January 31, 2011 | 12:09 am

Israel, Egypt and the ‘F’ Word

Posted by Rob Eshman

Israelis and their supporters are wondering whether the uprising in Egypt is good for Israel.  They want to know: Will it bring a radical Muslim government to power?  Will outgoing strongman Hosni Mubarak’s replacement stick by the country’s treaties with Israel? Will a new Egypt keep supplying Israel with natural gas?  Will a new Egypt cooperate to stop Hamas terrorists in Gaza from attacking Israel?

The fearmongerers and fatalists are already at the megaphones.  Pro-Israel Web sites are full of well-recycled gotcha quotes from Mohammed El Baradei, Egypt’s apparent next leader, “proving” that he has it in for Israel.  Overnight, the same people who have long pointed to the cold peace with Egypt as Exhibit A for why Israel shouldn’t cede an inch of land to any Arab government are now rushing to defend Mubarak as a stalwart ally.

Meanwhile, Israel’s official response has been first silence, then a strident call for stability, which can easily be understood to mean support for the current regime.

What’s going on? A massive, heartfelt liberation sweeps through the most populous Arab country in the world, with the prospect of rescuing future generations from drowning in oppression and stagnation.  The Arab street cries freedom, and what do we cry?  Oy!

True, the uprising is chaotic and messy, its potential outcomes treacherous.  But what did we expect?  We paid for stability with billions of dollars.  The Egyptians paid for it with repression, fear, torture and corruption.  We got peace, they got blood on prison walls.  How long did we think that was going to last?  Fascism fell, Communism fell. Anybody who believed the screw wouldn’t eventually turn in the Middle East doesn’t think much of history, or of Arabs.

“That the pursuit of Arab peace came at the expense of Arab democracy is nothing new,” Shadi Hamid wrote in a long, prescient article about Egypt in the journal Democracy just last month.

“In short, the pursuit of peace came to depend on prevailing authoritarian structures. Unless autocracy can be made permanent–and there is little reason to think that it can–this state of affairs is unsustainable.”

How did the geniuses at Council of Foreign Relations and the State Department and Mossad think it was going to end?  That Mubarak was going to wake up one day and decide unlimited power, privilege and wealth were just not his thing after all?  Mubarak’s paralysis in the face of the demonstrations proves that he knew well what it took his “good friend” Hillary Clinton so long to fathom: his people despise him.  One Cairo protester I saw on CNN held up a sign that said it all:

Mubarak you must get it we hate you.

And liberation is messy. The movie version, the one Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney promised us would play out in Baghdad, involves half-tracks and daisies, candy for the children and gallows for the bad guys.  That is fantasy.

We Jews know better.  Think of the Allied victory in World War II: What lay ahead for the peoples of Europe were limbo and violence.

“It was a time without structure or form,” William I.  Hitchcock wrote in “The Bitter Road to Freedom,” “a time of uncertainty, fear and loss.”

But just because we have no right to expect the best, there’s no reason to fear the worst (other than the fact that, of course, we’re Jews).  The Egyptian uprising is hate-fueled but hope-filled.

“I urge you to look at the positive aspect of what’s going on,”  Egyptian-born columnist Mona Eltahawy pleaded with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.  “This is a peaceful uprising that wants freedom and dignity for the Egyptian people. This is an internal Egyptian issue.”

In other words: It’s not about us.  Yes, there have been images of protesters holding portraits of Mubarak with a Star of David scrawled onto his forehead. But, fundamentally, this uprising, as in Tunisia, as in nascent protests in Jordan, Yemen and other Arab lands, is about freedom.

Is that so terrible?  Terrifying, maybe, but terrible?  We Jews celebrate freedom in our central narrative, Passover.  We understand through the story of the Exodus that freedom is borne of a measure of chaos and uncertainty—the death of the firstborn,  Pharaoh’s change of heart, all those frogs and boils.  But we also understand that it is not just the Jewish story, it is the human story—it is human destiny.

How dare we, in our response to the courageous, suffering people of Egypt, turn freedom into the F word.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement calling on Western governments to preserve stability in Egypt: “The peace between Israel and Egypt has lasted for more than three decades, and our objective is to ensure that these relations will continue to exist,” Netanyahu said. “We are closely monitoring events in Egypt and the region and are making efforts to preserve its security and stability.” It’s true. Stability is critical in the Middle East, and for Israel, but it can’t be had at the expense of human dignity.  Otherwise it is a false stability.  Now Israel has to secure its peace not just with some man who claims to represent Egypt, but with Egyptians.

The more insightful comment came from the man who may be the next leader of Egypt, Mohamed El Baradei.  Speaking to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about the protests, El Baradei said, “That’s what you get after 30 years of brutal dictatorship in the name of stability.”

The worse case scenario for Israel is for an anti-Israel regime to take power and decide it wants to undo Egypt’s international obligations, forgo billions in foreign aid and investment and start a war with a far more powerful neighbor instead of delivering on promises for economic growth to the masses.

The best case scenario is for Egypt to transition to a national unity government, institute free and fair elections, develop a far less corrupt and freer economy, and find a working partnership with its neighbor Israel and her powerful ally.  This scenario is the “Roadmap to Peace” that Israel and her friends need to support.

Jews’ key concern comes down to the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the first myths the uprising destroyed, according to El Baradei and others, was that only Mubarak’s iron rule kept the overwhelming force of Islamic extremism at bay.

“If given an array of choices, I believe that the Egyptian people will choose a democratic future of freedom and not an Islamist future of imposed extremism,” former Bush national security advisor Stephen Hadley wrote this week in The Washington Post. “While the Muslim Brotherhood, if legalized, would certainly win seats in a new parliament, there is every likelihood that the next Egyptian government will not be a Muslim Brotherhood government but a non-Islamist one committed to building a free and democratic Egypt.”

Ben-Gurion University Professor Yoram Meital, an Egypt expert, affirmed Hadley’s outlook. A victory for the Muslim Brotherhood, he said, should not be seen as a foregone conclusion.

“While they dominated the opposition under Mubarak’s draconian regime,” Meital said, “a more open political system could engender a different kind of politics.”

I don’t believe democracy will turn the Muslim Brotherhood into the Temple Sisterhood.  But there’s every indication that largely secular Egyptians didn’t just risk their lives and their future only to turn their country over to a new oppressor. Yasser Ghoname, an American-educated Egyptian judge, told me that nothing in Egyptian culture or history indicates they’d accept an Iranian or Saudi Arabian lifestyle.

There’s no indication that Egyptians threw off oppression in order to re-fight a war with Israel.

“The last 30 years the only good thing Mubarak did is keeping peace with Israel,” Ghoname told me.  “This generation is the peace generation.”

Popular anger over the Israeli-Egyptian peace, Ghoname said, arose mostly from the fact that the prosperity promised as a peace dividend accrued only to the Israelis and to Mubarak and his cronies.
“Lately, the Egyptians started to think, what is the different between peace and war if most of the Egyptians live the same kind of life as in Gaza?” Ghoname said.

It will be an adjustment for Israel, dealing with parliaments rather than dictators.  One implication is that the Arab street will have even more impact on Arab leaders, who will actually be accountable to their people.  If a free Egypt allows a truly free press, that means Israel will be able to make a better case for itself directly to the Egyptian people.  It means that cynical Arab dictators will no longer be able to use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a smokescreen for their own shortcomings.  If anything,  the uprising disproves the idea that Israel was the cause of Arab anger.  That’s the upside.

The challenge is that Israel won’t be able to rely on the force of a single autocrat to bypass Egyptian popular opinion. Those voters may decide on policies that would force Israel to choose between continued occupation of 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank or fully normalized relations with the most populous Arab nation on earth.  Israel, which always prided itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East,  may have to rush to keep up.

Cry “Oy” all you want, but look what just happened: a massive democratic revolution rocked the heart of the Arab world. The men and woman who carried it off did so without violence, without suicide bombs, without calls for jihad or massive “Death to America!” demonstrations.  Look at that, and take a little heart.

In the long run, for all its potential dangers and risks, this uprising may well provide more true stability for Israel and the region. This was the point of George W. Bush’s democratization policy and the thrust of Barack Obama’s Cairo speech.  Both Neo-Cons and liberals agreed with this analysis, while disagreeing on how best to achieve it.

Now that argument is over: the Tunisian and Egyptian people have stepped up to take democracy into their own hands. With any luck, the result of the Jan 25 revolution will be a Middle East that has more freedom and less fantasy.

And that is very, very good for Israel, and for us all.

January 30, 2011 | 11:25 pm

“King’s” view on Jews fact or smear?

Posted by  Tom Tugend

Was George VI, protagonist of “The King’s Speech,” a Nazi sympathizer or is someone just trying to trip up the front-running Oscar contender?

That’s the question raised by film critic Jennifer Lipman of the UK’s Jewish Chronicle.

The story has taken a somewhat circuitous route, starting with an anonymous e-mail sent to Hollywood blogger Scott Feinberg, as well as to Academy members and entertainment industry executives.

In his missive, Anonymous accused the “King’s” creators of “glossing over the Nazi-sympathizing past of the tongue-tied monarch.”

Back-up for the charge is drawn from a 2002 article in the London-based Observer probing secret historical documents regarding the king and his attitude toward Jews, as the Nazis tightened the vise.

According to the Observer story, when George VI discovered that “Jewish refugees were surreptitiously getting into Palestine,” the king “was glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people from leaving their country of origin.”

Allegedly, George VI also asked his foreign secretary “to encourage the German government to check the unauthorised emigration of Jews.”

Since the “German government,” at this point, was doing everything possible to kick out the country’s Jews, the monarch’s statement, if true, points to a staggering naiveté that, by comparison, makes Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain look like a hard-headed realist.

The anonymous message also highlights a post to the New York Magazine, in which a blogger “feels morally compelled to note that …when it came to actively working to stymie Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany, George actually communicated quite eloquently.”

However, considering the timing of the story targeting mainly Academy voters, Feinberg raises the justified suspicion that the “revelation” may be part of a “coordinated smear campaign—orchestrated by someone with a vested interest.”

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January 30, 2011 | 9:07 pm

Israelis Win at 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Posted by Naomi Pfefferman

By Larry Mark

Two Israeli filmmakers were among the official award recipients of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which ended today.

Erez Kav-El won the award for best world cinema dramatic screenplay for his script for ”Restoration,” the only Israeli film in the official festival. He wasn’t at the ceremony, so the film’s director, Yossi Madmony, stepped up to the podium to accept the award in Erez’s behalf. Madmony is lucky he was even able to get to the awards. An hour earlier, he had locked himself out of his Park City condo. Luckily, he made it in time.

“Restoration”, which is also known in Israel as “Boker Tov Adom Fidelman,” is the magical wake up call for and story of Yaakov Fidelman (Sasso Gabay) and his Israeli shop that restores antique furniture; from the shop he can shut out the world. Yaakov knows wood. His business partner, Maxim Malamud, knows people. Actually, Maxim KNEW people. Maxim has suddenly died (after a tryst with a prostitute), and with the loss of the shop’s public face and personality, the business might not survive. Maxim provided Yaakov with the personality he never developed, sort of like the way a twin (Esau) would have taken half the assets.

Yaakov’s son, Noah (Nevo Kimchi), is an attorney with great ambitions. Noah and the quietly dour Yaakov have never been close as father and son, and one can say that Noah perceived Maxim more as his father. Noah says kaddish for the childless Maxim. Noah would prefer to close the shop, forget about restorations, and build apartments atop the workshop.

Anton (Henry David), a mysterious, homeless, former pianist enters the store and becomes Yaakov’s assistant and “new son.” Anton notices the century-old Steinway in the corner of the shop. Restoring and selling it would generate the needed cash to save the shop, but it doesn’t just need restored wood, it needs more, just like the Tin Man, Lion, and Pinocchio. Anton also eyes Noah’s very pregnant wife. Chava/Eve (Sarah Adler), a former Israeli teen idol. Notice the names… sure “Maxim” means great, “Fidelman” means faithful, but with names like Yaakov, Hava, and Noah, you know it’s gonna get very biblical… or not.

The four- piece chamber music score by Avi Belleli quietly reinforces the tensions between the four primary characters
Madmony, who previously co-directed “The Barbeque People (2003), worked on the script with Erez Kav-El for 18 months before even shooting it. His budget was $400,000. Madmony is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem. Erez Kav-El’s previous scripts included one for “Five Hours from Paris (Hamesh Shaot m’Pariz),” a 2009 film about an Israeli cab diver who fears flying (but not Israeli traffic), who meets a Russian-born woman in a humble suburb of Tel Aviv. She is a teacher about to fly five hours to Paris.

Another script was for “Like a Fish Out of Water,” a 2007 Israeli TV comedy about a new oleh from Argentina who falls for his Israeli Hebrew teacher. Erez is on the faculty of Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv.
Without a hint of politics, many critics saw “Restoration” as a turning point in international Israeli cinema.

This year, the Sundance Institute partnered with the Mahindra Group, one of the largest companies in India, to create the Mumbai Mantra|Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and the Sundance Institute|Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award. One of the five recipients was Talya Lavie for her film “Zero Motivation.” Her film is a slightly comic look at the power struggles of three female clerks over one year in an administrative office at a remote army base in the Israeli desert.

In “Zero Motivation,” three consecutive stories (“The Substitute,” “The Virgin” and “The Commander”) recount the events at an army base, but unlike other army genre films, the female clerical staff members have the lead roles. The film depicts the three soldiers’ journeys inside the maze of military bureaucracy. To paraphrase Anton Chekhov’s letter to A. S. Gruzinsky in 1889, “If you put a loaded staple gun in the first act, it better get fired in the next act.”

Talya Lavie, a resident of Tel Aviv, is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem and studied the Bezalel Art Academy.

Mazel tov to these two winning films, and those involved in their creation.

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January 30, 2011 | 5:04 pm

Second Day of Rallies in Los Angeles Support Egyptians [VIDEO]

Posted by Ryan Torok

Rain fell on Sunday, January 30, but for the second consecutive day, Egyptian-Americans in Los Angeles gathered to show support for Egyptians in Egypt, echoing calls there for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

For the past six days, Egyptians in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other Egyptian cities have protested against the current Egyptian government. Thousands have marched in the streets and used social networking tools to organize demonstrations in the name of social, political and economic reforms, breaking a state-imposed curfew and often clashing violently with Egyptian police, inspired by events in Tunisia, where protestors successfully ousted the former president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

“The whole world is worried about the Muslim extremists taking over, that’s not going to happen,” said Aziz Elattar, an Egyptian-American engineer who attended Sunday’s rally. “The Egyptians don’t want that.”

The demonstration in Los Angeles took place outside the Egyptian consulate’s local office, at Wilshire Boulevard at Highland Avenue, and approximately 200 and 300 came, estimated Suliman Suliman, president of the Society of Egyptian Americans, one of the groups that organized the demonstration. A Los Angeles Police Department official estimated a turnout of approximately 100. At the height of the rally, after the rain stopped around 1:30 p.m., the organizer’s estimate appeared more accurate. The crowds began forming around 12:30 p.m.

“I am an Egyptian and now I can say I am proud to be Egyptian,” said Amal Omar, an Egyptian-American mother who also participated in the demonstration on Sunday. She also expressed her hope that Mubarak resigns.

Like the rally in Los Angeles on Saturday—which took place outside the Federal Building in Westwood—demonstrators at the Egyptian consulate waved Egyptian flags and held signs that showed their solidarity with the Egyptian revolt, such as “Free Egypt, Free the Protestors”,” and chanted, in English and Arabic, anti-Mubarak messages. Many repeatedly shouted in unison, “Hey Obama, you will see; Mubarak will fall like Ben Ali.”

Watch an interview with Elattar below.

Watch footage of the rally below.

 

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January 29, 2011 | 7:36 pm

Where are the Women in the Global Future Discourse?  Special Report from the World Economic Forum

Posted Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

It has been hard not to notice that speaker after speaker here in Davos are men. Where are the women in these conversations?

This year, for the first time, the World Economic Forum introduced a gender quota that one in five delegates sent by strategic partners must be female. Women have never made up more than 17% of total attendees at the Forum. This is not surprising given that women hold less than 3% of Fortune 500 CEO positions.

My concern is not only about gender equality. We need to ensure that young girls around the world have role models that can inspire them to serve and lead to create a more just world. Who will enthuse the next generation of women?

Further, having women in management is fiscally smart, according to this McKinsey survey. Companies with more women in key executive positions were found to deliver a 34% higher return to shareholders.

All of our organizations, local and global, should strive to better model gender equality. It is not only just but also good for business and the global future.

G-d says in the creation story “Lo Tov Heyot Ha’Adam Livado,” it is not good for man to live alone. Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, repeats that it is “lo tov” for Moshe to lead alone. The statement to Adam was a human existential point while the point to Moshe was a political strategic point.

It is “lo tov,” neither wise nor just, to live or lead alone. May the Jewish community in the coming decade lead the way in ensuring that all voices are present in molding our future. 

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel, Founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, and a fifth-year doctoral candidate in moral psychology and epistemology at Columbia University.

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January 29, 2011 | 4:37 pm

Los Angeles Demonstrations Support Egyptian People [VIDEO]

Posted by Ryan Torok

Egyptian-Americans in Los Angeles—showing solidarity with Egyptians who have been protesting in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other Egyptian cities the past five days and calling for a regime change—came together on January 29, echoing the Egyptian peoples’ call against their president Hosni Mubarak, demanding that Mubarak resign, vocalizing Egyptian pride and criticizing United State’s longstanding aid to Mubarak’s government.

Gathering outside the Federal Building in Westwood, peaceful demonstrators waved Egyptian flags and carried signs that said, “Step down you traitor,” Mubarak Out,” and Stop USA Support of Mubarak,” standing on both sides of the street around 1:30 p.m, chanting in English and Arabic and encouraging cars driving by on Wilshire Boulevard to honk their horns in support of their message.

Organizers of Saturday’s rally estimated that between 500 and 600 people had attended, but a Los Angeles Police Department official at the demonstration said between 100 and 500 people participated. Many non-Egyptian Americans were there as well.

Abdulrahman Shabana, a student at Cal State University, wrapped his body at in an Egyptian flag during Saturday’s event.

“[For] 30 years the Egyptians have suffered,” he said. “That is enough for us.”

Earlier in the day, a smaller protest took place outside the Egyptian consulate’s local office, which approximately 20 people showed for. At the rally, Sarah Knopp, a teacher and organizer on behalf of Socialworker.org, led the crowd in chants that included, “Brick by brick, wall by wall; we’re going to see Mubarak fall.”

Another protest is planned for January 30, this one also expected to form outside Egyptian consulate’s local office.

Watch a video below of Egyptian-Americans and others rallying in Westwood, calling for the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

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January 29, 2011 | 4:04 pm

Do or did you know Bob Dylan—The BBC wants you

Posted by  Tom Tugend

Did you go to Hebrew school with Bob Dylan in Hibbing, Minnesota, attend his bar mitzvah, shlep to synagogue with him, meet him in Israel, or had any “Jewish” contact with him?

If so, a British producer would like to talk to you in preparation for an upcoming BBC special, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door—Dylan’s Spiritual Journey.”

The radio documentary will air on May 24, to coincide with Dylan’s 70th birthday.

Each interview will last about 30 minutes and will be “informal and relaxed” assures John Sugar, whose production company is putting together the program, hosted by actor Steven Berkoff.


To follow up, contact the producer asap at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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January 28, 2011 | 5:00 pm

Global Affairs: A Balancing Act?  Special Report from the World Economic Forum

Posted Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

As global politicians, corporate executives, and thought leaders exchange business cards at a rapid rate here in Davos, two things are clear: on the one hand these brilliant powerful leaders have great influence over the global economy, and on the other hand no one is in control of this extremely complex system. The conversations are empowering and humbling. 

At the World Economic Forum there is still a lingering western pessimism regarding high soaring deficits, aging baby-boomers, and immigration issues. Economic recovery has begun on Wall Street and on the corporate front, but not yet in unemployment. However, it seems that nations in the southern hemisphere are more hopeful about the future. China, India, and Brazil are on the rise, and perhaps most promising is the expectation for Africa’s economy to grow by 5.2% in 2011.

This is a very positive trend, given the growing economic disparity between nations. The income inequality in America itself is staggering with the net worth of the wealthiest 1% of homes being equal to the net worth of the poorest 90%. What is clear is that governments must now move from extremes to moderation, and to better ensuring that the most vulnerable on our planet can most fully access basic resources and opportunities.

The great economist Jeffrey Sachs, here in Davos, suggested that in 2011 we must embrace a new “judicious equilibrium” with five rebalancing acts, between:
1. The rich and the poor
2. The present and the future
3. Production and nature
4. Work and leisure
5. Defense and international development

I would suggest three other priorities, as we move forward. Corporate leaders must seek a greater balance between profit-seeking and social responsibility, as addressing social ills cannot be the burden of government and non-profits alone. Secondly, the US government must clearly find a greater balance between stimulating growth to ensure recovery, and then addressing deficit issues through financial restraint. Additionally, we must balance competition and collaboration in the global marketplace so that our inner-connected relationships do not lead to zero-sum games.

In a conversation about work-life balance a rabbinic colleague wisely shared with me that in his personal life he doesn’t seek balance but integrity. Balance, which can lead to content mediocrity, is not an ideal Jewish value. Rather we must live with the unbalanced tension between core values.

Isaiah Berlin wrote that we must hold to a “pluralism of values,” suggesting a moral pragmatism for navigating this vale of tears: “Principles are no less sacred because their duration cannot be guaranteed.” We cannot operate responsibility with absolutes nor can we live fully with perfect balance. Rather we must seek to thrive within tension and struggle.

We must re-embrace an ethic of moderation and a perseverance to responsibly operate in a chaotic ambiguous world without retreating to the comforts of simple absolutes or comfortable middle grounds. It’s clear here in Davos that the U.S. government’s failure to properly regulate its financial markets away from extremes and greed has not only harmed American credibility but has also caused great damage worldwide.

Maimonides (Hilkhot Deot 1: 5) taught that there are two praiseworthy paradigms for the virtuous life: the sage and the saint. The sage lives with moderation (pragmatism) while the saint embraces ideals (perfection). I would propose that today our government should operate as the sage finding balance and that individuals should strive to be saints to achieve ideals. Together an ecosystem of sages and saints can heal the world in the coming decade.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel, Founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, and a fifth-year doctoral candidate in moral psychology and epistemology at Columbia University.

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