Israel’s Presidential Conference with President Shimon Peres and Bloggers. Facing Tomorrow 2012: Border Experts from the Right and Left Debate Israel’s Future Borders and Beinart Warns “We Are Witnessing the Slow Decline of the Zionist Consensus”
Founder of Yisraelim Party: We need to do what’s right for the Jewish State
June 20, 2012 – Jerusalem, Israel – Nir Hefez, Chief Editor of the Ma’ariv daily newspaper, led a panel of experts from both sides of the political spectrum in which they shared ideas on Israel’s future borders and presented a simultaneous multimedia demonstration to provide a visual of the proposed border suggestions and their implications. Panelists addressed both geographical and demographic concerns and commented on the feasibility of drawing borders that would be acceptable to the international community, to the Palestinians and at the same time maintain the sustainability and safety of Israel.
Former West Bank Territorial Brigades Commander Gen. (Ret.) Ilan Paz stated that, in his view, “the demographical threat should dictate Israel’s action over geographical concerns.” Citing a population of more than 4 million in the Palestinian Territories, and the current Israeli population of 49% Jewish, 47% Arab, he claimed that, “by 2015 Jews will be the minority in Israel. This is really the existential threat – and this is the gist of the conflict between the left and the right.”
Caroline Glick, Senior Contributing Editor of the Jerusalem Post and Head of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles, disagreed with Paz, stating that these figures were highly skewed, and claimed that the demographic future belongs to the Jewish people. She argued that the Jews will still maintain a 2:1 ratio over the Arab population, citing the convergence of fertility rates and the potential mass Aliya (immigration) to Israel. Additionally, when referring to Jerusalem, she maintained that no one can argue that a sole sovereign model is the best solution when it comes to the protection of Israel’s citizens. “We have seen that sole Palestinian sovereignty –in Gaza- has failed. We have also seen that shared sovereignty in Judea and Samaria does not work. We have fulfilled our international obligation to attempt to reach an agreed reconciliation with the Palestinians. They have made it clear that they are unwilling to make peace with Israel and have shown that they are not interested in a Palestinian State. Instead they have focused their efforts on destroying the Jewish State.” In her opinion, Israeli withdrawal is the worst option and that “Israel belongs to the Jews by law and right and should stop hemming and hawing and just say it and rule it.”
Naftali Bennet, founder of the Yisraelim Party and former Director General of the Yesha Council suggested that the Palestinian Territory should have autonomy but should not be a State, and thus have no army and not be able to accept the influx of Palestinian refugees from the region. He highlighted the importance of not forcefully expelling any citizens from their homes, explaining that the implications of uprooting more than 120,000 additional people in Judea and Samaria is very worrisome. “I urge everyone to go out, walk the land, meet the people and see the life in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “If we had a Prime Minister like Begin who would apply sovereignty on Judea and Samaria, we would undoubtedly be condemned by the world for a few days but then life would move on. The world has bigger things on the agenda than Israel – including Greece and Syria. We need to do what’s right for the Jewish State.”
David Makovsky, Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Professor in Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said that an agreement between the two sides is “very possible, as the differences are not as wide as people think.” He suggests increasing the area of the proposed land swap to include more Jews on the Israel side and more Palestinians on the Palestinian side. “Instead of a 2.2 percent land swap, why not make it 4.4 percent, or even more? If we swap five percent of the land this would include places like Beit El and the North of Ariel and will leave just 60 thousands Israelis on the wrong side of the border.” While this is still a large number, he points out that it is still half the number of the proposed plan which would uproot 120 thousand.
Facing Tomorrow 2012, the fourth annual Conference under the auspices of the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres, is taking place in Jerusalem from June 19-21, 2012 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. The conference is organized in partnership with Hebrew University.
Facing Tomorrow 2012: Beinart Warns “We Are Witnessing the Slow Decline of the Zionist Consensus”
June 20, 2012 – Jerusalem, Israel – Peter Beinart, the former editor of The New Republic, and Abe Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League, headlined a panel at the 2012 Israeli Presidential Conference that discussed the evolving relationship between Israel and World Jewry. They were joined by Pierre Besnainou, Chair of the Israel Diaspora Paradigm Committee, Alana Newhouse, Editor-in-Chief of Tablet Magazine, and Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic.
The panel was highlighted by a heated debate over the status of relationship between Israel and World Jewry, and its ability to maintain its previous levels of closeness.
Beinart stated that the relationship is at risk of crisis largely because of a lack of willingness by the leadership of U.S. Jewry to deal openly and honestly with Israel. “What alienates young American Jews is the fact that they see Israelis criticizing Israeli policy, but they don’t hear the same candor from American Jews.”
Several panelists challenged Beinart’s perception of a crisis, with Alana Newhouse warning of the consequences of “crying wolf,” and worrying that the talk of an emergency could become “a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“My love and support for Israel is unconditional, it does not depend on the Israeli acceptance of my ideas,” said Foxman, who was critical of Beinart’s attacks on Israeli policy. “My Zionism is not in crisis because my Zionism is not conditioned on an idealized view of what I’d like Israel to be.”
All panelists agreed that the Diaspora community needed to focus more on Jewish education and introducing young Jews to the importance of Israel, with Wieseltier lamenting U.S. Jewry’s reliance on Israel for its Jewish identity.
“Israel was not created to relieve U.S. Jewry of the burden of creating its own identity,” said Wieseltier. “In so far as the weakening affiliation is real, a moment of truth is arriving for American Jews and we can finally see what kind of Judaism U.S. Jewry is capable of.”
Facing Tomorrow 2012, the fourth annual Conference under the auspices of the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres, is taking place in Jerusalem from June 19-21, 2012, and will take place at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. The conference is organized in partnership with Hebrew University.
