world
Meeting Israel's Leaders
Jewish journalists from Detroit and around the world convene in Jerusalem.
Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor
Don Cohen
Contributing Writer
T
his traveling husband-and-wife team
of "intrepid" journalists represented
the Detroit Jewish News at last week's
Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem.
The summit, the first of its kind, gath-
ered 120 journalists from the leading
Jewish media of 25 countries. Sponsored
by the Israeli Government Press Office,
with support from many Israeli agencies,
the summit explored the challenges of
reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
(For more information, go to www.jms.
org.il.) At the time of the summit, the hor-
rible fate of the three kidnapped and mur-
dered Israeli teens was not yet known.
We've kept a running blog on the Jewish
News' website, www.thejewishnews.com .
We're continuing our journey and blogging
after the summit from Prague and Budapest.
During the course of the summit, we
heard addresses by Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, outgoing President Shimon Peres
and President-Elect Reuven Rivlin. Here are
excerpts from our report:
Shimon Peres
The summit began on Sunday, June 22,
with comments from outgoing President
Shimon Peres, who has served the Jewish
state for more than 60 years, and from
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With David Horowitz, publisher of the
Times of Israel as moderator, elder states-
man Peres, articulate and eloquent, took
questions from journalists from varied
countries, asking questions that ranged
from advice he would give to incoming
president Reuven Rivlin to whether he
would advocate for the release of American
spy Jonathan Pollard when he meets with
President Obama later this week.
Regarding Rivlin, Peres said, "He doesn't
need my advice; he's a grown man. He has
to be like him, and he's blessed with all the
necessary qualities to be president:'
On the question of Pollard, Peres said he
would do everything he could to bring him
...
Don and Keri Cohen at the Kotel.
)
back to freedom.
Of particular interest to Jews in Detroit,
where the Arab population is so large, Peres
answered a question from a journalist from
Mexico, asking about Israel's connection to
Latin America. In his answer, he said Jews
and Arabs are growing in those countries
and that they have good relations there,
and that it's important to develop such
good relations outside of Israel where the
Arabs can be more receptive.
Both leaders referred to terrorists in
the strongest of terms as killers. Peres
said terrorists have brought down many
nations — Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya. "I
don't think terror can win, but it is hard
to win over terror:' he said.
David Horowitz and Shimon Peres
Benjamin Netanyahu
After dinner, Netanyahu spoke about Israel's
many technological and social achievements
before challenging the audience to help meet
critical challenges facing Israel, the Jewish
people and the world.
The first challenge he cited was "the rising
tide of anti-Semitism in Europe," which he
said comes from "the hard-left, the hard-
right and Islamic extremists:' He said the
journalists should help answer lies about
Jews and Israel. "We have to fight it; we can-
not accept it; we must speak out forcefully
and defeat lies with truth," he said. "No one
will defend us if we do not defend ourselves:'
He also took note of the recent
Presbyterian Church (USA) conference
held in Detroit, which voted to divest from
companies it feels are supporting the Israeli
occupation of Palestine.
"I would ask them to come to the Middle
East and look around:' suggesting they visit
Israel, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and
compare and contrast. Outside of Israel —
which he said is "the only place you have
freedom and tolerance, and the protection
of minorities:' he said they should travel in
an armor-plated bus and not tell anyone that
they are Christian.
The second challenge he addressed was
what he called, "fraying Jewish identities" in
the West, and particularly in North America.
He explained that Israel has invested in pro-
grams like Birthright and Masa that bring
young Jews from around the world to Israel
to be exposed to the country, to Judaism and
to their Jewish heritage.
The third challenge comes from the dan-
gers to the Middle East that challenge not
just Israel, but the world. He explained that
with the secular regimes collapsing, that the
"centuries-old hatred" between Shiites and
Sunnis had returned and there was "a fault
line between civilization and savagery:' He
addressed the possibility of a nuclear Iran,
Benjamin Netanyahu
Reuven Rivlin
calling it the most important issue to our
civilization. "We must make sure a militant
Islamic regime does not get its hands on
weapons of mass destruction:' he said.
As we take pride in our achievements,
we can see our challenges:' Netanyahu said,
acknowledging disagreements among Jews
but lauding "a tremendous bond and a tre-
mendous pride:'
Reuven Rivlin
On Wednesday, June 25, Israel's President-
Elect Reuven Rivlin paid a surprise visit to
the Jewish Media Summit during its last
plenary session. He spoke first about his
long family ties to Jerusalem, where his
family moved in 1809 because its patriarch
said it is the city is where the Messiah will
return. A seventh-generation Jerusalemite,
he proudly declared his grandchildren are
the ninth generation in the city.
He then spoke about visiting the par-
ents of 15-year-old Mohammed Karkara,
an Israeli Arab killed three days earlier by
a Syrian rocket shot into Israel, the first
Israeli casualty on the border since the
Yom Kippur War in 1973. And then he
visited the yeshivah attended by the three
kidnapped Israeli teens.
"It is a route that might seem absurd to
an outsider observer, going from Arab to
Israeli citizens living together in this coun-
try," Rivlin said. "We share the same pain,
the same hope:'
He said he had listened to Abbas' appeal
to the kidnappers for the immediate release
of the teens as an "opportunity to restore
trust between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority" He said he sees it as a way for
constructive communication to bridge
the gap that for 150 years has seemed
unbridgeable. He said this was important in
spite of the P.A. prime minister questioning
whether the abduction occurred at all.
He said constant communication is nec-
essary to build trust and understanding.
"Our coexistence is not a cruel fate,
but our mutual destiny:' Rivlin said, add-
ing that he expects to be talking with
President Abbas. "I know we will meet
again in spite of a difference of opinion."
Continuing about the importance of
communication, he told the journalists,
As president-elect, my door will be open
to all. I will never reject someone based on
their world view, and I will respect their
right to express it:'
He called addressing Israeli poverty
and the widening gap between rich and
poor "a strategic need for Israel:' He also
mentioned issues of cultural differences,
church-state issues, and the issues of the
Arab and ultra-Orthodox minorities,
which each comprise about 20 percent of
the population.
"I am proud to become the president of a
Jewish democratic state," Rivlin concluded,
"one where we can say in one breath —
without a pause between the words — a
Jewish democratic state:'
He apologized for not taking questions,
explaining he was to going to see the par-
ents of the kidnapped Israeli teenagers
during their vigil. He assured the journalists
he would answer their questions, which he
said he expected would be difficult ones.
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July 3 • 2014
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