Call for pact to combat terrorism.
Web posted at: 7/19/2008
Source ::: AFP
The Secretary General of the Muslim World League Dr Abdullah bin Abdulmuhsin Al Turki during the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid yesterday. (AFP)
MADRID • Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders yesterday called for an international agreement to combat terrorism, at the end of a landmark Saudi-organised conference.
The representatives of the world’s great monotheistic religions also appealed for a special session of the UN General Assembly to promote dialogue and prevent “a clash of civilizations.”
“Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way,” participants at the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final communique.
“This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world.”
They called for more “ways of enhancing understanding and cooperation among people despite differences in their origins, colours and languages,” and a “rejection of extremism and terrorism.”
Around 200 participants attended the gathering in Madrid, organised by the Makkah-based Muslim World League from an initiative by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and aimed at bringing the world’s great monotheistic faiths closer together.
Among the representatives were the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, Michael Schneider, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is in charge of the Vatican’s relations with Muslims. Tauran said Pope Benedict XVI had expressed “a great interest” in the conference. “His Holiness is convinced that dialogue based on love and truth is the best way to contribute to harmony, happiness and peace for the people of the earth,” he told the closing session.
The cardinal said the conference had “stressed the main convictions that we have in common.”
The secretary general of the Muslim World League, Abdullah bin Abdulmuhsin Al Turki, said more such conferences are planned, including possibly one in Japan. The event took place against a backdrop of tensions between the Islamic world and the West since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
They range from restrictions on the use of the veil by Muslim women in some European countries to cartoons regarded as blasphemous by Muslims and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Organisers had billed the conference as a chance for the different religions to “get to know each other.”
In that limited respect, observers said it had succeeded. It also demonstrated King Abdullah’s desire to restore the tarnished image of Islam in the West since 9/11.
“I expect some important Jewish leaders will be taking back positive reports about the opportunity to engage with Muslims,” said Walter Ruby, in charge of Muslim-Jewish relations at the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
He noted some prior resistance to the event among conservative Jewish elements in the US, “who are suspicious about Muslims and feel this is a PR thing… But I think it was a bold and important step. It was King Adbullah’s ‘Perestroika’ moment,” he said.
One leading Muslim participant reported a “very good feeling” during the three days of talks. “Nowadays, you have news about war everywhere, but there is no news about peace. At this conference, we sat down and had very good relations,” the secretary general of the Kuwait-based World Organisation of Pan-Islamic Jurisprudence, Al Seyed AbolGhasem Al Dibaji, said.
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Rabbi aims to improve Muslim-Jewish ties
By BEN SALES , Jul 11, 2008
Rabbi David Rosen, who has been invited to an interfaith conference in Madrid hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah next week, said Thursday that he expects to make significant progress in Muslim-Jewish relations while there.
Rabbi David Rosen
Rosen is the only Israeli rabbi to be invited to the conference, which will host 200 spiritual leaders from July 16-18, including representatives from Iran, Lebanon and Syria. Several American rabbis from varying streams have also been invited.
Born in England, Rosen moved to Israel in 1967 and now serves as the president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation, based in Jerusalem. While he acknowledges the controversy surrounding the conference, Rosen sees attendance as an opportunity to bridge cultural barriers and bring about political reconciliation.
{ what this article forgot to mention is that Rabbi Rosen has also a British Passport - so he was not invited as Israeli but as British. No Israelis were invited period! For even handedness perhapse, also no Palestinians were invited. }
“This is just a first step in breaking stereotypes and increasing communication between the Jewish and Muslim worlds, even the Israeli and Arab worlds, and decreasing the violent abuse of religion,” Rosen told The Jerusalem Post. “I believe that we have everything to gain through encouraging this process and a great deal to lose if we turn our back on it.”
Even so, Rosen feels that Saudi Arabia has an ulterior motive in sponsoring the conference and that limited benefits will come out it.
“The primary motive is that the king of Saudi Arabia understands that the image of his land has a serious problem in the Western world and would like to demonstrate how it can be positively and constructively involved in confronting challenges,” he said. “Obviously, whatever the Saudis want to achieve, they feel that they have to do it step-by-step.”
Rosen’s main qualm with the conference is that it includes neither an official Israeli representative nor a Palestinian delegate. While he is an Israeli citizen, Rosen is not listed as such by the conference.
“One thing we’ll have to make clear is that the Jewish people sees Israel as central to its national identity,” he said. “Israel has been intensely discriminated against; so have the Palestinians. You cannot claim to have a full dialogue with the Jewish people if Israel is not officially represented.”
The Spanish government, however, feels that the conference is an important first step in dialogue.
“The Spanish government is part of the interfaith and intercultural movement,” said an official for the Spanish embassy. “Spain has its origins in the middle ages from the three monotheistic religions. That was a golden age for the coexistence of the three religions.”
While Rosen believes that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to these negotiations and plans to address it in private discussions at the conference, he does not plan to raise the issue publicly because of cultural understandings in Arab society.
“Anybody who has any experience with public encounters in the Arab world knows there’s a public choreography where you have to show loyalty to the cause,” he said. “The last thing the Saudis want is to lose any credibility as champions of the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian cause.”
Despite these challenges, Rosen feels that dialogue with hostile nations, however intolerant, is crucial to reaching an understanding.
“There are well known Israelis that say that Israel should only have contact with entities that are democratic,” he said. “If that’s the approach, Israel will wait a very long time and through lots of bloodshed. You should engage the most problematic of dictatorial regimes and through those negotiations have a salutary effect on those countries that will hope lead to a democratic regime.”
Representatives of one totalitarian regime with whom Rosen will be in contact are members of an Iranian delegation of ayatollahs to the conference. Rosen is not worried about the meeting, as he has met Iranian officials before.
“It would not be a problem to meet the ayatollahs whom I’ve met at different places,” he said. “By definition, those ayatollahs who go to these conferences aren’t the ones who call the shots, but you have no idea what impact changing their perspectives has.”
While some have criticized Rosen for his plans to attend the conference, he feels that he is doing the right thing. “There are those who accuse me of serving as a fig-leaf for the Saudis, playing into their legitimating,” he said. “Anyone who’s not criticized is not doing anything worth doing.”
As Prepared For Delivery - Berlin, Germany, July 24th, 2008
Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning – his dream – required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.
This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.
The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.
And that’s when the airlift began – when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.
The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.
But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won…The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty…People of the world, look at Berlin!”
People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.
Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.
People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall – a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope – walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers – dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.
In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we’re honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.
In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth – that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.
Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more – not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.
We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.
So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.
That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations – and all nations – must summon that spirit anew.
This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.
This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.
This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.
This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century – in this city of all cities – we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.
This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.
This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations – including my own – will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust – not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.
Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur?
Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on the world.
People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.
Barack Obama spoke in Berlin addressing a crowd estimated at over 200,000. (Photo: AP / Jae C. Hong)
Berlin - Barack Obama Thursday challenged a new generation of Americans and Europeans to tear down walls between estranged allies, races, and faiths in a soaring call for global unity at an unprecedented mass campaign rally in Berlin.
The Democratic White House candidate told tens of thousands of people near the footprint of the old Berlin Wall that humanity faced a perilous turning point, and it was time to build “a world that stands as one.”
“The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another,” said Obama, who has scorched through US politics at lightning speed to challenge Republican John McCain for the White House in November’s election.
The strikingly audacious speech, in a fevered atmosphere in Berlin’s famed Tiergarten, took the White House race out of US borders in a way never seen before, and was designed to portray Obama as a leader with unique global appeal.
“The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand,” he said, referring to festering divisions between Europe and the United States opened up by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand,” said Obama, in an address beamed live on US and German television channels and to viewers around the world.
“The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down,” Obama said, drawing cheers and applause.
Obama’s speech was a clear echo of former US president Ronald Reagan’s call to then Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev in Berlin in 1987 to “tear down this wall,” before the fall of Communism.
Despite its soaring cadences however, the speech was short on specifics. Obama’s aides said he would not talk policy as that is the job of a president but his critics will likely slam him for empty rhetoric.
The Illinois senator rebuked both his country and Europe for blaming one another for strains in their relations, but took pains to insulate himself from critics back home who doubt his patriotism.
“I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived, at great cost and great sacrifice, to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world.”
“In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common,” the 46-year-old first term senator said.
“In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth.”
Obama, who has a narrow lead in most polls of the US race, but trails McCain when voters are asked who would be the most credible commander in chief, used Berlin’s triumph over division and totalitarianism as a metaphor for the world he hoped to forge.
“People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one,” Obama said.
In a speech that risked being seen as presumptuous, considering Obama will not even face US voters for another three months, he warned of a world where partnership was not a choice but the only means of survival.
“We cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone,” he said.
He promised America under his watch would be serious about tackling global warming, a huge concern in Europe and a cause of rifts between the continent and the United States during the Bush administration.
But he also signalled he would demand Europe live up to its side of the bargain, asking for more help in the struggle against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“America cannot do this alone,” Obama said.
“The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation.
“We have too much at stake to turn back now.”
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 21st, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)
Saving Jerusalem.
By Nir Barkat, July 21, 2008
Nir Barkat is a former high-tech business entrepreneur and has been active in community and education for many years. He officially retired from his business five years ago in order to run for Mayor of Jerusalem and has been developing his vision for the city during this time.
/www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Views%5El373&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Views&
Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, is the curator of many historical treasures and a focal point that attracts Jews and non-Jews alike throughout the world. Jerusalem also serves as the seat of Israel’s governmental authorities and national institutions, and a center for research and philanthropic institutes from all over the world. Jerusalem is characterized as a “scholar’s city”, a center for higher education and scientific research, with special emphasis placed on medicine and biotechnology. In spite of these advantages, of all Israel’s larger cities, Jerusalem is the poorest and its public image is on a downward spiral.
{ THE PRPBLEM : }
The city’s deteriorating economic situation over the last three decades is the key reason for the negative migration of its Zionistic, younger and stronger population, which in turn has aggravated the economic situation and developed into a vicious circle. Just between years 2003-6, the balance in negative migration has stood at 24,000 and a total of 64,900 people have left the city during these years.
It is important to note that most of those leaving the city are well-educated young adults up to the age of 34, both secular and National Religious and belonging to the middle-to-upper socio-economic level. The main reason for their departure is a lack of employment options. Their departure is an influencing factor in the lowering of the general standard of living.
Despite the comparative prosperity enjoyed by many Israelis over the last few years, the continuing economic weakness of Jerusalem indicates that urgent and vigorous action is needed to reverse the existing trend and to develop the economy of the city. This will help halt the negative migration of the more established families and will encourage young people and public servants to make the decision to live in the city and its surroundings.
Not only a city, a metropolis:
So what should be done to change these current trends in the status of Jerusalem? In my opinion, we have to focus on employment development and on perceiving Jerusalem not only as a city, but as a metropolis.
The Jerusalem metropolis is comprised of Gush-Etzion to the south of Jerusalem, the Edumim area to the east, Mevaseret-Tzion and its surroundings to the west and of the area to the north of the city. Viewing these areas as part of the metropolis can enable new solutions to two of the main problems the city is currently facing. First, it will increase the city’s land reserves, thus lowering the skyrocketing housing prices and increasing the reserves for industry and tourism. Second, it will create more employment options for young people.
Regarding Employment Development, we need to specialize in three clusters in which Jerusalem possesses a competitive advantage: tourism and culture, medicine and biotechnology, and outsourcing.
Jerusalem possesses unique historical assets that are over 3,000 years old which have the potential for economic development. Therefore, Jerusalem has to re-brand itself as a magnet to tourists and as a source of inspiration to the Jewish nation - as a “light unto the nations”.
A “brand” like Jerusalem can bring more than 10 million tourists annually within a decade, but in order to achieve that, the city must develop suitable infrastructure. Also, it has to develop unique and unforgettable tourism experiences, which are ideological, spiritual and historical and that connect the past, present and future. This can be achieved by significantly increasing the city’s investments in arts and crafts, improving and upgrading the services available to tourists, and supporting international conferences in those spheres where the city has a competitive edge, and by re-planning ancient Jerusalem.
In the fields of medicine and biotechnology, Jerusalem has to brand itself as a city that is a world leader in specific medical areas where there is a clear competitive edge. This can be achieved by development in fields like: stem cell research, cardiology, fertility, cancer research and orthopedics.
In addition, there should be development in specialist fields. This should include importing leading international medical specialists, supplying government and municipal incentives that will translate into significant investments, and developing medical tourism and medical conferences in these fields.
Jerusalem can develop a flourishing industry built around outsourcing, a sphere in which the city’s population certainly has an international competitive edge. Outsourcing has huge employment opportunities, with enormous potential for future growth.
Develop jobs:
Jerusalem is blessed with quality manpower which can offer competitive prices in the international arena, but first we need to develop 20,000 jobs for a wide range of Jerusalem’s population who are multilingual.
Secondly, we need to assist in stabilizing Jerusalem’s economy at a time of crisis. This can be achieved if we will focus on three areas: setting up an outsourcing center in the following niche markets: medicine, finance, law, accounting, computer programming, etc; aligning government incentives with employer and entrepreneur requirements in order to set up outsourcing centers in Jerusalem; marketing Jerusalem internationally as a preferential place for outsourcing.
For many years, too many people have been discussing how we should divide Jerusalem. I have always believed - especially in light of the fact that we have no real partner with whom to discuss peace - that the discussions about Jerusalem should not be about how to divide the city, but rather how to build and strengthen it.
The Jerusalem of today and of future generations must be a city that can lead: as a leader in innovation, a leader in culture and a leader in growth. Jerusalem’s ability to successfully meet the challenges it faces is largely dependent upon developing the city’s economy, and our ability to make the city flourish.
We all have an obligation to help Jerusalem stride forward, to turn the city into a model to be emulated by other cities, for “out of Zion shall the Torah come forth”. We are committed to making the city’s growth our top priority and to helping develop its unique qualities and resources.
The European Climate Forum, in cooperation with DESERTEC, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the EU project CIRCE, is working to better understand stakeholder perceptions of a SuperSmart Grid— long distance HVDC lines—that would provide the infrastructure for transmitting renewable electricity from North Africa to markets in Europe. We have developed a short questionnaire and would appreciate your input.
The questionnaire is available online at www.SustainabiliTank.info we had a posting based on proposals from Israel regarding the economically positive energy potential of deserts. We also think that this idea could cement the new Mediterranean Union.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 1st, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)
We saw His “Replika” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1976, and himself, and excerpts from his work on Dante, at La Mama that year. When we visited years later Warshaw, we made it as an important part of that visit to see his Teatr Studio, in that Stalinist Wedding-Cake of a building in the “Palace of Culture.”
Also, reading his obituary, we understand a little better his background. He was born in Rzeszow, a place we visited to see the ruins of what was once a tremendous Rabbinic Court. Though not Jewish, Szaina, with a name that might have shown Jewish influence, knew because of his youth experiences about the terrible loss, not only to Jewry, but to Poland itself. After the war he studied theater in Krakow - the main city of what was once Western Galizzia. A place full of memories from what was once a flourishing Jewish culture center. Though Nazis destroyed the Synagogues and killed the people, they did not touch the tomb of the Remuh - Rabbi Moshe Iserless - that survived thus, and is still to be seen with the 400 year old tree that sprouted from under the tombstone. Even the Catholics in town regard the place as holly - so no-one, not even the Nazis, dared to destroy that part of the cemetery that was the center of the Jewish part of town.
Five Catholic Priests, Professors at the Jagelonian University, established a Hebraic studies department in this city that had no Jews left. It was for the locals to study Hebrew in order to try to revive some of the past glory. When I visited there for a three week stay with a group of students from NYU, one of the professors gave me a new book that was a compilation of the archives of the old Krakow headquarter of the local Bnei Brith organization. I delivered the material to the Washington DC headquarters. It is these Professors that helped create a row of Jewish style restaurant in that Kazimiresz part of town - on the Street where there are the remains of the Remuh. The local Poles played there Jewish Klezmer music. I was one evening astonished seeing Elie Wiesel “Kibitzing” a game of chess in one of these restaurants - the one called Ariel.
The theater revival had also to do with an attempt at revival of the Jewish culture. Krakow has thus what was seen as a strong innovative streak of theater. Very dark in its content but quite lively and spirited in the way it is staged. It was this sort of theater, some based in Krakow and some in Warshaw, that brought into existence the modern theater of the seventies. Grotowski, Kantor, Sjaina were very different pillars of this phenomenon.
The obituary also mentions the town of Nowa Hutta, and Sjaina’s Teatr Ludowy. We were there, and what was even more interesting, at a festival in Krakow, I remember a performing visit from that place. Another theater was Crikot.
So, please read the obituary, and be inspired that from all that darkness sprouted unbelievable art. This was the pain that had to find an outlet - and if you like it or not - that was real theater and real self sacrificing performance.
People like Ellen Stewart and Richard Schechner can still testify to the spirit of these people that were active in the 60s and 70s, and left their influence on the modern stage. As it is extremely well described in the obituary - theater is not about words but about acting. Szaina knew to bring out that pain with nearly no words altogether - and he communicated that pain directly to our hearts. Surely, later on others wrote and staged pieces with more wording, but the Grotowsky method has become part of theater education. In our review of the “Persians” at Sienna college in Albany, New York, I was aware that Dr. Mahmood Karimi Hakak, an Iranian, had studied with Richard Schechner, and thus introduced some of the elements of stage design that originated with this sort of theater.
Further, as the UN deals now with the question of what is Genocide, and we just had an event at the UN on the topic on June 26th, with the UnderSecretary-General Kiyotaka Akasaka making the opening introduction, it should indeed be considered as educational imperative the viewing of the filmed performance of Szajna’s Replika, as he suggested himself.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 27th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)
From: climate at joanneum.at
Subject: Workshop Announcement & Call for Proposals: Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries III
Workshop “Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries III: Causes, Impacts, Solutions ” on the 18th and 19th September 2008 in Graz, Austria.
The objectives of the workshop are specifically:
• to strengthen and improve the multidisciplinary approach to
climate change related issues
• to generate ideas for joint research projects
• to meet potential research partners
For participation, researchers are encouraged to prepare either or both …
•Abstracts for presentations for this year’s workshop’s topics
•Proposals / outlines of ideas for joint research projects (for the purpose of coordination)
… by 28th July 2008 to climate at joanneum.at(Cornelia Sterner).
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