When peace activists essentially hijacked the nation’s day of mourning - by Jonathan S. Tobin

We should mourn all victims of senseless violence, be they Jews, Arabs or any other people. But we should be wary of efforts to establish a false analogy between those who died to save Jewish lives and those whose purpose was to spill Jewish blood.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
28 April '20..

Outside of Israel, it was the alternative ceremony that got the most coverage. The official commemoration of Yom Hazikaron—the country’s Memorial Day that occurs the day before celebrating the Jewish state’s Independence Day—began with a one-minute siren that sounded throughout the country and continued at the Western Wall, where President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi led a small ceremony that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, had no audience.

Most Israelis, all too many of whom have lost a loved one or friend who was killed during the country’s wars or as a result of terrorism, will deal with the pain of this day of remembrance each in their own way though they will not be able to go to cemeteries, which are closed this year because of the ongoing lockdown.

But outside of Israel, most of the attention was neither on official efforts to remember the fallen nor the private grief of the families. Instead, much of the press was reporting about the efforts of peace activists to essentially hijack the nation’s day of mourning and turn it into a day devoted to promoting coexistence and mutual recognition of the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians.

This “Joint Memorial Day” event, which was started in 2006 by Israeli parents of fallen soldiers, is organized by two groups with both Israeli and Palestinian members: Combatants for Peace and Parents Circle Families Forum. But this year, it received an outpouring of support from American Jewish groups, including the Reform movement’s Union of Reform Judaism, J Street, the New Israel Fund, Peace Now, as well as the openly anti-Zionist IfNotNow and Churches for Middle East Peace, an interfaith Christian group that is also deeply hostile to the Jewish state.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.   

Parents Circle, aid cutoffs and an approach offensive to many of Israel’s thousands of terror-affected families - by Arnold Roth

...Ms Damelin, reacting to an announced change to US funding that will affect PCFF, tells Jeffay it’s “totally heartbreaking… undermining coexistence work as a strategy to achieve political results… It can only achieve more violence.” That’s an overblown, self-aggrandizing response. But as Frimet and I have written in several opinion columns over the years, it reflects an approach we know is offensive to many of Israel’s thousands of terror-affected families. We have been one of those since our Melbourne-born daughter Malki was murdered in the 2001 Hamas attack on a Jerusalem pizzeria.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 October '18..

We were bothered by some statements that appear in a recent report ["Fears funding freeze is going too far", Nathan Jeffay - Australian Jewish News, September 20, 2018] that looks at changes in the Trump administration's approach to US support for non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The parts that jumped out at us had to do with a group on which we have expressed ourselves at intervals over the years: Parents Circle Families Forum. They appear in the article's opening lines

Donald Trump is being accused of taking his squeeze on Palestinian funding too far, by stopping new grants to organisations that promote coexistence with Israelis. “It’s totally heartbreaking,” said Robi Damelin, an Israeli bereaved mother who runs a coexistence group with bereaved Palestinian parents. She was talking to The AJN shortly after hearing that the Trump administration is cutting its last major aid channel to Palestinians, namely $US10 million annual funding to projects like hers which bring together Israeli and Palestinian civilians...

Then a few paragraphs later:

Damelin said that America is acting dangerously by undermining coexistence work as a strategy to achieve political results. “It can only achieve more violence,” she said. Her son David was killed when a terrorist opened fire at an IDF roadblock in the West Bank in 2002, and she became involved in The Parents Circle Families Forum, a grassroots organisation of Palestinian and Israeli families who have suffered a bereavement due to the conflict. She believes that groups like hers are building connections between populations which will prove vital if there is to be a political agreement. “Can they imagine that there could be peace without contact between Israelis and Palestinians? ” she asked rhetorically. “This will cause fear of the unknown, which leads to hatred and its natural partner, violence.”

Each of us (Frimet and Arnold) has criticized PCFF's work and methods via articles and posts over a period of 15 years. We have not managed to get much of a response from them in all that time.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Israeli Jews And Palestinian Arabs: So tell me again, Sarah, how will friendship bring peace? by Sheri Oz

...Sarah claims that if Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs just make friends with each other, everything will be fine. I guess she has not been here long enough to know that many of us already have made friends with each other, have been friends for decades. She thinks she knows what is going on and what we need to do differently

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
25 December '17..

Grassroots organizations and many well-meaning individuals tell us that regular people, Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, have to dialogue with each other in order to break through the walls of hate and make bridges that can lead to peace. . . that we regular people can do what our own leaders and world leaders cannot do. Through friendship, we can bring peace to the Middle East or at least to our little corner of the Middle East.

There are some who say things like how we just have to spend time with Palestinian Arabs, for example, to have coffee with Arab shop keepers in the Old City of Jerusalem and elsewhere and listen to them and get to know them. Here is the latest public Facebook post of one well-known person who believes this (I quote and relate to the most relevant pieces of this post in the sections below the FB embed):




A brief comment on the final line in this FB embed. Most people who live in this country for more than a few hours to days to weeks know how to use some choice Arabic swear words. I do not think that merits great celebration of her burgeoning language skills — and nobody using those words would be assumed to have Arab friends. That comment seems more a gratuitous celebration of the writer’s penchant for vulgarity and inappropriateness than anything salutary.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The Parents Circle Claim Trump’s Jerusalem Speech Shutting Us Up - by Sheri Oz

...It is just coincidental, therefore, that Bennett got around to banning the Parents Circle project from conducting their sessions in Israeli schools at this time. But associating the ban with anti-Trump rhetoric makes for such a powerful fundraising campaign that the organization could not pass up the opportunity when it presented itself. Only makes sense for a co-existence pro-peace group that sells the “Palestinian narrative” as the only show in town, right?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
15 December '17..

A supposed co-existence pro-peace organization is illogically blaming President Trump’s Jerusalem speech, the long overdue recognition of Jerusalem as the historical and contemporary capital of Israel, as the reason for cancelled programming in Israel.

Screenshot of announcement of supposed impact of Trump’s Jerusalem speech on the Parents Circle programming.

First let me tell you a bit about the Parents Circle and then I will tell you why this claim is absolute nonsense.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Israel, Academic Lies and What Passes For Scholarship! - by Sheri Oz

...So — do you consider withholding part of the story as lying when the withholding leads to a false impression? I do. Now, why would Wilmer want to give this false impression?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
24 August '17..

In critiquing an academic paper that was published in the journal, International Relations and Diplomacy, I found a blatant lie that made my blood boil. In another post critiquing this same article, I showed how common myths demonizing Israel have found their way into scholarly writing published in academic journals. Here I want to contest one point only.

In the February 2017 issue of the journal, Prof Franke Wilmer published an article entitled, Victimization, Empathy, and Breaking the Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine. On page 75, in her conclusions, she makes the following statement:

Doubi Schwartz, former General Manager of the Parents Circle Families Forum, a group of 600 families from both sides who have lost loved ones to the violent conflict, explained that members of the organization visit high schools in teams of one Palestinian and one Israeli family member to tell their stories of loss and their plea for peace and nonviolence. “Some of the schools in Israel will not let us bring a Palestinian in, and for many who do, it is the first time they have encountered someone from the other side”. [emphasis mine]

The lie is shown in bold font. I explored the organization’s website looking for material regarding the high school project. Finding nothing but old news, I called the Israeli office of the Parents Circle Family Forum and spoke with Iris Meisler, the office manager, who asserted that they are working on the website to bring it up to date and she was willing to answer my questions.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Not a dialogue that can help bridge the divide between the two peoples, let alone promote peace - by Arnold Roth

And there's a clear take-away: That isn’t the sort of dialogue that can help bridge the divide between the two peoples, let alone promote peace. True dialogue involves airing disagreement and promoting respect for differing narratives, not one side affirming the stance of the other...

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
09 August '17..

In a well-argued opinion piece that appeared in Haaretz a few days ago, Jonathan S. Tobin (opinion editor of JNS.org, a Contributing Writer at National Review, an editor at Commentary Magazine, and for a decade up to 2008 executive editor of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia) tackles the way America's Jewish left

is deeply invested in a form of asymmetric dialogue that too often requires co-opting Jewish kids to denounce the sins of Zionism

In doing so, his essay, "It's not about flags: The real problem with Jewish-Palestinian dialogue" [Haaretz, August 3, 2017] addresses issues that we have touched on when expressing the deep disquiet we feel about one particular left-oriented group called Parents Circle Families Forum. Readers not familiar with that exceedingly well-funded organization or our criticisms of it might start here: “Behind the facade at Parents Circle, messages that are deeply disturbing to bereaved families”.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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First and above all, we must secure our families and our communities

...If we could reach the audiences whom Parents Circle addresses, we would tell people about our daughter Malki and her beautiful life. We would tell them that Malki did not die because of the “occupation” or a disagreement on narratives. She was murdered for being Jewish by unrepentant Palestinian terrorists who declare proudly that they meant it and are glad they did it.

Arnold Roth..
Times of Israel..
26 June '14..

Robi Damelin of Parents Circle, a terror victim organization, cries out for sanity and the curbing of what she refers to as “the repeated call for vengeance” (“Break the cycle, we beg of you”, Times of Israel, June 24, 2014). She asks for more reconciliation, more dignity, more respect, less hatred and greater understanding of what prisoners mean to the Palestinians. She calls for human rights, a life of dignity and safety for all, and freedom from violence.

Her passion is tangible as she begs for support of an organization bringing together the families of terror victims from among Palestinians and Israelis who “have chosen a path to reconciliation”.

Can you be a caring person and still oppose what Parents Circle represents?

Yes, and a year ago we expressed our sense of the divergence between their rhetoric and reality in “Behind the facade at Parents Circle, messages that are deeply disturbing to bereaved families”.

We noted than, and repeat now, that Damelin’s call appears to be addressed to Israelis alone. Her “cycle” is a singularly Israeli responsibility – the Palestinian Arab and Israeli Jewish members of Parents Circle are united in endorsing Palestinian victimhood and telling Israelis that the conflict is our fault. The Palestinians were left out when Robi Damelin wrote: “Israel is fast becoming the pariah of the world… we are losing our moral fiber”. In her worldview, the moral burden is entirely on one side.

No Israeli needs to be reminded of where our collective concerns are right now: three boys, snatched by unknown people pursuing a malevolent strategy.

For decades, Palestinians have turned hostage-takers and the murderers of Israeli civilians into heroes and legends. The demand of the Palestinian political leadership, echoed in Robi Damelin’s cry, is that the terrorists now in prison ought to be walking free. She and they improbably suggest this is how peace is made.

Terrorism and Bereaved Families - Behind the Facade at Parents Circle

...In contrast to Parents Circle’s message, most of the bereaved Israelis we know (unfortunately we know many) passionately reject the immoral equivalence the group’s activists imply between the victims and the terrorists.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
12 July '13..

The conflict between Israel, on one hand, and the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states, on the other, has exacted a terrible price from ordinary people on both sides of the divide. Since the signing of the 1993 Oslo peace declaration until today, some 1,650 Israelis were killed in terror attacks by Palestinian Arab groups; several times that number have been injured. Add to this the 22,000 soldiers killed in all the wars and the circle grows exponentially. Tiny Israel, with its population of 7 million, carries an extraordinary burden of pain.

We, the writers of this blog, became a part of the circle of tragedy and grieving when, on August 9, 2001, the life of our fifteen year-old daughter Malki was stolen from her and from us by murder-minded Hamas terrorists in a devastating attack on a restaurant filled with children in the heart of Jerusalem on a hot school-vacation afternoon.

Some, among Israel’s victims of terror, mourn privately and keep their distance from public controversy. Others speak up or join advocacy groups that reflect wide ranging views. In Israel’s robust democracy, we have both the expectation and the inalienable right to do this.

Against that background, we have viewed the activities of Parents Circle from a distance (see for instance "The sin of forgiveness fervor") for more than a decade. It arouses deep disquiet within us. What follows here is an expression of those feelings. As always, we speak only for ourselves; we claim no right of representing others. Some feel differently. But from many conversations with families like our own, we know the sense we reflect here is widely held.

Parents Circle was created in the nineties and claims to speak for five or six hundred bereaved Israeli or Palestinian members. It’s an unverified number that – curiously – has remained constant throughout the past decade. We think this is odd: thousands of acts of terrorism have produced thousands more terror victims on the Israel side (alone). Yet the membership number they publicize has remained static in all that time.

(Continued)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.

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