Rabbi Cosgrove's Educational Message

I had posted on March 30 at 3:15 PM a Facebook comment that reads so about this event:-

Stupid is as stupid does.

"Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue says that speaker after speaker at AIPAC said that Israel is not an apartheid state, but his own daughter squirmed and pointed out, If Palestinians can't vote, doesn't that make it an apartheid state?"

They can vote. For Palestinian elections. But Abbas won't hold them. Undemocratic Palestinian Authority, not apartheid Israel.

That comment originated from this post which related the Rabbi's words at this event.

Here:

My point was that this is a charge that is quite easily dismissed.  If the daughter was referring to Israel, which I do not think she was, it is a ridiculous charge.  One place to learn the truth, among many, is EOZ's posters.

My presumption, however, is that she was referring to the situation of Arabs in Judea and Samaria who live under a military government (surprise, so do the Jews) and cannot vote for that administration which, to an extent, is an outreach of Israel's government for which we Israelis do vote.  And that is why is added:

They can vote. For Palestinian elections. But Abbas won't hold them. Undemocratic Palestinian Authority, not apartheid Israel.

When was Abbas last elected to the position of President of the Palestinian Authority?

January 9, 2005.  That is, er, more than 11 years ago.

If she was referring to a charge of "apartheid roads", I ask the Rabbi to show her my post
and my video (explanation here).  And he should ask here: how come Jews are killed by Arab terrorists in drive-by shootings if the roads are prohibited to be driven on by Arabs?

David E Y Sarna‏ was quite upset and on Mar 31 tweeted to me:

No evidence Rabbi did not teach his daughter. Just your own lashon hara. Apologize to him.

I replied to the former entrepreneur, blogger and almost author:

You ask him (if he taught his daughter). If he did, let me know and I'll apologize. Have you asked him? I am waiting to apologize. Or not.

I am still waiting. 

In the meantime, I see that Rabbi Cosgrove, the Senior Rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue, Manhattan, back in December published this:

...far too often for far too many American Jews, we are left to wonder whether Israel loves us as much as we love Israel. We see an Israel that does not recognize the Judaism we practice...there is a moment, a moment in which we are living right now, that American Jewry’s historic reflexive support of Israel will no longer be a given.

American Jewry isn’t able to reconcile the dream of Israel as a liberal democracy and the death of the two-state solution; it is unable or unwilling to defend Israeli actions in the court of world or campus opinion. God help the person who criticizes a member of my family whom I love and loves me unconditionally, but for someone whose love for me is in question – well, that person, or in this case, that country will have to learn to fend for itself.

Is that the education he imparts to his family, not to mention his congregation?

If he would relay to me her email, I'll be in direct contact to assist her as to her concerns.


____________

UPDATE:


See also Caroline Glick:

Can we draw a line when seemingly mainstream leaders join the ranks of Shifrah and JVP in libeling Israel? Can we walk away from prominent American Jews who indicate that as far as they are concerned, Israel is a moral burden that they are having a hard time carrying because they believe – and propagate – slanders of Israeli society and of the IDF? Consider the case of Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove. Cosgrove is the rabbi of the toney Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.

Last week Cosgrove joined the radical chorus of voices advancing the Israel is Apartheid slander.

According to Mondoweiss, in an event at his synagogue following the AIPAC conference, Cosgrove spoke of his daughter’s uneasiness at the sound of speaker after speaker rejecting the false allegation that Israel is an apartheid state.

Cosgrove said that his daughter pointed to the fact that the Palestinians do not vote for the Knesset as proof that Israel is in fact apartheid.

As Yisrael Medad noted on his website, Cosgrove’s daughter’s statement was utter nonsense.

Why would Palestinians vote for the Knesset when they have the right to vote in the Palestinian elections? The Palestinian Authority, not Israel, is their governing body.

It isn’t Israel’s fault that PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has failed to hold an election since 2006.

The fact that Rabbi Cosgrove was unwilling to point this obvious truth out to his daughter, and indeed, the fact he thought her ignorant slur was worth repeating publicly and supportively to his congregants speaks volumes about his own anti-Israel prejudices.

Medad also noted that in an article in The Jerusalem Post last year, Cosgrove threatened Israel with a withdrawal of American Jewish communal support.

Cosgrove wrote, “American Jewry isn’t able to reconcile the dream of Israel as a liberal democracy and the death of the two-state solution; it is unable or unwilling to defend Israeli actions in the court of world or campus opinion.”

There is a straight line between Shifrah’s false claim that Israel needlessly and maliciously killed 2,300 Palestinians in Gaza in the 2014 war with Hamas and Cosgrove’s insinuations that Israel and its military actions are to blame for the absence of peace with the Palestinians.  Both are slanderous attacks against Israel. Their goal is not to cultivate a dialogue but to justify condemnations and opposition to Israel.

P.S.

And I again asked Sarna if Rabbi Cosgrove has denied, explained or admitted to his quoted words.  No reply still. ^