Council Matters

We welcome you to another edition of the Israel Connection, brought to you by THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and the Baltimore Jewish Council. This e-newsletter includes such items as: news updates about Israel and the Middle East, Action Alerts, and upcoming programming. Our goal is to provide you with relevant information that you can use in your advocacy efforts and to express your support and solidarity with the people of Israel. We welcome your feedback - please email us at lkatzen@baltjc.org or call Lynn Katzen at the Baltimore Jewish Council at 410-542-4850 with your comments.

The past week has witnessed renewed attacks by Hamas against the residents of Sderot and Ashkelon.

Hamas is a terrorist organization, backed by Iran, actively seeking Israel’s destruction. Using Gaza as a launching pad for indiscriminate attacks against Israel, Hamas has moved the region ever-closer to voiding any chance for a viable peace.

The articles listed below will hopefully provide further insight regarding the situation.

The Sderot Calculus
By Bret Stephens, February 26, 2008, The Wall Street Journal
The Israeli town of Sderot lies less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the intifada seven years ago, it has borne the brunt of some 2,500 Kassam rockets…read more

The Next Mideast War, Just a Rocket Away
By Michael B. Oren, March 2, 2008 – The Washington Post
It begins with a single Quassam rocket, on the thousands of homemade projectiles fired in recent years by the Islamic radicals of Hamas from the Gza strip into Israel…read more

Gaza Pitfall In Every Path
By Helene Cooper - March 3, 2008 – The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Ever since the militant Islamist organization Hamas took over Gaza eight months ago, President Bush’s peace plan for the Middle East has been to prop up the more moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas in the hopes that Palestinians would rally behind him as man who could bring them statehood and make Hamas irrelevant…read more

Right to fight
Israel's least bad response to rocket barrages is to take the offensive against Hamas
By Ira Rifkin - The Baltimore Sun – March 5, 2008
Israel has no good choices in its ongoing battle against Hamas rocket barrages from Gaza, because the Islamist terror organization has no interest in negotiating a rational compromise that would end the fighting and allow Israelis and Palestinians to learn to live with each other…read more