For the Jewish people, this coming week is one of the biggest in our calendar, with Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, just a few days away. For the world, this coming week could be one of the biggest of our lifetime, as Middle East leaders gathered in Washington, at the behest of President Obama, to once again, with even greater urgency, attempt to begin the final walk toward a comprehensive peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians. Our celebration of the New Year-- with its promise of new beginnings, new hopes, aspirations unfilled being sought after again with a new heart-- will be filled with anticipation of what these talks might yield. And, as happens every so often, the Muslim calendar is approaching the end of Ramadan, with the celebration of Eid, falling on the very same days as Rosh Hashanah. It seems like the cosmic energy of our religious calendars is calling us to be closer, calling us to listen to one another, respect one another, recognize how closely bound we actually are to one another. I imagine that my Muslim friends will also be thinking about these talks as they celebrate their holy days.
As I read the White House transcript of the opening statements from President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, President Mubarak of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan, I heard both familiar and unfamiliar language. The familiar was the call to peace, the desire for peace, the need for peace. These words have been uttered for generations, but to little avail. However, the unfamiliar language was King Abdullah saying, "Radicals and terrorists have exploited frustrations to feed hatred and ignite wars. The whole world has been dragged into regional conflicts that cannot be addressed effectively until Arabs and Israelis find peace." As a Jewish leader, I welcome the King's acknowledgment and public admonition of terrorists, referring to Hamas and Hezbollah, who have immediately and brutally already begun to try and derail these talks with murder, and hope that President Abbas can speak out publicly against those among his people who seek to destroy the hope for peace. Unfamiliar language was Prime Minister Netanyahu saying, "President Abbas, you are my partner in peace. And it is up to us, with the help of our friends, to conclude the agonizing conflict between our peoples and to afford them a new beginning. The Jewish people are not strangers in our ancestral homeland, the land of our forefathers. But we recognize that another people shares this land with us." For too long we have heard, "no partner for peace," but today the Prime Minister ended that tired rant. With statements such as these, honest and bold, I have hope that this could be a new start to ending such an old conflict.
In the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah, we say "renew our days as of old," reminding ourselves that things have not always been the way we see them today, that a new tomorrow, with vision for the future and understanding of the past, can emerge for us. There is no time to wait, no time to stall, no time to equivocate. The road ahead will be hard, for sure, but if all of these leaders stay focused on the endgame, with President Obama leading the way, we may just see the tomorrow we have dreamed of for so many years actually come to pass today. In the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, "I didn't come here today to play a blame game where even the winners lose. Everybody loses if there's no peace. I came here to achieve a peace that will bring a lasting benefit to us all." This Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan, lets pray we come out as winners.
Follow Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbijoshua
Omid Safi: Eid Mubarak: Blessed Holiday, Service to Humanity
Rabbi Sid Schwarz: Genesis 22: Abraham's "Return" and the Binding of Isaac
Rabbi David Wolpe: Leviticus 16:3: Am I the Captain of My Soul?
http://ittay.blogspot.com/2010/09/rosh-hashana-and-eid-al-fitr.html
Jerusalem is split, east for Palestine and west for Israel, as it originally was before 67.
All settlements, IDF, and Israeli control of any type are moved behind the green line, except in the cases where settlements hug the 67 border, and then land can be swapped to make up for the loss.
almost all Palestinian refugees will be compensated for land lost in Israel proper, and relocated to the new Palestinian state, with only a very few (or possibly none) being relocated to Israel proper with full citizenship to reclaim land.
An international peace keeping force, mostly Arab, will replace the IDF to keep the IDF, settler, and Palestinian factions at bay until the Palestinian state is fully structured with it's own effective peace keeping force, and security is ensured for both sides for an adequately long period.
This is utterly fair, workable, and acceptable by most Israelis and Palestinians. The settlers will be angry, but they never had the right (nor does ANYONE) to settle in the first place, and in the end, it was their desire to take land that was not theirs that has inspired so much terror and bloodshed in Israel, Palestine, the region, and even the US.
the old city must be "cleansed" of everything smacking of religion, maybe a small nuke would do, or a blockbuster bomb (the people living there would be evacuated, of course, but not allowed to take anything religeous with them) could do the trick, before the old city would be "returned".
Expect the worst and hopefully be surprised if something is really done.
Netanyahu could have fooled me. To win is to stall as far as Israel is concerned and for the Palestinians winning is making Israel suffer for what it has done even if it means losing in the end. It is a lose and eventually win situation for Israel and a win and eventually lose situation.