RUTHFULLY YOURS

In recent weeks, the worrisome current relationship between Israel and Turkey has been much in the news. Relations between the two countries had been very good before the rise to power of the Turkish Islamist politician Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his “Justice and Development” Party (AKP) in 2003. But, in 2010, seven years after he was first elected prime minister of Turkey, Mr. Erdoğan, an ardent supporter of the Palestinian Arabs, including the terrorist Hamas faction, engineered a crisis with Israel which was encouraged by the pro-Palestinian media throughout the Western world.
Attempts by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters to embarrass and malign Israel in the media are relentless. One of the most successful operations against Israel involved a Turkish-supported flotilla ostensibly designed to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and increase international awareness of the plight of the alleged destitute Arabs living there.
In June 2007, after Hamas assumed control of the Gaza Strip, Israel initiated a blockade to restrict the flow of smuggled rockets, mainly from Iran, that had been fired at civilian targets in Israeli towns. The Israeli Navy successfully thwarted a number of attempts by Hamas supporters to breach the naval blockade without incident.
Ship of Terror
On May 22, 2010, the Mavi Marmara, a 4,000-ton ship, the length of a football field, set sail from Istanbul’s Haydarpaşa port on route to Gaza, allegedly with the approval of Mr. Erdoğan.
On board the ship were 700 recognized radical leftists and Islamic extremists, including European members of parliament, and Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian-Arab woman member of Knesset.
Five small protest ships accompanied the larger vessel, but an additional ship had to forgo the voyage after encountering mechanical problems. That ship’s passengers were transferred to the Mavi Marmara.
Thus, a caravan of six ships became a flotilla whose participants hoped to thwart Israel’s goal of protecting its citizens.
Remembering Anti-Jewish Islamic Past
Prior to the launch of the flotilla, activists chanted Islamic battle cries recalling “Khaibar,” the last Jewish village defeated by the Prophet Muhammad’s army in 628 CE. The battle marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia.
“[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!” the activists chanted.
“Either the Israelis let us reach Gaza, or they can stop us,” one participant told Al Jazeera. “We can also die as martyrs and never return, which is okay with us.”
No Humanitarian Interest
According to Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor, the objective of this hyped “humanitarian” mission was not, as the activists claimed, to provide Palestinian Arabs “trapped behind the Israeli blockade,” with aid, but, rather, to ambush the Israelis in a “bloody confrontation to exploit the ‘halo effect,’ which is automatically granted to groups claiming moral missions.”
It was also planned to reinforce the image of Israelis as “war criminals,” responsible for the “plight of starving residents of Gaza.”
In fact, however, contrary to the “reports” of many elements in the media, people in Gaza were not starving. Then, as now, every day Israel delivers tons of food, drugs and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The media’s story is that Trump’s win unleashed anti-Semitism on the right. Instead it’s unleashing anti-Semitism on the left. From the elevation of Keith Ellison to head the DNC, despite his ugly history with anti-Semitism, to the mainstreaming of Islamist anti-Semites from CAIR, ISNA and other hate groups with a history of supporting anti-Semitic terror, the atmosphere on the left has only grown uglier.

Equally troubling is the way in which anti-Israel hatred is being mainstreamed within the Jewish community under the guise of a collective front to oppose Trump. The groups taking the lead in these protests include some of the ugliest anti-Israel organizations around, including JVP and If Not Now.

From the beginning they have camouflaged attacks on centrist pro-Israel groups, such as AIPAC and ZOA, in anti-Trump rallies. Their real agenda isn’t opposition to Trump, but to the Jewish State.

And many establishment Jewish groups that claim to be pro-Israel have proven all too willing to mainstream anti-Israel groups and their hostility to Israel to be able to hold anti-Trump events.

Given a choice between supporting Israel and opposing Trump, they have made their priorities clear. They have chosen to attack Trump and give aid and comfort to those working against the Jewish State.

The ADL has been one of the loudest voices against Trump. But while the former Jewish civil rights organization claims that it’s protecting Jewish values, it’s partnering with vocal opponents of the Jewish State. Its new campaign against Trump is normalizing organizations that are hostile to Israel.

While the headlines for ADL events rarely mention them, behind the latest splashy rally or conference vowing to fight “hate” are groups that hate and fight against the rights of Jews to live in Israel.

On a cold day in Boston, the Anti-Defamation League of New England rolled out its “Massachusetts Speaks Out Against Hate” rally. Top Boston political officials were in attendance. The ADL’s partners included the Greater Boston JCC and the JCRC, along with radical leftist groups, and J Street.

In New York City, the ADL convened what it billed as an inaugural summit on anti-Semitism. Its urgent title, and accompanying hashtag, was #NeverisNow. It promised TED Talks and “interactive sessions on the challenges posed by modern-day anti-Semitism.”

Instead it provided a platform for opponents of Israel to spew their hatred at the Jewish State.

The star of #NeverisNow was Ford Foundation CEO Darren Walker. The Ford Foundation not only financed much of the groundwork for the left’s wave of anti-Semitism, but it backed Black Lives Matter and funds various anti-Israel groups.

But it got worse.

Instead of wholly and utterly rejecting delegitimization of Israel, the ADL asked it as a question.

The “Is Delegitimization of Israel Anti-Semitism?” panel gave anti-Israel activist Jill Jacobs and the Forward’s Jane Eisner a forum. Jacobs denounced the Israeli “occupation” and argued that Jews had to stop equating attacks on Israel with anti-Semitism. She defended BDS tactics against accusations of anti-Semitism and criticized the Jewish community for backing legislation opposed to BDS.

Jordan is the existing Palestinian State…The Arabs in their duplicity know that and any Arab sovereignty in Judea and Samaria will lead to unending war.rsk
If the international community wants to see Israel make dangerous concessions, then they, and they alone, must ensure that Israel has a united and pragmatic peace partner.

This should be Israel’s basic demand: that a united Palestinian political leadership will recognize the right of all the citizens of the Jewish State of Israel to live in peace and security, alongside the State of Palestine.

It is that simple. That is all it takes.

The notion that the creation of a state of Palestine will herald everlasting peace is naïve in the extreme.

After 50 years of a two-state failure, the French and other diplomats, in their duplicitously-named “peace initiative,” have no other idea for how to settle the Palestinian problem, except to behave like parched men trudging across a burning desert toward a distant mirage that they think is an oasis paradise. It is not, and the same diplomats will take no responsibility for cleaning up the dangerous outcome of such a disaster.

The international community is pressuring Israel to make wholesale concessions in territory and security, risking social and political upheaval, to grant the so-called Palestinians a state of their own.

The sole criterion for making this happen is for the international community to accept the Palestinian precondition of forcing Israel withdraw to pre-1967 lines, which are the 1949 armistice lines and not a defined border.

Arthur Herman’s essay, “Everybody Loves Israel,” comes as a breath of fresh air amid the pummelings being administered by the United Nations and the BDS movement and the dirge-like laments of friends about the Jewish state’s growing isolation as it courts a fate worse even than apartheid South Africa’s.

True, Herman’s title may be overstated, as he himself concedes, and the same can be said about some of the candidates he brings forward in support of his optimistic thesis, including Russia and China. Thus, for example, Yaakov Amidror has pointed to the approving votes cast by those two countries for UNESCO’s recent denial of a Jewish link to the city of Jerusalem: a sharp reminder of the limits of state-to-state relationships not based on moral affinities. Robert Satloff, in his own response to Herman at Mosaic, strikes a similar note of caution.

Yet, essentially, Herman is on the right track. And for me personally, as one who has been “on the scene” in Israel, serving six years (2009-2015) as deputy national-security adviser for foreign affairs, his positive assessment serves to vindicate a strategy pursued by politicians and policy makers deliberately and systematically (insofar as the latter term can ever be applied to Israeli life) for the better part of a decade, with remarkable results.

But let me start where Herman ends: none of Israel’s achievements in fashioning new partnerships on the world stage can or should in any way reduce the importance—the absolute centrality—of the U.S.-Israel bond. For the foreseeable future, Israel’s security and diplomatic support must continue to come from Washington. Whoever is in the White House, nothing is more important to Israel’s survival and prosperity than the bipartisan commitment of the world’s greatest power, which also happens to be the home of the world’s second-largest Jewish community. We Israelis must constantly be on our guard to nurture and sustain that commitment, and never take it for granted.

In this connection, what Herman does help us grasp is that Israel, for all the aid it receives, does in fact repay America for its support, and much more. Not only do we Israelis fulfill our obligation to keep our immediate vicinity safe, and to seek political and diplomatic understandings wherever we can without jeopardizing that safety, but we also accept strict limits on our trade with America’s rivals. A case in point is China, a country with which trade could long ago have reached much higher levels had Israel not been bound by its promises to the U.S.http://mosaicmagazine.com/response/2016/11/for-israel-the-task-is-to-work-even-harder-to-keep-old-friends-and-reach-out-to-new-ones/

Indeed, not just China but Asia as a whole has loomed large as a land of opportunity for Israel’s last three prime ministers: Ariel Sharon, who visited India and presided over a dramatic breakthrough; Ehud Olmert, whose refugee grandfather is buried in Harbin and who led Israel’s mission to the 2010 World’s Fair in Shanghai; and Benjamin Netanyahu, who in addition has forged a strong and amicable relationship with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. And this is not to mention the ongoing efforts to bolster cultural as well as economic relations further with China and simultaneously to balance them by means of strong links with some relatively smaller Asian players—the population of “little” Vietnam alone stands at about 100 million—as well as a number of the truly small ones in this tense world arena.

Moving clockwise around the globe, we come to Africa. The prime minister’s visit to Uganda earlier this year was particularly redolent with symbolism. Forty years ago, a Ugandan bullet took his brother Yonatan’s life in Israel’s dramatic rescue operation at Entebbe airport. In the clash, which resulted in the rescue of 248 hostages, more than 40 Ugandan soldiers were also killed. Far from a cause of lingering rancor, however, that dramatic event has come to be seen by many in Uganda as the beginning of their salvation from Idi Amin’s demented rule. In Kampala and far beyond—Netanyahu’s itinerary also took in visits to Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia—Israel is regarded as a friend in need.

From Africa, crossing the Atlantic, we arrive in Latin America. Much reviled by Venezuela’s late Marxist-Leninist president Hugo Chávez and his ilk, Israel has had an easier time finding a place as a friendly observer at the Pacific Alliance (Alianza del Pacifico, a trading bloc comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) as well as at the larger Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Winds of change are blowing elsewhere in the region as well, and new opportunities are opening up. As Israel’s curious friendship with Ecuador suggests, the heirs of Simón Bolivar are not all equally hostile, and some have come to appreciate how much Israel has to offer to countries seeking to rise through economic innovation