July 17/2015

The World Just Became Way More Dangerous

This week the world became a much more dangerous place, as world powers signed a nuclear deal with Iran that practically paves Iran’s way to becoming a military nuclear power.

The intent of a nuclear agreement with Iran was meant to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and maintain cohesive international pressure until it became certain that Iran will never develop a military nuclear capability.

The agreement announced this week does the exact opposite. The new agreement effectively dismantles the sanctions regime against Iran, which took years to put together, while leaving Iran’s existing nuclear infrastructure intact.

True. There are some temporary and limited restrictions on what Iran can do with that infrastructure for the duration of the agreement. If past behavior is any indicator of future behavior, Iran will ignore the temporary and limited restrictions. Iran previously ignored international limitations placed upon it in a series of Security Council resolutions, what makes the international community believe that Iran will honor its latest commitments?  

Even if Iran does honor the agreement, the stipulations of the agreement will reach their expiration date a mere 10 years from now, allowing Iran at that point to legitimately go ahead and spin centrifuges and reach nuclear capability. Given that Iran’s vast existing nuclear infrastructure will not be physically dismantled under the terms of the agreement intact, Iran is allowed to keep its nuclear capabilities resting on a shelf for future use. It would be like switching off a light switch, only to be able to turn it right back on at a more convenient time.  . Does the international community truly believe that Iran will not turn the switch back on when the agreement expires? That’s right – they will switch it all back on again and cruise leisurely towards a bomb.

In the meantime Iran will be rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars is sanctions relief. That money will likely flow to the Shiite militias in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian terror groups and a bunch of other bad actors in the region and across the globe whose sole business is to undermine regional and global stability by conducting terrorism.

I am sorry I am not a bearer of positive news this week, but the truth has to be said and it must be said clearly - the agreement signed with Iran this week is nothing short of a terrible historical mistake. If adopted, it is destined to equip Iran with a nuclear weapon, spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and place the entire world in great danger. 

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

July 10/2015

 One Year since Operation Protective Edge

Sixty Seven IDF soldiers and six civilians were killed last summer during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. They gave their lives for the State of Israel. The 67 soldiers who fell and left behind 131 bereaved parents, 11 widows, 36 orphans, 187 bereaved brothers and sisters and a total of over 350 grieving family members, whose wounded soles will never be healed and for whom the immense void created in their lives will never be filled.

This week Israel remembered and honored it’s fallen in a state ceremony held on Mount Herzel, commemorating one year to the operation protective Edge, which began a year ago on July 7th. It has been a year of pain and longing. In the words of Israel’s Prime Minister as he addressed the bereaved families “'I'm feeling great pain in my heart, but also great pride'. I know well that there is no end to your grief, but alongside this you have the knowledge that your sons' bravery saved many lives in Israel."

“This was a moral, legitimate and appropriate campaign of a sovereign country seeking to protect its civilian population. In the weeks prior to the campaign, Israeli towns and cities were subject to daily barrages of rockets from Gaza, assault tunnels were dug under kindergartens and public gathering venues, with the sole purpose of reeking death and destruction” said President Rivlin. 

The campaign in Gaza took Fifty days, during which most of Israel’s population was under attack. A year has passed, but for many the campaign has not ended. For those people, the end of the military operation was just the starting point of a no less challenging, hard, personal never ending battle. It is a battle they will have to fight for the rest of their lives; A daunting battle with no cease fires, and in which no medals are presented.

Unlike our enemies who sanctify death and are consumed with hatred, we sanctify life. Those killed in operation Protective Edge are a link in the chain of heroism of all those brave men and women who fought and gave their lives so that all of us can live proudly in our country, in Israel.  

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

July 02/2015

Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof

Many of you recognize this verse, from the book of Leviticus. It is inscribed on the Liberty Bell which, upon ringing proudly in Philadelphia in the year 1776, proclaimed the independence and liberty of this great nation. Sixty-seven years ago, on May 14, 1948, on a Saturday afternoon, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, proclaimed Israel’s independence, reciting Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which stipulates that, “…the State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel.”

It is by no mistake that those principles of freedom, liberty, justice and peace -inscribed on the Liberty Bell and stated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence - are the core fundamental values of both of our countries. It is not incidental that those fundamental values, articulated so clearly by our biblical prophets, form the bedrock of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States. With those shared values at the foundation of our special relations, it should come as no surprise that the United States was the first nation to recognize the State of Israel, merely 11 minutes after David Ben Gurion declared Israel’s independence, and it should come as no surprise that Israel and the United States are closest allies. After all, it is an alliance rooted in values founded in the book that binds us all together.

Nearly 150 years prior to the ringing of the Liberty Bell, William Bradford stepped off of the Mayflower in the year 1620, and quoted the words of Jeremiah: “Come let us declare in Zion the word of G-d.” How prophetically accurate he was.

Let us look back with pride at the miraculous birth of both of our nations. Let us uphold the values underscoring our democracies, dating back to biblical times and inscribed in our foundational documents. Let us rejoice in the modern revival of those values of freedom and liberty - as we celebrate the Independence Day of this great nation, the United States of America.  

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

June 26/2015

Bad Deal Arising

At the end of this month a highly concerning nuclear deal is expected to be signed with Iran.

Israel's position on Iran's nuclear program stems from a simple motivation: to prevent the most dangerous regime on earth from gaining access to the most dangerous weapon on earth. Over the years Iran has earned, fair and square, its reputation as the most brutal and aggressive regime out there. Should anyone need a reminder to some of Iran's action, it is amply provided in the US State Department’s recently published overview on global terrorism in which, Iran's aggressive conduct and support of terrorism in over 30 countries globally is highlighted and described in disturbing detail.

The only way to prevent Iran from continuing on its  path of aggression is to remove either the will or the way, preferably both, that motivates and enables it's destructive behavior.  

What the agreement does is the exact opposite. This deal empowers Iran's will to continue its aggressive path destabilizing the region and the world through its support of the most vicious terrorist organizations. As well as practically paving the way for Iran to eventually legitimately join the club of nuclear states. 

The reported agreement demands nearly nothing substantial from Iran with respect to its current nuclear program and infrastructure; it demands absolutely nothing of Iran with respect to its missile program which is being designed and developed with the sole purpose of carrying a future nuclear payload; and it demands nothing of Iran with respect to its current hostile behavior all over the world, which includes, but is not limited to overt calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. 

The emerging deal with Iran is a very bad one. It should not be signed.

Rather, the negotiating powers must stop and reset negotiations under a different set of terms and conditions.  One that will lead towards a good deal, ensuring Iran will never be able to develop a nuclear weapon. 

That must be the goal and outcome of negotiations. It is still not too late to get there. We should settle for nothing less. 

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

June 19/2015

The 2014 Gaza Report – a Testimony to Israel’s Democracy

This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was presented with a special report, “The 2014 Gaza Conflict: Factual and Legal Aspects,” prepared by top experts in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Justice, National Security Council and the IDF.

The purpose of this in-depth and extremely detailed 276-page report is to expose the truth of last summer’s events and how a democracy that is attacked, fights terrorism while adhering to the rules of international law.

Anybody who is interested in Israel’s actions last summer or has opined on them, either in words of praise or of criticism, should read this detailed report in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the reality at hand.

To me, this report, accessible to all, is important not only for its illuminating content, but for the values and principles that motivated Israel to exert the immense effort necessary to produce it.

A healthy democracy must constantly engage in self-examination of its actions. A healthy democracy should hold itself accountable to the highest possible standards. A healthy democracy should sanctify and uphold the values of human dignity. A healthy democracy should always strive to be transparent and honest.

I have yet to see any other country in the Middle East, or for that matter in the world, engage in such a meticulous exercise and produce such a detailed report of its own actions, and put it out there for the entire world to see.

This report is yet another compelling testimony to Israel being a strong, confident and vibrant democracy and it makes me extremely proud to be an Israeli. 

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

June 12/2015

Proud to be an Israeli

Nearly 200,000 people, including over 30,000 tourists from across the globe, have decorated the streets of Tel Aviv this Friday, along with thousands of rainbow flags, as they marched in the 17th annual Gay pride parade that culminated a weeklong of Pride week festivities in Israel. The Pride parade this year was the largest ever to have taken place in Israel, and it is the largest in the entire continent of Asia, and in the Middle East.

Tel Aviv is hailed as one of the most LGBT friendly cities on earth. In 2011 it was ranked by GayCities.com as the number one best LGBT tourist destination, surpassing New York, Madrid, London and Toronto. 

This is of course a source of great pride as it reflects the pluralistic nature of Israeli society as well as the values of democracy, tolerance and freedom of assembly that characterize Israel. To further illustrate the sensitivity in Israel towards same sex couples, the IDF this month issued a new policy that ensures that same sex couples with children will not have to simultaneously report for reserve duty at times when a national emergency might require mass recruitment. It is also, unfortunately, a sad reflection on the lack of those principles in most, if not all other countries in the Middle East. In some of those countries, like Iran, being gay is considered to be a crime punishable by death.

As Pride Week in Israel winds up this weekend, Pride weekend in Philadelphia commences. We at the Israeli Consulate in Philadelphia are proud to support and take active part in the celebration of the Philly Pride Parade and Festival.

Pride week in Israel and Pride weekend in Philadelphia illustrate our shared values as open, pluralistic and free societies. That makes me very proud to be an Israeli.

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

June 5/2015

Telling the Truth about Israel

This week, I was uplifted by special events, featuring two important Israeli organizations telling to the truth about Israel, as complex and imperfect as it may be.

On Wednesday, at the Green Valley Country Club a team of Philadelphia teens played a special exhibition match with teens from the Israel Tennis Association (ITC) (ww.israeltenniscenters.org).  The ITC is a social service organization that brings together thousands of Israeli Jews, Arabs, Bedouins and Druze to promote understanding, cooperation and friendship on and off the court. ITC’s goal is to develop future generations of leadership in Israel by providing children with life skills through tennis. In addition to playing tennis, five of ITC’s young adults, from across Israel, told their inspiring stories about life in Israel.

The following night audiences at two synagogues in Greater Philadelphia were witnesses to powerful and moving testimonies given by a self-declared religious Zionist “settler” and a Palestinian peace activist.  Ali Abu Awwad & Rav Hanan Schlesinger decided to move past each side’s preconceptions of each other and work together to find a pathway to peace. The presentation of those two competing narratives didn’t attempt to hide the differences, but rather jointly search for common ground, realizing this is the only way to move forward.

Their tour stop here in Philadelphia was under the auspices of Friends of Roots (www.friendsofroots.net)    (Judur/Shorashim) a grass-roots organization centered in Gush Etzion drawing together self-declared religious Zionist “settlers” and Palestinians to find pathways to peace. For example, Roots staff have met both with a 10-12 grade in an Arab school East Jerusalem and students at Yeshivat Mekor Chayim – from the very class from which two of the students who were kidnapped and murdered last June came. The questions were hard, the emotions real and the future nurtured.

It is moments such as these, that the hard questions, the challenges tackled and the true emotions of the State of Israel are revealed.

Sadly, these voices are not listened to around the global. Along with the disheartening calls from to divest from Israel, there appears to be a special standard created for Israel – there is one for a Democracy, another for a dictatorship and another for Israel. In the midst of this struggle, I drew great encouragement from those displays of the truth.

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region