Israel: An Evening of Unity and Community Solidarity," before a sold-out crowd of 900 at Penn's Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday evening, there were several student-only initiatives, including raising money for an Israeli charity and promoting investment in Israel. For one massive initiative, "Israel Across Penn," Penn students hosted a series of Shabbat dinners for more than 800 other students. The only requirement for attendance was to agree that the dinner conversation would center around Israel.

Students Josh Cooper and Shlomo Klapper were the organizers of the dinners. Both from New Jersey, each steadfastly refused to say that the dinners or the Dershowitz event were to counter the BDS conference. They insisted that the BDS supporters had a right to have a conference, but they both agreed the BDS event created a terrific opportunity by galvanizing the Jewish and pro-Israel community.

"Their goal is to discredit the state of Israel, we have revealed a deep and strong connection to Israel," Klapper said.

Cooper added, "There is a strong positive energy for Israel on this campus, but sometimes it's dormant, so this really mobilized us."

As student and community leaders gathered for a meal in Steinhardt Hall, the Penn Hillel building, and waited for a private chat with Dershowitz, Eric Schorr, a Columbia University student, rose and read an Ivy League Solidarity Statement, which was signed by pro-Israel leaders at all the other Ivy League schools. "Boycotts are an obstacle to peace," the statement reads, "BDS fails to recognize Israel's prior offerings of peace that have been categorically rejected by Palestinian leadership, and merely seeks to vilify Israel."

Samara Gordon, a leader in the bi-partisan Penn Israel Political Action Committee said that more than sixty students from organizations across the Penn campus, including the Penn Democrats, the College Republicans, the National Society for Black Engineers, and the Japan Students Association, signed a statement of solidarity with the pro-Israel Penn leadership. Gordon introduced Dershowitz to the dinner crowd, thanking him for consistently being the "go-to" person in support of Israel, and for being "awesome."

In a short but upbeat pep talk to the select group Dershowitz made several points he reiterated to the larger crowd later: support for Israel is and must be a bi-partisan issue, all of the Penn community has presented a model of pro-Israel advocacy, the school was right not to prevent the BDS conference from taking place on the campus - so long as there is a single policy, it must be consistently applied - and just as important as it was to allow the conference on campus, was it for the supporters to respond vigorously with the truth, by making their case for Israel.

One student lamented the dearth of pro-Israel academics who speak out, in contrast to the many anti-Israel professors who do. Acknowledging the imbalance, Dershowitz explained that so many on the hard left have made it seem "politically incorrect" to support Israel. But, as Dershowitz repeated several times, "I'm a liberal Democrat and I support Israel because of my liberal values. I support Israel because I am a feminist, I support Israel because I am pro-gay rights, I support Israel because I steadfastly believe in human rights."

The dinner crowd joined the hundreds of others who filed into the Zellerbach auditorium at the Annenberg Center. As the auditorium filled to capacity, the speeches and introduction of the introducers began. Rabbi Mike Uram, the director of Penn Hillel, set the tone by sharing a little Torah learning with the audience.

Uram remarked that one of the things Jews thank G-d for in the morning blessings, is for the understanding to discern day from night. And, he said, that was exactly why everyone was gathered together, to have Professor Dershowitz as a role model helping everyone to "distinguish between those who seek a real, lasting peace and those who simply want to demonize the Israeli people," he continued, "and between those who search for facts and those who search only for accusations."   

David L. Cohen, Chairman of the Penn Board of Trustees, as well as a former trustee of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Federation, read a statement from Penn President Amy Gutmann. Gutmann had been subject to heated criticism for allowing the conference to go forward, and for being insufficiently forceful in distancing the university from the conference. Gutmann's statement again included a rejection of the message and the goals of BDS, and insisted that, "truth and reason will win the day," and with a closer the crowd was eager to hear: "thanks for doing it the right way, Shalom, Amy Gutmann."

The President of the Philadelphia Federation, Sherrie Savett, welcomed everyone, and introduced the star of the evening, Professor Alan Dershowitz.

True to form, Dershowitz presented a potpourri of articulately delivered bombshells, many that were welcome to most, others that were anathema to some, but most with such aplomb and unassailable logic as to calm down, if not convince, even those who disagreed.

Consistent with his theme of supporting Israel because of his liberal values, Dershowitz stated that he abhors those supporting BDS against Israel because if they really cared about human rights, they would be employing "BDS against Syria, against Cuba, against Iran, against China, against Russia, against Hamas and Hezbollah." Because the BDS supporters are ignoring the true violators of human rights across the globe, it makes a mockery of their criticisms of Israel, "the one country in the Middle East with the highest respect for human rights."

Going further, Dershowitz slammed the professors who support BDS generally, and those supporting Penn BDS specifically. "Those professors who are supporting BDS in the name of human rights? Shame on you! Iran is murdering dissidents and you are complaining about Israel? Shame on you - you are abusing the concept of human rights," Dershowitz thundered, " You are complicit with evil when you ignore other violators of human rights and focus on Israel - you have to justify yourselves!" Dershowitz went further: "this anti-Israel campaign is one of the greatest human rights issues of this century, supplying a justification for the oldest hatred."

Continuing his theme of support for liberal values and human rights dictating support for Israel, Dershowitz invoked one of the greatest icons of liberalism in American history, Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., who visited Israel during the first violent uprising, in 1988. Upon his return, Justice Brennan remarked that, "Israel was the only country in the world that could teach the United States how to fight against terrorism with the same concern for human liberties."

Although there were several adults who asked questions during the Q and A following the talk, students asked the questions which elicited the most informative responses.
In a nod to current global concerns, Dershowitz was asked about recent news reports that Israel may soon respond to the nuclear threat from Iran. For the second time that evening Dershowitz carefully explained that if Israel were to strike, it would be a reactive and not a pre-emptive strike.

"Iran," he explained, "has already committed acts of war against Israel," citing the arming of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina. "Israel is within its legal rights to respond with force to the Iranian threat."

The final question was one that, while hostile, Dershowitz might have paid someone to ask. Echoing the November 22, 2011 "Pinkwashing" New York Times op-ed written by professor Sarah Schulman, a young woman asked "if a 'Palestinian' tells me Israel stole her land, what good is it for me to say that 'Israel is good on gay rights'?"

Warming to the fight, Dershowitz unequivocally rejected the notion of 'Palestinian' land having been stolen. He launched into a brief history lesson on the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, absentee Arab ownership, purchases of the land by Jews, and concluded by quoting an Arab leader who responded to the Peel Commission in 1937 which attempted to create a Jewish and another Arab State, "There is no such country as Palestine! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! We live in Southern Syria."

The author of the "Pinkwashing" op-ed was one of the presenters at the Penn BDS conference. And just as Dershowitz exposed her hypocrisy for ruing instead of praising Israel's openness and freedom for gays by pretending it was merely a front for stealing land from the Arabs, a further irony was made apparent by actions taken by the Penn BDS organizers.

According to the online agenda of the BDS conference, one of the sessions was devoted to Academic Freedom and addressed freedom of speech. A reporter for the Philadelphia Jewish Voice was immediately rejected when she applied for a press pass to the conference, and a reporter from the other Philadelphia Jewish media outlet had his press credentials revoked because the organizers disliked an article he had written.

While Professor Dershowitz could not have known about it when he gave his talk here, the refusal to operate openly, and the denial of access to those with potentially opposing viewpoints by the conference organizers, were entirely consistent with his point, that the BDS advocates were hypocrites masking their hatred of Israel with a thin veneer of concern for civil rights and freedoms.

http://blog.pjvoice.com/diary/1861/we-are-one-with-israel-video-prof-alan-dershowitz

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2012-02-07 18:04:02Didn't think it would work

How Many are Thy Tents, O Jacob?

Thursday, 02 February 2012 22:58

Philadelphia Jewish Community Tent

February 3, 2012

By Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Given the ideological bedlam often seen even within individual Jewish organizations, just imagine trying to get an entire community of Jewish organizations together to sign a several-paragraphs-long statement reflecting a single position -- and to do that within a matter of weeks.

That miracle almost happened recently, when the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia gathered practically every Jewish organization in the Philadelphia community to send a message of strong disapproval to an anti-Israel coalition known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is holding a three-day conference at the University of Pennsylvania on February 3-5. But the "almost" is necessary because one significant local group refused to join in. Understanding who, and why, reveals important lessons that must be taken to heart.

Penn BDS was thrown together by a single undergraduate student with the goal of luring the BDS conference to the University of Pennsylvania campus. BDS is a global, largely unsuccessful but widely publicized menace with the ultimate goal of demonizing, demoralizing, and destroying the state of Israel. BDS proponents claim that their methods constitute a tool to achieve justice for those oppressed by Israel; they take their cue from the effort to overthrow the racist South African government during the 1980s. But BDS is, in fact, merely a thin mask over enmity against any effective haven for the Jewish people.

Last month, when the Penn Hillel leadership learned that the BDS conference was to take place on their campus, the Philadelphia Jewish leadership was alerted, as was the Israeli Consulate. A broad spectrum of at least nominally pro-Israel local organizations was quickly called together with the goal of creating a strong communal response.

Mainstream local groups such as the Jewish Federation, the Anti-Defamation League, and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East -- as well as those on the far left of the spectrum, such as the New Israel Fund and J Street, and those on the right end, such as Z STREET and the Zionist Organization of America -- were included in this call to action. Several decisions were reached: there would be a communal statement of solidarity condemning the BDS conference; there would be an event showcasing communal support for Israel just prior to the conference; and, to counter the campaign of boycotting Israeli goods, there would be a concerted effort to encourage people to purchase Israeli products.

The crafting of the communal statement took two rounds of drafts and delicate negotiations with each organization involved. It fell to David Cohen, the senior associate for Israel and Middle East Affairs at the Philadelphia Federation, to ferret out each group's rock-bottom red lines, then artfully craft changes to avoid crossing any of those lines, and finally to come up with a document that avoided all the pitfalls but still clearly condemned the strategy of BDS generally, and the holding of the BDS conference at Penn specifically.

I was present at and participated in the meetings as the Z STREET representative. In response to the first draft, I told Cohen that Z STREET objected to an emphasis on the ubiquitous "two state" mantra. We think the one clear goal of the peace process should be peace for Israel. Z STREET believes that the pro-Israel community disserves that goal by adding an additional goal which may not -- and in our view, clearly does not -- ensure that such peace will be attained. While disappointed to see the "two states" language as part of the final version of the community statement, we decided that a show of community-wide solidarity is important. More than two dozen other organizations felt the same, with each no doubt making its own ideological compromises so that the Jewish community could say something with one voice.

But there was a conspicuous absence from the Philadelphia Community Statement's list of signatures. Although its representative was present at the community-wide meeting and was included in the community phone calls, J Street refused to be a part of the community and would not sign the joint statement of condemnation. Instead, J Street Philly issued a separate statement -- one very different from the community's in title, in tone, and in apportionment of blame. As the local representative stated clearly, J Street wanted to "maintain the integrity of our values" and their "unique position on this issue."

Whereas the Philadelphia Community Statement is officially one of solidarity with Israel and of condemnation of the BDS Conference, J Street's is neither.

The Philadelphia Community Statement unequivocally condemns boycotting Israel, disinvesting from its companies, or sanctioning it. J Street's statement criticizes the BDS tactics but explicitly recognizes, validates, and agrees with the underlying sentiments expressed by those advocating BDS, which include "the ongoing occupation and diplomatic stagnation" and the "legitimate and warranted" and shared "concern about the present and future of the Palestinian people."

Of particular concern to J Street was a broad condemnation of BDS -- one that lacked "nuance," such as making exceptions for boycotting goods made in Judea and Samaria. Also, J Street refused to criticize Penn, even subtly, for allowing the conference to be held there. J Street was unwilling to include its voice in stating that "the outrageous claims of BDS campaigns do not stand up to the rigors of academic inquiry and as such, go against the sophisticated civil discourse that is a core element of the University of Pennsylvania."

Worse, J Street seems to have issued even its own tepid statement with not enough enthusiasm as to post it; the J Street statement does not even appear on the J Street Philadelphia website. J Street also refused to be one of the more than thirty co-sponsors of the "We Are One With Israel" event with Alan Dershowitz.

Much has been written about why and whether J Street is allowed in the "big tent" of Jewish communal organizations. The argument in favor, of course, is the desire to expand the marketplace of ideas, to be as inclusive as possible, and simply to give a respectful hearing even to those with whom one disagrees. But we now know what happened when J Street was unquestioningly welcomed into the Philadelphia community tent. When given the first opportunity to stand as one with the community and speak with one voice from one tent, J Street snuck out the back and pitched its own tent instead.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus is president of Z STREET and chair of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs executive committee.

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Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 08:32

NCJA DEMANDS OFFICIALS CONDEMN PA CALL FOR JEWISH GENOCIDE

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:08

01/25/12 The National Conference on Jewish Affairs joins Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres in condemning the public call to kill Jews made by the supreme religious leader of the Palestinian Authority.

The PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein urged Muslims to ensure Islam's destiny by fighting and killing Jews. He said that “Palestine [sic] in its entirety is a revolution,” that “continues today,” and then quoted from what he decreed is an authoritative statement of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, that while Jews “will hide behind stones or trees,” those objects will say to Muslims: “there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.” The Mufti stated that the trees invoked in the statement are like the modern day trees surrounding current Israeli towns and colonies. He explained that fighting and killing Jews will usher in the Muslim "Hour of Resurrection."

“When an Arab Palestinian leader calls upon his people to kill Jews in order to fulfill Islam’s religious destiny, all people of good will must stand up and denounce the incitement,” said Lori Lowenthal Marcus, NCJA executive committee chair.

NCJA calls on President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Leadership of the House and Senate and the Chairmen and Ranking Chairmen of the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committee to also condemn this explicit call to murder Jews.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres both called for a criminal investigation into the incident, which was initiated on January 24th. The British Foreign Officer for the Middle East Alistair Burt has joined them in condemning the Grand Mufti’s incitement.

The Mufti gave the speech on January 7, 2012, to supporters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas who were celebrating the Fatah political movement's 47th anniversary. Abbas appointed Hussein as the Mufti in 2006. The speech was carried on official Palestinian Authority television, and was translated and aired by Palestinian Media Watch.

In response to charges that he was advocating a Jewish genocide, the Mufti and the PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud al-Habbash, claimed the Mufti was not engaging in current incitement, but merely repeating theological dictates. “But the Mufti’s invocation of these 'dictates' as the source of a Muslim religious duty to kill Jews is the dictionary definition of incitement,” said Marcus, "he clearly was talking about now, not the past, and not the future, by referring to the trees from the hadith as being the same as those surrounding current Israeli cities and villages," she added.

NCJA also exhorts the Secretary General of the United Nations as well as leaders of all human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to join in this condemnation. Organizations which profess to care deeply about the rights of people in Israel, such as the World Council of Churches, must not miss this opportunity to demonstrate their concern. All peace-loving and all pro-Israel groups must also make public statements strongly denouncing the Mufti's hateful and irresponsible statement.

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2012-01-29 08:25:44Lori, you're right

2012-01-29 08:25:23a correction to your response to mine

2012-01-26 17:28:54Obama's PC Foreign Policy

2012-01-26 10:14:04Criticism is welcome, but

2012-01-26 05:09:58"expressing concern" hardly begins to scratch th

Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:21

BDS Conference at Penn - local response

Monday, 30 January 2012 16:13

01/30/12 BDS hate-a-thon at Penn this weekend. The participants include a smattering of the bigger Israel haters such as Ali Abunimeh who is the co-founder of the virulently anti-Israel "Electronic Intifada," and Max Blumenthal who whines constantly about the oppression of the Jewish State, and led a little act-out non-street guerilla theater as a mic-master for Occupy Birthright. The rest are lesser-to-non-knowns, including several professors of queer theory which really makes on wonder whether they understand that queer means gay, not simply bizarre or bizarre-looking, given Israel's hospitability to gays and the brutal repression of homosexuality amongst all of the official Arab Palestinian leadership. Or maybe it is that they don't understand that BDS is not about boycotting, divesting or sanctioning haters of gays, but about boycotting, divesting and sanctioning the lone refuge for gays in the Middle East: Israel.

The organized Jewish community got together under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and hammered out a statement in opposition to the conference. That statement was drafted and re-drafted several times in an effort to have a unified community statement - almost no one was completely satisfied, but most of us were content with certain wiggle words and/or word substitutions to join together. The lone hold-outs were J Street and the New Israel Fund, more on that later. In addition to the statement, Prof. Alan Dershowitz will be speaking on campus this Thursday about the distorted and dangerous BDS cause. The 900 room auditorium was sold out in days, but it will be live-streamed here. This is the community statement:

          This February, a national conference of BDS supporters (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel) will
be held in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania. The conference is being brought to campus by a student
group called PennBDS, which is sanctioned and funded by the Student Council at Penn.
          This conference will assemble academics and professional activists with the sole purpose of pursuing a delegitimization
campaign against Israel. The speakers and panelists are part of a larger global effort to undermine the Jewish
people’s right to self-determination in their homeland. The BDS campaign is, in fact, contrary to the goal of two
states—Jewish and Palestinian—living side-by-side in peace and security.
          Leaders from a cross section of local Jewish community organizations expressed our concerns to the University
about the conference and the extreme rhetoric of BDS speakers. The President of the University of Pennsylvania is
on record clarifying that this is “not an event sponsored by the University” and that the University has “clearly stated
on numerous occasions that it does not support sanctions or boycotts against Israel.” Still, we feel that, rather than
encourage discourse, the conference is likely to create deep divisions among students and promote an atmosphere
of intolerance on campus. We believe that the outrageous claims of BDS campaigns do not stand up to the rigors of
academic inquiry and as such, go against the sophisticated civil discourse that is a core element of the mission of the
University of Pennsylvania.
          We, the undersigned members of the Jewish community, stand united in our condemnation of the corrosive nature
of this BDS conference and its calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions of Israel.
          We also stand united in our support of the students’ efforts on campus to:

     • Transform this challenge into an opportunity to help fellow students grow as leaders and advocates for Israel.
     • Educate more students about the realities of the State of Israel and the false claims of the global BDS campaign.
     • Expand the on-campus coalition of Israel supporters among both Jews and non-Jews.

Abrams Hebrew Academy   **     Aish HaTorah Philadelphia ** American Jewish Committee    ** Anti-Defamation League
Rabbi Ira Budow, Director             Rabbi Yaacov Couzens              Rabbi mark Robbins, Director       Barry Morrison, Reg. Dir.

Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia ** Friends of IDF, PA and Southern NJ Chapter ** Gratz College
Executive Committee Tzvia Wexler, Director Joy W. Goldstein, President

Hadassah of Grtr Philadelphia   ** Hillel of Greater Philadelphia    ** Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
Roz Holberg, Presidnet                    Rabbi Howard Alpert, Exec. Dir.     Sharon Levin, Interim Head of School

JCRC of Greater Philadelphia    **    JCRC of Southern NJ       ** Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem Counties
Adam Kessler, Executive Director     David Snyder, Exec. Dir.           Steven Schimmel, Executive Director

Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia **    Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey ** Kellman Brown Academy, Voorhees, NJ
Ira M. Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer          Joel M. Kaber, Chief Executive Officer         Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, Head of School

Kohelet Yeshiva High School       **                     Perelman Jewish Day Schools       **                Politz Day School, Cherry Hill, NJ
Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach, Head of School       Jay Leberman, Head of Schools                    Rabbi Avraham Glustein, Head of School

Republican Jewish Coalition           **                Scholars for Peace in the Middle East    **       Torah Academy of Greater Philadelphia
Scott Feigelstein, Director                                   Asaf Romirosky, Acting Exec. Director              Rabbi Shmuel Jablon, Menahel (Principal)

Tri-County Board of Rabbis of S. NJ    **         Zionist Organization of America, Grtr Phila District **    Z STREET
Rabbi Micah Peltz, President                            Steve Feldman, Executive Director                                       Lori Lowenthal Marcus, President and Founder

           Statement of Solidarity Condemning the National BDS Conference at the University of Pennsylvania
                                                                                              List in Formation

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2012-02-02 17:57:26Quick Correction

2012-02-01 18:35:57Dershowitz Event to be Live Streamed

2012-01-31 02:59:26Destruction of Israel is sole purpose of BDS

Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 13:00

Last we checked Avigdor Lieberman doesn't support overthrowing the US government...

Sunday, 22 January 2012 13:21

01/22/12 There have been recent reports that US officals do not want to meet with Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and are especially loathe to be photographed with him. Presumably the US officials do not want to have pictures show up anywhere that might suggest they agree with, endorse, or have anything to do with Lieberman. Well, given how photos can be manipulated, and the need for representatives of the US government not to look as if they cavort with "nutjobs" or, heaven forbid, "racists" (as they apparently are convinced by the msm that Lieberman is), can you really blame those officials? Heck yes! Lookie here:

US Amb. to Egypt Anne Patterson and Muslim Brotherhood Guide Mohammed Badie at a January 18, 2012 picture of the US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, looking all happy and gushy over the appropriately named Mohammed Badie, the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Is Badie as bad as Lieberman? Well, yes. He not only wants to rid the world of Israel and the Jews, he also hates America and wants Arabs to stand together and rise up against "Zio-American arrogance and tyranny," and predicts the fall of the United States because it is "a nation that does not champion moral and human values." Challah gives all the details here.