This quarter, however, so many pressing issues have been discussed with B'nai B'rith leaders,
government officials, policy experts, and members of Jewish communities during my recent travels for B'nai B'rith International (BBI) that I am struggling to select what to highlight among the many challenges before us. 

Should I talk about our annual mission to Geneva, which we undertook in March for the session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, where Israel continues year after year to be vilified by the biased and one-sided council—a group that is conceived as morally bankrupt?  

Even our friends on the council had to take on a policy of appeasement to get a recent resolution passed, speaking out on behalf of the eight students at the Jerusalem Yeshiva who were slaughtered in early March by a Palestinian gunman.  

The resolution could not get passed without language condemning what was labeled Israel's "disproportionate" response to the constant rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon. Once again, the world is descending to policies of appeasement in the effort to mollify the aggressor. And we at B'nai B'rith continue to try to show the council—and its anti-Israel members—the right direction. 

Of course, I could always talk about the peace process, a topic of much discussion during my recent trips to Israel. Some of us question whether a peace process is really being negotiated. As members of the international community push Israel to a deal with the Palestinians, we scratch our heads and wonder with whom they are talking about negotiating.  

Are they talking about negotiating with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who the West and Israel need to prop up and, in doing so, show his people he is stronger than they know him to be?  

Or are they talking about the Palestinian leadership in Gaza? Surely, the international community does not think we should be negotiating with Hamas—the terrorist organization that believes, along the lines of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth?  

In fact, Israel's reward for unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza in 2005 was the election of a Hamas leadership by the Palestinian people; the leadership that has committed to the destruction of the State of Israel.  

When we talk about a peace agreement, we must be mindful of the Gaza experiment, where the Palestinian leadership—instead of leading their people to institution-building and to economic development—took the opportunity to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized in June 2006 on the Gaza border, and rain rockets on Israeli civilians from closer launching sites. 

One might take the opportunity to examine the West Bank. I shudder at the thought of how much closer to huge population centers militant Palestinians would be if they were allowed to set up rocket-launching sites in the West Bank.  

Of course, we could talk about Jerusalem: the eternal undivided capital of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people worldwide. There are those who believe that dividing Jerusalem formally is the only way to finalize an agreement with the Palestinians, should it come to that point.  

All this begs the question: Is it time for peacemaking with a dysfunctional partner, or is it time to step back and take a breath? Should we give the Palestinian factions, along with their numerous Arab brothers, time to figure out for themselves exactly what they want: peace and harmony with their neighbor Israel or another 100 years of conflict and discouragement?  

BBI Executive Vice President Dan Mariaschin is always using baseball analogies when we converse, and I find this practice "drives his point home" and often brings a complex scenario into clear focus.   In that spirit, I would like to use a business analogy to illustrate the futility of this situation: I said at the time of Gaza withdrawal that unilateral withdrawal was like being in a business deal and negotiating with yourself. I say to you that trying to complete a peace agreement with a weak partner is as unrealistic as unilateral withdrawal.  

The Palestinians have shown time and time again they have no real intention of making a real peace, and that they want Israel to do everything for them and give them everything, including half of Jerusalem. How is it possible to complete a peace deal with a neighbor who only wants to take and not give? History shows us that, every time Israel has extended the olive branch to the Palestinians, they received intifada and rocket fire in return.  

What is the point? 
However, we know that Israel would welcome any friendly neighbor that understands the value of living in an environment of peace and security. She would embrace any neighbor that would be a partner in economic development, together working to ensure stability in the region.  

What a shame, as Israel celebrates 60 years of statehood and prosperity, that, in 1948, the Palestinians and the Arab nations chose war instead of peace: for the Palestinians of today could be celebrating 60 years of peace and prosperity and would, no doubt, be a major trading partner with the State of Israel.  

On a different geographic front 
We need to discuss endangered Jewish communities of Latin America: Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In Quito, Ecuador, this past March, B'nai B'rith gathered key leaders, as well as the communal leadership from the region, to discuss common challenges and to start to develop some solutions for what will continue to be an unacceptable environment for those Jewish communities to thrive. 

What a shame that the Jewish communities that have lived in the region for so many years, and have been a viable and participatory minority, are now feeling angst and discouragement. Many of these communities are now half of what they used to be in population.  

Of course, we turn once again to the ringleader, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela: With his rhetoric and actions, he continues to wreak havoc in the region. Although his citizens rejected his constitutional "reforms" through a referendum, Chavez has systematically begun instituting each and every one of his desires.  

His closeness to Ahmadinejad, the continuing echoing of Iranian rhetoric—and the use of his petrodollar influence in Central America, and indeed the entirety of Latin America—heighten the level of anguish for our Jewish brothers and sisters on the ground.  

BBI will continue to seek solutions in Latin America, for we have a commitment as the global voice of the Jewish community to help our brothers and sisters in their threatened societies. All of us should be very proud that our organization continues to advocate for human rights and human freedoms in the Latin American region. 

Of course, the work we do in Europe is an ongoing battle in the fight against anti-Semitism, as the radical Muslim population spreads its reach. We must be ever-vigilant in our assistance to the Jewish communities of Europe and work in a partnership with B'nai B'rith Europe—as we do in Latin America.  

Our European Union (E.U.) office in Brussels is up and running, and we have begun to closely monitor the activities and decisions of E.U. institutions with respect to Middle East policy and Jewish concerns. The office reacts immediately to European political developments that involve Israel and the Jewish people. 

Noting my word count at this point, my editor would tell me there is no space remaining for me to discuss the issues of concern to Jewish communities across North America. The challenges are huge because of less engagement from the future leaders of the Jewish community when it comes to attachment to the State of Israel and Holocaust remembrance.  

Many members of our next generation view Israel as just another state, and not the state of the Jewish people and our beacon of safety in a troubled world. We at B'nai B'rith must redouble our efforts to educate the next generation and change this view.  

How do we do this? We are all searching for what, at this moment, is the elusive answer. Thankfully, every major organization and every Jewish community in the Diaspora is focusing its efforts on this topic. Together, we will find the answer. 

Through our World Center in Jerusalem, and the foresight of the BBI leadership who created that institution, we are very fortunate to be able to maintain contacts between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. The World Center, led by Executive Director Alan Schneider, is an ongoing expression of B'nai B'rith's active commitment to the State of Israel. 

Now you understand why I chose the headline, "So Many Issues, So Little Space." The issues that face the Jewish world today are not insignificant by any means. They need thought, activism, and engagement, and they need to be solved simultaneously—a daunting task, to be sure. However, the Jewish communities in the Diaspora historically have been up to the task. 

Together, the solutions will come, with the Diaspora communities in partnership with the State of Israel.