On the weekend of Nov 13-15, the group organized an "Israel in Focus" seminar. College students attended a Friday through Sunday seminar in the Pico-Robertson area of L.A. On Sunday, the same lecturers gave a one-day, concentrated Community Conference.
Elliot Chodoff spoke on "Israel's Strategic Threats." Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch showed incitement on Palestinian government TV channels. Activist Mrs. Roberta Seid presented a lecture entitled "Israel 101." British emigrant to Israel, Neil Lazarus, taught effective argument techniques against Israel-detractors. Marketing consultant David Suissa lectured on how to bring an "Israeli Voice to Your Community." Stand with Us' publicist, Jennifer Kutner, shuttled Muslim Arab journalist, Khaled abu Toameh, who writes for the Jerusalem Post, between the academic and community conferences. Mr. Abu Toameh, challenged the intentions of Muslim and leftist protestors who consider themselves pro-Palestinian - contending that they are more accurately, anti-Israel. David Suissa characterizes his positions in the Jewish Journal:
Toameh thinks it is in the interest of the Palestinians to stop incitement, and he shared an Arab perspective on the subject.
“Look at the language that is now flying back and forth between Hamas and Fatah,” he said. “It’s the same poison you hear about the Jews: sons of pigs, infidels, etc. Incitement has spread and backfired on the Palestinians.”
This incitement has also hurt the Palestinians’ ability to make peace: “How do you tell people to make peace with the people you’ve called monsters and sons of pigs?”
Toameh sees no hope in the “top down” approach to peace. The soil is too rotten, he says. The Arab moderates have been undermined. “If I go to Ramallah and talk about Palestinian concessions on the right of return, I’ll get shot in five minutes.”
He says the Palestinians “already got their two-state solution — Gaza and the West Bank,” and if it weren’t for the Israeli presence in the West Bank, “Hamas would take over and Mahmoud Abbas would be lynched.”
Most important pro-Israel events in L.A. have Joo-Tube cover them. Last year, outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dan Gillerman gave the Festival attendees optimistic perspectives looking back and looking forward on the evolving situation - covered in this Joo-Tube article: Stand With Us' Festival of Lights - Israel U.N. Amb Dan Gillerman offers insights from 6-years inside the U.N.
"Ambassador Dan Gillerman professes optimism that the threats from imperialist Iran might motivate the Arab world to unite with Israel. He declares that Islamic militantism is as great a threat to moderate Muslims as it is to the general public - yet the Muslim world is not adequately routing-out militantism from its midst - to everyone's peril."
