General Objective: To establish the Center for Israeli Progress as a leading think-tank dedicated to improving the lives of Israelis by developing ideas and actions through the prism of a progressive agenda. The focus will be to articulate a clear, pragmatic direction for Israeli politics that will assist in reconstructing the progressive side of the Israeli political map.

Not one country in the world recognizes our capital, Jerusalem, as the capital of Israel. Even the United States footnotes the following on the State Department Web page: Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950. The US, like nearly all other countries, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. UN Security Council Resolution 478 declared the 1980 Jerusalem Law that declared Jerusalem to be Israel’s “eternal and indivisible” capital null and void, affirming that it was a violation of international law.

I N T E R V I E W : F O U N D E R O F L I B E R A L T H I N K- TA N K

Dr. Baskin works the gears of peace

Activist sets forth the conditions that make the time ripe for peace in Israel

More than 10 months have passed since President Barack Obama entered the White House and seven months since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took over the reins in Jerusalem and there is still no peace process worth mentioning.

Netanyahu campaigned on the slogan of “economic peace” and boasted that he would help the Palestinians build their state from the bottom up by strengthening their economy and thereby “giving them something to lose,” so that they will not revert back to violence.

The peace process has once again entered a dead end. Senator George Mitchell has fallen into the trap of negotiating about negotiations. There is little chance that bilateral negotiations at this time will be capable of producing agreements on either the Israeli-Palestinian or Israel-Syria track. The US mediator has been focusing on “process” rather than “substance”.

he first hour of Rabbi Kaufman’s -The Whole Megillah from Oct. 29 2009 – Guest – Gershon Baskin IPCRI

http://rabbi.mypodcast.com/2009/10/Rabbi_Kaufmans_TWM_Oct_29_2009_First_Hour_Gershon_Baskin_IPCRI-252553.html

For the past two weeks I have traveled cross-country in the US speaking in synagogues, churches, mosques and universities. My message to my audiences has been one of hope. I have met Jewish communities in deep division. I have found communities (Jews and non-Jews) in deep conflict between those who define themselves as “pro-Israeli” and those who are “pro-Palestinian.” Some of the organizers who brought me to speak used my presence to enable these two groups to speak to each other, because the divide over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has removed civility from their ability to communicate.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a presidential decree that elections will be held in January. This followed his decision to sign the Egyptian plan for intra-Palestinian reconciliation, knowing that Hamas would refuse to sign.

Abbas is demonstrating decisive leadership. After 20 years, he convened the Fatah conference that even Yasser Arafat feared would fragment the movement and destroy the struggle for national liberation. The conference ended in relative unity behind Abbas. With the exception of the blunder – from the Palestinian point of view – of briefly withdrawing the Goldstone report from the UN Human Rights Council, Abbas’s popularity is higher than that of any other Palestinian personality.

Now that the NY Summit has come and gone, Netanyahu made his speech to the world, Abbas had his opportunity to speak his mind – is there any reasonable person out there who actually thinks a negotiated peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians is possible? Yes, President Obama is determined and Senator Mitchell is persistent. Now, while this is the land of miracles, let’s get real.

The Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas summit was a disappointment mainly because of the (perhaps not reasonably) high expectations that much of the world has held for the new US Administration (including me).