I would like to share a few reflections on President Obama’s
scheduled visit to Israel next week.
Excitement in the air
The last time Mr. Obama came to Israel was in 2008, when he
was running for President. Two pictures
taken during that trip appear below. The first shows then-Senator Obama meeting
with then-Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni—who is currently hoping to serve as
Israel’s chief negotiator in talks with the Palestinians in the new government
that Prime Minister Netanyahu is putting together:
(Incidentally, that picture was taken at the police station in Sderot. In the background you can see the many spent rockets from Gaza that have been collected over the years.)
The second picture from Mr. Obama’s last visit to Israel was
taken at what I hope is a familiar site.
There has been a lot of attention in the media surrounding the President’s upcoming visit. That’s not to say that Mr. Obama is popular with everyone here. He isn’t. News anchors do not hesitate to remind their listeners that Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky relationship. (Incidentally, it hasn’t always been rocky. Not too long ago, when the President personally intervened to help secure and evacuate the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Mr. Netanyahu praised Mr. Obama effusively. But the news media tend to focus on conflict and controversy rather than comity.)
Commentators have engaged in endless speculation regarding
how the President’s trip will play out. Every aspect of the trip—every site that the
President will visit, and every site that he won’t; the foods he will eat and
the foods that he won’t (about which I’ll have more to say below)—is being
scrutinized.
For example, as of now the President is not scheduled to
address the Knesset (Israel’s parliament).
This has been met with disappointment. Several legislators have written to the President,
urging him to reconsider because they feel that the Knesset is the ideal venue
for him to address the Israeli people.
Other legislators have their own reasons. For example, Moshe Feiglin, a member of Prime
Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party, expressed disappointment because he had been hoping
to stage a public walkout of the Knesset during Obama’s speech. (Perhaps this has something to do with the
decision not to schedule a speech there.)
Inevitably, the question of President Obama pardoning Jonathan
Pollard has come up. So far, Pollard has
served 28 years in prison for spying on the United States on behalf of
Israel. (For Wikipedia’s version of this
unfortunate story, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
.) Every Israeli leader who will be
meeting with Obama, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres, has
been asked to request Jonathan Pollard’s pardon. The Pollard family has asked that Israelis in
general and Israeli leaders in particular treat Mr. Obama with great respect
during his upcoming visit, and not seek to embarrass him. Time will tell whether they will heed this
request. (Incidentally, even without a
presidential pardon, it is anticipated that Pollard’s life sentence will be
commuted by the time he completes thirty years of prison, in 2015.)
Obama also hopes to visit the Palestinian city of Ramallah
during his trip.
The President is not that popular there either. As one Palestinian interviewed on the news
yesterday put it, “He’s not coming to eat humus and falafel here. He’s coming
because it’s in the best interests of the United States to reach out. But I wish he were offering some concrete
proposals.”
Speaking of concrete proposals, the President will
apparently not be offering any to try to re-start negotiations between the
Israelis and the Palestinians. Or so he
and his representatives have made clear. This seems to have been met with
relief among many, yet others are not so sanguine. Yes, the West Bank seems
calm now. But in fact, the situation is fundamentally unstable. Israel, a thriving democracy, exercises
military, political and economic control over the lives of two million
stateless Palestinians, inevitably breeding resentment and hostility. There have been a number of incidents over
the past few weeks that suggest that the situation could explode at any
time. (See here: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/with-recent-escalation-in-west-bank-israelis-and-palestinians-edge-closer-to-boiling-point.premium-1.505304
.) Perhaps the President is wise not to
bring new ideas at this time. But hopefully
they will arise and be considered seriously by the parties, sooner rather than
later.
An enthusiastic ambassador
The President could not have a more enthusiastic supporter
and cheerleader here than the American ambassador to Israel, Daniel
Shapiro.
Mr. Shapiro, it seems, is everywhere, promoting the
American-Israeli alliance. One day he’s visiting a football game in the Tel
Aviv area, another day he’s meeting new American olim (immigrants). I met him
at Rabbi David Hartman’s funeral last month. He’s bright, professional, and personable. And he’s no stranger to the Boston area. He graduated from Brandeis and did graduate
work at Harvard. And gosh, can he speak
Hebrew: watch the following YouTube video
of him answering questions on television in
Hebrew about the President’s upcoming trip.
Even the news anchors are impressed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ViNny13j3ho
.
Under Mr. Shapiro’s leadership, the U.S. embassy is using Facebook
rather creatively to improve Israeli perceptions of America here. For example, the embassy is holding a
contest: they’re giving away 20 tickets
to attend the President’s major address here next week to the people who provide
the most original and creative reasons why they should be invited:
Other fun and irreverent contests show up on the page as
well. For example, recently the
Ambassador posted the following question:
President
Obama is the real deal, but which of these Presidents did you like best?
A
- Mackenzie Allen
B
- Josiah "Jed" Bartlett
C
- David Palmer
If you really want to get to know Ambassador Shapiro, take a
look at the Purim costumes he and his wife recently wore (scroll down on his Facebook
page, which you can access here: https://www.facebook.com/AmbassadorDanShapiro?fref=ts
).
Nu?
I began this post with a question: How is this presidential visit different
from all other visits?
The answer, of course, has to do with Passover, so let me
say a little about that.
Obviously, Passover is coming. (Today is Rosh Hodesh Nisan, so we have
exactly two weeks to go.) In the States,
we know when Passover is coming because, in the supermarkets, there are special
sections (usually at the ends of certain aisles) with large signs that say,
“Kosher for Passover.” And what do you
find there? Usually, traditional Eastern
European Jewish foods like gefilte fish and borscht, as well as matzo.
Here in Israel, it’s different. Yes, there are “Kosher for Passover” signs. But they’re all over the store! And there are signs everywhere else as well,
signs that read, “Hametz!” Also, the kinds of foods in the Kosher for Passover
sections are different. There is much
more variety than you would find in the States.
Finally, you can find lots and lots of food that is kosher for Passover
but which contains “kitniyot,”
(legumes of one kind or another, traditionally not eaten by Ashkenazim on
Pesach). For example, today I saw Kosher
for Passover rice, humus, and tofu! Those
aren’t too easy to find in the States.
Even if you didn’t step foot in a supermarket you would be
reminded that Passover is coming, because Egypt is suffering from a plague of
locusts, and those locusts are now finding their way into Israel! I kid you not: swarms of locusts are crossing the Israeli
border and threatening farms in the Negev.
Take a look:
This has led to some interesting stories in the paper. Many varieties of locusts, as some of you may
be aware, are kosher. They’re apparently
quite tasty, and so a number of local chefs have recently shared recipes for locust
dishes. If you have a stomach for it,
take a look at the Wall Street Journal
video accessible at the following site: http://www.janglo.net/index.php?option=com_adsmanager&page=display&catid=99&tid=256672
)
Which leads me finally to the answer to the question I posed
at the beginning of this posting. How
indeed is our President’s upcoming visit to Israel different from any other
presidential visit?
The answer is this:
Although President Obama is going to be visiting Israel before (and not during) Passover, all of the
food that he will be served at the King David Hotel, where he and his staff
will be staying, will be Kosher for Passover.
And why is that? The
reason is simple: there is just no time between the end of the President’s
visit and the beginning of Passover for the hotel kitchens to be kashered, so it
is all going to have to happen in advance.
Which means that the President will not be served any of those delicious
Israeli rolls or pitas or bourekas—even though it won’t yet be Passover! But,
not to worry: the chefs at the King David Hotel have it well under
control. In case you need convincing, take
a look at the following article:
Let me conclude by wishing everyone a happy and a kosher
Passover. I hope that the holiday will be a wonderful opportunity
to be together with friends and family, and that everyone will enjoy a festive
seder – but I hope that the seder will be more than a feast. I hope it will present opportunities for each
of us to talk about freedom and about the many different ways in which we can
each contribute to greater freedom in our communities, in Israel, and
throughout the world.
Hag Sameach!
Sincerely,
Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
