Netanya Regional Committee

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January 2009 - The Netanya Telfed function - First Inaugural Lecture with Prof Asher Susser was very well attended by over 100 people!  Ruth Omsky reports that the lecture was "brilliant" covering a wide range of issues under the title "Riots in Acre & Rockets from Gaza - Israel & the Palestinians'.   Prof Susser brought the lecture up to date to include Operation Cast Lead and gave the audience food for thought - in a very positive way. Most interesting was the comparison between his "files" of 1948 and 1967.

 
All in all a successful function - attended by the Director of the South African Zionist Federation Sid Shapiro and his wife DR Michelle Shapiro; Chairman of Telfed - Maish Isaacson - who conducted the ratification of the newly formed Netanya Committee with Cecil Shevil as Chairman.

To see pictures scroll to the bottom of this page.

Here is brief summary of Prof Susser's talk :

The riots in Acre on last Yom Kippur, spontaneous and surprising, were a reflection of deep-seated and longstanding grievances that the Arab minority in Israel has towards the State. These have no direct connection to Hamas's rise to a position of preeminence in Palestinian politics and to the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Two ostensibly unrelated historical processes are at work here. But as they unfold, a critical overlap between them is being forged, and Israel's leaders would be wise to pay attention and think creatively about their response.

                     The victories of Hamas in Palestinian politics were not an accidental flash in the pan, and were not, as is often said, just a function of Fatah mismanagement and corruption. Rather the rise of Hamas is indicative of the historical decline of secular Palestinian nationalism and of the institutions that have represented it in the last half century -- the PLO, Fatah and, after Oslo, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Gaza. The establishment of the PA and its elected institutions after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 was a historical turning point in the annals of the Arab—Israeli conflict. As opposed to the PLO, which represented all Palestinians everywhere, the PA represented only the people of the West Bank and Gaza. Oslo thus potentially signified the confinement of the Palestinian issue to the West Bank and Gaza and to the so-called 1967 questions, rolling back the Israeli occupation and redrawing the borders within the theoretical framework of a two-state solution.

                   Hamas, however, rejects Oslo. For Hamas, the rising Palestinian power, the 1967 questions have never been the core of its historical grievance against Israel. It actively seeks to reverse the Oslo process and refocus the political spotlight on the Palestinian Diaspora and refugee return as priorities that precede the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. For Hamas, the historical clock must be turned back to1948, with the focus on reversing the results of Israel's War of Independence.

                   The Palestinian Arab intelligentsia in Israel never liked Oslo either. After all, Oslo changed nothing for them, just as it changed little for the refugees in Gaza and in the Diaspora. Moreover, ever since Oslo, the rejection of Israel as the state of the Jewish people has become more pronounced among the Arabs of Israel, and their call for the transformation of Israel into a "state of all its citizens" is merely a tactical ruse. Israel is the state of all its citizens and the slogan is a euphemism for the abolition of its Jewish character, and a return to the pre-1948 reality. And here, in this refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, lies the common denominator between Acre and Gaza.

                   Thus, Hamas ideology and the political trends among the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel are leading inexorably to the prioritizing of the 1948 agenda over that of 1967; that is, focusing on refugee return to and the plight of the Arab minority in Israel-proper, rather than on the post-1967occupation. It is imperative for Israel to seek a way out of this morass and reestablish the primacy of the 1967 issues and the two-state solution. This may require some hard new thinking, and coming to terms with a harsh reality in a way that ultimately protects Israel’s long-term interests as the state of the Jewish people.

Picture below shows Prof Asher Susser addressing the audience.

From L-R Telfed Staffer Dorron Kline, Telfed Exco Member Annette Milliner, Prof Asher Susser, Telfed Director Sid Shapiro, Telfed Chairman Maish Isaacson and Cecil Shevil

Picture below shows Ruth Omsky, Telfed Chairman Maish Isaacson and the new Regional

Chairman Cecil Shevil