THREE CRITICAL WEEKS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: INSIGHTS INTO U.S. POLICY

Below is a portion of an analysis written by Robert Satloff on June 21, 2010 that was published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy about how the U.S. will re-evaluate its Middle East policy after the Gaza flotilla incident. Mr. Satloff is executive director of The Washington Institute. To read the entire article, click on the title above.

Where does Washington find itself following this flurry of activity since late May?

Without a Turkish ally. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a choice: in his view, Hizballah is a responsible actor in Lebanon; Hamas is a legitimate resistance group; and Iran and Syria are Ankara's strategic partners. The question for the United States is whether and how to exact a price for Erdogan's brazen decision to spit in its face by leading the opposition to the Iran sanctions effort.

Some will say now is the moment for critics of Erdogan to push for passage of the Armenian genocide resolution in Congress. Without offering a view on specific legislation, however, Congress should think twice about using this as a tool to punish Erdogan. After all, the last thing the United States should want to do is give this Islamist leader -- a man who welcomed Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir by saying that it is inconceivable for a Muslim to commit genocide, a man who has succeeded in bringing anti-Semitism from the fringe of Turkish politics into the mainstream -- an excuse to wrap himself in a nationalist flag.

STRONG MAJORITY RATE ISRAEL ‘IMPORTANT’ TO U.S. INTEREST

JTA published the following article written by Ron Kampeas on June 25, 2010 about a recent poll that showed Americans view relations with Israel as extremely or fairly important to the U.S. national interest. To read the entire Editorial, click on the title above.

A strong majority of Americans view relations with Israel as extremely or fairly important to the U.S. national interest, a poll showed.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll published June 23 showed 39 percent of respondents said relations were "extremely important" and 26 percent said they were "fairly important" -- a total of 65 percent.

Those answering "just somewhat important" counted for 25 percent of respondents and those responding "not important at all" were just 7 percent, with 3 percent not sure.

Asked "are your sympathies more with Israel or more with Arab nations?" 61 percent of respondents chose Israel, 12 percent chose Arab nations, 5 percent said both, 11 percent said neither and 11 percent were not sure.

NEW YORK JEWS SAIL 'TRUE FREEDOM FLOTILLA' FOR GILAD SHALIT

Below is a portion of an article written by Shlomo Shamir that was published by Haaretz on June 24, 2010 about members of the New York Jewish community who brought attention to the anniversary of Gilad Shalit’s capture by sailing a “true freedom flotilla” – a nod to recent events in the Middle East. To read the entire article, click on the title above.

New York's Jewish community was set to mark four years since the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Gaza militants with what they call the "True Freedom Flotilla.

The name chosen for the event echoes the name of a recent 8-ship flotilla that sailed from Turkey toward Gaza to break the Israeli blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory, which was named the Freedom Flotilla.

The flotilla was to encircle the Statue of Liberty and then sail to United Nations building.

The two-hour event was to involve seven vessels: The Queen of Hearts which can hold up to 600 passengers, another smaller boat and five privately owned yachts.

FEW LEGITIMATE CANDIDATES

The following is a portion of an Op-Ed written by Yossi Alpher that was published on bitterlemons.org on June 21, 2010 about his views on what needs to be done with settlers in Gaza and the West Bank in order to get to a compromise of a two-state solution. Mr. Alpher is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. To read the entire policy analysis, click on the title above.

The question of settlers remaining in a Palestinian state is becoming increasingly central to the issue of a successful two-state solution. One reason is quite simply the growing number of settlers who live beyond the settlement blocs and who are not likely to accept financial compensation and leave their homes in order to facilitate an agreement.

Another is that the failure of the government of Israel to resettle the 2005 Gaza Strip evacuees expeditiously reinforces the impression that the removal of tenfold as many settlers from the West Bank may be beyond the capacity of any future government. True, the Gaza failure was caused in part by the obstinacy of the settlers themselves, but that merely reinforces the point that removing many more is a dangerous gamble for Israeli society.

Moreover, the officer ranks of IDF land forces are now so heavily manned by the sons of settlers themselves--around 30 percent and rising--that even Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has asked the government not to turn to the army to remove settlers because this would be too divisive. In the past, I advocated in these virtual pages that the removal of West Bank settlers become one of the tasks allotted to an international peacekeeping force. This would of course constitute an admission of virtual domestic political bankruptcy on Israel's part. In any case, there is no certainty that troops from Denmark or Colombia would accept that task or could carry it out.

SOCIAL ACTION/PUBLIC POLICY

LOW MEDICARE PAY FOR DOCTORS PUTS HEALTH REFORM AT RISK

Michael A. Neuman, M.D. wrote the following Op-Ed on June 19, 2010 that was published in the Washington Post about why health care reform might be in jeopardy if Congress does not increase its reimbursement to doctors for Medicare services. Dr. Neuman is a physician practicing in Washington, D.C. and a clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine. To read the entire Op-Ed, click on the title above.

Now is not the time for Congress to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

The Senate on Friday passed the annual "doc fix" -- but this short-term stay on the reimbursement rates for physicians who treat Medicare patients does not resolve the underlying problem: Those reimbursements are woefully below market. And if Congress does not address this, the much-heralded health-care reform is at risk.

The reform legislation passed in March will greatly increase demand for physicians' services. But each year, more doctors are declining to participate in Medicare. Physicians, especially those providing primary care, are reimbursed by Medicare at rates 25 to 35 percent below those of other insurance programs. And the Senate action Friday came too late to prevent the already-low rates from being cut 21 percent. A definitive solution is needed, soon, to keep physicians on board for reform.

In recent years, both health-care utilization and costs have exploded. But an American Medical Association online survey last month of more than 9,000 physicians found that 31 percent of primary care physicians -- defined as family practice, general practice, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology -- restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice, mostly because they consider reimbursement rates too low and have concerns about future payment cuts. The AMA found that 60 percent of all physicians are considering opting out of Medicare. And older physicians who have more Medicare patients in their practices have been retiring earlier than expected. (This trend may be held in check because of the economic downturn's effects on physicians' 401(k) plans.)

IMPROVING LATINO COLLEGE RATE IS A WISE INVESTMENT

The following is a portion of an Editorial that was published in The Dallas Morning News on June 18, 2010 about why increasing Latino college-going rates is a good investment for Texas. To read the entire Editorial, click on the title above.

About 200 Latino high school students from Dallas got a taste of college life last week at a Southern Methodist University symposium that exposed them to the demands of higher education. They also competed for $10,000 in scholarships, which will help some of them become the first in their families to attend college.

The sponsoring Hispanic College Fund is a private national organization, but we hope folks in Austin paid attention. Investing state dollars in scholarships for first-generation college students could help steer more of Texas' fastest-growing ethnic group to college. (Philanthropies could help, too, by investing in first-generation programs that Texas schools already offer.) Here's why the spending makes sense.

Texas Latinos' college-going rates lag behind their white and African-American peers. Yes, new Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board data show the number of Latinos in college jumped by 74 percent from 2000 to 2009. But the board also reports that only 4.4 percent of Hispanic Texans participated in higher education in fall 2009.

CIVILITY TAKES ANOTHER BEATING IN U.S. POLL

On June 24, 2010, The Dallas Morning News published the following Op-Ed written by Roger Simon that addresses the lack of civility in the United States. Mr. Simon is Politico's chief political columnist. To read the Op-Ed in its entirety, click on the title above.

Two out of three Americans consider a general lack of civility to be a major problem for the nation, and 72 percent think this poor behavior has gotten worse in recent years, according to a new study by Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick in partnership with KRC Research. (I wonder how all of them got along.)

And while incivility is a problem in virtually all walks of life, politicians may be particularly vulnerable: 83 percent of those polled said, "People should not vote for candidates and politicians who are uncivil."

So I guess, come November, nobody is going to win.

The just-released study polled 1,003 U.S. adults April 20-23. Among the areas cited as the most uncivil: government/politics, roadway traffic, the entire American public, talk radio and high school campuses. Friends/relatives and places of worship ranked as the "least uncivil."

CALCULATING THE TRUE COST OF GAS

The Dallas Morning News published the following Op-Ed written by Washington Post columnist Erza Klein as she calculates what the effect of the recent BP spill has on the true cost of our gasoline. To read the entire Op-Ed, click on the title above.

How much does a gallon of gasoline cost?

It seems like an easy question. The price is displayed in giant numbers on most main roads. But as the sludge choking the gulf shows, nothing is easy when it comes to oil. Not even the price. In fact, especially not the price.

Most of us would call the BP spill a tragedy. Ask an economist what it is, however, and you'll hear a different word: "externality." An externality is a cost that's not paid by the person, or people, using the good that creates the cost. The BP spill is going to cost fishermen, it's going to cost the gulf's ecosystem, and it's going to cost the region's tourism industry. But that cost won't be paid by the people who wanted that oil for their cars. It'll fall on taxpayers, on gulf residents who need new jobs, on the poisoned wildlife on the seafloor.

That means the gasoline you're buying at the pump is – stick with me here – too cheap. The price you pay is less than the product's true cost. A lot less, actually. And it's not just catastrophic spills and dramatic disruptions in the Middle East that add to the price. Gasoline has so many hidden costs that there's a cottage industry devoted to tallying them up – at least the ones that can be tallied up.

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THE IRAN REPORT

September 2007, the JCRC began a special section entitled “The Iran Report”.  Due to the looming serious nature of Iran and its politics within the global world, JCRCs across the country are providing community leaders with updated materials and articles concerning Iran, which will include political matters, divestment information, etc.  Both the United Jewish Communities (UJC) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) have issued joint statements indicating that the subject of Iran should be on the top of the agenda for local Jewish communities. 

The JCRC will continue to bring the community updates on the situation with Iran and its implications throughout the Middle East and the world.

JCPA RESOLUTION ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM

Adopted by the Board of Directors of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) on March 27, 2007.

IRANIAN DELEGATION REJECTS GERMAN INVITATION TO VISIT NAZI CAMP

Below is a portion of a news release published by Haaretz on June 24, 2010 about how a delegation visiting from Shiraz, Iran, a twin city to Weimar, Germany, refused to make a trip to Buchenwald concentration camp. To read the entire news release, click on the title above.

An Iranian delegation upset its German hosts by refusing to tour a concentration-camp memorial, the city council of Weimar in eastern Germany said Thursday.

The Buchenwald concentration camp, where Nazis killed tens of thousands of political prisoners and people from minorities through disease, exhausting work and executions, is located near the city.

Visitors usually pay their respects to the dead at the memorial and visit the museum. But the group from Shiraz, Iran - a twin city to Germany's Weimar - refused to make the scheduled trip on Wednesday, civic officials said.

IRAN SECURITY OFFICIALS CALL WEST’S NEW SANCTIONS ILLEGAL

The following is a portion of an article written by Nazila Fathi that was published by The New York Times on June 18, 2010 about reactions from Iran regarding new sanctions placed on them. To read the entire article, click on the title above.

The top security body in Iran condemned as illegal sanctions imposed on Iran this month by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, and warned that it would respond to any measures that threatened its national security, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

The Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that the sanctions were imposed based on false allegations against Iran’s nuclear program.

“The resolution proved that the United Nations Security Council cannot be an appropriate source to protect people’s rights and security,” the statement said.

It added that the Security Council’s actions on Iran’s nuclear program were “illegal, invalid” and against international regulation, and urged the Council to correct its mistakes.

DETERRING A NUCLEAR IRAN

On June 10, 2010, The Brookings Institution published the following analysis written by Kenneth M. Pollack about preventing further nuclear proliferation in Iran. Mr. Pollack is the Director of the Institute’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. To read the analysis in its entirety, click on the title above.

There are many different potential challenges to living with a nuclear Iran. A number lie in the broad realm of strategy or even grand strategy: preventing further proliferation, maintaining the stability of the region, and forestalling any shift in the balance of power toward Iran. The tactics and mechanics of deterring a nuclear Iran will present their own difficulties that must also be addressed, and addressed in a concrete and immediate fashion.

The logic of nuclear weapons, as Bernard Brodie first described it at the dawn of the nuclear era, is certainly compelling and lends a considerable amount of strength to nuclear deterrence. But as numerous Cold War crises demonstrated, such logic can be undermined—potentially fatally—by faulty implementation, poor communication, misperception, malign intent, and excessive ambiguity or excessive specificity.

Getting deterrence right between two responsible, mostly status quo powers that knew each other fairly well—like the United States and Soviet Union—was hard enough and nearly resulted in tragedy on several occasions. Doing it with a country like Iran—whose political system is utterly opaque and unpredictable even to its own members— or between two countries like Iran and America—whose entire history has been one of constant misunderstanding—is going to be harder still.

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CRISIS IN DARFUR

February 2009 marked the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the violence in Darfur, Sudan.  For six years a government-backed militia known as Janjaweed (which in Arabic means, “evil men on horseback”) has continued to engage in a systematic program of expulsion, rape and murderous violence in Darfur, Sudan.  Millions of people now live in displacement camps lacking adequate food, water, shelter, healthcare, and sanitation. Attacks on \civilians continue.  As Jews, we have a particular moral responsibility to speak out and take action against genocide.  

The JCRC remains committed in its fight to end this battle and will continue to bring you facts and articles about this ongoing genocide. (For further information on Darfur, visit the JCRC web site “International” section at www.jcrcdallas.org.)

SUDAN IN CRISIS

Explore the history, people and politics behind one of the world's bloodiest conflicts in this interactive web site by The Washington Post.  Click the title above to be connected to this site.

MOST VALUABLE HELPER

The New York Times published the following Op-Ed written by Nicholas Kristof on June 23, 2010 about the death of Manute Bol, an NBA player who was a champion in raising money to build schools in war-torn Sudan. To read the entire Op-Ed, click the title above.

Sports stars often make headlines with spectacular misconduct, and they don’t use their celebrity enough to make the world a better place. But every now and then, along comes a star as gifted ethically as athletically — and I’m thinking now of one of the greatest basketball players ever.

Certainly not one of the best shooters, for he averaged only 2.6 points a game. But Manute Bol, at more than 7 feet 6 inches tall, was a moral giant who was unsurpassed in leveraging his fame on behalf of the neediest people on earth.

Bol died on Saturday from a noxious mix of ailments, exacerbated by his insistence on working in Sudan to build schools and forestall a new civil war. Bol’s great dream was to build 41 new schools across Sudan (he admired the first President Bush, hence the No. 41).

It’s a lofty dream, particularly because he is no longer around to speak at fund-raisers. It’s almost as inconceivable as the dream he had when he was an African cattle-herder aspiring to play in the N.B.A. — and this too can be a slam-dunk, posthumously, if his fans help out.

DARFUR PEACE TALKS ‘NOT SERIOUS,’ SAYS REBEL JEM SPOKESMAN

VOA News published the following article written by Peter Clottey on June 23, 2010 about rebels who feel the ongoing peace talks are just a “publicity stunt.” To read the article in its entirety, click on the title above.

A top official with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Sudan has dismissed as a mere “publicity stunt” ongoing peace talks between the government and the Liberty and Justice Movement (LJM), another Darfur-based rebel group.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Aden said President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and his dominant National Congress Party (NCP) are not interested in resolving the Darfur crisis.

“We’ve said it time and time again that what’s going on in Doha is just a conspiracy, not serious talks. It’s not a meaningful kind of process and is not something that the people of Darfur get out of it any kind of benefit. What is going on there the NCP is negotiating with NCP because the LJM is not a movement (rebel group). The LJM is just a formation created by the government of Sudan and created by the mediators and the host country,” he said.

Aden’s comment comes after the Sudanese government started talks with the rebel LJM group in Qatar’s capital, Doha Wednesday. The talks are aimed at finalizing a peace deal by mid-July.

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JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL
Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas
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