Free Trade in the Americas is a major AJC concern because we firmly believe they impact the immediate and long-term well being of our Hemisphere, as well policies that will determine the quality and scope of relations between the United States and some of its closest partners. Pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama, to be voted on by the U.S. Congress, represent a singular opportunity to reinforce ties and bring to the fore our country’s ongoing commitment to the welfare of our neighbors. Failure to approve them would certainly undermine friendly governments and trading partners, not to mention American interests abroad.

continue reading "Free Trade Agreements Hinder Unrest, and Terror"

A seasoned observer of the British trade union scene put it to me in stark terms. “You’d be hard put,” he said, “to find a union in the UK that isn’t sympathetic to the boycott of Israel.”

His observation was made in a conversation which took place a few days before the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) voted, at its conference, to back the boycott of Israel. That vote, on July 4th, brings the number of British unions supporting the boycott campaign to four: journalists, academics, public and voluntary service workers and now the union representing those working in an array of industries from transportation to food.

The TGWU’s debate reproduced the same themes which emerged at the other union conferences. Firstly, the portrayal of Israel as country forged in colonial sin and therefore solely responsible for all the conflicts in the area, including the recent bout of intra-Palestinian bloodletting in the Gaza Strip. Secondly, the indignant protest that a boycott of Israel can never be, by any stretch of the imagination, antisemitic.

continue reading "Laboring the Boycott"

Already in its death throes after seven years of futile struggle against Israel, the Palestinian national movement suffered a fatal blow last week, when Gaza fell in the hands of Hamas. Now, instead of a state-in-the waiting, Palestine is two failed states, under two governments at war with one another.

Hamas in Gaza might still pursue its fight against Israel; and Fatah in the West Bank might still voice the rhetoric of grievance against Israel as the occupier. But the two are now locked in a deadly struggle. Anti-Zionist rhetoric has been waving the ghost of a one-state solution - implying that Israel might disappear, replaced by a united binational state comprising the West Bank and Gaza as well as present Israel. It now looks as though there will be a one-state solution after all - Israel, alongside two failed states, both Palestinian, and fighting each other.

continue reading "Two Failed States"

Tashbih Sayyed was a very special human being, a friend of the Jewish people, and my friend. I first met him seven years ago when my organization, the American Jewish Committee, was launching an interfaith effort to initiate dialogue with Muslims. In our conversations, Tashbih exuded a quiet intensity, and a determination to make the world a better place. Little by little, I began to learn more about his personal experiences in Pakistan and how those experiences had shaped him into a defender of human rights in the Muslim world.

Tashbih was not only dedicated to discussing his vision of how the Muslim world could change. He was a passionate believer in the power of the press to educate the public in order to make those changes happen. He lived and breathed journalism, and more than once described his newspapers as “my life.” For him, immigrating to the United States was the opening of a new door of opportunity to express himself through his journalism, and freedom of speech was a precious gift that should not be squandered.

continue reading "Tashbih Sayyed - A Remembrance"

In Let Us Prove Strong: The American Jewish Committee, 1945-2006 (Brandeis University Press, 2007), Marianne Sanua describes a telling moment in AJC history. It was John Slawson’s “Aha!” moment in the early 1960’s. Slawson, AJC’s executive vice president, was reading the latest American Jewish Year Book study by Erich Rosenthal (“Jewish Fertility in the United States,” AJYB 1961) when he “was seized with virtual terror” as he contemplated the low Jewish birthrate and Jewish “extinction.” Slawson immediately telephoned the dean of Jewish sociologists, Marshall Sklare. At the Sklare home there was background noise that sounded like half a dozen babies. Slawson was both relieved and motivated. “I found out that there is some hope….We should be concerned about Jewish population policy.”

continue reading "The Jewish Birth Dearth"

A few years ago an American Indian friend phoned me, absolutely perplexed. He could not reconcile two stories in his morning paper – one in the news section, the other in sports. Both were about major Florida universities.

The first story reported universal outrage at and severe sanctions on a fraternity which had hosted an event where participants dressed in blackface. The leadership of the university spoke in strong language about not tolerating racism, the hurt of stereotypes, the psychological impact of dehumanization, and the incompatibility of such offensive behavior with the standards of a university.

The second noted, without comment, that the leadership of another Florida university (which had an Indian mascot) was encouraging students to show up at a major sporting event in red face.

continue reading "Israel as the N-word"

As international news networks were reporting Hamas’s onslaught against Fatah, I began trawling the internet to see what, if anything, the various pro-Palestinian websites and blogs had to say about the brutal civil war raging in the Gaza Strip.

The short answer: not much.

Over at the Electronic Intifada (EI) commentators were undisturbed by the fragmentation of Gaza into a burning enclave reminiscent of Afghanistan or Somalia. Just at the moment when Hamas was blasting its way towards an intra-Palestinian version of the two-state solution, the talk at EI was of a single state between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan.

continue reading "Gaza’s Agony and the Anti-Zionists"

At a recent dinner for a global environmental organization, a new Tesla was auctioned for $110,000 in ten minutes. Starting bid was $80,000, discounted from the $100,000 sticker price, and the actress emceeing that portion of the program expressed frustration that the guests filling the New York hotel ballroom were not more forthcoming in competing for this totally electric vehicle.

Tesla attracted considerable media attention when its two-passenger Roadster was introduced last year, though one might wonder what incentive there is to purchase an environmentally-friendly car that costs more than most gas-guzzling SUV models. Meanwhile, General Motors recently announced that the electric Chevrolet Volt will be available in 2010, demonstrating that even a leading U.S. automaker can be innovative.

Electric cars are a viable option to help diminish our dependence on oil from hostile nations and reduce poisonous emissions polluting the atmosphere. But the technology is hardly ground-breaking.

continue reading "Viable Electric Cars"

It’s tempting to view the movement to boycott Israel as a peculiarly British affliction. The University and College Union vote marked the third time in three years that British academics have opted for a boycott policy. And that decision came barely a month after the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ) voted, at its annual conference, for a boycott of Israeli goods.

The UCU boycott dents the prestige of British academia just as the NUJ boycott tars the British media. But none of that matters to the boycott activists.

They believe if they demonstrate concrete results by pushing Israelis off conference platforms and out of the pages of academic journals, other sectors with similar clout will follow. In that regard, they can point to the boycott calls issued by groups of British doctors and British architects, all of whom accuse their Israeli counterparts of, as the UCU would say, “complicity” in the supposed crimes committed by Israel.

continue reading "Britain is Not the Only Battleground"

Two days ago the Circuit City store clerk who tipped off police to the activities of the Fort Dix terror plotters gave his first interview. Brian Morgenstern, a 26-year-old employee at the store, told CNN that two “normal people” came into the store and asked for a camcorder cassette tape to be transferred to DVD.

While duplicating the tape, Morgenstern said, “I saw some stuff on the film that was disturbing and it kind of gained my attention that way.” According to press reports, the tape depicted 10 young bearded men firing handguns, rifles and fully automatic weapons at a firing range, calling for jihad, and shouting, “Allahu Akbar!,” or “God is great!” Six of the men were arrested on May 9, and charged, according to court documents, with planning “to kill as many soldiers as possible” in an armed attack on Fort Dix.

continue reading "Doing the Right Thing"