Jews are people of history. It is not possible to make any progress towards peace without fully recognizing why Israel exists and what the state means to Jews. Each of us owns a piece of this narrative. Here is mine:
I share these pieces of personal narrative because each anecdote, in its own way, speaks to the importance of a homeland for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. But this is more than just my story. Millions of Israelis -- bakers, plumbers, bus drivers and nurses -- could tell anecdotes just as compelling. The miracle of the Jewish state is embraced and cherished, not only by Jews in Israel, but by Jews the world over. Nonetheless, Israel is the only democracy in the world that, 61 years after its founding, still needs to make the case to the community of nations that it has a right to exist. We must unequivocally affirm that right in the international arena.
With that said, I am not unaware that there is a counterpart Palestinian narrative. It includes dispossession, the loss of property that was in families for generations, abandonment by Arab governments, the squalor of refugee camps, the humiliation and degradation of occupation and much, much more. Just as the Jewish narrative leads logically to a legitimate Jewish claim on the land of Israel, so too does the Palestinian narrative lead logically to a legitimate Arab claim to create an independent Palestinian State in the same land. In the poignant words of the Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua, the land is torn between right and right.
The Mishna tells us that the world can only be sustained through justice (din), truth (emet) and peace (shalom). I think this is a vision of Judaism that most all of us find compelling. The Declaration of Independence of the state of Israel envisions a society based on the prophetic ideals that promise full social and political equality to every person regardless of race, religion or culture. Only when all parties in the region come to respect these ideals and extend them to each other reciprocally can peace be achieved. There is no peace without justice, and there is no peace without mutual recognition.
In the Jewish morning service there is a prayer that we recite: "May a new light come to shine in Zion, and may all of us enjoy the promise of that light." That "all of us" needs to include all the inhabitants of the land. Whenever there is an initiative towards peace in the Middle East, there are forces that will seek to undermine those forces. Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin paid for their peace initiatives with their lives. Too many parents have buried their children. Too many children have been turned into warriors. And too many organizational efforts have been marginalized and derailed.
The forces of extremism on both sides of the conflict are strong and determined. Those of us who desire peace must be at least as strong and at least as determined. Let us pray that all of us -- Jew and Muslim, writers and business leaders, clergy and elected officials -- re-double our resolve to bring that new light to Zion so that all can live in peace and security and enjoy the wonder and blessings of life.
A version of these remarks were delivered at the J-Street Congressional Banquet at its inaugural conference in October 2009.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brief History of of Palestine, Israel and the Israeli Palestinian ...
History of Israel and Palestine in VERY Easy To Understand Maps
BBC News - Israel and Palestinian territories country profile
So your statement: Just as the Jewish narrative leads logically to a legitimate Jewish claim on the land of Israel....
The Jewish narrative is one of discrimination by people all around the world. Would it be logical for Tamils being discriminated against by other Sinhalese to conclude that they should be able carve out land in some place else in the world?
Israel, as it now stands, has the right to exist but please don't use warped logic to justify its existence. You have to carry to burden of admittance that in order to save your people someone else was dispossessed. It might be a huge burden on your conscience but admitting it would be a great way of moving forward and realizing that Palestinians have lost much and should not be asked to lose anymore.
"What would the prophets say?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipOtpwr09ck
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1588&Itemid=230
And no amount of vacuous talk and slogans will change this fact.
After Arafat-led war on Israeli civilians ( sardonically called Oslo Wars by its israeli victims) and election of Hamas in exchange for evicting Israeli residents of Gaza, Israeli electorate has few illusions remaining about Palestinian sincerity of wanting peaceful co-existence.
On a positive note--latest wave of prosperity and peace in W,. Bank is good sign for some degree of political reconciliation.
Of course, until Jihadists are ousted from power in Gaza this is just talk.
First things first.
Hamas will not let Gazans vote. In the near past Hamas would not allow elections in the WB and Abbas now rules by his own decree. Abbas also is said to represent Palestinians, and Hamas does not; just Gazans. Or, am I wrong?
Let us say that Abbas wwere to sit down with Israel. Would there be legal partners able to make real treaties, have real negotiations, and would the outcome have legal standing?
Or, would we just have a Wajang Theatre, with visible shaddow puppets, and invisible decision makers pulling the puppets' strings?
Din, justice, what is it? And justice for whom? Is justice to the Palestinian individual that a government official's views predominate? Or, is it that he and his family have improved lives, chances to participate in society, go to school, own property? More specifically, does the individual Palestinian have a claim to personal dignity?
Shalom, Peace, what is that? Is it something one side or another declares? Is forced upon an individual fromoutside? Or, is it a state of mind, a spirit, and an understanding about the nature of life, thought and reasoning, and how it influences every cell of our being?
Do Palestinians have decisions to make and are they allowed to do so? Abbas is ruling by his own decree. Hamas will not allow elections, either in Gaza, or in the WB. Where does that leave the input of the Palestinian individual?
In the same place Arab Muslim individual has been leaving for centuries-- at the door of the mosque, before entering.
Turkey also persecutes its Kurdish minority. This was one of the main reasons that they were blocked from the EU. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551544/social-protection-Year-In-Review-1996
The main reason the multi-culti dogma politicians were shown the door in many E,.U,. countries. Especially Germany and France.
Golda Meir was saying on BBCs Panorama programme decades ago
"If Israel is in danger of being defeated on the battlefied, it will be prepared to take the
region and even the whole world down with it"
Is there any nation in world history that had never been defeated?
Over coffee on morning, journalist ( author, scholar) Alan Hart said to him,
“I have come to the conclusion that it’s all a myth. Israel’s existence has never been in danger.”
Through a sad smile, Gazit replied,
“The trouble with us Israelis is that we have become victims of our own propaganda.”
Political Zionism is the the real enemy of Jews. That political Zionism should help Jews to come to terms with that truth and its implications.
Social justice based Judaism can help to destroy this myth and this oppression and victimisation. There are hardly any other option to solve the Palestine question.Until then the peace that the Rabbi hopes is not going to materialise.
Title of the Book: Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews
Volume One
Author: Alan Hart
Publisher: World Focus Publishing Kent UK
Page Number: 46 of the Prologue
Unfortunately, Palestinians have no such leader--- and never had one.
The best they could do is Mr. "Berlin Rose"Al Husseini; his cousin "Munich Olympics" Yassir;
and Mr. PhD-in--Holocaust-Denial from KGB Moscow University-- Mr Abbas,.
Not to mention the internationally beloved Sheik Ahmad Yassin....
Lovely wax museum.
Luckily only one of the following is still with us.
Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradhawi, international Arab terrorist and lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, in a televised speech in May, 2005, chided his followers with the following words: "
Unfortunately, we [Arabs] do not excel in either military or civil industries. We import everything from needles to missiles.
How come the Zionists has managed to be superior to us, despite being so few?
It has become superior through knowledge, through technology, and through strength. It has become superior to us through work. We had the desert before our eyes but we didn't do anything with it. When they took over, they turned it into a green oasis. How can a nation that does not work progress? "