Russia's dangerous sale

The Russians have pledged that state-of-the-art weaponry they are insistently marketing to Syria - despite entreaties from both Israel and the US - won't end up in Hizbullah hands.

This, regardless of the fact that during 2006's Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah deployed Russian-made anti-tank missiles that had been supplied to it by Damascus. Some such missiles fell into IDF hands still bearing original Russian insignia, which nobody had bothered erasing.

This and many more examples of blatant Syrian-Hizbullah collusion prove that the latest Russian undertakings cannot be relied upon. We don't know why Russia makes these hollow promises. Surely, it knows that Israel dare not take them seriously.

If anything, what the Russians continue to do, vis-ˆ-vis both Syria and Iran, detracts from Russia's claims, and its ostensible desire, to be a neutral force for peace. It also detracts from the welcome impact of its apparent decision to cancel the supply to Teheran of high-precision air-defense missiles.

Israel implored Russia not to sell Syria advanced rocketry, like the P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles. During his recent visit to Moscow, Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly lobbied hard against the sale. The Americans likewise did their bit, just as they had earlier tried to dissuade Russia from beginning the startup of Iran's only nuclear power plant.

Hence, when it emerged that the Syrian transaction had not been put on hold, Russia not only disdainfully slapped Israel, it equally rebuffed the US.

Why would it do so? With the Cold War presumably long behind us, one might have expected to see the emergence of a cooperative rather than an obstructionist Russia. Yet Moscow's behavior too often seems eerily reminiscent of the defunct Soviet Union.

Instead of moving forward as a genuine free-world democracy, Moscow can appear to be donning the trappings of democracy while performing inconceivable stunts of realpolitik acrobatics. It's not an outright foe but neither is it quite the dependable friend. And it is very obviously determined to stake its claim to superpower status by forging foreign policies that, from these shores, sometimes appear to counter free-world interests, Israeli interests and, when it comes to enabling Iranian nuclear progress, even Russia's own interests.

Evidently Moscow does not wish to appear to be dancing to Washington's tune. But there are times when it's almost as if Russia relishes being unpredictable and inscrutable. It canceled delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran, yet persists in efforts to weaken sanctions against the ayatollahs. And the fact that the current American administration is regarded in Moscow as na•ve plainly only emboldens Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.



THE WEST, meanwhile, chronically fails in its strategic assessments of post-USSR Russia. Western intelligence has tended, especially initially, to exude unjustified optimism regarding the new Kremlin, despite the decisive ongoing influence of ex-KGB officers, Putin foremost.

This is particularly significant in our context. In his book The White House Years, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger astutely observed that the USSR's animus toward Israel did not arise from the Soviets' hobnobbing with the Arabs, but, rather, that it was often the Soviets who encouraged Arab antagonism and steered it forward with refurbished and modernized tactics.

With the influence of former Soviet personnel still rife, it is worrying to see signs of a Russian regression toward a revised version of yesteryear's Cold War, albeit in lower profile. Moscow's chumminess with prime terror-sponsors like Syria is a dangerous case in point, especially given Syria's open commitment to making its weaponry available to Hizbullah.

The insistent equipping of Syria with Russian technology cannot be explained away with promises that it won't end up in terrorists' hands when all the recent evidence is to the contrary. The assistance with Iran's nuclear program is similarly irresponsible. It becomes ever-harder to avoid the conclusion that Russia deliberately fishes in murky waters, looking to align itself with countries inherently inimical to the West and thereby to consolidate a global counterweight bloc.

Israel has important interests in Russia, but it cannot afford to delude itself about the dangers presented by some of Moscow's other partnerships.

The latest arms deal with Syria is a potential game-changer given our sensitive regional balance of power. So was Russia's fueling of Iran's reactor in Bushehr.

And such moves are intrinsically unbefitting conduct for a member of the Quartet, an international body that purports to have the best interests of all would-be peaceful regional players at heart.

One strike too many

Some were on business trips, others were on vacation, and there were those - such as Breslav Hassidim returning from the Ukraine, or evangelical Christians arriving for next week's Succot festivities - who were on a spiritual journey. All had an unpleasant surprise waiting for them Monday at Ben Gurion Airport.

For several hours, well over 3,000 Aviation Authority workers, from air traffic controllers to baggage handlers, following the orders of a handful of Histadrut union officials, shut down Israel's central transportation connection to the outside world. Intricate business transactions were jeopardized, vacations meticulously planned months in advance faced ruin and the spiritual uplift of arrival in the Holy Land of Israel was marred by the mundane nastiness of a Mediterranean labor strike.

Technically, the strike was legal. State-employed airport workers had gone through the formalities of declaring a labor dispute the prerequisite two weeks ahead of time, as stipulated by law. Union reps had threatened to strike on Rosh Hashana eve, but acquiesced at the last minute to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz's plea to let negotiations bear fruit. But after a disappointing meeting Sunday with Treasury and Transportation Ministry officials, a strike was called and maintained for nine infuriating hours, and union hacks did not bother to warn travelers.



LEAVING ASIDE the callous, indefensible failure to notify the public in advance, was the strike reasonable? Sometimes there comes a time when the worker, exploited by the rapacious owner of the means of production, sees no other option. Bourgeois business interests, vacationing privileges or spiritual edification must sometimes be put on hold to protect labor rights.

This was not the case with Monday's action. The workers resorted to what ought to be the extreme, last-resort act of withdrawing their labor out of a vague concern for the future of their pension fund, with accrued assets of NIS 2.5 billion. They feared these assets might be diverted to cover a huge NIS 5 billion damages payment recently awarded by a district court to residents living in the vicinity of the airport who have been adversely affected by its expansion. Workers wanted binding assurances that pension money would be earmarked solely for workers' retirement and insurance benefits. The Treasury had already agreed in principle to this demand, and made further guarantees in the course of the bitter strike action Monday.

The idea that a small cadre of union apparatchiks, acting on a kind of pension paranoia, could shut down an entire country is maddeningly preposterous. Not only did these workers unjustifiably disrupt the travel plans of tens of thousands - with chaotic implications extending for hours after the strike was called off - but they also abused the hard-earned right to strike. As a result, another painful blow has been dealt to the waning public sympathy for organized labor.

An airport strike in besieged Israel, unlike the recent airport strikes in Greece, Britain and France, is particularly debilitating. With land travel via Lebanon, Syria, Egypt or Jordan completely or largely out of the question, and sea travel impractical, Ben Gurion International Airport is Israelis' virtually sole bridge to the outside world.

Aggravating, too, is the fact that Aviation Authority employees, like most public sector employees, enjoy job security unrelated to productivity or talent and are protected from the ravages of the competitive private sector. According to the most recent 2008 Treasury wage report for public sector workers, the average gross monthly salary of 3,485 Aviation Authority employees - including low-tech workers such as security personnel and baggage handlers - was NIS 14,700, double the national average.



THROUGH THEIR irresponsible behavior on Monday, union leaders have shown they cannot be trusted. Steps must be taken to prevent them from abusing their inordinate power again. The Histadrut must henceforth be forced - whether through legislation or through other means - to require a secret ballot vote among affected workers before launching any strike.

Furthermore, a no-strike rule should be imposed on Ben Gurion which would allow the government to fire aviation workers who abuse the right to strike - just as US president Ronald Reagan did in the 1981 air traffic controllers' strike.

Israel's only international airport must not be allowed to become a bargaining chip in the hands of a few Histadrut functionaries driven by irrational fears.    

A message for Hamas

Hamas's leadership apparently believes it has an interest in escalating tension with Israel. This would explain the new wave of Kassam rockets and mortar fire directed at residential areas adjoining the Gaza Strip in recent days.

The US, the Europeans and others in the international community must urgently make it clear to the heads of Hamas that they are wrong, that bellicosity does not pay.

Mercifully, as of this writing, the latest barrage to hit Israel has not caused any injuries. But the potential for tragedy is considerable - as was demonstrated Wednesday morning when a mortar exploded near a kindergarten in the western Negev just before children were slated to arrive. The consequences of a blast just a few minutes later could have been horrific.

The new belligerence - whether orchestrated by Hamas or by one of the half-dozen al-Qaeda-inspired organizations operating in Gaza given free rein by Hamas - seems to be connected to the recently launched direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

In July, one day after the Arab League gave its blessing to direct talks, Gaza-based Islamists fired an Iranian-made Grad missile at Ashkelon, causing shell shock to several residents and damage to a building and cars. They followed up by lobbing an upgraded Kassam rocket at Sderot, which completely destroyed a children's hydrotherapy rehabilitation center at Sapir College. Grad rockets were also fired at the Red Sea and Aqaba ports by Hamas terrorists operating in Sinai, killing a Jordanian taxi driver.

Hamas and other Muslim extremists are all-too predictably intent on wreaking havoc and undermining even this fragile new effort to achieve peace and coexistence in the region.



ISRAEL'S OBLIGATION, like that of any other democratic sovereign state, is to assure the security and well-being of its citizens. Operation Cast Lead, the IDF's 22-day military assault on Hamas in the winter of 2008-2009, was the inevitable response to thousands of rockets and mortars that had rained down on Israel - an onslaught that had intensified and penetrated ever deeper into Israel after the 2005 withdrawal from the Strip. The operation led to a long period of relative quiet.

In the latest escalation, the IDF has so far limited itself to retaliatory air strikes against specific targets, such as the underground tunnels used for arms smuggling or known Hamas strongholds. But with a moral obligation to defend his citizens, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be unable to exercise restraint for long, especially if, heaven forbid, further fire from Gaza causes greater injury.

The insistent fire is all the more frustrating considering Israel's wrenching demolition of the Gaza settlements and removal of the IDF five years ago, which provided the Palestinian people with the unique opportunity for self-rule.

In a disappointing, though not unexpected, turn of events, Hamas, which promulgates The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its official charter, wrested control over the Israeli-free territory in a bloody coup against the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority and, instead of working toward building an autonomous Palestinian state that could have won international recognition, intensified the barrage of rockets and mortars.

Shortly after the June 2007 Hamas takeover, Israel blockaded Gaza in a failed attempt to stop the inflow of arms and to dissuade Hamas from pursuing terror. Operation Cast Lead was a last resort.

In response, the international community condemned Israel for refusing to suffer quietly. Skewed criticism culminated in the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report. In the wake of the Mavi Marmara debacle, Israel, under further heavy international pressure, was forced to loosen its blockade even after it became clear that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

All this has taught Hamas that terrorism pays.



BUT THE US, the Europeans and others in the international community have an opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

Before Israel is forced to resort to a military operation similar to Cast Lead, the international community must pressure Hamas into desisting from terror and using its energies, instead, to care for the welfare of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

A clear message must be communicated: It is Hamas's destructive policies, such as the current attempt to escalate the conflict with Israel, that are the source of Gaza residents' miseries, not Israel's justified acts of self-defense.

A New Year's insult to our converts

Before Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgement, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, Jews strive for self-improvement, especially in interpersonal relations.

Yet in a mind-boggling exercise in utter disregard for the feelings of others, a lawyer in the State Attorney's Office, representing the State of Israel, has, this week of all weeks, insulted thousands of soldiers, present and past, who converted to Judaism during their stint in the IDF.

"Conversions are taking place, I don't know for how long... without proper authorization," attorney Yochi Gnessin told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday.

"It turns out that some sort of framework was set up which is not supervised in any way by the Chief Rabbinate," added Gnessin, at a savage stroke casting unwarranted doubt on the Jewishness of at least 4,500 converts and their children.

Gnessin, whose self-professed ignorance could have been alleviated had she so much as performed a simple Google search, was referring to the NATIV program, first established in 2001. This offers IDF soldiers - mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union who were not Jewish but received Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return because they were related to Jew - a Jewish studies course. The program including "adoption" by a religious family, and eventually leads to conversion in IDF rabbinical conversion courts.

The rabbinic judges who serve on these courts are all Orthodox rabbis ordained by the Chief Rabbinate and many of them serve on "officially recognized" conversion courts as well. NATIV and the IDF conversion courts have been operating under the tacit, if not expressed, authorization of the Chief Rabbinate.



BY REJECTING the legitimacy of the NATIV program, the state attorney was essentially defending a small number of state employees - the haredi chief rabbis of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rehovot and Rishon LeZion - who are being sued for refusing to register IDF converts for marriage in their respective cities because their conversions are deemed to be invalid.

In a perplexing role reversal, the State of Israel, via Gnessin, is now backtracking on its previous policy, which saw as a national priority the conversion of approximately 350,000 FSU immigrants and their offspring who are not Jewish. As Absorption Ministry officials put it in the State of Israel's 2009 budget, "[State-funded] preparation for conversion is aimed at answering the needs of the [non-Jewish FSU] immigrant and his desire to be a part of the Jewish people, for the purpose of absorption and integration in the community."

Central to this pro-conversion policy was the desire to prevent intermarriage and foster cultural and religious unity.

Instead, the State Attorney's Office has joined the forces of religious extremism which have already overrun the Chief Rabbinate.

This reversal is unfortunate, to put it mildly, since there are many contemporary Orthodox rabbis, like the ones who serve in the IDF's conversion courts, who identify with the state's goal of integration through conversion. They take into consideration that most prospective converts have a Jewish father or some other familial tie with the Jewish people. Though not Jews according to Halacha, these people are considered "the seed of Israel" - zera Yisrael - which means they should be encouraged to convert.

These rabbis have also been more lenient with non-Jews who intend to remain in Israel and tie their destiny to the Jewish people, or who have shown their commitment to the Jewish people's well-being through, say, IDF service.

Orthodoxy's moderate voices, which strive to make Judaism accessible and relevant to as many Israelis as possible, should be heard. If not, pressure will build to change the present religious status quo, a move which will inevitably lead to unnecessary strife.



ON ROSH HASHANA eve, as Iran strides unimpeded toward a nuclear capability, Hamas consolidates its hold over Gaza and threatens stability in the West Bank and Hizbullah gains influence in Lebanon, we should be looking for ways to foster unity and improve relations among ourselves.

Rejecting the Jewishness of thousands of IDF converts is definitely not the way to kick off the new year.

Focus on Iran's nukes

It emerged over the weekend that during his low-key visit to these parts at the end of August, Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, asked Israel to consider signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This was the latest chapter in an ongoing campaign, fueled primarily by Egypt, other Arab states, and Iran, to force Israel to commit itself to a nuclear-free Middle East. Israel is the only country in the region that purportedly has nuclear warheads.

Arab countries scored a major victory with May's NPT Review Conference resolution, which ignored Iran's refusal to cooperate with the IAEA while singling out Israel for censure, though the US communicated important clarifications to Israel ensuring that Israel would not be forced to change its policy.

Amano's aversion to atomic weapons is understandable. Born in Japan just two years after the nightmarish destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the IAEA head, like many of his Japanese peers, is haunted by "the bomb." A better suited head for an international watchdog dedicated to the utopian goal of eradicating nuclear weapons would be hard to come by.

Still, Amano's warm relations with the Jewish state, which contrast with predecessor Mohamed elBaradei's critical stance, should help him appreciate Israel's predicament.

Living in the shadow of the Holocaust, Israelis have their own historical baggage. Paradoxically, the State of Israel, conceived and created to put an end to the Jews' precarious existence, now faces its most serious existential threat. The Islamic Republic's nuclear aspirations, coupled with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to "wipe Israel off the map," are widely perceived by Jews as a sign that Iran is preparing to stage a new attempt at genocide. Ominous in this context is Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial.

"I take Holocaust denial as Holocaust affirmation," journalist Christopher Hitchens recently said of Iran's leader. "People who say it didn't happen are people who wish it would happen again."



NOW IS not the time to coerce Israel into ending its four-decade long, highly responsible policy of nuclear ambiguity, under which the Jewish state neither confirms nor denies its alleged nuclear capability, even for the sake of deterrence - such as during the Yom Kippur War, when Israel was on the verge of being overrun by the combined armies of the Arab nations.

As Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman pointed out in a July 26 letter to the IAEA, singling out Israel "seriously detracts" from efforts to stop Iran and Syria, the Middle East's "real proliferation challenges."

In fact, forcing Israel to abandon opacity could actually spark a nuclearization race in the Middle East and unravel the NPT. In March 2008 the Arab League's member states announced that they would withdraw from the treaty if Israel acknowledged it had nuclear weapons.

Nor is it likely that Israel's many detractors would accept the type of deal reached in July 2005 between India and the US, which allowed India to join Russia, Britain, France, China, and Pakistan in openly possessing nuclear arms without violating international obligations.

Israel has pledged not to be the first to introduce the use of nuclear arms in this region, and has demonstrated responsibility and restraint for decades. That should be enough.



NEITHER ISRAEL nor the democracies of the world that value freedom can afford to change the status quo at a time when all energies must directed against Iran's push to obtain nuclear weapons. Just this week, Ahmadinejad provided additional proof that he must be stopped. While visiting Qatar, he threatened that any military attack on Iran aimed at stopping its nuclear program would result in "the eradication of the Zionist entity."

Meanwhile, Iran-supported Hamas in the Gaza Strip has split the Palestinian leadership and created an immense obstacle to the implementation of any comprehensive peace deal to which the renewed negotiating effort might lead. Iran-supported Hizbullah has destabilized Lebanon, increasing chances of a further conflagration on Israel's northern border.

The Islamic Republic is also working to undermine the fragile stability achieved by US forces in Iraq.

In this geopolitical reality, Israel must maintain uncontested military superiority for the sake of regional peace. Iran cannot be allowed to upset the balance of power.

Perhaps one day Amano's vision of a nuclear-free world can be realized. For the time being a nuclear-free Iran should be his main concern.

Security is a must

The brutality of Tuesday night's shooting remains difficult to grasp, even after years of bitter experience.

Kochava Even-Haim, Avishai Shindler, Yitzhak Ames and his wife, Talia, who was pregnant with her seventh child, were shot as they drove along Route 60 outside Kiryat Arba. According to the security services, the vile Hamas terrorists who perpetrated this horrible murder maintained their fire from extremely close range, to make sure that the four were dead.

On Wednesday night, terrorists struck again, shooting Moshe Moreno and his wife, Shira, near Ramallah. Mercifully, this time, Hamas failed to kill. The Morenos escaped with light-to-moderate wounds.

In the wake of these attacks, senior IDF officials warned that we may be on the brink of a new wave of terror after a period of relative quiet.



PRIMARILY OUT of its desire not to be ousted from the West Bank by Hamas, as it was from Gaza in June 2007, the Palestinian Authority has beefed up its security cooperation with Israel in the past two and a half years. It has been cracking down on Hamas-affiliated imams, teachers and leaders. Coordination with the IDF is no longer hidden. The PA has hosted senior Israeli security officials in Jenin, Tulkarm and Jericho.

Greater mobility as a result of the removal of dozens of checkpoints, along with generous foreign aid, contributed to the 8.5 percent growth in the West Bank's economy in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund. Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, told Army Radio on Thursday that the security situation on the West Bank was much better than two years ago despite the steep reduction in checkpoints.

Nonetheless, even amid this relative calm, F.-Sgt. Yehoshua "Shuki" Sofer was murdered and three other police officers were wounded in June when they were ambushed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen while driving on Route 60 in the Hebron Hills. In February, a senior PA police officer stabbed to death IDF Sgt. Ihad Khatib at the Tapuah junction. Last December, Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades were responsible for the fatal shooting of Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai, a father of seven, near Shavei Shomron, a settlement in northern Samaria.

These acts of terror, seen together with this week's violence and the estimates regarding future attacks, drive home the fragility of security for Israelis in the West Bank, particularly in those parts located on the "wrong" side of the security barrier.

It was encouraging to hear the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking at the US State Department-hosted resumption of direct talks on Thursday, assure Israel of his commitment to security arrangements. Encouraging, but not decisively persuasive. After all, this is the same Abbas who recited the opening sura of the Koran for the "elevation" of the soul of Amin al-Hindi, one of the masterminds of the September 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of 11 athletes and coaches, when he who was laid to rest two weeks ago. It is the same Abbas who in March agreed to name a square in al-Bireh after Dalal Mughrabi, a female terrorist who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre in which 37 Israeli civilians and an American photographer were killed, and 71 were wounded.

In this context, it was telling to hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stress, at the same venue, that security was one of the two pillars of any peace agreement with the Palestinians (along with legitimacy for the sovereignty of Israel as a Jewish state). As the prime minister noted, there can be no reconciliation without security. "Security is a must," he said, even as he warmly reached out to Abbas as his "partner."

Until Israelis, whether they live in Tel Aviv or in Kiryat Arba, can be assured that their negotiating partner is fighting terror - not committing it, fostering it, or legitimizing it as a means of obtaining political objectives - there will not be peace.

Nor should Palestinian terrorists think that by targeting residents of Judea and Samaria they can somehow drive a wedge between Israelis living inside the Green Line and those living beyond it. There are sharp differences of opinion that split Israeli society. The proposed boycott of Ariel's cultural institutions by academics and artists is the latest example of such internal dissent.

But divisions over the settlement project in Judea and Samaria by no means extend to indulgence for loathsome acts of terrorism like the one perpetrated on Tuesday night against four innocent people.

Security is a must

The brutality of Tuesday night's shooting remains difficult to grasp, even after years of bitter experience.

Kochava Even-Haim, Avishai Shindler, Yitzhak Ames and his wife, Talia, who was pregnant with her seventh child, were shot as they drove along Route 60 outside Kiryat Arba. According to the security services, the vile Hamas terrorists who perpetrated this horrible murder maintained their fire from extremely close range, to make sure that the four were dead.

On Wednesday night, terrorists struck again, shooting Moshe Moreno and his wife, Shira, near Ramallah. Mercifully, this time, Hamas failed to kill. The Morenos escaped with light-to-moderate wounds.

In the wake of these attacks, senior IDF officials warned that we may be on the brink of a new wave of terror after a period of relative quiet.



PRIMARILY OUT of its desire not to be ousted from the West Bank by Hamas, as it was from Gaza in June 2007, the Palestinian Authority has beefed up its security cooperation with Israel in the past two and a half years. It has been cracking down on Hamas-affiliated imams, teachers and leaders. Coordination with the IDF is no longer hidden. The PA has hosted senior Israeli security officials in Jenin, Tulkarm and Jericho.

Greater mobility as a result of the removal of dozens of checkpoints, along with generous foreign aid, contributed to the 8.5 percent growth in the West Bank's economy in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund. Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, told Army Radio on Thursday that the security situation on the West Bank was much better than two years ago despite the steep reduction in checkpoints.

Nonetheless, even amid this relative calm, F.-Sgt. Yehoshua "Shuki" Sofer was murdered and three other police officers were wounded in June when they were ambushed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen while driving on Route 60 in the Hebron Hills. In February, a senior PA police officer stabbed to death IDF Sgt. Ihad Khatib at the Tapuah junction. Last December, Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades were responsible for the fatal shooting of Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai, a father of seven, near Shavei Shomron, a settlement in northern Samaria.

These acts of terror, seen together with this week's violence and the estimates regarding future attacks, drive home the fragility of security for Israelis in the West Bank, particularly in those parts located on the "wrong" side of the security barrier.

It was encouraging to hear the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking at the US State Department-hosted resumption of direct talks on Thursday, assure Israel of his commitment to security arrangements. Encouraging, but not decisively persuasive. After all, this is the same Abbas who recited the opening sura of the Koran for the "elevation" of the soul of Amin al-Hindi, one of the masterminds of the September 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of 11 athletes and coaches, when he who was laid to rest two weeks ago. It is the same Abbas who in March agreed to name a square in al-Bireh after Dalal Mughrabi, a female terrorist who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre in which 37 Israeli civilians and an American photographer were killed, and 71 were wounded.

In this context, it was telling to hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stress, at the same venue, that security was one of the two pillars of any peace agreement with the Palestinians (along with legitimacy for the sovereignty of Israel as a Jewish state). As the prime minister noted, there can be no reconciliation without security. "Security is a must," he said, even as he warmly reached out to Abbas as his "partner."

Until Israelis, whether they live in Tel Aviv or in Kiryat Arba, can be assured that their negotiating partner is fighting terror - not committing it, fostering it, or legitimizing it as a means of obtaining political objectives - there will not be peace.

Nor should Palestinian terrorists think that by targeting residents of Judea and Samaria they can somehow drive a wedge between Israelis living inside the Green Line and those living beyond it. There are sharp differences of opinion that split Israeli society. The proposed boycott of Ariel's cultural institutions by academics and artists is the latest example of such internal dissent.

But divisions over the settlement project in Judea and Samaria by no means extend to indulgence for loathsome acts of terrorism like the one perpetrated on Tuesday night against four innocent people.

Educational basics

As 1.48 million first through 12th graders return to school today, it's an opportune time to applaud Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar's educational projects aimed at strengthening Jewish and Zionist values.

In statements ahead of the new school year, Sa'ar has promised to double the number of students who visit Jerusalem - including the City of David - within the framework of school-sponsored field trips. He has called to encourage IDF enlistment by inviting 350 IDF officers to come to high schools to speak with students ahead of their draft and by ranking high schools in accordance with draft rates.

And he is also launching a new program under the guidance of Prof. Binyamin Ish-Shalom called "Israel's Culture and Tradition" - Tarbut Vemoreshet Israel - that will boost the amount of time devoted to the study of Jewish texts.

Sa'ar has come under fire from some quarters, however, in particular for his recent decision, backed by Dr. Zvi Zameret, Chairman of the Pedagogical Secretariat, to erase from state-school history books the Arabs' "Nakba narrative," which sees the creation of the State of Israel as a "disaster." His opponents have argued that the minister is attempting to indoctrinate school children, to deny them the chance to examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an open, critical way.

From a historical perspective it is certainly important for our high school students to be taught that many, if not most, Arab Israelis see the creation of the Jewish state as a disaster, if only to contextualize their violent refusal, just a few years after the Holocaust, to recognize the Jewish peoples' right to self-determination alongside a Palestinian state as advocated by the UN's November 29, 1947 partition plan.

But however the "Nakba" is included in our students' history books, Sa'ar's main point holds true: By no means should we expect students enrolled in schools funded by the world's only Jewish democracy to view the Palestinian or Arab-Israeli narrative of victimization as equally legitimate for the sake of "intellectual openness" - a euphemism for moral relativism.



THE MAIN problem with Sa'ar's educational program is that it reaches too few students. In 2009, only 44 percent of 1.46 million Israeli school children and teenagers were enrolled in secular state schools, while another 15% were enrolled in religious state schools. All the rest went to haredi (15%) or Arab (25%) schools. By 2014, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures, just 54% of 1.56 million students will study at state (40%) or religious state (14%) schools. The rest (47%) will be enrolled at haredi (18%) or Arab (29%) schools.

The impact of this shift on social cohesion is ominous. An increasingly large proportion of students studying in schools funded in full or in part by the State of Israel are receiving an education that is either indifferent or hostile to the Zionist enterprise.

It is unrealistic to expect Arab schools, even those funded by the state, to teach a strongly pro-Zionist historical narrative, though they should be expected to educate their students to recognize and respect Israel as the sovereign state of the Jewish people.

A first step toward fostering a more positive Arab approach to the state would be to eliminate inequalities. Average class size is consistently bigger in Arab schools than in Jewish schools - 30 to 31 children per class in Arab elementary schools compared to 26 in state schools. And disadvantaged Arab students in secondary schools receive about 30% fewer teaching hours per student than their Jewish counterparts.

A still bigger challenge, however, is the haredi school system. There is no reason why these schools, which receive state funds and licensing, should be exempt from educating their students to be patriotic citizens of the Jewish state, or from providing them with the basic skills needed in the modern workplace. If haredi schools refuse to provide that kind of education, they should not be entitled to state funding.

Major demographic changes in Israeli society endanger cultural cohesion. Wise educational policy, like that now being presented by Sa'ar, can help combat this threat, but only if his educational messages can be extended to the rapidly growing haredi and Arab sectors.