We decided to forego our regular NIF News this week and instead invite our readers to participate in the upcoming wedding of Olga and Nico, which will take place on Tuesday, August 4.  We have already received more than 60 responses and hope to double the number before forwarding the good wishes and other comments to the couple.   However, we also want to provide our readers with links to two important articles that were published during the past week. 

The first, written by NIF President Naomi Chazan for the Jerusalem Post, rebukes the self-appointed monitors of human rights organizations for their indiscriminate and non-substantive campaign against those who draw attention to the injustices in Israeli society. The second, which appears in today’s JTA, describes NIF’s approach to supporting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that guarantees equality under law to all its citizens.  We are also enclosing a short update regarding the inappropriate attacks by Israel Army journalists on NIF grantee Breaking the Silence and the NIF response. 

Perhaps it is fitting that we distribute this e-mail on Tisha B’Av, the date in the Jewish calendar that marks the destruction of the first and second temples and other tragedies in Jewish history.  The Talmudic rabbis' attribution of the destruction of the second temple to "sinat chinam," or baseless hatred, among the Jewish population deserves particular attention.  Even as we observe this sad commemoration, we must consider the efforts by elements of the Jewish community who seek to ostracize individuals and organizations for alleged acts of disloyalty or for propounding unpopular opinions.