A group of Israelis currently living in the United States, who oppose Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the blockade of Gaza, have recently formed a group called Israelis For a Sustainable Future. This group, with 128 members and growing daily, has written a searing letter to the American Jewish community.
The letter implores Jews in America to reexamine their uncritical support for Israel’s actions and to speak out against the occupation those actions serve. In short, it asks the Jewish community to step away from a binary, zero-sum perspective doing so much damage to both Israelis and Palestinians. At one point, they write, “We are reaching out to you because we want to re-examine what it means to be pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. We argue that these terms might be one and the same.”
Beautiful and honest, the letter in its entirety appears below.
An open letter to American Jews
We are a group of Israelis currently living in the US. We are reaching out to you because we oppose the actions of the Israeli government in operation “Protective Edge.”
This does not mean we don’t recognize the threat presented by Hamas to the Israeli people. We oppose firing of weapons into civilian population and the sacrifice of civilians by the regimes of both Hamas and the Israeli government. Calling to stop the bombing of Gaza does not mean we don’t realize the impossible conditions imposed on the residents of southern Israel. Nor does it mean we don’t demand security for them. But we also recognize that their plight is consistently ignored by the Israeli government until it becomes convenient for exploitation. We have seen three major military operations in less than six years. They repeat themselves because they don’t work. Yes, Hamas reserves are temporary depleted and the group is temporarily hindered. But this is not a moral price worth paying. Even if it were, killing thousands of civilians and displacing of hundreds of thousands doesn’t weaken Hamas in the long run. This bloodshed only feeds the one resource it can’t go without: hate. Only meaningful peace talks and an end to the ongoing occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza (a blockade is still occupation) will prevent both the next round of rockets into Israel and the next round of indiscriminate killings in Gaza.
We are reaching out to you because we want to re-examine what it means to be pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. We argue that these terms might be one and the same. We believe that supporting equal rights for both peoples is the only way to build a better Israel and a better Palestine and we want the American Jewish community to stand behind that message.
The belief that being “pro-Israel” means uncritically supporting the actions of the Israeli government and military does not help the Israeli people. The Israeli people do not benefit from being oppressors. Israeli society does not benefit from ruling over 4 million Palestinians. The Israeli soldier does not benefit from risking his or her life in wars that could have been avoided.
The Israeli people gain nothing from perpetuating the occupation. Israeli children learn nothing from being taught everybody wants to kill them. And the Israeli population does not grow stronger from rising aggression within it, from a loss of tolerance and from a surge of violent racism against the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
But maintaining the occupation is what this war is all about. Unfortunately, the regimes in Israel are becoming increasingly cynical, willing to sacrifice as many people as necessary to maintain their position of power and their control over the Palestinian people.
We believe this war could have been avoided. We don’t believe all Palestinians want to kill us. And we are happy to explain where we are coming from.
We believe that a biased media attempts to draw symmetry that does not exist. Just look at the numbers. Look at the pictures. Throwing blame at international criticism isn’t making Israel look any better. Taking action to stop human rights violation would. We obviously do not condone any form of anti-Semitism in this discourse, but we also feel that dismissing the entire discourse as anti-Semitism is not helpful to anyone.
Most of all, we believe that blood is blood, all equal and all worth the same. And we are well aware of what happens when the lives of one people are deemed to be worth less than those of others.
Israel needs your support to break out of the cycle of violence:
We encourage you to tell your community leaders to critically examine the Israeli government policies they rally behind. We urge you to support the moderate voices in Israel, forces that find themselves increasingly under attack by their own government and the Israeli media, and even physically assaulted by right winged vigilantes. We ask you to write to your congressional representatives to share your conviction that Israel can only be safe and prosperous if it stops the killing of civilians, ends the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and guarantees freedom and equality to all of its citizens. We invite you to start a fruitful dialogue with us.
Thank you,
IFSF | Israelis For a Sustainable Future
israelisforasustainablefuture@gmail.com
The writing of this letter comes at a time in which dissenting voices in Israel are being suppressed, sometimes violently. It comes at a time in which 94 percent of Israelis view Israel’s actions in Gaza, where over 2,000 people have died, as either appropriate or not forceful enough. In short, it takes great courage to speak out as an Israeli at this moment.
It also takes great courage to openly recognize the essential responsibility American Jews have in speaking out against those policies – the war in Gaza, the decades-old occupation – that are doing so much damage to Israeli society and to Palestinians in tragic human terms. It takes courage to nod and say, Yes, American Jews have every right to be invested in, and to critique, Israel. So much so that we, as Israelis, implore them to invoke that right. For our sakes. And for Palestinians’ sakes.
This is a letter to be shared, a letter to celebrate, and a letter which hopefully will move Americans, and American Jews, to act.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, published recently by Oneworld Publications.
Follow him on Twitter @David_EHG.
Having walked away and violated numerous cease fires, this is a conflict imposed on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself sndbprotect its citizens from rocket attacks. When will you start to understand that Hamas had stood on the way of peace since the beginning of the Oslo process?
Some rational voices coming out from the irrational behavior of the Israeli and American Jews against the massacres of over than two thousand Palestinians and a mass distruction . We need more humane logic like this, from both Israelis and Palestinas , American Jews and the world. Those crimes have been tried many times before and they are not working, they only breed disaster, injustice and hate. Lets try the other way around and stand up for building trust , prosperity and future. Lets stop the violence aggression and occupation , things will be better when good people stand up and speak up. People will respond better when they are treated more humanely and made to feel as if they are from a lessor God. We can’t demonize a while nation because we don’t want any one objecting to our abuses against them and killing them. The world is witness to all we do, and reacts. We are all responsible for what we support and what we stand for, so lets stand for equal justice and fair solutions not shooting and killing and stealing and punishing! Peace is a good thing for all.
I appreciate this article and hereby reproduce one which I just wrote in my Argentum Post wherein I also express my conviction that not only the uncritical relationship of the US to Israel is damaging to both, but as well the uncritical relationship of those of the Jewish faith to Zionism is so.
As the writer of the Argentum Post, and as the person I am, it has become obvious that my background and my passions, particularly as regards to Zionism and its role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, have had the effect to move me to literally “come out of the closet” in terms of my activism in support of progressive causes.
I have also, in this process, unavoidably made a few people feel uncomfortable and even less than a few people feel offended by the expression of my views and, prior to August of 2013, how I have expressed said views.
Well, I have tried to refine my “marksmanship” whereby I express my views by creating my own forum for it, namely the Argentum Post, but at times I must admit, I still have used the IT medium to network and express views outside of said forum.
To those who have been put off or worse, those very few who were offended, I can only say that I am sorry since that is not my intention of course, but I cannot apologize. I can ask those few however to be frank about it and to please notify me if you wish that I delete you from all of my diverse mailing lists. This will in no way offend me.
With this preamble I wish to proceed to the announcement, but prior to that, I wish to reiterate that through whatever medium I proceed in the expression of my activism, it is fundamentally based on my background, my lives’s experiences, and by irreversible commitment to secular/humanist values, and the “humanist” qualifier controls the “secular” dimension of this characterization. This means the obvious, namely that I do not in any way am out to offend those who I consider religionist/humanist, nor do I want to offend anyone who is purely and simply human.
My focus is in doing my humble part in support of authentically representative democracy, transparency in the governance and in the corporate sectors, in support of social and economical justice, and in support of human rights and peaceful conflict resolution.
I also endeavor myself to do my humble part in support of the two pillars of our democracy which have been eroded and remain in disrepair, and those are, our educational system which is woefully inadequate when it comes to the teaching of humanist based ethics and well as to the teachings of US and world history which is tainted by special interests or simply culturally ingrained bias, and our mainstream media , which is so toxically corporatized and otherwise under the influence of lobbies of undue influence, that it is no longer trustworthy and functional when it comes to tending to the need and right of “We the People” to be objectively informed via all media and without the distraction and dilution of “infotainment”. This is no criticism of the journalists who notwithstanding their literal censure, have the heroic and principled and professional ethic motivation to do their job and do it at a very high risk, nationally and internationally.
Finally, but not least, I feel compelled to do my humble part in support of electoral reform, which by extension should lead to reforms in our dysfunctional Congress, as well as in the Executive branch of our government, and therefore in the many agencies of our government agencies, particularly in the Department of State, in the health care agencies, and in the intelligence agencies, and in the Defense Department.
I feel that once we follow President Eisenhower’s advice in his farewell speech when he said “beware of foreign entanglements” and “beware of the industrial military complex” then we will have made a quantum leap forward. I equally feel that once we amend our Constitution to allow us to be all we can be electorally on the federal level by creating the instant run-off system (IRV) whereby we can have a third party which will allow us to vote for a third party candidate such as Ralph Nader was, but which will simultaneously allow us to designate one of the other two party’s as the vote recipients if said third party candidate does not reach a majority vote, such as Gore Vidal was, so that our vote for a Nader would not have been wasted to benefit a recipient such as Bush was, then we are home free. Of course in such a state of advanced democracy there will be no room anymore for that historical relic called the Electoral College.
Now to the announcement re: “Tomorrow’s NYTimes Ad – 08/23/14).
Said NYTimes ad will be historical.
For the first time, 40 living survivors of the Nazi massacres and 287 direct descendants of Nazi atrocity survivors will be protesting the Israel massacres in Gaza. This will also be a direct response to the egregious statements Elie Wiesel made in one page ad recently, wherein he disparages against those of us who do not support Israel’s criminal behavior.
It so happens that I also contributed to this ad and it is my understanding that my name will be among those 287 which could be reached and qualified to be in that list, however there are undoubtedly millions world wide who support this cause, and that includes the Orthodox Jews International (aka Neturei Karta) who have been to every protest against the barbaric killings and the international law violating occupation and blockade of Gaza by Israel, which lies at the root cause of all of the violence in this conflict which must and will be ended by the world community via the UN, the International Criminal Court, and hopefully by a fundamental reappraisal of the US unacceptable policy towards Israel which has isolated us and has increased vulnerabilities to our national physical and financial security.
With the fine work done by such Jewish organizations as Peace Now, Jewish Voices for Peace, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and via the Boycott, Divest, Sanction pressures, incrementally progress in the direction of a lasting and sustainable peace is being made daily.
Most sincerely.
Alfred Gluecksmann
PS What follows is a redacted for discretion version of a notification which we who supported the NYTimes ad have received about the NYTimes ad.
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Hello,
Thank you again for your signature and support of the attached letter. Due to our collective efforts, we were able to collect 40 survivor signatures and 287 descendant and other family signatures and as well as raise the funds needed for the ad.
The letter will run in the New York Times this Saturday, August 23rd as a half page ad in the Main News section.
Other family are not in the ad. Apologies but there really wasn’t room and technically those who are broader family do not fit the category of descendants. ALL signatures, histories and places of resident are on the website which is listed in the ad. http://ijsn.net/gaza/survivors-and-descendants-letter/
Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children.
Once the ad runs, we will send an electronic copy of it out. We are also sending a press release out about the ad in hopes that other news sources will pick it up.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has asked to run the ad in the Belfast Telegraph next week. We’ll also send that out once we receive it.
The letter, your signature and your story is having a wide impact at a very critical time for Jewish people to be clear in our stand for justice for all.
Thank you,
Attachments area
Given that they do not live in Israel and are not subjected to Hamas rockets, it is the epitome of chutzpah for these individuals to use their Israeli nationality as a basis for making this pitch.
Joe
You’ve told us that you think the signatories are chutzpahdick but you haven’t told us why you think their analysis is wrong. So I can only conclude that you think them right but chutzpahdick. If so, may more of us have their chutzpah!
No Victor, you have that wrong. These people are entitled to their opinion, but their perspective “as Israelis” is misleading, as they are not subjected to the constant Hamas rocketfire? Why is it that progressive peace advocates like Amos Oz understand that Hamas terror cannot be ignored? Rather than the drivel they write above, they should encourage American Jews to be lovingly critical of certain Israeli policies, and to support the forces in Israel that seek a just two-state solution to the conflict.