Reaction to Israel's Aid to Nepal Following Earthquake

There are times when you realize that people are just going to be critical of you no matter what you do. It's at those times that you just have to shrug and rhetorically ask, "What can you do?"

Israel finds itself in that position often. As the only true democracy in the Middle East with neighboring countries committing human rights abuses on a daily basis, Israel is considered by the United Nations to be the worst violator of human rights -- not Iran, North Korea or Syria. At the end of last month, The U.N. Human Rights Council completed its final session in Geneva and adopted four resolutions condemning Israel, which is four times more than any of the other 192 UN member states. Amazing!

Yesterday, I had to laugh when I read a tweet by Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. Roth was commenting on the news that Israel rushed a medical team to help the victims of the horrific earthquake in Nepal. The fact that Israel was quick to send humanitarian aid and medical support to a catastrophe is nothing new. Israel is often one of the first nations to respond whenever there is a need for major disaster relief. Here is the tweet from Roth of HRW::

Easier to address a far-away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza. End the blockade! https://t.co/PUISAcGwqY
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) April 26, 2015

Israel Can't Be the Third Rail

Rabbi Brant Rosen, a Reconstructionist rabbi in Evanston, Illinois, took me to task in January 2013 for writing a blog post supporting SodaStream, the Israeli company that produces home water carbonation machines. This was a week before the 2013 Super Bowl in which SodaStream created a lot of buzz with their expensive "Set the Bubbles Free" commercial during the game (this was a year before SodaStream's big hype Scarlett Johansson Super Bowl commercial). Rosen closed his blog post stating that "those concerned with human rights should know that freedom for real, living breathing human beings is what is truly at stake here."

Well, if Rabbi Rosen understood my argument correctly he would have understood that SodaStream employs over 500 West Bank Palestinians in addition to about the same number of Arabs from eastern Jerusalem and paying them a fair wage. Rosen's call to boycott SodaStream would actually end up hurting the very goal of Palestinian rights that he's trying to achieve.

Why am I bringing up Rabbi Brant Rosen and his misinformed blog post almost two years later? It is because Rosen recently resigned his position at his pulpit after his anti-Israel views caused too much dissent within his congregation. His very public resignation (he says he was not forced out by the board) has led to much discussion among rabbis (of all denominations) as to whether voicing opinions on Israel has become the third rail of the North American rabbinate.

Ohio University's Anti-Israel Student President Does Blood Bucket Challenge Calling for BDS

The president of the student body at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio was challenged in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by Dr. Roderick J. McDavis, the president of the university. However, rather than dumping a bucket of ice water on her head (like millions of others have already done this summer), Megan Marzec dumped a bucket of fake blood over her head in protest of Israel and then encourages an academic boycott of Israel on behalf of Ohio University. Marzec has since deactivated her Facebook account and made the video password protected on her Vimeo account.

Before dumping a bucket of fake blood over her head, Marzec (wearing a pink shirt stating "Ohio U Divest From Israel") says in the video, "I'm sending a message of student concern of the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state. I'm urging you, and OU, to divest and cut all ties with academic and other Israeli businesses and institutions," she said during in video. "This bucket of blood symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered Palestinians atrocities which OU is directly complacent in your cultural and economic support of the Israeli state." The video closes with red text stating "FREE PALESTINE" and "For more information on bringing BDS to Ohio University contact Megan Marzec," with her email address provided (mm590410@ohio.edu), follows that, and then the video ends.

The Kidnapping of Hadar Goldin

As Israel's war with Gaza continues, peace-loving people around the world become more agitated that a peaceful conclusion seems so far away, if attainable at all. Operation Protective Edge turned into a ground war over a week ago and that has meant more deaths on both sides. It is now the 25th day of the conflict and the death toll in the Israeli military has reached 56 with an additional three civilians.

The most disturbing news out of Gaza is that an Israeli soldier, Hadar Goldin, has been kidnapped. Goldin is a member of the Givati Brigade. The Times of Israel reported earlier today that "The father of captured soldier 2nd-Lt. Hadar Goldin, Simha Goldin, says he's 'sure the army will not let up for a moment and will turn over every stone in Gaza to bring back Hadar safe and sound.'"

At a press conference earlier today President Obama condemned the kidnapping of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, saying, "We have unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two soldiers, and abducting a third, almost minutes after a ceasefire was announced.  That soldier needs to be unconditionally released, as soon as possible."

As Shabbat approaches here in the United States, I've written the following prayer for these difficult times in which a young man who was protecting the Jewish homeland is now missing:

"May the Lord our God protect captured Israeli soldier 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin (Hadar ben Chedva Leah) and safeguard him from all harm. May God's canopy of peace spread out among all of God's children to bring an end to this conflict. May we soon see peace in the land and security throughout the region."

Shabbat Shalom!

UPDATE: The IDF confirmed that Hadar Goldin was killed by Hamas on Saturday night Israel time.

Celebrities For and Against Israel: Should We Care?

First, I stopped listening to all Pink Floyd music and even went so far as to change the channel when one of their songs came on the radio. Then, following Mick and Keith's concert in Israel, I fell in love with the music of The Rolling Stones all over again. Then my favorite late night TV talking head Jon Stewart broke my heart. But Hillary Clinton promptly put him in his place. And then I tried to defend my favorite singer Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, arguing it was just an alcohol-induced tirade against war in general, but to no avail. But there was Neil Young (the Eddie Vedder of a prior generation?) standing up for Israel, which seemed to counter Eddie's drunken rant.

Eddie Vedder (Photo by Jason Oxenham)

I was then quick to celebrate Bill Maher and Howard Stern for their steadfast support of Israel, but immediately found myself back on the defensive when Hollywood celebrities like Rihanna, Ryan Gosling, Selena Gomez and One Direction's Zayn Malik fired off tweets expressing their love and support for the "Free Palestine" movement. Then, like a Hollywood version of Iron Dome, Jewish celebs Scarlett Johansson, Dr. Ruth and Mayim Bialik fired back with level-headed Pro-Israel tweets. Joan Rivers ripped Selena Gomez as ignorant when TMZ.com ran into her at the airport and asked about the singer's pro-Palestinian tweet. NBA star Dwight Howard promptly removed his anti-Israel tweet, but Israeli pro basketball player Omri Casspi shot off a few quick tweets of his own with facts about the hundreds of Gazan missiles directed at Israel.

One anti-Israel Facebook page listed the many celebrities who have voiced support for Israel. The list, including such names as Adam Sandler, Amare Stoudemire, Annette Bening, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ashton Kutcher (and those are just the A's), appears to be more of a hastily thrown together list of who's who in Hollywood with over three hundred names. Today, it was announced that one hundred Spanish celebs, including Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, have signed on to a petition in support of Gaza in the ongoing crisis with Israel.

Israel's Gaza Situation Becomes Cyber War

Social media changes the zeitgeist in ways we couldn't have imagined. As we saw with the recent presidential election, opinions and attacks now travel at the speed of light. And so it should be no surprise that the ongoing Middle East conflict in Gaza between the Palestinians and Israelis has escalated into a Cyber war.

While the conflict may seem like history repeating itself, social media is actually changing the way the public sees the violence. As several news agencies have reported,Israel is now using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube to its advantage in its war with Hamas in Gaza. In the past Israel has had to rely upon mainstream news agencies to report on the back-and-forth actions in Gaza, but now the Israeli military and government can take its message straight to the people using its social networks.

As the LA Times reported today:

While Israel launched its surprise attack Wednesday on Gaza, it declared it to the world on Twitter, arguing its case for the new campaign against Hamas in less than 140 characters.

Minute by minute, the Israel Defense Forces fed followers information and arguments on the strike. At their computers, Internet users could click through aerial photos, check updates on the offensive and watch a YouTube video of the strike killing the Hamas military chief.

At one point, the Israeli military traded Twitter barbs with Hamas. “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead,” the @IDFSpokesperson account tweeted Wednesday.

The Hamas military wing tweeted back, “Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves).”

Tweeting the Flotilla Attack

Cross-posted at Jewish Techs

Peter Beinart's essay "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment" in The New York Review of Books argues that most of the mainstream American Jewish organizations have abandoned liberalism on the issues of the Middle East and are responsible for a generation of young Jews who hold no connection to Israel. He writes, "not only does the organized American Jewish community mostly avoid public criticism of the Israeli government, it tries to prevent others from leveling such criticism as well. In recent years, American Jewish organizations have waged a campaign to discredit the world’s most respected international human rights groups."

Beinhart's essay has of course drawn much criticism and debate within the American Jewish world, both from the right and the left.

Perhaps the best way to see the divide in the American Jewish community over Israel is to look at the dissemination of information and the debate on the Web today following the IDF raid of the Mavi Marmara and other ships in a flotilla traveling to Gaza.

Here's what happened today: American Jews woke up this morning -- a vacation day from work and school in commemoration of Memorial Day in the U.S. -- to learn that Israeli commandos raided a Gaza aid flotilla, killing nine and injuring dozens of others. Since American Jews didn't head to work this morning, there was no water cooler at which to debate the issues. Did the Israelis act in self-defense? Who struck first? Was the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid workers or political demonstrators? Did the men on the flotilla have guns and knives or was it a peaceful transport to Gaza? Were the IDF soldiers stabbed and beaten when they boarded the ship? Did the crew of the Gaza flotilla try to lynch the Israeli soldiers?

So, with no water cooler by which to stand, no office coffee to share, and no bus on which to commute, American Jews took the debate to Twitter. On the social media site users tweeted their latest discoveries from their choice online news networks. With links from Fox news, the Jerusalem Post, the New York Times, etc., Twitter users included hashtags featuring the newly popular term "flotilla" -- from the Spanish, meaning a small fleet of ships -- and voiced their opinion on the controversial event. Some pro-Israel tweets included the hashtag #freedomflotilla with the word "not" included parenthetically.

Some users of the microblogging service complained that Twitter apparently censored the #flotilla hashtag in discussions about the convoy deaths. Charles Arthur at the Guardian explained that Twitter didn't censor the #flotilla hashtag. Rather, as #flotilla began trending, users started using the #freedomflotilla hashtag in its place. Also, as Mike Butcher at Techcrunch points out: "This surely was a case of anti-spam filtering [as] there had already been a "flotilla" story in the past week - the anniversary of Dunkirk (for non-Britons: a dramatic rescue during the second world war of British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches by small craft). And Gaza is frequently topical. So Twitter's anti-spam algorithms - that is, the machines - likely decided that this was a spam attack trying to piggyback on old hashtags, and pushed the "#flotilla" hashtag out of the trending topics.

In addition to Twitter, YouTube also figured as a prominent player in today's Flotilla debates. Tweets sent readers to the YouTube site to view videos from both sides of the attack -- there was footage taken by the Israel Defense Forces of the  Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers as well as video footage from Al Jazeera of  Israeli troops storming the Gaza flotilla after the white flag was raised.

On this lazy Memorial Day Monday morning in the U.S., Americans had no where else to go other than the Web with their views on the situation in the Middle East. Perhaps this virtual debate over the flotilla attack is the best litmus test for Beinhart's assertion of how American Jews connect (or don't) with Israel.