The General Assembly

NIF Blog
November 21, 2006
By LARRY GARBER

Last week, several NIF colleagues and I joined thousands at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities, which was held this year in Los Angeles. Given developments of the past summer, the agenda was adjusted to make Israel the focus of attention. Six Israeli cabinet ministers participated in the meetings, including Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni.

The major soundbites emerging from the meeting were the stark warnings regarding a potentially nuclear Iran. Former Prime Minister Netanyahu was the most dramatic in his presentation of the issue, comparing the current situation to Europe circa 1938, but messages of alarm and encouragement of international community action were delivered by all the visiting Israeli officials. The implication was that, if the international community did not act resolutely concerning this matter, Israel would take unilateral steps to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Jewish Agency Chair Zeev Bielski caused a minor controversy by seemingly dismissing the future of American Jewry because of increased intermarriage and assimilation tendencies. Bielski´s comments, even if impolitic, reflect a much needed stimulus to a discussion among Israeli and Diaspora Jewish leaders regarding the maintenance of an Israeli-Diaspora connection in a period of globalization and growing disaffection toward organized religion both in Israel and the Diaspora.

In my view, a public discussion on how to maintain and strengthen the connection is healthy, even if we do not know the precise outcome of the discourse or its ultimate impact on either Israel or the Diaspora Jewish communities.

Last, I want to note an important development at this General Assembly. Two years ago, when I attended a GA for the first time, there was an informal meeting convened at an early morning hour in the American Joint Distribution Committee´s suite, out of which grew the formation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli-Arabs. This year, the Task Force hosted a lunch session, which featured Israeli Minister of Education Tamir, Jewish Agency chair Bielski and AJDC Executive Director Steve Schwager, and the GA organizers scheduled two panels that focused on Israel´s Arab minority. Perhaps most significant, the GA adopted a resolution "to foster the development of all of Israel´s citizens, including Israeli Arabs.’

This week, the world marks two important days in the human rights calendar -- Universal Children´s Day (November 20) and International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25). NIF News focuses on these topics and reports on some of the ways in which the NIF family seeks to promote the rights of Israel´s children and abused women. We also describe an important new series launched last week by SHATIL in conjunction with the Van Leer Institute concerning "Eleven Disputes in Economics.’