Acheinu

On Wednesday night, November 18th, seniors from different yeshivas around the tri-statearea came to Frisch for its annual Israel Night.

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Israeli fashion comes to America.

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Gil Hoffman, foreign political correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, addressed the senior grade on Thursday, October 29. His job gives him the enviable opportunity to speak with the most famous and influential leaders in the world. He honored the senior grade by sharing his knowledge and inspiring personal story.

Hoffman grew up in Chicago with his Israeli parents, but was only inspired to make Aliyah after he spent a year in Israel post high school. He returned to America to attend Northwestern University as a journalism major, with his goal of Aliyah in mind. His hard work quickly gained him an internship, and then a job at the Jerusalem Post where he has been working ever since. Always a staunch defender of Israel, Gil had to beg to be allowed into the army for his one hundred days of service, and is now an advocate for Aliyah.

Hoffman spoke on the Israeli public’s view of Obama, and how Obama has been dealing with Israel. In his Cairo speech, Obama made Jews cringe when he acknowledged the Holocaust, but then spoke of the Palestinian’s suffering as something of equal magnitude. However, the President has tried to gain the Israeli public’s approval by retracting his policy of freezing settlement growth and calling for “restraint” in expansion. To further gain Israeli support, Obama, who once spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister on the phone with his feet in the air, was seen recently with his hand on Netanyahu’s shoulder, a more respectful gesture. As far as the two-state solution, Hoffman says “Israel has done everything possible to advance two states for two peoples”. He says that the official policy of Israel is for a demilitarized Palestinian state, on the condition that the Palestinians stop trying to destroy Israel. Hoffman quoted Obama who said that the Palestinians have a “profound lack of courage” because of their unwillingness to negotiate and compromise with Israel. Despite Obama’s statement, Israeli’s opinion of Obama has decreased.

Hoffman also spoke about how Netanyahu and Obama have been dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat. He says that Netanyahu is “obsessed with [dealing with] Iran” and that Israel and the U.S are working cooperatively to handle the Iranian threat. Dealing with Iran diplomatically and politically has failed, so the two countries will now attempt to pressure Iran economically. If this does not work, then the military practice of the U.S. and Israel will come into play. Obama showed further camaraderie with Israel by giving Israel an advanced radar system that can detect missiles from over a thousand miles away. Hoffman believes that Israel will be well prepared to face Iran militarily if it comes to that.

When asked how he believes college students should respond to the anti-Israel statements they will inevitably hear, Hoffman responded that students must be both proactive and reactive. He advises students to present clear facts on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, as well as non-politically charged positive information about Israel. Hoffman related to the seniors the astonishing fact that Israelis created the popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Israelis also invented Pentium chips and cell phone technology. In addition, nine Israelis out of a nation of seven million have won Nobel Prizes, while only nine out of one and a half billion Muslims have won. It is vital that people are aware of Israel’s positive influence in their everyday lives.

When asked why Hoffman is know as the most optimistic man in Israel, he told the senior writers and editors that his two children, Eliana, ‘God answered our prayers’, and Amichai, ‘the Jewish nation lives’, are proof of the leaps and bounds Israel has taken despite the threat its been under since the beginning. “Israel has accomplished so much”, says Hoffman. He believes that Israel indeed has become a light unto the nations.

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