Dear Friend,
I'm leading a day-long seminar at 1st Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor this Saturday. We will cover Christian Zionism and Kairos USA, (the US response to Kairos Palestine). Pray for us.
Below is a critique of a recent post by Uri Avnery, the aging lion of Israeli dissidents. By clicking on the link (in the article), you can go directly to his post, which prompted my critique and updating on how the I/P "conflict" is being played out up to the moment.
I'll be joining the Chicago Presbytery ME Study group as they travel to I/P June 15-29.
I was hopeful that President Obama's visit there earlier this year would prompt new efforts at rapprochement between Israelis and Arab Palestinians. We'll check it out and let you know.
Today, Peace Now, (an Israeli-based rights group with an American affiliate), reported the government seems ready to give the go-ahead to four new settlements, heretofore deemed "illegal". Not a hopeful sign.
We are still not at the tipping point. Yet, more and more Americans are becoming aware of the systemic injustice of having your property confiscated, your home demolished, your olive orchard destroyed, leaving you no place to live on land that was once your own. JRK for FPI
One-State, Two-State, Bi-National State
John R. Kleinheksel Sr.
In his May 11, 2013 Gush Shalom piece, Uri Avnery rejoins the One-State, Two-State, Bi-National State debate. There is a lot of grudging respect for this aging gadfly-critic of his beloved Israel. Even when he calls her “a defacto evil State of oppression and brutality” (!) Read it first-hand here: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1368181918>
Though critical of the Occupation, he doesn’t want to turn Israel into a Bi-National pluralistic State, thus losing her Jewish identity.
What a dilemma. Each people group wants their own (One) State, but only Israel already has it—on land stolen from the Palestinians, who remain stateless.
Through the years, there have been those willing to share the land in a pluralistic democratic State, but the wars of 1948 and 1967 basically gave the edge to the transplants, at the expense of the natives. To the victors go the spoils, though “the world” is strongly opposed.
Uri Avnery, now well into his eighth decade, knows the injustice of it all and sees the settlement movement as the key impediment. Unlike many others who see the growth of the settlements as the “death of the Two State” solution, Mr. Avnery firmly believes the spread of the settlements can be “reversed”, citing the evacuations of the Sinai and Gaza settlements as precedents. Where there is the will, there will be the ways to solve this issue, he writes.
He doesn’t like the comparison of Israel with (Apartheid) South Africa and thinks “leftists” expect the world will eventually compel Greater Israel to grant full [citizenship] rights to the Palestinians “and Israel will become [bi-national] Palestine” [with no Jewish majority](5th paragraph from the end).
Frankly, the international community would be content with either a separate Palestinian State or a Bi-National pluralistic State, if the two peoples could just resolve their issues peacefully. The present Israeli government (with US support), will allow neither an autonomous Palestinian State nor a Bi-National one. Mr. Avnery argues that if Israel refuses to allow a Palestinian State now, why would she allow world opinion to dictate that they dismantle the Jewish State to make way for a Bi-National one? So, how does this advance us to a solution? The lukewarm response to the renewed Arab Peace Initiative, trumpeted by Sec. John Kerry, is not a good sign.
The unmentioned elephant in the closet is the fear that the Palestinians will go to any lengths to wrest control from the Israelis and treat Israelis as harshly as they were treated! Distrust is deep and visceral.
How is fear to be addressed? We can continue sharing narratives with each other for starters, walking in the shoes of “the other” as urged by President Obama on his recent visit to both sides. Very few are talking about “love”. At least Mr. Avnery allows that “the birth of new love between the two peoples” would be “wonderful, even miraculous” even though there is no sign of it. He betrays the cynic’s disguised yearning for Israelis and Palestinians to find “their common values, the common roots of their history and languages, [and] their common love for this country”. He might have added that then there might be mutual respect and a willingness to coexist in peace.
Moshe Arens, the respected retired Israeli diplomat, argues in a May 14, 2013 Haaretz op-ed that Israel is already a Bi-National State. He urges the government to double the immigration of Jews from 20k to 40k/year and work to better integrate Arab citizens into Israeli society—even allowing as many as 30% of citizens to be Arabs (instead of the present 17-20%).
On the other hand, Ali Abunimah reminds us of the Occupation and confiscation of historic Arab Palestinian land. Lauding Stephen Hawking’s boycott of a scientific and economic conference in Jerusalem, he writes: Israel cannot continue to pretend that it is a country of culture, technology and enlightenment while millions of Palestinians live invisibly under the brutal rule of bullets, bulldozers and armed settlers.
Secretary of State John Kerry has the unenviable task, not of compelling but of persuading the settlement-strengthened Netanyahu administration to rein in the settlers. How likely is that? And how long will the US support the injustice of it all? How long?
It will come down to the newer generations of Israelis (and Palestinians) heeding President Obama’s plea and pulling their elders along: “Put yourself in their shoes. Don’t you want for them what you want for yourselves? Don’t you care?”
Indeed! I see this approach bearing fruit plus a more vigorous BDS campaign (Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions) reluctantly but doggedly pursued by more and more people with more nonviolent demonstrations, to bring the powers-that-be to their senses. John Kleinheksel
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
To Persist in Conciliation!
Dear Friend,
This is the spirit that will "win" in the end. Persistent, rational, dogged determination that the forces of extremism will not prevail. JRK
Former Palestinian fighter now battles for a middle path
By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / May 8, 2013 (Christian Science Moniter)
Palestinian Mohammed Dajani's staircase in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina is a literal paper trail of his family and career, from an Ottoman sultan's decree that gave his relatives custodianship of David's tomb to the photos just behind him of then-Senator Barack Obama visiting his Al Quds University classroom.
East Jerusalem
By his own admission, Mohammed Dajani was “extremely radical” as a young man working for the Palestinian militant group Fatah in Lebanon.
His family was forced to leave their stately Jerusalem home during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Following the example set by his grandfather, who ripped up the refugee card given to his wife, Mr. Dajani has refused to label himself a refugee: “We are citizens and human beings and we have to earn our way,” he says.
But as a young man he saw no other solution than taking back all of historic Palestine from the Israelis.
“I believed that it was us or them and that the only solution was to liberate our land,” he says. “And if we did not have the power to do that, we should do what Samson did and bring down the temple on everyone’s head,” he says, referring to the biblical story of a Hebrew prisoner who killed 3,000 people, including himself, when he removed the central pillars of a Philistine temple.
After that, however, he went to the US to get a PhD; getting some distance from the conflict changed his outlook dramatically and he began working for peace.
Those efforts crystallized into a new initiative after he witnessed a standoff at an Israeli checkpoint near his home. Palestinians who wanted to pray in Jerusalem amassed at the checkpoint, but Israeli guards initially refused to let them pass. Eventually they worked out a deal – the Palestinians were allowed to pass in exchange for leaving their essentially indispensable identification cards at the checkpoint, virtually guaranteeing they would return.
The 2006 incident showed him that despite the strong feelings and distrust on both sides, there is also pragmatism, and convinced him there was a need to a middle path for Palestinians who were devout and committed to pressing for their rights, but also willing to negotiate.
“They [were] not jihadi Islamic guys … because those people would have refused to negotiate with Israelis,” he says. “They were able to negotiate their way to go to Jerusalem, and to convince Israelis that they are not there to put bombs, that they are just going there to pray.”
“And the Israelis, because of the multitudes and the pressure and all that, instead of dealing with it with force, dealt with it more with the mind, with rationality,” he adds.
“Who represents those people? No one. So I started Wasatia.”
The movement, founded in early 2007 and named after a Quranic term for “moderation” or “balance,” aims to give a voice to what Dajani considers a majority of Palestinians who want to work for statehood through nonviolent means but get drowned out by increasing radicalization on both sides. It hasn’t gathered a lot of momentum; he has difficulty obtaining grants for his work, and he has been maligned by more religious Muslims who chafe at his ideas of moderation.
But his faith that the conflict will be solved remains strong and is perhaps best symbolized by the chess sets at the center of his Wasatia office and his classroom. He provides them, he says, to cultivate a skill he considers crucial to resolving the conflict: rationality.
“That’s why I feel that this problem will be solved … that rationality will prevail in the end,” he says. “It is stupidity to kill each other.”
This is the spirit that will "win" in the end. Persistent, rational, dogged determination that the forces of extremism will not prevail. JRK
Former Palestinian fighter now battles for a middle path
By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / May 8, 2013 (Christian Science Moniter)
Palestinian Mohammed Dajani's staircase in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina is a literal paper trail of his family and career, from an Ottoman sultan's decree that gave his relatives custodianship of David's tomb to the photos just behind him of then-Senator Barack Obama visiting his Al Quds University classroom.
East Jerusalem
By his own admission, Mohammed Dajani was “extremely radical” as a young man working for the Palestinian militant group Fatah in Lebanon.
His family was forced to leave their stately Jerusalem home during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Following the example set by his grandfather, who ripped up the refugee card given to his wife, Mr. Dajani has refused to label himself a refugee: “We are citizens and human beings and we have to earn our way,” he says.
But as a young man he saw no other solution than taking back all of historic Palestine from the Israelis.
“I believed that it was us or them and that the only solution was to liberate our land,” he says. “And if we did not have the power to do that, we should do what Samson did and bring down the temple on everyone’s head,” he says, referring to the biblical story of a Hebrew prisoner who killed 3,000 people, including himself, when he removed the central pillars of a Philistine temple.
After that, however, he went to the US to get a PhD; getting some distance from the conflict changed his outlook dramatically and he began working for peace.
Those efforts crystallized into a new initiative after he witnessed a standoff at an Israeli checkpoint near his home. Palestinians who wanted to pray in Jerusalem amassed at the checkpoint, but Israeli guards initially refused to let them pass. Eventually they worked out a deal – the Palestinians were allowed to pass in exchange for leaving their essentially indispensable identification cards at the checkpoint, virtually guaranteeing they would return.
The 2006 incident showed him that despite the strong feelings and distrust on both sides, there is also pragmatism, and convinced him there was a need to a middle path for Palestinians who were devout and committed to pressing for their rights, but also willing to negotiate.
“They [were] not jihadi Islamic guys … because those people would have refused to negotiate with Israelis,” he says. “They were able to negotiate their way to go to Jerusalem, and to convince Israelis that they are not there to put bombs, that they are just going there to pray.”
“And the Israelis, because of the multitudes and the pressure and all that, instead of dealing with it with force, dealt with it more with the mind, with rationality,” he adds.
“Who represents those people? No one. So I started Wasatia.”
The movement, founded in early 2007 and named after a Quranic term for “moderation” or “balance,” aims to give a voice to what Dajani considers a majority of Palestinians who want to work for statehood through nonviolent means but get drowned out by increasing radicalization on both sides. It hasn’t gathered a lot of momentum; he has difficulty obtaining grants for his work, and he has been maligned by more religious Muslims who chafe at his ideas of moderation.
But his faith that the conflict will be solved remains strong and is perhaps best symbolized by the chess sets at the center of his Wasatia office and his classroom. He provides them, he says, to cultivate a skill he considers crucial to resolving the conflict: rationality.
“That’s why I feel that this problem will be solved … that rationality will prevail in the end,” he says. “It is stupidity to kill each other.”
Monday, May 6, 2013
An Act That Changed History
Dear Friend,
I'm posting comments by our friend Salim Munayer (MUSALAHA), who suggests that crimes need to be addressed, then forgiven, if progress is to be made in relationships.
If you wish to read a study paper I did on the close connection between Joseph the son of Jacob and Jesus the son of Joseph, request it at, should you wish to see the parallels more closely than those mentioned by Salim.
It seems a travesty to talk about forgiveness. Yet, Joseph, the son of Jacob, had to learn to forgive those who betrayed him, trampled him under foot, sending him to Exile away from his own family and country. Yet, he learned it, extended it to his brothers and his people (and all nations) were eventually blessed.
Justice was sought in South Africa. It was won. Then the Truth and Reconciliation project was carried out by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Atrocities done to each to each other were addressed, confessed, forgiven, and the parties moved on.
Without addressing terrible wrongs, repenting, asking for forgiveness, extending it, and making amends, there will only be constant recriminations, bitterness and destruction. Yours for justice, love, forgiveness, and Shalom/Salaam. JRK
AN ACT THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Salim Munayer (MUSALAHA Director)
Dear friends,
Over the past several months we have been working to update some of the chapters in our curriculum of reconciliation.Some of the issues we have been researching further are the meeting of justice and reconciliation (there can be no reconciliation without justice, and no justice without reconciliation), and how forgiveness relates to the public and political spheres.I have been going through Donald Shriver, Jr.’s book An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics. While forgiveness sounds like a religious concept to many people, justice often does not, something that Shriver attributes to theologians.Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most politically oriented contemporary theologians, has advocated for justice as a political virtue while downplaying the importance of forgiveness, relegating it to the sphere of sentimentalism, outside of realpolitik.Shriver argues for the importance of forgiveness in public discourse, avoiding the common misconception of forgiving as forgetting.Instead, he advocates the slogan “Remember and forgive.”[1]
When we turn to the Scriptures, we can easily find many examples and calls to forgiveness in the New Testament, but it is not as dominant a theme in the Old Testament.Shriver discusses the story of Joseph as a model for forgiveness, and we know that Joseph prefigures the Messiah . . . .
In the book of Exodus we look to God as the deliverer of a suffering people from the crimes of Pharaoh and the injustice he inflicted upon the people of Israel. But we overlook the story leading up to this – Joseph’s story in Egypt.The story of Joseph shows the great crimes that are behind the formation of the people of Israel, from prejudice, betrayal, and slavery.Featured in this story and twenty-five year old wound, we see fear, suspicion, guilt, judgmental truth, forbearance of revenge, empathy and compassion.[2]When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and forgives them, he invites Jacob’s family to settle in Egypt.“A new nation has begun, but it could not begin until something decisive was done about evils that threatened the unity of a family apparently bent on destroying itself.That decisive something was a long-drawn-out process of forgiveness.”[3]Without reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, the people of Israel might not exist. Joseph’s forgiveness gave birth to a nation, and it is this story of family unity that provides the background and context for the Exodus.
Like Joseph, Jesus left his favored position with the father and became as a slave, suffering injustice.Jesus was also betrayed, and his obedience and forgiveness gave birth to the kingdom of God.
In our lives, we face injustices, fear, betrayal, and revenge.These need to be addressed, but we cannot move forward as nations and communities without the hope of forgiveness.If we take the example of Joseph and the commands of Jesus into consideration in our respective situations, it can heal our peoples and give birth to something new and exciting, just as it did in the story of Joseph and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.As we address our contexts, we echo the words of the prophet Micah that may we seek to “do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.” And, many we follow Jesus’ example of obedience and forgiveness and bring a change to the course of our histories . . . .
Salim J. Munayer and the Musalaha Staff
I'm posting comments by our friend Salim Munayer (MUSALAHA), who suggests that crimes need to be addressed, then forgiven, if progress is to be made in relationships.
If you wish to read a study paper I did on the close connection between Joseph the son of Jacob and Jesus the son of Joseph, request it at
It seems a travesty to talk about forgiveness. Yet, Joseph, the son of Jacob, had to learn to forgive those who betrayed him, trampled him under foot, sending him to Exile away from his own family and country. Yet, he learned it, extended it to his brothers and his people (and all nations) were eventually blessed.
Justice was sought in South Africa. It was won. Then the Truth and Reconciliation project was carried out by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Atrocities done to each to each other were addressed, confessed, forgiven, and the parties moved on.
Without addressing terrible wrongs, repenting, asking for forgiveness, extending it, and making amends, there will only be constant recriminations, bitterness and destruction. Yours for justice, love, forgiveness, and Shalom/Salaam. JRK
AN ACT THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Salim Munayer (MUSALAHA Director)
Dear friends,
Over the past several months we have been working to update some of the chapters in our curriculum of reconciliation.Some of the issues we have been researching further are the meeting of justice and reconciliation (there can be no reconciliation without justice, and no justice without reconciliation), and how forgiveness relates to the public and political spheres.I have been going through Donald Shriver, Jr.’s book An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics. While forgiveness sounds like a religious concept to many people, justice often does not, something that Shriver attributes to theologians.Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most politically oriented contemporary theologians, has advocated for justice as a political virtue while downplaying the importance of forgiveness, relegating it to the sphere of sentimentalism, outside of realpolitik.Shriver argues for the importance of forgiveness in public discourse, avoiding the common misconception of forgiving as forgetting.Instead, he advocates the slogan “Remember and forgive.”[1]
When we turn to the Scriptures, we can easily find many examples and calls to forgiveness in the New Testament, but it is not as dominant a theme in the Old Testament.Shriver discusses the story of Joseph as a model for forgiveness, and we know that Joseph prefigures the Messiah . . . .
In the book of Exodus we look to God as the deliverer of a suffering people from the crimes of Pharaoh and the injustice he inflicted upon the people of Israel. But we overlook the story leading up to this – Joseph’s story in Egypt.The story of Joseph shows the great crimes that are behind the formation of the people of Israel, from prejudice, betrayal, and slavery.Featured in this story and twenty-five year old wound, we see fear, suspicion, guilt, judgmental truth, forbearance of revenge, empathy and compassion.[2]When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and forgives them, he invites Jacob’s family to settle in Egypt.“A new nation has begun, but it could not begin until something decisive was done about evils that threatened the unity of a family apparently bent on destroying itself.That decisive something was a long-drawn-out process of forgiveness.”[3]Without reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, the people of Israel might not exist. Joseph’s forgiveness gave birth to a nation, and it is this story of family unity that provides the background and context for the Exodus.
Like Joseph, Jesus left his favored position with the father and became as a slave, suffering injustice.Jesus was also betrayed, and his obedience and forgiveness gave birth to the kingdom of God.
In our lives, we face injustices, fear, betrayal, and revenge.These need to be addressed, but we cannot move forward as nations and communities without the hope of forgiveness.If we take the example of Joseph and the commands of Jesus into consideration in our respective situations, it can heal our peoples and give birth to something new and exciting, just as it did in the story of Joseph and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.As we address our contexts, we echo the words of the prophet Micah that may we seek to “do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.” And, many we follow Jesus’ example of obedience and forgiveness and bring a change to the course of our histories . . . .
Salim J. Munayer and the Musalaha Staff
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Avnery Hits a Homerun
Dear Friend,
The only thing I would add to this moving piece by Uri Avnery is that we don't just need a lot more joint public gatherings between Israelis and Palestinians. Our region needs more LOCAL efforts to be in honest relationship, of Israelis and Palestinians crossing cultural, geographic and human boundaries. Each of which can lead to more PUBLIC expressions of our common humanity.
Bereaved Families (Family Forum) has long led the way in forging shared bonds of grief, grief that harnesses action against the mindless perpetuation of conflict and the on-going cycle of violence that seems endles (JRK for FPI).
In Praise of Emotion
Uri Avnery
April 20, 2013 (Gush Shalom)
IT WAS a moving experience. Moments that spoke not only to the mind, but also – and foremost – to the heart.
Last Sunday, on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen in our wars, I was invited to an event organized by the activist group Combatants for Peace and the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Parents.
The first surprise was that it took place at all. In the general atmosphere of discouragement of the Israeli peace camp after the recent elections, when almost no one dared even to mention the word peace, such an event was heartening.
The second surprise was its size. It took place in one of the biggest halls in the country, Hangar 10 in Tel-Aviv’s fair grounds. It holds more than 2000 seats. A quarter of an hour before the starting time, attendance was depressingly sparse. Half an hour later, it was choke full. (Whatever the many virtues of the peace camp, punctuality is not among them.)
The third surprise was the composition of the audience. There were quite a lot of white-haired old-timers, including myself, but the great majority was composed of young people, at least half of them young women. Energetic, matter-of-fact youngsters, very Israeli.
I felt as if I was in a relay race. My generation passing the baton on to the next. The race continues.
BUT THE outstanding feature of the event was, of course, its content. Israelis and Palestinians were mourning together for their dead sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, victims of the conflict and wars, occupation and resistance (a.k.a. terror.)
An Arab villager spoke quietly of his daughter, killed by a soldier on her way to school. A Jewish mother spoke of her soldier son, killed in one of the wars. All in a subdued voice. Without pathos. Some spoke Hebrew, some Arabic.
They spoke of their first reaction after their loss, the feelings of hatred, the thirst for revenge. And then the slow change of heart. The understanding that the parents on the other side, the Enemy, felt exactly like them, that their loss, their mourning, their bereavement was exactly as their own.
For years now, bereaved parents of both sides have been meeting regularly to find solace in each other's company. Among all the peace groups acting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are, perhaps, the most heart-lifting.
IT WAS not easy for the Arab partners to get to this meeting. At first, they were denied permission by the army to enter Israel. Gabi Lasky, the indomitable advocate of many peace groups (including Gush Shalom), had to threaten with an application to the Supreme Court, just to obtain a limited concession: 45 Palestinians from the West Bank were allowed to attend.
(It is a routine measure of the occupation: before every Jewish holiday the West Bank is completely cut off from Israel – except for the settlers, of course. This is how most Palestinians become acquainted with Jewish holidays.)
What was so special about the event was that the Israeli-Arab fraternization took place on a purely human level, without political speeches, without the slogans which have become, frankly, a bit stale.
For two hours, we were all engulfed by human emotions, by a profound feeling for each other. And it felt good.
I AM writing this to make a point that I feel very strongly about: the importance of emotions in the struggle for peace.
I am not a very emotional person myself. But I am acutely conscious of the place of emotions in the political struggle. I am proud of having coined the phrase “In politics, it is irrational to ignore the irrational.” Or, if you prefer, “in politics, it is rational to accept the irrational.”
This is a major weakness of the Israeli peace movement. It is exceedingly rational – indeed, perhaps too rational. We can easily prove that Israel needs peace, that without peace we are doomed to become an apartheid state, if not worse.
All over the world, leftists are more sober than rightists. When the leftists are propounding a logical argument for peace, reconciliation with former enemies, social equality and help for the disadvantaged, the rightists answer with a volley of emotional and irrational slogans.
But masses of people are not moved by logic. They are moved by their feelings.
One expression of feelings – and a generator of feelings – is the language of songs. One can gauge the intensity of a movement by its melodies. Who can imagine the marches of Martin Luther King without “We shall overcome”? Who can think about the Irish struggle without its many beautiful songs? Or the October revolution without its host of rousing melodies?
The Israeli peace movement has produced one single song: a sad appeal of the dead to the living. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated within minutes of singing it, its blood-stained text found on his body. But all the many writers and composers of the peace movement have not produced one single rousing anthem – while the hate-mongers can draw on a wealth of religious and nationalist hymns.
IT IS said that one does not have to like one's adversary in order to make peace with them. One makes peace with the enemy, as we all have declaimed hundreds of times. The enemy is the person you hate.
I have never quite believed in that, and the older I get, the less I do.
True, one cannot expect millions of people on both sides to love each other. But the core of peace-makers, the pioneers, cannot fulfill their tasks if there is not an element of mutual sympathy between them.
A certain type of Israeli peace activist does not accept this truism. Sometimes one has the feeling that they truly want peace – but not really with the Arabs. They love peace, because they love themselves. They stand before a mirror and tell themselves: Look how wonderful I am! How humane! How moral!
I remember how much animosity I aroused in certain progressive circles when I created our peace symbol: the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine. When one of us raised this emblem at a Peace Now demonstration in the late eighties, it caused a scandal. He was rudely asked to leave, and the movement publicly apologized.
To give an impetus to a real peace movement, you have to imbue it with the spirit of empathy for the other side. You must have a feeling for their humanity, their culture, their narrative, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes. And that applies, of course, to both sides.
Nothing can be more damaging to the chances of peace than the activity of fanatical pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians abroad, who think that they are helping their preferred side by demonizing the other. You don’t make peace with demons.
FRATERNIZATION BETWEEN Palestinians and Israelis is a must. No peace movement can succeed without it.
And here we came to a painful paradox: the more this fraternization is needed, the less there is.
During the last few years, there has been a growing estrangement between the two sides. Yasser Arafat was very conscious of the need for contact, and did much to further it. (I constantly urged him to do more.) Since his death, this effort has receded.
On the Israeli side, peace efforts have become less and less popular. Fraternization takes place every week in Bil’in and on many other battlefields, but the major peace organizations are not too eager to meet.
On the Palestinian side there is a lot of resentment, a (justified) feeling that the Israeli peace movement has not delivered. Worse, that joint public meetings could be considered by the Palestinian masses as a form of “normalization” with Israel, something like collaboration with the enemy.
This must be changed. Only large-scale, public and heart-felt cooperation between the peace movements of the two sides can convince the public – on both sides – that peace is possible.
THESE THOUGHTS were running through my head as I listened to the simple words of Palestinians and Israelis in that big remembrance meeting.
It was all there: the spirit, the emotion, the empathy, the cooperation.
It was a human moment. That's how it all starts.
The only thing I would add to this moving piece by Uri Avnery is that we don't just need a lot more joint public gatherings between Israelis and Palestinians. Our region needs more LOCAL efforts to be in honest relationship, of Israelis and Palestinians crossing cultural, geographic and human boundaries. Each of which can lead to more PUBLIC expressions of our common humanity.
Bereaved Families (Family Forum) has long led the way in forging shared bonds of grief, grief that harnesses action against the mindless perpetuation of conflict and the on-going cycle of violence that seems endles (JRK for FPI).
In Praise of Emotion
Uri Avnery
April 20, 2013 (Gush Shalom)
IT WAS a moving experience. Moments that spoke not only to the mind, but also – and foremost – to the heart.
Last Sunday, on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen in our wars, I was invited to an event organized by the activist group Combatants for Peace and the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Parents.
The first surprise was that it took place at all. In the general atmosphere of discouragement of the Israeli peace camp after the recent elections, when almost no one dared even to mention the word peace, such an event was heartening.
The second surprise was its size. It took place in one of the biggest halls in the country, Hangar 10 in Tel-Aviv’s fair grounds. It holds more than 2000 seats. A quarter of an hour before the starting time, attendance was depressingly sparse. Half an hour later, it was choke full. (Whatever the many virtues of the peace camp, punctuality is not among them.)
The third surprise was the composition of the audience. There were quite a lot of white-haired old-timers, including myself, but the great majority was composed of young people, at least half of them young women. Energetic, matter-of-fact youngsters, very Israeli.
I felt as if I was in a relay race. My generation passing the baton on to the next. The race continues.
BUT THE outstanding feature of the event was, of course, its content. Israelis and Palestinians were mourning together for their dead sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, victims of the conflict and wars, occupation and resistance (a.k.a. terror.)
An Arab villager spoke quietly of his daughter, killed by a soldier on her way to school. A Jewish mother spoke of her soldier son, killed in one of the wars. All in a subdued voice. Without pathos. Some spoke Hebrew, some Arabic.
They spoke of their first reaction after their loss, the feelings of hatred, the thirst for revenge. And then the slow change of heart. The understanding that the parents on the other side, the Enemy, felt exactly like them, that their loss, their mourning, their bereavement was exactly as their own.
For years now, bereaved parents of both sides have been meeting regularly to find solace in each other's company. Among all the peace groups acting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are, perhaps, the most heart-lifting.
IT WAS not easy for the Arab partners to get to this meeting. At first, they were denied permission by the army to enter Israel. Gabi Lasky, the indomitable advocate of many peace groups (including Gush Shalom), had to threaten with an application to the Supreme Court, just to obtain a limited concession: 45 Palestinians from the West Bank were allowed to attend.
(It is a routine measure of the occupation: before every Jewish holiday the West Bank is completely cut off from Israel – except for the settlers, of course. This is how most Palestinians become acquainted with Jewish holidays.)
What was so special about the event was that the Israeli-Arab fraternization took place on a purely human level, without political speeches, without the slogans which have become, frankly, a bit stale.
For two hours, we were all engulfed by human emotions, by a profound feeling for each other. And it felt good.
I AM writing this to make a point that I feel very strongly about: the importance of emotions in the struggle for peace.
I am not a very emotional person myself. But I am acutely conscious of the place of emotions in the political struggle. I am proud of having coined the phrase “In politics, it is irrational to ignore the irrational.” Or, if you prefer, “in politics, it is rational to accept the irrational.”
This is a major weakness of the Israeli peace movement. It is exceedingly rational – indeed, perhaps too rational. We can easily prove that Israel needs peace, that without peace we are doomed to become an apartheid state, if not worse.
All over the world, leftists are more sober than rightists. When the leftists are propounding a logical argument for peace, reconciliation with former enemies, social equality and help for the disadvantaged, the rightists answer with a volley of emotional and irrational slogans.
But masses of people are not moved by logic. They are moved by their feelings.
One expression of feelings – and a generator of feelings – is the language of songs. One can gauge the intensity of a movement by its melodies. Who can imagine the marches of Martin Luther King without “We shall overcome”? Who can think about the Irish struggle without its many beautiful songs? Or the October revolution without its host of rousing melodies?
The Israeli peace movement has produced one single song: a sad appeal of the dead to the living. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated within minutes of singing it, its blood-stained text found on his body. But all the many writers and composers of the peace movement have not produced one single rousing anthem – while the hate-mongers can draw on a wealth of religious and nationalist hymns.
IT IS said that one does not have to like one's adversary in order to make peace with them. One makes peace with the enemy, as we all have declaimed hundreds of times. The enemy is the person you hate.
I have never quite believed in that, and the older I get, the less I do.
True, one cannot expect millions of people on both sides to love each other. But the core of peace-makers, the pioneers, cannot fulfill their tasks if there is not an element of mutual sympathy between them.
A certain type of Israeli peace activist does not accept this truism. Sometimes one has the feeling that they truly want peace – but not really with the Arabs. They love peace, because they love themselves. They stand before a mirror and tell themselves: Look how wonderful I am! How humane! How moral!
I remember how much animosity I aroused in certain progressive circles when I created our peace symbol: the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine. When one of us raised this emblem at a Peace Now demonstration in the late eighties, it caused a scandal. He was rudely asked to leave, and the movement publicly apologized.
To give an impetus to a real peace movement, you have to imbue it with the spirit of empathy for the other side. You must have a feeling for their humanity, their culture, their narrative, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes. And that applies, of course, to both sides.
Nothing can be more damaging to the chances of peace than the activity of fanatical pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians abroad, who think that they are helping their preferred side by demonizing the other. You don’t make peace with demons.
FRATERNIZATION BETWEEN Palestinians and Israelis is a must. No peace movement can succeed without it.
And here we came to a painful paradox: the more this fraternization is needed, the less there is.
During the last few years, there has been a growing estrangement between the two sides. Yasser Arafat was very conscious of the need for contact, and did much to further it. (I constantly urged him to do more.) Since his death, this effort has receded.
On the Israeli side, peace efforts have become less and less popular. Fraternization takes place every week in Bil’in and on many other battlefields, but the major peace organizations are not too eager to meet.
On the Palestinian side there is a lot of resentment, a (justified) feeling that the Israeli peace movement has not delivered. Worse, that joint public meetings could be considered by the Palestinian masses as a form of “normalization” with Israel, something like collaboration with the enemy.
This must be changed. Only large-scale, public and heart-felt cooperation between the peace movements of the two sides can convince the public – on both sides – that peace is possible.
THESE THOUGHTS were running through my head as I listened to the simple words of Palestinians and Israelis in that big remembrance meeting.
It was all there: the spirit, the emotion, the empathy, the cooperation.
It was a human moment. That's how it all starts.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Muslims who Saved Jews During the Holocaust
Friend,
I've tried through the years to find stories that build bridges instead of walls between Israelis and Palestinians.
Thanks to Noushin Framke of the Isr/Pal Mission Network (PCUSA), we have this story from the BBC that gives stories of how Muslims helped Jews escape the horrors of the Nazi attempt at annihilating the Jews of Europe.
Click on this link and read it for yourself. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22176928
I've tried through the years to find stories that build bridges instead of walls between Israelis and Palestinians.
Thanks to Noushin Framke of the Isr/Pal Mission Network (PCUSA), we have this story from the BBC that gives stories of how Muslims helped Jews escape the horrors of the Nazi attempt at annihilating the Jews of Europe.
Click on this link and read it for yourself. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22176928
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Sharing Each Others' Narrative
Dear Friend,
Since my "hopeful" post soon after President Obama's visit, I'm having second thoughts -- and doubts. That our administration is in negotiations with the Israeli military to extend (and EXPAND) military support from 2017 to 2027, is a shot in the gut. (The 10 year, $30b package runs out in 2017).
Does anyone know if it will be stipulated that US laws respecting human rights are to be followed? Ugh!
Are there ANY restrictions on our aid? Or is it unconditional, and unquestioning? How does propping up the Likud administration bring the Occupation to an End?
Below is an encouraging indication of progressive Israelis and Palestinians shared each other's narrative, looking at how the Passover might apply to OTHERS who might be oppressed.
Thank you Christian Science Monitor for this story. JRK
At a West Bank seder, Jews commemorate a modern quest for freedom
For Jews living in the West Bank, a Passover seder is an opportunity to discuss how one of history's most famous liberation stories can apply to freedom struggles today.
By Rebecca Collard, Correspondent / April 2, 2013
Weekly Digital Edition
As Jews around the world gathered to celebrate Passover, a holiday commemorating the ancient Hebrews' liberation from enslavement in the land of Egypt, a small group have joined together in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Here the seder, or Passover meal, is being done a bit differently.
Eight Jews and Palestinians have gathered to read from several alternative Haggadahs – the ritual text read during the meal – which emphasize the need for equality and liberation for all people. In addition to the standard symbolic fare on the seder plate is an orange to represent gender equality and olives to show solidarity with Palestinians.
“The main message of Passover is that we, as Jews, are free,” says a Jewish Canadian who asked to be called Josh because his Israeli work visa does not allow him to live in Ramallah. “It’s taking this message of freedom, which is the main theme of the seder – freedom from slavery of the Israelites in Egypt – and applying that freedom story to other people.”
At the meal, Josh reads from an alternative Haggadah: “For slavery to be truly over – for a people to be truly free – we must know we can feed ourselves and our children today, tomorrow and into future generations. In Palestine, olive groves provide that security."
Palestinian olive trees are sometimes scorched by Israeli settlers or bulldozed by the Israeli army.
“When olive groves are destroyed, the past and future is destroyed,” Josh continues. “We eat an olive to make real our understanding of what it means each time a bulldozer ploughs up a grove. Without the taste of olives, there will be no taste of freedom.”
An awakening
Josh says he learned his support for Israel alongside Jewish culture and religious practice. By the time he was in high school, his backing was so staunch that he asked his cousin, who had immigrated to Israel, to send him an Israeli flag. He hung it in his family's living room – a symbol of his connection to a country he had never visited.
After graduating from high school, Josh began reading critical literature on conflicts in Latin America and decided he should seek an alternative perspective on Israel. At the same time he signed up for a popular, free 10-day trip to Israel with a program called Birthright.
He says that as he traveled around Israel with a group of other young Canadian Jews, he read about what he wasn't being shown. He began seeing parallels between the struggles of indigenous movements like the Zapatistas in Mexico and Palestinians.
"I came back really confused. I had a lot questions," says Josh. Eventually, he says his ability to defend Israel diminished.
He now lives in Ramallah, where he is working on a research project that studies the effects the Israeli military occupation has on the health and well-being of Palestinians.
For most Jews, the idea of visiting the Palestinians territories seems dangerous, or at least unnecessary. But Josh is not entirely alone. At least 20 foreign Jews live in or work in the West Bank. The numbers fluctuate throughout the year, with some just volunteering or studying over the summer and others living for years at time.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), one of the most active and hardline pro-Palestinian groups, also attracts large number of Jewish volunteers who make a temporary home in the west Bank while volunteering. ISM was founded by two Palestinians, an Israeli, and an American Jew named Adam Shapiro, who was recently denied entry to Israel because he has a 10-year ban on entering the country after being arrested in the West Bank during a previous visit.
“There have always been Jewish people in the organization,” says Aaron Gregory, a British-South African who volunteers with ISM. “Compared to 30 years ago, young people’s ability to feel a connection with Israel is less, when every couple of days they see Israel’s bad behavior in the occupied [Palestinian] territories.”
Gregory says in the last month alone there have been at least six Jewish volunteers. The organization has a high turnover rate and the percentage of Jewish volunteers fluctuates.
'A light unto the nations'
Gregory says that while not all Jewish volunteers are open about their religious background, those who are have been welcomed by the Palestinian communities they work in.
Alana Alpert, now a rabbinical student in Boston, came to the West Bank to volunteer with Palestinian farmers last year. She grew up in a conservative Jewish family in California's San Fernando Valley. Both her parents are Jewish educators. She describes her family members as “active and committed” – not just to their faith, but also in their support for Israel.
But when she went to college at the University of California in Santa Cruz, she started what she calls her “unlearning process.” Most of her fellow organizers in workers' rights, racial justice, and environmental movements had starkly different views on Israel.
“I thought there was a blind spot,” says Alpert, “But then I started to think maybe I had the blind spot.”
A number of encounters with activists and Palestinians over the next few years drastically changed they way she saw the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She remembers the first time she experienced tear gas, fired by Israeli soldiers at protesters in the West Bank village.
“We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. Jews weren’t capable of doing the same kind of things that other people do. And I remember that feeling coming back very strongly [...] My eyes were burning. It was so painful,” recalls Albert. “And I just kept thinking, ‘nice Jewish boys wouldn’t do this’."
Josh, who regularly hosts other foreign Jews in his Ramallah home so that he can show them another side of this conflict, says the problem is most Jews abroad lack knowledge and understanding of life in the West Bank and Gaza. Their perspective quickly changes when they see the reality on the ground.
“I’m a proud Jew, but I don’t think that being proud Jews has anything to do with supporting Israel,” says Josh, explaining that he feels like Jews and Jewish organizations who criticize Israel are ostracized.
“In the mainstream Jewish community now in North America, you don’t have to really believe in God or go to synagogue, but you do have to support Israel, or you’re out.”
There is no PEACE without JUSTICE; there is no justice without LOVE.
Since my "hopeful" post soon after President Obama's visit, I'm having second thoughts -- and doubts. That our administration is in negotiations with the Israeli military to extend (and EXPAND) military support from 2017 to 2027, is a shot in the gut. (The 10 year, $30b package runs out in 2017).
Does anyone know if it will be stipulated that US laws respecting human rights are to be followed? Ugh!
Are there ANY restrictions on our aid? Or is it unconditional, and unquestioning? How does propping up the Likud administration bring the Occupation to an End?
Below is an encouraging indication of progressive Israelis and Palestinians shared each other's narrative, looking at how the Passover might apply to OTHERS who might be oppressed.
Thank you Christian Science Monitor for this story. JRK
At a West Bank seder, Jews commemorate a modern quest for freedom
For Jews living in the West Bank, a Passover seder is an opportunity to discuss how one of history's most famous liberation stories can apply to freedom struggles today.
By Rebecca Collard, Correspondent / April 2, 2013
Weekly Digital Edition
As Jews around the world gathered to celebrate Passover, a holiday commemorating the ancient Hebrews' liberation from enslavement in the land of Egypt, a small group have joined together in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Here the seder, or Passover meal, is being done a bit differently.
Eight Jews and Palestinians have gathered to read from several alternative Haggadahs – the ritual text read during the meal – which emphasize the need for equality and liberation for all people. In addition to the standard symbolic fare on the seder plate is an orange to represent gender equality and olives to show solidarity with Palestinians.
“The main message of Passover is that we, as Jews, are free,” says a Jewish Canadian who asked to be called Josh because his Israeli work visa does not allow him to live in Ramallah. “It’s taking this message of freedom, which is the main theme of the seder – freedom from slavery of the Israelites in Egypt – and applying that freedom story to other people.”
At the meal, Josh reads from an alternative Haggadah: “For slavery to be truly over – for a people to be truly free – we must know we can feed ourselves and our children today, tomorrow and into future generations. In Palestine, olive groves provide that security."
Palestinian olive trees are sometimes scorched by Israeli settlers or bulldozed by the Israeli army.
“When olive groves are destroyed, the past and future is destroyed,” Josh continues. “We eat an olive to make real our understanding of what it means each time a bulldozer ploughs up a grove. Without the taste of olives, there will be no taste of freedom.”
An awakening
Josh says he learned his support for Israel alongside Jewish culture and religious practice. By the time he was in high school, his backing was so staunch that he asked his cousin, who had immigrated to Israel, to send him an Israeli flag. He hung it in his family's living room – a symbol of his connection to a country he had never visited.
After graduating from high school, Josh began reading critical literature on conflicts in Latin America and decided he should seek an alternative perspective on Israel. At the same time he signed up for a popular, free 10-day trip to Israel with a program called Birthright.
He says that as he traveled around Israel with a group of other young Canadian Jews, he read about what he wasn't being shown. He began seeing parallels between the struggles of indigenous movements like the Zapatistas in Mexico and Palestinians.
"I came back really confused. I had a lot questions," says Josh. Eventually, he says his ability to defend Israel diminished.
He now lives in Ramallah, where he is working on a research project that studies the effects the Israeli military occupation has on the health and well-being of Palestinians.
For most Jews, the idea of visiting the Palestinians territories seems dangerous, or at least unnecessary. But Josh is not entirely alone. At least 20 foreign Jews live in or work in the West Bank. The numbers fluctuate throughout the year, with some just volunteering or studying over the summer and others living for years at time.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), one of the most active and hardline pro-Palestinian groups, also attracts large number of Jewish volunteers who make a temporary home in the west Bank while volunteering. ISM was founded by two Palestinians, an Israeli, and an American Jew named Adam Shapiro, who was recently denied entry to Israel because he has a 10-year ban on entering the country after being arrested in the West Bank during a previous visit.
“There have always been Jewish people in the organization,” says Aaron Gregory, a British-South African who volunteers with ISM. “Compared to 30 years ago, young people’s ability to feel a connection with Israel is less, when every couple of days they see Israel’s bad behavior in the occupied [Palestinian] territories.”
Gregory says in the last month alone there have been at least six Jewish volunteers. The organization has a high turnover rate and the percentage of Jewish volunteers fluctuates.
'A light unto the nations'
Gregory says that while not all Jewish volunteers are open about their religious background, those who are have been welcomed by the Palestinian communities they work in.
Alana Alpert, now a rabbinical student in Boston, came to the West Bank to volunteer with Palestinian farmers last year. She grew up in a conservative Jewish family in California's San Fernando Valley. Both her parents are Jewish educators. She describes her family members as “active and committed” – not just to their faith, but also in their support for Israel.
But when she went to college at the University of California in Santa Cruz, she started what she calls her “unlearning process.” Most of her fellow organizers in workers' rights, racial justice, and environmental movements had starkly different views on Israel.
“I thought there was a blind spot,” says Alpert, “But then I started to think maybe I had the blind spot.”
A number of encounters with activists and Palestinians over the next few years drastically changed they way she saw the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She remembers the first time she experienced tear gas, fired by Israeli soldiers at protesters in the West Bank village.
“We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. Jews weren’t capable of doing the same kind of things that other people do. And I remember that feeling coming back very strongly [...] My eyes were burning. It was so painful,” recalls Albert. “And I just kept thinking, ‘nice Jewish boys wouldn’t do this’."
Josh, who regularly hosts other foreign Jews in his Ramallah home so that he can show them another side of this conflict, says the problem is most Jews abroad lack knowledge and understanding of life in the West Bank and Gaza. Their perspective quickly changes when they see the reality on the ground.
“I’m a proud Jew, but I don’t think that being proud Jews has anything to do with supporting Israel,” says Josh, explaining that he feels like Jews and Jewish organizations who criticize Israel are ostracized.
“In the mainstream Jewish community now in North America, you don’t have to really believe in God or go to synagogue, but you do have to support Israel, or you’re out.”
There is no PEACE without JUSTICE; there is no justice without LOVE.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Will Israelis and Palestinians Seize This Moment?
Dear Friend,
There is a lot of fall-out over the Obama/Kerry visits to I/P. There is much uncertainty whether reactionary forces (Israel First, uber alles; Hamas's call for ALL the land to be Palestinian) will continue to rule. Or, whether reconciling forces (hearing Palestinian calls for justice, sharing the land and equality) are in the ascendancy.
You know where I'm coming from (my assessment paper. See the previous post!)
In that spirit, Fareed Zakaria writes a guest op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post that raises the question of whether Israel (and the Palestinians) will seize the moment, and work for reconciliation with "the other". I think it is true, Obama is appealing to the conscience of the Israeli public to make a difference. He's put it right out there in public, urging "progress".
It is easy to be pessimistic and think things will stay the same (or get worse, much worse; and anyone can point to all kinds of signs about how BAD it is).
It is still in the hands of the next generations to transcend the old boundaries, the past fears, the "all or nothing" mentality on both sides. Give and take has not been part of the vocabulary in I/P. Will there be actions that bridge huge chasms? During this Holy Week, Christians know what an appeal to "conscience" yields: a judicial lynching. But, as our black brothers and sisters say, "It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'". Yours for peace and justice, (and in HOPE), JRK
Obama appeals to Israel's conscience
By Fareed Zakaria,
Mar 27, 2013 11:01 PM EDT
The Washington Post, Published: March 27
As a piece of rhetoric, Barack Obama’s speech to college students in Jerusalem was a triumph. He finally convinced Israel and its supporters that “HE GETS US,” as one of them e-mailed me. “In his Kishkas [gut], he gets us!” But Obama also spoke more bluntly about Israel’s occupation and the case for a Palestinian state than any U.S. president has in the past. Oratory aside, Obama has recognized and employed the strongest — and perhaps only — path toward peace and a Palestinian state: an appeal to Israel’s conscience.
For 40 years, those who have tried to push Israel toward making concessions have pointed to dangers and threats. Israel is surrounded by enemies, the argument goes, and the only way to ease that hostility is to give the Palestinians a state. Palestinian terrorism will make daily life in Israel unbearable, another variant explained, and Israel will have to settle this problem politically. These assumptions undergirded the peace process and Obama’s approach in his first term.
The argument reflected reality in the 1980s and 1990s, when Israel faced an array of powerful Arab states with large armies — Iraq, Syria — formally dedicated to its destruction. The Soviet Union backed these regimes with cash and arms and ceaselessly drummed up international opposition to the Jewish state. Israelis lived with constant Palestinian terror, which created a siege mentality within the country.
The situation today, however, is transformed in every sense. The Soviet Union is dead. Iraq and Syria have been sidelined as foes. The Arab world is in upheaval, which produces great uncertainty but has also weakened every Arab country. They all are focused on internal issues of power, legitimacy and survival. The last thing any of them can afford is a confrontation with the country that has become the region’s dominant power.
The data underscore this. Israel’s per capita gross domestic product is now nine times that of Egypt, according to the International Monetary Fund’s most recent figures; six times that of Jordan; and nearly three times that of Turkey. It is almost 50 percentgreater than Saudi Arabia’s per capita GDP. Israeli military expenditures are larger than those of all its neighbors combined, and then there are its technological and qualitative superiorities and its alliance with the world’s dominant military power. Israel’s highly effective counterterrorism methods, including the wall separating Palestinians and Israelis and the “iron dome,” which increasingly shields Israelis from missiles, have largely made Palestinian terrorism something that is worried about and planned against but not actually experienced by most Israelis.
Even the much-discussed “demographic threat” is a threat only if Israel sees it as such — something the country’s new breed of politicians, such as Naftali Bennett, have cynically grasped. After all, Israel has ruled millions of Palestinians without offering them citizenship or a state for 40 years. There is no tipping point at which this becomes logistically or technically unsustainable. Walls, roads and checkpoints would work for 4 million Palestinians just as they do for 3 million.
In a sense, both hard-line supporters of Israel and advocates of peace have clung to the notion of the Jewish state as deeply vulnerable. For Likudniks, this demonstrated that Israel was at risk and needed constant support. For peaceniks, it proved that peace was a vital necessity.
But Israel’s strength and security are changing the country’s outlook. Don’t look only at the tough talk coming from the new right. As columnist and author Ari Shavit notes, the country has turned its attention from survival to social, political and economic justice. (January’s election results confirmed this trend.) And while these seem, at first, domestic affairs, they will ultimately lead to a concern for justice in a broader sense and for the rights of Palestinians.
Obama’s speech appealed to this aspect of Israel’s psyche and grounded it deeply in Jewish values: “Israel is rooted not just in history and tradition but also in the idea that a people deserve to be free in a land of their own.” Then, applying that idea to Israel’s longtime adversaries, he said: “Look at the world through [Palestinian] eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own. Living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements not just of those young people but their parents, their grandparents, every single day.”
Having tried pressure, threats and tough talk, Obama has settled on a new strategy: appealing to Israel as a liberal democracy and to its people’s sense of conscience and character. In the long run, this is the most likely path to peace and a Palestinian state.
--
There is no PEACE without JUSTICE; there is no justice without LOVE.
There is a lot of fall-out over the Obama/Kerry visits to I/P. There is much uncertainty whether reactionary forces (Israel First, uber alles; Hamas's call for ALL the land to be Palestinian) will continue to rule. Or, whether reconciling forces (hearing Palestinian calls for justice, sharing the land and equality) are in the ascendancy.
You know where I'm coming from (my assessment paper. See the previous post!)
In that spirit, Fareed Zakaria writes a guest op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post that raises the question of whether Israel (and the Palestinians) will seize the moment, and work for reconciliation with "the other". I think it is true, Obama is appealing to the conscience of the Israeli public to make a difference. He's put it right out there in public, urging "progress".
It is easy to be pessimistic and think things will stay the same (or get worse, much worse; and anyone can point to all kinds of signs about how BAD it is).
It is still in the hands of the next generations to transcend the old boundaries, the past fears, the "all or nothing" mentality on both sides. Give and take has not been part of the vocabulary in I/P. Will there be actions that bridge huge chasms? During this Holy Week, Christians know what an appeal to "conscience" yields: a judicial lynching. But, as our black brothers and sisters say, "It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'". Yours for peace and justice, (and in HOPE), JRK
Obama appeals to Israel's conscience
By Fareed Zakaria,
Mar 27, 2013 11:01 PM EDT
The Washington Post, Published: March 27
As a piece of rhetoric, Barack Obama’s speech to college students in Jerusalem was a triumph. He finally convinced Israel and its supporters that “HE GETS US,” as one of them e-mailed me. “In his Kishkas [gut], he gets us!” But Obama also spoke more bluntly about Israel’s occupation and the case for a Palestinian state than any U.S. president has in the past. Oratory aside, Obama has recognized and employed the strongest — and perhaps only — path toward peace and a Palestinian state: an appeal to Israel’s conscience.
For 40 years, those who have tried to push Israel toward making concessions have pointed to dangers and threats. Israel is surrounded by enemies, the argument goes, and the only way to ease that hostility is to give the Palestinians a state. Palestinian terrorism will make daily life in Israel unbearable, another variant explained, and Israel will have to settle this problem politically. These assumptions undergirded the peace process and Obama’s approach in his first term.
The argument reflected reality in the 1980s and 1990s, when Israel faced an array of powerful Arab states with large armies — Iraq, Syria — formally dedicated to its destruction. The Soviet Union backed these regimes with cash and arms and ceaselessly drummed up international opposition to the Jewish state. Israelis lived with constant Palestinian terror, which created a siege mentality within the country.
The situation today, however, is transformed in every sense. The Soviet Union is dead. Iraq and Syria have been sidelined as foes. The Arab world is in upheaval, which produces great uncertainty but has also weakened every Arab country. They all are focused on internal issues of power, legitimacy and survival. The last thing any of them can afford is a confrontation with the country that has become the region’s dominant power.
The data underscore this. Israel’s per capita gross domestic product is now nine times that of Egypt, according to the International Monetary Fund’s most recent figures; six times that of Jordan; and nearly three times that of Turkey. It is almost 50 percentgreater than Saudi Arabia’s per capita GDP. Israeli military expenditures are larger than those of all its neighbors combined, and then there are its technological and qualitative superiorities and its alliance with the world’s dominant military power. Israel’s highly effective counterterrorism methods, including the wall separating Palestinians and Israelis and the “iron dome,” which increasingly shields Israelis from missiles, have largely made Palestinian terrorism something that is worried about and planned against but not actually experienced by most Israelis.
Even the much-discussed “demographic threat” is a threat only if Israel sees it as such — something the country’s new breed of politicians, such as Naftali Bennett, have cynically grasped. After all, Israel has ruled millions of Palestinians without offering them citizenship or a state for 40 years. There is no tipping point at which this becomes logistically or technically unsustainable. Walls, roads and checkpoints would work for 4 million Palestinians just as they do for 3 million.
In a sense, both hard-line supporters of Israel and advocates of peace have clung to the notion of the Jewish state as deeply vulnerable. For Likudniks, this demonstrated that Israel was at risk and needed constant support. For peaceniks, it proved that peace was a vital necessity.
But Israel’s strength and security are changing the country’s outlook. Don’t look only at the tough talk coming from the new right. As columnist and author Ari Shavit notes, the country has turned its attention from survival to social, political and economic justice. (January’s election results confirmed this trend.) And while these seem, at first, domestic affairs, they will ultimately lead to a concern for justice in a broader sense and for the rights of Palestinians.
Obama’s speech appealed to this aspect of Israel’s psyche and grounded it deeply in Jewish values: “Israel is rooted not just in history and tradition but also in the idea that a people deserve to be free in a land of their own.” Then, applying that idea to Israel’s longtime adversaries, he said: “Look at the world through [Palestinian] eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own. Living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements not just of those young people but their parents, their grandparents, every single day.”
Having tried pressure, threats and tough talk, Obama has settled on a new strategy: appealing to Israel as a liberal democracy and to its people’s sense of conscience and character. In the long run, this is the most likely path to peace and a Palestinian state.
--
There is no PEACE without JUSTICE; there is no justice without LOVE.
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