Peace And A Two States Agreement in Bad Times: Two Editorial Views
Ayala Emmett and Peter Eisenstadt

Ayala:
These are horrific times: the war so far has brought about deaths, sorrow, destruction and daily life of unimagined uncertainty and anxiety in Israel for both its peoples and for Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Those who support peace and a two states agreement seem to have been silenced by the fire of the guns and the poison of the pen, by a demand for unity in the United States and an eruption of anti-Semitism in Europe. read more

Arabs and Jews in Israel: A Letter
Moran Tal
August 3, 2014
Haifa Israel

Dear Ayala Shalom,

I am sorry that it has taken me a few days to send you this e-mail. I was occupied with trying to fill our home with warmth and love, which are in short supply these days.

As you know I am a Muslim Arab woman, the daughter of two Jewish (non-biological) parents, and married to a Christian Arab. It is very difficult, uncomfortable and kind of a shock to hear and read such racist slogans on the street these days that proclaim death to my parents, or proclaim death to me, my husband and his family from the other side. The current popular sentiment in the country is that all Arabs are murderers, and all Jews are war criminals who kill children. read more

J Street Statement On Gaza Conflict

For more than three weeks now, fierce violence has raged between Israel and Hamas, taking an enormous toll in human life and suffering. J Street is deeply shocked and saddened by the losses suffered in this round of violence, from dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians to the more than a thousand Gaza residents dead, and thousands more wounded.
Our hearts go out to the families of all those who have died or been injured, in particular the children whose lives have been cut short by this deadly conflict. The devastation and homelessness in Gaza must be addressed immediately or the suffering there will only continue to lay the seeds for further and deeper violence.
J Street’s position on the violence and our recommendations for actions to end it are as follows:
• It is time for the fighting to end through a sustainable cease-fire agreement. J Street strongly supports Israel’s right to defend itself proportionately against the threat of relentless rockets and to destroy tunnels leading into Israel. We agree with Shimon Peres and other Israeli officials that the military objectives have largely been exhausted and it’s now time for Israel to look for a way out of Gaza. Unltimately, there is no military victory over an ideology and no military solution to a fundamentally political conflict. We adamantly oppose calls for Israel to “reoccupy Gaza”.
• We support efforts by President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry as well as the engagement of other countries such as Egypt to bring about an immediate cease-fire. Any such cease-fire must account for Israel’s security concerns, specifically from rockets and tunnels, as well as Palestinian humanitarian needs, and should be structured to lead to negotiations to establish arrangements related to security, political issues and humanitarian assistance. We support the inclusion of the Palestinian Authority in the cease-fire and in the negotiations around security, political arrangements and humanitarian assistance.
• We are deeply offended by attacks on and mischaracterizations of the Secretary’s efforts to resolve this crisis and his relationship to the state of Israel. We believe his pursuit of not only a cease-fire but a two-state solution represents the highest possible form of friendship to Israel and all the people of the region, and we salute and support the Secretary for his efforts.
• Every effort should be made to establish arrangements that minimize the chances that another round of violence erupts again in two years. A real solution for Gaza must (a) address Israel’s legitimate security concerns from both rockets and tunnels, (b) establish a structure that brings the West Bank and Gaza together politically and allows Palestinian differences to be settled politically, and (c) address the serious humanitarian issues that face the civilian population in Gaza including greater freedom of movement for people and goods for non-military purposes. J Street supports those suggesting that cease-fire negotiations be used to advance prospects for a Palestinian unity government committed to early elections and demilitarization in Gaza. Allowing the previously-signed reconciliation agreement between Palestinian factions to move forward as part of the cease-fire deal might pave the way for a Palestinian government with a broad mandate and committed to a long-term cease-fire.
• The ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and the violence it spawns cannot be addressed without looking at the deeper issues at stake in the underlying Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict didn’t start when the latest rockets began flying three weeks ago or with the terrible kidnapping and murder of three teenagers or Israel’s response to that incident. The roots of this conflict remain the tragic fight between two peoples over one land and the unresolved status of territory won by Israel in the 1967 war that has been occupied since and on which the Palestinian people will one day build their state. Failure to address and resolve these underlying issues through a two-state solution condemns both peoples to a never-ending spiral of violence that will only deepen as technology improves and hatred festers.
• We remain absolutely committed to achieving a comprehensive diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that results in two states for two peoples. A never-ending and deepening cycle of violence will do nothing to advance that cause. Only a two-state solution that resolves the underlying conflict will ensure Israel’s safety, security and legitimacy as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people and provide the Palestinian people with freedom, dignity and self-determination. read more

No Civility in My Government’s Treatment of the United States
David Langerman
Kiryat Motzkin Israel
July 30, 2014

I am having a hard time thinking clearly these days.

But one thing I do know that we need to treat the Obama administration with respect and not behave as the neighborhood bully.

Or, as the German Jews, (known as Yekkes) used to tell us for years in their mixture of German-Hebrew, there is Keinen Tarbut תרבות – no civility in our public behavior. They prided themselves that even in tough and challenging times they maintained civility, including saying, “please” and “thank you.” read more

Israel’s History: Moving in the Wrong Direction
Ted Brown and Corinne Sutter-Brown
Rochester, New York
29 July 2014

Depressed by recent events, including last night’s one-sided Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester’s orchestrated defense of Israel’s behavior in its latest Gazan war, we are motivated to post this brilliant essay by Tony Judt originally published in Haaretz in 2006. Judt was a world-class, Cambridge-educated historian and a brilliant public intellectual who pursued his career in England and the United States. As a young man he was an idealistic socialist-Zionist who worked during summers on Israeli kibbutzim. But as he explains here, with considerable pain and anguish he gradually came to realize that his youthful idealism no longer matched the realities of Israeli politics and policy, which have veered closer and closer to those of South Africa under apartheid. And while the world has caught on, Israel has refused to grow up and is frozen in a defensive and self-righteous adolescence that may well prove disastrous. If it does not mature, Israel may follow a path threatening its own survival and will help spawn a resurgence of global anti-Semitism. We feel you must read this essay if you want to understand what is really going on in the Middle East and beyond. read more

 
Jews vs. Jews: The Unkindest Cut
Cathy Harris
July 25^th 2014
 

This article is a mishmash: A personal tale, a diatribe on the culture of incivility and a political reflection. I worry constantly – if Jews can’t respect each other, how can we sit down and break bread with Palestinians? How can we, Jews in the USA and in Israel, open our minds to new and visionary possibilities? How can we work to end war? If we can’t respect each other, if we spew meaningless phrases like “self-hating Jew” and “racist bigot”, we can’t. We just can’t. read more