REFLECTIONS FROM AFAR

While the TA GA grinds on to its Closing....

1. While the GA had 750 (+/-) lay registrants on hand in Tel Aviv, there were 7,000 Evangelical Christians in Jerusalem for their conclave. When Prime Minister Netanyahu describes Evangelicals as "our greatest allies in the United States." Why might that be? Do we care...at all? The Tuesday Plenary saw rows of seats removed while the audience was significantly reduced (many Israeli attendees on Day 1 appeared to have gone back to work.

2. Speaking of the Prime Minister...it appears that things are about to get very real with President Trump. Axios reported (October 22, 2018) that Trump discussed his Mideast "peace plan" with French President Emmanuel Macron and told him that:

"...he will be willing to pressure Netanyahu, if needed, when the moment comes...Trump added that he has given Netanyahu a lot -- like moving the U.S, embassy to Jerusalem. Trump even mentioned that every year the U.S. gives Israel $5 billion in military aid."

No surprise that the President got the amount of aid wrong -- it  was not $5 but $3.8 billion. The President continued: "I can be as tough with Bibi as I have been with the Palestinians." Who among us could have failed to predict that this day would come? 

This has the probability of rapidly becoming as ugly as it was wholly predictable. 

3. Next year there will be some minor gathering (although it would be fair, I think, to characterize that that is exactly what the GA has become under this leadership over the past decade) -- probably for professionals only. Then, in 2020, the GA will return to Chicago where,as we all know, this community will produce 1,000 lay registrants itself. This will also give JFNA time to reorganize for an effective, inspirational General Assembly with real take home value for professional and lay leaders. Suggestion: create a GA Program Planning Committee of lay and professional leaders -- appoint it now and let it get to work.

4. Haaretz' brilliant reporter, Judy Maltz, scored an exclusive when she discovered that:

"In an effort to resolve the crisis with Reform and Conservative Jews in the United States, the Israeli government is bypassing the movements’ leaders and reaching out directly to congregational rabbis..."

Apparently engineered by Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., this "effort" has already coopted Rabbi Ami Hirsch and others. We'll leave it to the Movements to determine if this subversion will work. 

Just another week...

Rwexler