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Olmert at Jewish conference: Not all Jews want to make aliyah
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that while he believed in his "mind and heart that aliyah is the ultimate answer," he recognizes that not every Jew aspires to live in Israel.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Tuesday at a conference on the future of the Jewish people, Olmert called on Jewish leaders to find a way to help Israel build a Jewish identity that would make the state a more meaningful and hopeful place.

The conference, which was attended by researchers, heads of Jewish organizations and senior Israeli politicians, was organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute.
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The trend toward delegitimizing Israel's existence as a Jewish state is growing not only in Europe, but also in the United States, according to Jewish-American academics and community leaders.

Anti-Israel attacks are even beginning to affect Jewish supporters of Israel, who have been accused of trying to silence public debate, they said.

This trend toward delegitimization was one of the topics discussed at a conference on the future of the Jewish people that opens in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.

Avinoam Bar-Yosef, JPPPI's director general, said that anti-Israel attacks in the U.S. constitute a "long-term threat" to Israel's standing, American Jewish organizations and the pro-Israel lobby.

"Public attention is currently focused on Europe, due to initiatives like the British academic boycott," he said. "In the U.S., the problem is still under the radar. But as a planning institute, we believe that it is necessary to formulate policy on this issue now."

Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz told Haaretz that American academics are at the forefront of those denying Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

Veteran advocates of this position, such as Tony Judt and Noam Chomsky, were joined last year by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, both from reputable academic institutions, who charged that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) dictates American foreign policy.

Their article, which generated shock waves, is being turned into a book, which is slated to be published in September. The fact that a respected publisher paid Walt and Mearsheimer an advance that is thought to have totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars attests to how hot the publisher thinks this issue is, Reinharz said.

"My feeling and that of many people following Walt and Mearsheimer and other publications is that we are at the start of a new era with regard to attitudes toward Israel in the U.S.," he added.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, believes that Jimmy Carter's book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which was published last November, had a much greater impact than did other publications.

"In the past, people who said that Jewish supporters of Israel control the media and politics belonged to the margins," he said. "But after former president Carter said it, it gained legitimacy in the mainstream.

Today, the debate is already on questions such as to what extent the Jews dominate."

Foxman said that Jews who challenge anti-Israel attacks find themselves accused of undermining freedom of expression.

"I received letters from professors who claimed that when I accuse someone of anti-Semitism, I am trying to silence public debate," he said. "When the president of Harvard University said that the delegitimization of Israel helps anti-Semites, he was accused of silencing public debate.

No one would have dared accuse him of this had he been talking about racism or xenophobia."

Reinharz said that he is worried by the lack of effective response to anti-Israel publications.

"I see no combined effort to fight this by the Jewish organizations, and in truth, I myself don't know how this could be done," he said
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  1.   More books are needed to get rid of the occupation 02:53  |  Tamir Gaza 10/07/07
  2.   Jewish leaders 03:09  |  L. Gomberoff 10/07/07
  3.   delegitimizing israel 03:09  |  Connie 10/07/07
  4.   delegitimizing Israel 03:11  |  Mark Katzman 10/07/07
  5.   HAARETZ` ROLE 03:13  |  Brant 10/07/07
  6.   Inheritors 03:14  |  ATLAS 10/07/07
  7.   More books are needed to get rid of Israel 03:14  |  Philo-Semite 10/07/07
  8.   Delegitimizing Israel 03:18  |  Garry 10/07/07
  9.   A country which is runned by... 03:23  |  Dutch Dirk 10/07/07
  10.   deligitimizing Israel 03:28  |  J. 10/07/07
  11.   Brank.L.Gomberoff and MarkK. 03:28  |  Connie 10/07/07
  12.   Chomsky does NOT agree that "The Lobby" runs US foreign policy 03:31  |  Richter 10/07/07
  13.   delegitimizing Israel 03:33  |  Nechama 10/07/07
  14.   Hitler is winning, and Jews are leading the way 03:40  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/07/07
  15.   I wonder whether this august gathering will discuss the hounding 03:40  |  lakshmi 10/07/07
  16.   Other Books Needed to End the Occupation... 03:42  |  Tom 10/07/07
  17.   One Democratic State 03:44  |  Marlene 10/07/07
  18.   They first must be named 03:49  |  stork 10/07/07
  19.   Tamit Gaza: Chamge your mantra to "PEACE - NOT QASSAMS" 03:52  |  Vittorio 10/07/07
  20.   This is ridicilous 03:57  |  A friend 10/07/07
  21.   Don`t Make A Mountain Out Of A Molehill 03:57  |  Yosemite 10/07/07
  22.   Jewish leaders concerned by trend to delegitimize Israel 04:03  |  John drayton 10/07/07
  23.   What about antisemitism if there was no Israel State 04:04  |  Joseph E . 10/07/07
  24.   Dutch Dirk 04:11  |  Garry 10/07/07
  25.   No Right to Exist 04:15  |  Lev 10/07/07
  26.   Paranoid delusions 04:15  |  Mark Lincoln 10/07/07
  27.   And yet, Vitorrio, there has been no 04:16  |  Che 10/07/07
  28.   I always worry when folks try to lead a charge 04:17  |  Mark Lincoln 10/07/07
  29.   #12, Richter 04:29  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/07/07
  30.   failed analysis of the left a danger to progressives 04:29  |  Paul 10/07/07
  31.   chomsky, carter, judt delegitimize israel? 04:31  |  uri 10/07/07
  32.   LAKSHIMI.Will your august body discuss Islamic terror India ME 04:33  |  PETER SM 10/07/07
  33.   about time 04:33  |  Jeff 10/07/07
  34.   So what else is new? 04:35  |  JW 10/07/07
  35.   Marlene, there is a democratic state Jewish Israel 04:42  |  Steve 10/07/07
  36.   S`matter Dutch to many Muslims in amsterdam most of the folks u 04:49  |  Steve 10/07/07
  37.   legitimacy 04:50  |  curious 10/07/07
  38.   the urge to attack Philo-Semites moved to the same medium 04:52  |  Jack 10/07/07
  39.   JEFF #29 04:53  |  JOJO 10/07/07
  40.   We are still over whelmingly ahead in the USA, what Jimmy , Walt 04:57  |  Steve 10/07/07
  41.   Delegitimize Israel 04:58  |  Adrian de Klerk 10/07/07
  42.   Long Term Consequences 04:58  |  Double Click 10/07/07
  43.   Democratic state 05:03  |  Jeric0 10/07/07
  44.   32Peter SM we are not as obsessed with the problem of islamic 05:05  |  lakshmi 10/07/07
  45.   We can help in the diaspora 05:06  |  Rodo 10/07/07
  46.   14 Cipora and you the champion of free speech,democracy,rights, 05:10  |  lakshmi 10/07/07
  47.   DELITIMIZATION I 05:10  |  JOJO 10/07/07
  48.   12Richter,I have the highest regard for Noam Chomsky,he is one of 05:15  |  lakshmi 10/07/07
  49.   DELITIMIZATION II 05:23  |  JOJO 10/07/07
  50.   delegitimize Israel 05:23  |  Shmuelshachor 10/07/07
  51.   Wierd 05:26  |  Guy From NYC 10/07/07
  52.   LAKSHIMI.You are obviously NOT dealing with ongoing worldwide 05:30  |  PETER SM 10/07/07
  53.   To #9 the dutch "dirk" 05:32  |  Shmuelshachor 10/07/07
  54.   Dutch Dirk 05:35  |  Jon 10/07/07
  55.   Over sixty years since the mass murder of Jews in Europe, the 05:38  |  Avihu 10/07/07
  56.   Israel does not have a right to exist 05:44  |  In ur 10/07/07
  57.   Occupation is bad for Israel 05:47  |  Atoo 10/07/07
  58.   The trend to delegitimize Israel 05:48  |  Hannah 10/07/07
  59.   deligitimize Israel counter attack 05:48  |  jed nightingale 10/07/07
  60.   #22 john draydon: true hero is Sadat - sadly missed 05:52  |  topanga 10/07/07
  61.   guy from NY, more religous freedom in israel than muslim nations 06:02  |  topanaga 10/07/07
  62.   the fact is that AIPAC is the second strongest political 06:04  |  Jack 10/07/07
  63.   surprise!!! Isreal is illegitimate 06:08  |  Humanbeing 10/07/07
  64.   TERRORIST OR FREEDOM FIGHT LEGAL ILLEGAL RIGHT ??? 06:21  |  M. Segal 10/07/07
  65.   #46, "shut off free speech" 06:28  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/07/07
  66.   Carter, Chomsky, Judt didn`t originate "delegitimizing" Israel... 06:32  |  Dr. L. Brnd 10/07/07
  67.   Dutch Dirk from Amsterdam 06:36  |  jed nightingale 10/07/07
  68.   to Che: You ask "Why is that?" Ask your thief Arafat and his Suha 06:36  |  Vittorio 10/07/07
  69.   #59 - CounterAttack 06:37  |  Double Click 10/07/07
  70.   Worthy material for an updated Roadrunner cartoon 06:48  |  Hannah 10/07/07
  71.   POST #58 WAS NOT POSTED BY HANNAH 06:50  |  Hannah 10/07/07
  72.   52Peter SM, the many sources at the time all mentioned AD as a 06:50  |  lakshmi 10/07/07
  73.   THE PERFECT STATE OF ISRAEL 06:54  |  indrajaya 10/07/07
  74.   Arabs are bullies 06:58  |  Micha 10/07/07
  75.   I REMEMBER THEM 06:59  |  indrajaya 10/07/07
  76.   #71, Hannah 07:06  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/07/07
  77.   #60 topango 07:13  |  Lynn 10/07/07
  78.   Easy way to fix this: Nuke Iran! 07:14  |  Ethan 10/07/07
  79.   The charade will Implode one day 07:15  |  Rachel C. 10/07/07
  80.   Hannah the bigot 07:16  |  Connie 10/07/07
  81.   singling out Israel. Why? 07:26  |