Ronn Torossian, Observer - When supporters march up Fifth Avenue on May 31, 2015 to celebrate
Israel’s 67th year at the annual “Celebrate Israel Parade,” their
attention may be divided between those who support Israel and the
extremist New Israel Fund (NIF), a group that
hurts the Jewish State, funds legal efforts that seek to place the
rights of the terrorists over the victims who were killed while praying in Jerusalem, and has called Israel “racist” and “murderous.”
Plans are again in effect to allow NIF to participate. The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC) is
still vacillating on whether to permit NIF to march.
Facing pressure from both NIF opponents and supporters, JCRC won’t give a clear answer. As of today, NIF is in. Michael
Miller, JCRC’s head, said through a spokesperson that there are new
guidelines this year, and that “All Parade groups must identify with
Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Also, a new rule was added:
“All groups must oppose, not fund, nor advocate for the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, which seeks to
delegitimize the State of Israel by not recognizing it as a Jewish
state.’”
This is pure subterfuge. While there is ample proof of continued BDS advocacy (
and NIF funding for BDS),
the reality is that NIF’s actions go well beyond BDS. When presented
with proof, the JCRC would not provide any further comment. It is
convenient ignorance.
Mr. Miller’s spokesman, Michael Mittelman gave us a glimpse into its
reasons; “This new rule will be enforced in keeping with national level
definitions, including those from the Jewish Federations of North
America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, as well as other
major American metropolitan Jewish communities and major American Jewish
organizations.”
Simply, the JCRC is obliged to bigger groups and broader funding sources, some of whom wrongly support NIF’s egregious actions.
As the Times Of Israel rightly
noted recently, “Who the new guidelines retain and who they exclude is
still up for debate — and may need
Talmudic interpretation.”
To keep opponents quiet as long as possible, Mr.
Mittelman suggested
that “for security reasons” the JCRC will not confirm groups’
participation—hypothetical or otherwise—until a week prior to the
parade.” A senior security official who has worked for the JCRC and
other Jewish organizations told me this was “unadulterated hogwash.” He
said, “The whole parade is a security target. An elected official or
senior dignitary would be a target – not an individual small
organization.”
The Celebrate Israel Parade should be a true
salute from the left and the right; the Orthodox and the secular, the
women’s organizations; those who love and support Yehudah and Shomron
and those who may not; youth organizations and others.
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In 2012, Mr. Miller asked me to
write an article together with JCRC Board Member Matthew Hiltzik,
the esteemed public relations professional, to urge the Jewish
community to come out even though groups like NIF would participate. It
was a new issue at the time, and I readily agreed, believing that the
larger needs of the community trumped the desire to express disagreement
with opponents. The JCRC’s leader at the time advised me that he needed
time to review the matter further and in time would not allow groups
like this to participate.
Mr. Miller: three years later, the time for action has long come. Stand up and be counted. As the late, great Zionist leader,
Ze’ev Jabotinsky stated, “Silence is despicable.”
In November 2014,
Birthright broke
its ties with the New Israel Fund, suggesting NIF was no longer a
viable partner for Birthright’s work spreading enthusiasm for Israel
among the younger generations of Americans. Last week, the ruling party
in Israel,
said that the NIF is an “anti-Zionist organization,” and called it an “organization who act non-stop to blacken Israel’s face.” Israel’s
Economic Minister, MK Naftali Bennett noted, “The NIF works
methodically and consistently to attack our Israeli soldiers, accuse
them of war crimes of torturing Palestinians and intentionally attacking
women and children. They turn to the UN and to the committees that are
most hostile to Israel and try their best to convince them that Israel
is a war criminal.” They are all right – and JCRC is wrong.
The NIF spends nearly $30 Million annually toward campaigns that are
harmful to Israel. The JCRC ought not allow this kind of “supporter” at
the parade. The Celebrate Israel Parade should be a true salute from the
left and the right; the Orthodox and the secular, the women’s
organizations; those who love and support Yehudah and Shomron and those
who may not; youth organizations and others.
The JCRC is silently standing with NIF, and Michael Miller
is mistakenly capitulating to people at the UJA who support JCRC. This
places JCRC’s needs above those of the needs of the Jewish people and
Israel. For its part, the NIF expresses optimism about its chances for
inclusion in this year’s parade. The
Times of Israel quoted NIF spokeswoman Naomi Paiss as
saying, “NIF looks forward to joining the parade this year since none
of the guidelines excludes us. Although we and our partners sometimes
strongly criticize Israeli government policy, no one except hard-right
extremists thinks that equals delegitimization.”
There should always be debate as to what is best for
Israel and the Jewish people – but some debates are out of bounds. Just
as the extreme Neturei Karta protests the parade from the sidelines
every year, so too should the NIF stand with them—outside the bounds of
the organized Jewish community.
The world is increasingly dangerous for Jews. The attacks in
Copenhagen are the latest of a series of attacks in Europe, and Jews
need Israel now more than ever. With worldwide anti-Semitism on a steep
incline, the investigator of the cover-up of the 1994 bombing at the
Jewish Center in Buenos Aries in Argentina was murdered as he was
getting closer to exposing the country’s president as a collaborator,
and America’s president having a hard time admitting the fact that
Jews were a target
in the Paris attacks, there is no room for vacillation on anti-Semitism
and anti-Israel deeds. In a parade that celebrates Israel, there is no
room for a group that demonizes it.
My late mother often told me how my grandfather stood alongside the
parade route in the pouring rain as she marched down Riverside Drive
with Betar in the very first Salute to Israel Parade. It’s a beautiful
tradition for so many of us, and a wonderful day for the American Jewish
community to celebrate Israel.
The JCRC must not allow the New Israel Fund to participate in the Israel Day Parade.
Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, one of America’s largest independent PR firms.
Comments at Observer on this article:
Typical, a Jew who wants to silence anyone they think is critical of or harmful to Jews and Israel. It's ok if you talk critically of Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, etc.., but it should be illegal to be critical of Jews and Israel. This article talks so much about the alleged increase of antisemitism in Europe, but no where does it dare to ponder why antisemitism is on the rise again. Of course, it couldn't be anything that the Jews are doing, because Jews are God's chosen people, infallible and holier than thou. It couldn't be Jewish warmongering against Iran, it couldn't be Jews in the State department trying to start a war with Russia, it couldn't be Jewish banks enslaving half of Europe with their "loans", it couldn't be Jewish Hollywood spreading lies and filth that infect the other 98% of non Jews in the nation. No, Jews have never done anything to deserve this hate, and therefore disliking Jews should be illegal. And by the way, that prosecutor wasn't near implicating the Argentine president for covering up for Iran. Quite the opposite, the President knew those two Argentine bombings were done by Mossad. Israel just wanted to give her a black eye for strengthening ties with Russia and for supporting Palestinian right of statehood. - paolograziano717
We
keep saying that Israel keeps expelling Palestinians from their home
land. How does Israel do that? By using harsh policies against the
Indigenous Palestinians. The following is from Michael Ben-Yair, who is a former attorney general of Israel:
"The West Bank has remained an occupied territory for over 47
years. During this period we have ignored international treaties;
expropriated land; moved Israeli settlers from Israel to the occupied
territories; engaged in acts of disinheritance and theft. We have
justified all these actions in the name of security. Over the
years, the motives for the occupation have merged into the following:
economic exploitation of the occupied territories for the well-being of
Israeli settlers and their needs. In our eagerness to maintain
control over the occupied territories, we have developed two separate
legal systems: an advanced, liberal system for Israel and Israeli
settlers; and a cruel, abusive system for Palestinians in the occupied
territories. In effect, we imposed an apartheid regime in the
occupied territories immediately after their conquest. This oppressive
regime exists to this day." - Essam Salim
Rabbi Moshe Ber Beck, rabbi in Monsey, USA:
We are religious Jews who cling to the old, original Jewish faith and
Torah. Our purpose in appearing here today is to make known to the world
something that not everyone knows: that the authentic Jewish people is
not identical with the Zionist idea and the Zionist state, but rather
they are antithetical, like day and night.
G-d sent the Jewish
people into exile due to their sins. Through His true prophets, He
warned us not to organize ourselves and arise on our own from exile. G-d
alone, without help from any creature and without any organization,
will redeem us.
The Jewish people's entire life and existence
is faith and Torah. They have been waiting in exile for almost two
thousand years, with loyalty to the warnings and promises of G-d.
About
150 years ago, non-believing individuals arose who incorrectly
understood the essence of the Jewish people. They saw the Jewish people
as fundamentally not spiritual but material, and they proposed a modern
solution to the "problem of exile".
Mocking the old tradition
of faith and hope, they introduced the concept of self-organization,
which the Torah forbids. It is from this concept that the Zionist state
was born.
One sin leads to another: they unjustly pulled out
the ground from under the feet of the Palestinian people, robbed them of
their houses and property, and expelled them cruelly and murderously.
This would have been a massive criminal act for an individual Jew - all
the more so for a large group of Jews, both according to Torah law and
international law.
We are here to proclaim that the original Jewish people has no connection to the Zionist idea, their state or their actions.
- The Rabbis Speak Out
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