Israel | Film@11

A Very Hikind Holiday

Posted on 26. Dec, 2009 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror

New York is facing a 3 billion dollar budget deficit, second only to California. But in the middle of the legislative session at the end of November, longtime Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind led a group of American Jews to Israel to check out real estate in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We headed up to Assemblyman Hikind’s district of Borough Park to find out how the trip went – and his favorite Christmas song.

http://www.vimeo.com/8389131

Settling In For The Long Haul

Posted on 24. Aug, 2009 by admin in War on Terror

Despite calls from the Obama administration and other members of the international community, Israeli settlers continue to occupy parts of the West Bank, in violation of the Geneva Convention and Israeli law. For the Palestinians, this means continual harassment, pressure, and intimidation as settlers attempt to force them from their homes. And the ongoing power struggle within the Palestinian government isn’t helping things, either.

To the apparent consternation of the Israeli government, the issue of the settlements has been brought front and center, and it’s not something that will be settled soon, nor easily. Episode 4 of “Political Graffiti” examines the problem from the ground level.

Haven't We Played This Record Before?

Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by michelemitchell in War on Terror

Admittedly, it doesn’t help when you have a president citing Gog and Magog as swell reasons to go to war. Countries like, oh, say, Israel, might be forgiven for being confused now, after eight years of ears open to Biblical reasoning to public policy, that the same arguments aren’t working on the Obama administration.

So if you can’t count on good old fashioned American biblical rhetoric, maybe you can count on good old fashioned American short-term memory! We’re famous for it.

Today’s Haaretz has the interior minister touring the E-1 corridor in Jerusalem and saying “he hoped Israel would succeed in convincing the U.S. to approve construction.” The minister goes on to note that the “the new [U.S.] administration is different from the last,” and that the Bush administration had “made clear comments” regarding its acceptance (italics, ours) of construction in that area.

Sigh. We are hoping that our upcoming episode of “Political Graffiti” will be our Last Story About Israel Ever, but then there are moments like these, when we have information. So in our Second to Last Story About Israel Ever:

In addition to the on-record testimony we have from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the E-1 corridor–”“We have told the Israelis in no uncertain terms that [settlement in the E1 area] would contravene American policy”–we have from a US source involved in the negotiations that “the issue Rice got the most incensed over was the development of the E-1 zone. The US said time and time again: you do not start E-1.”

Now, whether or not Israel presses forward and starts construction is one thing. But the ruse that this was a project ever approved by any US administration (Elliot Abrams does not count as an “administration”) is just that–another ruse.

"Don't do it! Doooon't...do...it!"

Settle Down, Settlers

Posted on 06. Aug, 2009 by michelemitchell in War on Terror

Ah, the settlements. We’re not sure how that particular word got chosen for massive housing tracts that more closely resemble Southern California suburbs (if those suburbs were, say, plunked down on land that technically belonged to someone else), but still, homes inhabited by Israelis that are built in the West Bank are referred to by a term usually used to denote pioneers, like Laura Ingalls Wilder or Davey Crockett.

President Obama, following the Mitchell Plan of 2001 (which identified settlements as a flashpoint and advised an immediate freeze), has now drawn the ire of Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defemation League–the ADL coughed up money for a full-page ad in the New York Times to say so. The takeaway is this: “the problem isn’t settlements, it’s Arab rejection.”

J Street, having none of it, published an open letter on August 4, retorting, “The problem isn’t just settlements, nor Arab rejection. And a lasting resolution to this decades old conflict – a goal which I know you and your organization supports – isn’t advanced by pointing fingers at either side.”

And the ADL fired back with it’s own open letter, to J Street, criticizing the “exaggerated emphasis on the settlement issue.”

J Street’s Isaac Luria sat down with us to discuss the settlements earlier this year.