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‘Overflowing With Optimism’
Israeli ambassador addresses Metro Detroit crowd.
E
xpressing optimism for the
future, Israeli Ambassador to
the U.S. Ron Dermer said that
after 70 years of existence, Israel’s
innovational advances and growing
prominence on the global stage show
the world that the Jewish people are
no longer “the perfect victim but
instead have created an imperfect
sovereign nation.”
Speaking to an audience of 600
June 4 at Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills, Dermer, the first
sitting Israeli ambassador to visit
Detroit in 20 years, said world Jewry
should be grateful and proud of
Israel’s accomplishments as well as
two recent historic decisions made
by the United States: moving the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem and withdraw-
ing from the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) — otherwise
known as the Iran nuclear deal.
Dermer stressed American Jews
should celebrate these decisions
regardless of their political affiliation.
“Today, because of recent news,
Israel is overflowing with optimism,”
Dermer said. “Reports that Israel is
continually isolated globally is cer-
tainly fake news. Israel boasts diplo-
matic, social, economic and academic
relations with China, India, Japan and
(countries in) Africa. Israel has 10
times the population it did in 1948,
but it has less water scarcity because
we have pioneered and continued to
improve techniques in water desali-
nation and conservation. These are
technologies Israel is proud to share
with our diplomatic partners.”
Dermer pointed to the resilient
vibrancy of the Motor City and the
generosity of the Jewish community.
He made special note of the late Max
Fisher’s legacy of philanthropy to the
Jewish state and commended the
renewal of the automotive industry
here and the existing and fledgling
relationships being made with some
of the 500 Israeli startup companies
dedicated to autonomous vehicle
research and development and man-
ufacturing.
Though Dermer commended
former President Barak Obama’s
administration’s in signing a 10-year,
$38 billion arms deal with Israel in
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June 14 • 2018
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Ron Dermer
2016, he added that Israel, as well as
Americans, should be thankful that
President Donald Trump pulled out
of the JCPOA and said that sanctions
and pressures need to be put back in
place against Iran.
“I know that for years there have
been good people on both sides of
(the Iran nuclear deal), and if this
was a deal that truly prevented Iran
from developing a nuclear weapon,
Israel would have supported it,”
Dermer said. “Instead, three years
later, we no longer have to theorize.
Since the sanctions have been lifted,
$100 billion from oil sales flow into
Iran’s coffers every 18 months. This
goes into fueling wars in Iraq, Syria
and Yemen and firing missiles into
Israel ( from Syria).
“And within the terms of the
JCPOA, any constraints to Iran
enriching uranium for a nuclear
weapon would be lifted in 10 years.
That may seem like a long time, but
in the life of a nation, it is the blink of
an eye. Take it from your ally in the
Middle East — the region has been
no safer as a consequence of this
deal.”
As far as the move of the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem, Dermer said
not since the Balfour Declaration and
Israel declaring independence in 1948
has there been a bigger milestone for
Israel, Zionism and, ultimately, the
hope for peace in the region.
“This move solidifies the recogni-
tion and legitimacy of the Jewish
people’s deep historical connection
to Jerusalem,” Dermer said. “For 2,000
years, (rebuilding) Jerusalem existed
in the imaginations of Jews. This
move proves to the world, not by
might, but by right, that Jerusalem is
the capital of Israel.”
Dermer stressed that right now
there are more Jews living in Israel
than America, and the two popula-
tions comprise 80 percent of world
Jewry.
In the face of increasing global
anti-Semitism and the presence of
the boycott, sanctions and divest-
ment movement, Dermer said it is
essential that the bonds between
these two populations continue to
strengthen.
To improve this relationship,
Dermer acknowledged that Israeli
policy and the religious right’s domi-
nance in Israel should be challenged
so that Israel remains a place where
“all Jews, regardless of their religious
denomination, can call home.”
In America, Dermer said that Jews
should learn their Jewish and Israeli
history so they can put current events
in the Middle East in better context.
“For too long, Palestinians have
tried to delegitimize the Jews’ histor-
ic connection to Jerusalem and Israel
by calling us colonizers,” Dermer
said. “But we are not foreign coloniz-
ers the way the Belgians were in the
Congo or the British were in India. If
you learn Jewish history and under-
stand the Jewish connection to Israel
and Jerusalem, the scaffolding of lies
will collapse. If you learn Jewish his-
tory, you understand how precious
the state of Israel is.
“The Jewish people are no longer
that perfect victim; we are a proud
nation. And we make mistakes like
any imperfect sovereign nation. To be
pro-Israel today, you can still criticize
its policies, yet at the same time, you
have to give Israel the benefit of the
doubt.” •
ARA HOWRANI, HOWRANI STUDIOS
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Benicio Martinez Bassett
Local Sixth-
Grader To Play
At Detroit Music
Weekend
Farmington Hills sixth-grade guitar
and vocal artist Benicio Martinez
Bassett won a juried performance
and will play on the Lear Showcase
stage at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, June 16,
in Downtown Detroit in the same
Detroit Music Weekend one-day
festival that features The Jacksons in
a free public concert tribute to their
brother Michael Jackson.
Benicio is a student at Farmington
STEAM Academy. He also plays
trumpet in the school band. He
is a summer regular at Jewish
Community Center camps. Benicio
is a rocker who is passionately mas-
tering the guitar and stage under the
instruction and coaching of national
rock band front man Eddie Baranek.
He grew up at Music Hall Center
for the Performing Arts, nurturing
the love and respect he has for all
the performing arts. His grandpar-
ents are Leland and Tina Bassett,
longtime Music Hall supporters.
Benicio is a disciplined per-
formance pro who commands a
room and lives by the motto of Jimi
Hendrix at Woodstock: “The audi-
ence gives us their energy and we
give them back even more.”
Detroit Music Weekend, in its
second year, features five stages in
closed festival streets in the Detroit
Entertainment District running
from Music Hall Center for the
Performing Arts [near Ford Field]
across Woodward Avenue to Capital
Park. •