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Labor Zionism (Labour Zionism, Hebrew: ציונות סוציאליסטית‎, tsionut sotsialistit) can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. It was, for many years, the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structure. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizeable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created simply by appealing to the international community or to a powerful nation such as Britain, Germany or the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Labor Zionists believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in Palestine and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.

Labor Zionism grew in size and influence and eclipsed "political Zionism" by the 1930s both internationally and within the British Mandate of Palestine where Labor Zionists predominated among many of the institutions of the pre-independence Jewish community Yishuv, particularly the trade union federation known as the Histadrut. The Haganah – the largest Zionist paramilitary defense force – was a Labor Zionist institution and was used on occasion (such as during the Hunting Season) against right-wing political opponents or to assist the British Administration in capturing Jewish terrorists.

Labor Zionists played a leading role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and Labor Zionists were predominant among the leadership of the Israeli military for decades after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Major theoreticians of the Labor Zionist movement included Moses Hess, Nachman Syrkin, Ber Borochov and Aaron David Gordon and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Berl Katznelson.

Ideology[link]

Moses Hess's 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question argued for the Jews to settle in Palestine as a means of settling the national question. Hess proposed a socialist state in which the Jews would become agrarianized through a process of "redemption of the soil" that would transform the Jewish community into a true nation in that Jews would occupy the productive layers of society rather than being an intermediary non-productive merchant class, which is how he perceived European Jews.

Ber Borochov, continuing from the work of Moses Hess, proposed the creation of a socialist society that would correct the "inverted pyramid" of Jewish society. Borochov believed that Jews were forced out of normal occupations by Gentile hostility and competition, using this dynamic to explain the relative predominance of Jewish professionals, rather than workers. Jewish society, he argued, would not be healthy until the inverted pyramid was righted, and the majority of Jews became workers and peasants again. This, he held, could only be accomplished by Jews in their own country.

Another Zionist thinker, A. D. Gordon, was influenced by the völkisch ideas of European romantic nationalism, and proposed establishing a society of Jewish peasants. Gordon made a religion of work. These two figures (Gordon and Borochov), and others like them, motivated the establishment of the first Jewish collective settlement, or kibbutz, Degania, on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in 1909 (the same year that the city of Tel Aviv was established). Deganiah, and many other kibbutzim that were soon to follow, attempted to realise these thinkers' vision by creating communal villages, where newly arrived European Jews would be taught agriculture and other manual skills.

Joseph Trumpeldor is also considered to be one of the early icons of the Labor Zionist movement in Palestine.^[1] When discussing what it is to be a Jewish pioneer, Trumpeldor stated

"What is a pioneer? Is he a worker only? No! The definition includes much more. The pioneers should be workers but that is not all. We shall need people who will be “everything” – everything that the land of Israel needs. A worker has his labor interests, a soldier his esprit de corps, a doctor and an engineer, their special inclinations. A generation of iron-men; iron from which you can forge everything the national machinery needs. You need a wheel? Here I am. A nail, a screw, a block? – here take me. You need a man to till the soil? – I’m ready. A soldier? I am here. Policeman, doctor, lawyer, artist, teacher, water carrier? Here I am. I have no form. I have no psychology. I have no personal feeling, no name. I am a servant of Zion. Ready to do everything, not bound to do anything. I have only one aim – creation."

Trumpeldor, an Anarcho-Communist Zionist, gave his life in 1920 defending the community of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee. He became a symbol of Jewish self-defense and his reputed last words, "Never mind, it is good to die for our country" (En davar, tov lamut be'ad artzenu אין דבר, טוב למות בעד ארצנו), became famous in the pre-state Zionist movement and in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s. Trumpeldor's heroic death made him not only a martyr for Zionists Left but also for the Revisionist Zionist movement who named its youth movement Betar (an acronym for "Covenant of Joseph Trumpeldor") after the fallen hero.

Albert Einstein was a prominent supporter of both Labor Zionism and efforts to encourage Jewish-Arab cooperation.^[2] Fred Jerome in his Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East argues that Einstein was a Cultural Zionist who supported the idea of a Jewish homeland but opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine “with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power.” Instead, he preferred a bi-national state with “continuously functioning, mixed, administrative, economic, and social organizations.”^{[3] [4]} However Ami Isseroff in his article Was Einstein a Zionist argues that Einstein was not opposed to the state of Israel given that Einstein declared it “the fulfillment of our dreams.” Perceiving its vulnerability after independence, he again set aside his pacifism in the name of human preservation, when president Harry Truman recognized Israel in May 1948.^[5]In the November 1948 presidential election Einstein supported former vice-president Henry A. Wallace’s Progressive Party, which advocated a pro-Soviet foreign policy – but which also at the time (like the USSR) strongly supported the new state of Israel. Wallace went down to defeat, winning no states. ^[6]

Parties[link]

Initially two labor parties were founded by immigrants to Palestine of the Second Aliyah (1904-1914): the pacifist and anti-militarist Hapo'el Hatza'ir (Young Worker) party and the Marxist Poale Zion party, with Poale Zion roots. The Poale Zion Party had a left wing and a right wing. In 1919 the right wing, including Ben-Gurion and anti-Marxist non-party people, founded Ahdut HaAvoda. In 1930 Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair fused into the Mapai party, which included all of mainstream Labor Zionism. Until the 1960s these parties were dominated by members of the Second Aliyah.^[7]

The Left Poale Zion party ultimately merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair, the urban Socialist League and several smaller left-wing groups to become the Mapam party, which in turn later joined with other parties to create Meretz.

The Mapai party later became the Israeli Labor Party, which for a number of years was linked with Mapam in the Alignment. These two parties were initially the two largest parties in the Yishuv and in the first Knesset, whilst Mapai and its predecessors dominated Israeli politics both in the pre-independence Yishuv and for the first three decades of Israel's independence, until the late 1970s.

Decline and transformation[link]

Already in the 1920s the Labor movement disregarded its socialist roots and concentrated on building the nation by constructive action. According to Tzahor its leaders did not "abandon fundamental ideological principles".^[8] However according to Ze'ev Sternhell in his book The Founding Myths of Israel, the labor leaders had already abandoned socialist principles by 1920 and only used them as "mobilizing myths".

Following the 1967 Six-Day War several prominent Labor Zionists created the Movement for Greater Israel which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel and called upon the Israeli government to keep and populate all areas captured in the war. Among the public figures in this movement associated with Left-wing nationalism were Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Icchak Cukierman, Zivia Lubetkin, Eliezer Livneh, Moshe Shamir, Zev Vilnay, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Isser Harel, Dan Tolkovsky, and Avraham Yoffe. In the 1969 Knesset elections it ran as the "List for the Land of Israel", but failed to cross the electoral threshold. Prior to the 1973 elections, it joined the Likud and won 39 seats. In 1976 it merged with the National List and the Independent Centre (a breakaway from the Free Centre) to form La'am, which remained a faction within Likud until its merger into the Herut faction in 1984.

Other prominent Labor Zionists, especially those who came to dominate the Israeli Labor Party, became strong advocates for relinquishing the territory won during the Six-Day War. By the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, this became the central policy of the Labor Party under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. What distinguishes Labor Zionism from other Zionist streams today is not economic policy, an analysis of capitalism or any class analysis or orientation but its attitude towards the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with modern Labor Zionists tending to support the Israeli peace camp to varying degrees. This orientation towards Israel's borders and foreign policy has dominated Labor Zionist institutions in recent decades to the extent that socialist Zionists who support a Greater Israel ideology are forced to seek political expression elsewhere.

In Israel the Labor Party has followed the general path of other governing social democratic parties such as the British Labour Party and is now fully oriented towards capitalism and even neo-liberalism, though recently it has rediscovered the welfare state under the leadership of Amir Peretz.

The Israeli Labor Party and its predecessors have ironically been associated within Israeli society as representing the country's ruling class and political elite whereas working-class Israelis have traditionally voted for the Likud since the Begin Revolution of 1977.

Labor Zionism today[link]

Labor Zionism manifests itself today in both adult and youth organizations. Among adults, the World Labor Zionist Movement, based in Jerusalem, has affiliates in countries around the world, such as Ameinu in the United States and Australia, Associação Moshé Sharett in Brazil and the Jewish Labour Movement in the United Kingdom. Youth and students are served through Zionist youth movements such as Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair and college-age campus activist groups such as the Union of Progressive Zionists of the U.S. and Canada.

In Israel, Labor Zionism has become nearly synonymous with the Israeli peace camp. Usually Labor Zionist political and educational institutions activists are also advocates of a two-state solution, who do not necessarily adhere to socialist economic views.

See also[link]

• Ameinu
• Farband
• Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed
• Habonim Dror
• Havlagah
• Hebrew labor
• Histadrut
• Jewish left
• Kibbutz
• Left-wing nationalism
• Movement for Greater Israel
• Rome and Jerusalem (text at Wikisource), a classic 1862 work on Labor Zionism by Moses Hess
• The Founding Myths of Israel by Zeev Sternhell

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Labor Zionism

• A history of labor and socialist zionism
• The Jewish Problem and the Socialist Jewish State
• Ameinu - Liberal Values, Progressive Israel

v t e Zionism Topics and concepts Zion Land of Israel Aliyah Yerida Homeland (Proposals) Jewish state Law of Return Yishuv Territorialism Promised Land Settlement Negation of the Diaspora Revival of the Hebrew language Hebraization of surnames Judaization Schools of ideology Political Practical Synthetic General Labor Revisionist Canaanism Reform Religious Cultural Federal Post-Zionism Neo-Zionism Christian Muslim Kahanism Green Zionism Organizations Histadrut World Zionist Organization Zionist General Council Zionist Organization of America Religious Zionists of America Jewish National Fund Poale Zion Jewish Agency for Israel Jewish National Council Bnei Akiva Habonim Dror Hashomer Hatzair Haganah World Agudath Israel Irgun Betar Lehi Jewish Resistance Movement Women's International Zionist Organization Green Zionist Alliance History History of Zionism History of Israel History of Palestine Arab–Israeli conflict List of Zionist figures Timeline of Zionism Timeline of Anti-Zionism Related Jewish political movements Anti-Zionism Haredim and Zionism Jewish Autonomism Jewish Emancipation Greater Israel

Kenneth Bob is the president of Ameinu, the American Labor Zionist organization. He was elected at the national convention of the Labor Zionist Alliance in 2004, when the decision was made to modernize the organization, which included changing the name of the organization to Ameinu, which means "Our People" in Hebrew. Bob is a member of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization and a member of the Jewish Agency for Israel's Board of Governors, following his election at the World Zionist Congress in 2006. He is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and a member of the Jewish National Fund Board of Trustees. Bob is a member of the Advisory Board of J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace, Washington, D.C.-based public advocacy group.

Bob was one of the founders of the Habonim Dror Foundation (HDF) in 1995. The Habonim Dror Foundation was established to provide financial support for Habonim Dror North America at a time when support from other funding sources was dropping. Bob initially served as Vice-Chair, became the Chair in 1999, and served in that role until 2005. Bob served as the mazkir (national director) of Habonim Labor Zionist Youth of North America (before its merger with Dror) from 1973–1975.

In addition to his volunteer work in the Labor Zionist and Jewish world, Bob works as a management consultant for emerging technology companies. In the past, he has been CEO, president, or held other executive positions at several software companies, including Lightstone Group, Descartes Systems Group, Safe3w, and iPass. Bob is a member of the Board of Directors of two technology companies, HOVR and G2Planet. He is a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Long Island Children’s Museum.

References[link]

• Kenneth Bob, Hagee and the Jewish Community: Strange Bedfellows Indeed, Ameinu
• Leadership, Ameinu
• Kenneth Bob, How I Will be Celebrating Israel at 60, Philadelphia Jewish Voice, June 2008
• Ethan Porter, Progressive Zionists Go Back to School, The Forward, August 13, 2004

Larry A. Silverstein (born May 30, 1931) is an American businessman, and real estate investor and developer in New York City.

Silverstein was born in Brooklyn, and became involved in real estate, together with his father, establishing Silverstein Properties. Silverstein separated from his business partner, Bernard Mendik, in 1977, and bought a number of large office buildings in Midtown and Lower Manhattan in the late 1970s. In 1980, Silverstein won a bid from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to construct 7 World Trade Center, to the north of the World Trade Center. Silverstein was interested in acquiring the entire World Trade Center complex, and put in a bid when the Port Authority put it up for lease in 2000. Silverstein won the bid when a deal between the initial winner and the Port Authority fell through, and he signed the lease on July 24, 2001.

Soon after the September 11 attacks, Silverstein declared his intent to rebuild, though ran into dispute with his insurers over whether the attacks constituted one or two occurrences. A settlement was reached in 2007, with insurers agreeing to pay out $4.55 billion,^[1] which was not as much as Silverstein sought. Silverstein also ran into multiple disputes with other parties in the rebuilding effort, including with the Port Authority. In an agreement reached in April 2006, Silverstein retained rights to build three office towers (150 Greenwich Street, 175 Greenwich Street, and 200 Greenwich Street), while One World Trade Center (previously referred to as the "Freedom Tower") will be owned by the Port Authority as well as Tower Five which may be leased out to another private developer and redesigned as a residential building.^[2]

Background[link]

Silverstein was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn in 1931 into a Jewish family.^[3] Growing up, Silverstein enjoyed classical music and played the piano. He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, and then New York University, graduating in 1952. During college, Silverstein worked at a summer camp, where he met his wife, Klara. The couple married in 1956, and had three children: Lisa, Roger and Sharon. His wife worked as a school teacher, supporting the family on her salary for the first few years of their marriage while Silverstein attended classes at Brooklyn Law School.^[4]

Silverstein became involved in real estate, together with his father, Harry G. Silverstein, and then friend and brother-in-law, Bernard Mendik. In 1957, they established Silverstein Properties, as Harry G. Silverstein & Sons, and bought their first building, in Manhattan. Mendik and Silverstein continued the business after Harry's death in 1966. In 1977, Mendik divorced Annette Silverstein Mendik, with the business partnership also splitting up at that time.^[5] Mendik also cited disagreements over real estate strategies, with Mendik wanting to buy buildings while Silverstein wanted to build.^[6]

Silverstein Properties[link]

After splitting with Mendik, both remained involved in the real estate industry, but in separate firms. By 1978, Silverstein owned five buildings on Fifth Avenue, as well as 44 Wall Street, and a shopping center in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1980, he renovated the building at 11 West 42nd Street, and acquired the lease for the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway.^[5] In 1983, Silverstein sold the building at 711 Fifth Avenue to Coca-Cola for $57.6 million, having bought the building in 1977 for $11.5 million.^[7]

Also in 1980, Silverstein bought the building at 120 Wall Street, which was constructed in 1930.^[8] In 1991, Silverstein set aside 20 floors of 120 Wall Street to be leased by non-profit organizations, as an Association Center, with tax incentives for the tenants and bonds for Silverstein to undertake building renovations.^[9][10] By 1994, Silverstein had signed up 14 nonprofit tenants for 120 Wall Street,^[11] and the building was nearly at capacity by 1997, with 38 nonprofit tenants including the National Urban League and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.^[12]

In 1980, Larry Silverstein won a bid to lease and develop the last undeveloped parcel from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to build the 47-story 7 World Trade Center.

World Trade Center[link]

During the 1990s, New York was suffering from the effects of the 1987 stock market crash, which led to high vacancy rates at the World Trade Center. George Pataki became Governor of New York in 1995 on a campaign of cutting costs, including privatizing the World Trade Center. A sale of the property was considered too complex, so it was decided by the Port Authority to open a 99-year lease to competitive bidding.^[13]

In January 2001, Silverstein, via Silverstein Properties and Westfield America, made a $3.2 billion bid for the lease to the World Trade Center. Silverstein was outbid by $50 million by Vornado Realty, with Boston Properties and Brookfield Properties also competing for the lease. However, Vornado withdrew and Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade Center was accepted on July 24, 2001.^[14] This was the first time in the building's 31-year history that the complex had changed management.

The lease agreement applied to One, Two, Four, and Five World Trade Center, and about 425,000 square feet (39,500 m²) of retail space. Silverstein put up $14 million of his own money to secure the deal.^[15] The terms of the lease gave Silverstein, as leaseholder, the right and the obligation to rebuild the structures if destroyed.^[16]

September 11 attacks[link]

All of the buildings at the World Trade Center, including buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were destroyed or damaged beyond repair on September 11, 2001 (see September 11 attacks). After a protracted dispute with insurers over the amount of coverage available for rebuilding World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, 4 and 5, a series of court decisions determined that a maximum of $4.55 billion was payable and settlements were reached with the insurers in 2007.^[17]

Silverstein stated in a September 2002 PBS documentary, 'America Rebuilds', "I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse."^[18] Conspiracy theorists claim this saying meant actively demolishing the building using explosives presumably stored in advance in the building. Initially, however, this was understood as a call to simply stop the fire fighting efforts and watch the building collapse due to the fires with no people in the building at the time.^[19]

Insurance dispute[link]

This section may require copy-editing.

The insurance policies obtained in July 2001 for World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, 4 and 5 had a collective face amount of $3.55 billion. Following the September 11, 2001 attack, Silverstein sought to collect double the face amount (~$7.1 billion) on the basis that the two separate airplane strikes into two separate buildings constituted two occurrences within the meaning of the policies. The insurance companies took the opposite view. Based on differences in the definition of "occurrence" (the insurance policy term governing the amount of insurance) and uncertainties over which definition of "occurrence" applied, the court split the insurers into two groups for jury trials on the question of which definition of "occurrence" applied and whether the insurance contracts were subject to the "one occurrence" interpretation or the "two occurrence" interpretation.

The first trial resulted in a verdict on April 29, 2004, that 10 of the insurers in this group were subject to the "one occurrence" interpretation, so their liability was limited to the face value of those policies, and 3 insurers were added to the second trial group.^[20][21] The jury was unable to reach a verdict on one insurer, Swiss Reinsurance, at that time, but did so several days later on May 3, 2004, finding that this company was also subject to the "one occurrence" interpretation.^[22] Silverstein appealed the Swiss Re decision, but lost that appeal on October 19, 2006.^[23] The second trial resulted in a verdict on December 6, 2004, that 9 insurers were subject to the "two occurrences" interpretation and, therefore, liable for a maximum of double the face value of those particular policies ($2.2 billion).^[24] The total potential payout, therefore, was capped at $4.577 billion for buildings 1, 2, 4, and 5.^[25] An appraisal followed to determine the value of the insured loss.

In July 2006, Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit against some of its insurers for refusing to waive requirements of the insurance contracts that Silverstein claimed were necessary to allow renegotiation of the original July 2001 World Trade Center leases. This litigation, was settled together with the federal lawsuits and appraisal, mentioned in the prior paragraph, in a series of settlements announced on May 23, 2007.^{[26][27][28][29]} Silverstein's lease with the Port Authority for the World Trade Center requires him to continue paying $102 million annually in base rent.^[30] He is applying insurance payments toward the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.^[25]

Rebuilding[link]

Post-9/11 7 World Trade Center

As leaseholder of buildings One, Two, Four and Five, Silverstein had the legal right to rebuild the buildings, including 1 World Trade Center at the World Trade Center site which would later be designated as building One, and while the site remains unoccupied, he continues to pay $10 million per month in rent to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

After the September 11 attacks, the United States Congress approved $8 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to fund development in the private sector at lower-than-market interest rates. $3.4 billion remained unallocated in March 2006 designated for Lower Manhattan, with about half of the funds under the control of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the other half under the control of former Governor George Pataki.

In April 2006, after several months of negotiation aimed toward permitting reconstruction to commence, Silverstein yielded some of his rights back to the Port Authority, in order to facilitate rebuilding at the site. Those negotiations resulted in Silverstein ceding his rights to building One (and its pro-rata share of the above-noted Liberty Bond funds) to the Port Authority, and allocating a portion of the insurance proceeds to the rebuilding of building One in favor of the Port Authority. In return, the remaining pro-rata shares of the Liberty Bond funds were allocated to Silverstein Properties for purposes of rebuilding the remaining buildings, and government agencies are expected to be among the tenants in those buildings.

Ground was broken on the construction of 1 World Trade Center on April 27, 2006.^[31] Lack of financing had prevented construction from commencing earlier. The proceeds of the insurance policies arising from the destruction of the previous buildings were insufficient to cover the cost of rebuilding all the insured buildings.

In March 2007 Silverstein appeared at a rally of construction workers and public officials outside of an insurance industry conference to highlight what he describes as the failures of insurers Allianz & Royal and Sun Alliance to pay $800 million in claims related to the attacks. Insurers cite an agreement to split payments between Mr. Silverstein and the Port Authority as a cause for concern.^[32]

Other projects[link]

While Silverstein is most famous for his involvement at the World Trade Center, his real estate holdings include many other buildings in New York City, including 575 Lexington Avenue, 1177 Avenue of the Americas, 529 Fifth Avenue, and 570 Seventh Avenue.

Among his residential projects is an extensive complex that takes up the entire block between 42nd and 41st Street and between 11th and 12th Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan neighborhood. Projects on the block include 39 One River Place which opened in 2001. In May 2009 the twin-towered Silver Towers opened. At 60 stories it is the tallest rental building in New York.^[33]

Other properties include 30 Park Place.^[34] Silverstein was also involved as a developer of the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C..^[35]

In November 2006, Silverstein agreed to buy the building at 99 Church Street from Moody's for $170 million.^[36] Moody's moved its headquarters into 7 World Trade Center in 2007. 99 Church Street was promptly razed to make way for Silverstein's new project on the site. The 2008 plan proposed a 68 story, 912 foot tower, composed of condominiums and a Four Seasons Hotel on the lower 22 stories.^[37] However, due to lack of financing, the project is not currently progressing past the foundation.^[38]

In 1989 Silverstein proposed to members of the Israeli government that a free trade zone should be created within the Negev region of Israel. The project ultimately failed, however it enjoyed popular support amongst leading Israeli political figures.^[7]

Philanthropy[link]

Silverstein has been involved in his alma mater, as founder and chairman emeritus of New York University's Real Estate Institute, and as a trustee of the New York University Medical Center and Health System. Silverstein also has served as chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in New York, the Realty Foundation, trustee of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and treasurer of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. Silverstein is also a governor of The Real Estate Board of New York.^[39]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Silverstein Properties
• World Trade Center
• Yahoo! - Silverstein Properties, Inc. Company Profile
• WTC Design Unveiling (video)
• New York Magazine Profile
• Video of speech at cornerstone laying ceremony for the Freedom Tower on July 4, 2004

Barry Chamish (born January 13, 1952) is a Canadian-Israeli writer and public speaker. Chamish is known for his controversial views regarding the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.^[1]

Early years[link]

Barry Chamish was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.^[2]

In the first half of the 1970s, Chamish had three novels and a book of short stories published in his native Canada.^[3] His novel Mack won a Canada Council Award worth several thousand dollars.^[4] In 1976, his book Alice in Newfoundland won a Manitoba Arts Council Award.^[5]

Chamish earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Manitoba in 1974.^[2] In 1975, Chamish moved to Israel, where he attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1979.^[6]

Following graduation, Chamish was conscripted into the Israeli Defense Forces, and served as a regular from 1979 to 1981.^[4][5] He was mobilized as a reservist in 1982 and fought in the 1982 Lebanon war, in which he operated a Redeye anti-aircraft missile.^[4]

Career[link]

Chamish began to work as a free-lance writer, publishing material in a range of publications including The Atlantic, National Review, and the New York Newsday.^[3] Chamish established a news service to distribute his work called "Profiles of Israel," which he continued throughout the decade of the 1980s.^[4]

During the 1990s, Chamish wrote extensively on Unidentified Flying Objects, investigating a spate of sightings in Israel during that period.^[7] Chamish's work was featured on four episodes of the NBC-TV program Sightings as well as a half-hour of primetime coverage on FOX-TV.^[7]

From the 1990s, Chamish began publishing a series of books charging acts of treachery against the state of Israel, including Traitors and Carpetbaggers in the Promised Land (1997), The Final Days of Israel (2000), Israel Betrayed (2001), and Bye Bye Gaza (2006). In these and similar works, Chamish charged that an array of external and internal forces had "corrupted the country's leaders" and engaged in a "determined agenda aimed at the demise of the Jewish state."^[8]

Chamish wrote a book, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin? (1998) in which he challenged the official account of the event placing blame on a lone Zionist gunman. One of the central assertions of Chamish's book was that Rabin was not shot twice in the back as the government concluded, but was actually shot three times—with the fatal wound being fired from the front.^[7] By the end of 2005 the book had sold 39,000 copies and had been published in seven different languages.^[7]

In 2008 the Jerusalem Magistrate Court summoned Chamish to pay Itamar Ben-Gvir defamation damages of 36,000 NIS (roughly US$10,000) after repeatedly calling him an agent of the Shin Bet.^[9]

Scrabble[link]

Chamish was the winner of the 1987 Israeli Scrabble Tournament and the runner-up in 1988.^[4]

Books[link]

• The Devil Wore an Angel's Suit. Winnipeg, MB: Split Level, 1972.
• Keep Stillman: A Pun. Winnipeg: Split Level, 1973.
• Mack. Winnipeg: Split Level, 1974.
• Alice in Newfoundland. Winnipeg: Split Level, 1976.
• The Fall of Israel. Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate, 1992. ISBN 0-86241-355-9
• Traitors and Carpetbaggers in the Promised Land. Oklahoma City: Hearthstone, 1997. ISBN 1-57558-017-9
• Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin? Venice, CA: Feral, 1998. ISBN 0-922915-50-4
• Return of the Giants. Sun Lakes, AZ: Book World/Blue Star, 2000. ISBN 1-881542-66-1
• The Final Days of Israel. Tempe, AZ: Dandelion, 2000. ISBN 1-893302-16-4
• Israel Betrayed. Ainsworth, NE: Counting Coup, 2001. ISBN 0-9708598-5-6
• Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust. Knoxville, TN: Master Press, 2005. ISBN 965-90766-1-4
• Bye Bye Gaza. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4457-1528-5
• With the Kennedys. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4457-1530-8
• THE conPromised Land. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4457-1258-1

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Barry Chamish Website, official website. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
• "Masters of the Tiles: Even to Initiates, Scrabble has Yet to Yield Up All its Secrets," The Atlantic Monthly, Barry Chamish. Volume 259, No. 6 (June 1987), pp. 54-58.
• "New World Order's Control of Israel's Economy," Barry Chamish. Truth in Media Global Watch Bulletin, December 3, 1998.
• Barry Chamish Scrabble tournament results at cross-tables.com