Monthly Archives: May 2018

From Gaza to Jerusalem: The Ground Is Shaking By Hillel Schenker*

May 20, 2018Articles

There is absolutely no justification for the current policy being used on the Gaza border.

Here in Israel/Palestine, we have just lived through some of the most dramatic days in recent memory. The calendar said it all: May 12 was the deadline for President Donald Trump to declare whether the American government was remaining committed to the Iran nuclear deal; May 14 was set for the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem; and May 15 was Nakba Day — the day the Palestinians mark the anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and their nakba (disaster or catastrophe). May 15 was also going to be the climax of the six-week-long March of Return, a mass Palestinian protest along the Gaza border. read more

A Response to Peter Eisenstadt by Richard Rosen

May 20, 2018Letters to the Editor

Israel can get away with a disproportionate and inhumane reaction to the Palestinian assault on the border in Gaza because of the US-Israeli mutual defense agreement, the same one that enabled Israel to come out the winner in 1967. Had they not known they can always count on us for arms and support, they might have used the past few months (where there was foreknowledge of an uprising) to come up with something smarter than shooting hundreds, including children, in the legs.

If you agree that US support is part and parcel of Israel’s aggressive reaction to this protest, then doesn’t that mean that we, Reform Jews who still believe a two state solution is the only long term answer to this age old battle for the land of Israel, are part of the problem unless we stand up and make our viewpoint clear? Any of us have ideas to share? read more

Thoughts About Gaza by Peter Eisenstadt

May 18, 2018Articles

It was like a football game of the damned, played in hell. You kept checking the score, every half hour. It was 14 dead, no, 22; no 35; no 42; no 55. Meanwhile, 30 miles away, Ivanka Trump, justly described by Michelle Goldberg as a Zionist Marie Antoinette, was prancing and fluttering around the new US embassy in Jerusalem, toasting the murder of any chance of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. And apres Marie Antoinette, as they say, comes le deluge.

I don’t think the Israeli Palestinian conflict has ever made me angrier, and what was particularly infuriating was the vast number of commentators and acquaintances of mine who wanted to blame the victims, and called them Hamas terrorists or dupes of Hamas, denying the protestors their agency and more importantly, their humanity. With the events of this week, I have a deeper appreciation of how basically decent people can condone the worst forms of evil. read more