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Annual Campaign Update
The Jewish Federation Annual Campaign had a strong week, with a significant number of gifts closing, and with the average increase on gifts increasing by almost a full percentage point – to over 6%. We now stand at $6.1 million and our dedicated group of community volunteers are working to complete their contacts with community members who have not yet made their commitments.

Over the next few weeks we will be contacting many of you who have a history of supporting our campaign but who have not yet made your gifts. In addition to our volunteers, we will be using a professional call centre, as we have for the past few years, as well as direct mail. But you don’t have to wait for us. You can make your gift online now, or by calling 604.257.5100.

Cease Fire Brings Quiet But Not Confidence
The cease fire between Hamas and other militant forces in Gaza with Israel that took hold Wednesday was welcome news on many fronts, most especially as it came as Israel appeared ready to move ahead with a ground assault. Hopefully the quiet will hold, and for more than a short while. Given the ambiguous nature of the agreement, the sad reality is that the intense burst of violence last week is most likely but a prelude to the next round of conflict.

In the lead up to this conflict, Israeli civilians were subject to a steady and increasing volume of rocket attacks. As Stockwell Day pointed out at Wednesday night’s community briefing at Temple Sholom, we should probably stop calling these things rockets, as if they were the kind that kids buy at a hobby shop and shoot off in a park. These are bombs, propelled by rockets. So if we want to be precise, Hamas and other militant groups like Islamic Jihad were engaged in sustained aerial bombardment of a civilian population. And no government can allow its civilians to be targeted in this way. With Hamas demonstrating its capacity with longer range missiles, 4.5 million Israelis were within range of areas being blanketed with rocket fire. And really, we should recognize, given the mass of short and long range missiles stockpiled by both Hamas and Hizbollah, that virtually all of Israel lives under the constant threat of missile attack.

The program on Wednesday included a briefing by Eliaz Luf, Israel’s Deputy Ambassador, and strong statements of support from Stockwell Day, former Minister for Public Safety; current Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, and Bonnie Traversy from the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. A transcript of Minister Kenney's remarks is available to read online. Paul Goldman, co-chair for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, asked for the audience’s participation in reaching out to local Members of Parliament to thank them for their political party’s strong support of Israel in this situation (in the case of the Conservative and Liberal Parties) or to ask them to rethink their position (in the case of the NDP). Visit the CIJA website to learn more.

Mitchell Gropper, Board Chair of the Federation, reminded everyone that while it falls to the Israeli government to ensure the safety of its citizens, it falls to us to help those whose lives were torn apart by the conflict to put the pieces back together. The Israel Crisis Relief Fund, opened by the Federation, directly addresses these needs by helping the families of those killed or injured, providing respite for children away from the conflict zone, and ensuring the continued delivery of emergency and other critical services to vulnerable populations, including the elderly, disabled and new immigrants.

Our thanks to the CIJA leadership and staff for their work in co-sponsoring Wednesday night’s briefing. And a special thanks to Rabbi Philip Bregman for his role as emcee, and to Temple Sholom for hosting the program.

A number of people have asked me about the question of proportionality of Israel’s response to the attacks it faced. After all, Israel only experienced 4 deaths and 252 injuries from the aerial bombardment, plus another 22 wounded Wednesday in the bus bombing in Tel Aviv, compared with a larger number of fatalities and injuries on the Palestinian side. First of all, we should all recognize that the gap is primarily a function of the extraordinary investments Israel has had to make to ensure that the one million civilians in the south of the country have access to bomb shelters and otherwise reinforced spaces that they can get to within 15-30 seconds. This fact is so far from our reality that I don’t know if you can fathom it unless you have seen it on the ground in Israel. But since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, in both the north and south of the country, enormous resources have gone into civil preparedness to ensure that everyday citizens can ride out the storm of rockets. And for populations like seniors and the disabled, there are ongoing networks of trained professionals and volunteers, a result of our investments from the 2006 Israel Emergency Campaign, who are in place to support these vulnerable groups in times of crisis.

The second factor is the Iron Dome defense system. When first introduced, the Israelis themselves were cynical about whether this very expensive system would make any difference. Well it proved itself this past week. The system is able to determine the trajectory and project a landing point the moment a missile is launched. If the missile will hit an open area, there’s no response other than the warning siren. If the missile is headed to a populated area, the Iron Dome system launches an intercepting rocket and explodes the bomb midair. Ninety percent of the rockets fired by the Iron Dome system were successful and intercepted incoming missiles. That is just an extraordinary technological feat. There is simply no question that this system prevented a significant number of deaths and injuries, as well as extensive infrastructure damage. Maybe the right question of proportionality is to ask what steps the Hamas government has taken, knowing they will repeatedly seek to incite war, to protect their own civilian population.

Proportionality? Hamas waged war with the sole military objective of terrorizing and killing a civilian population. Israel responded with the sole military objective of stopping the attacks from Hamas and other militant groups. I’m puzzled as to how the question of proportionality even arises.

Throughout the eight days of intensive conflict, notwithstanding some symbolic statements from West Bank Palestinian leaders, the West Bank was quiet. The reality on the West Bank is that the Palestinian Authority has focused on the business of building a state, strengthening its economy, educating its children and raising its standard of living. If you visit Ramallah today, it is a booming, growing city. Today’s Globe and Mail had an article reporting on Abu Mazen’s loss of profile and influence after this week’s conflict, because Hamas succeeded in drawing the world’s attention to Gaza. Maybe the world needs to take a look at what behaviors it wants to reward. There will be peace in Gaza, and from Gaza, when the Palestinian leaders of Gaza get focused on the work of national building. The sad truth - it probably won’t happen any time soon.

Shabbat shalom!