Pro-Israel rally planned for Thursday

With controversy boiling over Israel's recent incursion into Gaza, Philadelphia's Jewish community will assemble in John F. Kennedy Plaza tomorrow to show its support for Israel.

Organizers expect more than 2,000 people to attend the "We Stand With Israel Solidarity Rally," set for noon at LOVE Park. Similar events will be held throughout the country.

"We want to demonstrate support for the State of Israel and for its right to defend itself against the constant rockets of Hamas," Ira Schwartz, president of the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia, said yesterday.

The federation will bring in private security to bolster the Philadelphia police, Schwartz said.

Twelve people were arrested in downtown Miami Sunday as dueling protests were held outside the Israeli Consulate. Jeers, vulgar gestures and obscenities were observed, and some rocks were thrown, police said.

Controversy also erupted at a pro-Palestinian rally in Philadelphia Dec. 30. Linda Holtzman, senior rabbi of Roxborough's Congregation Mishkan Shalom, labeled Israel's incursion "immoral, unjust and deplorable."

Israel began air strikes against Hamas targets Dec. 27 in retaliation for months of rocket attacks on its southern flank. Against growing public opposition, Israel on Sunday initiated a ground offensive.

Thus far, Palestinian medical officials estimate that more than 560 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians. Israeli officials say Hamas has killed five Israelis.

Schwartz says "95 percent" of Philadelphia's Jewish community supports Israel's actions, and the backlash to Holtzman's statement was immediate.

She received numerous "outrageously nasty" e-mails, she said yesterday, including one urging that her name "be wiped out here and in Israel. It felt terrible. You say that about Hitler."

In Philadelphia, "it's actually difficult to say something critical of Israel and not get very harsh repercussions from the rest of the community," she said.

"Loving Israel doesn't mean everything Israel does is fine. One can be a very committed Jew, love Israel, and still criticize it when it's necessary. It's a deeply troubling and complex situation."

Holtzman said she had "no love for Hamas, but who else can you negotiate with, if not those people who violently disagree with you?"

To Robert S. Leib, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Abington, there is no negotiating with Hamas. "They are a pernicious and implacable enemy that is hell-bent on the total eradication of the Jewish state.

"I firmly and totally support the incursion, and I hope it will result in the destruction of all Hamas' military stockpiles and kill all its leaders. It needs to be uprooted once and for all."

Leib, a native South African in his 19th year with the Reform congregation, said Holtzman, whose congregation is Reconstructionist, had a right to her opinions.

But expressing them at a pro-Palestinian rally "is nothing less than a shande," a shame or disgrace, he said.

Tomorrow's rally is particularly meaningful to the Philadelphia federation, which last year distributed more than $38 million to 50 agencies in the United States, Israel and the Soviet Union, said president Schwartz.

In 2000, the federation "adopted" the Israeli communities of Netivot and Sdot Negev, near Gaza, providing support for economic development and social and educational programming, he said.

The Israeli incursion is a polarizing situation, but Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, an associate professor of religion at Temple University and a Mishkan member, does not support either side.

"I'm on the side of peace," she said. "War doesn't solve problems. Rallies don't end wars.

"What ends wars is negotiation, diplomacy, and remembering that you should talk before you pick up a weapon."