An Open Letter to American Jews
from A Jewish Voice for Peace
Are you uncomfortable with Israel's actions in the last
two years? If so, this is an invitation for you to join
the growing number of Jews who have come to realize that
current Israeli policies towards the Palestinians are
simple morally wrong--and a disaster for the long-term
interests of the Jewish people.
Of course, the Palestinians have also committed terrible
deeds themselves and we know that it is tempting just to
blame them for the conflict. But we need to resist that
temptation. Why? Because that path will only perpetuate
the intolerable violence committed by both sides.
Instead, our moral responsibility as the overwhelmingly
stronger party, should be to try to stop our part of the
cycle of violence.
This means withdrawing completely from the
Occupied Territories, allowing the creation of a viable
Palestinian state and negotiating good faith solutions to
the other outstanding issues--sovereignty over
Jerusalem's holy sites, refugee rights, etc.--all of which
were close to being resolved at the Taba negotiations,
before Sharon's election.
Do we need to trust the good will of the Palestinians
in order to do what we know is right?
We don't think so.
This is because the official Palestinian position since
1988 has been that they recognize Israel's right to exist
in peace and security within its 1967 borders, as long as
the Palestinians are also allowed to create their own
state.
Furthermore, in March of this year the entire Arab
League, including the Palestinians, unanimously adopted
the Saudi proposal of Land For Peace, based on UN
Resolution 242, which would have given Israel a
permanent peace, real security and full normalization of
relations with all its Arab neighbors. But Sharon simply
ignored this historic chance to end the Arab/Israeli
conflict once and for all.
What would be the consequences of simply accepting
this long-standing offer? There are two possible dangers
that withdrawing from the Occupied Territories might pose.
One is that a Palestinian state would be a military threat
to Israel. But Israel is, many times over, the strongest
military power in the region and the Palestinians have
long agreed that their future state would be
non-militarized, no foreign forces hostile to Israel would
be allowed in, and international (even Israeli) monitors
could be stationed on Palestinian land in order to verify
these conditions. So a Palestinian state would pose no
military threat to Israel.
As for individual acts of terrorism, they would at the very
least, be greatly diminished once the Palestinians felt
that some semblance of justice had been done.
If the Palestinians feel that they have something to lose,
then they will not support the more extreme elements in
their society. In fact, this already happened during the
first few years after the Oslo Accords were signed,
when there was a real sense of hope among the
Palestinians that they would end up with their own state.
Attacks against Israel only increased when it became
clear that things were only getting worse under Oslo,
that settlements were growing rapidly, and that their
hope for self-determination had just been a mirage.
Ending the occupation may or may not stop all the
violence immediately but it certainly is the essential
precondition for a peaceful solution, and would have
immediate positive results.
We know it is hard to move past the understandable fear
for the safety of our people, but in this case, "the best
defense is not a good offense". Israel's policy of more
repression and more force has not, and never will,
increase Israel's security. Only a just solution to the
conflict will ever bring real peace and security to the
people of Israel.
A very cogent eight page paper outlining why this is the
case is available at no cost by writing to:
A Jewish Voice For Peace at:
jvp@sonic.net
[ jvp AT sonic.net ]
or to:
PO Box 13286,
Berkeley, CA
94712
USA
Just ask for a copy of:
"From Jew to Jew: Why We Should Oppose the Israeli
Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza". |
