Community Magazine May 2019

46 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE “It's part of our history. When you put a shovel in the ground there what you discover are the ruins of ancient synagogues. Jews lived there for thousands of years and the people of Israel have come back to the Golan,” Netanyahu said. With a subtle jab at Congresswoman Omar, Netanyahu explained how he thought her comments, and comments like hers, are anti-Semitic. “Again, the Jews are cast as a force for evil. Again, the Jews are charged with disloyalty. Again, the Jews are said to have too much influence, too much power, too much money. Take it from this Benjamin, it’s not about the Benjamin’s,” he said. “The reason the people of America support Israel is not because they want our money, it’s because they share our values. It’s because America and Israel share a love of freedom and democracy. It's because we cherish individual rights and the rule of law. It's because we don’t judge people by the color of their skin, their religion, or their sexual orientation,” Netanyahu said. Two Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Attend Senators Cory Booker (NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) were the only two Democrat presidential hopefuls to offer speeches at the convention hall, post-conference. (Many interpreted this type of snub to indicate that the two senators believed that standing by Israel, even in a bi-partisan setting, would cause those in the party’s left-wing base to bristle.) During Booker’s unscripted remarks, he expressed his admiration of Israel for its scientific advances. He spoke of a visit to a Tel Aviv water reclamation plant “that put any efforts in America to shame. They are exporting that technology to people who have sworn to destroy them. This is the power of Israel.” Meanwhile, he added that he saw in Be’er Sheba “the progress they are making in biotech” aimed at curing Parkinson’s and dementia, which his own father succumbed to. Gillibrand said that Israel is “one of the most important alliances we have in the entire world. It’s an alliance based on our shared democratic values, our multicultural societies, our shared understanding that the Jewish people have the same right to self-determination as every other group in the world.” Though Gillibrand condemned the BDS movement – “used often as the vehicle of anti-Semitism” – she also said that she would not participate in legislation that would give states the right to stop doing business with companies who boycott Israel. “IcannotandwillnotmakelawsthatweakenourFirstAmendment rights,” she said. “The best way to beat the BDS movement is to win the war of ideas. Because, I promise you, I want to stop it as much as you do.” Meanwhile, the president’s move to stop aid to the Palestinian Authority is a foreignpolicydecisionwithwhich she “stronglydisagrees.” “The economic punishment has done absolutely nothing to bring Abbas to the table,” she said. “He’s an unwilling partner in peace. But it has pushed too many Palestinians’ young hearts and minds to the side where they see no future for the State of Israel in the Middle East.” “Dispersed Jews of Arab Lands” Addressed In a session called Dispersed Jews of Arab Lands , four panellists called for more recognition of Mizrachi and Sephardic refugees. Rabbi Elie Abadie, from the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue, had lamented that for generations “Many people said, ‘Don’t speak about our refugees because they’ll talk about theirs.’ But they’ve talked about theirs for 70 years.” It was only recently in Israel that the Sephardic population has come to be represented in textbooks. Rabbi Abadie spoke of the Biton Committee, launched by then-Education Minister Naftali Bennett, which encouraged Israeli schools to teach about Sephardic Jews (though it is not compulsory, he said). In the United States, legislators have recognized the plight of Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews. In 2008, Congress passed Resolution 185, and in 2016, HR 4664, both acknowledging Jews displaced from Arab countries. Still to come, he added, is some kind of recognition that a quarter million of Shoah victims were Sephardic Jews. Sarah Levin, Executive Director of Jimena (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) said the “easiest answer” as to why not much is being taught about Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews is because they comprise but a fifth of America’s Jews. “But, I do think things are changing,” she said. “That is attributed a lot of young organizations that are led by young Sephardic and Mizrachi Jewish leaders who are doing an amazing job to raise awareness and engage their communities – and the mainstream Jewish community – in the experience and heritage of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East.” Carole Basri, Visiting Professor from the Peking University School of Transnational Law, noted that, “We have to get everyone to understand how central it is that over half the Jews in Israel are Jews from Arab countries.” In Conclusion The AIPAC 2019 conference was a resounding success, and sent a message to Israel’s supporters and detractors alike that Israel has a broad base of support. The speakers included top Israeli and American politicians from all major parties. They demonstrated that, despite all of Israel’s detractors, Israel enjoys support that cuts across political party, religious, and ethnic lines in the United States. One of the major themes spoken about by both Democrats and Republican officials was the importance of bipartisanship, especially in support of Israel. The message at AIPAC was clear: we applaud the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and will do whatever it takes to support the Jewish State. “President Trump is Israel's greatest ally ever to reside in the White House, and to thinkotherwise, please, take adeepbreath, and think about it some more.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman