If height and handsomeness win diplomatic battles, David Siegel will someday be in the Diplomatic Hall of Fame.
Articulate, clear, and Vermont-born and raised, the Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles reached out to the farthest reaches of his region last week, meeting Denver community groups, speaking at the federation and sitting for an interview with the IJN.
The native of Burlington, Vermont is not a dual citizen; he cannot be and also be in the Israeli diplomatic corps. He gave up his American citizenship.
His family made aliyah to Haifa; he was raised in a Bnei Akiva yeshiva, while his father was a Conservative rabbi at Moriah Congregation in Haifa which, he says, enjoys the best inter-group relations in Israel (Jews and Arabs, Orthodox and Conservative Jews, etc.).
Q: What is Israels strategy to respond to the planned, unilateral Palestinian statehood declaration at the UN?
We are working closely with the US against the move.
It is not a pro-peace move.
It is a provocative gamble. Its like lighting a cigarette in a gasoline station.
Instead of negotiations, the Palestinians first tried to go to the Security Council [for their state]. Thats where Palestine could be accepted as a member state of the UN.
The US made it clear that wouldnt happen.
So now its Plan B, to go to the UN General Assembly, where there is an automatic majority.
The General Assembly cannot accept Palestine as a member state. Rather, Palestine would move from an observer state to a non-member state.
This new status will enable the Palestinian Authority to go to the International Criminal court, to wage lawfare, sue Israelis, increase the delegitimation campaign.
As a result of these Palestinian moves, the Israeli public is giving up hope of a peaceful solution.
Palestinians are moving away from the negotiating table
This is highly dangerous. There was a major terrorist attack in Eilat, followed by 100 rockets fired on Israel.
And a lone terrorist in Tel Aviv. Had he gotten into the night club, it would have been a major disaster. His weapon was a dagger. He wounded several Israeli security personnel.
Summing it up: the atmosphere has changed.
There is high alert in southern Israel.
The Israel-Gaza border is not protected.
If the Palestinians call it a state, and the next morning there wont be a state, the PA will not be able to control the demonstrations.
Oslo will be violated.
The Oslo agreements prohibit unilateral moves. The movement to the UN is a material breach of the Oslo Accords.
We call on responsible countries to vote against this move.
To vote for this move is to vote for violence.
Q: Wont Palestinians say that its been 18 years since Oslo and theyve gained nothing and its all Israels fault? What is the strategy to counter that?
This is the line that will be put out. Israel will be painted as responsible.
There is PR, but there is also reality.
The Palestinian ideologues want to go to the UN, but the pragmatic Palestinians, like Fayyad, are against this move. They want to build a society.
The Palestinians complain about settlements we froze settlements.
Israel supports a two-state solution through direct negotiations the Palestinians have stayed away from the negotiating table for two years.
Israel reached a formula, together with the Quartet, for negotiations the Palestinians rejected that, too.
Q: Whats happening in Israel with these massive demonstrations for higher living standards, for social justice?
It was truly a mass movement.
And unique. Very different from the Arab world. The Israeli demonstrations were peaceful. There were no police.
Its a popular rising of Israels civil society. An important moment.
There are eight million people in Israel. These demonstrations were a sign of normalcy a society trying to better itself.
Its changed the conversation in Israel.
Q: Didnt Prime Minister Netanyahu cause this problem with his capitalist push when he was Minister of Finance under Ariel Sharon? Didnt Netanyahu shut down the socialist economy and spur the capitalist one, which has turned Israel into start-up nation, but also left many people behind?
Prime Minister Netan-yahu has nominated a world renowned economist to head a committee to come up with recommendations.
The Israeli economy is entirely transformed.
Its an economy that has worked its way through the global depression.
It has diversified its markets: one-third, the US; one-third, Europe; and one-third, Asia.
Only six percent unemployment.
But not all sectors in Israel are benefiting.
There is tremendous effort now to resolve these issues.
This underscores the unity of Israel.
Q: But could these demonstrations break out in violence, as in London?
That is exactly the difference.
In Israel, there is a very different political performance. The Prime Minister and the press and the elites are sympathetic to the demonstrators.
Q: Are Americans losing their loyalty to Israel? Are they different from their parents and grandparents generations?
I disagree. This is not borne out by the demographics and the statistics.
How do we bring Israel back to being a unifying and attractive concept, and not a divisive phenomenon? Bring youth to Israel, like Birthright.
Most Americans do not understand the diversity of Israel and its social entrepreneurs and renewal of the Negev.
For an example [of social entrepreneurship]: Save a Childs Heart, an organization that performs thousands of surgeries around the world, for free, including in Gaza, and including years and years of follow up.
We train Palestinian doctors.
Israel is more than just a stereotype. New wheat is marketed to solve world hunger. We have our first electric car. There needs to be a new book: Social Entrepreneur Nation.
Israel has room for everybody the left, the right, the Orthodox Jews, the Conservative Jews, etc.
Jewish history has been either exile or redemption. But redemption implies perfection, and Israel is not and cannot be perfect. No easy solution [to seeing Israel as divisive, rather than unifying].
The Arab spring will be with us for a generation, and one thing is clear: We need to protect Israel. There are two centers of Jewry now. North American and Israel.
We need to find ways to make that relationship meaningful.
