Jewish Group "Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Now!"

Jewish Group "Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Now!"
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.


With Jewish politicians worried about the recent elections and what the fallout will be for U.S. commitments in the Middle East, Marcia Freedman, Former Member of Israel's Knesset, and president of Brit Tzedek, the country's largest Jewish peace organization, said, "If ever there was a moment for a daring U.S. diplomatic initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is now."

"President Bush, together with Prime Minister Olmert, can forge their legacies in the region with an historic contribution to... international peace."

The time for change is right because Israel is a mess after the disastrous botched Lebanon war. Israel seems so directionless and depressing, according to Hillel Halkin in The New York Sun yesterday "Everywhere are scandals and charges of corruption. The government is an ad hoc creation with no grass roots, has no visible programs... Its cabinet is composed of parties that can't agree about anything."

Lots of countries have corruption and scandals, but Israel has real enemies - many of their own making - who would like nothing more than its destruction. Thwarting them, Halkin says, depends on making the right decisions and avoiding the wrong ones. See former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu militant comments "It's 1938 all over again."

Israeli citizens are rejecting the isolationism of their government, said Freedman, with 67% believing that Israel should negotiate with a Palestinian unity government, which the political leaders have refused to do.

But the two embattled leaders, President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert after their meetings this week, appeared outwardly satisfied with the status quo, even as their constituencies vehemently demand change.

Brit Tzedek called on the U.S. Government to take action. "It is totally insufficient to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through occasional diplomatic gestures that produce no concrete results.

"Both the need and the opportunity for action are urgent. The opportunity has been created by the anticipated formation of a Palestinian unity government. The need arises from daily increasing violence and loss of life in Gaza that enflames and threatens to engulf the entire region in war."

Brit Tzedek called for vigorous U.S. diplomatic intervention to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers and the cessation of Qassam rockets fired into southern Israel by Palestinian militants. The conflict can only be resolved by immediate U.S. action.

Meanwhile, there are interesting reports in The Daily Telegraph of London that the U.S. is pressuring Israel to authorize 1,500 armed Palestinian Arab soldiers based in Jordan to move into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This would be a major shift in policy that Israel sees as a way to counterbalance the growing power of Hamas, but it could also worsen the violence between rival Palestinian Arab factions.

Previously military sanctions prevented Palestinian Arabs from acquiring weapons for fear that they would be used against Israelis. President Bush is reported to have requested the Arab troops as a way to restore order in the West Bank and Gaza.

The U.S., which is urging the initiative, hopes that the arrival of the troops, trained and equipped to relatively high standards by the Jordanian armed forces, will restore badly needed order to the region.

If the reports turn out to be true, it could signal a major breakthrough for peace. Moreover, the introduction of Arab troops as peacekeepers might frame a roadmap for eventual U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.




Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot