Madison Rafah Journal

Karl Vick, Time, September 2, 2010

Jerusalem — Heli and Eli sell condos on Exodus Street, a name that evokes a certain historical hardship in a neighborhood that suggests none at all, the ingathering of the Jews having entered a whole new realm here. The talk in the little office is of interest rates and panoramic sea views from handsomely appointed properties selling on the Ashdod waterfront for half what people are asked to pay in Tel Aviv, 18 miles (29 km) to the north. And sell they do, hand over fist – never mind the rockets that fly out of Gaza, 14 miles (22.5 km) to the south. "Even when the Qassams fell, we continued to sell!" says Heli Itach, slapping a palm on the office desk. The skull on her designer shirt is made of sequins spelling out "Love Kills Slowly." "What the people see on the TV there is not true here," she says. "I sold, this week, 12 apartments. You're not client, I tell you the truth."

The truth? In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They're otherwise engaged; they're making money; they're enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)

Now observing 2½ years without a single suicide bombing on their territory, with the economy robust and with souls a trifle weary of having to handle big elemental thoughts, the Israeli public prefers to explore such satisfactions as might be available from the private sphere, in a land first imagined as a utopia. "Listen to me," says Eli Bengozi, born in Soviet Georgia and for 40 years an Israeli. "Peace? Forget about it. They'll never have peace. Remember Clinton gave 99% to Arafat, and instead of them fighting for 1%, what? Intifadeh." (See TIME's photo-essay "Palestinian 'Day of Rage.' ")

But wait. Deep down (you can almost hear the outside world ask), don't Israelis know that finding peace with the Palestinians is the only way to guarantee their happiness and prosperity? Well, not exactly. Asked in a March poll to name the "most urgent problem" facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty. Israeli Arabs placed peace first, but among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls "critical for the world" just doesn't seem – critical.

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Agence France Presse, 29 Aug 2010

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Sunday condemned as "deeply offensive" remarks by an influential Israeli rabbi who said he hoped Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas would "vanish from our world."

"We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.

"These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace."

Ovadia, who heads a religious party in Israel's ruling coalition, expressed hope in his weekly sermon Saturday that "all the nasty people who hate Israel, like Abu Mazen (Abbas), vanish from our world."

"May God strike them down with the plague along with all the nasty Palestinians who persecute Israel," he said.

Crowley pointed out that the remarks did not reflect the view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due in Washington this week for direct peace talks with Abbas.

(Read on …)

Success in the Irish talks was the result not just of determination and time, but also a very different United States approach to diplomacy.

ALI ABUNIMAH, The New York Times, August 28, 2010

Chicago

GEORGE J. MITCHELL, the United States Middle East envoy, tried to counter low expectations for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by harking back to his experience as a mediator in Northern Ireland.

At an Aug. 20 news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, announcing the talks that will begin this week, Mr. Mitchell reminded journalists that during difficult negotiations in Northern Ireland, “We had about 700 days of failure and one day of success” — the day in 1998 that the Belfast Agreement instituting power-sharing between pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists was signed.

Mr. Mitchell’s comparison is misleading at best. Success in the Irish talks was the result not just of determination and time, but also a very different United States approach to diplomacy.

The conflict in Northern Ireland had been intractable for decades. Unionists backed by the British government saw any political compromise with Irish nationalists as a danger, one that would lead to a united Ireland in which a Catholic majority would dominate minority Protestant unionists. The British government also refused to deal with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, despite its significant electoral mandate, because of its close ties to the Irish Republican Army, which had carried out violent acts in the United Kingdom.

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"O you who believe, stand up firmly for justice as witnesses to Almighty God." (Holy Qu'ran, al-Nisa "The Women" 4:135)

We bear witness to the absolute horror and tragedy of the Holocaust where over twelve million human souls perished, including six million Jews. We condemn any attempts to deny this historical reality and declare such denials or any justification of this tragedy as against the Islamic code of ethics. We condemn anti-Semitism in any form. No creation of Almighty God should face discrimination based on his or her faith or religious conviction.
Statement by American imams and Muslim leaders

Justin Elliott, Salon, Aug 23, 2010

Earlier this month eight American imams and Muslim leaders took a trip to the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps accompanied by the Obama Administration's envoy to combat anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal, and its official representative to the Muslim world, Rashad Hussein. At the end of the emotional trip, the imams released a joint statement (.pdf) condemning Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.

It all seemed like a perfectly good idea, which is why some were surprised that Abe Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League — which counts Holocaust education and battling anti-Semitisim as core missions — actually lobbied against the participation of U.S. officials in the trip.

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from the Palestine-Israel Action Group, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting
Links courtesy of Friends of Sabeel — North America (FOSNA)

The front of each of these Palestinian Loss-of-Land cards succinctly illustrates Israel's expansion and West Bank settlement policies since 1948.

Three options are available for the back of the cards:

Option 1: No Taxes for Occupation: Postcard tells President Obama and Congress how our tax dollars are harming Palestinians.

Option 2: No Taxes for Settlements: U.S. taxes help Israel build illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

Option 3: Stop the Land Grab: Illustrates how Israeli settlements splinter the West Bank. Read Sharon's plan!

Study Guide: Juan Cole's The Map: The Story of Palestinian Nationhood Thwarted.

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A just and lasting two-state solution

Editorial, The Capital Times, June 15, 2010

It is not often that a candidate in a tight U.S. Senate race actually says something significant about the Middle East peace process — or the lack of a process. Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak has done so, with a call for the administration to do more than just “open lines of communication.”

Sestak, who defeated incumbent Arlen Specter in last month’s Democratic primary, faces Republican Pat Toomey in what is likely to be one of the roughest races of the fall.

As such, Sestak might have been expected to avoid discussing the Middle East. Most candidates, especially most Democrats, do — and that has been doubly the case in recent weeks, as relations between Israelis and Palestinians have degenerated following the Israeli military raid on an aid flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip.

Instead, Sestak has waded into the debate by prodding the Obama administration to take a leadership role in encouraging and facilitating direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is certainly not a radical stance, but it is an important one, Sestak, who served as the director for defense policy on President Clinton’s National Security Council, not only calls for direct negotiations but also criticizes those who say peace advocates are not being sympathetic enough to Israel.

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We should not forget that Gaza is another “democracy” in the Middle East: it was precisely because Hamas won free elections there in 2005 that both the Palestinian Authority and Israel reacted with such vehemence.

TONY JUDT, The New York Times, June 9, 2010