A Middle East Primer -
What Are the Issues? Do You Know the Basics?
by Israel HighWay Staff

Missiles, terrorists, tanks and bullets are not the only weapons of the Middle East conflict. So are words, concepts and diplomatic formulas. In fact, they can be more important than the weapons of war because they can be the tools for ending the conflict or for creating the conditions for the next round of fighting.

June 4, 1967 borders; UN Resolutions 242; UNIFIL ; Armistice lines; UNRWA; the list is long and complicated, but these are the phrases, abbreviations and words that play key roles in almost any discussion of the Israel-Arab conflict.

Most young American Jews will attend universities in North America. Parents, teachers, and teens go to great lengths to ensure that you will be well prepared for the SAT, but will you be ready for the tests you are likely to face at university when challenged about Israel or your Zionist affiliations? Just last month, on campuses across the world, Israel’s detractors staged "Israel Apartheid Week." Pro-Israel students were confronted with "in your face" challenges calling for boycotts, sanctions and divestment from Israel.

Issue of the Week is continued below

Hamas Leader, Ahmadinejad Meet to Plan Next Steps by Dudi Cohen

Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday to brief "our friends and brothers" about the details of the Mecca deal between Hamas and Fatah and the steps that need to be taken in the future. Ahmadinejad told Mashaal to continue carrying out acts of "resistance" against Israel. "They must prepare the ground for the removal of the Zionists from the holy land of Palestine until not a single piece is occupied." (Ynet News)

Israel's Controversial Eurovision Entry by Metro Staff

Israel's entry for the Eurovision song contest could be in trouble, after organisers confirmed they were considering banning it over claims it is about Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions. Eurovision has a strict 'no politics' rule when it comes to the lyrics of entries - one which Israel's effort, a song called Push The Button by the group Teapacks, is said to be going against. Listen to the song lyrics and see how you feel. (Metro.co.uk)

British High School Blasted for Hosting 'Anti-Israel' Event
by Jonny Paul

Sherbourne High School in Dorset, southwest England, has come under fire for agreeing to host an anti-Israel event for students on Monday entitled "The Occupation: Up Close and Personal, Living in the Palestinian Occupied Territories." Scheduled to speak is Sharen Green, a reporter with a local newspaper who has spent time in the Palestinian Territories with the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program. Simon McIlwaine, director of Anglicans for Israel, expressed concerns about this "propaganda exercise billed as a lecture and the very biased premises." (Jerusalem Post)

Rafael to Provide Armored Vehicles to U.S. Marines in Iraq
by Amos Harel

Rafael, the Israel Arms Development Authority, is one of the winners of a U.S. Marines tender for the supply of armored vehicles to its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. A preliminary deal for the purchase of 60 armored vehicles at a cost of $37 million has already been signed. A number of companies from around the world vied for the tender, all of which were required to comply with requirements such as protection from roadside bombs, mines and RPGs. (Ha'aretz)

Jewish Organizations Want to Bring Israel Studies to U.S. Campuses by Haviv Rettig

The Israel on Campus Coalition, a coalition of 31 American Jewish organizations, including the likes of the American Jewish Committee, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel and others from all along the political spectrum, has launched a new three-year initiative to bring Israel studies to American college campuses. Israel studies are virtually nonexistent in American higher education. In 386 institutions surveyed, including a varied sample of top universities, state schools and community colleges, 53 percent didn't offer a single course on Israel. (Jerusalem Post)

Family Time for Lone Soldiers by Dina Kraft

In late February, nearly 200 parents from around the world flew to Israel for an expense-free vacation with their sons and daughters sponsored jointly by the army, the Association for the Wellbeing of Israeli Soldiers and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The soldiers are known in Israel as "lone soldiers," since they serve the nation alone while their families remain abroad. The organization also supports the soldiers in other ways, such as finding them host families for the High Holy Days, providing university scholarships and sending plane tickets to an average of 600 soldiers a year to visit their parents.

One of the lone soldiers, E. says his friends back in the United States lead a much different life. While he trains for secret missions in the West Bank, they're watching the Super Bowl and drinking beer, he said. "I think of this as an investment," E. said. "I'm getting so much in terms of discipline and work ethic." (JTA)

Better to Give

Businessman and professional sports team owner Bill Davidson and his wife, Karen, have donated $75 million to support a new inpatient tower at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Hadassah said it will name the new facility the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower, to honor the memory of Bill Davidson's mother, who was a founder of Hadassah's Detroit chapter. Bill Davidson owns the Detroit Pistons, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Detroit Shock. (AP/Sports Illustrated)

Distance No Barrier for Teen Partners by Sally Friedman

They gathered on opposite sides of the world. In Philadelphia, it was Sunday morning. In Israel, it was late Sunday afternoon. They led vastly different lives - or so they thought. They existed in totally different cultures - or assumed that they did.

But in a remarkable videoconference from a conference room at the Jewish Community Services Building in Center City, not even a few techno-glitches could spoil the rare chance to come to know one another. In the end, two groups of teens quickly discovered common ground in what was a groundbreaking twinning program sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Center for Israel and nurtured by Vered Robinzon, emissary of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Federation. (Jewish Exponent)

A Unique Mission to Turkey and Israel by Dovid Lermer

This winter break, three faculty members and 12 students from Manhattan Talmudic Academy went on a mission. MTA sends students on missions every year, and this year we chose to go to Turkey and Israel. MTA sends its students on these missions both to instill in them a sense of doing good deeds and to create an outlet for them to do so, and to allow students to experience life in other places. This allows students to see how other Jews live and to look beyond the American bubble.

This mission, in particular, was meant to help out the two communities of Turkey and Israel.

Click here to continue.

Dovid Lermer (pictured left) is a student at the Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy in New York City. With him are Murat Bildirici and Shimon Fried (Special to Israel HighWay)

Israel Film Festival Honors Baron Cohen by David McNary

Sacha Baron Cohen has been tapped as the first recipient of the Israel Film Festival Award for Outstanding Achievement. Baron Cohen will be feted at the fest's opening night award dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chair Amy Pascal and Israeli actress Gila Almagor will also receive honors. The fest cited the success of "Borat" in making the announcement, noting that Baron Cohen received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the screenplay. (Variety)

Religious Kibbutz Youth Song a Hit by Matthew Wagner

A song composed by religious kibbutz teenagers that mourns the demise of Zionism's central ideals and calls for a major ideological overhaul has won a Bnei Akiva youth movement contest. Some dark themes appear in the song written by the religious youth. But the song also calls for a renewal of old idealism. Building new settlements, championing the poor and fighting injustice are some of the suggestions for sparking a grassroots revolution. Mor Shahak, 13, of Kibbutz Sde Eliahu, who wrote the lyrics said, "I think a lot of people, both young and old, can identify with the song." (Jerusalem Post)

Indie with Negev Roots by Ben Shalev

Regina Spektor's career as a singer-songwriter began in Israel, or at least received an important push here. Eleven years ago, when she was 16, she came to Israel with an American Jewish youth group for a few weeks. "I remember that we hiked in the Negev, we walked a lot and it was physically difficult for me. In order to overcome the difficulty, I began to make up and sing songs, and to my great surprise, my traveling companions were enthusiastic and encouraged me to continue," she says in a short phone interview. "That day in the Negev, I discovered for the first time that I had an audience, that other people liked my songs, too."

Spektor will be in Israel this weekend, performing at the Barbie Club in Tel Aviv. No one is more excited about her visit to Israel than Spektor herself. She clearly remembers the "special feeling I had in Israel, a strong feeling that I didn't have in any other country, of being in your nation's country. "My Judaism is an important part of who I am," she explains. Spektor also says that she's a proud Zionist. (Ha'aretz)

Hear samples of Regina's music.

Enough with Despair by Yair Sheleg

Objectively speaking, the present situation in Israel is much better than the difficulties with which our fathers and grandfathers had to deal: the economy is booming. The country's military might is greater than ever before. Even Israel's famous isolation is not what it was. Alongside Israel, against the Iranian threat, there is a covert alliance of most of the moderate Arab states which do not even have the capability of presenting Iran with a "balance of terror."

There is a constant pall of danger over life. But this is the situation of mankind in general. The vast majority of people do not allow this fact to hamper their joy of life or their ability to stick by the missions they have undertaken. Human decisions are made not only according to the risk involved but also with a life that is worth living, that has significance.

Alongside the recognition that Israel has not managed to turn into the safest place for the Jewish individual, the Zionist choice is still the most correct choice for someone who wants to live a Jewish life that is worth living - life in the only place where Jews are not a minority fighting for the very survival of their identity. ( Ha'aretz)

Poland and Israel Share More Than Just a Painful History
by Tad Taube

Even if Polish-Jewish relations still suffer from the hangover of a painful history, Polish-Israeli relations are flourishing. And not only in the cultural sphere. As Andrzej Krawczyk, foreign policy adviser to President Lech Kaczynski said last summer before his boss's visit to Israel - good relations with Israel are "among Poland's foreign policy priorities."

The two countries, both with strong political ties to the United States, share similar perspectives on international relations and have developed close ties even in such sensitive areas as military, security and economic cooperation with each other and with the United States.

Both countries strive for a world in which nations can live in peace and security. In the educational arena, both countries have embarked on an ever-growing program of youth exchange. Thousands of young Israelis make the trip to Poland each year. Israelis are naturally interested in visiting Holocaust sites, but more frequently, Israelis exhibit growing interest in learning about Polish Jewry's remarkable 1,000-year-old cultural history and its renaissance within a democratic and prosperous Poland. And young Poles, who do not yet have the means to make the reverse trip, flock to Israeli events in Poland to witness the life rebuilt by the grandchildren of their neighbors' ancestors. When the two groups mingle, one can literally hear the sound of walls tumbling down. (Mercury News)