Advocacy for Israel

Am Yisrael Chai
Seeking Justice through Truth
Issue: # 36
April 17, 2009
Newsletter of The Committee for Truth and Justice

Caroline Glick

The Caroline Glick event was a great success. We had about 100 people, Jews and non-Jews. Ms Glick's presentation lasted about 1 hour, she took questions for about 45 minutes, and she signed books for about 30 minutes. The event was covered by the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle by reporter Leon Cohen and editor/photographer Elana Kahn-Oren. Ms Glick's presentation was well accepted and applauded by everyone, but one unintelligable heckler. The presentation was recorded and we expect to have a DVD of the event available in a few weeks. If you would like a DVD of the event please reply to the email address below.

We would like to thank all those who attended and all those who contributed. CTJ raises all of its funds one person at a time for each even at a time and each donation is greatly apprreciated.

The major Jewish organizations in Milwaukee, whose stated Mission is to support Israel, seem to think that bringing pro-Israel speakers to Milwaukee has no value. For this event we asked the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations (MJCCR) to lend its name to this event and they declined. We did not ask them for a penny, but they decided that they could not be bothered to show support for one of the most pro-Israel commentators and editors in the world: Caroline Glick.

This is not the first time that the MJCCR has refused to support in any way a pro-Israel speaker that we have brought to Milwaukee.

When the members of CTJ were members of Advocates for Israel of Milwaukee (AIM), the MJCCR also refused to support Cookie Lommel or Jospeh Abdel Wahed. The biographies of Ms Lommel and Mr Wahed and their organizations are below.

It is beyond our comprehension how the MJCCR could possibly reject supporting these pro-Israel advocacy programs and consider itself a pro-Israel group. The MJCCR claims on its web site that it is a pro-Israel advocacy group, but how? When was the last time you saw a pro-Israel advocacy program sponsored by the MJCCR; and how could a self professed pro-Israel advocacy group in Milwaukee refuse to even lend their name to programs by Cookie Lommel, Joseph Abdel Wahed and Caroline Glick?

But according to Caroline Glick, Milwaukee is not unique in this regard. According to Ms Glick, the major Jewish organizations all across the USA have been failing miserably in standing up for Israel. Yes, these groups do contribute money to Israel, but they fail to promote and support Israel in their local communities amongst the local population. This lack of public support for Israel by our major Jewish organizations leads to political problems for Israel as our legislators and citizens tend to hear only one side of the issue. This might explain why our congress woman, Gwen Moore, voted against USA support for Israel in the recent Gaza war with the terrorist group, Hamas. We wonder if MJCCR had stepped up and supported Cookie Lommel two years ago, and worked to use Ms Lommel as a bridge to the Black community of Milwaukee, whether Ms Moore might had voted differently.

While it is true that in most polls the majority of Americans do support Israel over the Palestinian Arabs, the margin of support is not large and it can easily be overcome by complacency. There is evidence of complacency especially amongst young American Jews. One young attendee to Ms Glick's talk specificallly addresed this issue as the audience demographics provided evidence for this problem as very few young Jews attended the talk. But if their parents, social groups, civic groups, and religious groups do not stand up for Israel why should we expect them to stand up for Israel?

It is time for this complacency to end, Israel cannot afford it; and it must start with our duly organized and funded Jewish groups like the MJCCR whose primary mission is supposed to be the support of Israel. Groups like the MJCCR should be leading the charge in support of Israel and should not have be asked and cajoled by very small unfunded groups like CTJ. CTJ, and in fact another similar small pro-Israel group, AIM, were formed BECAUSE our major Jewish organizations had failed in this regard. Caroline Glick has observed this as well all across the USA. She told us that she rarely gets invited by major Jewish organizations, it is always by small local groups like CTJ. This situation must end.
CTJ


cookie

Cookie Lommel is an African American journalist and founder/executive director of Operation Unity. Lommel founded Operation Unity in 1992, inspired by Israel's 1991 airlift of Ethiopian Jews. She saw the airlift as a humanitarian move that spoke to the possibilities of people coming together. She saw it as a reflection of the values embodied in an Israeli kibbutz, a village where cooperative labor provides for all the needs of the participants. The outgrowth of that inspiration was the founding of Operation Unity to involve American inner city students, young Ambassadors of Harmony, in the cooperative living environment of a kibbutz. The goal was to break down racial, ethnic and cultural barriers and promote an appreciation for what even people from diverse cultures can achieve by working together. Dozens of students from the Los Angeles Unified School District have successfully participated in the program as Young Ambassadors of Harmony.

Ms Lommel spoke at The Black-Jewish Seder sponsored by the American Jewish Committee as well as the Burleigh Enterprise Center. Ms Lommel was interviewed for a story printed in the Black newspaper, Milwaukee Courier, on the radio 1290 Black talk show hosted by Casandra Casandra, and on the PBS TV show Black Neuveau. Ms Lommel's pro-Israel message reached tens of thousands of Blacks in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Can you think of anyone who would fit the description of "community relations" better than Cookie Lommel? Here is a Black Woman Christian who loves Israel so much that she started her own pro-Israel program in LA which was funded by the LA Jewish Federation; yet the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations could not bring itself to support the appearence of Cookie Lommel in Milwaukee.

Ms Lommel told us that she started Project Unity because when she went to Israel for the first time in her life she felt comfortable as a minority woman in a country. She felt more at ease and more part of the culture in Israel than in the USA, because of the great cultural diversity in Israel. What an amazing message that the MJCCR could have given to the people of Milwaukee. How could they have rejected Ms Lommel and consider themsleves involved in "community relations"?

wahed

Joseph Abdel Wahed was born in Egypt in 1936. He and his family were expelled from Egypt in 1948 at the founding of Israel. Mr Wahed is one of the million Jews living in Arab and Muslim countries who were forced to become refugees at the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 or after the 6-Day war of 1967. Mr Wahed along with fellow Jewish refugee, Regina Waldman, founded JIMENA, Jews of Middle East and North Africa to publicize their plight. Everyone knows about the Arabs refugees but there were as many or more Jewish refugees and they lost everything.

Mr Wahed spoke at the Marriot Hotel and Congregation Emanuel B'Nei Jeshurun.

Mr Wahed was another great advocate for Israel rejected by the MJCCR. How often have you heard about the so-called Palestinian Arab refugees? The Arabs claim that about 700,000 were expelled from Israel during the Israel War of Independence, but the primary historian of that time and place, Benny Morris, could only find evidence for about 50,000 being expelled and they were expelled for military strategic reasons. There now are over 1 milliion Arabs living in Israel with more rights and freedoms and prosperity than most Arabs living in Arab countires, so obviously there was no reason for most Arabs to leave Israel in the first place.

On the other hand, about 1 million Jews were expelled from Arab countries at the very same time, but they were all expelled purely for racist reasons and today there are only a few thousand Jews left in all of the Arab countries. In addition today some Arab countries, e.g. Jordan and Saudia Arabia, do not allow Jews into their countries.

Everyone feels sorry for refugees and one of the major reasons for the sympathy to the Palestinain Arabs is because they were refugees. This sympathy has been translated into policy by the USA government regarding the Arab-Israel conflict; and these policies, e.g. establishment of an independent State of Palestine, are extremely detrimental to the life and security of all Israelis. Yet the concept of Jewish refugees is almost unknown and never talked about and the plight of these refugees never reaches the policy level of the USA. One often hears about all of the promises Israel is compelled to extend to the Palaetinian Arab refugees by the USA, but what about the Jewish refugees? So here we have a case where the MJCCR had a great opportunity to exhibit their supposed pro-Israel mission and they refused to support the appearance of one of the Jewish refugees and the founder of the only organization, JIMENA, designed to assist these refugees: Joseph Abdel Wahed.