metro

An Ace
Reporter
Looks
At Israel

Natasha

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Mozgovaya

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the symptoms.

David Sachs

Senior Copy Editor

I

sraeli journalist Natasha Mozgovaya,
a 1990 immigrant from Russia,
boasts "combat" experience that
belies her 32 years.
She covered the second intifada in
Israel a decade ago from both sides of
the border, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War,
the ongoing rebellion in the breakaway
Russian province of Chechnya and
human trafficking in Eastern Europe.
Currently, she is based in Washington,
D.C., as the chief U.S. correspondent for
the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. She
is chronicling the tooth-and-nail battle
between Republican presidential candi-
dates and their disparate comments about
the Middle East conflict. On Dec.14, she
spoke to local print and broadcast media
at a Downtown luncheon hosted by the
Jewish Community Relations Council.
She told the Detroit-based media how
Israelis are pulled in so many direc-
tions domestically by issues of religion,
immigration and the economy. For many
Israelis, there's more than enough conflict
on the homefront that they may not dwell
on being under siege by outside forces.
Regarding the peace process, she sees
difficulty in any agreement that would
force settlers to leave their homes in his-
toric Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
She does not see them willing to coop-
erate with an agreement similar to the
2005 withdrawal from Gaza that brought
no peace and left the former residents
feeling abandoned by the government
"The settlers learned their lesson from
the disengagement from Gaza',' she said.
"Some 7,000 are still not resettled."

The 'Arab Spring'
Israelis' concern with domestic affairs
is not to say that they aren't following
issues involving their neighbors, such
as the so-called "Arab Spring" that has
resulted in uncertainty and turmoil in
Syria and Egypt.
She noted that during the recent
Egyptian election, a vote went to candi-
dates supporting the anti-Israel Muslim
Brotherhood. She said she hoped that
Egypt's need for U.S. aid would keep a
new, more radical government from can-
celing the Camp David peace treaty.
Israel is worried about terrorists active

in the Sinai, but can't strike against them
because the area is under Egyptian juris-
diction. She mused sarcastically, "Who
would think Lebanon would be Israel's
most stable border?"
During the second intifada, her paper
at the time, Yediot Achronot, would print
the photograph of every terrorist victim
on its front page, so they would not be
forgotten.

Fears About Iran
Although Israelis don't view terror-
ism from Palestinians as an existential
threat, they do worry about Iran devel-
oping a nuclear bomb.
"It will be a totally different Mideast,"
she said. "Nobody knows how rational
the ayatollahs are:' She had the sobering
insight that immigration to Israel could
dramatically fall off and noted some
Israelis are getting foreign passports
"just in case."
In her talk, she expressed her interest
in Israel's diverse immigrant population,
including Jews from the former Soviet
Union, India and non-Jewish asylum
seekers from the war-torn African coun-
tries of Eritrea and Sudan.
"Who knows what the face of Israel
will look like in 20 or 30 years?" she said.
Regarding pro-Israel remarks by Newt
Gingrich and other Republican presiden-
tial candidates, she said many of the set-
tlers are very happy with them.
She noted that emigres from the
former Soviet Union have gravitated to
the right on Arab-Israeli issues, to the
disappointment of the Israeli left.
One reason why is that many of their
first interactions with Palestinians were
during the second intifida. They saw
their children being blown up in the
notorious Dolphinarium discotheque
bombing in June 2001 in which 21
teens, mostly new Russians immigrants,
were killed and 132 injured. A large por-
tion of this population is represented
by right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
She added that peace with the
Palestinians does not seem to be the
priority now.
"It's hard to imagine peace when
Palestinians have two different govern-
ments," she said. "The 2006 Lebanon War
was not a victory. It seems like they are
getting ready for the next war," she said. 1-1

You receive one-on-one care from one of our certified, highly trained
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"Thonk you for having Amanda, my therapist, treat me for my sciatica. My doctor sent me to
you after I had gone to 10 visits at another physical therapy center. What a difference! I had
immediate relief, was shown exercises that help me by someone so knowledgeable & kind.
Amanda made sure I was doing the exercises properly, answered my questions & even gave
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Deborah C.

For more information or to schedule an appointment call:
248.353.1234 or 248.743.1234

Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy 129255 Northwestern Hwy. I Suite 300 I Southfield, MI 48034
3435 Livemois Rd. I Troy, MI 48083 I www.OMPTspecialists.com

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