Fresh Updates from RAC

I returned last week from leading a birthright trip – a whirlwind ten day adventure in Israel for forty young Jewish adults experiencing Israel for the first time. It was an amazing experience where I was able to witness many new connections formed with Judaism and Israel for the participants. These connections manifested themselves in different ways for each participant whether it was standing at the Kotel (Western Wall) for the first time recognizing that Jewish spirituality has existed for thousands of years, staring out from Masada contemplating the fight for independence our people has long endured or going out at night in Tel Aviv and realizing that young Israelis like to have fun just like young Americans.

What was probably the most powerful experience for the participants (and for me) was having a group of Israeli soldiers join our trip for five days. Watching the Americans realize that while they are busy studying, taking tests and being involved on their college campuses, these young people are busy patrolling borders, gathering intelligence and putting their lives literally on the line every day, was extremely powerful. One story that stuck with the participants was the story of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas five years ago this week, and held in captivity in Gaza ever since.

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Tuesday this week saw an outrageous arson attack on a West Bank mosque. The attack included graffiti spray-painted on the mosque which said “Price Tag – Alei Ayin” a likely reference to Israeli demolition of a structure in the unauthorized settlement of Alei Ayin.

According to Ha’aretz: “Security officials say the attack was a warning to the IDF and police against the evacuation of further unauthorized outposts and to intimidate Palestinian villagers.”

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Monday marked 44 years since the start of the Six-Day-War in Israel. Protesters gathered on the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border to mark the event and were, reportedly, held back from the Israeli border with gunfire from Israeli troops, after warnings on a loudspeaker and shots in the air failed.

Reports in Syrian media are claiming between six and twenty protesters were killed and another 227 were injured when Israeli troops open fire, while Israel is only acknowledging that a dozen protesters were injured by controlled fire at the legs of the protesters.

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The deadline for the inter-movement Rabbinic sign-on letter for foreign aid to Israel is Friday. If you are a Rabbi add your name here. If you are not a rabbi you can also support foreign aid to Israel by clicking here to email your member of Congress and let them know how important this issue is.

Help us send the message that it is essential that foreign aid to Israel, America’s strongest ally in the Middle East, continue as part of a strong comprehensive foreign aid package that allows nations to address poverty, global warming, democracy building, human rights and disease prevention.

We’re working all this week to collect signatures from Rabbis to send to Congress opposing dangerous cuts to foreign aid and supporting continued foreign aid to Israel and we need your help.

If you are a rabbi, click here to add your name to the letter. If you are not a rabbi you can support foreign aid to Israel, too! Click here to email your member of Congress and let them know how important this issue is.

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Over the weekend the Washington Post published an op-ed by Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who headed up the 2009 UN investigation and subsequent report – the Goldstone Report – on the Israeli war in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. The op-ed titled “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes,” acknowledges that a lot more is known today than when the report was written and if it was done today it would be a completely different document. In the op-ed Goldstone recants on some of his initial accusations of war crimes against Israel, namely that Israel intentionally targeted civilians as a matter of policy in Gaza:

“The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”

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Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren is accepting online questions from the public all weekend via Facebook and Twitter. The answers will be posted in a Youtube video from the Ambassador on Monday. This is our chance to let the Ambassador know what issues are on the minds of Reform Jews .

To ask Ambassador Oren a question post on his Facebook page or send a tweet using the hashtag #AskOren.

Earlier today a bomb went off outside the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem killing one person and injuring many more. The Reform Movement is of course outraged over this incident and the recent surge of violence in Israel and in response to the attack Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, issued a statement.

In the statement Rabbi Yoffie condemned the attack and offered prayers for the victims and their families:

“We call upon Palestinian leaders to condemn today’s attack and make it clear that rocket fire and bombs in bus stations are not the answer. We urge both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to do all they can to ensure the violence we have recently witnessed does not escalate. We call upon the Palestinians to return to peace talks immediately so that progress can be mode toward the peace that the Israeli and Palestinian peoples so desperately want and need.”

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