The Independent Committee tasked with selecting a list of speakers for The Big Tent event held a cordial and constructive meeting in Manchester on Wednesday afternoon (9 November) chaired by Vivian Wineman, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Lucille Cohen, President of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region.
A list of diverse and exciting potential speakers representing a balanced range of views across the pro-Israel camp was agreed, with the input of the Organising Committee. Rabbi Guttentag, the convenor of The Big Tent event, who was present by Skype at the meeting, expressed his delight at the process and the outcome.
So, in other words, the issue that dominates Israel's Hasbarah agenda, which a good number believes actually 'causes' or even 'justifies' the BDS, the delegitimisation, the 'bad' press, etc. - which is we all know is the presence of 350,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria in 140 communities, that which is termed an "occupation" - will not be addressed by anyone who can explain, analyze and provide answers who actually lives there and deals with the topic on a day-to-day basis at the present since no one who can deal with it, either at a plenum session or at a workshop, as far as I know has been invited.
Is this logical?
Well,, it seems there is a logic at work here but it is perhaps perverse.
Geoffrey Alderman, in the UK Jewish Chronicle, points to a problem in institutional hierachy:
that UJIA chair and chief trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council, Mick Davis, was promoting a 'New Order' that he and the JLC intended to impose upon British Jewry
He direct our attention to "the recent goings-on in Manchester, where the well-meaning efforts of one rabbi to fly the flag for Israel have resulted not merely in his personal marginalisation at the hands of the JLC, and not merely in the supersession, by the JLC and Davis, of the functions and authority of the Deputies; they have resulted in the overturning of a status quo..."
and details:
...the Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute identified the UK - in particular London - as a "global hub" for those intent on delegitimising the Jewish state. Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag, of the Orthodox Whitefield synagogue in Manchester, determined to do something about this. He began to contact sponsors and speakers with a view to holding a "Big Tent for Israel" conference in Manchester...It has been hijacked by those with a different agenda...
...a spiteful campaign against it [was triggered]...last month Davis sent Rabbi Guttentag a breathtaking letter, threatening that if he did not agree to this equality of status then the JLC, along with the UJIA, the Union of Jewish Students and the Board, would find it "very difficult" to participate in the conference. The threat built on one issued by Board president Vivian Wineman...
Seems that
The committee now responsible for choosing speakers will be chaired by United Synagogue president Stephen Pack and is expected to include some Progressive representation.
Progressive means Reform so religious representation means more than Yesha? Are Yesha spokepersons the new 'outcasts' for the Jewish community?
I guess they have not yet learned in the UK what Lyndon Johnson said:
“Better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in”
Isi Liebler took on Davis as expanded upon here, noting
Davis, he wrote, “brazenly incites his fellow Jews to criticize Israel.” Leibler went on:
“While occupying the role of chairman of the UIJA resident in London, he had the chutzpa to berate the Israeli prime minister ‘for lacking the courage to take the steps’ to advance the peace process, arguing that ‘I don’t understand the lack of strategy in Israel.’ He also employed the terminology of our enemies, predicting an ‘apartheid state’ unless Israel was able to achieve a two-state solution – unashamedly blaming Israelis rather than Palestinians for being the obstacle to peace.
“His sheer arrogance was best demonstrated in his most outrageous remark: ‘I think the government of Israel has to recognize that their actions directly impact on me as a Jew living in London, UK When they do good things, it is good for me; when they do bad things, it is bad for me… I want them to recognize that.’”
As Jonathan Hoffman revealed
Mick Davis referred to Isi Leibler as "that mad Australian who seems to be against everybody".
Will Manchester be Davis' Waterloo?
____________________
Subject: Press Release- Independent Committee- BIG TENT FOR ISRAEL.
9.9.11
The Independent Committee tasked with selecting a list of speakers for The Big Tent event held a cordial and constructive meeting in Manchester on Wednesday afternoon (9 November) chaired by Vivian Wineman, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Lucille Cohen, President of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region.
A list of diverse and exciting potential speakers representing a balanced range of views across the pro-Israel camp was agreed, with the input of the Organising Committee. Rabbi Guttentag, the convenor of The Big Tent event, who was present by Skype at the meeting, expressed his delight at the process and the outcome.
Lucille Cohen,
President,
Jewish Representative Council of Greater MancHester and Region
and
Vivian Wineman,
President,
Board of Deputies of BrItish Jews.
--
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