Obama Needs Our Help to Stand Firm Against Israeli Building Projects in East Jerusalem
by: Rabbi Michael Lerner on March 18th, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Not every moment is as promising for changing the dynamics in Israel/Palestine as the current one.
It is time to support the Obama administration, which momentarily has developed a bit of a backbone in response to the Israeli government, which revealed its total arrogance and lack of respect for the United States and for the possibility of any real concessions for peace by announcing that it was going to build 1,400 more housing units in Palestinian East Jerusalem (not the Old City, where Jews have an historic claim that deserves respect, but in the part of Jerusalem built by and for Arabs in the past 200 years and then conquered by Israel in 1967).
Israel's Gilo Settlement in East Jerusalem
The Obama administration’s new backbone is unlikely to last in the face of the assault already started by AIPAC friends in Congress, unless there is a loud cry of support for his administration’s demand that building new housing in Jerusalem stop during negotiations. The construction of housing must stop because whether Israel has jurisdiction to build or run East Jerusalem is part of what the negotiations are about and therefore shouldn’t be resolved by Israel “creating facts” on the ground which de facto render the negotiations moot.
So here is what you can do: Send an email to your congressperson and senator telling them of your concern. AIPAC is meeting in Washington this weekend, and you can be sure that congresspeople will be hearing plenty from their side — in fact, already many congresspeople in both parties are criticizing President Obama for putting pressure on Netanyahu! Isn’t it time they heard from you?
Dear congress person,
I am saddened to once again learn of the push to settle Jews in East Jerusalem. There are people there already – Palestinians. Please make effort to raise awareness of this. Please ensure that these people and their rights to live (unpressured, free from demolistions and manipulation of building codes and permits) in peace are protected. Let the building continue but elsewhere.
It is the human thing to do.
Lloyd Howell
How to establish a foundation for a real and enduring peace in the middle-east
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dear Mr. President,
I believe, despite the obvious willful dissimulation and intransigence at play in the region, it is past time for the US to seize the initiative and once again be a proactive rather than a reactive force for peace in the middle-east. This can be accomplished if we just clearly, and even-handedly, formulate and establish relationships that are consistent with our stated values (see for instance the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights).
How to establish a foundation for a real and enduring peace in the middle-east:
1: The United States must put in place an immediate moratorium on military and financial support for the State of Israel. 2: The United States must immediately recognize an independent Palestinian State at pre-1967 borders. 3: The United States must request/sponsor the immediate seating in the General Assembly of a Palestinian delegation. 4: The United States and all members of the UN Security Council must, even-handedly, require all parties to immediately observe all applicable treaties and UN resolutions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with appropriate diplomatic, economic, and political sanctions, both positive and negative, attached to enforce such observance. 5. When the State of Israel recognizes the independent State of Palestine and the State of Palestine recognizes the State of Israel and, with the assistance of the United Nations, both states normalize and regulate their mutual and other borders in accordance with all applicable UN mandates and international treaties appropriate US economic and military support for the State of Israel resumes and appropriate US economic and military support for the State of Palestine is placed at parity with that given Israel.
Obviously there is a lot of unpacking of details and hard work implied in these 5 steps but with this as a clear and understandable statement of our objectives peace can be achieved and we can transform ourselves from being vassals to being agents – agents for peace.
Mr. President, this is the kind of change we need to undertake. This is the kind of change so many of us had in mind when we worked for your nomination and election. Please help.
Yours,
(The Rev.) M. Paul Garrett
I just returned from six weeks in Israel and Palestine. The Israelis that I talked with want an immediate end to the settlements. They realize that these continued illegal acts only serve to derail the peace prospects. The Israeli and Palestinian people are tired of waiting for their leaders. They all say that you Mr. President must act now, We as a nation must not continue to support these illegal and immoral acts.
Obama needs all the strength he has to fight back against the forces that are destroying Israel and any chance of peace in the region. I am totally in support of making it clear to Netanyahu and his ultra-right, ultra-religious coalition (and the so-called Christian Zionists) are not going to wag the dog. I love Israel and I am saddened watching it kill itself from within.
I am in distress after just reading the article relative to Israel spying on the United States and using that knowledge to cause attacks against our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan!
President Obana has to be firm on his principles and require the Israelis to abide by the United Nations rules. The US should not continue to make excuses for Israel’s actions breaking the UN regulations.
Now that I know that Israel has been spying on the US and acting against American interest causing financial lost and lost of life, I feel it is time to start taking our financial aid away from them. I cannot believe that we have been financing Israel’s war against the Palestinians and blindly hurting our own people.
Mr. President, PLEASE do not back down on the demands for the Israelis to respect the law of the land. They have not been showing any respect or special consideration for us — why should we accept their sick behaviour against us, the Arabs, the Palestinians or anyone else. IT IS TIME TO CONFRONT THEM AND BE FIRM, and, who knows, may be WORLD PEACE would be the end result — and then your Nobel Peace Prize would be well earned!
God Bless Our Troops and God Bless America.
The thorough suggestions of the Rev. Paul Garrett deserve careful attention by the Obama administration. Like others’, my opinions are informed by first-hand observation (last May) of the agonizing, disgustingly brutal military occupation of the West Bank. How certain Zionistic Israeli can so self-absorbedly consider Palestinians as their own ancestors were so recently treated, utterly puzzles me. For just one firm example, the Wiesenthal Foundation expects to build in West Jerusalem a new center on the site of a Muslim cemetary.
But let us not forget the bright side: the steady, informed and compassionate voices of Israeli and American Jews is such organizations as Stop the Wall, Women in Black, Jewish Voice for Peace.
The thorough suggesions of the Rev. Paul Garrett deserve careful attention by the Obama administration. Like others’, my opinions are informed by first-hand observation (last May) of the agonizing, disgustingly brutal military occupation of the West Bank. How certain Zionistic Israeli citizens can so self-absorbedly consider Palestinians as their own ancestors were so recently treated, utterly puzzles me. For just one firm example, the Wiesenthal Foundation expects to build in West Jerusalem a new center on the site of a Muslim cemetary.
But let us not forget the bright side: the steady, informed and compassionate voices of Israeli and American Jews in such organizations as Stop the Wall, Women in Black, Jewish Voice for Peace.
One of the problems for the United States is that we ourselves become the targets of Middle East anger over our staunch commitment to Israel’s security, especially in the face of Israel’s announcement of expansion. We need to maintain a good relationship with other countries such as Pakistan, whom we depend upon to help us in Afghanistan. Israel is not the only player here.
The government of Netanyahu is doing a great disservice to Israel and is leading his country to ruin. Israel can continue to fight and wall itself off or it can work towards real solutions. Israel has announced to us and the rest of the world that it has chosen the former. Netanyahu’s hard right policies do not serve the interests of America, Israel, or Palestine.
Avraham Burg, a former speaker of the Knesset, has written that “the countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun”……”the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep.” He implores “Diaspora Jews” to “speak out.” If there ever was a time to speak out, now is the time.
Now that the health care bill is law, perhaps the President–in the wake of today’s meeting with Netanyahu–would consider or threaten an executive action, if the law allows it, to summarily cut off all aid to Israel..if only for fun. For such a teensy country, Israel has a viable economy, and ought to buy whatever it needs. It is, after all, the world’s 4th largest arms exporter.
While i’m at it, 2 thoughts..in response to the oft-demanded question, “Does Israel have a right to exist?” (look around; it does exist), i ask, “Does Palestine have the right to exist?”, or, by historical extension, did those communities and city-states of Canaan have a similar “right” before General Joshua and the post-Mosaic Israelites mowed ‘em down and grabbed the place?..remember the USS Liberty, an un-armed US (read: chief ally) reconnaissance ship, which was either sunk outright or limped back to port in June ’67.
Israel is more trouble than it’s worth.
Thank you, phil allen
are you all insane?
This is a established Jewish community that is merely adding more homes. Not a arab (so-called Palestinian) in sight.
Obama sand the USA should butt out.
If the same scrutiny applied to Israel was used in the USA then the Southwest (including liberal CA & conservative Texas ) would go to Mexico, The Lousiana Purchase would be void, FL, LA, AL, GA would be returned to Native Americans and the USA would have tenuous control over , possibly, the original 13 colonies which would have to be partitioned into a Native American/English 2 State solution in which all previously affected parties would then launch missile , some 12,000 every decade into what remained of the US.
BUTT OUT until you’ve cleaned your own dam house USA!