Issue 2 of the America-Israel Friendship League Newsletter

I've just received my first email copy of The Complete Picture: The rest of the news from Israel... from the America-Israel Friendship League (AIFL). It's completely online, so I won't have my snail mailbox cluttered.

I do not remember how I signed up for this newsletter...

Perhaps it was when I visited the Unity Coalition for Israel website some time back. I was following a link at the CBN weblog that quoted "Bibi" [Netanyahu] as telling US Evangelicals that they were Israel's greatest friends.

According to the newsletter,

Founded in 1971, The America-Israel Friendship League bridges gaps and enriches lives around shared democratic values of pluralism, tolerance and inclusion. We forge alliances that transcend religious, ethnic, political and geographic boundaries. The AIFL is a non-sectarian, non-partisan organization.

I am glad to see that they are building bridges with Americans whose respect for democratic values are so equivalent to those who live in Israel. As the masthead of the newsletter asserts, "There is no distance between common values."

In this issue, I'll read about an Israeli film nominated for an Academy Award:

39 Pounds of Love tells the story of Ami Ankilewitz an American-born Israeli with a severe form of muscular dystrophy that renders him almost entirely immobile.

I can also learn about the The International Women's Commission, which has been

...established to ensure representation of women in all decision-making bodies and negotiation teams in Israel, was launched at the Knesset.

Certainly lots of shared values there. SHows that women have rights in Israel, not like many other of those places there in the Mideast.

I can read a close-up article on a woman politician,

Shelly Yachimovich, a divorcee and mother of two, defines herself as a socialist and a feminist. . . .During her career she has succeeded in finding a place at the epicenter of the major media outlets. . . .Now in a move that sent major reverberations through the media and the public, she announced she was joining the Labor Party under the leadership of Amir Peretz.

Very important to see how secular and diverse the Israelis are. In fact, they seem even more secularized than us in the US. So I can feel comfortable that they are not going to turn into a rabid, right-leaning fascist regime.

Bibi's run for head of government looks like he will at least be met with someone with liberal leanings. Again, not like those other people who live around there... Common values, you know.