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If 'Israel Lobby' is so powerful, why do Arab countries get U.S. arms?

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Despite the hype about the so-called "Israel Lobby," the truth is that no President has ever denied a major arms sale to an Arab country. Ships, planes, electronics, tanks, missiles, munitions, communications, radars - you name it, they get it. At war with Israel, at peace with Israel, having under-the-table relations with Israel, the Arabs get the arms they are willing to pay for - and some Arab countries get arms paid for by the American taxpayer. No Congress controlled by Democrats or controlled by Republicans has said no to a Democratic or a Republican President. And when Saudi Arabia violated the solemn promise to the Senate by an American Defense Secretary that Saudi F-15s would be based in the south, away from Israel, the Senate didn't blink an eye and neither, by the way, did the sitting Defense Secretary.

We hope he wasn't asking rhetorically.

Bryen is director of special projects for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

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ISRAELI DANCE—Instructor Paul Kalmar, right foreground, runs class at Tifereth Israel Synagogue through the paces of "Koparoche," an Israeli line dance.  Kalmar family photos

____________________ The Jewish Citizen              by Donald H. Harrison

Israeli dance transforms computer whiz into night-time dance instructor 

SAN DIEGO—Israeli dancing has its own local genealogy.  Paul Kalmar, 25, who teaches it at Tifereth Israel Synagogue on Sunday nights, is himself a student in two separate dance programs in the county, taught respectively by Dalia Dallal and Yoni Carr.  He traces his interest in the genre to the “fun, social interaction, and connection to Judaism” that he experienced during dances taught by Los Angeles-based instructor David Dassa at the Brandeis Collegiate Institute in June of 2002.     

Even before any of these teachers influenced him, Kalmar regularly was urged to become involved in Israeli dancing by his parents, Dr. Franklin Kalmar and Susan Stern, who had a particular reason for loving the activity.  They had met while Israeli dancing in Los Angeles.  

Kalmar had traveled to Israel shortly after his bar mitzvah 12 years ago, and again nine years ago when he was selected to go on the Scott Stone Teen Trip to Israel.  That United Jewish Federation-administered, six-week Israel experience is underwritten by Rod and Gloria Stone as a memorial to their son.  But neither Israel, nor the recommendation of his parents could switch Kalmar’s main focus from his computer to Israeli dancing during his teen years.  Back then, Kalmar said during an interview today “whenever I followed my parents I was the youngest person there by many years—whereas at BCI, there were people my age.”

He remembered that the first dance he mastered at Brandeis was Hora Medura, which should not be confused with the hora that Jews love to dance in a circle at weddings and bar mitzvahs.  “It’s a completely different dance,” he said.  “Hora Medura has a lot of sideways motion, hands outstretched, palms pushed against the person’s next to you, crossing feet and kicking; then going in the other direction with grapevine steps, bending down and stomping.”


NESHIKA TURKIT—Paul Kalmar (center foreground) leads an Israeli line dance
known as the "Turkish kiss"

The teacher says there are three categories of Israeli dances—circle dances, couple dances, and line dances.  “The thing about Israeli dance is that it borrows from everywhere,” he said. “There are aspects of all different dances—tango, waltz, swing, salsa...”  Given that Jews immigrated to Israel from all parts of the Diaspora. perhaps this should not be surprising. 

Kalmar said that among students of ethnic dance, there sometimes is lively debate over just what constitutes an Israeli dance.  For example, take a dance set to Greek music and choreographed by an immigrant from Britain: that still is considered an Israeli dance.  In the line dances, he said, a lot of the music is Greek, Spanish or Arabic.

There are some classics tunes in Israeli dance. For example Erev Ba (Evening Comes), used both for a couples dance and a line dance, is considered a standard part of the Israeli dance repertoire.  Other dances, however, are more ephemeral.  “A song comes out and a month later there’s a new Israeli dance to it,” said Kalmar.  And almost as quickly that dance may be replaced in the modern repertoire by a dance that is even more recent.  Kalmar estimates that there are thousands of Israeli dances.

Different teachers have different styles.  Carr, who teaches after hours on the San Diego Jewish Academy campus, is a  strong teacher who can help students master the intricacies of complicated routines, Kalmar said. 

Dallal, who teaches at a studio in North Park, impresses dancers with her friendliness, and “is very good about listening to comments and feedback from other people.”

As for his own classes, Kalmar notes that he works in Carmel Valley for Fair Isaac  as a computational linguist—a person who gets computers to automatically understand each other’s language.  Dance, for him, in other words is an avocation, rather than a vocation.  

He said he helps fill three niches in the local Israeli dance world.  As a teacher in his 20s he may attract younger learners; as a teacher in the eastern portion of the city (San Carlos) he may lure new dancers from that geographic area, and as a teacher who remembers and still likes the dances associated with Israeli songs that have come and gone over the last five years, he may appeal to some dancers’ sense of nostalgia.

Kalmar estimates that the current population of Israeli dancers may be around 200 or less.  About 10 percent of them attend his classes at Tifereth Israel, although on some nights attendance may drop to as few as 10 to 15.

Shy when he speaks, Kalmar is expressive on the dance floor.  His classes from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday night generally start with dances for beginners, and then graduate to more complicated dances later in the evening. 

Kalmar plays the Israeli dance music on his laptop computer, which he sets up on a stage of  the social hall at Tifereth Israel, 6660 Cowles Mountain Blvd. The cost for an evening of instruction is $3 for the synagogue’s members, and $5 general admission.  More information is available via the synagogue at (619) 697-6001.
 

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Jewish Humor 

A Yinglish, Hebrish, Jewish Dictionarya

Deja nu (n.) Having the feeling you've seen the same exasperated look on your mother's face, but not knowing exactly when.

Dis-kvellified (v.) Dropping out of law school or med school as seen through the eyes of parents, grandparents and, in extreme cases, simply choosing to major in art history when Irv's son David is majoring in biology is sufficient grounds for Dis-kvellification .

Disori yenta (n.) When an Aunt gets lost in a department store and strikes up a conversation with everyone she passes.

Goyfer (n.) A Gentile messenger.

Jewbilation (n.) Pride in finding out that one's favorite celebrity is
Jewish.

Jewdo (n.) A traditional form of self-defense based on talking one's way out of a tight spot.

Minyastics (n.) Going to incredible lengths and troubles to find a tenth  person to complete a Minyan.

Re-shtetlement (n.) Moving from Brooklyn to Miami and finding all your old neighbors live in the same condo building as you.

Torahfied (v.) Inability to remember one's lines when called to read from the Torah at one's Bar or Bat Mitzvah. (OR from the Hagadah at Passover).

Trayffic Accident (n.) An appetizer, one finds out, has pork

Yidentify (v.) To be able to determine Jewish origins of celebrities, even though their names might be St. John , Curtis, Davis or Taylor.

—Our thanks to Bruce Lowitt of Oldsmar, Florida, for relaying this to us.