Making Headlines

Dear Friends,

Israel is back on the front pages again.

The major headline today was that Secretary of State Kerry has directly joined the talks that are taking place with Iran about their nuclear program. The discussions are reportedly about an interim deal under which Iran would temporarily freeze some of their nuclear activities in return for some relief of the international sanctions that have hurt the Iranian economy. The sub-headline is that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel is alarmed about the proposed deal, “The deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge. But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years.” Kerry’s response: “I have said many times we will not make a deal that’s a bad deal, that leaves any of our friends or ourselves exposed to a nuclear weapons program.” Mr. Kerry also said the United States would not dismantle its sanctions until it had “absolute clarity about what is happening.” We’ll see.

Meanwhile, this is not the only high stakes exchange that took place between Secretary Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu this week. Mr. Kerry was in Israel pressing the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to make compromises to get their negotiations moving. It was clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu resented the Secretary of State’s pressure to stop approving settlement construction on the West Bank. The pressure, he contends, needs to be put on the Palestinians who are refusing to compromise at this time.

What are we to make of all this? We are fortunate to have someone coming to Temple Sinai a week from Sunday who could help give us insight. Alan Elsner, Vice President for Communications for J Street is going to be the speaker at our Brotherhood’s breakfast on Sunday, November 17th at 9:30 a.m. Alan Elsner has had a long career at the top ranks of American and international journalism prior to joining J Street. As State Department and later White House correspondent for Reuters News Agency, Elsner traveled the world with Secretaries of State and was on first name terms with presidents and vice presidents.

Elsner’s talk is entitled, “When Should We Speak About Israel and What Should We Say? American Jews and the Two-State Solution.” J Street – with over 180,000 supporters nationwide and a Rabbinic Cabinet of over 700 – identifies itself as the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans to advocate for U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to broaden debate around Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.

Temple Sinai nor its Brotherhood endorse any organizations that take political positions on Israel. However, we do strongly believe that our synagogue should be a center of dialogue for the various voices within the Jewish community when it comes to Israel and the Middle East. It is our mission as a synagogue to educate our members about Israel and to build a deeper connection between our members and the Jewish State.

This is the first in a series of Brotherhood Breakfasts on American Jewish political perspectives on the US-Israel relationship.

Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan