FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

‘Real’ American baseball has come to Israel, thanks to American Jewish businessmen connected to Major League Baseball.

You can read about it in the link above. For me it brings back memories from 25 years ago, when I coached a baseball team on my kibbutz.

The kids enjoyed playing a game called hakafot which was similar to baseball in that it involved hitting a ball with a stick and running, at which point the relationship ended. But American baseball games were televised by a Christian missionary TV station in Lebanon, and my son was immediately hooked.

I don’t know why. My son came on aliyah when he was 2-1/2 years old. None of the Israeli-born kids were particularly interested in the games on TV (at first). But somehow my son knew. It was in his genes.

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From the Jerusalem Post:

Labor MK Eitan Cabel called on Wednesday for the release of jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti.

“Although I have said this many times before, behind closed doors and during private conversations, it’s time for Israel to do this act,” Cabel said during a speech in the Knesset Plenum.

“I am not trying to clear this man of everything he’s done,” Cabel continued. “But let me use the well-known cliché: ‘Peace is made with enemies.’ [Barghouti], it seems, has, more than the others, the ability, power, and courage to push this long-awaited change.”

Releasing Barghouti would be wrong for at least two reasons.

First, he is a convicted murderer. As a leader of the Tanzim militia, he gave orders for numerous violent attacks on Israelis. He was charged with 21 murders in a civilian court, and convicted of 5 (four Israelis and one Greek monk) plus one count of attempted murder for ordering a suicide car bomb attack that failed. Although his supporters claim that he is a political prisoner, people murdered for political motives are still dead.

Second, and unsurprisingly, considering his activities, he is not a peace partner. He is the author of the “prisoners’ document” which is considered a charter for a re-invigorated Palestinian movement. Here is what I wrote in January about the prisoners’ document:

This so-called “prisoners’ document” like everything else is not what the press would suggest. It calls for a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem (this has now become standard); the joining together of Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad into a unified PLO which will lead the Palestinians — the latter two don’t even pretend to accept a Jewish Israel of any size in the Mideast; the return of refugees and release of prisoners “on the land of the fathers and grandfathers” — Israel proper; and “the right of the Palestinian people in resistance and clinging to the option of resistance with the various means”. There is a suggestion of limitations on violence — but just between Palestinian factions!

It makes no mention of recognition of Israel. Indeed, the word ‘Israel’ does not appear in any of its 18 points.

From time to time the idea of allowing the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas to be replaced by Barghouti is floated, probably by the US State Department, which is frantically trying to find a Palestinian strongman with whom they can deal. But a Palestinian Authority led by Barghouti would be worse for Israel than Hamas or Fatah, because he combines the violent hostility of Hamas with the veneer of international respectability possessed by Abbas.

Let me add that it’s time to put the oft-quoted remark about making peace with enemies in perspective. There are two ways to make peace with an enemy: he can become a friend, or at least a neutral; or you can defeat him.

The Oslo process was an attempt to do the former, and it failed. Unilateral withdrawal was an attempt to do the former, and it failed. There is no available Palestinian partner today, especially Marwan Barghouti, to make friends with. Peace will have to wait for the appearance of such a partner, or for another war in which the Palestinians will be defeated.

Which it will be is really up to the Palestinians.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Marwan Barghouti, prisoners’ document

There are lies, damn lies, and there are statistics (and various opinions about who originally said this).

Poll results can have multiple interpretations, even if the questions used to get them are honest — something that is often not the case.

For example, here are some probably reasonable numbers from a poll sponsored by The Israel Project (TIP) and reported in Ha’aretz:

TIP, an organization that strives to improve Israel’s image in America and the rest of the world, polled 500 representatives of the “opinion elite”: college graduates with annual incomes above $75,000, who vote in elections, and read newspapers and magazines…

They were asked, among other things, to rank their attitude toward Israel and Hamas, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, on a scale of 1 to 100, with below 50 indicating a “cold” attitude and above it a “warm” attitude. Israel received a 66, while the others scored between 19 (Hezbollah) and 30 (Syria).

“Who is to blame for the instability in the Middle East?” the poll asked. Seventy-three percent blamed “Islamic extremism” and only 12 percent named “Israel and its policies.”

The poll contains some rather sad working assumptions: 57 percent “strongly agree” that “the Arab countries around Israel are hostile to its existence,” and 85 percent overall said they “agree” with that statement. Some 75 percent said they agreed that “the Arabs don’t really accept Israel’s right to exist.”

But there are also findings that suggest a possible course of action. For example, 70 percent cited the need to be “a leader in working for peace” as heading the list of 13 qualities required of an American “ally.” But only 16 percent saw this among Israel’s traits.

The implication in the last paragraph seems to be that Israel could improve its standing among the “opinion elite” by becoming, or appearing to become, a “leader in working for peace”.

There is, however, another interpretation which I like better.

To me, Israel’s high standing despite not being “a leader working for peace” indicates that the respondents understand that given the situation in Israel’s neighborhood today, it is not possible for Israel to be at the forefront of peace initiatives. And this is supported by their opinions about Arab attitudes and about the causes of instability.

The “opinion elite” is not so dumb after all.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Arabs, The Israel Project