Comments on "Letter To Obama" and My Response

Sent 26.Nov.2008

Having read my letter to Obama, a good friend sent me some comments, to which I also responded.

THE LETTER AND COMMENTS FROM MY FRIEND:

"..........I agree with you and others that the only solution is a two-state solution. But stating this solution is easy. Knowing what the solution is, is not difficult! The difficulty is in establishing the trust on both sides to enable each side to gamble on the vey many steps that must be taken by each to approach and achieve the two-state solution. Despite your own laudable individual activities to bring about better understanding with the people of a small town in the West Bank and even taken together with similar activities of other like minded persons, your and their activities are just that; activities taken by individuals. I imagine you feel that if only the peoples could act, as opposed to the governments acting, we would be closer to a solution. But the reality, through my eyes, is that agreements between national entities are made by governments, not by individuals. There is nothing that I know of (I am open to being enlightened) which suggests to me that the PLA is interested in a two state solution. I think that it has yet to unequivocally and publicly repudiate its stated goal of destroying Israel. I think they have yet to do much to curtail terrorist attacks against Israel. I think that through the tunnels connecting Gaza and Egypt, Hamas, the democratically elected government of the Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank are preparing to inflict great damage on Israel, not to mention the recently resumed rocket fire. I believe that if they had the power, the West Bank and Gazan Arabs would slaughter the Jews of Israel. I believe the only thing not allowing this is the power of Israel and the presence pf the IDF in the West Bank and around Gaza.

I am dismayed that you, like so many others, call on (Barack to call on) Israel alone to do this or do that or to stop this and stop that with no mention of any actions that the PLA should take. A lot of Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists and other riminals have been freed from Israeli jails; for what? How about asking for some gestures of good will from them. Why don't you also call on President Obama to call on the PLA to free Gilad Shalit instead of their using his as a pawn to blackmail Israel; to stop its indiscriminate rocketing of Sderot, Ashkelon (The separation of Gaza and the West Bank works very well for Abu Mazen, don't you think?); to allow the IDF to leave the West Bank by fulfilling their responsibility to curtail terrorists and the terrorist infrastructure. I know, it's Israel's fault that they aren't able to do this. What other government has ever given arms to a hostile government to build its internal security forces, even when that hostile government has a stated goal of its destruction; to clearly, unequivocally, and publicly in English, Arabic, and Hebrew repudiate the stated goals of the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Arab State in all of Palestine; to re-write the public educational texts and change the everyday television programs which villify Israel (That's no way to prepare a people for a two-state solution, is it?); to change the Friday afternoon sermons of hate into messages of reconciliation and cooperation. Couldn't you have asked Barack for even one of these?

I do hope that President Obama pressures Israel to stop settlement expansion in the West Bank, but I hope this is done in a context which also requires steps by the PLA, some of which, I have mentioned above......."

MY REPLY TO THE LETTER:

..............I’ll spend the rest of this letter commenting on the “political” portion of your letter.This may be overly long-winded, but please bear with me. I fully respect your objections to my letter to Obama and feel that they deserve total attention and an attempt at a response. Being your letter is packed with statements (I think you know how to shorten things better than I) I’ve tried here to comment on those that seemed most provocative to me. So here goes:

You wrote“I imagine you feel that if only the peoples could act, as opposed to the governments acting, we would be closer to a solution. But the reality, through my eyes, is that agreements between national entities are made by governments, not by individuals.”Let’s not mix up between two things: what an individual can and should do vis-à-vis what a government should do. For example: Minimizing “poverty” within a country can only be done by government goals, policies and budgets. Volunteer work at a soup-kitchen will not solve the problem of poverty. That’s not a reason not to volunteer or support the help given by the soup-kitchen. (certainly so in an atmosphere where government policies only widen the gap between poor and rich.) of course soup kitchens at their best will never replace the work needed to be done by a government.

How well I know that my own (and a few others) involvement – very low keyed and sparse – with the farmers in the West Bank will leave hardly an imprint on the policies of our governments. Here and there we are a thorn in the system (a very slight pain in the ass), but non-consequential policy-wise.

My involvement is a result of two situations. One: the tremendous de-facto policy support given by all of our governments over the past three decades (and more) to the expansion and legalization of settlements on conquered lands. Second: the support (mainly by silence and turning away heads) given by our army and government to the daily illegal and immoral acts of our “legalized” settlers and settlements upon their Palestinian neighbors.

You write: “I am dismayed that you, like so many others, call on (Barack to call on) Israel alone to do this or do that or to stop this and stop that…”Wrong. I call on Barack to help in one thing alone……..convincing us of the urgent need to stop expansion of settlements in the west bank and getting our settlers out of land which is not ours. Without this there is no way that any call to the Palestinians “to do this or do that or to stop this and stop that…” can have any avail. To date, each time we promise to at least “freeze” the settlements, we have allowed unperturbed expansion. So long as “freeze” equals “expansion” we are doing nothing to lessen the “The difficulty….in establishing the trust on both sides to enable each side to gamble on the very many steps that must be taken”.

“There is nothing that I know of (I am open to being enlightened) which suggests to me that the PLA is interested in a two state solution. I think that it has yet to unequivocally and publicly repudiate its stated goal of destroying Israel.”This month marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of a two state solution by the PLO and the public repudiation of the stated goal of destroying Israel……..which also led to the Oslo agreements. Ever since then even the Likud Governments and other right-wing parties have stopped asking for public repudiation (as you ask for in your letter). The public repudiation is now being asked of the Hamas in Gaza, not of the leadership in the West Bank. (I leave aside for now the varying levels of trust in public pronouncements.)

It is instructional and proper that all of your direct references to “that hostile government” which has a stated goal of the destruction of Israel, refer to actions by the Hamas government of Gaza (tunnels connecting Gaza and Egypt, rockets on Sderot and Ashkelon, Gilad Shalit). Yet you try not to differentiate between the situation in the west bank and that in Gaza as far as having some type of leadership willing to talk with us on the basis of a two state solution. Of course just as in Gaza we aided in the destruction of those willing to talk with us, we are on the road to doing something similar in the West Bank by constantly promising to remove the most criminal of the illegal settlements, while doing hardly anything of the sort.

"(The separation of Gaza and the West Bank works very well for Abu Mazen, don't you think?)"

Yes, I do think so. It can also work very well for us. But as we did our best to undermine his infrastructure in Gaza, we are on the road to do so in the west bank as well. If we thus succeed, we can be sure to see a Hamas win in the west bank as well, and there probably is not much time left.

You ask that I “call on President Obama to call on the PLA….. to allow the IDF to leave the West Bank by fulfilling their responsibility to curtail terrorists and the terrorist infrastructure”.As mentioned earlier I didn’t call on Obama to influence the IDF to leave the West Bank. We can leave the West bank only when we have a fairly viable agreement for a two state solution. The occupation, in and of itself, is not an obstruction to an agreement. Phasing out the military occupation is the carrot we have to offer in any negotiation. And by the way…..yes, there is a lot of joint work done by the Palestinian police and the IDF in locating terrorists. At least this is what we’ve been shown on Israeli TV. Of course, if getting to an agreement turns out to be a dead-end street, tables will be turned, Hamas will take over the streets, and the third intifada will have begun. So far, our settlement policy is assuring a dead-end street. Ergo, my call regarding settlements.

“Why don't you also call on President Obama to call on the PLA ………to re-write the public educational texts and change the everyday television programs which villify Israel (That's no way to prepare a people for a two-state solution, is it?); to change the Friday afternoon sermons of hate into messages of reconciliation and cooperation. Couldn't you have asked Barack for even one of these?”, etc…..

I sense that out of your objection to what I did ask the President-elect you have over-reacted regarding things which were not included in my letter. Please understand, we have been asking for all those things constantly, and justifiably so, during every American mediation effort that has come our way, though we full well know that these will not change much until a successful mediation. My call to the President-elect was to add to our mediation wish-list also the one item which our government does not ask of the mediation: help us to help ourselves in getting our settlers out of land not theirs, because we are evidently unable (or unwilling) to do this on our own.

“I believe that if they had the power, the West Bank and Gazan Arabs would slaughter the Jews of Israel. I believe the only thing not allowing this is the power of Israel and the presence of the IDF in the West Bank and around Gaza.”

I agree with you so, so much. For that reason I thought it wrong of Sharon to vacate Tzahal from Gaza (along with so many other things Sharon was wrong on throughout his public life). Nor can we pull Tzahal out of the West Bank. My letter to Obama made no mention of anything of the sort.(read again perhaps). I have always seen the conquered territories as our hostages, with our ransom demand being a non-belligerent relationship with our Arab neighbors fortified by a variety of guarantees. I repeat - my call to the president-elect was to add to our mediation wish-list the one item which our government does not ask of the mediation: help us to help ourselves in getting our settlers out of land not theirs, because we are evidently unable (or unwilling) to do this on our own.

Please understand the damaging results of our settlement policy:

1. we are stealing lands belonging to private arab owners.

2. we have made our soldiers the guardians of people who have stolen lands, brutally harassed the original owners, and see their theft and the entire conquered lands as a permanent extension of the State of Israel.

3. With so much of our army deployed to protect our settlers, we have turned much of our training into that of a police force rather than training for the probable eventuality of some terrible wars that are still ahead of us. (Our Second Lebanon War was a good example of police training needing to cope with bringing a war into enemy territory. What a military disaster!)

4. Our soldiers are returning home having learned that you can shoot children throwing stones if they are Arab, but look away when settlers they are guarding have their children throw stones, or if settlers attack Arab farmers trying to work their fields. These are moral lessons brought back home after the army tour is over. They are wrong moral lessons, and they have spread and grown.

5. protecting our settlers, building them roads and other infrastructure, grants and favorable deals for moving to the conquered areas – all these have drained enormous funds from infrastructure, education, welfare and more within the State of Israel. (I can expand on the nose-dive each of these has taken, but some other time.)

6. So long as we have settlers and expanding settlements in the conquered lands, there is no way of holding these lands as ransom for better days when we can reach some kind of modus Vivendi for a two state solution living non-belligerently next to each other. The settlements are a constant living physical proof to the Palestinians that we have absolutely no intention of giving up the occupied lands in lieu of some type of agreement.

7. the continued expansion and natural growth of settlements in the West Bank will eventually be so heavy in population numbers so as to make it impossible to exit our settlers (many say that we have already passed the point of no return.) At that stage a two-state solution will no longer be an option. The only democratic option that will be left is to incorporate the West Bank into the State of Israel (the talk is already there – among arabs!). We will then hold the Palestinians in guarded enclaves or make them Israeli citizens (as we did on the Golan and in Eastern Jerusalem). With the second option, We can say goodby to a “Jewish State”. Being a Zionist, I prefer our country unilaterally pulling out our Jewish settlers from all occupied lands – now, before its too late.

I was always disturbed by stories coming out of the occupied lands regarding the behavior of our Jewish settlers towards the local Palestinians and the lax attitude of our army towards the actions of the settlers they are guarding. I assumed that part of the hype was also manufactured as some political tactic. I was wrong. These past few years I’ve taken the time to be among the olive groves of towns near Shchem. I’ve walked the streets and hills of Hevron and I’ve visited the sparse landscape of the cave dwellers south of Hevron. Being there and seeing convinced me that your justified request of the Palestinians “to change the Friday afternoon sermons of hate into messages of reconciliation and cooperation” must also be requested of the community of Jewish settlers that encourage their children to hate and harass their Arab neighbors while they themselves either commit or turn a blind eye to criminal acts committed towards their Arab neighbors. And don’t turn to me saying “yes, but that’s how the Arabs would act towards our Jews (and much worse) if we gave them the chance”. I yearn for our moral code to be different and so much higher and better than that which you may think is theirs.

I realize these words don’t answer all your objections, nor will I attempt to comment line by line, but please realize that my concern for the plight of the Palestinians is perhaps secondary. My main concern is what our settlement policy is doing to us as a people and where I fear it brings us to in the future.