Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

What is the terrain and geography like in Israel?

The topography ranges from the rugged mountainous desert in the Dead Sea area to the flat coastal plain where Tel Aviv and Caesarea are located. The Negev Desert, Judean Hills, and the higher hills and mountains of the Galilee add to the variety of the countrys landscape. Over thousands of years, the rains have carved spectacular wadis or ravines in the permeable clay terrain of the remote desert areas where members of various religious sects have constructed their dwellings through the ages. There are also many natural caves, which were carved by the flow of rivers and subterranean waterways. Alongside rocky deserts, pleasant fields roll with wheat, olive trees, and grapevines.

The country has many natural parks, such as Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea, where one can find hills, forest, desert, and waterfalls in the same area. The highest point in Israel (excluding the areas occupied as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War) is Mt. Meron, at almost 4,000 feet; the lowest point is also the lowest point on Earththe Dead Sea, some 1,200 feet below sea level. The colors of the landscape vary dramatically, depending on the season and the play of sunlight.

The climate in Israel varies greatly from place to place. The coastal plain has wet, moderately cold winters with temperatures ranging from the mid-30s to the mid-60s. Then comes a beautiful spring followed by a long, hot, and humid summer during which the temperature can be more than 100 degrees. Hot spells, known as "sharav" or "khamsin," are quite common during spring and summer and can cause significant discomfort to persons with respiratory problems. These often are accompanied by hot desert winds from the east or the south, carrying dust and sand from as far away as the Sahara. A cooler fall then leads to the beginning of the rainy season in late October or early November. Jerusalem, which is inland and in the Judean Hills, some 2,500 feet above sea level, is generally drier and colder throughout the entire year. In the summer, it gets very hot, but it remains less humid than the coast. In the winter Jerusalem temperatures regularly drop below freezing, and it snows occasionally. The Negev, in the south, is a hot, mostly barren desert. Throughout the country, the rainy season lasts from October or November until March or April. The rains often come in heavy downpours and thunderstorms.

With the first hint of summer, people go to the beach. Israelis love outdoor concerts in summer, and the spectacular ancient sites in Caesarea and Jaffa are used as open-air theaters. The high daytime temperatures are cooled off by evening breezes both in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Outdoor dining is especially popular in summer.

Fall is somewhat like a southern U.S. fall, with cooler weather and leaves falling off of trees. Winter comes suddenly, and rain falls regularly. In some years, rainfall is sparse, causing water shortages. The northern mountains, particularly Mt. Hermon in the disputed Golan Heights, will often have snow. Toward the south and the Negev, the weather remains balmy, though the nights are cold.

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Israel geography, maps, climate, environment and terrain ...

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

What is the terrain and geography like in Egypt?

The Arab Republic of Egypt is located in northeast Africa and, with the Sinai Peninsula, extends into southwest Asia. It consists of 1,002,000 square kilometers of land. There are three land borders: Israel, Libya, and the Sudan, as well as four water barriers: the Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aqaba, and the Red Sea. Most of the country is part of the band of desert stretching from the Atlantic Coast of Africa to the Middle East.

Geological changes have produced four distinct physical regions: the Nile River's Valley and Delta, where 95% of the population lives: the Western Desert, with two-thirds of the country's total land area in barren limestone plateaus and depressions; the Eastern Desert, scored by gullies in rugged hills; and the Sinai Peninsula, geographically a barren part of the Asian Continent, separating slowly from Africa.

Only the Nile Valley, Delta, and a few desert oases can support productive agriculture. The date palm is the most prevalent indigenous tree, though frequently eucalyptus, acacia, sycamore, juniper, jacaranda, and tamarind are seen. Papyrus, once prevalent throughout Egypt, exists now only in botanical gardens.

According to reports written in the first century A.D., seven branches of the Nile ran through the Delta to the Mediterranean. Since then, nature and man have closed all but two outlets: the Damietta and the Rosetta. A network of canals, salt marshes, and lakes now supplement these channels.

Lower Egypt is the area north of the 30th parallel of latitude, which passes through Cairo and Suez. Upper Egypt is everything south. The highest point in the country, Jebel Katrinah (Mount St. Catherine), is 8,600 feet above sea level--a part of the red-colored Sinai terrain that gave the Red Sea its name. Nearby is Jebel Musa (Mount Sinai), the legendary site where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

The lowest point, the Qattarah Depression in the Western Desert, drops at places to 132 meters below sea level. Alexandria receives the majority of Egypt's limited rainfall, with 19cm (about 7 inches) being the yearly average. Two cm (about inch) is the usual annual total in Cairo.

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Egypt geography, maps, climate, environment and terrain ...

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

AP Raam party head Mansour Abbas said Thursday he would not use the word apartheid to describe relations between Jews and Arabs within the country.

Amnesty International last week joined two other well-known human rights groups in saying that Israels policies toward the Palestinians within its borders and in the West Bank and Gaza amount= to apartheid. Israel rejects those allegations as antisemitic, saying that, among other things, they ignore the rights and freedoms enjoyed by its Arab citizens.

I would not call it apartheid, Abbas said in response to a question at an online event organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a DC-based think tank. He noted that he was in a governing coalition with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and could join the cabinet if he wanted to.

I prefer to describe the reality in objective ways, he added, according to the English translation of his remarks, which he delivered in Hebrew. If there is discrimination in a certain field, then we will say that there is discrimination in that specific field.

He did not say whether he thinks the apartheid term applies to the West Bank, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule alongside nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship. Israel captured the territory from its Jordanian occupiers in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.

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Abbass Islamist Raam party made history in June by becoming the first major Arab party to sit in a governing coalition, which includes parties from across the political spectrum.

Raam party leader Mansour Abbas at the party headquarters in Tamra, on election night, March 23, 2021. (Flash90)

He has steered the faction toward a more pragmatic approach than Arab parties have traditionally taken, working with the government to secure gains for the Arab community.

Arabs make up some 20% of Israels population of nearly 9.5 million. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, and have a major presence in the medical profession and universities, among other fields. But they face widespread discrimination.

They have close familial ties to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and largely identify with their cause. Historically, they refused to join coalitions and were not invited to do so.

The rights groups say Israel only grants citizenship to a minority of the Palestinians under its control in an overarching system designed to ensure a Jewish majority in as much of the Holy Land as possible.

Rights group Amnesty stages a demonstration outside the UK headquarters of US travel company TripAdvisor in London on January 30, 2019. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP)

Israel views such allegations as an assault on its very existence, saying its policies are designed to ensure the survival and well-being of the worlds only Jewish state.

Abbas said his focus is on bringing Jews and Arabs together to address social and economic challenges.

Im usually trying not to be judgmental, Im not trying to say youre racist or the state is racist, or this is an apartheid state or not an apartheid state, Abbas said. My role as a political leader is to try to bridge the gaps.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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Raam head Abbas rejects Amnestys apartheid label for Israel - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

An explosion in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border is seen from the Israeli Golan Heights on July 22, 2018. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV: Like in the rest of the world, the Israeli defense establishment is watching the Ukraine situation closely, and working hard to figure out what a potential conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, and Washingtons response, might mean for Israels interests.

More than many nations, Israel could find itself in an awkward spot. On the one hand, the US is Israels biggest ally and longstanding patron. At the same time, Jerusalem has to keep up good relations with Moscow, in order to keep the ability to launch military strikes against Iranian interests in Syria, where Russia largely controls the airspace.

If the US were to call for wide sanctions against Russia, for example, Jerusalem would have to weigh carefully any major steps forward; any actions against Russia could result in Israeli operations being blocked in Syria potentially putting military personnel at risk if they conduct operations Jerusalem views as vital for its own national security.

In particular, a senior defense source said that Israel is currently underway with a series of strikes against shipments of Iranian-made rockets on their way to Lebanon, including one as recently as Tuesday Washington time. This operation needs continued coordination between Tel Aviv and Moscow to avoid harming Russian troops in Syria, which would cross a red line for Moscow and endanger the ability to do further operations.

RELATED: To placate Russia, Israel told Baltics states it would block weapon transfers to Ukraine: Sources

Concerns about what could happen to Syrian operations should relations with Russia shift were brought up recently in some high-level defense meetings, in which the top decision-makers were present, the defense source told Breaking Defense.

Giora Eiland, a retired major general and former head of the Israeli National Security Council, said that if Washington asks Israel to participate in sanctions against Russia Jerusalem will be in a very impossible situation.

Even light sanctions could harm Israels standing with Russia, and potentially, its technology industry. While Russia has not purchased Israeli-made weapons since 2015, non-military technologies are routinely sold to Russian firms.

Israel is also watching the Ukrainian situation as a potential distraction for Washington, as Jerusalem makes its plans for how to react to a new nuclear agreement with Iran. Officials this week involved in the negotiations have signaled to the press that the question of a new deal with Iran are coming to a head. While Israel has made clear it is not in favor of any such deal, but has been relatively quiet about it so as to not anger Washington.

In a new paper this week, Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, noted that Iran is also watching the Russia situation and seeing how distracted Washington is by it. It is possible, Inbar wrote, that Iran will try to push for a harder deal during the Vienna negotiations knowing the Biden team could desperately use a geopolitical win.

While defense sources tell Breaking Defense that Israel is not planning to directly attack any Iranian nuclear sites should a new agreement be signed, there are plans underway for increased sabotage efforts that would seek to damage nuclear sites and centrifuges in Iran. Those operations would begin should an agreement be reached that Israel judges allows Iran to successfully create a nuclear weapon.

As a second source put it, the current plans will take the shadow war to new heights. And if that happens, intelligence and defense planners here are operating under the assumption that Iranian proxies will step up attacks against Israeli targets in retaliation.

Moredchai Kedar, one of Israels top experts on middle Eastern Issues, told Breaking Defense that Washington will try to restrain Israel from continuing the shadow war against Iran. This is reason for a major concern in Jerusalem, and may create friction between the US and Israel.

And Eiland, the former National Security Council official, said that regional powers in the Middle East are looking to see how the US ultimately supports Ukraine.

They see what has happened in Afghanistan and how the Americans do not react to attacks on their forces in Iraq, Eiland said. This brings especially the Saudis to think that one option for them is to improve their relations with Iran.

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How the Ukraine situation could impact Israel's strategies for Syria and Iran - Breaking Defense

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

The police unit that handles far-right extremism in the West Bank has been split in two, in an effort to enable a faster response to an increasing number of attacks by settlers against Palestinians and their Jewish allies.

One unit is now responsible for the Judea region of the West Bank, including Hebron and the South Hebron Hills. The other has been assigned to Samaria, which includes the area around the settlement of Yitzhar and the unauthorized settlement outposts of Givat Ronen and Homesh.

The directive was issued by the commander of the Judea and Samaria District of the Israel Police, Maj. Gen. Uzi Levy, and it went into effect last week.

The unit had been stationed at district headquarters, in the settlement of Maaleh Adumim. Following the change, only its intelligence desk remains there. The Judea part of the unit is now stationed in the Hebron area, while the Samaria part is stationed at the base of the armys Samaria Regional Brigade, near Nablus.

Splitting the unit is supposed to provide a quick response to violent incidents, such as those that have occurred recently in the West Bank. It follows a similar division of the districts SWAT team, also in order to enable a faster response to developing violence.

The nationalist crimes unit of the Judea and Samaria District was established at the end of 2011, and has about 100 police officers whose entire job focuses on the actions of far-right activists mostly in the West Bank, including price tag attacks in revenge for Palestinian violence.

Police officials, speaking among themselves and not for attribution, have harshly criticized recent remarks by Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, according to which the police, and not the army, are responsible for preventing and dealing with settler violence.

No one has enough resources, police officials say. We are taking every possible action to reach the scene of the incident and every call, but to say the police arent there? The police are the first to arrive and there is excellent cooperation with the [IDFs] Central Command, there are those in the General Staff who are trying to shirk responsibility because they dont want to have to deal with Jews, says a senior police officer who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

Defense officials expect the violent incidents by settlers against Palestinians to continue over the next few weeks too, because of the question of the evacuation of Homesh, along with the closing of the cases against the police officers who were involved in the incident that caused the death of the teen Ahuvia Sandak, as well as the dispute over the outpost of Evyatar, which has yet to be solved.

Last week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz toured Samaria accompanied by senior defense officials. He told military leaders that soldiers must not stand aside in the face of settler violence. Soldiers have the authority to detain and arrest when necessary in the West Bank, said a senior officer.

Last Friday, the police arrested a 75-year-old man who was suspected of attacking a soldier during a left-wing protest in Samaria. But the main fear in the defense establishment is of violence on the part of far right extremists, and especially in the area of Yitzhar and Givat Ronen as well as Mitzpeh Avigail in the South Hebron Hills.

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Israeli police reorganize in bid to improve response to settler violence - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

While a major Eastern Mediterranean storm dubbed Elpis was sweeping over Israel in late January, leaving snow in many areas, Hungarian-born Jewish skiers with Israeli citizenship Barnabas and Noa Szollos were making their final preparations to represent Israel in Beijing. For them, being surrounded by the white stuff is a daily reality.

Although they have never lived in Israel, they have strong ties to the country. I dont think we could compete at this level if it wasnt while representing Israel, 19-year-old Noa tells Haaretz.

We representedthe Hungarian Ski Associationfour years ago, but there was some friction there," says 23-year-oldBarnabas."They forbade us from competing for two years, right before the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, so we couldnt go, referring to the South Korean city that hosted those games.

The fact that Barnabas and his older brother, Benjamin who just missed making the grade to compete in the Beijing could not travel to the last Olympics led the family to sever their ties with the Hungarian Ski Association.

Its a long story, said Noa. There were always issues around money, so we decided to compete for Israel. The decision was spearheaded by their father, Peter, who had trained Israeli skiers in Europe in the past. And there was an additional factor.

It was mid-season, and we couldnt compete until mid-January, Barnabas said, so, we just trained full-time, since without the association you cant compete.

That proved to be a wise decision: On Thursday, Barnabas Szollos came in sixth in the combined alpine event on Thursday. His sixth-place finish tied Israels best-ever showing at a Winter Olympics.

In the downhill portion of the combined event, Szollos finished 11th, but in the slalom part, he came in second, placing him in sixth position overall.

It was very enjoyable, said Szollos. I tried to go as fast as I could in the downhill part, knowing that I could improve my standing in the slalom part, where Im fast. Its amazing to finish sixth. Im very happy. Thank you to all the Israelis who got up early to watch and support me.

Szollos also expressed his appreciation to his family, particularly his father, Peter, who is his coach in Beijing. Its an honor to be here and represent Israel, said the skier, whose other family members also have Israeli citizenship.

Sufficient backing

Noa, who carried the Israeli flag at the opening ceremony in Beijing along with figure skater Evgeni Krasnopolski, remarked that the freedom the Israel Ski Federation gave us is what really brought us this far.

Any Israeli who has gone on a ski holiday in Europe or who even simply looked into it knows how expensive it can be. But when asked about it, Noa had a surprising answer.

In comparison with the U.S. or Canada, training in Europe is very cheap. In America, a daily ski pass can cost $200. In Austria, on expensive slopes, its only 50 or 60 euros, she said, or about $60 to $70. Sometimes its more expensive, but luckily, we have sufficient backing to support what we do.

She was given her skis by the Austrian firm Kastle while Barnabas and Benjamin got them at a reduced price. Thats a great help. Usually theyre very expensive, Noa said, adding that most of their expenses are paid by an electronic measuring device company that her family owns.

The Israeli Ski Federation has also assisted us a lot in the last few years, which made things much easier, Barnabas added. Thats something we never got in Hungary.

Our interview was conducted less than a day after the skiers and their father arrived in Beijing. Its great to be here, said Noa. I never thought wed have such an opportunity. Weve been competing for a long time, but being in an event like this is truly exceptional. I hope its not a one-time event but, hopefully, becomes one of my highlights in the coming years, she added. Barnabas said he felt the same way. We worked the whole time so we could get to the Olympics. We almost had a chance four years ago, and now weve finally gotten it.

Noa made it a point of saying that her family obtained their Israeli citizenship because they are Jewish. When her father trained Israeli skiers, she was young, but her brothers, particularly Benjamin, grew up with them.

KingSzollas

The three Szollas siblings worked hard from a young age, Barnabas said. When we were kids, we practiced every day. We didnt like it, he acknowledged. I dont think any child likes it, but thats what made us tough and thats why were now here.

As children, Noa remarked, they were involved in a whole range of sports, including water polo, gymnastics, tennis and swimming. I always hated swimming, but I had to do it, she noted. You get used to it after awhile, and its worth it.

Barnabas has another explanation for their success. We competed with each other all the time, he said. We pushed one another to be better.

Alpine skiing at the Olympic Games involves five different disciplines. The difference among them is in the various combinations of speed and technique. There is downhill skiing, slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom and combined alpine skiing.

Barnabas, who is competing in all five, noted that in downhill skiing, skiers can reach speeds of up to 150 kilometers (90 miles) per hour.

Its the fastest and apparently the most fun, he said excitedly. In all the other disciplines, you watch the gates. In downhill skiing, you still have to look out for them, but its designed so that you ski according to the slopes natural contours.

Noa is competing in the slalom, giant slalom and the super-G slalom events and expressed confidence that in the future, she would also compete in the downhill (when Im a little older). For the time being, the giant slalom is her favorite.

Its more technical, more focused on the turns, she explained. You dont get these long flat sections that you have in the super-G or downhill events.

Barnabas recommends watching video clips of the various disciplines to try to imagine the experience. In downhill, you sometimes have huge leaps, 50 to 60 meters where youre flying through the air. Its like travelling down the road at 130 kilometers an hour, then leaping 40 meters.

Asked whether it made him afraid, he said that it was not frightening. When you descend you dont feel fear. If youre afraid, youre better off quitting.

Next visit to Israel unclear

This isnt the first time Noa has attracted attention in Israel. Two years ago, at the Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, she became the first Israeli to win a medal picking up a silver and a bronze.

I went there knowing that Barni came in seventh four years earlier [representing Hungary], and I really wanted to repeat that. Super-G was the first discipline, but we didnt have enough opportunities to train for that one, since speed training is difficult with a small contingent.

She was hoping for better, she said, but didnt really believe she would get that far.

When I got to the bottom and saw the numeral 1 at the finish line, I couldnt believe it. I thought it was a mistake. There were two other girls who were slightly faster than me. Obviously, I was a little sad, but still, coming in third was a huge surprise and an amazing achievement.

A day after getting the bronze medal, she added a silver in a combined event. Thats still not my strong suit so I didnt have that many hopes, she admitted. I got into second place and remained there until the end. It was definitely amazing and very nice.

The Beijing Olympics are another story, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Its calmer than I expected, she noted. People still wear masks and are tested, but its not as strict as I thought it would be, and there are many things you can do. Its quite normal, given the circumstances.

The Hungarian-Israeli skiers say that because they do outdoors sports with very little human contact, theyve managed to maintain an almost full training regimen during the pandemic.

It wasnt hard like it must have been for others, but it was still difficult, especially in the beginning, Noa said. All the hotels were closed in Austria, so we didnt know where to train. We had nowhere to sleep. But our training and skiing [in Hungary] werent affected that much. Barnabas added that the government sometimes changed the rules overnight.

Prior to the first event in Beijing, they had three official training sessions. At the time of our interview, Barnabas said he was hoping to be among the first 15 in the downhill event, perhaps the top 10. Noa was also hoping to start well. She expressed the hope that she would be among the top 30 finishers in the first round of giant slalom. Barnabas teased her that after his first race, she would be under pressure to do better than he had.

Not many people engage in winter sports in Israel, and Barnabas has some advice for Israelis regarding the weather. When I was there, it was really hot. If someone wants to cool off, they could try winter sports or go to the beach. If I go to the beach when its 35 or 40 degrees Celsius [95 to 104 Fahrenheit], I suffer. I need the cold.

But what one sees in clips and beautiful photos from the skiing events doesnt always match the reality. Sometimes it snows or rains, Barnabas noted.

When they visited the site of the Olympic ski events, it was minus 20 degrees Celsius. Thats painful. With the wind chill, it feels like minus 35 degrees.

The two siblings dont know when theyll visit Israel next, but they expressed the hope that Israelis would watch them compete, even though it will be very early in Israel.

I think skiing is very interesting, Noa exclaimed. If you watch it a few times, it becomes interesting. Well give it everything weve got.

Barnis achievement is impressive by any measure, in the top winter sports event, said Yaniv Ashkenazi, the head of Israels delegation in Beijing. He proved from the outset that he deserves to be on the podium with the big players, and he has proven it again.

Szollos, whose sister Noa is also competing for Israel in Beijing, will receive a monthly stipend from the Israeli Olympic Committee, Ashkenazi said. Im happy and proud that hes part of Israels Olympic family.

Gili Lustig, the CEO ofIsraels Olympic committee, congratulated Barnabas Szollos. He and his sister are young and promising athletes who will continue to represent us at the next Winter Olympics in Italy, he said.

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This Hungarian skier just gave Israel its best showing at the winter Olympics - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

The U.S. is disengaging from the Middle East as it shifts its focus elsewhere, a move widely perceived within the region as a sign of a coming American departure. Many in Israel were concerned that this would strengthen Iran and its influence in the region. Instead, it is Israel that has emerged stronger.

For years, Iran has called for the departure of U.S. forces from the region, especially after they arrived in great numbers in the Middle East following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iran saw the presence of U.S. forces on its borders in Iraq and Afghanistan as a threat to its national security. It also saw the U.S.s military presence as helping Israel, its chief regional enemy. For Irans leadership, the weaker the U.S. military presence in the region, the more vulnerable Israel would feel. Additionally, a reduced U.S. presence would allow Iran, either directly or through its proxies, to expand its influence across the Middle East, further isolating Israel.

However, contrary to Irans prediction, Israel has emerged stronger as the U.S. has disengaged from the region. Ironically, Israel has the Iranian leadership to thank for this, at least in part. During the U.S.s gradual disengagement, instead of taking concrete steps to improve relations with regional countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iran continued to back the formers enemies: the Houthis in Yemen. Although Iran has been holding talks with the Saudis since April 2021, its continued military assistance to the Houthis has severely undermined these efforts. This is further indicated by the fact that, at the time of writing, the Saudis have still not confirmed whether they will take part in the fifth round of talks.

Consequently, the Saudis have accelerated their rapprochement with Israel. This was evidenced recently, in early February 2022, when Saudi forces agreed to publicly participate in a U.S. naval exercise alongside the Israeli navy. Another sign of improving relations came when CNN revealed in December 2021 that Saudi Arabia has been building missiles with China's help. Had this happened from the 1980s through 2010, Israel would have raised hell. For many years, Israel was vehemently opposed to the sale of weapons, especially offensive ones, to the Saudis because of the kingdoms hostile policies toward Israel. However, after the CNN revelation, there was no sign of opposition or condemnation from Israel. The CNN report also shows how Iran's policies toward the Saudis anger some of its allies. The Chinese, who the Khamenei regime counts among its allies, are now helping the Saudis build missiles that could theoretically reach Iran.

Iran's policies also played a part in the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020. Concerned about Irans hostile acts and rhetoric toward them, and about the U.S. leaving the region, both Bahrain and the UAE decided to normalize relations with Israel. Of course, other factors were involved in the two countries decision as well, but seeing Israel as an alternative to the U.S. as a regional bulwark against Iran was an important one. The recent Houthi missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks on the UAE have further cemented Israels relations with both the UAE and Bahrain. Attacking the UAE was a strategic decision by the Houthis, taken in response to the involvement of UAE proxy forces in Yemens ongoing war and, more importantly, to a string of losses suffered by the Houthis at the hands of the Giants Brigade, a UAE proxy force in Yemen.

It can be argued that the Houthis do not consult Iran on every tactical decision. However, on such an important strategic decision as attacking the UAE especially when weapons supplied by Iran are involved it is unlikely that the Houthis would proceed without at least a green light from Iran. In this case, the Houthis even admitted to using the Iran-designed Zulfaqar missile to attack the UAE. This will likely lead to the shelving of efforts to improve Iran-UAE relations, at least in the short to medium term.

Instead, there is now talk of Israel selling radars that could help the UAE track and destroy missiles. Furthermore, on Feb. 1, 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett hinted that Israel could share its new anti-missile laser system, which it is developing with the UAE. While a dispute between Israel and the UAE over security at Dubai airport has recently emerged, it is unlikely to develop further as both the Israeli and Emirati governments are making intense efforts to resolve it.

Israel-Bahrain relations have also reached new heights. On Feb. 2, 2022, for the first time ever, an Israeli air force plane, carrying Defense Minister Benny Gantz, touched down on Bahraini soil. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support cooperation in areas of military and intelligence. Undoubtedly, these efforts will be aimed at confronting Iran.

Israel is concerned that a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would allow Iran to maintain and expand its presence in the region through its proxies. This is a logical concern. However, should the U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal, this time around Israel will be able to count on its new and improving diplomatic, economic, and military relations with regional countries, especially the UAE and Bahrain. Israels relations with the Saudis are bound to improve as well, considering that Iran seems unwilling to give up its influence in Yemen through its support for the Houthis.

Meir Javedanfar teaches Iranian diplomatic and security studies at Reichman University, Herzliya. He tweets as@Meirja. The views expressed in this piece are his own.

Photo by MC2 Class Dawson Roth. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

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Thanks to Iran, Israel emerges stronger as the US shifts its focus away from the Middle East - Middle East Institute

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

It was less than three months into David Friedmans tenure as US ambassador to Israel, and he was already thinking big about using his position to transform the Middle East.

He shared his plan with then-US president Donald Trump during a brief visit back to Washington in July 2017: I want to move the goalposts back to where they belong with regard to the conflict and work with [senior White House adviser] Jared [Kushner] to perhaps make peace from the outside in beginning with Israels natural allies. While the Palestinians are dysfunctional, there are Arab neighbors that may be ready to normalize with Israel.

Okay, go for it then. Good luck, Trump replied, and with that Friedman returned to Israel and got to work, playing a central role in the presidents subsequent decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there, recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and introduce an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. All of these steps helped lead the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to agree to normalize ties with Israel in Trump-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

Thats the narrative Friedman builds in his new memoir Sledgehammer, (Broadside Books) which hit the shelves on Tuesday. But its one that contradicts other firsthand accounts and reporting on the formation of the Abraham Accords, which recall them as a last-minute change of course by the Trump administration after its controversial peace plan led then-Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare that he had US backing to immediately begin annexing large parts of the West Bank.

Netanyahus announcement sparked furious reactions from across the Arab world. Fortunately for the Trump administration, it also gave Abu Dhabi the needed space to offer normalization in exchange for halting the annexation plan.

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In Friedmans telling, though, the accords were less a lucky break than a natural outgrowth of his years as Trumps man in Tel Aviv and then Jerusalem. He succinctly explains how each accomplishment led to the next, thanks to his no-nonsense approach, which viewed the State Department he worked under as the heart of the Deep State, the Palestinian Authority as inept and full of empty threats, and the Arab world as a unit that instinctively gauge[s] the strength of their opponents.

To get things done under such circumstances, one needs to take a sledgehammer to old norms, the author says, explaining the title of the book, which is also a reference to his smashing of an ersatz wall to open an East Jerusalem archaeological site a delicious metaphor seized on by both supporters and opponents.

US Ambassador David Friedman breaks down a specially built wall in front of the Pilgrimage Road, at a ceremony in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, on June 30, 2019. (Facebook/Screen capture)

But when your only tool is a sledgehammer, every problem looks like a wall that needs to be whacked down. The Trump administration indeed smashed through old norms, attempting to rebuild the contours of the Middle Easts messiest conflicts by fiat rather than consensus.

Friedmans book takes the same approach, pulverizing the more familiar narrative of the administrations chaotic Mideast diplomacy into a flattened, linear and convenient account thats not altogether convincing.

Along the way, Friedman also bludgeons opponents with whom he had scores to settle and sometimes clobbers through inconvenient facts to offer a view of his time as ambassador that portrays him in the best possible light.

Several times throughout the 240-page memoir, Friedman, 63, shares how he was called on to offer a final piece of guidance to the president in order to push a desired policy initiative over the finish line. Such was the case with the decisions on Jerusalem in 2017 and the Golan Heights in 2019, as well as the one to unveil the long-awaited peace plan in 2019.

Sledgehammer, by David Friedman

To shed light as to why Trump so trusted his Israel envoy, Friedman begins the book with the story of how he met The Donald in 2004. Friedman was at the height of his career as a New York bankruptcy lawyer, and a mutual friend put him in touch with Trump to assist in extricat[ing] the real estate mogul from his casino albatrosses in Atlantic City.

Friedman managed to save Trump tens of millions of dollars, and while the businessman wasnt thrilled about being charged a $5 million fee for the job, he eventually paid up, telling Friedman, You are the best lawyer I ever met and I should have known I could never get the better of you. Keep the money and thanks!

An Orthodox Jew, Friedman places himself prominently within the view of Trump as a messenger of heaven, popularized by Evangelical Christians and other supporters.

Looking back on those days, I cant help but think that perhaps God was boosting my reputation with an individual who he knew would one day place me in a position of authority where I could perform Gods will, he writes of his unlikely rise to one of the top US diplomatic posts.

New US ambassador to Israel David Friedman kisses the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on May 15, 2017. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)

He also compares himself to Queen Esther from the Purim story, who uses her new position of royalty to protect the Jewish people.

The son of a prominent Conservative rabbi in New York, Friedman carries his fathers admiration for Zionism with him, even aiming subtle jabs at US Jewry, as when he describeshis transformational first trip to Israel in 1971: I saw a people swelling with pride in their Jewish nation, possessing a self-confidence and collective ambition unknown to the Jews of the Diaspora.

That same zeal for Israel is what leads Friedman to ask Trump for a role in formulating his Middle East policy during the 2016 presidential campaign. In a Tuesday interview with The Times of Israel, Friedman said he did so with the goal in mind of becoming Trumps ambassador if the GOP nominee won.

His confirmation process was rocky, and in an effort to receive bipartisan support Friedman was forced to either soften or walk back some positions he took in columns published by the right-wing Israel National News site.

That meant apologizing for having once called supporters of the dovish Middle East lobby J Street worse than kapos, Jewish prisoners who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. Reflecting on the remark in Sledgehammer, Friedman refers to it as a tactical mistake.

David Friedman, President Donald Trumps nominee to be the US ambassador to Israel, concludes testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Feb. 16, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Once in office, he describes setting out to shake things up against a cadre of State Department elites.

I would have to fight against this establishment for every big win we had: moving the embassy, resetting policy, and moving forward toward peace, he claims.

Let it be said: With Friedman as envoy, the administration indeed changed considerably often ignoring the advice and doomsaying of more seasoned diplomats and policy wonks including by realizing Israels dream of US recognition of Jerusalem as its capital, complete with a transfer of the US embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv.

The US also closed its longtime consulate in Jerusalem, which for decades served as Washingtons de facto conduit for diplomacy with the Palestinians, or as Friedman puts it: the State Departments private megaphone in one of the worlds most important and sensitive cities a self-promoting and self-sustaining echo-chamber that hadnt had a new thought in generations.

US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman speaks at the official opening ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Friedman and others have characterized the decision to close the consulate as necessitated by the embassy transfer, but he writes in the book that he targeted the mission for closure years earlier due to the positions of diplomats there.

After one of the officials at the mission allegedly told a Shin Bet counterpart that the Western Wall is on occupied territory, during preparations for Trumps visit to the site in May 2017, Friedman writes in the book, he made a note to myself to have the consulate shut down, and did so two years later.

Friedman had a close relationship with Netanyahu, whom he describes working in tandem with to thwart PA President Mahmoud Abbas in a battle for Trumps support during the presidents 2017 visit.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left and US Ambassador David Friedman, right, attend a ceremony in Jerusalem, May 21, 2017. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

According to the former envoy, Abbas passed along a message to Trump via a major philanthropist whom two officials familiar with the matter identified to The Times of Israel as World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder that Ramallah would be willing to make major, never-before-agreed-to concessions in order to reach a peace deal with Jerusalem.

Upon arriving in Israel, Trump asked President Reuven Rivlin why it was Netanyahu who was refusing to make peace while Abbas was desperate to do so. That last comment knocked everyone off their chairs, Friedman writes.

In an attempt at damage control, Friedman notified Netanyahu of the development and suggested the premier prepare a short video of remarks made by Abbas in which he allegedly incited violence against Israel.

The Israelis ran with the idea and Netanyahu showed it to Trump in their first meeting. The president was shocked and would go on to berate Abbas over the tape, which has still never been publicized, when they met in Bethlehem later that week.

US President Donald Trump, left, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas shake hands during a joint press conference at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 23, 2017. (AFP/MANDEL NGAN)

You tricked me in DC! You talked there about your commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me your involvement in incitement, Trump shouted at a shocked Abbas, according to later reports.

Abbas, for his part, was said to have countered that Trump was being played: You have the CIA. Ask them to analyze the film clips and youll discover that they were taken out of context or fabricated with the aim of inciting against the Palestinians.

Throughout the book, Friedman appears to delight in pointing out the inaccuracies of others. He notes that former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson claimed that Israel had captured the city in 1996, not 1967, and did not appear to know that Congress had deemed Jerusalem to be Israels undivided capital in a 1995 act; he accuses the press of pushing a false story about him funding terrorists and spreading fake news about him being afraid to visit the West Bank.

But the book suffers from what appear to be errors or questionable claims on Friedmans part, many of which end up undercutting the reliability of his other accounts.

He writes that during his confirmation hearing, J Street spent nearly $100,000 on compiling a dossier of opposition research on him, which was given to each Senate Democrat.

But while the left-wing pro-Israel group did try to throw a wrench in Friedmans confirmation process, it told The Times of Israel that it did not spend a cent on the research into Friedman, which was compiled by another group.

He refers to the West Bank settlement of Adam near Jerusalem as perhaps the most liberal community in all of Judea and Samaria, while speaking about a terror attack there in 2018, which he attempts to blame on PA President Mahmoud Abbas, following the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In fact, voting records show Adam to be as supportive of right-wing parties as other settlements, if not more so.

US Ambassador David Friedman pays a condolence visit to the family of Yotam Ovadia who was killed in a terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Adam, July 30, 2018. (Miri Tzahi/Yesha Council)

He claims that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared settlements were legitimate, when in fact Pompeo said that they were not per se inconsistent with international law.

He mischaracterizes Israels Supreme Court decisions on the Bedouin hamlet of Khan al-Ahmar as demolition orders, when the court only greenlit the demolition if the state chose to take that route.

He also recalls seeing an article in the Jerusalem Post in which Union for Reform Judaism president Rabbi Rick Jacobs was advocating that American Jews stop supporting Israel amid anger over Netanyahu reneging on the 2016 Western Wall compromise deal, which he incorrectly dates to 2017, and accuses him of calling for a retaliatory boycott of Israel.

But Jacobs told The Times of Israel on Monday that he never made such comments and no articles from that time period in the Jerusalem Post or any other news outlet report Jacobs calling for a boycott or a cessation of support.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, center, and other progressive Jews clashing with security guards in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, November 16, 2017. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/via JTA)

Pressed on the matter, Friedman said Tuesday that the article he recalled didnt in fact use the phrase stop supporting Israel or boycott, but rather stated Jacobs said that American Jews would be forced to rethink how they support the Israeli government following Netanyahus decision.

Friedman appeared to be referring to an Associated Press story which introduced a quote from Jacobs by saying that Netanyahus about-face could lead many to rethink their support for Israel. The quote attributed to Jacobs read as follows: There is a limit to how many times you can be delegitimized and insulted. Nonetheless, Friedman insisted Tuesday that Jacobs was effectively advocating a boycott.

Recalling a heated closed-door meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders during his confirmation process, Friedman says in the book that the Vermont lawmaker demanded a response within a week as to whether financial aid to Gaza was more important than aid to Israel.

Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss declined to divulge the exact details of the private conversation but advised taking the ex-envoys account with a grain of salt. Friedman, he says, lied under oath by vowing not to advocate for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, if confirmed.

In this Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 photo, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, right, talks with David Friedman, center, nominated to be US ambassador to Israel, accompanied by former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Capitol Hill in Washington, during Friedmans confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Asked about the pledge on Tuesday, Friedman said he gave it in reference to annexation on a standalone unilateral basis, and indeed he did indicate it would have to be part of an agreement between the parties at the time.

His decision to back the move as ambassador, he said, was part of his support for the Trump peace plan, which offered marginal concessions to the Palestinians, such as the West Bank territory that remained after Israel would declare sovereignty over every one of its settlements as well as the entire Jordan Valley.

Few would argue, though, that the proposal, rejected out of hand by the Palestinians, represented an agreement of any kind, except possibly between him and Netanyahu.

Friedman admits in Sledgehammer that he was initially hesitant about putting forth the peace plan due to fears that engaging with the Palestinians early on would require him to shelve his plans regarding Jerusalem recognition.

But as he tells it, the plan was just one of a number of diplomatic moves aimed ultimately not at peace with the Palestinians, but rather at opening the Jewish state to the Arab world.

Jared saw a real desire among the Gulf states to be further aligned with Israel, but they needed something that would give them diplomatic and political cover. We hypothesized that a reasonable peace plan might provide that cover, even if the Palestinians opposed it, he writes.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman addressing a briefing hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, February 9, 2020 (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem)

Speaking to The Times of Israel on Tuesday, he referred to the Jerusalem and Golan recognitions, as well as Pompeos 2019 decision to rescind a State Department memo deeming Israeli settlements to be illegal, as part of a larger effort to chip away at the Palestinian veto on Israel making peace with its Arab neighbors.

A longtime backer of the settlement movement, Friedman writes that he was adamant that we could not demand that Israel concede territory to another sovereign state. This solved two problems: First, it removed the security risk from Palestinian autonomy, and, second, it removed the religious and ideological complication of Israel conceding land. If Israel retained military and security control, it had not technically relinquished any territory, even if the Palestinians were given a state.

Friedman clearly left his mark on the plan, which envisions Israel annexing all Jewish communities beyond the Green Line so long as it agrees not to build in the remaining areas of the West Bank that the plan earmarks for a future Palestinian sub-sovereign state.

The plan, presented in January 2020, was detailed in a 50-page document that even included maps of the realistic two-state solution that the proposal envisioned.

But the proposals architects neglected to include a timeline for when Israel could start annexing territory along the contours of the plan.

As Trump stood behind him at a White House ceremony to unfurl the plan, Netanyahu announced that Israel would annex all areas the peace plan envisioned as remaining part of the Jewish state. He told reporters immediately after the ceremony that he was going to bring the annexation plan to the cabinet for approval just five days later.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an event with US President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, January 28, 2020, to announce the Trump administrations much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Shortly thereafter, the book recounts how Friedman got a call from Kushner: Did you know that Bibi is annexing the freaking Jordan Valley today?

According to Friedmans account, he and Kushner went across the street to Blair House, where Netanyahu was staying, and proceeded to have a difficult and unpleasant meeting.

Netanyahu said emphatically that we had a deal for immediate sovereignty. Jared responded that he thought the mapping process was a first step, which would take some time. He added that the president said he would recognize sovereignty after the completion of the mapping process. To which Netanyahu responded that no mapping was necessary for the Jordan Valley. To which Jared responded, We never discussed that, he writes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, center, and then-tourism minister Yariv Levin during a meeting to discuss mapping extension of Israeli sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, held in the Ariel settlement, February 24, 2020. (David Azagury/US Embassy Jerusalem)

Netanyahu was ultimately forced to cave, agreeing to a mapping committee that would take months to progress.

Asked on Tuesday how such a key detail regarding the implementation of such an explosive move wasnt ironed out in advance, Friedman took a long pause before acknowledging, the disconnect is regrettable.

That disconnect barely registers in Sledgehammer, even though it was hard not to notice in the lead-up to and aftermath of the peace plans release.

Shortly after the unveiling ceremony,Friedman held a briefing with reporters during which he was asked whether there would be a waiting period before Israel could move forward with annexation.

While he said that a mapping committee would still need to draw up the exact borders of the land Israel would be able to annex, Friedman emphatically responded: Israel does not have to wait at all.

Hours later, though, Kushner went on GZERO Media and said that the US would not support Israeli annexation until after Israels March 2 election.

In this photo taken on May 14, 2018, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman listens as Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner delivers a speech during the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

Friedman downplays the split in Sledgehammer.

My expectation was that we had at least a month to go through the mapping of territory and the legal process and see what might develop before a sovereignty declaration would occur. Jared hoped it might take longer so that he could maximize his time to trade a deferral of sovereignty for a peace deal, he writes.

However, in Trumps peace, which came out in December and covers the same period, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid writes that Netanyahu chose to make his annexation announcement because Friedman assured the premier that he would have US backing, even though the ambassador never checked how his boss felt about the matter.

Friedman has vehemently denied that account, pointing out that the Trump peace plan itself greenlights Israeli annexation and that the former president was well aware of and supported its implications.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R), then US National Security Advisor John Bolton (C) and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tour the Jordan Valley on June 23, 2019. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

The ex-envoy said Tuesday that Ravid never interviewed him for the book, which appears to rely on the recollections of other players, such as Kushner and former special representative for international negotiations Avi Berkowitz.

The notion that I was running my own agenda with Netanyahu about sovereignty and not letting the president know, contrary to the wishes of Jared its 100% false, and I hope thats reflected in my book, Friedman said on Tuesday. Now, I dont know what Avi thinks. I didnt talk to Avi every day. Avi wasnt relevant to this, but I spoke to Jared every day about these issues.

The annexation timing ended up being a moot point, though, as on June 12, 2020, UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba penned an op-ed in the Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew daily in which he warned Israelis that moving forward with annexation would squander a rare opportunity that was arising for Jerusalem to normalize relations with Abu Dhabi.

Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba gestures during an event with US House Speaker Paul Ryan, at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

Kushner and Al Otaiba launched negotiations in the weeks that followed that led to Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signing the Abraham Accords three months later on the White House lawn, with Morocco joining the agreements shortly thereafter.

Yet, Friedman rejected the implication that the Abraham Accords were born in the final months of the Trump administration, thanks to the opening created by Al Otaiba.

Al Otaibas op-ed was a public airing of discussions that had been taking place for years between Trump officials and their allies in the Gulf about the possibility of normalizing ties with Israel, he said on Tuesday.

Friedman pointed to Trumps first trip abroad, during which he went to Saudi Arabia and began planting the seed for such a possibility.

US President Donald Trump (center-left), Saudi Arabias King Salman (center-right), and other leaders pose for a group photo during the Arabic Islamic American Summit at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center in Riyadh on May 21, 2017. (AFP/MANDEL NGAN)

However, the former ambassador acknowledged that he and his colleagues in the administration did not know how such improved relations would look and for the first two years, they accepted the conclusion of former secretary of state John Kerry who said that the Arab world would not agree to fully normalize relations with Israel before the Palestinians were given a state of their own.

As US ties warmed with both Israel and the Gulf states, the administration came to reject Kerrys assumption and began envisioning something bigger, Friedman said.

Still, it was the step by Al Otaiba that provided the clarity the Trump administration needed for how to act next. Would the UAE ambassador have taken that step if not for the US moves orchestrated by Friedman? Sledgehammer answers that question with an emphatic no and even has someone willing to stake his reputation in defense of that narrative, as opposed to other, less rosy accounts that frequently rely on anonymous sourcing.

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In new book, Trumps Israel envoy hammers 4 rocky years into a smooth path to peace - The Times of Israel

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Israel Bound

Israel Bound is a life-changing experience for St. Louis teens who want to explore their Jewish identity, strengthen their connection to Israel and have the adventure of a lifetime with their friends. The three-week trip began in 2008 and continues to be one of the most popular trips for St. Louis teens who want to travel to Israel. The itinerary is jam-packed every year with the classic Israel experiences such as visiting the Western Wall, climbing Masada at sunrise, floating in the Dead Sea and riding camels.

However, Jewish Federation of St. Louis also provides some experiences that are quite unique, such as staying two nights with an Israeli host family in our partnership region of Yokneam-Meggido, getting a geo-political briefing/tour at the beginning and end of the trip and sleeping under the stars in the Negev Desert. Clickhereto view the tentative itinerary for the upcoming trip from June 13 to July 4.

All-Inclusive Pricing:

$2,300 (includes flight from St. Louis)

Discounted price includes $750 travel grant available to all St. Louis teens and $3,000 RootOne voucher (limited number of vouchers available)

RootOne is seeded through the generosity of The Marcus Foundation, and is powered by the Jewish Education Project.

Benefits of a local trip:

Teens can experience Israel with their friends from school/synagogue

Pre-trip meetings allow for proper orientation and group bonding before we depart

Post-trip reunions allow for proper processing of the experience and continued social connection with trip participants

Local staff you can trust and meet in person prior to the trip

Registration for the 2022 trip is now openFor mor information and to apply, go to https://www.jfedstl.org/community-engagement/israel-center/israel-trips-missions/teen/. Contact Jody Gerth with questions at[emailprotected]or 314-442-3881.

Taglit-Birthright Israeland Jewish Federation of St. Louis have teamed up to provide the gift of a peer educational trip to Israel.On this 10-day trip, participants get an insiders perspective of the Jewish homeland, with visits to vibrant cities and historical sites, the chance to explore diverse and beautiful landscapes and learn about Israels culture. This gift is open to Jewish young adults ages 18 through 26.To learn more, visitBirthrightIsrael.com or https://www.jfedstl.org/stl-birthright

For more information, visit the Passport to Israel pageor contact Karen Rader at[emailprotected]or 314-442-3756 or Jody Gerth at 314-442-3881.

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Jewish Federation offers teen travel opportunities to Israel - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

Days before Stephen H. Hoffman was due in Jerusalem for the 2003 General Assembly of United Jewish Communities, truck bombs detonated in front of two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey.

In a post-9/11 world, Hoffman was already concerned. He feared there might be a day when Middle East terrorism could make its way to North America.

This spurred a conversation at King David Hotel in Jerusalem with Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

He and I talked about the security picture in the United States, which was basically nonexistent, Hoffman told the Cleveland Jewish News Jan. 26. I think the guard at the desk might have been armed at Cleveland for a long time and that the New York federation that you went through a magnetometer.

The two discussed the need for a central security network that would be capable of sharing information with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The network, as the two envisioned it, would both inform and help safeguard the Jewish community across the continent and establish relationships with local law enforcement agencies.

Hoffman, who was the president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and was on loan to lead the national Jewish federation system in New York City, said he believed the federation system would be a good platform to build the network.

There had previously been some troubling incidents, including a threat made in the Virginia Beach, Va., area. The FBI told communal leaders locally about it. Even without sophisticated social media at the time, there ensued widespread panic among Jews across the country.

Events were canceled, Hoffman recalled. Extra security guards were hired across the country. And the threat didnt pan out. But people panicked. The FBI insisted that it did the right thing by only talking to the local community.

Hoffman did not agree.

There was no mechanism to discuss this at the national level and provide guidance to the Jewish community across the United States, he said.

Hoenlein and Hoffman consulted with David Harris, CEO of American Jewish Committee (who will step down from AJC in Mayafter 31 years), and the three approached the administration of President George W. Bush about sharing communication to a national Jewish security agency.

We were able to arrange a meeting with the director of the FBI, who said, I share your concerns. But the way we work is all through local operations, Hoffman said.

He said they persisted.

At a second meeting with the director of the FBI, a deputy director of the FBI was appointed liaison to the Jewish community.

Hoffmans vision of the new central security network, Secure Community Network, started in 2004 with a budget of $500,000 a year.

Operationally, I ran it out of JFNA, he said. We ran the books. We did the hiring.

Just last month, SCN was suddenly thrust into the spotlight based on the words of Congregation Beth Israels Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker who credited training he received through SCN for his ability to respond effectively during a hostage crisis, throwing a chair to distract the gunman and allowing the three hostages to escape. The Colleyville, Texas rabbi was one of 17,000 people who had gone through SCN trainings in 2021.

Paul Goldenberg was hired as the first CEO of SCN, shaping it into the first faith-based homeland security information sharing initiative in the country.

Getting people to pay attention to security was a real challenge, Hoffman said.

He said he spoke at the next General Assembly about the concept. The reaction, he said, was like, what are you talking about? Or we have it covered.

Since there was no sense of urgency, there was also not a lot of interest in giving to the cause.

We struggled to get the money year after year, Hoffman said.

Hoffman credited fellow Clevelander Michael D. Siegal, now chair of The Jewish Agency for Israel, who assumed leadership of Jewish Federations of North America in the lay position of chairman, as a more able fundraiser for SCN in its fledgling years.

When Hoffman returned to Cleveland in 2004 to resume the presidency of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, he turned his attention to security locally and statewide, hiring Jim Hartnett, an FBI veteran as director of community-wide security at the Federation.

Jim, together with Oren Baratz (senior vice president of external affairs at the Federation) took the SCN concept and built the blueprint for how a local community security team fits into the equation, Erika B. Rudin-Luria, who succeeded Hoffman as president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland when he retired Dec. 31, 2018, and was named president emeritus, told the CJN Feb. 4. Jim and Oren work collaboratively with other community security teams and the leadership of SCN.

Raising the profile of SCN in 2013, Goldenberg was appointed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council.

In 2017, Michael G. Masters was named CEO of SCN under Harold Gernsbacher, who remains chair of SCN today. Gernsbacher is also treasurer of JFNA, highlighting the close ties between the two organizations.

When Masters came aboard in 2017, there were 22 full-time security initiatives at Jewish communities across the country. SCN had assisted federations in recruiting and hiring about 70% of the security directors.

At the time, the relationship with DHS and FBI was strong, Masters told the CJN. There was an intelligence sharing component. Other aspects, such as facilities assessments, also took place, but were limited by SCNs budget.

Prior to taking his position in 2017, Masters began working with SCN to try to develop a standard set of best practices to secure the Jewish community across the country.

And that would mean that the security may look different if you were in Miami versus Memphis, or Portland, Maine versus Portland, Oregon, but that there was a consistency and standardization that the community could be assured was best practice, Masters told the CJN Jan. 26.

In December 2017, SCN created its intelligence duty desk, which has a 24/7 operation in Chicago where it monitors and shares information about national threats with Jewish communities and law enforcement agencies.

And they coordinate with security directors and programs across the country, Masters said, including the Ohio Regional Intelligence Center, which was initiated a little more than a year ago. It is modeled after the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Community Security Initiative. Baratz and Hartnett worked with the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati to create ORIC, which has become a statewide strategic program designed to seek out pertinent security-related information and provide timely and relevant alerts, warnings and notifications to Jewish community leaders throughout Ohio.

SCNs budget was $1.2 million in December 2017. Today, it is $10.5 million. Part of that growth is in the build-out of the National Jewish Security Operations Command Center, which has a team of intelligence analysts.

Today, SCN oversees security directors for more than half the federations in the country and is in the process of hiring regional directors to cover the entire country to include smaller communities that dont have dedicated security directors.

In addition to intelligence gathering and sharing, facility assessments, physical security support, training exercises and education, SCN also works with law enforcement and does incident crisis and management.

When Masters took over, he said, There were examples of incredibly robust,

well-funded, professionally-led and managed community supported initiatives, and of course, perhaps probably the greatest example of that leadership demonstrated from Cleveland with a comprehensive program that involves information sharing, coordination with law enforcement, training, physical security, applying for grants all of those things. But you would go to a different community, and even though they might have a professional, they might have a security program, it looked very different.

In March 2018, Masters said there was a meeting in Cleveland of security directors from across the country.

At that meeting, Masters learned they were conducting assessments of buildings and there was no standard tool used to do so. So, SCN created one. In addition, it has created training tools.

What weve tried to do since 2017 is create a really strong network, ensure that intelligence information is flowing, ensure that theres consistency in best practice in the standards of physical security of the assessments, of the training and incident response, Masters said. And I think that is not only more akin to how law enforcement works, but in the best sense of how our collective Jewish system works.

Masters said that after the Pittsburgh shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, which killed 11 people and injured six, virtually every family in Pittsburgh with a child in Jewish day school, sent their child to school the following Monday.

And of course, we saw that same sense of empowerment (last month) where the rabbi (Cytron-Walker) and Jeff Cohen (a hostage at Congregation Beth Israel) said we knew what to do, because we had this training.

On Jan. 15, as a gunman held four hostages, SCN posted a flash report to its partners at 12:48 p.m. EST.

According to open sources, at around 11:30 CST, police in Colleyville, Texas,respondedto an unspecified incidentat Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville, the flash report opened.

It was sent to SCN staff, SCN leadership, facility and security liaisons, law enforcement stakeholders, community wide security programs, safety liaisons, campus safety programs and national security partner organizations.

Joel Marcovitch, CEO of JewishColumbus, got the alert.

Within the space of like, I think, 40 minutes of when the news broke, we had a text message that went out to all of our rabbis, all of the directors, all of the board members and other people who need to be on that text, explaining the situation and for them to say theres no local threat, Marcovitch said.

At 2:30 p.m. Jan. 15, SCN convened a call with security directors of Jewish communities across the country to brief them about what was known about the situation at that time. Meanwhile, the security director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas went to Colleyville to respond to the scene.

The mobilization and intelligence sharing continued, Brad Orsini, senior national security adviser of SCN, told the CJN Jan. 26.

And we were also communicating with the FBI at the highest levels, Orsini said. And really, at that point, now its a coordination of all our resources across the country, in all our communities because all the communities are saying, what do we do now? Is this a bigger threat just like any one of these attacks on the community. And so, were sifting through the information, you know, (in) constant communication with the FBI.

The following day, at 12:30 p.m., SCN convened a national meeting for Jewish leaders, which was also attended by Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Everybody was asking, what do we do now? said Orsini, who had been chief security officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh prior to working at SCN.

Referring to the April 27, 2019 shooting at Chabad of Poway in California, he said, What did we learn from this lesson that we might not have learned from Pittsburgh or Poway?

During that call, we did a 15-minute segment of, these are the top six things that every synagogue should do right now, Orsini said. Nobody died, and no hostages died, which is, thank G-d for that. But now, what do we learn from this? And how do we secure ourselves even more with a potential threat? So now were doing community meetings across the country.

SCN offers four core trainings: situational awareness; countering active threat; facility security and Stop The Bleed.

Truthfully, its been a game-changer in how we operate, Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, executive director, community relations/government affairs of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, told the CJN Jan. 28. The infrastructure for SCN and the ability to be in contact with people you need to be in contact with in real time is so important during a crisis.

Referring to a July 11, 2019, incident in which the Youngstown Jewish Community Center was tagged in a violent video that was posted on social media, We had our own little situation with a young man who threatened our JCC, Deutsch Burdman said. And working with SCN was very, very important to be able to make sure we had all the appropriate information, our security team was able to liaise with local law enforcement authorities and that was really important as well.

Reflecting on that incident, she said, The lesson there was having those connections and having open lines of communication between our federation security team and every local law enforcement entity is crucial.

Following the Texas hostage crisis, JFNA accelerated the roll-out of its $54 million LiveSecure campaign, aimed at helping further safeguard 146 Jewish communities across the continent.

Hoffman, who now chairs the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation in downtown Cleveland and who said it was initially a struggle to raise money for security

has in recent years awarded two grants to JFNA for that initiative from the Mandel Foundation, the first of $9 million and a more recent $6 million match.

JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut, a former Cleveland resident, told the CJN Jan. 26 that SCNs most important work may never be reported. He credited Hoffman for his prescient decision to form SCN.

Its certainly grown in its sophistication, said Fingerhut, thinking back to SCNs start. Its ability to track incidents and share the information, its relationships with FBI, Homeland Security, police associations, etc. ... thats what we needed it to do. It doesnt come into the spotlight until there is an incident like Colleyville.

But I can assure you that the work that SCN does has been a major factor in preventing any number of incidents. Remember, we only make the news from the incidents that happen. We dont know about all the ones that are prevented. And thats really the work thats happening every day.

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Hoffmans vision nearly two decades ago saving Jewish lives around country - Cleveland Jewish News

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