CONCLUSION
I
For Jewish Readers
As we have seen, the root cause
of the Palestine-Israel conflict is clear. During the 1948 war,
750,000 Palestinians fled in terror or were actively expelled
from their ancestral homeland and turned into refugees. The state
of Israel then refused to allow them to return and either destroyed
their villages entirely or expropriated their land, orchards,
houses, businesses and personal possessions for the use of the
Jewish population. This was the birth of the state of Israel.
We know it is hard to accept emotionally,
but in this case the Jewish people are in the wrong. We took
most of Palestine by force from the Arabs and blamed the victims
for resisting their dispossession. If you run into someone's car,
for whatever reason, simple justice demands that you repair it.
Our moral obligation to the Palestinian people is no less clear.
It is time for all Jewish people of good conscience to make whatever
amends are possible to the Palestinians in order to live up to
the best part of the Jewish tradition—its ethical and moral
basis.
Any criticism of Israel is traditionally
seen by American Jews as harmful to the Jewish people, even if
the criticism is true. But "my people, right or wrong, my
people" is no different than "my country, right or
wrong, my country". Once we start down the slippery slope
where the ends justify the means we have left behind any claim
to morality. Along with millions of other American Jews unaffiliated
with the major U.S. Jewish organizations, we are outraged at
the Israeli government's ongoing oppression of the Palestinians
and feel that it has been the ruination of the high moral standing
of the Jewish people.
The Israeli government could solve
the Palestine/Israel crisis tomorrow. It actually would be in
the best interests of its citizens to do so because random acts
of terrorism against Israelis would cease if Palestinian demands
for a viable, independent state were accepted and compensation
for Arab losses made.
Here in America, we Jews are thoroughly
assimilated into the mainstream of society and hold positions
of power and influence in every field of endeavor. We do not
need to be in a defensive mood anymore. We can afford to change
out attitude from "is it good the the Jews?" to "Is
it good?" At the very least, American Jews need to categorically
state that we cannot condone Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian
land, and the intentional murder and crippling of Palestinian
protestors armed only with rocks, as documented in reports by
the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Commission, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli groups like B'Tselem,
etc.
According to a survey commissioned
by the five largest American Jewish organizations, but suppressed
by them afterwards, 20% of American Jews support Palestinian
demands and 35% say that Jerusalem should be shared. This, in
the face of a near-total blackout of the Palestinian position
in our press, is very impressive. Join this growing segment of
American Jews by contacting Not In My Name, at www.nimn.org,
a group that is spearheading a coalition of Jewish groups to
protest the Israeli occupation.
Israel's long-term interests can
best be served by supporting Israeli peace groups, like Gush
Shalom (www.gush.shalom.org), not the Israeli government and
its brutal repression, which just leads to endless violence.
Israeli peace groups rightfully criticize their government and
we should too, since they claim to act in our name. American
groups like the Jewish Peace Lobby, Jewish Voice For Peace and
the Middle East Children's Alliance also deserve your support.
Don't compromise yout ethics in blind support of bad politics—work
for a just soultion instead.
Please write for more free copies
of this booklet to the address on the back page and ask your
Jewish friends to consider the information presented here. For
everyone's sake. Peace.
Important Note: at the end of the
next section, ConclusionII, there
is a list of Jewish organizations in America and Israel, and
links to their websites, which are informative and interesting.
We encourage to explore them with an open mind.
Click on the next section you wish
to read.
For free printed copies write to:
Jews for Justice in The Middle East
P.O. Box 14561
Berkeley CA 94712 |
