'Pacesetters' hear unity call

Before addressing the Central federation Pacesetter event, Israeli Consul General in New York Asaf Shariv, second from left, talked with, from left, his colleague, consul Irit Stopper; Warren Eisenberg; and Elam Kott. Photos by Elaine Durbach

by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central
11.15.07

Sidebars:
*Israeli consul: Sharon would not have gone into Lebanon

*Prof calls for censure of Iranian president

An Israeli diplomat and a Canadian politician urged local philanthropists to sustain a strong connection to Israel in the face of dire threats from Iran and a rising tide of anti-Israel rhetoric.

Israel's consul general in New York, Asaf Shariv, and Canadian parliamentarian and international human rights activist Irwin Cotler spoke at the Pacesetter event on Nov. 7.

The event marked the official launch of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey's 2008 annual campaign. Held at the Livingston home of David and Sharon Halpern, the event drew pledges totaling $2.44 million.

Addressing the 70 donors, both Shariv and Cotler underlined the need for collective Jewish action to raise awareness of the threat posed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear ambitions. Both also spoke of the possibilities offered by Israeli-Palestinian peace talks tentatively scheduled for this month in Annapolis, Md.

Shariv predicted the talks will be held on Nov. 26. He stated unequivocally that no peace agreement would be signed.

"The expectations are so high, you can't win," he said, "but it is a start toward peace."

The Israeli government regarded the talks as the best option available, given the mutual desire for a two-state solution and the willingness to compromise shown by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad.

"Abbas is not a member of any Zionist organization," Shariv said, "but these are the two best Palestinians we can talk to."

Jocular but serious, he said a nuclear race in "a neighborhood" as bad as the Middle East "is not a good idea." Iran has been able to do so much harm just by sponsoring terrorism; with nuclear weapons the prospect would be that much worse, he said. "And now there are the riots in Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons," he added, "and Osama Bin Laden is there." (See sidebar.)

Cotler painted an even darker picture, warning that in some ways Israel and the global Jewish community are facing "a gathering storm" reminiscent of the ominous clouds of 1938. Outlining efforts to delegitimize Israel that he described as a subtle form of anti-Semitism, he said it was imperative that at Annapolis the issue of Jews forced to flee Arab countries be included in any resolutions dealing with Palestinian refugees to bring balance to the rhetoric about human rights violations. (See sidebar.)

Given the dire warnings sounded by the speakers, there was a particularly warm response from the crowd when they witnessed a moment of generation-to-generation solidarity. Announcing his pledge, Sol Kramer of Elizabeth, federation vice-president for life, pointed out that there were just six Holocaust survivors present. The hosts' adult son, Jeremy Halpern, rose to state his pledge and added, "There aren't just six of you — I feel that we're all survivors. We are here because of you." The white-haired senior from Poland hugged the tall, strapping young man — the grandson of fellow survivors Gladys and Sam Halpern who were also there, and smiles bloomed around the room. "When I look around at who is here, I know we have a future," Kramer said.

The intensity of the event was deepened by a sense of loss. Many of those present had been together in Livingston that morning for the funeral of one of the federation's most dedicated members, former president Alf Gelfond of Watchung, who had died two days before. Person after person, as they announced their pledges, paid tribute to him and to his wife, Sandy, for their long friendship and their tireless support of Israel and the Jewish community. To honor his memory, a number of them added thousands more to their gifts.

Major gifts chair Julie Singer said that the federation is introducing a number of innovations designed to provide people with multiple opportunities for giving to meet various needs, rather than simply making a single annual donation. "We cannot always know when help is needed most," she said. "Whatever we've given before, it doesn't mean that we don't need to give again and again and again."

Israeli consul: Sharon would not have gone into Lebanon

ASAF SHARIV, at 35 the youngest person ever to hold the position of consul general for Israel in New York, wanted to remain a lawyer in private practice in Tel Aviv. In an interview before the Pacesetter event in Livingston last week, he described his reluctant path to public service.

In 2002, he had a lucrative career, a girlfriend, and a lifestyle he thoroughly enjoyed. But then his boss at the law firm agreed to become Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief-of-staff, and insisted that Shariv come with him as his senior adviser. With great reluctance, Shariv agreed to do it — just for one year.

The following year he was appointed director of media and public affairs, serving as spokesman for the prime minister and various key government agencies. What happened, he said, was that within a month, he found himself enchanted by Sharon. Married by then to fellow lawyer Tzili, he said he told her, "I'm in love — with a man." To his own surprise, he found the old hawk to be one of the smartest and most generous and inspiring people he had ever met.

When Sharon was felled by a second stroke in January 2006 and then hit by another, Shariv — together with his family and other staffers — was shattered. One of Sharon's sons approached him in the hospital corridor where they had waited through the night and told him to do his crying then, in private, because come the morning, he would have to go out in public and present the facts with a calm face.

Sharon went into a coma, in which he remains today. "I miss him every day," Shariv said, his easy demeanor shadowed for a moment. "I used to be in his office 10, 20 times a day. I wouldn't call him a father figure because I have a father, but that's how he was for me."

Traveling with Sharon, he visited the White House 20 times and met with other world leaders like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his replacement Gordon Brown, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and sat in on virtually every major Israeli policy debate of the time. That experience made him too valuable to let go. Olmert persuaded him to stay through the elections, and then to remain in government service.

Shariv has been involved in statecraft too long to let slip any indiscretion, but he spoke with low-key frankness. Asked about working with the beleaguered Olmert, he said he was very different from Sharon, but charismatic in his own way. He said that though Olmert has been blamed for the outcome of the war in Lebanon, no one else could have done better. "People talk about the war as a defeat for Israel," he said, "but in a month of fighting, we lost 149 soldiers; in the Six-Day War, 800 died. If we had had the same media coverage in '67, they'd have insisted on stopping the war after three days."

Asked what would have happened if Sharon had still been in office, Shariv said, "He wouldn't have gone into Lebanon. He couldn't, given what happened with him before," referring to the catastrophic Israeli involvement in a 1982 massacre by Lebanese Christian militias of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. But given the escalating aggression from Hizbulla fighters, some form of military action had become unavoidable.

Now, he said, while United Nations forces operating along the Lebanon-Israel border are doing a surprisingly good job, Hizbulla was being rearmed with supplies coming across the Syrian border. "We need to demand the enforcement of UN Resolution 1701," which forbids such a build-up, he said.

Shariv, who is living in Manhattan with his wife and two children, three-year-old Uri and five-month-old Mika, said one of his priorities as consul general is to connect with the younger generation of Americans, to reach people on college campuses and young professionals, and, via movies, Web sites, and blogs, get across to them how much Israel has to offer. His goal, he said, is not to encourage aliya, but to expand young people's appreciation for the country. "We want to get across that there is more to Israel than just flames," he said.

Prof calls for censure of Iranian president

Professor Irwin Cotler describes the dangers facing Israel and the Jewish community at the Central federation Pacesetter event, watched by Sol Kramer. Photo by Elaine Durbach

PROFESSOR IRWIN COTLER, internationally known for his work on behalf of political prisoners like Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky, and Nelson Mandela, began his speech at Wednesday night's Pacesetter event with a lighthearted joke about how his son noted at the age of three how technically incompetent his father was. Then, returning to his area of widely acknowledged expertise, he plunged into a fiery description of the dangers radical Islam poses to Israel, the Jewish people, and the rest of the world.

Cotler, a law professor and former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, has served in the Canadian Parliament since 1999. Currently, he is the official Opposition Critic for Human Rights. Among many other roles as "counsel for the oppressed" — a title accorded him in a magazine article a number of years ago and frequently quoted since then — he has testified as an expert witness on human rights in Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Israel.

He said a series of political earthquakes have brought the world to a historic juncture: the state-sanctioned violence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, the globalization of radical Islam, and radical domestic extremism. He cited, as an example, the recent announcement by the head of Britain's MI5 that there are 2,000 people in the United Kingdom who pose a direct threat to the nation.

"If you replicate that internationally, it reaches exponential dimensions," he said. The soaring price of oil, reaching nearly $100 a barrel, would have the effect of financing international terrorism and vastly increasing that threat, he said.

Cotler lambasted what he called "the treason of the intellectuals" who have allowed the "Durban blueprint" equating Zionism with racism to grow into a new "virulent, lethal anti-Semitism." They are delegitimizing Israel, he said, under the guise of fighting racism, making the country out to be a "mega-human rights violator."

Comparing this growing danger to the escalating anti-Semitism in Germany in 1938, he said the big difference now is that there is a Jewish state "as an antidote to Jewish vulnerability." There is also an affluent global Jewish community willing to stand by Israel along with nations like the United States, Canada, Australia, and — notably — Germany. "This is not the Germany of 1938," he said.

With mounting fervor, Cotler called on those present to speak out — not against the people of Iran, but against Ahmadinejad — and condemn his calls for Israel to be "wiped off the face of the earth." The United States, he pointed out, is party to the Geneva Convention prohibiting incitement to genocide. He said the Iranian leader, instead of being welcomed to speak at the United Nations at an institution like Columbia University, should be held accountable for his words before the UN and the International Criminal Court.

Cotler urged everyone to write their senators, calling on them to support the resolution on the matter passed by the House of Representatives, and to call on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take action on it. The very act of exercising these rights "inverts the legitimization of Ahmadinejad's Iran," he said.

One factor in Israel's favor, he said, was the current UN emphasis on aboriginal rights — the rights of those native to their territory. The Israelis, he said, were prototypical aboriginal rights people — with ancient roots in the region and still with the same language, culture, and religious beliefs. "They have a very powerful existential right," Cotler said.

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