Rabbi Birdie Becker
  • Home
    • Blogs and Videos
    • Rabbi In The News
  • Services and Fees
    • Tutoring Policies
    • REFERENCES
    • Contact Form
  • Prayer Practice
  • Music
  • Conversations at the Well
    • Teaching Supplement: Conversations at the Well
  • Jewish Calendar: Basics
    • High Holidays
    • Chanukah
    • Tu B'Shevat
    • Passover/Pesach
  • Israel
  • Non-clickable Page

U.S. Presidents Visit Israel

11/5/2012

0 Comments

 
NOVEMBER 5, 2012 (posted originally on facebook)

Someone mentioned to me that Obama had not visited Israel. I replied that only one president had done so in their first term. I was incorrect. Two did: Carter and Clinton. Here are the facts (sorry, there is only one side to facts - you may interpret them anyway you wish). From the FactChecker by Kessler, you can also retrieve the same information from the State Dept. records but it takes numerous site visits. Politifact also has the same information.

The Facts

"The State Department historian’s office maintains a list of presidential foreign travels, so we can quickly see which presidents have visited Israel — and when. Here’s the list since Israel’s founding:

Harry Truman: no visit
Dwight Eisenhower: no visit
John Kennedy: no visit
Lyndon Johnson: no visit
Richard Nixon: sixth year of presidency
Gerald Ford: no visit 
Jimmy Carter: third year of presidency
Ronald Reagan: no visit 
George H.W. Bush: no visit
Bill Clinton: 4 visits—in the second, third, fourth and sixth years of his presidency
George W. Bush: 2 visits—in the eighth year of his presidency

According to this list, only four of the last 11 presidents visited Israel during their presidency, and two — Nixon and George W. Bush — waited until their second term to make their first trip. In both cases, they visited in the last year of their presidencies (Nixon resigned because of the Watergate affair shortly after his trip.)

Only Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, then, visited Israel in their first term. And of the last four presidents, two never visited Israel, one visited in his second term and one visited in his first term.

Thus Obama’s failure to travel to Israel thus far is not unusual at all.

The Emergency Committee ad also suggests that Obama has visited Arab countries rather than Israel. But the State Department records also demonstrate that every president who traveled to Israel had previously visited Egypt and Saudi Arabia.


The ad also incorrectly says Obama has “traveled all over the Middle East.” Obama visited just Turkey and Iraq in April 2009, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia in June 2009. The stops in Iraq and Saudi Arabia were barely a few hours long — and Obama has not traveled at all to Middle East in the past three years. (Many of the images in the ad of Obama with Arab leaders are from international confabs held outside the Middle East.)

Indeed, George W. Bush, Clinton and George H.W. Bush were much more well traveled in the Middle East than Obama has been so far in his presidency.

0 Comments

Open Letter from Carl Levin

10/30/2012

0 Comments

 
OCTOBER 30, 2012 (posted originally on facebook)

Posting for those interested in Israel as relevant to their vote:

An Open letter on Israel from the chairman of the senate Armed Service Committee

Dear Friend,

This is the first letter I've ever written in the hope that the "social media" winds take it not just to people I know, but also to people I've never met and to places I'll never see.

I do so because I'm deeply troubled by how the Jewish community is being flooded with inaccurate and sometimes inflammatory attacks on President Obama, claiming that he is not a strong supporter of Israel.

I do so because as a Jewish senator and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I feel a responsibility to share what I have personally seen and what I know about Barack Obama and Israel.

As I write this, U.S. and Israeli forces are engaged in a large joint military exercise. We hold these exercises regularly. But this is
the largest joint exercise we have held with Israel, involving over 3,500 U.S. troops, about 1/3 of them deployed to Israel for 3 weeks.

This exercise comes at a critical moment for putting massive pressure on Iran to end any quest for a nuclear weapon.

The joint exercise will dramatize our joint military capability to defend against an Iranian missile attack. The exercise combines U.S. Patriot batteries and Aegis ship radar with Israel's Arrow, Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defenses. These Israeli missile defenses received significant funding by the U.S. and have been strongly supported by President Obama.

As Iran decides whether to try to build a nuclear weapon, Iranian leaders will now have to factor in more than ever that they will not be able to deter a strike against a nuclear weapon facility by threatening to retaliate with their missiles. Iran's leaders can't do so because a retaliatory threat by them or by their allies Hezbollah or Hamas has been degraded by Israel's and our combined missile defenses, as demonstrated by the current joint exercise.

I have seen up close how President Obama has acted in many other ways to strengthen Israel's military capability.


Ehud Barak,
Israel's current Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, recently put it this way:

"I should tell you honestly that this Administration, under President Obama, is dong in regard to our security more than anything I can remember in the past." (July 11, 2012)

Prime Minister Netanyahu himself told the AIPAC Conference in May of this year:

"Our security cooperation is unprecedented. And President Obama has backed his words with deeds."

President Obama has also made clear that he will not permit Iran to get a nuclear weapon. For instance:

"It's my firm belief that an Iran with a nuclear weapon would pose a security threat not only to the region but also to the United States." (November 14, 2011)

"My policy here is not going to be one of containment. My policy is prevention of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. And as I indicated yesterday in my speech, when I say all options are at the table, I mean it." (March 5, 2012)

Iran must know from the record of President Obama, including his use of force in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, that he doesn't bluff or bluster.

He is a serious man.
He speaks carefully.
He doesn't flip flop around.
He doesn't throw
words around carelessly.

Iran has seen him act -- his warnings aren't
idle threats.

President Obama has succeeded in unifying the world against Iran with biting sanctions. Those sanctions have done major damage to Iran's oil revenues (they are down by 60% over the last year) and to its currency (the value of which is down by 80% over the last year).

In part because of the respect in which he is held around the world, he has also succeeded in the challenging environment at the UN in preventing unfair damage to Israel at a number of crucial moments, including stopping a UN condemnation of Israel when it prevented a flotilla of ships from forcing itself through its blockade of Gaza.

President Reagan is rightly remembered as a strong friend of Israel, although he led the world's condemnation of Israel at the UN when Israel knocked out Iraq's threatening nuclear facility. I'm amazed how some in our community judge President Obama, who has prevented unfair condemnation of Israel at the UN, by a different standard.

I have seen President Obama act forcefully to protect Israeli citizens at Israel's embassy in Cairo when a violent mob recently came within minutes of reaching and attacking them. Here is what Prime Minister Netanyahu said about President Obama's actions:

"I requested President Obama's assistance at a decisive -- I would even say fateful -- moment. He said he would do everything possible, and this is what he did. He activated all of United States' means and influence -- which are certainly considerable. I believe we owe him a special debt of gratitude."

By any standard, fairly and consistently applied, President Obama has been a proven friend of Israel.

Support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship has been bipartisan, and it is essential it remain so for our security and for Israel's security. It is harmful to that relationship and to Israel for some in our community to attempt to drive a wedge between the Obama administration and Israel.

I won't comment here on the many other reasons I support President Obama. My goal is to simply express my abhorrence at blatantly unfair, inaccurate and sometimes inflammatory claims that President Obama is not a strong supporter of the U.S. -- Israel relationship, when that relationship is important to U.S. security and to the goal of Middle East peace.

I hope that this effort will succeed in utilizing the internet's ability to have one's thoughts shared broadly. If you believe they are worthy or interesting, please share them with your friends.

Thanks.
Carl Levin

0 Comments

Israel and U.S. Relations

8/27/2012

0 Comments

 
  • AUGUST 27, 2012

  • POLITICS  (posted on Facebook 8.27.12)

  • ISRAEL AND US RELATIONS

    This came across my desk and appears to be an amalgamation of writings from Steve Sheffey.

    Steve Sheffey has long been active in the pro-Israel community and in Jewish communal life. He served on the Board of CityPAC, Chicago’s premier pro-Israel political action committee, for seven years, including two years as its President. In 1992, he ran for delegate pledged to Tom Harkin in what was then the Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District. He has volunteered in various capacities in the Congressional campaigns of Abner Mikva, Robert Weinberger, Sid Yates, John Cullerton, Lauren Beth Gash and Dan Seals. He is the author of “God Has Brought Me Laughter,” a collection of jokes organized by the Torah portion of the week. The views he presents in his writings and talks do not necessarily represent the views of any organization he is or has been associated with, and unless otherwise noted, he does not write or speak on behalf of these organizations.

  • http://www.vosizneias.com/98728/2012/01/12/washington-president-obama-and-israel-a-pro-israel-perspective/


    Move a Chicagoan to San Diego and soon he’ll forget the wind, sleet and snow and start complaining when the temperature drops below 60 degrees.
  • Relations between Israel and the United States are warmer under President Obama than under previous administrations, yet we hear that the President has a “Jewish problem.” The problem is not Obama, but us: In only three years, we’ve lost historic perspective. We’re criticizing Obama for what would have gone unnoticed in other administrations.
  • KEEP READING AT THE ABOVE LINK


    0 Comments

    In Support of IsraelĀ 

    7/30/2012

    0 Comments

     
    Picture
  • by Rabbi Birdie Becker
  • Originally published in Temple Emanuel Bulletin 7.22.12Volume 17, Number 4
    August-September 2012 Av-Elul 5772 

    In August of 2002, I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Lieberman during his visit to Denver. My question was, "What can you do now to counteract the delegitimization and eventual boycott of Israel?" He told me it could not happen here. My daughter, Rachel, related an event that oc-curred. She had attended a USSA (United States Student Association) meeting earlier that year. The focus was on illegal behaviors and human rights violations by Israel. All the speakers presented only the Palestinian side. Rachel alone stood to speak for Israel. She was soon prevented from speaking, as she was no longer recognized by the moderators. Still, she contacted me every night of the convention to obtain historically accurate information to bring to the conference body. I looked at Sen. Lieberman and said, "Historically, what happens at the university level will be main stream in ten years." His response was, "It can't happen here."

    Well, here we are, ten years later and as I expected, BDS has become a national movement. However, it has been building throughout this decade with little resistance. Indeed, I would say with a level of support not only from anti- Zionists but also from well meaning Jews who site halacha (Jewish law) as if it were universally accepted (which it blatantly is not, even among Jews, let alone non-Jews).

    Are you familiar with the BDS movement? BDS stands for boycotts, divestment and sanctions and refers specifically to Israel. BDS "call(s) upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." Signed by 116 Arab organizations in 2005, its purpose is:

    1. Ending its (Israel's) occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
  • 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

    3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

    According to the President of the International Court of Justice, Stephen M. Schwebel (1997-2000), professor of International Law at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, "Where the prior holder of territory [Jordan] had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense [Israel] has, against that prior holder, better title."


    "Jeffrey S. Helmreich, author and writer for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is quoted, 'The settlements are not located in ‘occupied territory.’ The last binding international legal instrument which divided the territory in the region of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza was the League of Nations Mandate, which explicitly recognized the right of Jewish settlement in all territory allocated to the Jewish national home in the context of the British Mandate. These rights under the British mandate were preserved by the successor organization to the League of Nations, the United Nations, under Article 80 of the U.N. Charter.'
    ...

    "The Jewish right of settlement in the West Bank is conferred by the same provisions of the Mandate under which Jews settled in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before the state of Israel was created. … The Jewish right of settlement in Palestine west of the Jordan River, that is, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, was made unassailable. That right has never been terminated. …" recorded Eugene W. Rostow, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

    Addressing the equal rights of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, it is unfortunate but seemingly true, that minorities in any community may be viewed as unequal. We have but to look in our own country to see this truth. Yet, the apartheid accusation is far from accurate. First, a definition of the word. Apartheid, according to my computer dictionary means, a separation of different peoples from those of European origin or any system that separates people according to race, caste, etc. Under these definitions, I can think of a number of countries that would be apartheid. However, one has but to walk the streets of Israel to see that it is not among them. Find a picture of the marketplace, the housing centers, the hotels, the beaches and you will see for yourself that it is not segregated or separated except for a few specific religious centers. Unfortunately, for liberal American Jews, The Kotel (Western Wall) is among them.

    As for the 'right of return' argument via the UN General Assembly Resolution 194: on November 12, 1948, the GA (whose resolutions are non-binding) wrote "... that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible." The War of Independence was in full bloom and the entire Arab world rejected the resolution since it meant that the equally displaced Jews from Arab lands should also have the ability to return to their homes. Further, the "live at peace with their neighbors" has never been on the table since even today, the destruction of Israel appears in the Hamas charter (Gaza is under Hamas rule).

    So why am I ranting about this now? In 2007, the World Council of Churches produced the Amman Call, a document that condemned violence and endorsed a two-state solution but also called for the 'right of return' for Palestinians and dismantling of the security fence. In 2008, they proposed the Bern Perspective, which, among other things, instructed Christians to under-stand all biblical references to Israel only metaphorically. In 2009, they posted on their website the Kairos Palestine Document which
    demonized Israel as an evil occupation and inferred it held no historical ties to the land. In 2010, they urged the U.S. government to withhold funds from Israel. The U.S. Presbyterian Church was at the forefront of the call.
     
    In early July, members of a committee of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church voted in favor of divestment from three companies: Motorola, for providing surveillance equipment for Israeli settlements; Caterpillar, for providing bulldozers; and Hewlett-Packard, for selling hardware used by Israel in its naval blockade of Gaza. The General Assembly narrowly defeated this measure. However, they voted in favor of boycotting products made in the West Bank settlements, such as Ahava, and produce from Hadiklaim Israel Date Growers. The issue is certain to be brought up at subsequent councils. The narrow margin on the vote is an unhappy harbinger of things to come. 

    Thirteen hundred Rabbis and over 12,000 American Jews signed letters to the Assembly requesting they reconsider this step. Jeremy Ben-Ami, President and Founder of J Street wrote, "I would say to the Church’s leaders as they again consider joining forces with the BDS Movement, that the Movement’s rhetoric and tactics are not only a distraction, but a genuine threat to conflict resolution. Even the limited divestment approach under consideration by PCUSA falls under the rubric of larger BDS ef-forts to place blame entirely on one side of the conflict. Such an approach encourages not reconciliation, but polarization."

    I pray that the future brings healing and hope for interfaith as well as Israeli-Palestinian relationships.
    ____________
    1. The Palestinian Unified Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, 9 July 2005,
  • http://www.bigcampaign.org/the-palestinian-call/ 
    2. Note to boycotters: Israel is not a thief, David Suissa, July 3, 2012,
    http://www.jewishjournal.com/david_suissa/article/ note_to_boycotters_israel_is_not_a_thief_20120703/
    3. Ibid. 
    4. Boycott, divestment and sanctions put allies at odds, Jeremy Ben-Ami, July 3, 2012     http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/ boycott_divestment_and_sanctions_put_allies_at_odds_20120703/

  • 0 Comments

      Categories

      All
      9/11
      Abortion
      Acceptance
      ADL
      Akeida
      Anti Semitism
      Anti-Semitism
      Apartheid
      Bds
      Blessings
      B'nai Mitzvah Poem
      Broken Heart
      Cancer
      Caretaker Blog
      Carl Levin
      Chanukah
      Civil Discourse
      Civil Rights
      Community
      Congressional Funding
      December Dilemma
      Dominion Over The Earth
      Dor L' Dor
      Ehud Barack
      Environment
      Eulogy
      Forgiveness
      Gaza
      Gratitude
      Gun Control
      Hallel
      Hameitim (hamatim)
      Health Care
      High Holidays
      Holocaust
      Human Rights
      Human Rights Council
      Hunger
      Immigration
      Invocation
      Iron Dome
      Israel
      Jewish Council For Public Affairs
      Justice
      Kabbalat
      Kaddish
      LGBTQ
      Link In Chain
      Love
      Lulav And Etrog
      Memories
      Middot
      Miracles
      Mi Sheberach
      Mourning
      Mussar
      Occupation
      Palestinian Aid
      Palestinians
      Paris Climate Accords
      Passover
      Pay Equality
      PCUSA
      Pesach
      Politics
      Prayer
      President Obama
      Pres.Obama
      Purim
      Reb Zalman
      Reproductive Health
      Rocket Attacks
      Security Wall
      Seder
      Separation Of Church & State
      Service
      Shabbat
      Shema
      Shofar
      Steve Sheffey
      Stress
      Sukkot
      Teshuva
      Tikun Olam
      Together Colorado
      Tu B'Av
      Tzedek
      Tzedek Terdof
      Uahc General Assembly
      United Nations
      U.S. And Israel
      U.S. Presidents And Israel
      V'Haya Im Sh'moa
      Violence
      Voting
      Women's Rights
      Women's Rights
      Women's Rights
      World Council Of Churches
      Wow Women Of The Wall
      Yahrzeit

      RSS Feed

      I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment. To subscribe to this blog leave your email at RSS FEED.

      Author

      Community educator, choreographer, composer, performer, Becker, M.S.W., M.Ed., M.R.S., Ph.D., serves as rabbi for Temple Emanuel-Pueblo, cellist for Apples and Honey and is a Storahtelling Maven.

      Archives

      March 2022
      February 2022
      November 2021
      April 2021
      November 2020
      October 2020
      September 2020
      June 2020
      May 2020
      April 2020
      March 2020
      November 2019
      December 2018
      November 2018
      September 2018
      January 2018
      September 2017
      August 2017
      June 2017
      January 2017
      December 2016
      October 2016
      July 2016
      February 2016
      December 2015
      September 2015
      August 2015
      May 2015
      March 2015
      December 2014
      October 2014
      September 2014
      August 2014
      July 2014
      November 2013
      September 2013
      August 2013
      June 2013
      April 2013
      March 2013
      February 2013
      January 2013
      December 2012
      November 2012
      October 2012
      September 2012
      August 2012
      July 2012


      FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ISRAEL
      https://www.standwithus.com/
      http://www.standforisrael.org
      http://unitedwithisrael.org/

      WOMEN OF THE WALL http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/12/22/world/middleeast/100000001969698/women-at-the-western-wall.html
    Proudly powered by Weebly