A Statement Regarding JStreetU

Last month, the Berkeley chapter of JSTreetU failed to gain entrance to the Jewish Student Union. At the meeting, Tikvah argued that JStreetU’s actions have not substantiated their claims of being both pro-Israel and pro-peace. As a committed pro-Israel organization, the Jewish Student Union has the responsibility to ensure that those claiming to represent our community support the Jewish State. Because JStreetU has a history of acting outside of these goals, the organization fell far short of the votes needed to gain the JSU’s support.

A number of recent opinion articles have accused Tikvah of having disproportionate control in the JSU. Tikvah, however, is allotted one vote. That means nine other student leaders, JSU officers, and member student groups were opposed to JStreet's inclusion. Members of organizations as diverse as the Jewish fraternity and the group for Jews in engineering spoke against JStreet. Instead of acknowledging that their actions are not acceptable for the Jewish students on this campus, JStreetU leaders have attempted to paint themselves the victim.

It wasn’t lost on the many students who oppose JStreet that the JSU already has an organization that claims to be a progressive Israel group. Leaders of that organization, Kesher Enoshi, have used their position as a “progressive” voice in the Jewish community to speak in favor of divestment and to organize campus-wide events demonizing Israel. Now, the leaders of that very same organization are requesting that yet another group they lead--one that exists primarily for the purpose of criticizing Israel--be included as part of the pro-Israel umbrella Jewish organization on campus.

As an organization, JStreetU can be judged only by its actions. In its short existence here at Berkeley, those actions include sponsoring speakers such as Assaf Sharon who referred to Israel’s capital as “a symbol of violence.” Nationally, JStreet continues to be “pro-Israel” solely through being critical of Israel. The organization is rarely able to say something positive about the Jewish State while refusing to put any of the onus for the conflict’s perpetuation on Palestinian leadership. Until JStreetU shows us something different, until their support for Israel extends beyond pressuring its leaders to take actions they believe are against its interests, JStreetU cannot be counted as part of a pro-Israel student organization.

But I hope I’m proven wrong about JStreetU here on campus. I hope they serve to be more than an another arm of Kesher Enoshi’s thinly veiled Israel bashing. I hope they live up to their tag-line and take steps that are honestly in support of the Jewish, democratic state. On that day, I’ll save them a seat in the Jewish Student Union.

A Moment of Silence

Last Thursday, Palestinian terrorists targeted and killed innocent Israeli civilians in cold blood in a series of attacks in southern Israel. Since then, Palestinian terror groups in Gaza have fired over one hundred and fifty rockets and mortars into Israel, killing and injuring civilians, and sending one million Israelis fleeing to bomb shelters.

The Israel Air Force responded in self defense, killing leaders and members of the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip which orchestrated Thursday's attack, as well as striking weapons production facilities.

Tikvah: Students for Israel mourns for the victims of the attacks, stands in solidarity with the Israeli people in their time of distress, and salutes the Israel Defense Forces for protecting the homeland of the Jewish people.

Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut 5771/2011

Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. Sixty-three years ago, the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine declared the establishment of a Jewish state, the State of Israel. After two thousand years of exile, the Jewish people were once again sovereign in their own homeland.

The Zionist dream was far from achieved, however. The fledgling Israel still had monumental tasks ahead of it: to build up the state, to absorb immigrants from all over the world, to revive the Jewish people after two thirds of their numbers and the majority of their communities in Europe had been destroyed in the Shoah, and to restore the Jewish nation to an ethos and consciousness of sovereignty.

These goals would have to wait, however, because immediately after declaring independence, Israel was invaded by armies from seven Arab countries, and was forced to fight for its very existence.

Sixty-three years later, Israel has much to be proud of. It has become the center of world Jewry and risen to the top of the ranks among the nations in all measures of political, economic, intellectual, cultural, and social achievements. It has established a sense of self-determination and security for the Jewish people, both in Israel and in the diaspora, which was only a dream the century before. And it has successfully defended itself from repeated Arab invasions as well as terrorist attacks against its civilians.

But on a day when we celebrate what we have accomplished, it is strikingly obvious what we have yet to achieve: peace and security. And not for lack of trying. Israel has been aggressively pursuing peace with its neighbors since 1948 when it announced in its Declaration of Statehood:

"WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land."

Unfortunately, even today, Israel still has to fear for its security. And Jews, because we so deeply desire peace, are often quick to believe that we ourselves have not done enough to achieve it. But the sad reality is, that no matter what we do, we will never have peace until our enemies accept the fact that the Jewish people is indigenous to the Land of Israel, that we have returned to our land and to our sovereignty, and that we are here to stay. There will be peace when our neighbors and the world accept peace on the terms we offered in 1948, peace "with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land."

Unfortunately, even today, the Palestinian Arabs are unwilling to accept this. The terrorist organization and governing body of the Gaza strip, Hamas, believes that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." It also believes that "there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." (Hamas Charter) And the Palestinian Authority has just signed a unity deal with Hamas, shattering the facade that it was moderate and dedicated to peace.

Yesterday was Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli day of remembrance for soldiers who have fallen and for victims of terrorist attacks. On this somber day, we reflect on the heavy cost that sixty-three years of war have taken from us: sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Every Israeli is aware of this cost, and wants to be free from it. But they understand that surrender is not an option. To surrender means the end of the Jewish state.

When the Zionist leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine called for the creation of a Jewish state and a Jewish army, they knew what the cost would be. The state was not given to the Jewish people on a silver platter, and it persists and thrives by our own sweat and blood. On this Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut, we should be proud of what we have accomplished, dedicated to continue the work, and cognizant that the price is worthwhile, because the martyrs of Israel have not died in vain.

Launch of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society

Last Wednesday, UC Berkeley saw the formal launch of the new Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society. The Institute is "an interdisciplinary initiative coordinated with a 15-member faculty advisory committee from units across campus, including law, economics, business, political science, history, sociology, and Jewish Studies."

The launch event, held in the Morrison library, was well attended by undergraduate and graduate students, members of the community, professors, and administrators.

The keynote address was given by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner. She spoke about the challenges of balancing national security with human rights in Israel. It is often difficult and costly in times of war to preserve the high standard of human rights that Israel does, and Dorner spoke about the role of the Court in that process, and some of the landmark decisions that were made in defense of human rights during her tenure.

There was a great deal of excitement and optimism at the event about the future of the young Institute. Chancellor Birgeneau said that "it will make a measurable contribution to scholarly inquiry and discourse across our campus."

Especially here at Berkeley, where there are so many voices of bias, propaganda, and hatred against Israel, it is meeting a certain and visible need. Professor Bamberger, faculty director of the Institute, commented, "We’re working to support broader discourse on campus around Jewish and Israel-related scholarship." Many hope that this Institute will provide a safe forum for the respectful and honest study of Israel, for the mutual benefit of the State of Israel and the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society
New Institute to Expand Jewish and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley

Itamar

[A poem written by Matt White, a member of Tikvah: Students for Israel. He read it last Wednesday at a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of the murders in Itamar.]

Blessings
and
thank you to Suheir Hammad for your words to inspire me
Sweet and acidic like a perfect grapefruit
like
a blood orange

Gentlemen, let us bless

“May it be your will, Hashem, our G-d,
that there be no distress, grief,
or lament
on this day
of our contentment”

Red rooftop white wall blind sunlight bright
soft skies in haze on Shomron
hilltops and pine groves dot this
village cautious advanced upon by shrubs and bushes
fennel, sage, thistle, za’atar
shimmy in a circle around Itamar
cactus soldiers in a wild common battalion
fragrant handful clutch soil realization belonging
Homeland herbs

Desert wind you carry the spices of Solomon
Desert sand you twirl and strangle
Desert veil you shroud a beloved
Desert eyes made now of glass

Shabbat queen
Shabbat mother Shabbat bride
Her garments torn on jujube thorn
Her gullet roars no sound to mourn
Dare break the silence day seven shorn
Children are dead no hero was born
Massacre you shalom ’aleikhem
Butcher you yedid nefesh
Shabbat woman
Cannot wail cannot tear her hair
Her sleep was robbed her bed invaded her joy drained of fluid her
Prayers jewels treasures nightmares
Sleep is robbed of Shabbat woman she cannot
Sleep again cannot give herself in
To rest cannot
Sleep no more
Crystal shrapnel on challah cover

How can she seek to give comfort
because Jew father
in bed with Zionist entity baby girl
Her purple tiny custom-made hoodie embraces his
blue jacket with white striped sleeves
trying to sleep
Because in her three months she
could but cry out that she
demanded to grow
can never say a first word because
slashed throats don’t speak
they only bleed
only bleed

Shabbat woman how can she seek to give comfort
mother is cut open on the bathroom floor
because she hid her hair in her tikhel for the world to not see
her grace
just as in Ramallah
a doppelganger hides her hair in her
hijab for the world to not see
her beauty
because sour iron ruby pool surrounds and soaks this crumpled kippah
because preteen boy child is slapped down on his back
with holes in his flesh
a criminal for being indigenous
did you know that a heart can boil

did you know that doves have dirty infected wings
that three year old has a knife enter his heart twice to stop it
that three year old neck must be racist
because it was designed white
that three year old neck was hacked apart
because
vocal cords already
know how to dare speak
“’am yisrael khai”

because it ain’t no disgusting accident
ain’t no human shield
ain’t no clear and present danger
ain’t no violent threat
ain’t no combatant in a war which has sides
ain’t no terrorist with bombs as a breastplate

Shabbat woman what power have you
against Gush Katif evacuation catastrophe
against orange groves being chopped down and used as space for
Hamas rocket launchers
against a retreat with hands held steady above our heads
that translated into metal rain for a decade in the life of southern Israel
that introduced civilians to the words Katyusha, Kassam, Grad
what power have you to weep
when refugees from ethnic cleansing
find themselves converted to corpses in the wilderness of Itamar

Shabbat woman please try to caress the face of
the survivor Yishai
because he’s two years old
and he has blood caked and spattered on his legs
and he screams for his parents to wake up
because he screams and cannot be quieted
try to caress his face
because his mother will never again be able to do just that

tell Tamar and Roi that there is no justification for terrorism
that their lives are a miracle
that were they found they would have been murdered too
one
two
eight
a family of Jews

Dalaal al-Mughrabi
hijacks a bus in the second week of March 1978 Israel
murders thirty seven
murders from them thirteen children
murders credibility to the Palestinian cause
and in the second week of March 2011 Israel
while Itamar weeps until salt claws at its eyelids
al-Bireh devotes
its largest town square
to Dalaal al-Mughrabi
to her name
to her memory
to her hate
and the children of the family Fogel
are stabbed in the heart again and again

Salam Fayyad
Mahmoud Abbas
you whisper in my ear that you want peace
you tell me on your government-controlled TV idiot box bullshit that you want peace
My peace has no knives
My peace has no shrouding of the map of Israel
My peace has no networks broadcasting glorifying a previous batch of Itamar murderers
My peace has no political party of my own design claiming responsibility for murder
My peace has no Fatah lies
My peace gauges no party as moderate just because the alternative is worse
My peace has no incitement to murder
My peace has no terrorists

To the people the world has sent into damnation such to be “settlers”
who CNN and Al-Jazeera would rather call “settlers” than human beings
who Western media can’t see as innocent victims in their homeland but rather the fact that they had it coming to them
that this was an “alleged” terror attack

People who stand in defiance to a world that no longer cares about slaughtered Jews

I dare you to live

And I shriek out to the lone few of you who
pour tar and kerosene and feces on peace negotiations
and you’re craven enough to do it
in the name of Judaism and Israel and Zionism
I shriek out to you
My Judaism has no reprisal attacks
My Israel has no threatening the lives of innocent Palestinian townsfolk
My Zionism has no smashing car windshields
No invasion of property to throw stones in a third racist intifada
No demonstrations with signs saying “death to Arabs”
My Zionism burns with pride and kisses the cheek of the
Civilian in the neighboring town of Awarta
Who speaks in Arabic
and declares the injustice of killing babies

Give me your hand as I look into your eyes I don’t care what color they are because to me they are beautiful they are gorgeous because they and I thirst to be loved my Muslim Christian agnostic atheist Arab raceless brothers and sisters

Palestinian people I want to dance to the beat of your darbuka
I beg you to listen when I say
My peace has no pastries and candy passed out on the streets of Rafah
To celebrate an infant having the breath sliced out of her

Hamas of Gaza your candy tastes like Iranian warheads
Your candy tastes like shells and mortars
Your candy tastes like a crown of thorns
Your candy tastes like charred bones and howling blood
Your candy tastes like the murder of my people
And your residents tell me joy is a “natural response” to the murder of Israelis

I’m sick I’m so sick I want to vomit I surf on waves of nausea I
spill my words like Tishbi wine into internationally deaf ears I
can’t process my thoughts when the United Nations is controlled by maniacs I
feel so abandoned when evil tyranny anti-Semitism can thrive

I light my candle for Rabbi Udi
for Ruti
because they now have no tikhel no blue jacket with white striped sleeves
because they now are clothed in black and white tallitot
I
I light my candle for Yoav
for Elad
for baby Hadas
because there are three tiny coffins in Givat Shaul
that the world doesn’t give a fuck to see

I light my candle because nobody is going to do it for me

I don’t want no houses built in their honor
I don’t want martyrdom to be answered with human growth I don’t want martyrdom to be used for political purposes even if it makes us seem weak maybe we don’t always have to have muscles maybe the desiccated byproduct of a jihadist genocidal mentality can’t be in dialogue with concrete maybe I want their souls done tangible justice I’ve given up on humans for the time being I want to see olive trees and rotem flower bloom in their name I want to see pomegranates fresh fragrant in their memory I want to see lemon blossoms sticky with nectar in their love I want to see the children in Nablus and Jenin given books explaining with truth how we’re cousins in genes and phantasms all of us and how resplendent this friendship alone on our ship our ship bamidbar in the wilderness of our land isolated vessel how children have futures in medicine art healing for all the times they were told to strap magazines pregnant with bullets across their small frail chests and denied life to others and in so doing were abused denied dreams themselves because knife tangible knife silver blade cutting throats equals knife invisible indoctrination hungry devouring brains intellect hope future washed away in milk in chalk in plasma screen violets scream in suicide

I hold gingerly between fingers limp a natural growth
With a drop of blood
A white cyclamen
With a drop of blood
I’m scrubbing I’m scrubbing oh G-d they’re trying to make out of me
Lady Macbeth
I scrub and scrub until my hands fall off and I go insane

The dolls children left on the floor and did not tidy up
Are frozen with their beatific smiles
They cannot play without a partner

Shabbat queen
Shabbat mother Shabbat bride
Shabbat woman
close
your eyes
because next Shabbat
I want peace

Richard Goldstone Lecture at Berkeley

Last Thursday, Justice Richard Goldstone spoke on campus at an event entitled “International Law and Human Rights: The Search for Justice,” sponsored by the Institute for International Studies. Two points Goldstone made—that Israel is not Apartheid and the sanctions do not work—stood out. Goldstone’s report was the lynchpin of the argument in support of divestment at UC Berkeley last semester. Integral to the argument for divestment was that it is either untrue or irrelevant that a double standard is being applied to Israel, and that divestment had the possibility to put pressure on Israel.

Goldstone claimed that sanctions are not effective and it seems impossible that divestment could make a difference either. Goldstone also admitted that a double standard is applied to Israel. He defends his report with the following metaphor. To him, the situation is analogous to a city where 14 murders are committed in one day; however, the police department is only able to prosecute three of the murders. Goldstone asks, shouldn’t the police still complete their investigations even if not every murderer can be brought to justice? The analogy has a major flaw, the same flaw in every argument supporting singling out the Jewish State. In Goldstone's city, what if the suspects in three of the murders are Jewish, and the other eleven from different ethnic groups. Wouldn’t there be something wrong if only the murders where Jews were suspected are investigated and prosecuted while the other eleven are ignored?

While there is much criticism of the methods and assumptions Goldstone made to complete his report, Goldstone still makes it clear that Israel is not Apartheid and does not speak of the nation as pariah in the same way as those who have embraced his report. Even more appalling than the shoddy investigative methods Goldstone used is his continued tacit-approval of people using his report to support claims that he does not make, like the claim that Israel is an Apartheid State. Furthermore, his lecture made it clear that the divestment movement is happy to pick and choose whom they find credible based on what is being said. To them, Goldstone is credible when he says Israel commits war crimes, but despite what he said on Thursday, Israel Apartheid week is sure to be held this year.

Delegitimization of Israel: the New Antisemitism

Yesterday evening, David Olesker spoke to us about delegitimization of Israel. He introduced Natan Sharansky's 3-D heuristic for assessing when anti-Israel arguments become anti-Semitic. Legitimate criticism of Israel is fine, but it crosses a line if it holds Israel to double standards, demonizes Israel, or delegitimizes the Jewish state.

Like every country, Israel has political, social, and economic issues which its citizens struggle with. They debate the wisdom and morality of actions taken by the government. But no matter what that Israel does, it does not undermine the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland.

Here in Berkeley, we frequently hear arguments which deny the historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to a sovereign state, deliberately take facts about Israel out of context to make Israelis out to be monsters, or hold Israel to a different standard than any other country. And all too often, they are defended in the name of dialogue. These arguments are bigoted and fail the 3-D test. Tikvah strives to educate the campus community that this type of discourse about Israel is not acceptable criticism, it is antisemitism.

Bigotry, racism, and discrimination against Jewish students at Rutgers

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but our Jewish friends at Rutgers are once again the victims of antisemitic hatred. BAKA: Students United for Middle Eastern Justice, an anti-Israel group at Rutgers with a history of using hateful tactics to defame Israel and intimidate Jewish students, has shocked us again.

On January 29th, Jewish students came out to protest an antisemitic BAKA event "comparing Israelis to Nazis" called "Never Again for Anyone." Aaron Marcus, one of the organizers of the protest, said "We came out because the mere accusation that Israeli acts of self-defense are in the smallest amount comparable to the systematic genocide of more than 11 million people is deplorable."

To make matters worse, the Jewish students who were speaking out against the hateful rhetoric were harassed and intimidated. An admission charge to the event was unequally applied to the Jewish students, while the event organizers set out to "pompously and racially find anyone looking like an anti-Israel supporter and give them green wristbands, telling the Jews huddled together that they were event staff and security."

After publishing a column in the school newspaper, the Daily Targum, expressing his disgust with the hateful BAKA event, Marcus himself was threatened on facebook by a fellow student, who posted the status: "As I was reading the Aaron Marcus column this morning I realized how Im a pretty angry person. Id be happy to see him beat with a crowbar. Violence doesnt solve problems but it shuts up people who shouldnt speak". The post was 'liked' by at least seven others, including one who commented: "Or makes them martyrs, furthering the strength behind their beliefs. And skinning them alive so they see the afterlife."

This incident is another disturbing reminder of the growing antisemitism on American college campuses. Anyone who claims that the Jewish people do not have a right to self-determination and self-defense in their historic homeland is applying a bigoted double standard to the Jews. While publicly calling oneself an antisemite has fallen out of fashion, hatred of Jews is back, this time masquerading as anti-Zionism.

Jewish students at UC Berkeley have witnessed similar hateful anti-Israel rhetoric, as well as harassment and intimidation. Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist voice on campus, is a student group which speaks out against the defamation of Israel and stands up for Jewish students.

In solidarity with our colleagues at Rutgers,

Brian Maissy
Co-president
Tikvah: Students for Israel

BAKA must end hateful tactics, Daily Targum
Admission changes cause controversy, Daily Targum

Website renovated

Hey everyone, I just finished doing some renovations on our website, tikvahsfi.berkeley.edu. Additionally, we have a new facebook page. Please head on over there and "like" it to stay connected!