The Jerusalem-based chief of the New Israel Fund sees an end in sight to the violence rocking his country.
“I’m optimistic that the war the way we’ve seen it is almost over,” said Eliezer Yaari, the NIF’s executive director in Israel. “I think Israel is winning. I think the Palestinians didn’t achieve anything except misery for themselves and for Israel.”
Even if his prediction is correct and the intifada subsides soon, Yaari thinks another battle still must be waged — the struggle for equality and social justice for Israel’s multi-ethnic populace.
“One of the first victims of terrorism everywhere is democracy,” said Yaari, who stressed the need for a “balancing voice” to protect the rights of all Israelis during turbulent times when the tendency often is “to give up almost anything to survive.”
Yaari’s comments came during a recent visit to the Bay Area, where he met with local NIF representatives, donors and addressed congregants at Burlingame’s Peninsula Temple Sholom.
Launched 23 years ago in the Bay Area, NIF is a progressive organization that works in Israel to foster human rights, equality for women, religious pluralism and coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
“Because I’m optimistic, because I think we’re close to the end of this war…the question is, ‘What kind of an Israel do we want?'” asked the 53-year-old Yaari, a former combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force.
“I describe myself as a proud Jew. Very often I find it very disturbing that in my name, anti-Jewish things are happening.”
Yaari said he was referring to instances of “pure hatred” and discrimination directed against Arab people in his country.
“The strength of the society is just as important as the strength of the military,” he said.
A Jerusalem native, Yaari rose to the rank of major, flying in combat missions, teaching and performing as an acrobatic pilot with the air force. He retired from the military in 1976 and became a journalist with the Israel Broadcasting Authority before joining the NIF five years ago.
“It’s very clear to us that the threat to Israeli’s democracy right now is the growing gap between rich and poor,” said Yaari.
He said the NIF is trying to bridge that gap by supporting programs and partnerships that aim to improve the plight of some of Israel’s neediest people.
The fund, which raises about $25 million annually, gives grants to about 100 different programs, ranging from broad civil rights causes to an effort to promote educational opportunities and strengthen community among Bedouin women living in the south.
An effort called “shatil,” or seedlings, provides training and funding to small nonprofit groups engaged in humanitarian efforts. “We’re social venture capitalists in a way,” he said.
In recent years, the NIF also has teamed up with other funding groups on joint projects. “One of my babies,” he said, is the Israel Venture Network, composed of Israeli high-tech executives from the Silicon Valley. A pilot program of that network is working to improve education standards in a community of 50,000 people in Tiberius, where the illiteracy rate stands at 22 percent.
In other arenas, Yaari cited the political role the NIF had played in successfully halting a proposed resolution that would have barred Arabs from buying land in Israel.
Yaari said his organization also had supported civil rights groups representing Arabs who felt they’d been denied jobs or faced other forms of discrimination. The Israeli Arab community, with about 1.2 million people, is struggling with its identity and faces “tremendous” pressure “to deny their Israeliness,” Yaari said.
Despite the ongoing conflict and the “soul-searching” facing his country, Yaari remained optimistic about Israel’s power to survive and flourish.
“Israelis have lived through the last 10 years and we’re still sturdy and growing. It’s unbelievable.” Yaari rattled off such challenges as the Gulf War, five successive prime ministers, the recent violence that has claimed hundreds of Israeli lives, along with the absorption of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Ethiopia and elsewhere.
“And we’re still standing. The kids are still going to school. This is quite amazing.”