Statements

On February 2, Meretz USA President Lawrence Lerner and Chair Theodore Bikel issued the following statement to the press:

This is an ominous hour for Israeli democracy. The recent attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Prof. Naomi Chazan, by the Im Tirtzu organization - base and reprehensible as it is - is just the most recent in a frighteningly consistent series of events in Israel that evokes the McCarthy period in America, and worse.

Embassy of Israel

His Excellency Michael B. Oren, Ambassador of Israel to the United States

Your Excellency,

Meretz USA for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace, a longstanding affiliate of the American Zionist Movement, wishes to express our deep disappointment and great alarm over your recent remarks with regard to the J Street organization, delivered at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's biennial convention.

In this period between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, the rhythm of the Jewish calendar obliges us to become especially reflective and self-critical. As we try to make atonement (Kippur), we turn our attention to our own humanity, which is synonymous with our fallibility - as we are reminded by the Latin phrase, "erratum humanum est" (to err is human).

In traditional Jewish practice, our reflection on our fallibility, and our need to make atonement for it, is divided into two separate, though interrelated, spheres: The interactions that are "bein adam La-Makom" - commonly translated as "between man and God"; and those interactions which are "bein adam l'chaveiro" - between a person and other human beings.

Non-religious Jews draw on this important tradition as well, often modernizing their reflections by replacing the image of a Supreme Being with that of our "conscience" or "superego", our "inner God" or "divine self".

But regardless of one's particular religious beliefs, Yom Kippur is a crucial time for the Jewish people - individually and collectively - to own up to, and publicly admit, the errors we have made, so that we can become less imperfect human beings in the year to come.

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:

Prime Minister Netanyahu's June 14 speech at Bar-Ilan University might be seen as an attempt to move the Middle East an agonizingly small step forward towards peace. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's address, by and large, was a wasted opportunity for Israel to take the initiative and reenergize the dangerously dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is to be congratulated for his sorely belated acceptance of the principle of Palestinian statehood. The import of this statement from a long-time supporter of Israeli control over the West Bank marks a further weakening of the annexationist doctrine and should not be underestimated.

On Tuesday, June 9, 2009, Ambassador (ret.) Philip C. Wilcox, Jr., the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, addressed a crowd of Meretz USA supporters in New York. His wide-ranging remarks included a history and analysis of the Israeli, Palestinian and American approaches to the peace process. The summary below focuses primarily on the American aspect of his discussion.

Ambassador Wilcox termed Barack Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo as "stunning", and he praised the President for showing an equal measure of compassion for Israelis and Palestinians, without diminishing America's "unbreakable" bond with Israel.

Meretz USA wishes you and your family and friends a most joyous Festival of Freedom.

As I was making preparations for this year's Passover Seder, I took to wondering what the Haggadah would be like if, instead of the story of the Exodus, it sought to relate the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

With this in mind, and with the Passover holiday beginning in a scant few hours, here is the revised section on the "four sons" ("four children"), with the questions they might ask and the kind of answers we might give them.

The "Chacham" - the Wise, Inquisitive Child: What does she ask?   "The Israeli-Arab conflict seems to be a complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional issue, filled with political, religious, cultural, historic and military aspects, both local/regional and global in nature.  How can I possibly learn enough to know everything there is to know?"

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.

Meretz USA is deeply dismayed by the decision of the Israeli Central Elections Committee this week to disqualify two parties that represent many of the country's Arab citizens in Knesset. 

Should these twin decisions be upheld in court, the banning of Balad and the United Arab List/Arab Renewal Movement from competing in next month's elections would not only be a black mark on Israeli democracy, but a self-destructive act of utter folly that will drive an even sharper and more dangerous wedge between Israel's Jewish and Arab communities.

We therefore look with hope to Israel's High Court of Justice to remain a bastion of Israel's democratic tradition, and to overturn this abysmal decision.

As we recall from American history, wartime creates a breeding ground for suspicion and hostility towards minorities who are regarded as a fifth column for the enemy.