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The Consulate General of Israel serves the Pacific Northwest Region of the United States: Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
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What Happened to Israel's Reputation?

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This year Israel is celebrating . . . a series of accomplishments that have surely exceeded the expectations of its most visionary founders. It is one of the most powerful small nations in history. . . . [It] has tamed an arid wilderness [and] welcomed 1.25 million immigrants. . . . The Israelis themselves did the fighting, the struggling, the sacrificing in order to perform the greatest feat of all—forging a new society . . . in which pride and confidence have replaced the despair engendered by age-long suffering and persecution.
So Life magazine described Israel on the occasion of its 25th birthday in May 1973. In a 92-page special issue, "The Spirit of Israel," the magazine extolled the Jewish state as enlightened, robustly democratic and hip, a land of "astonishing achievement" that dared "to dream the dream and make that dream come alive."
Life told the story of Israel's birth from the Bible through the Holocaust and the battle for independence. "The Arabs' bloodthirsty threats," the editors wrote, "lend a deadly seriousness to the vow: Never Again." Four pages documented "Arab terrorist attacks" and the three paragraphs on the West Bank commended Israeli administrators for respecting "Arab community leaders" and hiring "tens of thousands of Arabs." The word "Palestinian" scarcely appeared.
There was a panoramic portrayal of Jerusalem, described as "the focus of Jewish prayers for 2,000 years" and the nucleus of new Jewish neighborhoods. Life emphasized that in its pre-1967 borders, Israel was "a tiny, parched, scarcely defensible toe-hold." The edition's opening photo shows a father embracing his Israeli-born daughter on an early "settlement," a testament to Israel's birthright to the land.
Would a mainstream magazine depict the Jewish state like this today, during the week of its 64th birthday?
Unlikely. Rather, readers would learn about Israel's overwhelming military might, brutal conduct in warfare and eroding democratic values—plus the Palestinians' plight and Israeli intransigence. The photographs would show not cool students and cutting-edge artists but soldiers at checkpoints and religious radicals.
Why has Israel's image deteriorated? After all, Israel today is more democratic and—despite all the threats it faces—even more committed to peace.
Some claim that Israel today is a Middle Eastern power that threatens its neighbors, and that conservative immigrants and extremists have pushed Israel rightward. Most damaging, they contend, are Israel's policies toward the territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, toward the peace process and the Palestinians, and toward the construction of settlements.
Israel may seem like Goliath vis-à-vis the Palestinians, but in a regional context it is David. Gaza is host to 10,000 rockets, many of which can hit Tel Aviv, and Hezbollah in Lebanon has 50,000 missiles that place all of Israel within range. Throughout the Middle East, countries with massive arsenals are in upheaval. And Iran, which regularly pledges to wipe Israel off the map, is developing nuclear weapons. Israel remains the world's only state that is threatened with annihilation.
Whether in Lebanon, the West Bank or Gaza, Israel has acted in self-defense after suffering thousands of rocket and suicide attacks against our civilians. Few countries have fought with clearer justification, fewer still with greater restraint, and none with a lower civilian-to-militant casualty ratio. Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza to advance peace only to receive war in return.
Whereas Israelis in 1973 viewed the creation of a Palestinian state as a mortal threat, it is now the official policy of the Israeli government. Jewish men of European backgrounds once dominated Israel, but today Sephardic Jews, Arabs and women are prominent in every facet of society. This is a country where a Supreme Court panel of two women and an Arab convicted a former president of sexual offenses. It is the sole Middle Eastern country with a growing Christian population. Even in the face of immense security pressures, Israel has never known a second of nondemocratic rule.
In 1967, Israel offered to exchange newly captured territories for peace treaties with Egypt and Syria. The Arab states refused. Israel later evacuated the Sinai, an area 3.5 times its size, for peace with Egypt, and it conceded land and water resources for peace with Jordan.
In 1993, Israel recognized the Palestinian people ignored by Life magazine, along with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the perpetrator of those "Arab terrorist attacks." Israel facilitated the creation of a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza and armed its security forces. Twice, in 2000 and 2008, Israel offered the Palestinians a state in Gaza, virtually all of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. In both cases, the Palestinians refused. Astonishingly, in spite of the Palestinian Authority's praise for terror, a solid majority of Israelis still support the two-state solution.
Israel has built settlements (some before 1973), and it has removed some to promote peace, including 7,000 settlers to fulfill the treaty with Egypt. Palestinians have rebuffed Israel's peace offers not because of the settlements—most of which would have remained in Israel anyway, and which account for less than 2% of the West Bank—but because they reject the Jewish state. When Israel removed all settlements from Gaza, including their 9,000 residents, the result was a terrorist ministate run by Hamas, an organization dedicated to killing Jews world-wide.
Nevertheless, Israeli governments have transferred large areas to the Palestinian Authority and much security responsibility to Palestinian police. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has removed hundreds of checkpoints, eased the Gaza land blockade and joined President Obama in calling for the resumption of direct peace talks without preconditions. Addressing Congress, Mr. Netanyahu declared that the emergence of a Palestinian state would leave some settlements beyond Israel's borders and that "with creativity and with good will a solution can be found" for Jerusalem.
Given all this, why have anti-Israel libels once consigned to hate groups become media mainstays? How can we explain the assertion that an insidious "Israel Lobby" purchases votes in Congress, or that Israel oppresses Christians? Why is Israel's record on gay rights dismissed as camouflage for discrimination against others?
The answer lies in the systematic delegitimization of the Jewish state. Having failed to destroy Israel by conventional arms and terrorism, Israel's enemies alit on a subtler and more sinister tactic that hampers Israel's ability to defend itself, even to justify its existence.
It began with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's 1974 speech to the U.N., when he received a standing ovation for equating Zionism with racism—a view the U.N. General Assembly endorsed the following year. It gained credibility on college campuses through anti-Israel courses and "Israel Apartheid Weeks." It burgeoned through the boycott of Israeli scholars, artists and athletes, and the embargo of Israeli products. It was perpetuated by journalists who published doctored photos and false Palestinian accounts of Israeli massacres.
Israel must confront the acute dangers of delegitimization as it did armies and bombers in the past. Along with celebrating our technology, pioneering science and medicine, we need to stand by the facts of our past. "The Spirit of Israel" has not diminished since 1973—on the contrary, it has flourished. The state that Life once lionized lives even more vibrantly today.
Mr. Oren is Israel's ambassador to the United States.
Wall Street Journal
By Michael Oren
   

Israel Celebrates 64 in San Francisco

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Performance by Gilad Hekselman, Israeli JazzFest

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Deputy Consul General Gideon Lustig

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Consul General and Mrs Akiva and Neomi Tor

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IAEA Inspector Dies in Iran

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TEHRAN, Iran—A United Nations nuclear inspector from South Korea was killed Tuesday and a colleague was injured in a car crash near a reactor site in central Iran,news reports said.
There were no immediate indications of foul play. But the crash is likely to undergo intense scrutiny.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the International Atomic Energy Agency inspector died when the car overturned around a heavy-water reactor being built in Khondab, about 150 miles southwest of Tehran.
Iran says the reactor, part of the Arak complex, will be used to produce isotopes for peaceful medical and industrial uses. But the U.S. and others fear that spent fuel from the reactors could be reprocessed into plutonium for a warhead. Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons.
IRNA identified the fatally injured inspector as Seo Ok-Seok. Another news agency, ISNA, said an inspector from Slovakia was injured in the crash and taken to a hospital.
The Vienna-based IAEA had no immediate comment on the reports.
The incident comes ahead of a new round of technical discussions between Tehran and the IAEA to be held in Vienna beginning Sunday. Higher-level negotiations also are planned later this month in Baghdad between envoys from Iran and six world powers including the U.S.
Inspectors from the U.N nuclear watchdog regularly visit Iran's nuclear facilities, which include a Russian-built energy reactor and uranium-enrichment laboratories.
The stops often receive far less attention than the high-level IAEA teams sent to Iran to discuss access to other sites, such as the Parchin military base near Tehran, where the U.N. suspects nuclear-related work has taken place. Iran says Parchin is a conventional military base.
Iran's nuclear agency issued a statement offering condolences to the IAEA as well as the victim's family
With some 26,000 casualties a year, Iran has one the highest per capita road deaths. It is blamed on disregard of traffic rules, lack of safety of the roads as well as inadequate emergency services.
Wall Street Journal, AP
   

Israeli Centrist Party to Join Netanyahu Coalition

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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the opposition Kadima Party struck a deal early Tuesday morning to form a unity government, a surprise move that staves off the early elections Mr. Netanyahu had set into motion and creates a new coalition with a huge legislative majority.
According to the three-page agreement that Mr. Netanyahu and the opposition leader, Shaul Mofaz, signed after midnight, Mr. Mofaz will become a deputy prime minister, standing in for Mr. Netanyahu when he is abroad and joining all closed sessions of the cabinet that “deal with security, diplomatic, economic and social issues.”
At a noon news conference in the Negev Hall at the Parliament building, both men looked exhausted from a night of negotiations as they stood side by side and hailed what they described as a historic agreement. “The state of Israel needs stability,” said Mr. Netanyahu, his voice slightly hoarse. The new coalition, he said, is “good for the security of Israel, good for the economy of Israel, good for the society of Israel and good for the people of Israel.”
A main drive behind the deal is the necessity of replacing a law expiring Aug. 1 that has exempted many religious Jews from military service. Mr. Netanyahu’s prior coalition of religious and conservative parties had been divided over how to proceed, and he had said in a speech to his right-leaning Likud Party on Sunday night that he wanted early elections to avoid the instability of a campaign atmosphere stretching over more than a year.
Mr. Mofaz, a former defense minister and military chief who recently ousted Tzipi Livni as head of the centrist Kadima Party, said the new government would be able to “contend better with the challenges facing Israel,” including “a historic territorial compromise with our Palestinian neighbors.”
“There are moments in the life in the nation when it is asked to make serious decisions,” Mr. Mofaz said. “I believe the time has come for an all-encompassing change in the state of Israel.”
While Mr. Netanyahu’s popularity is sky high, broadening the coalition significantly consolidates his power. With 94 of the 120 members of Parliament now officially on his team, his ability to shape legislation and set the agenda is enhanced. Perhaps more important, the large majority and its broad base — now comprising seven parties — dilutes the power of single factions. No longer can Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party or the religious Shas Party threaten his leadership by either dissenting on a specific issue or walking away from the group entirely.
At the same time, Mr. Netanyahu sends a signal to the Israeli public that he is open to working with a variety of constituencies, and to President Obama and other international leaders that he has a broad mandate.
“It’s a win-win situation for him,” Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communication at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzilya, said of the prime minister. “The minute you have a broad coalition, it means that no one party can use the leverage of threatening to bring down your government. That’s a great advantage for any prime minister.”
For Mr. Mofaz, whose party has been polling far short of its current 28 seats in Parliament, the deal staves off what some saw as a death knell. By joining the government, he elevates his standing and gives himself time to build more support before standing for elections; he can campaign next year on whatever the new coalition manages to accomplish. The danger is that it raises questions of credibility since he had insisted he would not join Mr. Netanyahu, and some predicted Tuesday that his Kadima Party could soon split underneath him.
Late into Monday night, the Israeli Parliament was taking steps toward dissolving itself ahead of elections scheduled for Sept. 4 rather than at the end of the government’s term in October 2013. But politicians were already immersed in the secret negotiations, which culminated at midnight Tuesday when Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Mofaz signed a contract at the prime minister’s home in Jerusalem, according to a Kadima spokesman. The two men then went to the Parliament building around 2:30 a.m., where they met with lawmakers from their parties, who voted to approve the deal, officials said.
“It was at the initiation of both sides,” the spokesman, Yuval Harel, said in an overnight telephone interview. “This is the best way to get influence.”
Mr. Netanyahu said at the news conference that the new coalition would focus on four things: rewriting the draft law this summer to require an “historic redistribution of the burden”; passing a budget; overhauling the electoral process by year’s end; and advancing “a responsible peace process.”
The two men offered no specifics on their plans for integrating more ultra-Orthodox men who are now exempt from the draft to study the Torah into the military or national service, nor on how elections should be changed. But Mr. Mofaz said that if electoral reform is accomplished, “that will be enough of an achievement.”
Reaction from other political factions was swift and harsh. “This is a pact of cowards and the most contemptible and preposterous zigzag in Israel’s political history,” said Shelly Yachimovich, chairwoman of the Labor Party and suddenly the likely leader of the dwindling opposition. Ms. Yachimovich vowed to “show the public that there is a political and ideological alternative,” and said the deal gave Labor “a golden opportunity to lead the people eventually, if not now then in 2013, onto a new path.”
Yair Lapid, a popular television commentator who recently formed a new centrist party, Yesh Atid, derided the agreement as a sign of “the old, detestable, ugly politics” and predicted that “this repulsive political alliance will bury all of its participants under it.”
The Iranian-born Mr. Mofaz, 63, had said more than once that he would not join Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition. “I intend to replace Netanyahu,” he told The New York Times in an interview last month after his resounding victory over Ms. Livni. “I will not join his government.”
In the interview, Mr. Mofaz criticized the prime minister’s foreign policy focus, saying that a greater threat to Israel than Iran was the continuing conflict with the Palestinians. At Tuesday’s news conference, he and Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged their different views on the issue, with the prime minister saying the key is “to be very responsible and very judicious.”
Regarding the Palestinians, Mr. Mofaz has indicated that he is willing to give up significant Jewish settlements within the West Bank, something that has angered many members of the current Netanyahu coalition, including some in his Likud Party. On Tuesday, he stressed that he believes in making an interim agreement on borders and security, but it was clear that he had not yet convinced Mr. Netanyahu of this approach. “I’ll continue to discuss these ideas with the prime minister,” Mr. Mofaz said.
For his part, Mr. Netanyahu said, “The peace process is stagnant not because of us.”
“I hope now maybe they will reconsider,” he said of the Palestinian leadership, which has refused to negotiate without certain preconditions that Israel finds unacceptable. “We were ready for negotiations and we are now. We’re ready for serious, responsible talks in which both sides will have to make tough decisions.”
A spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called on Israel to ”use the opportunity provided by the expansion of its coalition government” to expedite a peace accord.
”This requires an immediate halt to all settlement activity throughout the Palestinian Territories,” the spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, was quoted as saying by Reuters. ”The new coalition government needs to be a coalition of peace and not a coalition for war.”
The coalition deal shocked the Israeli political establishment, which had been gearing up for a four-month sprint to elections, with most analysts seeing a political victory for Mr. Netanyahu but not necessarily a huge shift in his policies.
Yossi Verter, a senior analyst for the left-leaning daily newspaper Haaretz, called the deal “an atomic bomb,” and said it was struck out of Mr. Netanyahu’s “great power” and Mr. Mofaz’s “severe weakness.” “No party can topple him,” Mr. Verter wrote of the prime minister. “The new Netanyahu government is made of one hundred tons of solid concrete.”
Arik Bender, a writer for the daily newspaper Maariv, called the developments “Shaul Mofaz’s night,” writing in an analysis piece that he “saved the ship of Kadima from sinking at the very last moment, assured himself a prominent position in the government, and secured coalition favors for his party.” He said the agreement dealt a “painful blow” to Ms. Yachimovich, and a “mortal” one to Mr. Lapid.
David Horovitz, a veteran journalist who runs the new Web site The Times of Israel, described the new coalition as a “masterstroke” for Mr. Netanyahu. “The prime minister, with Kadima at his side, is also now potentially capable of taking a more centrist position on dealings with the Palestinians and over settlements,” Mr. Horovitz wrote in a piece posted Tuesday morning. “It’s by no means clear that he wants to do so. But he has room for maneuver now if he wishes to use it. And the Americans and the rest of the international community will be well aware of the fact.”

Jodi Rudoren & Isabel Kershner, New York Times; Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters
   

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