How to Help Israel - January 2009
Friends: These are challenging times for Israel and for all of us. We need your help and participation and through you we need the support of every United Synagogue congregant.
Below you will find:
- A memo from United Synagogue’s international president, Dr. Ray Goldstein, and our executive vice president, Rabbi Jerome Epstein.
- An important communication from United Synagogue’s seaboard region, with a link to a teleconference briefing on the situation in Israel from the Israeli embassy, given by Minister-Counselor Rafael Harpaz, the embassy’s director of public affairs, and Lt. Col. Eyal Bar Or, Israel’s missile defense organization liaison officer.
- Links to relevant websites.
- Talking points on the situation in Israel
| Rabbi Paul Freedman, Israel Commission Director United Synagogue |
Dr. Saul Shapiro, Vice President for Israel United Synagogue |
A. Memo
From: Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein
Some ways you can help Israel now:
1. Statements:
Every congregation should issue a statement supporting Israel. If you want to see some information you can include in yours, look at the information presented by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, or click through to its talking points and resource list.
Solicit statements from elected officials at the city, state or provincial, or federal levels. (There are statements from congressional leaders on the website of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.)
Solicit statements from local religious, ethnic, and other prominent personalities.
Create opportunities at which statements can be made publicly.
2. Monitor and respond to media coverage
- Write letters to the editor, call news directors to point out misinformation or unbalanced coverage, provide information and fact sheets that are succinct and accurate.
- Prepare op-ed pieces that can be signed by prominent non-Jews as well as by Jewish leaders.
- Provide accurate information on the Internet, including in such venues as blog comment sections and chat rooms.
- Call talk shows.
3. Write letters to the government
Write to government leaders to express support for the position that Israel has a right to defend its citizens, that Hamas bears responsibility for the situation, and that Israel must be allowed to fulfill its mission without artificial deadlines or an imposed ceasefire. Stress that peace will be possible only when terrorism is contained.
4. Demonstrations
Many anti-Israel demonstrations have been held and more are coming. We urge you to organize pro-Israel counterdemonstrations in every community, especially where an anti-Israel demonstration is held. Messages should be very clear and focus on the legitimacy of Israel’s actions in defending its citizens against the threats posed by Hamas; on the heavy cost paid by those living in Israel’s south; on Israel’s pinpoint response, seeking to avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s placing civilians in harm’s way by operating in its midst.
Whenever possible, enlist non-Jews as well as public officials and prominent spokespeople to demonstrate their support for Israel.
B. Communication from United Synagogue’s Seaboard Region
On Monday, January 5, United Synagogue’s Seaboard region sponsored a second teleconference briefing on the situation in Israel from Israel’s embassy. Minister-Counselor Rafael Harpaz, the embassy’s director of Public Affairs, and Lt. Col. Eyal Bar Or, Israel’s missile defense organization liaison officer.
The briefing, held specifically for United Synagogue is available online here.
It is about 38 minutes long. We encourage everyone to listen to it because it provides information you’re not likely to get from the mainstream media.
We have been in touch with the Israeli embassy in Ottawa and are working to arrange a conference call from there to brief United Synagogue Canadian leadership on the situation from the Canadian point of view. Please watch your email for more details.
C. Links to Relevant Websites
The Jewish Agency for Israel offers updates here.
D. Talking Points on the Situation in Israel
Alex Hoffer, chair of the Israel Affairs Committee at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York, sent the two-part message below:
Dear Friends,
Now is the time to express our thanks to President Bush for supporting Israel’s right to defend its citizens.
The president's direct message line is 202-456-1111. The email address is president@whitehouse.gov.
Your brief message should include your name and where you are from. The talking points below should be helpful for this message and for writing to the press.
These talking are from our partners at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Talking Points on the Situation in the Gaza Strip
January 3, 2009
For years Israel has sought reconciliation with the Palestinian people on the basis of two states living side by side in peace and security. It has been negotiating to achieve that goal with the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayad, and in recent months, significant strides have been made to enhance the security and economic situation for Palestinians living in the West Bank.
On the other hand, Hamas, which is unabashedly dedicated to Israel’s destruction -- and recognized widely by the international community as a terrorist organization -- ousted the PA from Gaza in a violent 2006 coup.
It also should be remembered that Israel unilaterally dismantled settlements and withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005. Thus, it cannot be argued that there is Israeli “occupation” in Gaza. Instead of using Israel’s withdrawal to create better living conditions for the population there, Hamas has used the last two years to turn Gaza into a terrorist base. It has created a series of tunnels from the Sinai, which are used to bring sophisticated weapons into Gaza, including from Iran.
The goal of the current Israeli military operation in Gaza, which should be the goal of diplomacy at the U.N. and in world capitals as well, is to create conditions that will prevent Hamas from continuing to rain rockets down on cities in southern Israel. More than 10,000 rockets have been launched against Israeli civilian population centers during the last eight years. Israel now is engaged in stopping the rockets and destroying the tunnels.
When a rocket is fired indiscriminately into Israeli population centers, as has happened hundreds of times in the past two weeks, Israelis literally have 15 seconds to run for cover. Imagine what daily life is under such conditions, from simply taking a shower to putting a child on a bus to go to school.
The fundamental responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens from external attacks and threats. If rockets were being fired at American cities, we would expect the U.S. government to take the necessary action to protect our people.
A couple of weeks ago, Hamas declared an end to the six-month “lull” that had been brokered by Egypt and intensified the attacks against Israel. Indeed, almost one hundred rockets were fired on December 25, Christmas day.
Israel, as always, is doing everything within its power to limit noncombatant casualties in Gaza, an enormous challenge since Hamas intentionally operates within heavily populated neighborhoods, as well as in schools and mosques. Israel often puts its soldiers at greater risk in order to minimize noncombatant casualties. Even Palestinian statistics show that the vast majority of fatalities are combatants, not civilians. Nevertheless, we know that innocents on both sides inevitably will lose their lives, and we deeply mourn these losses.
Some express anger over the disparity in casualty figures. This is explained, in part, by the fact that Israel does all it can to protect its citizens, while Hamas uses noncombatants in Gaza as human shields in contravention of basic international norms.
While carrying out military actions against the Hamas terrorist infrastructure, Israel continues to facilitate caravans of trucks transferring humanitarian relief supplies to the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.
There will be enormous pain and suffering in the short term, but the weakening of Hamas in Gaza could lead to an opening to expand Israeli-Palestinian cooperation toward a durable and sustainable peace.
