{"id":23898,"date":"2017-04-21T03:31:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T10:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23898"},"modified":"2017-04-20T22:32:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T05:32:17","slug":"a-guide-for-the-perplexed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/04\/21\/a-guide-for-the-perplexed\/","title":{"rendered":"A guide for the perplexed"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Brog\u2019s latest book was written for students looking to know more about Israel. (photo from David Brog)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

During the Oslo Process of the 1990s, David Brog was quite optimistic about peace in Israel. Now, in light of a generation\u2019s worth of Palestinian terrorist incitement and attacks, his opinion has changed.<\/p>\n

However, what the scholar and author is <\/em>optimistic about is that a better educated public on Israel issues will garner increased support for the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

For the past 12 years, Brog has been involved in pro-Israel advocacy, including heading the group Maccabee Task Force, which combats boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activities on college campuses. He is also executive director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an American pro-Israel organization. In March, he released Reclaiming Israel\u2019s History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace<\/em>, a book he says was in response to scores of students desperately seeking a single volume of facts about what\u2019s been happening in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they get to college, they\u2019re told terrible lies about Israel. They\u2019re told Israel is an occupier, an obstacle to peace, a human rights abuser. And, not knowing better, they believe it,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe book really summarizes what I think are the most important things to know about Israel\u2019s history if you were someone who wants to defend Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bookContrary to various public relations efforts, he believes that the primary language to do the convincing is evidence-based dialogue, rather than touting Israel\u2019s material successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way to confront the big lie is not just to talk about how wonderful Tel Aviv nightlife is, and not just to talk about how amazing Israeli start-ups are. I do think we have to dirty our hands and talk about the conflict, and the history of conflict,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

That means understanding why the peace process seems to perennially stall, or often move backwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you freeze the frame today, the way almost everyone does, people think that the Israelis are \u2018occupying\u2019 the West Bank, and it\u2019s best to pressure them to leave, to make way for two states, and then there\u2019ll be peace,\u201d he said. \u201cBut whatever you see, you have to know that what\u2019s happening is not the product of Israeli intransigence or Israeli unwillingness to compromise. It\u2019s the product of this Palestinian rejectionism that has driven the conflict from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Israel\u2019s birth, in fact, there have been five offers of a Palestinian state, each time flatly refused, he said. But it wasn\u2019t simply that the proposals were rebuffed \u2013 it was that Israel didn\u2019t have a peace partner to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw danger signs along the way \u2013 almost from day one. We saw [Yasser] Arafat saying one thing in English and a very different, troubling thing in Arabic. We saw Arafat turning a blind eye to terror against Israelis \u2013 not try to stop it. And, later, we saw him competing with Hamas to see who could blow up more Israelis,\u201d Brog explained. \u201cThere was the Second Intifada. I think that changed me, and it changed [then-prime minister Ehud] Barak, and it changed a lot of Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Brog noted: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t educate his people toward peace and coexistence. He doesn\u2019t educate his people toward the validity of Jewish claims. Instead, he incites to terror and he generously funds terror.\u2026 It\u2019s got to call into question [whether] they would actually ever recognize Israel, end the conflict and not use any land they are giving as a base from which to attack Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the situation, Brog \u2013 once a \u201cgreat supporter of a two-state solution\u201d \u2013 said, \u201cI don\u2019t see how these compromises would actually produce peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s endless opportunity for lay leaders to learn more about Israel. He is hopeful that his book will enlighten those who are either ignorant or misinformed, resulting in fewer fallacies being spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are not anti-Israel because of the reality,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re anti-Israel because of a myth, because of a distortion, because of a lie. And, therefore, if we tell Israel\u2019s truth, and we tell it repeatedly, and we tell it proudly, and we dispel the myths, I think we can make enormous progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/strong> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Brog\u2019s latest book was written for students looking to know more about Israel. (photo from David Brog) During the Oslo Process of the 1990s, David Brog was quite optimistic about peace in Israel. Now, in light of a generation\u2019s worth of Palestinian terrorist incitement and attacks, his opinion has changed. However, what the scholar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[6986,4330],"class_list":["post-23898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-david-brog","tag-israel"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}