Peace Process

By Meretz USA Executive Director, Ron Skolnik

Proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians are set to begin next week.  Now hit the snooze button.

I don't mean to be snide, or to belittle the sincere efforts of President Obama and his team.  And I don't even mean to say that no talks are better for the Middle East than the upcoming indirect ones.  Communication trumps violence any time.

As the public debate surrounding the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement gathers steam, Meretz USA calls on all supporters of peace between Israel and Palestine to reinforce the distinction between the legitimacy of Israel as a sovereign state and the illegitimacy of the settlements created by Israel in the West Bank. We say: Draw a line at the Green Line.

On Tuesday, January 26, nine human-rights organizations in Israel re-issued a call to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking him to, "establish, without delay, an independent and impartial investigation mechanism to thoroughly examine the allegations raised regarding violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead" - the Gaza war of December '08-January '09.

Meretz USA, together with Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom and J Street, released the following statement on the Obama Administration's policy on Jerusalem on July 29, 2009:

During the Oslo years of the 1990s, one of the more justified critiques of the Israeli right was that Yasser Arafat and his aides were doing far too little to prepare Palestinian public opinion for the gut-wrenching compromises that peace would entail.

So I was disappointed, though not exactly surprised, that before their plane back to Israel even hit the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport, members of Prime Minister Netanyahu's entourage were already trashing the Obama administration's emerging peace initiative.  In doing so, of course, they were hurting the chance for peace, while weakening Israel's greatest strategic asset - American friendship.

One unidentified "senior figure" in the Prime Minister's company called the two-state solution, "stupid".  Another termed it "juvenile" (or "infantile", depending on one's translation of the Hebrew "yalduti").

Lest we forget: The two-state solution is the cornerstone of the entire Middle East peace process and remains at the heart of the Obama administration's diplomatic approach.

But as if this weren't enough, another senior member of the Netanyahu government, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, then offered up this rebuff to the American (and international) attitude on Israel's expansion into the West Bank via civilian settlement.

Three days after the Israeli elections, it is a time of licking wounds for the Israeli left.

Notwithstanding Kadima's one-seat advantage over the Likud, 28-27, there is certainly no reason for Kadima or the center-left to celebrate, as the final results put Israel's right-wing in firm control of the Knesset, with 65 out of 120 seats. These results do not bode well for either peace or civil rights in Israel.

(summary of talk given on February 8, 2009)

On February 8, 2009, American-Israeli journalist, author and blogger Gershom Gorenberg spoke to a packed house at the Jewish Community Project Downtown in New York.

Sponsored by the New Israel Fund and co-sponsored by Meretz USA and American Prospect magazine, and entitled, "The Israeli Elections, Israel's Future, and American Jewry," Gorenberg's talk included the following remarks:

As in any war, Gorenberg opened, the recent Gaza war was seen in Israel through a "telephoto lens", one which focuses in on the small details, but lacks perspective and depth. Unfortunately, what's needed most during wartime is a "panoramic view", which offers a broader vision, and a sense of movement and time.

 

On Friday, January 9, 2009, Tzali Reshef of the New Movement-Meretz party, and of Peace Now, spoke by conference call with Meretz USA supporters.  The following is a summary of his remarks.