Daniel Sokatch is CEO of the New Israel Fund. Fortuitously, he has been in Australia at a time when a series of attacks on the integrity of the fund (and Naomi Chazan) have been circulating.

He spoke at the Shirah Hadashah synagogue on 24 February before a packed audience, and his talk is available for listening to directly or downloaded (mp3, right mouse click and save). The file is about 10mg in size and 47 minutes long). It stands to the credit of an inclusive Orthodox congregation that he was invited to speak. Kol ha-kavod!

Thanks to Daniel for permission to record.

It makes for fascinating listening.

[Photo source: http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16779/News/New_York.html, but it seems to appear elsewhere as well...]

Martin Indyk is a Australian-born former US Ambassador to Israel. His defense of the NIF is significant, particularly because he has been a strong defender of Israeli and obviously American foreign policy interests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Indyk

This is what he has said about the New Israel Fund in an important counter to the current misinformation campaign in Australia and other countries:

The Truth About the New Israel Fund
Martin Indyk
22nd February 2010

When I served as U.S. Ambassador in Israel in the 1990s, and as an American Jew committed to Israel's survival and well- being, I became deeply concerned about the failure to adequately address the problems of inequality in Israel. I could see that Israeli governments were so preoccupied with war and peace decisions that they had little time to attend to the needs of Israel's Arab and Bedouin minorities. Although growing into a robust Jewish state, Israel was falling short of Ben-Gurion's standard that Israel should also be a state for all its citizens with equal rights for all, as called for in Israel's Declaration of Independence. I feared the effect on the basic health of Israel's democracy.

A few good letters appeared in the Australian Jewish News on 18 Feb 2009

Treatment of Chazan and the NIF is shameful

THE furore over the New Israel Fund (NIF) has highlighted an ugly underbelly in both Australia and Israel.

The NIF and organisations that have received NIF grants work on civil and human rights; social and economic justice; religious pluralism and tolerance for Israeli Arabs and Bedouin citizens; the environment and assistance for immigrants – issues enshrined in Israel’s declaration of independence.

The civilian population of Gaza continues to suffer a a year after Operation Cast Lead.

The Israeli government, while using propaganda to deny the facts, continues to besiege the Palestinian population though collective punishment. The current protests against the siege by various international activists, Palestinians, and Israelis, though ignored by Israel, indicate that the problem will not just go away.

Denis Altman delivered a powerful address at the AJDS dinner on December
13 2009, which addressed issues of not just gay and Jewish identify, but
the politics of Diaspora communities, and a new role for Australia in
working with its Muslim neighbours to break down anti-Semitism.

Denis is a thought leader in both Australia and the US, and his speech covered many issues of concern to progressive Jews. His remarks suggest a new role for Australians in working with neighbouring Muslim countries.

Due to a bug, the Youtube video won't screen on this page, but use the links below
. Please note, there are 5 videos in sequence, with a slight overlap between each (total about 45 minutes).

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5

This letter, slightly edited appeared in the Melbourne Age.

THE success of the referendum in Switzerland to ban minarets on new mosques (The Age, 1/12) fills us with disquiet. This concern arises whenever laws are enacted that target a minority community, whether limiting the display of religious symbols in France, quarantining welfare payments to Aborigines in the Northern Territory or restrictions on Muslim places of worship.

A letter in the Melbourne Age, 18 Nov 2009

THE Australian Jewish Democratic Society concurs with your editorial's conclusion that ''the only way that Israel can avoid having to choose between its Jewish identity and democracy is to keep the two-state solution alive''. A settlement freeze is the essential precondition to any credible negotiations.

The following letter was published in an edited form, by the Australian Jewish News on 1 October 2009.

Is the front page screaming "Disgrace", along with the usual hasbarah
and the twists and turns about human shields offered by Alan Dershowitz,
the best the AJN commentators can do in response to the Goldstone
report which highlights the disproportionate killing of civilians by
Israel?

Letter in The Age 01/10/09

CONGRATULATIONS to Amin Saikal (Comment, 30/9) for his thoughtful and courageous entry to the labyrinth of Middle East nuclear tensions. His thread of an exit strategy has many complicated turns but offers a credible hope that demands serious examination. Saikal canvasses diplomatic and political initiatives that might bring about a ''region-wide regime of arms control'', none so fanciful or utopian as to warrant the scorn or silence they are all too likely to meet in Australia.

This letter appeared, on behalf of the AJDS in a leading daily newspaper.