22 February 2008
Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert has established a high-level government task force charged with fundamentally altering the relationship between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. The new task force heralds a change, officials in the Prime Minister's Office told the ‘Jerusalem Post’ newspaper, in that it will seek ways in which Israel can begin to invest in the Diaspora, rather than remaining merely the recipient of Diaspora aid.
The task force, headed by cabinet secretary Ovad Yehezkel, was established at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office and currently includes only Diaspora affairs minister Isaac Herzog and Jewish Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski. More members are to be added soon. "Olmert understands that Israel has a problem in its relationship with the Diaspora: it's mainly one-way, and Israel campaigns as the poor, weak party. But now US Jewry is in a crisis of identity, of intermarriage. We see it and we feel it, if nowhere else, in the cash flow“, an unnamed official is quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post.
