Grapevine October 13, 2021: American concern over Iran

• Author: GREER FAY CASHMAN
• Published date: 12 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The speaker was not a minister in the Israeli government, but former Democratic senator from Connecticut Joe Lieberman, who was responding to a question put to him by Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov.

The occasion was the opening night of the First Israeli Conference, of Shabbat Unplugged, on Shabbat, Society and Economy. It was also the Hebrew Launch of Lieberman's book The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath. The Hebrew version, under the title of Zman Shabbat, has a slightly different connotation.

The book was published by Maggid Books with a foreword by Dr. Ruth Kabbesa-Abramzon, the CEO of the nonprofit organization Shearim and the founder of Shabbat Unplugged, which finds some kind of common denominator in the diversity of all the ways in which people relate to Shabbat. It was at her initiative that the book was translated into Hebrew.

The conference was held at the ANU Museum in Tel Aviv. Lieberman is the honorary international chairman of the museum's board of governors, so he was actually present in a dual capacity.

Harkov had been asked to interview him about the book, but as a diplomatic correspondent and former Knesset reporter, she could not shy away from the Iran issue.

Lieberman, who has no faith in anything to which Iran might agree, is hopeful that US President Joe Biden has a plan B to stop Iran from further developing its nuclear capability. He sees a nuclear Iran as a threat to world security, to American security, to Israeli security and to Arab security.

He is also disturbed by the eight Democrats and one Republican who voted against further funding for the Iron Dome. "The voices of these nine were more stridently opposed to Israel than ever before," he lamented, declaring that they were acting on false premises. He suggested that the Israeli government should try to get them to come to Israel.

He found it ludicrous that the nine should call Israel a colonial power when it was a colonial power that the Jews fought in order to gain Israel's independence. He also scoffed at the idea of calling Israel racist "when half the population would be called people of color."

As for the book, Lieberman told Harkov that he wrote the book in order to answer all the questions that both Jews and non-Jews asked him about being a Sabbath-observant elected official. The non-Jews actually had more respect than the nonobservant Jews.

"I love Shabbat," he said. "Shabbat is a gift. I wanted, in my non-rabbinic way, to do a little kiruv (outreach)." Now he hopes that the Hebrew edition will enable him to do a little kiruv in Israel as well.

Numerous figures from different walks of life attended the opening, and although every speaker waxed eloquent over the different elements of Shabbat, very few of the men who were present wore kippot, and hardly any of the women covered their hair. Of the men, the one who stood out was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, who, emulating his father, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, wore a black fedora and a black frock coat.

On the subject of Shabbat, Kabbesa-Abramzon said "Shabbat is not just a time factor, but an experience."

Irina Nevzlin, who chairs the museum's board of directors and is president of the Nadav Foundation, said: "We want to give the younger generation of Jews a feeling of pride in being Jewish."

Incidentally, Nevzlin is one of the contenders for the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency, and her husband, MK Yuli Edelstein, a former minister and Knesset speaker, has announced that he is contending for the Likud leadership and ultimately the prime ministership of Israel.

Nevzlin noted that, throughout his political life, Lieberman "never forgot that he's Jewish and took pride in his Jewishness."

Former Police commissioner Roni Alsheich regretted that so many people no longer say "Shabbat shalom" but prefer to say "Have a nice weekend." Shabbat unites the individual to the family, and the family to the community, he stated.

Chief Rabbi Lau suggested that Shabbat is a good time for developing human relationships. Mobile phones should be closed and put away, and instead of addressing the screen, people should be engaged in more direct conversations with each other. "We talk about each other in Israel, and not with each other. We need to talk to each other instead of communicating through an electronic device," he said.

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