GERMANY EDITION

December 6, 2010

Dear Friends:

We are getting our first dose of cold weather; however, here in the New York area but we haven’t had a flake of snow. I can only sympathize with you over the frigid temperatures and piles of the white stuff you have been suffering in Europe. I believe that the “Great Equalizer” usually levels things off. I’m not looking forward to the leveling.

Meanwhile, in Israel, as I’m sure you heard, they are having the worse forest fire in their history with more than 40 deaths. They’ve had to call in help from other countries to get it under control. They’ve had a terrible drought which makes any forest fire worse. A sad business!

Snow, droughts…Is Mother Nature sending us a message?

I thought that the fire might slow down the peace process but, frankly, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fire or no fire. With Pres. Obama tied down with tax issues, Netanyahu taken up with the fire and Abbas still demanding a 3 month settlement freeze nothing is moving. I have the feeling that almost everything is frozen (including you, my poor friends in Germany) until, at least the New Year.

Being that the holiday season is upon us and AJC has asked me to shepherd the incoming German participants in the annual exchange program we have with the Adenauer Foundation next week (We’ll be visiting Washington, Atlanta and New York) this will be the last edition of DuBow Digest until January. You’ll survive.

I hope that my Jewish readers are having a nice Hanukkah and that the Christians among you have a great Christmas.

May we all have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

On to the news…

IN THIS EDITION

THE WESTERN WALL – A foolish argument and unhelpful “study”

OH KANADA! – Not only a neighbor but a friend.

NO JEWISH STATE, NO LAND SWAPS – NO NOTHING! – More roadblocks.

CLAIMS CONFERENCE FOLLOW UP – Reforms promised.

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JONATHAN POLLARD – Should a spy get a reduced sentence?

HANUKKAH IN BERLIN & TOBY AXELROD _ An important holiday and an important journalist.

THREE CHEERS FOR PRESIDENT WULFF – A visit means a lot.

THE WESTERN WALL

It’s not only politics that separate the Israelis and the Palestinians and make any sort of a peace agreement exceedingly difficult. Religion and religious sites are in many ways much more difficult, though not impossible, to deal with. When one side says that the holiest site of the other side really doesn’t belong to them, it exacerbates the problems and difficulties. Read the story that follows…

The holiest site for religious Jews throughout the world is the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It is sacred because it is a remnant of the Herodian retaining wall that once enclosed and supported the Second Temple. It has also been called the "Wailing Wall" by European observers because for centuries Jews have gathered here to lament the loss of their temple.

From 1948, during the first Israel – Arab war, the site was captured by the Jordanian army and stayed in their hands until the Six Day War (1967) when it was taken by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). During the 1948-67 period Israelis and almost all Jews from other countries were prohibited from visiting and praying there.

Recently the Jerusalem Post reported, “The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of Al-Aksa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif (the Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex, meaning the Noble Sanctuary), according to an official paper published on Monday by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah.

The paper, which has been presented as a “study,” was prepared by Al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the ministry, to “refute” Jews’ claims to the Western Wall. In the past, PA leaders and officials have also denied Jewish rights to the Wall, insisting that the Temple Mount never stood in the area.

The new document claims that the Western Wall, or Al- Buraq Wall, as it is known to Muslims, constitutes Waqf property owned by an Algerian- Moroccan Muslim family.

It claims there isn’t one stone in the wall that belongs to the era of King Solomon.

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The “study” also contends that the path next to the Western Wall was never a public road, but was established only for the use of Muslims living in the area or making their way toward the mosques on the Temple Mount.

“The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel,” Taha, who is also a renowned Palestinian poet and writer, wrote in his project.

“Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of Al-Aksa Mosque.”

There are 13 million Jews in the world, even those that are not religious, will strongly (and I mean strongly) disagree with Mr. Taha’s conclusion. It only adds fuel to the fire. Let’s hope that cooler heads on the Palestinian side will prevail.

For a Western Wall history click here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall

For an Israeli reply click here. http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=196485

A week after the original story broke the U.S. State Dept. entered the fray. Philip J. Crowley, the State Dept. spokesman was quoted as saying, “…regarding a claim by a senior Palestinian official that the Western Wall is an Islamic Waqf, we strongly condemn these comments and fully reject them as factually incorrect, insensitive, and highly provocative. We have repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of delegitimization of Israel, including denying historic Jewish connections to the land. As the United States has long maintained, the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in final status negotiations between the parties. We recognize that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue to Israelis and Palestinians, to Jews, to Muslims, and to Christians everywhere. We believe it is possible to reach an outcome that both realizes the aspirations of all parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its stature for the future.

And, after a few days and a lot of criticism, (J-Post.com) The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday removed a report claiming that Jerusalem's Western Wall is not holy to Jews from an official website, after it provoked furious reaction. The PA Ministry of Information claimed that hackers had penetrated the site and removed the post.

However, a few days later, the report resurfaced on the PA website. The Jerusalem Post noted, “Only days after it was removed from the website of the Palestinian Authority Information Ministry, a “study” denying Jews’ right to the Western Wall has resurfaced, this time on the official website of the PA’s news agency Wafa. By publishing the document on its official website, the PA has sent a message that its has officially endorsed its findings.

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The document accused “Zionist occupation of falsely and unrightfully” claiming ownership of the Western Wall.

The “study” disappeared from the website of the PA Information Ministry almost immediately after the US condemned it strongly.

Initially, the ministry claimed that hackers had penetrated its website and removed the Western Wall report. However, a senior PA official in Ramallah later admitted that the “study” had been removed under pressure from the US administration.

Over the weekend, Taha’s document was reposted, this time on the Wafa news agency's website, the official mouthpiece of the PLO and the PA.

I guess that whoever it was that was responsible for the study’s removal got an earful from his superiors at the PA so back up it went. With all this political back and forth to take it down and then put it back up, you can imagine how it rates as far as being a legitimate piece of scientific research.

The next step is to claim that the Torah doesn’t belong to the Jews either. So it goes. What is most troubling to me is that the PA is willing to entertain and promote this sort of religious “warfare” (my term). It is depressing because it shows the enormous distance that there is between the two sides which will have to be broached if any kind of peace is to be established. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

OH KANADA!

JTA recently reported, “Canada will boycott the third U.N. conference against racism, citing the charged anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric at its predecessors. 

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney at a Nov. 25 news conference said the U.N. General Assembly has chosen to "repeat and even augment the mistakes of the past" by holding an anniversary conference in New York next September, timed to coincide with the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

"Canada will not participate in this charade," Kenney said. "Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

"We will not lend our good name to this Durban hate fest," Kenney said.

The conference is slated to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 meeting in South Africa aimed at defeating xenophobia and racism. Canada and several

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other countries walked out of that meeting after Iran and several other countries engaged in Israel-bashing.

The United States led a walkout of the first conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 after it devolved into an anti-Israel hate-fest. A number of Western nations kept away from its follow-up in 2009.

Canada was the first country to withdraw from Durban II last year in Geneva”

One can only applaud Canada for its principled stance. The two prior Durban Conferences have focused primarily on Israel and have been loaded with anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The big question is whether the United States and the EU will follow suit. No doubt, some of the EU countries will participate. Their records on dealing with attacks on Israel are not what I would call exemplary. That leaves Germany. Will the Federal Republic opt out or will it use the tired excuse of “Well fight from within”. Incidentally, given the fact that the U.S. decided to participate in the UN Human Rights Council using the same line rather than staying outside, there is no guarantee what it is Pres. Obama will decide.

With Durban III scheduled to take place in New York in September of 2012, I think we can count on massive demonstrations opposing it from a whole raft of both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. Stay tuned! I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks Canada!

NO JEWISH STATE, NO LAND SWAPS – NO NOTHING!

In the Palestinian world it does not seem that (see above) “cooler heads”, at least for the time being, are prevailing.

Recently The Jerusalem Post reported, “The Fatah Revolutionary Council concluded its fifth convention in Ramallah over the weekend by declaring its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The council also urged the Palestinian Authority leadership to work toward foiling a new Israeli law requiring a referendum before any withdrawal from Jerusalem and the Golan Heights that has not been passed by two thirds of the Knesset.

The Palestinians are opposed to any understandings between Israel and the US that could harm their interests, the council said.

“The council affirms its rejection of the so-called Jewish state or any other formula that could achieve this goal,” said a statement issued by the council.

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“The council also renews its refusal for the establishment of any racist state based on religion in accordance with international law and human rights conventions.”

The council made its statement as Israel awaits a document from the US which would set out an incentives package in exchange for a 90-day freeze on new settlement construction based on the terms of the 10- month moratorium on such activity which expired on September 26.

The Palestinians have insisted that Israel must halt all settlement activity before direct negotiations can be resumed.

An Israeli government official on Saturday night called on the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations without any preconditions.

“Let us meet and talk,” he said.

The official said he was disappointed by the council’s statement with respect to a Jewish state.

Maybe it’s all just a negotiating ploy but, in the final analysis (at least in my analysis) no Palestinian leader will (or, perhaps, can) agree to have any part of what is now Israel considered a “Jewish State”. There is the religious belief that the land is Arab and there are too many extreme elements that would enforce that. If the current Fatah/ PA agreed they would be dead in a very short period of time. It’s really as simple as that.

Therefore, as I have said before, the best we can hope for is a situation of “no war” and some sort of agreement with very vague language that would map out the two countries. I think the Israelis might even buy a situation with temporary boundaries. It would not be a final settlement but “final” is just not in the cards at the moment so “temporary” would be better than nothing.

To be fair, the Israelis have their own strong right wing but if something could be worked out I think the citizenry and the leadership could sell it if the word “temporary” appeared.

In the meantime Pres. Obama and Secy. Clinton are working on a freeze extension. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with that.

CLAIMS CONFERENCE FOLLOW UP

In my last edition I wrote about the disgraceful fraud that had been perpetrated

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on the Claims Conference which handles the funds from the Federal Republic going to Holocaust survivors.

The Jewish Week reported recently, “As the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany seeks to root out additional cases of fraud, the $42.5 million scandal that has rocked the organization has rekindled dissatisfaction with the group’s annual allocation of tens of millions of dollars.

To address those growing complaints, Julius Berman, the Claims Conference chairman, told The Jewish Week he plans to announce “in a couple of days” appointments to a long-delayed special committee that is to review past and future disbursements.

Berman said the new Allocations Policy Review Committee “would be broadly represented” by Israeli and American Holocaust survivors.

He said it would “review where the money has gone over the last few years” and discuss future allocations.

I do not have intimate information regarding how the funds are handled or disbursed. However, if nothing else, it seems as if the financial oversight that should have been in place was sadly missing. The fact that the fraud had been going on for 16 years (at least) and had reached $42.5 million dollars is proof enough that the whole system needs a re-organization. Let’s hope that Mr. Berman is able to get the situation resolved and that all the questions about the allocation of funds can be cleared up shortly.

If you want to read more of the gory details click here.http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/fresh_scrutiny_claims_conference_allocations

JONATHAN POLLARD

I’m not sure that anybody in Germany knows about Jonathan Pollard – and there is no reason why you should. He is an American Jewish disgrace. Pollard was a U.S. civilian military intelligence analyst, who was arrested and convicted of spying for Israel and, in 1987, was sentenced to life in prison. He is still there.

The Israeli government claimed that he was not sanctioned by the government but was spying for a “lone wolf” operation and did not have any officially connection to the government. The entire story is long and involved and you can read the details by clicking here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

To many, it seemed that the punishment was too severe when compared to other such cases. For some years now there have been efforts both in the U.S. and

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Israel to have him released. In 1995 Pollard was granted Israeli citizenship and, if released, would probably move there permanently.

According to JTA, “A combination of timing, diplomatic considerations and, above all, good old-fashioned noodging has culminated in the biggest push in years to free Jonathan Pollard.

Insiders associated with the push, which resulted last week in a congressional letter to President Obama asking for clemency for the American Jew convicted in 1987 of spying for Israel, say the main factor was one man: David Nyer, an Orthodox activist from Monsey, N.Y.

Nyer, working under the auspices of the National Council of Young Israel and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, repeatedly called dozens of congressional offices and pressed Jewish groups asking for a leader to take on the case of Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst who has spent 25 years in prison as part of a life sentence -- the longest sentence for spying for an ally.

Launching the initiative at a Capitol Hill news conference Nov. 18, (Congressman Barney) Frank listed two factors that made the matter timely: Pollard's 25 years in prison as of Sunday and the parlous state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"The justification of this is the humanitarian one and the notion that the American justice system should be a fair one," Frank said. "We believe that clemency after 25 years for the offenses of Jonathan Pollard would do that.

"My own hope is that if the president would do this, it would contribute to the political climate within the democracy of Israel and would enhance the peace process."

Frank alluded to Obama's low popularity in Israel where, fairly or not, the president has been saddled with a reputation as cool to Israeli interests.

"There are clearly people in Israel who are concerned about the nature of the American-Israeli relationship," Frank said. "An affirmation of that relationship would go forward" to alleviating such concern.

I believe that the feeling about Pollard in the Jewish community is somewhat conflicted. Those that know about it and have followed it (not everyone has) understand that Pollard put the American Jewish community in a very embarrassing position. Any action that puts distance between the U.S. and Israel is seen as a danger. An admitted criminal (spying) act is even worse. However, almost 25 years has passed and a more sympathetic feeling has emerged. There is little doubt that the criminal justice system has treated him more harshly than,

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perhaps, he deserved and the time for a little compassion is somewhat overdue. After all, Pollard was not spying for any enemy and, today he is certainly no longer a threat to society or American security. Whether a plea for release should be mixed up with President Obama’s role in the Middle East peace process is germane to the case is questionable.

Most Presidential pardons or commutations are usually issued near the end of the year or at the end of a Presidential term. The latter is not due for quite a long time. So, we’ll just have to wait to see what Pres. Obama does by December 31st. Stay tuned!

HANUKKAH IN BERLIN & TOBY AXELROD

I was delighted to see that the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah in Berlin made quite a splash in the Anglo-Jewish media here in the U.S. The story by JTA correspondent Toby Axelrod (a friend and a wonderful journalist) noted, “It wasn’t just any menorah among the thousands that the Chabad-Lubavitch movement erects every Chanukah in public locations around the world. (Yehudah)Teichtal, the Chabad rabbi in the German capital, was erecting this one at the Brandenburg Gate, once a symbol of Nazi power.

By nightfall on the first night of Chanukah, the gate through which the Nazis marched and which for 28 years marked the dividing line between East and West Berlin had been transformed into a Jewish symbol.

In what was “the cold, dark center” of Nazi Germany, “we are here to say Am Yisrael Chai!’” -- the Jewish people live, said Teichtal, his voice booming across Unter den Linden Boulevard. A few hundred revelers answered in kind.

The message is clear: In Germany, the Jews live again.

More than 200,000 Jews are living now in Germany, the majority of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came after 1990.

“Twenty or 30 years ago, nobody would believe that this would happen here,” said Arkady Schwarz, deputy chair of Konigs Wusterhausen, a Jewish congregation in Brandenburg.

Being that Toby’s story is on the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) wire (sort of a Jewish dpa) it will appear in many local Jewish community newspapers throughout the U.S., Canada and Israel. Frankly, it is this sort of a story that does more to bring a clearer understanding of Germany to the American Jewish public than a dozen political stories.

Toby, the Germany correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and

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London Jewish Chronicle, was born in New York City in 1956.  From 1988 to 1997, she was a staff writer at the New York Jewish Week. She came to Germany in 1997 as a Fulbright scholar and stayed. She is also an author of books dealing with Germany. She also worked for a while at AJC Berlin.

In her own quiet way she is one of the most important “bridges” between American Jewry and Germany. People in Germany should get to know her better.

THREE CHEERS FOR PRESIDENT WULFF

There are symbolic acts that sometimes have greater impact than sweeping physical actions. One of these has to do with the Israeli Soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped and is being held by Hamas in Gaza as a bargaining for the release on many Palestinian prisoners (many of them terrorists) who are being held in Israel after legal convictions.

The Israelis and, indeed, Jews around the world have been lobbying for Shalit’s release and, indeed, Germany has been very helpful with a BND operative working as a go-between trying to make some sort of a deal.

The JTA recently reported, “German President Christian Wulff's unprecedented visit to the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit sends an important signal to the International Red Cross, Jewish activists in Germany said.

Peter Diedrich, head of the German branch of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, said he hoped Wulff's visit Monday in Jerusalem would boost his group's efforts to press for the soldier's release. The organization has a rally calling for Shalit's release from captivity in Gaza planned for Dec. 10 outside the offices of the German Red Cross.

The rally, to mark the 62nd anniversary of the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is part of an international effort coordinated by the Israel-based parent association of Jewish lawyers and jurists to draw attention to the case of Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006.

Shalit has not been permitted to receive any Red Cross visits in contravention of the international body's mandate to "visit prisoners of war and civilian internees to verify whether they are being treated according to relevant international standards."

During his meeting with the soldier's family, Wulff pressed for a Red Cross visit to the soldier and for his release. The German president's visit included meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

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Wulff is the first head of a state to visit the family and address the issue of the Red Cross, Diedrich told JTA in a telephone interview from his Berlin office. The presidential visit underscored that this "is just a human rights issue, and everyone has not only the right but also the duty to go for it."

When the German President visits the family of a kidnap victim, in my opinion, there is more to it than just a message to the Red Cross. It is a moral message and puts the Federal Republic behind it. Joseph Stalin is famously said to have asked an adviser, dismissively, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” The answer, of course, should have been, “How many does he need?” Pres. Wulff has no divisions either but he is the moral voice of Germany and that says a lot more than having a massive army.

So, three cheers for Pres. Wulff.

P.S. We don’t forget our friends.

That’s it for 2010

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Happy New Year! See you in January

DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by clicking here.

Both the American and Germany editions are posted at www. dubowdigest.typepad.com. Click her to connect

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