People on the Americans for Peace Now Board are in Israel. Ori Nir, their spokesperson, is sending interesting dispatches, some of which appear on their web site: www.peacenow.org. Below is a dispatch that gets into some of the nuances of the policies being considered in Israel in light of the recent disaster in the Gaza […]
Palestinians
So where were American Jews as Gaza collapsed?
In light of recent events, it is heartbreaking to recall both the hope that was generated when Abbas initially took over the Palestinian Authority and the role of the U.S. government –abetted by AIPAC– in dashing that hope.
Political horizons and the challenge of Hamas
Various peace plans or proposals are floating around out there, and some of them have found there way to this blog. Peter H points to the idea of a 5-year “hudna,” which, he says, would provide Hamas with “greater freedom & space to explore ways of resolving the conflict with Israel in a lasting way.†[…]
Realistic hope…or magical thinking?
I keep thinking, “it can’t get any worse.” Then it gets worse. And then it gets even worse. And then it gets even… If one focuses on the Hamas rockets exploding in Sderot, the return to targeted assasinations by the Israelis, the Fatah-Hamas warfare,..then harboring any hope or even considering the possibility of progress can […]
A choice between the unlikely and the impossible
Apparently this little way station of relatively calm conversation has helped to spark another blog, which will be part of John Sigler’s “For One Democratic/Secular State in Israel-Palestine.” John, who maintains a bibliography project focusing on the one-state solution, has been a welcome contributor here. But apparently he was frustrated by some limitations, indicating that […]
“Jerusalem Day” and the fiction of “unification”
Today is “Yom Yerushalayim,” or “Jerusalem day.” Haaretz has a very powerful editorial about the plight of Palestinian Arabs in East Jerusalem and the Israeli policies that are largely responsible for that plight. What do the advocates of the one-state solution say about Jerusalem? For decades, it has been two cities, not one. The Arabs […]
Near the Dead Sea, a canary in a coal mine
There was a very disturbing, very sad story in Maariv yesterday. It describes a situation that is indefensable and ought to be condemned in the strongest possible terms: (Translation courtesy of Israel News Today). SEPARATE BATHING; IDF BANS PALESTINIAN FROM DEAD SEA by Felix Frisch IDF soldiers in the Jordan Valley this week received an […]
More conversations about one state vs. two states
All right, let’s say you believe everything about Israel is worthy of contempt and insult, and the Jews should never have set foot in Palestine, and the whole Zionist enterprise must be halted. So what do you want to do? Short of throwing out millions of Israeli Jews by force (which, of course, is an […]
Why advocating a one-state solution does not help the Palestinians
Uri Avnery, a longtime dove and gadfly of the Israeli establishment, is often quoted by people on the anti-Israel far left and Arab intellectuals. There are few Israeli Jews who have fought harder for the Palestinians or have taken a more uncompromising stand against Israel’s treatment of them. So it is worth reading a persuasive […]
Progressive answers to anti-Zionism — Part 2: Alternative visions
Some respondents to my previous post on “What Israel Could Be” were predictably furious that anyone could associate the word “progressive” with the word “Zionism.” They described Zionism as a movement that was, by its very definition, murderous and evil. “Zionism” is one of those elastic words or phrases that have long since lost a […]