As we remember 1967 war, let's also recall the wounded

MEVASSERET ZION, Israel—I stood by the buffet contemplating the array of salads. Their colours and variety were enough to lead even the most self-restrained hotel guest astray. I knew that it was pointless to resist and that I would pay the price for my weakness. What the heck, you only live once, I told myself, as I plunged the serving spoon into the bowl of finely-chopped vegetables.

I was spending a weekend by the Dead Sea with my husband, away from our usual routine, and I intended to get the most out of it.

“Do you want any help?” I ventured.

“As you can see, I manage perfectly well,” he replied cheerfully. “If I need assistance, I
don’t hesitate to ask for it.”

The foregoing article was reprinted from the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees) in England.  
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Scholarship Recipient

CONGRATULATIONS—Younes Nazarian, an American businessman, congratulates Erez Inbar, one of 119 students at the University of Haifa who will receive a $1,000 scholarship from a fund created by Nazarian to honor the 119 soldiers killed in Lebanon War II.  Inbar himself was wounded in the war. At his side during the ceremony was Ira Ben Giat, mother of Ya'ar Ben Giat, one of the 119 soldiers killed during the war and in whose memory Inbar received the scholarship. "I have chosen life and want to be a part of anything that reminds me of life. I wanted to meet Erez and am so happy he will receive the scholarship named for Ya'ar," said Ms. Ben-Giat. (University of Haifa press release)

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News Sleuths: Watching the media gathering and reporting the news of Jewish interest

Date: June 6, 2007
Place: U.S. State Department
The spokesman: Sean McCormack
Source: State Department transcript
Subjects: Israel, Syria, Iran

QUESTION: Did he give you -- did he raise at all the possibility of a revived Israeli dialogue with the Syrians on peace?

MR. MCCORMACK: In the Secretary's conversation, it was very brief -- the discussion about Syria. And the Secretary reiterated in private what she has said in public about that. Essentially, it boils down to -- these are my words, not hers -- it essentially boils down to, look, we're not going to manage Israeli foreign policy. Those -- you will make your own decisions.

QUESTION: So, I mean, it would be a fair summary to say you're not going to tell them what to do, but it's not -- you don't feel like there's much of an opportunity here?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'll leave it where I left it. You guys can -- you guys can describe it as you will.

QUESTION: One other thing on Iran. Minister Mofaz told some of us outside that, you know, he favored diplomatic efforts with Iran until the end of this year. Sort of an odd timeline, but the inference was, yes, continue with diplomacy through the end of 2007. Did that come up? Did he suggest in a conversation that the diplomatic efforts now underway for many years on a multilateral basis on Iran on its alleged nuclear -- military nuclear program should not go beyond the next --

MR. MCCORMACK: Didn't hear a timeline, but clearly Israel as well as the rest of the world is concerned about Iran's nuclear activity. Look, we believe that the diplomatic pathway is the right pathway to try to resolve this. There are existing options in the absence of doing nothing that are out there. Nobody wants to see those come about. So the Secretary and the President decided on this diplomatic pathway to see if we can use the concerted effort of the international community, the leverage of the international community, to get Iran to change its behavior. Thus far, they haven't.

But we are going to be in the coming days, weeks and months talking with friends and allies around the globe about how we can -- how we can increase the pressure on Iran. I think we're going to be talking about in the not too distant future another Security Council resolution. There are, of course, efforts that are still underway with European countries, with Japan as well as others, to see what we can do to use the financial system as a way to pressure the Iranian Government into changing their behavior. And this is -- and when I say use the financial system, that is to not allow Iran to use the international financial system for illicit purposes.

And that's -- that is an effort that has had some effect, but we think that there is more room there for action. And so you can expect that we're going to be continuing discussions on those two tracks: the Security Council track, more sanctions, and then also working bilaterally with states on how we might pressure Iran outside of the Security Council.

QUESTION: And from your point of view, there's no timeline on ending --

MR. MCCORMACK: I haven't heard -- I certainly have not heard the Secretary apply any timeline to the diplomatic efforts.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Did Mr. Mofaz give any assurance to the Secretary about the fact that Prime Minister Olmert will indeed meet with President Abbas at the end of the month?

MR. MCCORMACK: Did she --

QUESTION: Did he give any assurance?

MR. MCCORMACK: They -- he indicated that they have a very direct and continuing interest in President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert meeting and working together on issues. I'd use the term "problem solving." Move forward the Israeli-Palestinian track. Yes, so they did express a continuing interest in that. We're confident that they will meet. I understand that there was a delay in this meeting and we understand that. We think it's really up to the two parties, the Israelis and the Palestinians, to decide on the precise date as well as all the modalities that go into these meetings. We are encouraging both sides to meet, and -- but I -- in that regard, I think we're pushing on an open door. They both want to meet. And it's just a question of making sure that they make maximum use of all of those opportunities and they're going to have to make some of those calculations.

QUESTION: The Palestinians announced that they will meet in the -- well, during the next Quartet meeting which has been announced at the end of the month. Do you think it's the same -- it has the same interest for the peace process? Do you think it -- the result will be as good for the peace process if they meet with other countries or if -- do you think it would be better to meet --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, it's not a substitute. They're -- the Israelis and Palestinians meeting with the Quartet, which is something that at the last Quartet meeting they had talked about happening in June as well as a Quartet meeting with some Arab states, is something that they announced back in Berlin. The date hasn't been set yet. But that's not a substitute for the Israelis and the Palestinians talking directly. There is no substitute for that.

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A dinner catered by The Prado Restaurant will follow a 5 p.m. tour of the exhibit. The sit-down dinner will be served  at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor outdoor balcony of the museum. An 8 p.m.  lecture by Dr. Russell Fuller, entitled “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?,” will follow the dinner.

Fuller, professor of Hebrew Bible in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, has a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. Fuller is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and is serving as a consultant for the exhibit. His lecture is sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University.

Tickets to the event will cost $150 with all proceeds above the cost of the tour, lecture, and dinner designated for the Interfaith Shelter Network.

“We know this exhibit has been anticipated by the faith community and everyone with an interest in antiquities,” explained Rosemary Johnston, ISN Program Director.  For more information, phone the Network office at (619)702-5399  or via e-mail.

The foregoing article was provided by the Interfaith Shelter Network.

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Book Review
 

Iran seen through the eyes of a woman of steel

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni. Random House, 2006, 232pp., $24.95.

Reviewed by David Strom        

Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, has written a riveting story about life in Iran today.  It is the story of hope, of a revolution gone awry, and the battle of women to free themselves from the tyranny of the false messianic interpreters of Islamic law.

As a judge-who was removed by the Islamic Revolution of the late seventies, as a lawyer, writer, activist and dissident, Shirin Ebadi has been on the field of battle.  She has spoken out clearly and strongly for Iranian women and children.  Her voice is a voice of sanity in a world of chaos.

As a young judge under the Shah’s rule, she interpreted the law in a secular fashion.  Once the Islamic Revolutionaries took control of the judicial system, Shirin grounded her decisions based on the Koran.  During the early days of the Revolution, modest changes in women’s apparel began. Many women began to wear headscarves.  Then they became almost mandatory.  Men with fewer qualifications got the jobs.  Eventually she became a clerk in her former courtroom and quit her job.

Married to a man who understood and was sympathetic to the plight of women under the Islamic zealots, Shirin raised two intelligent and questioning daughters.  As they were growing up, they witnessed the imprisonment of their mother, her struggle to defend the less fortunate of Iranian society, and their mother’s rising star on the international human rights scene, and finally they witnessed their mother’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shirin Ebadi believed she could publish her memoir in the West and that it might help correct stereotypes about Muslim women.  She felt her experiences under the Revolutionary government of Iran might help make the debate of Islam and the West more understandable and reach a wider audience.  However, initially she was wrong.

“Sanctions regulations in the United States, it turned out, made it virtually impossible for me to publish in the United States.” It was understandable to her that in Iran they censored books, banned satellite television, and built Internet firewalls. But to Shirin, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, it was incomprehensible “that the U.S. government, the self-proclaimed protector of a free way of life, would seek to regulate what Americans could or could not read, a practice that is called censorship when enacted by authoritarian regimes.  What was the difference between the censorship in Iran and this censorship in the United States?”

Shirin Ebadi’s book Iran Awakening is a glimpse at Iran today through the eyes of a woman of steel, a courageous woman.  It is a book that gives readers insight into life in Iran.  Iran is not a monolithic dictatorship as the Bush administration would have us believe.  It is a country struggling to free itself from the some of the failed parts of its Islamic Revolution.  Iran is a nation in transition, and hopefully, to a more democratic way of life.

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Songs of a Wayfarer to highlight TICO Concert

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—Joe Pechota, eminent San Diego baritone, will sing the lyrical and beautiful Songs of a Wayfarer by Gustav Mahler at a performance by TICO (Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra) at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 10,  at Ohr Shalom Synagogue, corner of Third and Laurel Streets in San Diego.

Pechota has been singing professionally in San Diego since making his Civic Theatre debut in 1975. He has appeared as principal artist with the San Diego Opera in several productions, most recently, in Turandot, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Romeo and Juliet. He recently debuted as Capulet for Opera de Tijuana.

He is a frequently returning principal artist with the Lyric Opera of San Diego, and, on the concert stage, he was baritone soloist with the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus. He has soloed with Maestros Leonard Bernstein, Andre Previn, Dennis Russell Davies, and Richard Bonynge.

TICO, formerly known as the East County Jewish Community Center Symphony, was established in 1974 and is now celebrating its 33rd year. The Orchestra is directed by David Amos who has conducted and recorded over 155 compositions on 33 critically acclaimed compact discs. He has conducted orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Jerusalem Symphony.

The program will include a world premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra by George Frederick Handel (a new commission, orchestrated by Alberto Flores); Aaron Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring, Suite from the Ballet, (subtitled "A Ballet for Martha," meaning the legendary choreographer Martha Graham); and the rhythmic and energetic Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1, by Georges Enesco.

The cost of admission to the concert is $12 for adults and $6 for seniors and students. For tickets and information regarding group rates, telephone the synagogue at (619) 231-1456.

The foregoing article was provided by the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra.
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Paul Thomas, a Lutheran Judeophile, receives Jewish jokes and stories from numerous friends, and just as quickly passes them on. In case you haven't already seen the one about the kosher computer, we post it here.  You know you have a kosher computer when....

Sylvia Cysner (1922-2007)

SAN DIEGO—A celebration of the life of Sylvia Cysner, who died Feb. 25 in Santa Monica at age 84, will be held at 11 a.m.,  Sunday, June 10th,  at the Bahia Hotel, 998 W. Mission Bay Drive. 

Cysner, 84, is survived by her daughters, Charlotte Myers and Pamela Cysner of Santa Monica, and Sandy Wallace of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was an involved grandmother to Tikvah and Kazi Myers and Ian and Emily Wallace and to her great granddaughter, Samalah Seldon.

Born May 28, 1922 in Bamberg, Germany to Cecilia and Max Nagler, Sylvia made her way to London, England in 1938. Establishing herself there with the help of friends, she was able to secure safe passage out of Germany for her parents and her two younger brothers and supported them through the war as a dental technician. During the difficult war years and after, Sylvia also helped countless family members and friends get back on their feet after their devastating losses.

She came to the United States in 1948 and married Cantor Joseph Cysner in San Francisco. They moved to San Diego in 1950 where her husband assumed his Cantorial position with Tifereth Israel Synagogue.  With the sudden death of her beloved husband on March 3, 1961, Sylvia was faced with the daunting task of raising her three young daughters. 

She was an amazing mother, dedicating her life to her children. She always had a thirst for learning and travel, especially to see family in England, Holland and Israel.  Her home was known for great food, wonderful music and the sharing of Jewish traditions, history and folklore. 

To support her family, Sylvia returned to work as a dental assistant for Dr. George Glenn in Ocean Beach until 1977.  Never one to sit still, a trait she passed on to all her daughters, Sylvia became the consummate volunteer spending time at the San Diego Wellness Community, working with children, the Jewish Community Center and at Temples Solel, Beth Israel, Beth Ami and Adat Ami (now Ohr Shalom).

Donations in her memory can be made to the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, 1934 Pentucket Avenue, San Diego, CA 92104 or the Tools for Tolerance Educators Program, c/o the Museum of Tolerance, 9786 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90035 Attn:  Beverly LeMay.  For further information about the celebration of Sylvia’s life, please contact Debbie Suissa at Ohr Shalom, (619) 231-1456.

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United Nations...
(continued from above)

Amnesty's report is one-sided, immoral, and riddled with mistakes and numerous factual and legal inaccuracies, including scant mention of Palestinian terrorism which holds non-combatants hostage, using them as human shields and camouflage.

The report does not relate – in any acceptable manner – to Israel's right of self-defense or to its legitimate security needs, but mentions these needs only casually, without giving them their due consideration.  This approach finds clear expression in the chapter on recommendations, which includes a list of detailed recommendations for Israel and the international community, while the Palestinian Authority is merely required to implement measures to prevent terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens.

The lack of emphasis on the centrality of Palestinian terrorism and the IDF's responsibility to protect Israeli citizens as a direct result is not reasonable and creates a deliberate distortio

The report's total disregard of the conduct of Palestinian terrorist organizations and of the war crimes that they perpetrate daily, when they directly and indiscriminately target civilian populations while using the local population as human shields, is another outstanding example of the significant problems embodied in the report.

Moreover, the report does not contain even a vaguely factual presentation of the initiatives taken by Israeli law-enforcement authorities, including – inter alia – the Justice, Defense and Interior ministries, and the IDF, to safeguard human rights."

At the conclusion of the Amnesty International report, these recommendations were made:

●To the Israeli government:

End the regime of closures in its current form, as well as other forms of restrictions on freedom of movement of people and goods, that result in collective punishment. Any restriction may only be imposed if it is necessary to respond to security threats, is non-discriminatory and proportionate in terms of its impact and duration, and is imposed on named individuals, not on whole communities.

Stop the construction of the fence/wall inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which results in unlawful restrictions on the right to free movement of Palestinians and the arbitrary destruction or seizure of their homes and property, and which undermines other rights, including the rights to adequate housing, to work, to an adequate standard of living and to respect for family life. Sections of the fence/wall already constructed that violate these rights should be removed. Israel only has the right to build a barrier between Israel and the West Bank.

Immediately stop construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and related infrastructure in the OPT as a first step to removing Israeli civilians living in such settlements in the OPT.

Stop immediately the destruction of houses, land, and other properties without absolute military necessity as prescribed by international humanitarian law. Anyone whose property has been unlawfully destroyed without adequate prior notification and the effective opportunity to challenge the decision before a court of law should receive reparation and be allowed, where possible, to rebuild their property in the same place.

Cancel all demolition orders of unlicensed houses in the OPT. Responsibility for planning and building policies and regulations in the OPT should be removed from the Israeli authorities and placed solely with the local Palestinian communities. All those whose properties have been destroyed in violation of international law should be granted effective redress. Israel should ensure reparation to those whose houses were unlawfully destroyed.
Ensure that Israeli forces protect Palestinian civilians and their property against violence by Israeli settlers by instructing them to arrest Israeli settlers who assault Palestinians or destroy their property, by carrying out prompt, detailed and thorough investigations of complaints of settler violence submitted to them, and by deploying patrols to protect Palestinian schoolchildren and other civilians in areas where there is a danger of settler violence.

Ensure proper investigation of alleged violations by Israeli forces, and bring to justice anyone found responsible in fair trials.
●To Palestinian armed groups:

End attacks on civilians and other abuses of international humanitarian law, whether in the OPT or inside Israel.

●To the Palestinian Authority:

Take effective measures to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups and bring to justice those responsible for such attacks.

●To the international community:

Deploy an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism across Israel and the OPT to monitor the compliance of each party with its respective obligations under international law; report publicly; and recommend corrective measures to be adopted by the parties, other countries or international organizations.

Ensure accountability of both parties, in compliance with their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law. Investigate and, where feasible, prosecute through the exercise of universal jurisdiction those responsible for war crimes or other crimes under international law.

Ensure that any peace process includes concrete provisions that address fundamental human rights issues at the heart of the conflict, including the removal of Israeli settlements from the OPT; the dismantling of the fence/wall inside the West Bank; ending the closures; impunity for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law; and, in the longer term, a fair solution to the refugee question.

States parties to the Geneva Conventions must uphold their obligation under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to “respect and ensure respect for” the Convention, including by prosecuting grave breaches under Article 147.

Ensure that Israel as the occupying power fulfils its obligation to provide for the protection and welfare of the Palestinian population, and refrain from imposing sanctions that negatively affect the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population. The international community and donor states providing humanitarian assistance to the PA, notably the USA and EU countries, must take immediate steps to minimize the adverse impact on human rights of their suspension of funding. They must ensure that emergency assistance essential to fulfilling fundamental human rights is never used as a bargaining tool to further political goals.

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