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The Jewish Citizen
              by Donald H. Harrison
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Easy to dismiss one Democratic hopeful


SAN DIEGO—Nancy and I returned today from hearing three
Democratic presidential candidates at the California Democratic
State Convention: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Dennis
Kucinich.  One would have to parse the speeches of Obama and
Clinton very carefully to find much difference between their policies
—they're both attractive candidates.  But from the standpoint of our
Jewish community, Kucinich is downright scary.  It seems pretty
clear that he has cynically decided to let the major candidates compete
for our community's support while he tries to tap into anti-Israel,
pro-Islamist support.

At his news conference, Kucinich, a former congressman and mayor of
Cleveland, made a proposal that made me wonder if I had heard correctly. 
Like every other Democrat at this convention, he is all for pulling U.S.
troops out of Iraq as soon as possible.  But what countries do you think he named as the best to form a diplomatic force to keep the peace in that
country after the U.S. withdrawal?  Syria and Iran!

Two countries which have  supported terrorism are his candidates
for replacing the U.S. after withdrawal. True, both Syria and Iran are
next door neighbors of Iraq, but so too are Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, and
Saudi Arabia, all of which are far more moderate in their policies and
more friendly to the west.  I asked Kucinich at the news conference if he
had any other countries in mind for this force, but, even given the
opportunity to clarify, he didn't mention any others specifically. There
seems to be a national consensus developing towards U.S. withdrawal
from Iraq, but turning its fate over to American enemies?  That's crazy!

This bizarre peace-keeping plan wasn't the only statement sending a clear
message to the radical Arabs and Iranians that he is on their side. He also
scolded Congress for removing from legislation a provision that would
prohibit the President of the United States, in the event that it became
necessary, from taking military action against Iran without first obtaining congressional approval.  He pointedly blamed AIPAC—the America-Israel
Public Affairs Committee—for this turnabout, saying he does not believe
that people should consider Iran as part of an axis of evil.

	Kucinich criticized Obama for suggesting in a recent appearance that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Well, if it isn't, why is Iran being so recalcitrant when it comes to international inspections? Okay, so now Nancy and I know for certain that Kucinich is one person for whom neither of us could ever vote —even if
OPPOSING FORCES—Supporters of Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama gather outside San Diego Convention Center during California Democratic Convention.  —Photo courtesy of Romy Marquez	lightning struck and he won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Let me move on to Clinton and Obama, the latter of whom clearly received
the more enthusiastic reception from the delegates.  Obama was in fine
oratorical form; Clinton, on the other hand, was hoarse from stumping the
day before in South Carolina.  Obama delivered crowd-pleasing lines with
the cadences of a stump orator; Clinton sounded like someone fighting
a scratchy throat.

But, as was demonstrated by their recent votes on the war funding bill,
both these U.S. Senators want to pull American military forces from Iraq.  Obama had been against the war earlier and more consistently than Clinton,
and the delegates showed their approval for him with cheering and chants.  Clinton on the other hand received a few scattered boos. Democratic State Central Committee delegates are the political activists who avidly track not
only what a candidate is for,  but when she or he was for it.

Obama of Illinois and Clinton of New York both stumped for universal
health care, against global warming, for energy efficiency, and for restoring
the image of the United States abroad as a kind, idealistic country. Clinton defended a woman's right to choose in the face of the recent decision by the Supreme Court to prohibit "partial birth" abortions. Obama, interestingly,
did not mention the issue.  On the other hand, he received concerted
cheers on an issue Clinton did not address: better pay for teachers.

When all the shouting died down, what did it mean?  Probably not much.
Unlike delegates who come to state conventions wearing their favorite
candidates' pins, most Americans prefer to watch, listen to and read about candidates almost until primary election day itself, which in 2008 will come
on February 5 in California.

There were quite a few members of the Jewish community participating in
today's proceedings. For example, two members of Congress elected from
San Diego—Susan Davis and Bob Filner—delivered short welcoming
speeches to the delegates, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) spoke
to the convention by means of a taped video.  It was explained that she
had to remain back east for discussions with Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid of Nevada. While visiting with the host San Diego delegation
at the Convention Center, we spotted at least four members of our local
Jewish community: former Assemblyman Howard Wayne, San Diego Community College President Marty Block, political consultant Larry
Remer, and party volunteer Larry Gorfine.

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Letter from Jerusalem
_________________By Ira Sharkansky____________

The Palestinian Media Campaign

Paradise Now is a Palestinian film about two young men on their way to suicide. The quality of the story, direction, and acting has won it serious international review. The film gives a human face to terrorists, and explains the combination of personal distress and other motives for the act. It also portrays an attractive woman who argues against the futility of the action. It will not help Palestine, and it will not provide a personal reward in Paradise.

There are some smooth operators who manage the men on their way to death: "you will be met immediately by two angels, and we will take care of your family." There are Israeli Jews who drive the killers to their target and fit an anti-Semitic stereotype ("They will not get their money until they have done their job."

The budget for the film came from Europe. Perhaps it was not sufficient. The director should have hired at least one more actor. The opening scene portrays the pretty woman as she encounters an ugly Israeli soldier at a check point. He neither smiles nor speaks. After he rummages through her personal goods he indicates she may pass by moving his head in the direction of the gate. Later in the film we see why he did not speak. Hebrew is not his language. The same actor plays one of the guards who struts about with the man who manages the suicide operation.

The morning after we saw the film I received a letter from Hebron. Khalid Amayreh is on my list and I am on his. He was writing about Holocaust Memorial Day. He is not a Holocaust denier or minimizer. "Nobody does or should question the enormity of the holocaust. . ."

His view of Holocaust Memorial Day is something else:

. . . the usual fanfare of sanctimonious  rituals, never-again speeches and glorification of Zionism. . . .The solemn but also highly propagandistic occasion is manipulated to the fullest by Zionist leaders in order to justify the crime against humanity, otherwise known as the state of Israel. This year, too, Zionist leaders preyed on the memories of holocaust victims by  seeking to blackmail  the collective conscience of the world into recognizing the “uniqueness of Jewish pain” ” as if non-Jews were children of a lesser God and their pain was unimportant.

So far, not too bad. I can view those sentiments as an expression of Palestinian pain. But then Israel becomes another Holocaust perpetrator.

Today, in the name of the holocaust, Israel wants the world to give her a carte blanch to commit another holocaust against the helpless and virtually completely unprotected Palestinians.

In the name of the holocaust and the  “never-again mantra,” Israel wants the world to allow it to commit every conceivable crime and every abominable  violation of human rights in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, from murdering school children on their way to school “for security reasons” to shooting pregnant women on their way to hospital (also for security reasons) to dumping tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians into modern-day concentration camps deep in the Negev desert.

At this point I would paraphrase the woman in Paradise Now. This action (accusing Israel of conducting a Holocaust) is so extreme as to become part of Palestinian collective suicide. It infuriates Jews by hurling our national tragedy against us. It cannot help Palestinians among non-Jews who recognize the difference between the defensive actions of Israelis against Palestinian violence, beset to be sure with innocent victims, and the systematic murder of people who did not threaten violence.

The same week brought news that Azmi Beshara had submitted a letter of resignation from the Knesset to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, and that he is accused of aiding the enemy during the war in Lebanon. We are a long way from an arrest, indictment, and trial. Beshara says that he will not return to Israel in the near future, and extradition is unlikely. However, the accusations are credible on the basis of much that we have seen and heard.

From Israeli Arabs there is both a defense of Beshara (he is persecuted for speaking and acting as an Arab), and anger against him for adding to the friction between Jews and Arabs. The ambivalence is part of the Israeli Arab condition. Beshara is an articulate spokesman of Arab and Palestinian demands, but is so extreme as to make it difficult for Arab politicians or citizens who want to get on with their lives and improve their opportunities.

We have seen ambivalence on other occasions. During the war in Lebanon, when Arab communities suffered damage and death from Hezbollah rockets, the residents expressed anger against the Lebanese for hurting them, and the Israelis for not protecting them. Some of them also cheered when rockets fell on Jewish communities.

It is not for an Israeli Jew to tell his neighbors how to do their public relations and their politics. Anything we say is likely to be tainted and discarded. Someone else must tell them that there must be a better way, but will anyone hear such a Gentile amidst many others who are telling them

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Jews in the News                    -------------------------------------------------------------
 News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, Marsha
Sutton in North San Diego County. To see a source story click on the link within the
respective paragraph.  If you spot a Jewish-interest story in your favorite publication,
please send us the link.
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*U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are expressing support for an effort by Los Angeles County officials to persuade Homeland Security that money needs to be allocated to tie together communication systems of first responders to enable coordinated efforts in a catastrophe.  U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif) also favors the effort, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has been described as supportive.  The story by Susannah Rosenblatt is in today's Los Angeles Times.


*Computer consultant Josh Freedkin, interviewed for a story about
the state of the economy, reported that the introduction of the Windows Vista system has prompted many businesses to purchase new computer hardware. A roundup by Lisa Girion is in the Los Angeles Times.

*Scholar Emily W. Sunstein, biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley and first woman president of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Jewish Committee, has died at 82.  An obituary written by Margalit Fox of the New York Times News Service appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune

*U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has asked the
White House and the Pentagon to send all documents relating to the 2004 death in Afghanistan of Pat Tillman, famed for turning down
a professional football career to serve in the Amy. The Associated
Press story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua was the winner for fiction in the annual Los Angeles Times book awards for A Woman in Jerusalem.
It was translated into English by Hillel Halkin.  In the biography category, Neal Gabler won for Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Two of the awards are named for celebrated journalists in the history of the Los Angeles Times: The Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement, which went this year to memoirist William Kittredge and the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, given this year to Alice Greenway for White Ghost Girls.  The story by Josh Getlin is in today's Los Angeles Times.


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The Jewish Grapevine
                                                 
 

INTERNATIONAL DEBATES—Howard Feldman forwards a video clip from a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in which Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, accused the body of advancing the policy not of human rights but
of despots intending to vilify Israel.  The speech, to which we have
a video link, drew a sharp response from Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico. ... The Republican Jewish Coalition's
Executive Director, Matt Brooks, is sending appeals to members of Conservative Jewish congregations to attempt to dissuade delegates to an upcoming meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly from adopting a resolution calling for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

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