The third day of the annual conference in Jerusalem will feature Peter Beinart, Russel Simmons, Avigdor Lieberman, and none other than President Shimon Peres himself.
By Allison Kaplan Sommer
The fourth Israeli Presidential Conference
concludes on Thursday, with a line-up of influential figures presenting
their views on pressing issues in the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Heavyweights at Thursday evening's final plenary session, entitled
"Decisions at the Doorstep of Tomorrow," include Jerusalem Mayor Nir
Barkat, Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liberman, and President Shimon Peres.
15:00 P.M.
The next speaker, former Congressman Robert Wexler says he agrees that
the upcoming U.S. election will revolve around the economy. Obama's
message will be: Obama is dead, General Motors is still alive.
14:55 P.M.
Hass: The issues of Iran and Arab upheavals will dominate the Middle
East agenda, peace process with Israel will be a less dominant aspect of
U.S. Middle East policy. The American era of dominating the Middle East
peace process is coming to an end. More responsibility will fall on the
shoulders of Israelis and Palestinians themselves.
14:50 P.M. Domestic issues will dominate next presidency, no matter who wins, says Hass.
14:48 P.M. Hass:
What happens in the Middle East, short of crisis with Iran, will have
little to no impact on election. Regardless of who wins in November, the
U.S. is done with Iraq, and drawdown in Afghanistan will continue. The
pace could depend on who is president.
14:46 P.M. Next speaker Dr. Richard Hass, USA, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
14:45 P.M. Gold:
I believe the U.S. candidates may look different based on their
predispositions, but they will approach Israel in the same way.
14:40 P.M
Gold: A weakness that Israel has to get over. Israel had to express
itself in crystal clear terms... it is vital that Israel let the world
know what the consensus is here.... we have a massive political
consensus emerging, though op-ed writers at Haaretz may disagree.... a
position that includes Likud, Kadima and Labor supporters.
14:34 P.M.
Next speaker is Ambassador Dore Gold, who currently serves as president
of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Gold says that Israel must
work with both the Republicans and the Democrats, and gets applause.
14:27 P.M. Eizenstat:
Despite rhetoric, doubtful Romney would launch attack on Iran in his
first year. But he would be more likely to give a wink and a nod to an
Israeli attack. In conclusion, there are not likely to be dramatic
middle East moves either in the first year of a Romney presidency or in
first year of an Obama first term.
14:24 P.M. Eizenstat:
President Romney would give Israel a freer hand to expand settlements.
And would be less likely to link wider support to Israel and peace
process.
14:20: P.M. Eizenstat
continues: But I still predict there will be an advantage to Obama,
despite slippage, he can still win in battleground states...Obama's
likeability quotient is still high, they still blame bad economy on
Bush, and think Obama has a better chance to fix it than Romney. And
many will vote for continuity.
14:19 P.M.
Eizenstat: In 2008, Obama got 78 percent of the Jewish vote. Polls show
if election was now, 67 percent would vote for him, but the reason is
domestic issues, not Israel.
14:17 P.M. First
speaker is Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, USA: Foreign policy will play
almost no role in this election....Romney will have an advantage because
the economy is the key issue and U.S. presidents are not elected when
unemployment is over 8 percent. Today it is 8.2 percent with no sign of
dropping before the elections.
14:15 P.M. Panel on "The November Elections and Future American Middle-East Policy" begins.
13:33 P.M. At Dr. Ruth's Masterclass on "The Future of Sex": Dr
Ruth said she is going to use Peres' line from the morning plenary on
closing your eyes during lovemaking and peacemaking, because it's true
to be good at both you have to close your eyes and concentrate and
forget about the dishes and what is going on around you, otherwise you
can't get sexually aroused (and I guess she means you can't make peace
either).
13:05 P.M. The session ends.
13:04 P.M. Wieseltier:We have to get past who is qualified and credited to have opinions. Either way, we have free discussion or we don't.
13:02 P.M. Beinart:
Americans are ignorant about Israel, but we have to expose them not
only to Jewish Israelis, but also to Arab Israel and the territories.
12:55 P.M. Beinart: U.S. Jews say they will criticize Israeli society but not Israel's security. But the two are intertwined.
12:53 P.M. Foxman
answers: Jewish leaders should do it, they do it, but you shouldn't
tell Israel they won't support it if they don't do what they say.
12:51 P.M. Question from Stephen Cohen in the audience to Abe Foxman: What if Rome Jews could have prevented the Bar Kochba revolt?Warned that it would end in disaster? Should he have?
12:47 P.M.
Newhouse responds: I expect it to run itself... I don't expect it to
make perfect decisions every minute of every time. There's a huge gap in
understanding by Israeli in how Jews live outside Israel and they
aren't interested. And American Jews have little life experience in
Israel.
12:46 P.M. Rosner tries to pin Newhouse down: What do you expect?
12:41 P.M. Moderator
Shmuel Rosner says this won't fly with Israelis, says Israelis will ask
why should we pay for Jewish schools in France and the U.S. and not in
Sderot?
12:36 P.M. Abe Foxman,
also on the panel: The problem with young Jews is not their liberalism,
its their ignorance. We have failed in Jewish education by ending it at
age of 13. For a long time it has been easy for U.S. Jews to raise
money on the back of Israel, says Foxman. Like Wieseltier, he suggests
money should be flown from Israel to the U.S., and not the other way
around.
12:35 P.M. Wieseltier:
American Jews know current events, but not the basic historical and
philosophical reasons. The first principles, not the trivia. The
audiences cheers with wild applause.
12:32 P.M. Wieseltier pitches in: American Jews do not know how to defend Israel.
12:32 P.M.
Beinart responds: No, People don't need me, they can read Israel
papers. Young Jews see Israelis speak with candor, but not in their own
communities.
12:31 P.M.
Moderator Shmuel Rosner says that he is impressed by how civilized the
discussion has been (circling in audience). Asks Beinart if he is not
contributing to erosion of support for Israel.
12:29 P.M. Wieseltier:
No unconditional love - this is infantilizing. My love for Israel is
unconditional, but it also conditional. I can still justify my
conditional love when I look overall at what Israel has done with state
power.
12:27 P.M. Wieseltier:
I expect Israel to pursue justice, but American Jews cannot expect
Israeli jews to save them. Israel does not exist to edify me, or relieve
me of the burden of defining my identity.
12:25 P.M.
Wieseltier: American Jewish identity has always been excessively
vicarious. We live our Jewishness through others.It is understandable
that Jews live through the Holocaust and the creation of Israel, but
this has hampered the creation of something indigenous.
12:23 P.M.
Wieseltier: I worry for Israel, not because it embarrasses me, I want
to insist that there is pluralism of Jewish communities, we gather as
Jews and debate wherever we are from.
12:21 P.M.
Wieseltier: The argument over whether we can criticize Israel is over,
although it's considered fine from the right, but from the left is
stabbing Israel in the back.
12:20 P.M. Wieseltier: American Jews are spoiled brats, title of panel reflects that.
12:19 P.M. Next up is Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of The New Republic.
12:15 P.M.
Besnainou: Who is world Jewry? Who is the interface? The organizations?
I agree with Abe Foxman that Israel must be a democratic Jewish state.
That is what we expect from Israel.
12:14 P.M. Besnainou: Peres and Netanyahu called us when the shootings happened, we felt support from Israel.
12:11 P.M.
Besnainou: The French Jewish community failed in the Toulouse bombing.
Our failure was not raising enough money for proper security.
12:10 P.M. Next
speaker is Mr. Pierre Besnainou, Chair of the Israel Diaspora Paradigm
Committee, Member, Board of Governors, Jewish Agency for Israel;
President, Foundation of French Judaism; former President, European
Jewish Congress.
12:09 P.M. Newhouse: And it is a self-fulfilling prophesy, and it is crying wolf.I propose that we lower the temperature.
12:05 P.M. Newhouse:
The idea of what world Jewry expects from Israel is flawed. There is no
monolithic world Jewry. And there is no crisis with world Jewry, we are
talking about an emergency that is not there.
12:04 P.M. Next speaker is Alana Newhouse, editor of Tablet magazine.
12:00 P.M.
Zionism used to be a place of refuge for Diaspora Jews, which meant
Israel went beyond politics, but for younger post-war Jews, that Zionism
is dead, says Beinart. If the two state solution dies, younger Jews may
go to the secular one state solution. That will be a disturbing
consequence he says, and will lead to a huge rift in American Jewry, he
says.
11:57 A.M.
Beinart: Only 50 percent of young American Jews said it would be a
personal tragedy if Israel didn't exist. 80 percent of older U.S. Jews
said it was.
11: 56 A.M.
Beinart: Jews who don't feel Jewish won't have a commitment to a Jewish
state. There are older Jews who feel 'secular tribalism.'
11:55 A.M. Peter Beinart starts to address panel: We are witnessing the slow decline of the Zionist consensus, especially among U.S. Jews.
11:45 A.M. Shmuel
Rosner, moderator of panel on "What does World Jewry Expect from
Israel," says Israelis expect world Jews to support Israel, give money
to Israel and make Aliya, in high percentages in polls. It's time for
Israelis to listen to World Jewry's expectations, and it's time for
World Jewry to refine and express their expectations from Israel, he
says. He suggests that we not make the panel about Peter Beinart's book.
Everybody chuckles.
11:33 A.M.
Room buzzing with anticipation. Downstairs gallery is full. I am
banished to the balcony ....It looks like the session will be standing
room only.
11:25 A.M. President Peres tells "Learning from Mistakes on the Way to Tomorrow" panel: Israel can't achieve peace with its eyes partly closed.
Earlier on Thursday, Peter Beinart, author of "The Crisis of Zionism," will join Abraham "Abe" Foxman,
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, on a panel discussing
the question: "What does World Jewry Expect from Israel."
U.S. hip hop empresario Russel Simmons will also address the conference
on Thursday, in a joint interview with Rabbi Marc Schneier,
Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, about their collaborative
project to strengthen Jewish-Muslim ties.
Related:
Ex-U.S. official: American dominance over Mideast peace process is ending
Peres: Israel can't make Mideast peace with open eyes, we must forget the past
