Israel
Virtual Kanee lecture: Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy urges Israeli policy makers to “think outside the box”
By BERNIE BELLAN (Note: This article was written prior to the change of government in Israel. As usual, with the swift flow of events there, much of what is presented here is already outmoded.) This year the Jewish Heritage Centre has been presenting a series of three Kanee lectures online, rather than the traditional annual in-person Kanee lecture. The most recent of these online lectures was delivered by Efraim Halevy on June 6.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that former Mossad head Efraim Halevy was in Winnipeg to deliver a Kanee lecture to a packed audience at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, but when I actually checked our own archives I see that Halevy was actually here in 2012. At the time Halevy had already been out of the Mossad for 10 years, although he had also gone on to a stint as head of Israel’s National Security Council (from 2002-3).
When Halevy paid a return visit as one of this year’s Jewish Heritage Centre’s Kanee lecturers, this time he was at his home in Israel speaking to the audience via Zoom. (I later found out that 114 individuals watched at least part of his lecture. While that number is certainly done from what a typical in-person Kanee lecture would attract, considering that it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon when Halevy spoke, it was quite a decent turnout – especially considering the multitude of Zoom sessions that have become a regular part of Jewish life here this past 14 months).
Halevy’s memoir about his time in the Mossad, “Man in the Shadows”(published in 2008) offered ample evidence of the moderate influence he exerted over Israeli foreign policy. He played an instrumental role in bringing about the peace accord between Israel and Jordan, for instance. He also put forward the position that Israel should seek to negotiate with Hamas – which led me to pose a question about that possibility during his June 6 lecture.
Halevy is now 86 years old, yet toward the end of his Zoom session (which lasted 1 ½ hours) he indicated that he had four more Zoom sessions scheduled in the next few days, so running out of energy doesn’t seem to be a problem for him. As a matter of fact, just when everyone watching might have thought that Halevy wanted to sign off, he began to tell a story about T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) that stretched into another 20 minutes. He was clearly “in the moment”, so to speak.
During his free-flowing talk Halevy touched on a great many subjects. After speaking for half an hour he agreed to take questions from the audience. The questions were read to him by moderator Ben Waldman (who is a reporter for the Free Press), although when Waldman posed questions to Halevy it wasn’t at all clear whether a question had come from an audience member or whether it was one that Waldman was asking on his own.)
Before launching into his talk – which he did without referring to notes, Halevy said he was going to divide his talk into different segments, beginning with an overview of the Middle East, then turning his attention to Iran.
At the very start of his talk, Halevy admitted, however, that he is not privy to the kind of confidential information to which he would have had access during his long career in intelligence. Almost immediately though, he did broach a subject that, if what he said was indeed true, then it would certainly have be considered highly controversial: Halevy claimed that there is a secret annex to the Abraham Accords signed between Israel – on one side – and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the other, that imposes a “freeze on settlements” in the West Bank, although “the details are not revealed”, Halevy suggested.
It is not at all apparent though that there has been an actual freeze on settlement activity in the West Bank, as Halevy suggested. There has been continued expansion of road construction in the West Bank, for instance, and while there has been no government sanctioned construction of new homes in the West Bank since the accords were signed, there has been continued expansion of more isolated – and illegal outposts. (As well there has been continued expansion of Israeli housing in the East Jerusalem area.)
A second aspect of the Abraham Accords, which was also not included in the publicly signed accords, Halevy said, was the decision by the US government to sell (50) F35 jets to the United Arab Emirates. According to Halevy, Israel’s having F35 stealth jets gave Israel a “strategic edge” in the Middle East in terms of military technology.
What did Israel obtain then, in return, when it agreed to sign those accords?
“These are countries with which we had relationships before,” Halevy noted. While those relationships may have been “passive” rather than overt, they “enabled Israeli businessmen to come to the Emirates and conduct business.” The accords, therefore, are really just an elaborate business deal.
There is another aspect to the Abraham Accords, Halevy pointed out, which may prove detrimental to Israel’s interests in the long term.
“We agreed we would be a conduit for the export of oil from the Emirates,” he said. Halevy explained that a pipeline that was originally built to transport oil brought to Israel from Iran and unloaded at Eilat will now be used instead to ship oil from the Emirates.
“It is going to be a massive transportation of oil,” Halevy warned. “We are entering a danger zone in which an oil pipeline (built originally in 1968 as a 50-50 venture between Israel and Iran) will lead to a massive “oil installation in Eilat which could have a major impact upon tourism” in that city – which, Halevy noted, is Israel’s most popular tourist destination.
(Ed. note: On June 3, Israel’s new Environment Minister, Gila Gamliel, called for cancellation of the oil deal between Israel and the UAE, saying that it could cause great environmental damage.)
If the benefits of the Abraham Accords are entirely economic – since Israel already had good diplomatic relations with Bahrain and the UAE, why has Saudi Arabia been reluctant to sign on to the accords as well – which is something that was rumoured would also occur?
Apparently signing on to the accords “is a subject of disagreement” between the king of Saudi Arabia (King Salman, who is 85 years old) and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (aka “MBS”), with the king being reluctant to enter into a signed agreement with Israel, while MBS is pushing for it.
Turning to other areas of the Middle East, Halevy offered this interesting insight about Egypt: “Egypt is concentrating on developing improved relations with China. China is now a major player in Iraq. We will have to look very carefully at what China is doing in the Middle East,” although Halevy added, “up to now China’s relationship with Israel has been good.”
Here’s what Halevy had to say about Israel’s relationship with Jordan: “There is a very serious problem with Jordan. We have a good relationship on the military and security level, but less so in other areas. The diplomatic relationship is very strained. The personal relationship between (King) Abdullah and Netanyahu is very poor.”
About Syria, Halevy said: “Hizbollah is very active there. We have regularly bombed arms shipments – in coordination with Russia – to prevent them (Hizbollah) from developing faster than they might otherwise do.”
Halevy quoted a line from the Bible to warn of the danger posed to Israel on its northern flank: “Evil will open up from the north.”
At that point Halevy turned his attention to Iran, saying that “Iran’s determination to obtain nuclear weapons is number one in our concerns.”
But, in order to understand the dynamics involved in the situation vis-à-vis Israel and Iran, Halevy suggested, one has to understand Netanyahu’s own background.
Netanyahu considers himself to be an “historic figure”, very much influenced by his scholar father, (Benzion) whose area of study was the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
Benzion Netanyahu focused in particular on the writings of a famous medieval Jewish businessman and scholar by the name of (Isaac) Abrabanel, Halevy explained.
Abrabanel wrote in 1492 that “there was going to be a Golden Age for the Jewish people”. (He was slightly wrong, you might say.)
Benajmin Netanyahu “said his aim was never to ignore threats to Israel; his mission was to remove an existential threat to Israel,” Halevy said.
When the “Mossad was able to get a hold of Iranian nuclear files to show the West what Iran was all about,” Netanyahu honestly believed that having this smoking gun would be decisive in swaying Western leaders not to believe that Iran was sincere in being willing to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Netanyahu’s goal was never realized (although, in looking back at Halevy’s Kanee lecture in 2012, I note that at that time he warned that the greatest danger to Israel was not from external enemies, it was from within Israel itself, from religious right wing zealots).
Following his initial remarks, Halevy fielded questions from the audience.
I asked the following question: “Are there any chances that a younger element in Hamas might be willing to negotiate a peace with Israel?
Halevy’s answer was: “I don’t know. We’ve never tried…The important thing is to think out of the box. Inside of the box there’s no possibility of any resolution of these problems. We have to have courage – and think of our children and grandchildren and their future.”
Halevy, who was very close with Ariel Sharon, however, did say that Sharon made a terrible mistake when he evacuated Israeli settlers from Gaza. “The feeling is that Hamas got something for nothing – a dangerous precedent.”
Another question was about a new government in Israel, if one does succeed in forming: How would a new government impact relations with Israel’s neighbours?
Halevy said: “It will follow the policies of Netanyahu.” He then proceeded to relate this anecdote: “The United States will renew the (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) agreement with Iran. Netanyahu instructed all agencies of the Israeli government not to present our view of the JCPA because we are opposed to the JCPA entirely.” (Halevy was critical of that position, by the way.)
Question: “Did the recent flare up in Gaza catch you by surprise?”
Answer: “In 2003 I said Israel should enter into a dialogue with Hamas. I have always thought we should negotiate with Hamas. I also say we should dialogue with Iran – although that doesn’t mean they will negotiate with us. By the way, the Saudis are now in a dialogue with Iran. We don’t serve our interest by isolating ourselves. We should have secret negotiations.” Halevy pointed to the example of the British negotiating with the IRA back in the 1980s. “The British denied they were negotiating with the IRA at the same time their Prime Minister was doing exactly that.”
A question about Israeli settlements led to this assessment of the situation: “The US expects they will be frozen. If not, there is a danger that there will be a major break with the US.”
As well, Halevy alluded to the growing gap between Israel and Jewish communities in the Diaspora. He noted that the position of Israeli Consul General in New York has been vacant for 18 months. That position is the “single most important” connection that Israel has with the American Jewish community. The fact that Netanyahu deliberately left it vacant “shows how the Prime Minister (and Netanyahu was still PM when Halevy gave his talk) views the importance of the role of Jewish communities in North America.”
Question: “How is anti-Semitism around the world viewed in Israel?
”
Answer: “If we have a new government the position of Consul General will be filled very quickly. Bennett understands the position of Jewish communities in North America very well. In a very short while we will see a change here. Bennett will attempt to restore the traditional relationship between Israel and the Jews in North America.”
Israel
Israel report by former Winnipegger Bruce Brown
10 minutes
(Posted Dec. 24, 2024)
02:11 AM: Sound asleep.
2.11.01 AM: Wide awake. Awoken by a blaring missile alarm. Incoming. Took me no time to react. Ivan Pavlov would be proud. I quickly scooped up my dog. Grabbed my glasses. An inhaler. My phone and power cord. And sprinted to the safe room. Right across the hall. My wife overseas on vacation. So did this one alone. Er with my dog. We have 90 seconds to reach safety so no real panic, relatively speaking.
2.11.09 AM: In my safe room. Slid shut the heavy steel slabs across the window. You can hear this happening throughout the building. Kinda like a horror movie. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Then mine. Screech. Slam. Next I jumped across the room and slammed shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. It also makes a slamming sound, a really loud one. Then slumped down on the couch with my dog. With some level of relief. Where is this missile coming from. Can’t be from Gaza, they don’t have the capability anymore…I hope. Nor Lebanon, living too far south…I hope. Yemen? Possible. Those dang Houthis?
2. 14 AM: Oh oh. Need to pee. Like really bad. Once in the safe room, you should stay there for ten minutes. Unless there is another siren. Each siren requires a ten minute respite. Respite? Odd choice of words as you are not really resting. Way too tense. Especially as you can occasionally hear the booms of intercepted missiles up above. Kind of unnerving. Back to my need to pee. Its quite dangerous leaving the room during this period. Should your place be hit by the missile or falling debris from the sky. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, literally, hovering over your toilet. And condos have been hit in Rehovot with some death and much destruction. Hmmm. To pee or not to pee. That is the question. Whether tis better to suffer the pangs of having to pee or the missiles of outrageous fortune. You get the point.
2.14.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.14.40 AM: Back in the safe room. With my dog. Sitting on the couch. Fiddling with the remote control. I work in hi tech. The semiconductor world which can be pretty complex. But I simply have not mastered the remote. Really want to see what’s going on. Where is the missile from. Are there more attacks elsewhere in the country. Pushing this button and that button But the TV still off. Okay. Will check my cell. Although the connection sometimes comes and goes when shuttered in the heavily reinforced concrete and steel safe room. Works! Ya! Showing three bars. Sometimes four. Checking my feeds. But no news yet.
2.17 AM: Seriously. I need to pee again. Like really bad. Dang prostate! To pee or not to pee. That is the question…. You get the point. I chose to pee. This time I don’t actually slam shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. And my dog follows me out. This could get complicated. But first things first.
2.17.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.17.40 AM: Chasing after my dog around the condo. Poncho!!! There he is. In the living room. Like master. Like pet. He too is relieving himself. Probably the tension. Dogs can sense these things. “Faster Poncho!. Faster!” I encourage him.
2,18.02 AM: We’re back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut. And then I start worrying. What if I have to pee again. Its really dangerous out there. Idea! I’ll bring a cleaning pail in here. And if worse comes to worse. Well, I am alone. Sans my dog.
2.18.22 AM: I dart for the cleaning cabinet in the bathroom to grab the pail. Making sure the heavy, reinforced, steel door is shut less my dog run out again. Wait! As it dawns on me at 02.18.22 AM. This is not the smartest thing to do. At least I could have combined grabbing the pail with actually having to pee again. Like maybe I could hold out for the next three minutes or so in the safe room. No urgent need for the pail. But I am already there….
2.18.25 AM: Grab the red cleaning pail
2.18.28 AM: Back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut again. Siting on the couch with my dog again. Red pail glaring at me from the side of the room…daring me. But my bladder is relaxed. I try the remote again. I feel like my 85 year old mother who often complains about getting her remote to work. I console myself thinking that it must be the batteries. Hmmm. Maybe a mad rush for the utility room to get some new batteries. But that would be mad. I’ll take care of it in the morning. Only a few more minutes and I can safely leave the safe room and go back to bed.
2.19.45 AM: I pour myself a glass of mineral water. This I store in the safe room per Homefront commands. Fresh batteries not, hrmph. As I down the water I realize this is probably not the best idea. Less it creates the urge to pee…. Alas no. Start surfing my feed again. The intercontinental missile was fired by those crazy, dang Houthis from Yemen. All of central Israel sent to their safe rooms. Dang Houthis! The next couple minutes go by pretty smoothly. Although seems like an eternity.
2.21 AM: Back in bed. Albeit sleep comes slowly as my adrenaline starts to reside.
As it were. Israel bombed the dang Houthis that night. For the third time since the outbreak of the war. In retaliation for them firing over 200 ballistic missiles and 170 drones at Israel, which fortunately had not resulted in much damage. We struck them with over 60 bombs in two air raid sorties. Destroying mainly military targets as well as ports and energy infrastructure. Maybe that will teach them for waking me -and a million other Israelis- in the middle of the night.
As it were. Falling debris from the dang Houthi attack landed on a school in central Israel, forcing its collapse. Fortunately and thank G-d it was the middle of the night. Sometime between 2:11 AM and 2.21 AM. So no casualties. Can’t even imagine the tragedy had this strike occurred mid-day.
As it were. I changed the batteries in the remote. It works just fine now. And I left the red cleaning pail in the safe room….just in case. But I hope the dang Houthis finally learned their lesson. Although probably not.
As it were. Two nights later. Another 2:00AM missile from the dang Houthis. . They just wont let me sleep….
As it is. Please continue donating to the Israeli war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier. But give again. The financial costs to Israel are and will be billions. Billions! Sderot and Metulla and Tel Avi and Haifa are Israel’s front lines. Israel is the diaspora’s front line.
Bruce Brown. A Canadian. And an Israeli. Bruce made Aliyah…a long time ago. He works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Bruce is the winner of the 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in writing. And wrote the 1998 satire, An Israeli is…. Bruce’s reflects on life in Israel – political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight
Israel
Join the Masa Canadian Professionals Volunteers Program!
You are invited on a 4-week volunteer program in Israel from October 14th to November 10th. Help rebuild Israeli society post-October 7th over Canadian Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. Spend three weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
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