Feel some obligation

A joint committee of the US Senate and the Knesset, a ‘committee headed by Senator Jon Kyl, who is close to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney’, has organised a tour for an unspecified number of US senators, hosted by Likud MK Yuval Steinitz.

"We formed the committee four years ago, when I was Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. It is the only joint committee between the American Congress and another country," said Steinitz.

"We think that it is important that the members of the delegation feel the connection and understand Israel better. They are mostly non-Jewish and we want them to feel some obligation to the country," he added.

"The committee has had major achievements and we hope that this visit will lead to additional feats," he concluded. One of the committee's successes to date is receiving funding for a project to develop a rocket-interception system.

The two-day visit includes meetings with Opposition Chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Chief of the Mossad. Later on they will also meet Deputy President and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

But you don’t have to be a US Senator to get a free junket to Israel! If you’re 18-26 and Jewish,

All Taglit-birthright israel trips are FREE and include:

* Roundtrip airfare to Israel from gateway cities

* Departures available in May, June, July and August

* Touring, lodging, transportation, guides and most meals

* Fast-paced touring all over Israel from the Southern desert to the Northern valley

* Israeli peers (mostly soldiers) will join for part or all of each group's trip

* Applicants can pick from two dozen different Trip Organizers to find the trip that is right for them.

* There is no 'catch' or obligation other than a refundable deposit (returned after completion of the trip)

‘Birthright’, indeed! That’s one of the most annoying aspects of the program – that they market it as if diaspora Jews are the ones with a birthright to Palestine! What chutzpah!

I read somewhere that while they encourager participants to stick around in Israel beyond the ten day program, they don’t like the kids to go off to the West Bank and join in International Solidarity Movement activities and the like. I suppose that would lose you your US$250 depost?

A study carried out last year by the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University found, among other things, that 62% of those in the 2005 cohort ‘Strongly agree’ with the statement, ‘I think of Israel as a source of pride’. In comparison, only 50% of non participants strongly agreed. Since the ‘non participants’ were selected from applicants who ended up not participating in the program, and since response rates in the survey itself were quite low – 62% of participants responded to the questionnaire and only 29% of non participants – it’s pretty hard to take the results seriously. Although the authors claim somehow to have controlled for the bias inevitably introduced by the self selection inherent in low response rates, I am not convinced. It is likely that those responding were those most enthusiastic about the program. Of course it’s altogether possible that other factors played a role in self selections. For example, respondents may have been those with nothing better to do than respond to the questionnaire.

In any case, some of the results were mildly encouraging. The purpose of the program is clearly to encourage young Jews to identify more actively as such and with Israel in particular. Yet only 33% of the 2005 cohort of participants and 25% of non participants strongly agreed that ‘I think of Israel as a refuge for Jewish people’. A much higher 43% of the 2003-04 cohort participants strongly agreed. Similarly, the proportion strongly agreeing that ‘I think of Israel as a lively democracy’ in the 2002-03 cohort was 41%, but only 34% in the 2005 cohort. I’m actually surprised that they are not finding majorities of self selected participants expressing these views. Perhaps even more surprising is that the report clearly regards these results as an indication of the program’s success.

I hope only 34% of the Senators return to the US thinking Israel is a democracy.