Making Tzipi Livni Look Good

I can't say I am disappointed in Shaul Mofaz of Kadima since I did not have high expectations of him in the first place.

But his intemperate piece in yesterday's Maariv and his remarks on Israel Radio today about the Im Tirtzu movement are nevertheless notable.

Mofaz thinks it is "thuggish" to call attention to a political culture at Ben-Gurion & other universities which creates a safe haven for Israelis enablers of the boycott of Israel movement.

Yet speaking out of both sides of his mouth he also said that anti-Zionist lecturers should not be employed. Huh?

I have nothing against employing anti-Zionists. But when you reach a tipping point and the anti-Zionists set the tone for an entire department and even a campus, something is terribly wrong.

British Jews and Israel

On Friday, Jewish Ideas Daily called attention to an important survey of British Jewish public opinion:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/Attitudes%20of%20Jews%20in%20Britain%20towards%20Israel.pdf

One finding that struck me is that 95 percent of UK Jews have visited Israel. Granted the journey is not as long as a trip from North America. Still, it is significant contrasted with US Jews -- MOST of whom have NEVER been to Israel.

Now that's what I call an exchange: What Jerusalem Can Learn from Washington & Moscow

10 Russian agents who infiltrated suburban America were deported in exchange for four people said to have been spying for the West and held in Russian prisons.

10 for 4.

The four were said to have delivered such good material to make the lopsided exchange reasonable.

10 for 4.

Not 1,000 for 1.

Not ONE of the 10 released pose any threat to US national security. Not one.

1,000 for 1? When among the 1,000 are scores who will kill again? Not spy again, kill again.

No way.

Celebrating the Venice Declaration

No, it's not your imagination.

The editor of the op-ed pages of the International Herald Tribune has allowed two sympathetic pieces about Israel to appear since the Turkish/Hamas flotilla provocation.

There was the oped by Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the US and one by the eloquent Israeli-American author Daniel Gordis.

Everything else, day in and day out has lived up to the usual illiberal idea of balance: On one one hand, criticism of Israel by Arabs; on the other hand, criticism of Israeli policies by Israelis.

Today's piece by Sharon Pardo of Ben-Gurion University and Yonatan Touval urging Europe to pressure Israel is the latest installment of the IHT -- the Global Edition of the NYTimes -- onslaught.

Which is not to say the IHT is worse than the British press.

Pardo & Touval look back with fondness on the 30th anniversary of the Venice Declaration -- the European push for the legitimization of the PLO.

After all, that eventually led to Oslo.

Their piece would work in The Onion as satire.

But these guys are serious. I feel a European junket coming on.

Ross Douthat: worth skipping

I have to confess that I tend to give a miss to Ross Douthat's NYTimes op-eds.

But it is worth reading one from time to time to remind myself why -- at least when it comes to Israel -- the man knows not from whence he speaks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/opinion/07douthat.html?hp

Ross, before there were Crusader states, indeed before there was Christianity -- there was the Jewish state of Israel and an already ancient Jewish civilizational connection to the country.

The moral stance to take -- the right thing to do -- is to support Israel not to join the jackals.