2009/1/4 -- DAY #8b: Speaking At The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In between conversations with friends and family closest to those now engaged in fierce ground-combat against Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, my itinerary continued. My first stop of the day was at Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. I was invited to attend the first day of sessions for both the incoming cohort of StandWithUs-Israel-Fellows and the program’s Alumni and to deliver a speech to them and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and staff in attendance. These StandWithUs-Israel-Fellows constitute an extraordinary group of articulate young ambassadors and activists for Israel from around the country and beyond it who are learning important skills to tell Israel's side of the story in the battle for public opinion against the Arab/Muslim world. They are talented and their cause is just; the training with which StandWithUs is providing them will serve Israel very well. I was asked to address some of the challenges and opportunities facing the larger endeavor of advocacy for Israel in the United States. My talk aimed to touch on, and to spark continued consideration of, several ideas:

(1) WHY FIGHTING THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC OPINION IS COUNTER-INTUITIVE FOR JEWS AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT: Historically, the great majority of the last 2,000 years of the Jewish experience has been that of a minority community in foreign lands. Quite reasonably, therefore, our tendency has been to engage in backdoor diplomacy with those who control or influence most directly policies or policy-makers that have affected us, including monarchs and their advisors, legislators, and other appointed or elected officials. If one looks at AIPAC, The Washington Institute, The American Jewish Committee, and most other venerable Jewish organizations in North America, one finds that they are born of, and centered on, this very approach. However, our adversaries in the Arab and Muslim worlds today have gained over the last 1,500 years of their historical experience great expertise in managing and manipulating mass-public-opinion, as a means both to obtain and sustain tyrannical rule, more often than not as majority rulers rather than minority subjects.

The worldwide Muslim population alone is approximately 100 times the size of the Jewish population and, given that we live today in an age of mass-media communications, the Arab and Muslim communities enjoy not only the distinct advantages of deeply ingrained leadership cultures and tendencies toward influencing public opinion and expertise in executing this mission, but also the advantage of a greater frequency of opportunity to do so, given the imbalance in our respective worldwide populations. Furthermore, as instantaneous polling indicates evermore to policy-makers in Western democracies the preferences of their constituents, influencing public-opinion becomes evermore a necessity in the endeavor to ensure that those who determine and implement public-policy - the very people that we are accustomed to lobby and rely upon - feel the freedom and strength to vote and implement their conscience. The increasing tendency on the part of elected officials to "vote the polls" not only makes it difficult to conduct more discreet or backdoor diplomacy, but, makes its apparent success difficult to rely upon, given that a policy-maker may well change his or her position at any time, depending upon the polls' indication of their constituents' preferences.

As such, our Israel-advocacy related endeavors, in our era, must include the following: (a) We must complement backdoor-diplomacy and educational approaches to elected and appointed officials with a strategic approach to influencing mass-public-opinion toward Israel’s and the Jewish People’s favor; (b) We must not do so alone. We must build coalitions with anyone and everyone, from the more liberal elements of Western society to those whose leanings are more conservative - and from the most secular to the most religiously inclined, so that we address the imbalance in opportunity to influence public opinion now very much favoring the Arab and Muslim worlds.

To this end, we must develop, articulate, implement, and sustain a carefully crafted message that can highlight a range of compelling reasons why the public must support the Israeli position. However, it is vital that the different reasons work together to form one consistent narrative in Israel's favor, so that what we say to the Right doesn't contradict what we say to the Left. Such self-contradiction risks obscuring the greater truth that, as a freedom-loving and freedom-granting society, Israel is consistently victimized and slandered by tyrants, dictators, and those whom they dominate and influence with their assaults on plain truths; we mustn't be, or seems to be, duplicitous.

(2) THE NECESSITY FOR A CLEAR MESSAGE FOR ISRAEL'S PUBLIC RELATIONS EFFORTS: Unlike the Arab world, whose general aims for its public relations efforts are clear – to help bring about Israel’s destruction – Israel’s aims are not as clear. In large measure, this is because of two factors that work together: (a) Israeli officials are answerable to the Israeli electorate - therefore the audience for their messages is generally that of the Israeli electorate rather than the world outside of Israel; (2) As Israel's democratic and free electorate is diverse in opinion, Israel's elected officials reflect and respond to this diversity with similarly diverse messages and opinions.

If you are uncertain as to the extent of the confusion regarding Israel's external public-relations aims and messages, consider the following: Is the aim of Israel's externally directed public-relations efforts to portray Israel in narrative and with images that move "beyond the conflict," encouraging multiple perceptions of Israel as a technological marvel, a contributor to the fight against hunger in Africa, and a free society, etc.? Is the aim to respond to charges leveled against Israel by its detractors, point by point or issue by issue? Is the aim to build bridges to other minorities in the region? Is the aim to ensure, in particular, the continuity of American diplomatic support? Is the aim to discredit neighboring Arab and Muslim regimes and unmask their horrific Human Rights abuses? Is the aim to deliberately ignore these abuses in order to ensure that Israel has some viable partner for peace, less awful than the other neighboring alternatives?

To ensure that Israel's message is understandable and that its representatives are working as little as possible at cross-purposes, it is vital that a clear meta-aim for all public relations be developed, articulated, implemented, and sustained and that most, if not all, subordinate goals for Israel's public-relations fit reasonably under the umbrella of this meta-aim internally - within Israeli society, externally - among the organized Jewish communities outside of Israel and within their institutions, and outwardly to the entire world - via the media. This is a difficult undertaking in a free society, but, it is in this time of media-related siege a very necessary one for Israel's survival;

(3) POSITING TWO META-AIMS FOR ISRAEL'S PUBLIC RELATIONS ENDEAVORS: Two possible meta-aims might be articulated as follows (and I would advocate for the adoption of both simultaneously): (a) To encourage the world to understand and identify with Israel as the only free-society in the region. Under this umbrella, the various audiences noted above would be educated regularly, in word and in image, to understand Israel as a democratic entity who elects its representatives and conducts its affairs in a most admirable, humanitarian manner, despite being surrounded and terrorized by those who seek its destruction. Furthermore, the message might be expanded to then suggest that Israel therefore has every right to determine solely whether to engage in diplomacy with its adversaries, to disengage from such diplomacy, to adjust its diplomatic aims or approaches, or to utilize or suspend armed defensive initiatives to protect its citizens and further its aims to achieve peace with security; (b) To ensure that the world and its media understand that the uniform voice emanating from Arab and Muslim states is a consequence not of uniform agreement among the populations of these states or territories, but, rather of the intolerance of any dissent in these societies. To this end, a relentless unmasking of the human rights abuses in the Arab and Muslim world must be placed before the world's eyes, using the established media, blogging, YouTube, viral-marketing techniques and any other means to communicate this perspective. In this regard, it is high-time that the Arab and Muslim worlds, from the Palestinians to the Iranian, be placed on the defensive in their interactions with the media.

Once these or other aims are adopted and articulated as broad-umbrella-aims under which all public relations might be understood and against the backdrop of which all public relations is articulated and, later, measured, then the strategies and methods to achieve these aims can be considered, developed, agreed upon, implemented broadly, and sustained over a lengthy period of time, adjusted only as necessary to maximize Israel's public-relations efforts.

(4) ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM OF THE GROWING, ANTI-ISRAEL-BIASED MUSLIM MEDIA BASED IN ARAB AND MUSLIM COUNTRIES AND SIMILARLY MORE COMMON AND OFTEN EQUALLY BIASED MUSLIM REPORTERS AMONG THE WESTERN MEDIA: It is vital that strategies are developed to ensure that Muslims throughout the world are not mistaken for objective third parties in their analyses of the mid-east conflict and in their advocacy for particular approaches to its resolution. It is vital that the conflict itself be reframed from "The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict" toward its greater truth as both the evolving conflict of “Radical Islam against the West” and the longstanding “Arab / Israeli Conflict,” with a sophisticated approach to determining the applicability of either message to specific circumstances and specific audiences. Additionally, such reframing of the conflict will serve Israel’s and the Jewish People’s interests in a number of other ways.

The questions posed informally by those StandWithUs-Israel-Fellows who gathered around at the conclusion of the talk reflected a considerable depth of understanding on their part of the nuances of the difficulties and challenges involved in encouraging a shift in the area of mass-public opinion. However, they also understood intuitively many of the implicit or explicit opportunities that accompanied each of the challenges presented. My time with the StandWithUs-Israel-Fellows was most encouraging; great job, StandWithUs!

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2009/1/4 -- DAY #8a: The Ground-War Begins …

Overnight, as many expected, the ground incursion into Gaza began. With the ground invasion in full force, the stakes are higher now than they have been, whether militarily, politically, diplomatically, or with regard to the possibility of wounded, lost, or even kidnapped IDF boys. The phone rang. It was a post-IDF college IMPACT-Student (on scholarship for his studies, sponsored by FIDF) whom I have gotten to know quite well over the last 18 months. Just several days ago, he and his girlfriend came by to say hello and asked me to marry them next summer; what a privilege! His brother is part of the Golani brigade and was therefore deployed along the Gaza border on Shabbat, awaiting orders to begin the ground incursion. He was very likely fighting in Gaza as we spoke. His father, over 50 years old, volunteered on Sunday morning, together with his entire reserve unit, to head south (reservists can continue voluntarily to make themselves available to the IDF, even after the conclusion of their mandatory reserve duty at 40+ years old). This young man was naturally worried for both his brother and his father, but, very proud of both of them. He wished that he could go, but, someone had to stay home and make sure that things were taken care of; as he had classes to attend, it made sense for him to be the one to do so. Next, I spoke with “Sali”, as so many of those among my Congregation Ner Tamid community know him. Sali visited with our community two years ago for Rosh Hashanah, along with three other soldiers of the IDF. Now, one year after the conclusion of his IDF service, he had just completed last week his mandatory reserve duty for the year. Still, he and his wife were both well aware that he could be called up again on a moment’s notice, if the IDF needed him. Though he knew no specifics, he knows the character and the training of the boys sent to Gaza to put a stop to Hamas. He was confident, and yet, as all of Israel, concerned for those in battle. Throughout the day, wherever I was, news of the fighting was on everyone’s lips. As the day drew to a close, conclusive word of the first day of the ground incursion emerged; the IDF is achieving its early aims, however, over 20 soldiers are wounded, two of them seriously. At day’s end, I spoke with three additional close friends whose children are fighting in Gaza. Two of them live with their spouses and children within what has now come to be within missile and bombing range of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Their prayers are with their sons, and with all of those fighting alongside them. News is just in: One of the two soldiers seriously wounded last night has died. All of us in Tel Aviv will try to sleep tonight, along with all of Israel; no doubt, Israel’s boys in uniform will remain close to our hearts, along with one family who now grieves as no one should.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2009/1/3 -- DAY #7: Shabbat In Tel-Aviv As Israel Waits …

As today was Shabbat, I spent the day in my hotel and also took a long walk along the “Tayelet” (a walking and biking pathway) along the beach in Tel Aviv. The day was a beautiful one in Tel Aviv, but, everyone walking about had much on their minds and heavy hearts. In Israel, wartime is a time of remarkable togetherness and unity, for the country is a small one and everyone knows someone whose life is endangered. Tel Aviv and all of Israel are torn about what they hope will come next. On the one hand, there is a belief that a ground incursion will be necessary to stop Hamas’ terrorizing bombing campaign in the south. On the other hand, there is great concern over the cost that such an incursion will exact in terms of wounded and lost soldiers. Concerns about how Israel will be perceived worldwide are also a topic of conversation; Israel doesn’t live on an island, unaffected economically and otherwise by world-opinion. In mid-afternoon, my cousins visited. For the first time, I had opportunity to meet Noam, their 5-month old daughter. She is beautiful. She is worthy of a peaceful life. My cousins, however, now live within range of Hamas’ missiles. Staying out of Gaza might exact too great a cost to bear, as well. Shavuah Tov.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2009/1/2 -- DAY #6: Sederot – A City Under Siege

Today, my heart was simply torn apart. Escorted by the staff of StandWithUs, I spent the better part of the day in Sederot. Once there, I was led by StandWithUs staff on a tour of this shell-shocked city, a city that has been hit with thousands of Palestinian bombs, mortars, and missiles over the last eight years, most of which were fired by Hamas over the last three years of this period. I enjoyed the wonderful surprise of meeting up with my good friend (and a good friend of so many among the leadership of the Los Angeles Jewish Community), Israel’s former Deputy Counsel General in Los Angeles, Yaron Gamberg; we found one another at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ onsite location for foreign journalists. Thereafter, I met with national political leaders visiting the area to assess the situation, local residents, and volunteers who have made themselves available to assist Sederot’s beleaguered residents. The tortured and terrorized residents of Sederot have been battered beyond belief and beyond anything that should ever be tolerated. It is difficult to understand how Israel could have allowed these decent people, citizens of Israel – Jewish brothers and sisters, to suffer as they have until now. Only Israel’s reticence to wage war and its humanitarian concern for Gaza’s own civilians could account for such misjudgment; and, misjudgment it has been. A country’s primary responsibility is to its own citizens, rather than to those who have leaders and governments of their own who bear their responsibility. Neither the right nor the left, nor anything in between, has fulfilled its responsibility to Sederot’s residents; Israel’s Likud, Labor, and Kadimah parties have each led governments during the period of the Palestinian’s bombardment of Sederot and none of them have fulfilled their most basic responsibilities to these fine and loyal citizens of the State of Israel. It is fitting that all three parties, together, are now attempting, in unity, to right their past wrongs. Rather than writing an extensive entry for this day, please follow the video-link below to view an interview with Sari, a mother of four and an Occupational Therapist living in Sederot (if clicking on a link does not work, please copy the link into your web-browser and then click “enter” on your keyboard). Shabbat Shalom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c-Rk1bGYKs

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2009/1/1 – DAY #5: The Boys of The IDF

As Chairman of the Friends of the IDF’s Rabbinic Cabinet, I was privileged today with the extraordinary opportunity to visit with combat soldiers and commanders of various IDF units at several locations in the south of the country, as they awaited their go-ahead to invade Gaza to put a complete and final stop the Hamas missiles and bombs raining down on Israeli civilians (and upon them!). As always, each young man of the IDF had a unique and compelling personal story, from the boy born and raised in Manhattan Beach, CA to the young African American man born and raised in Chicago, IL (yes, he and his family converted to Judaism when he was a young boy, he moved to Israel as a young adult, and he married an Israeli woman – and they have a beautiful 2-year-old boy!). Each story was one of a Jewish journey and a personal sense of purpose. Some of these boys reside in Israel’s northern region; they identify personally with the civilians enduring Hamas’ bombings and missile attacks, for they and their families were the targets of Hezbollah’s onslaught two summers ago. Others live in the southern region themselves, and they shared that they are fighting for their own homes and their own communities. The majority live in the country’s center and they are under no illusion that their own homes won’t be targeted as soon as Hamas can reach them with new and more sophisticated weapons supplied by Iran. They are each and all drafted, 18-21 year old boys who would rather be studying and enjoying life like our own children. However, Hamas has left them with no choice but to fight for their homes and protect their families. The look in their eyes was as determined as one could ever imagine. They are one of the finest trained and most highly motivated fighting forces in the world, simply because they cannot be otherwise; the first war that Israel loses is the last one it will ever fight. Their greatest fear is that this war will end without their opportunity to ensure the decisive victory that would enable each of them and their families to live safely and quietly as anyone is entitled to do so. Over the years, I have visited more IDF bases than I can count, spending time with a far greater number of soldiers, however, I have never done so as they prepared for imminent battle. These boys were inspiring beyond belief; never have I felt as proud of our boys of the IDF or as hopeful for the Jewish future as I was when I saw and spoke with these extraordinary young men. I remain so.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2008/12/31 – DAY #4: A Student-Rally In Tel Aviv

This morning, I set out to Be’er Sheva, Israel’s largest city in the Negev region, to participate in the ceremony that would have dedicated an IDF synagogue to my father’s memory and the library and study-hall adjacent to the synagogue to his only grandchildren, Jacob and Judah. Unfortunately, this dedication was postponed when I reached the halfway point on the route between Tel-Aviv and Be’er Sheva, due to the missiles fired that hour by Hamas upon the city of Be’er Sheva. As I headed back to Tel Aviv, I received a phone-call inviting me to attend a pro-Israel rally to be held at noon by students at Tel-Aviv University. Michael Dickson, the Israel-Director of StandWithUs, an outstanding Los Angeles based Israel-advocacy organization, invited me to join him in attendance. Between 400-500 students were present, television crews and newspaper reporters and photographers covered the event as though it was highly unusual – and they were right; rarely does one see at Tel Aviv University such strong, pro-establishment, public support expressed by students. Their spirit was high and strong; liberal and conservative, male and female, orthodox and secular they expressed their support for the IDF and their solidarity with the terrorized and shell-chocked Jews living in Israel’s southern cities and towns. This rally was one of 14 rallies at university and college campuses around the country, all scheduled to occur simultaneously and organized by StandWithUs Israel Fellows, each of whom had been trained superbly in the art of grassroots organizing and advocacy. When I addressed the crowd, I was moved nearly to tears by their roar of applause when I spoke the simple words, “You are not alone.”

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2008/12/30 -- DAY #3: Phone-Calls & Text-Messages Tell The Whole Story

Less than a week into Israel’s deterrent and retaliatory operation against Hamas in Gaza, after eight years of Palestinian shelling and bombing of Israel’s southern communities, the world seems strangely confused about who the victimizer is and who the victim is. Oddly but poignantly, phone calls and text messages placed respectively by Israel’s Defense Force, the IDF, and Hamas Terrorists, clarify the matter rather unequivocally. The IDF calls and/or text-messages the residents residing in or near apartment buildings used by Hamas to store bombs and missiles or to hide terrorists, five-minutes prior to destroying these locations, to give civilians ample opportunity to leave the vicinity while ensuring that weaponry remains on location for destruction; Hamas, on the other hand, randomly calls and texts Israeli civilians to tell them that bombs and missiles are headed their way and that certain death awaits them, aiming to terrorize them to the greatest degree, whether they are hit or not (Hamas and their sympathizers and supporters even send such messages to Israelis on Facebook!). Who are the victims and who are the victimizers? The answer is readily apparent in Israel’s and Hamas’ respective phone and text messages, to all who truly seek the answer to this question.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2008/12/29 – DAY #2: Israel Trip – Growing Problems For A Shrinking Israel

Upon my arrival in Israel, checking into the hotel, it became clear rather immediately that Israel, a country no larger than the tiny state of Rhode Island, had shrunk in size, yet again. Over two years ago, Israel relinquished entirely the Gaza Strip to their neighboring Palestinians, hoping and praying that this move might lead to the organic evolution of a responsible Palestinian government and a peaceful Palestinian State. To the horror of Israel’s citizens and its leaders, nothing could have been farther from the case, as the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip voted into power overwhelmingly the Hamas terrorists whose very charter slanders and libels Jews worldwide and calls for Israel’s complete obliteration. Israel grew smaller, but its problems grew larger and deeper. And, it was growing smaller, yet again, right before my own eyes: The desk-clerk at the hotel in Tel Aviv, in the center of the country, received a frantic phone-call from his wife while checking me in at 4:00 am. His neighbor had just been bombed by a Hamas-launched Grad-type missile from Gaza. Ashdod hadn’t been hit before. Ashdod is located closer to Tel Aviv than it is to Israel’s southern border with Gaza! The desk-clerk now had one more family to check into the hotel for the night – his own, including himself, his wife, their three-year-old, and their 6-month-old. One only wonders what other men and women in Ashdod will do tonight to protect their children tonight, and beyond. With Hamas’ increased range of fire, and its willingness to target indiscriminately innocent civilians, Israel’s livable space continues to shrink, while its problems continue to grow.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

2008/12/28 -- DAY #1: Israel Trip – A Journey For Reasons Unintended

Sitting in the airport here in Paris, France, with over six hours until my connecting flight to Israel, I have a more than a few minutes to pen my first entry into my blog-journal for this very unique trip to Israel. The inaugural Mission to Israel that I was to lead on behalf of The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces’ Rabbinic Cabinet was postponed. However, with a non-refundable ticket, I chose to travel to Israel, nonetheless, intending to attend and participate in one particular item on the Mission’s itinerary that carries a deep personal meaning. This coming Wednesday, an IDF synagogue in Be’er Sheva will be dedicated in my father’s memory and the library and study-hall adjacent to it will be dedicated in celebration of his only grandchildren, my sons, Jacob and Judah. It is always a privilege to travel to Israel. However, this trip would have been special beyond words, given these dedications. Of course, as the readers of this blog will note, just yesterday, Israel’s Defense Force (the IDF) began an operation to stop, once and for all, the Hamas terrorist’s constant bombardment of Israel’s southern cities and towns with bombs and missiles. My trip will, no doubt, take on a different character than I had imagined. I hope to visit with residents in Israel’s southern region, with IDF soldiers, and with any others who might offer perspective and nuance regarding the experience of the civilians that the IDF is seeking to protect and the operation that it is undertaking to fulfill its important aims. In a moment, with my portable electric chanukiyah, I will kindle the final flames of this year’s Festival of Chanukah. From my father and those who preceded him to my children and those who will succeed them, our People’s flame will surely burn brightly, with God’s blessings. Our flame will continue to glow, in large measure, because we still do kindle Chanukah’s lights, reminding ourselves of the Jewish self-worth for which they stand and the self-sacrifice in the name of human liberty and dignity that they recall and inspire. And, they will glow with courage and strength, in large measure, because there is an IDF to ensure that never again will those who might seek to extinguish our Jewish flame by bringing harm to us succeed in doing so. Am Yisrael Chai! – The People of Israel lives!

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

The Madoff Scandal

As unforgivable as are the deeds of Bernard Madoff, and as much as he is to be held personally accountable for the wreckage that he has caused to people's lives, to the Jewish community, and to people and institutions all over the world, he and his crimes are at least as much symptoms of our larger evils as a society as he is to blame in and of himself. Our tendency as a society has been increasingly to over-value money and material accumulation and to under-value the most basic moral and ethical principles of the social contract that undergirds our civilization. Somehow, we have to find our way back to the norm that a handshake means a commitment and an oath is sacred. In this regard, I'm afraid we have a longer journey ahead than we might with regard to repairing our economy. To begin, we might reconsider what we ought worry about most: What we have or who we are. We can be sure that we are decidedly on our journey toward a real, spiritual recovery when we will have begun our preoccupation with who we are and reduced our obsession with what we have.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com