We woke this morning for an early breakfast at our Hotel, David's Citadel. Israeli hotel breakfasts are sumptuous, albeit in a most healthy way. The buffet consists of a variety of cold salads, served with soft and hard cheeses, omelets and olives, fruit, and delicious breads. (If you want to learn more about Israeli breakfasts, press here.

After breakfast, we assembled to hear David Ze'ev. David hosts the Israeli version of "Meet the Press" on television and radio, a weekly news analysis show with interviews, guests, etc. David gave us his impressions on the post-election scene in Israel. Whereas his theory before the elections had been "Israel needs to stop apologizing" every time it does something someone doesn't like, e.g. invade Gaza, his thought after election is now " the current Israeli political system has to go." Incremental changes, like direct election of prime minister (rather than voting for a party, which then picks its own leader), have proven ineffective; yet, those who would need to envision transformational change and implement it (member of the Kenesset or parliament) are the people least likely to want to move away from the status quo.

Elections this past Tuesday resulted in a statistical dead heat. Since Tuesday, President Shimon Peres has been interviewing political parties to assess which party has the best chance of putting together a viable coalition government. Today, he announced that the Likud, the conservative party led by Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would have first "crack" at it. Tzipi Livni, the leader of the Kadima centrist party, vowed to stay in the opposition and resist the temptation to join the government. Livni said: "Today the foundation was laid for an extreme right-wing government led by [Likud Chairman Benjamin] Netanyahu. This is not our way, and there is nothing for us in such a government," Kadima leader Tzipi Livni told party members on Thursday, after 65 MKs announced their decision to support Netanyahu for the post of prime minister-designate. (for more information, press here).

Avigdor Lieberman, the controversial head of the Israeli Beitenu party (Israel is our land) pledged his provisional support to Netanyahu. Lieberman, who has said he would require Israeli Arabs (not Palestinians living in Gaza or the West Bank) to take a loyalty oath. The coming days will reveal whether Netanyahu can put together a coalition of at least sixty one members - since the Kenesset has one hundred and twenty members, sixty one comprises a simply majority. As Leiberman warned, any government that exists with only a narrow margin will not survive long.

In a move some have been demanding for some time, the government told Hamas that the border crossings to Gaza will remain closed, and all movement toward a resolution of the current tensions, will remain frozen until the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israel soldier kidnapped by Hamas two and a half years ago. For more information about Gilad Shalit, press here.

For Shlomo Avineri's analysis of the need for electoral reform, press here.

Jerusalem Post correspondent Bradley Burston thinks people voted for the right because only the right can make peace (Like Begin), press here.

We then went to the Old City and walked through the Jewish Quarter. I was surprised to see that the Hurva synagogue, the largest in the Jewish Quarter and destroyed by the Jordanians after 1948, is being rebuilt. Since the Jewish Quarter was taken back by the IDF in 1967, the Hurva was cleaned up but only the shell remained as a memorial.

We continued on to the Western Wall. While some assume the wall had been part of the second temple itself, in truth it was part of the retaining wall King Herod erected to created the temple mount, which was the largest building project the Roman empire had ever embarked on. Over the past decade, excavations along the base of the wall continued in a northerly direction and uncovered what is now an underground tunnel stretching from the plaza in front of the western wall all the way to the far reaches of the Christian Quarter to the north.

For more information about the tunnels, their excavation, and the political uproar that ensued when Muslim religious authorities claimed that Jews were plotting to literally undermine the Dome of the Rock, a very important Islamic shrine, press here. To take a virtual tour of the tunnels and other areas around the Kotel - the wall, press here.

After a pasta lunch, and the slight matter of the bus leaving the restaurant while yours truly was still in the bathroom (sorry, no pictures of the look on my face at the time), we visited a new museum dedicated to the life of Menachem Begin. Israel's first prime minister elected from the conservative party, the Likud (in 1977). Begin was a warrior - some say a terrorist - who led the pre-state "Irgun" militia in such missions as blowing up a wing of the King David Hotel (being used at the time by the British occupiers). Yet, he was also the statesman who invited Anwar Sadat to come to Israel and who himself went to Cairo, in the run up to the signing of the Camp David accords, which brought an end to decades of war between Israel and Egypt. In Israel proper, Begin argued that Jews from Europe (Ashkenazim) and those from Arab countries (edot HaMizrach or oriental communities) should have equal opportunities in political life, business, academia, etc.

For more information about the Begin Center, and, in particular, the battle between the Hagana led by Israel's first prime minister, David ben Gurion, and Menachem Begin's Irgun - a battle that came to a head with the sinking of the Altelena - a ship the Irgun was using to bring in munitions for Irgun fighters in Jerusalem, in contravention of Ben Gurion's orders, press here * or here or here. If you want to watch a video of Yitzhak Rabin relating the sinking of the Altelena - don't pay too much attention to the biased introduction - the second half of the video is worth it. Press here.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called "Darna" that specializes in Moroccan food. The picture shows some of the delicious salads. The food was of the French influenced cuisine of a certain part of Morocco. When I lived with a Moroccan family in Jerusalem during my junior year of high school, the food was more influenced by Arab culture, reflecting the experience of a different socio-economic stratum in Moroccan society. Below are pictures of two of a group of Milwaukee students currently studying in Israel through the Milwaukee Jewish Federation's sponsorship, including Rachel Dolnick and Mara Alpert.

Three News Items to share:

The first is the weather: today the weather changed from sunny and sixty degrees to a cooler, almost foggy looking day. After a few minutes it became apparent that the frog was really a cloud of dust that probably had come all the way from North Africa. This weather is a precursor for some stormy weather heading our way, rain that will likely hit us tomorrow evening. To read about how dust clouds form, press here. To see a satellite picture of what such a dust cloud looks like, press here.

The second item is abut John Kerry, who is visiting Israel and who spent part of today in Gaza. For details of the visit, press here.

The third news item was by far the most important: last night we ate and celebrated with Yemenite Jews. Today, it was announced in the media that the Jewish Agency had worked in secret to take ten Jewish individuals out of Yemen and bring them to Israel.

Why is this newsworthy? Because while most of Yemenite Jewry came to Israel in the early fifties (Operation Magic Carpet, so named because so many had never been in an airplane before) a remnant has remained in Yemen, totaling today about 140 families. In recent years, the community has become the target of a local Al Qaeda affiliate. The President of Yemen took seriously his task of protecting the Yemenite Jewish community. In fact, in recent months, the Yemeni government decided to consolidate the Jewish community in one town, rather than the two towns where the Jews had lived. Despite these extraordinary efforts, the protection could not be total; in recent weeks there have been a number of attacks with hand grenades, guns, etc. We didn't see mention of it in the western press because Israel was already setting into motion a plan to evacuate the remaining families. However, the news got out about the operation and it remains to be seen what will happen now. Such evacuations in Ethiopia had to be curtailed once news got out; local officials who were happy to look the other way as Jews left (a bribe or two helped) were suddenly outraged when they realized that their complicity was there for all to see.

In the meantime, the news tonight in Israel showed the family with ten relatives arriving to the airport and reciting the shechiyanu prayer - thank you God for giving us life, sustaining us, and enabling us to be here together to share this day. To read more about it, press here.


QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN UPCOMING BLOGS (remember, I will be in Israel through March first):

I have been collecting excellent questions sent to me by Milwaukeeans. I hope to begin sharing some insights and answers in the coming weeks. Here is a sample:

· How do Israelis you meet feel about continued building in the Palestinian territories despite Supreme Court decisions? What effect does the activism of Rabbis For Human Rights have on Israeli citizens? Any discussion?

· How do Israelies you meet feel about continued building in the Palestinian territories despite Supreme Court decisions? What effect does the activism of Rabbis For Human Rights have on Israeli citizens? Any discussion?

· David Landau wrote in Ha'aretz today/yesterday that the Israeli-Palestinian situation will reach either a two-state solution or a one-state solution, an Arab state. How widely held is that viewpoint?

· Just read that 20,000 Israelis lost their jobs last month... Some countries are blaming the US. It would be difficult for Israelis to blame the US out loud but perhaps privately? I am sure everyone is asking about the future pm. Do they believe it will be other than a unity government? Is it possible for either to make a coalition? Are they fearing Iran more than Hamas and Hezbollah?

· I am very interested in what has happened to the moderate/left voice in Israel. I don't hear much on our media. So,the man/woman voice on the street is very interesting to me.

· Questions for them (Ros Roucher and Rabbi Phil Nadel)--what are the best things and the most challenging parts of moving to Israel?

· And the questions for the sixth grade class at Sinai:
· How tall is the tallest building?
· What do people eat? (street food, food we don't have, Joey wants to know if the pizza still tastes weird)
· What do houses look like? Apartments?
· What is shopping like?
· Please bring chocolate!

First Report -
Wednesday night
February 18, 2009

After twelve hours of flying, I arrived to Israel Wednesday morning at 9:15 am. I snapped a picture as well passed over Tel Aviv, minutes away from landing.

Waiting to go through immigration control, in I saw we were joined by a group of tourists from Africa wearing colorful native gowns, as well as by the a Turkish (The Turkish?) soccer team. Milwaukeeans Mert and Dottie Rotter and I hitched a ride to Jerusalem with Milwaukee's own Habad rabbi, Rabbi Samuels (on the right, conversing with Federation president, Bruce Arbit).

As we drove into Jerusalem, I caught sight of a new building project - a Calatrava designed bridge that will be part of an urban light rail system. Calatrava's work is instantly recognizable, especially for a Milwaukeean!

After a few minutes (literally) to wash up in the hotel, we set out for Latrun, approximately halfway back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. Latrun was the sight of an important series of battles during Israel's war of Independence in 1948. Today, the former British police station serves as a memorial to fallen members of Israel's armored corps, as well as a museum to over one hundred and fifty different kinds of tanks Israel has had to use in wartime. In addition, the site is where future armored corps soldiers are sworn in.

For more about the modern history of Latrun, press here. To learn about American Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus, who helped the fledgling IDF (Israel Defense Forces) build the "Burma Road" to break the Arab siege of Jerusalem in the late forties,) press here.

And to learn more about the Israeli designed and manufactured Merkava (chariot) tank (and to see a video of it in action) press here.

After lunch and a visit to the museum and memorial, we headed down toward the Mediterranean to Kibbutz Ayalon. Ayalon was a collective settlement that prior to and during the War of Independence (1948-1949) hid an underground factory that produced nine millimeter bullets for the war effort. To see the program the "History Channel" did about the clandestine bullet factory, press here.

BUT WAIT! The day wasn't over yet. After a tour of the Weitzmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, we arrived at Moshav Ish'i, a collective settlement founded by Yemenite Jews. We ate a delicious Yemenite dinner and took part in a ceremony preparing for a Yemenite Wedding. The bride groom and attendants were bedecked with fabulous traditional costumes, which are owned collectively by the community and loaned out to brides and grooms. Brides were many different rings of silver and are usually covered with designs painted on with Henna from head to foot. There was lots of dancing, in which we all took part. Sinai congregant Jane Gellman got into the dancing in an especially vivid way, sporting a hat of burning candles (see picture). I am happy to report that everyone everyone emerged from the wedding banquet unsigned and in good health!

If you would like to read a first person report on the preparations for a real Yemenite wedding, press here.


A last thought: Today, on multiple occasions, we drove by the downtown Jerusalem residence of the prime minister. It felt as if we were "so close yet so far" and this underscores an inherent paradox of our trip so far: on one hand, we are at the center of the news universe. Israelis themselves are news junkies, regularly tuning to the evening newscast and reading at least one daily paper.

And yet, being tourists in Israel, slowly acclimating to the time change and the jet lag, means that we are ironically cut off from the news. Our days are filled with traveling and learning, not watching television and reading the newspaper. Ironically, it's easier to follow Israeli news from afar.

Even so, we have some important advantages in being here, first and foremost that we can talk to Israelis one on one. I've already cornered the bus driver, our security guard (who, at 21, seems armed with little more than sunglasses), the tour guide (whom I know from twenty five years ago when I worked in tourism in Jerusalem), and some others, in order to ask them their thoughts and analyses of the day's events. I won't report on those right now; I'll wait until I have critical mass tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime, please feel free to share these missives with friends and family - that's what they are there for!

Rabbi David B. Cohen

p.s. Please let me know if there are specific question you'd like me respond to, or to pose to my Israeli friends. I've already received 20 suggested questions and I have time to ask even more!

In a few short hours, I will be getting on a plane for Israel (well, via New Jersey). I am going to Israel for two reasons: During the first five days, I will be taking part in the Milwaukee Jewish Federation's mission. We will be touring the country, talking to experts, and spending time particularly in our "P2K" - Partnership 2000 region of the city of Tiveria (Tiberias) and the surrounding cities and settlements encircling the Kineret (the Sea of Galilee).

During the second week, I will be participating in the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) - the organization of reform rabbis - yearly meeting which this year is being held in Jerusalem. Fortuitously, the last day of the the Milwaukee mission is the first day of the CCAR conference.

In addition to "blogging" every day on the issues and emotions of the day, I also am collecting questions people in Milwaukee would like me to answer while I am in Israel. Some have asked about the election and its aftermath; others want to know how Israelis are feeling about the recent war in Gaza. Others have asked me how Israelis are viewing the Madoff scandal and other Wall Street "outrages." Others have asked me to photograph particular sites.

If you'd like to ask a question to which I'll respond in the blog, (or want to see a photograph of a particular place) please write to me here.


L'hitraot - see you soon -
Rabbi David B. Cohen

Is Demography Destiny?

The following article appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal. Israeli scholars have researched the intersection of sociology and economics - some have even won Nobel Prizes for their scholarship. This piece was written by a European scholar who draws our attention to the role the UN and others have played in creating a very destructive dynamic among Arab youth - for the Palestinians, in particular. DBC


Stop funding a Palestinian youth bulge and the fighting will stop, too.


By GUNNAR HEINSOHN | From today's Wall Street Journal Europe


As the world decries Israel's attempt to defend itself from the rocket attacks coming from Gaza, consider this: When Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza in 2007, it cost nearly 350 lives and 1,000 wounded. Fatah's surrender brought only a temporary stop to the type of violence and bloodshed that are commonly seen in lands where at least 30% of the male population is in the 15-to-29 age bracket.

In such "youth bulge" countries, young men tend to eliminate each other or get killed in aggressive wars until a balance is reached between their ambitions and the number of acceptable positions available in their society. In Arab nations such as Lebanon (150,000 dead in the civil war between 1975 and 1990) or Algeria (200,000 dead in the Islamists' war against their own people between 1999 and 2006), the slaughter abated only when the fertility rates in these countries fell from seven children per woman to fewer than two. The warring stopped because no more warriors were being born.

In Gaza, however, there has been no demographic disarmament. The average woman still bears six babies. For every 1,000 men aged 40-44, there are 4,300 boys aged 0-4 years. In the U.S. the latter figure is 1,000, and in the U.K. it's only 670.

And so the killing continues. In 2005, when Israel was still an occupying force, Gaza lost more young men to gang fights and crime than in its war against the "Zionist enemy." Despite the media's obsession with the Mideast conflict, it has cost many fewer lives than the youth bulges in West Africa, Lebanon or Algeria. In the six decades since Israel's founding, "only" some 62,000 people (40,000 Arabs, 22,000 Jews) have been killed in all the Israeli-Arab wars and Palestinian terror attacks. During that same time, some 11 million Muslims have been killed in wars and terror attacks -- mostly at the hands of other Muslims.

What accounts for the Mideast conflict's relatively low body count? Hamas and their ilk certainly aim to kill as many Israelis as possible. To their indignation, the Israelis are quite good at protecting themselves. On the other hand, Israel, despite all the talk about its "disproportionate" use of force, is doing its utmost to spare civilian deaths. Even Hamas acknowledges that most of the Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids are from their own ranks. But about 10%-15% of Gaza's casualties are women and minors -- a tragedy impossible to prevent in a densely settled area in which nearly half the people are under 15 and the terrorists hide among them.

The reason for Gaza's endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world's refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well.

UNRWA is benevolently funded by the U.S. (31%) and the European Union (nearly 50%) -- only 7% of the funds come from Muslim sources. Thanks to the West's largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this unlimited welfare is an endless population boom. Between 1950 and 2008, Gaza's population has grown from 240,000 to 1.5 million. The West basically created a new Near Eastern people in Gaza that at current trends will reach three million in 2040. Within that period, Gazans may alter the justifications and directions of their aggression but are unlikely to stop the aggression itself.

The Hamas-Fatah truce of June 2007 allowed the Islamists again to direct all their energy on attacking Israel. The West pays for food, schools, medicine and housing, while Muslim nations help out with the military hardware. Unrestrained by such necessities as having to earn a living, the young have plenty of time on their hands for digging tunnels, smuggling, assembling missiles and firing 4,500 of them at Israel since 2006. While this gruesome activity has slowed the Palestinian internecine slaughter, it forced some 250,000 Israelis into bomb shelters.

The current situation can only get worse. Israel is being pushed into a corner. Gazan teenagers have no future other than war. One rocket master killed is immediately replaced by three young men for whom a martyr's death is no less honorable than victory. Some 230,000 Gazan males, aged 15 to 29, who are available for the battlefield now, will be succeeded by 360,000 boys under 15 (45% of all Gazan males) who could be taking up arms within the coming 15 years.

As long as we continue to subsidize Gaza's extreme demographic armament, young Palestinians will likely continue killing their brothers or neighbors. And yet, despite claiming that it wants to bring peace to the region, the West continues to make the population explosion in Gaza worse every year. By generously supporting UNRWA's budget, the West assists a rate of population increase that is 10 times higher than in their own countries. Much is being said about Iran waging a proxy war against Israel by supporting Hezbollah and Hamas. One may argue that by fueling Gaza's untenable population explosion, the West unintentionally finances a war by proxy against the Jews of Israel.

If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA's help. This would force Palestinians to focus on building an economy instead of freeing them up to wage war. Of course, every baby lured into the world by our money up to now would still have our assistance.

If we make this urgently needed reform, then by at least 2025 many boys in Gaza -- like in Algeria -- would enter puberty as only sons. They would be able to look forward to a more secure future in a less violent society.

If the West prefers calm around Gaza even before 2025, it may consider offering immigration to those young Palestinians only born because of the West's well-meant but cruelly misguided aid. In the decades to come, North America and Europe will have to take in tens of millions of immigrants anyway to slow the aging of their populations. If, say, 200,000 of them are taken from the 360,000 boys coming of age in Gaza in the next 15 years, that would be a negligible move for the big democracies but a quantum leap for peace in the Near East.

Many of Gaza's young -- like in much of the Muslim world -- dream of leaving anyway. Who would not want to get out of that strip of land but the international NGOs and social workers whose careers depend on perpetuating Gaza's misery?

Mr. Heinsohn heads the Raphael Lemkin Institute at the University of Bremen, Europe's first institute devoted to comparative genocide research.

This prayer for peace was written by Jerusalem based reform rabbi, Levi Weiman Kelman: 

If there has ever been  time for prayer, this is that time. 

If there has ever been a place forsaken, Gaza is that place. 

Lord, who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. 

God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Gaza, 

that they may know Your blessings and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, 

where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin. 

Almighty who make exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception for the children of Gaza. 

Shield them from us and from their own. 

Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. 

Deliver them from us and from their own. 

Restore to them stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.

Remind us, O Lord, of the child Ishmael, who is the father of all the children of Gaza. 

Hoe the child Ishmael was without water and left for dead in the wilderness of Be-erSheba, so robbed of all hop, that his own mother could not bear to watch his life drain away. 

Be that Lord, the God of our kinsman Ishmael, who heard his cry and sent His angel to comfort his mother, Hagar. 

Be that Lord, who was with Ishmael that day, and all the days after. 

Be that God, the All-Merciful, who opened Hagar's eyes that day, and showed her the well of eater, that she could give the boy Ishmael to drink, and save his life. 

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and fragility of every life, send these children your angels. 

Save them, the children of this place, Gaza, Gaza the most beautiful, Gaza the damned. 

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you the Lord whose name is Peace: 

Bless these children, keep them from harm. 

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, s if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness. 

Look up to them, O Lord. Let them see your face. 

And, as if for the first time, grant them peace .

Documentary film maker Laura Bialis shares her experiences in Sderot, the Israeli town just a few kilometres from Gaza. To get to her web site and see the film's trailer, press here.

* * * * * * * * * *

Here are some thoughts penned by yours truly:

"Would he recognize his brother's face?" Jacob wondered as he prepared to reunite with Esau after twenty years of estrangement. So much water had gone under the bridge: The initial flight from Esau's anger at having lost both his birthright and blessing had led soon to a life of servitude to Laban, and a life of domesticity with Laban's daughter, first Leah then Rachel.

And now the moment had arrived. Esau was approaching with four hundred fighting men. Jacob had carefully arranged his flocks and herds to provide both protection and a peace offering to his brother. But would he recognize him? Twenty years is a long time. He imagined Esau's face contorted with anger over the sins of the past. But who knew? The eye of memory played tricks with facial features. It could not be trusted.

And suddenly Esau approached, no weapon in his hand, a growing smile on his face. It was him, thought Jacob. Different, but something in that face struck him, a note so familiar.

Pleasantries were exchanged: "Are these really all your kids?" "You've done well for yourself with all these flocks." Jacob insisted that Esau accept a token, a gift. "No I pray, do me this favor and accept this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably." (Genesis 33:10)

In that moment, Jacob understood. To see God's face in that of his brother's, recalled all that bound them together: their childhood, their parents, their humanity. Jacob understood that despite their differences, they were both created in God's image, and thus interdependent and fundamentally related. In that moment, Jacob's enemy vanished; in his place stood a friend.

* * * * * * * * * *

In these past weeks of renewed violence in Israel and Gaza, it's been hard to maintain any sense of hope that things might get better. The anger and disappointment are so profound there seems no room for improvement.

And while no can minimize the complexity of relationship between Arab and Jew in the Middle East - no one can lightly suggest the setting aside of generations of suspicion - Parashat Vayishlach suggests that the first step toward reconciliation must take place within the parties themselves. Currently, many Jews and Arabs have objectified the other, seeing him in terms less than fully human. Only once Arab and Jew can see in the other the face of God, only then will mutual distrust and hatred be replaced by an effort to build peace for the future. And it will best happen two people at a time, face to face.

* * * * * * * * *

I am planning to be in Israel the last two weeks of February and will be writing regularly on this blog about my day-to-day experiences, as well as publishing photographs. To follow my journey, subscribe above by filling out the form found in the upper right hand corner. I look forward to sharing my thoughts, feelings and observations with you.