New right-leaning group aims to spur Anglos to civic action

A group of prominent Anglos affiliated with the political right are launching a new grassroots organization this week to increase Anglo participation in Israeli public affairs. The founders of "Hadar - Israel Council for Civic Action" say they want to focus on publishing educational material and holding conferences about current policy issues and the local governmental system. They say they also plan to arrange "meetings with national leaders to advance policies and legislation which reflect the values and concerns of Anglos in Israel."

Director Shalom Helman said this week that with the board in formation the group has yet to determine its exact agenda. "We will have to meet a few times and discuss, but there are some issues we all agree upon, like strong Zionism and a secure Israel," Helman said. Likely issues of concern include reforming Israel's electoral system and the way the country copes with crime, he added.

Native English speakers are "a highly educated and skilled population with a passionate concern about public issues," and by encouraging them to participate in public discourse "Hadar will leverage this tremendous resource for the benefit of Israel," the group said in a statement.

Although Helman, who is also the national director of Likud Anglos, speaks of Hadar as a "broad sweep of people," the members of its founding board almost exclusively belong to the right spectrum of the political landscape.

They include several people affiliated with Likud, such as former ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold, former IDF deputy chief of staff Uzi Dayan, Benjamin Netanyahu's former advisor on Diaspora affairs Bobby Brown and Yechiel Leiter, the U.S.-born former chief of staff of the finance ministry. Other prominent Anglos on Hadar's board are Daniel Gordis, the senior vice president of the Shalem Center, businessman Sherwin Pomerantz and Toronto native Danny Hershtal, who last year ran on Yisrael Beiteinu's Knesset list.

"Because we Anglos are Zionist and made aliyah by choice, most of us tend to the center and the right of the spectrum, and this group will probably reflect that," Helman said. He added, however, that his group aims to be "non-political."

The organization's name refers to a concept by Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Helman, a native New Yorker, explained. "Hadar stands for pride, dignity and fair play, concepts that really speak to the English speaking population."

Hadar will be launched next Wednesday in Jerusalem at a panel discussion about whether the U.N. would today still vote for Israel's creation. The panelists include Dore Gold, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, former Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Alan Baker, a former Ambassador to Canada.

"There was some discussion about bringing in someone from the left but before you open up the discussion broadly to every point of view, we want to first have a conversation in our own house," Helman said.