The Shalom Center - Israeli-Palestinian Collision

Gaza & Beyond: What's the Alternative?

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:38:34 -0500

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow (January 1, 2009)

Beyond anguish, what can we say about Gaza that points toward an alternative? Not just in pretty theory, but in political practicality?

We can start with calling for a cease-fire, but at the same know that even this -- so hard to achieve -- would be but a palliative, not an alternative to the deeper structure of disaster. For that alternative, see deeper into this essay.

The UN Security Council (if no US veto were interposed) could call for an immediate end to all violence into and from Gaza. In the US this call has come from some Jewishly-oriented groups, slowly building strength, such as J Street (the new pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish lobby), Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, and Meretz USA, as well as The Shalom Center.

VOTING OUR VALUES: Nonpartisan Guide to Election Issues

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:28:22 -0500

VOTING OUR VALUES
Judaism & American Life
“To be is to stand for.”
—Abraham Joshua Heschel
RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION:
A JEWISH CALL FOR JUSTICE

Judaism & American Life
Elections offer us the opportunity to reflect upon, and
to recommit ourselves to, our core values. This Jewish
non-partisan election guide is intended as catalyst for
thought and action during the 2008 election season.

The guide includes seven topics that the Righteous
Indignation staff has identified as key election issues
based on our research and in consultation with religious
and political leaders across the country. In addition, the

Israeli Palestinians & Jews: Acre Rioting Sparks New Debate On Shaky Coexistence

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:27:28 -0400

New York Jewish Week 10/12/2008
by Joshua Mitnick,  Israel Correspondent

Acre, Israel — Five days after a wave of Arab-Jewish rioting first broke out on the eve of Yom Kippur, the garrisons of law enforcement officers turned this northern Israeli city into one under occupation to restore a measure of order.

While hundreds of blue-uniformed municipal police carrying batons and paramilitary border police toting M-16s patrolled the streets, busloads of reinforcements were stationed at road junctions outside of the neighborhood.
But the huge police presence in this mixed Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab coastal town of 50,000 didn’t ease the smoldering tensions many likened to the nationwide clashes that broke out at the beginning of the Palestinian intifada in October 2000.

Palestinian Health System in Gaza on Brink of Collapse, March 2, 2008

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:13:47 -0500

Physicians for Human Rights -Israel: Urgent Update: received March 2, 2008

Palestinian Health System in Gaza on Brink of Collapse

Israeli military forces commenced widespread operations against Gaza on 27.2.08, following the death of an Israeli civilian in a college campus in the south of Israel, and damage caused by a Qassam rocket to a hospital campus in the town of Ashqelon. As a result of these operations 101 Palestinians (according to Palestinian counts), the majority of whom were civilians, have been killed. Two Israeli soldiers have also been killed. This number of casualties is the highest since the start of the AlAqsa Intifada in 2000.

Obama on Israel, Palestine, Iran, etc.: Meeting with Official Jewish Leadership

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:09:18 -0500

Obama reaches out to Jewish leaders

By Ami Eden of the Jewish Telegraphic Association (JTA)
We've received a rough transcript that came from the Obama campaign of a
closed meeting that the candidate held Sunday in Cleveland with about 100
Jewish communal leaders. Whoever recorded the remarks was only able to get
Obama's answers, not the actual questions from the audience.

For the most part, Obama sought to reassure the audience — on Israel, Iran,
his church, his pastor, his foreign policy advisers, his religion. At the
same time, he picked a few spots to push back against some of his critics in

Living with the Holocaust: The Journey of a Child of Holocaust Survivors

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:59:33 -0500

Sara Roy is Senior Research Scholar at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The following is the Second Annual Holocaust Remembrance Lecture given April 8, 2002 at Baylor University. It was first published in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Volume 32, Number 1, Autumn 2002.

Some months ago I was invited to reflect on my journey as a child of Holocaust survivors. This journey continues and shall continue until the day I die. Though I cannot possibly say everything, it seems especially poignant that I should be addressing this topic at a time when the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is descending so tragically into a moral abyss and when, for me at least, the very essence of Judaism, of what it means to be a Jew, seems to be descending with it.

1967 + 40 -- Years of Deepening Spiritual Disorders: Can We Heal Them?

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:09:10 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, it is clear there have been ethical disasters on all sides.

[Taking them into account, I want to ask: What spiritual disorders led to this series of ethical disasters? What might help to heal them?

[The war itself, the 40-year occupation, and the frequent choice of terror attacks on civilians to "resist" the occupation were all both the results and the causes of disastrous ethical and practical choices by the Arab states, the Israeli government, and the Palestinian leadership.

New Book: "The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope & Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims"

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:20:27 -0500

Dear Friends,

In 2004, as religious animosities worsened around the globe, I joined with Sister Joan Chittister, a world-renowned Benedictine nun, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz), a Muslim Sufi who has written a remarkable series of books on Aramaic, Gnostic, and Sufi spirituality --

-- to write a book called THE TENT OF ABRAHAM: STORIES OF HOPE AND PEACE FOR JEWS, CHRISTIANS, & MUSLIMS.

We sent the manuscript to Karen Armstrong. She was so excited by the book that she wrote a Preface for it.

It was (June 2006) published by Beacon Press and won an enthusiastic "Starred Review" from the Library Journal. That review and others are below.

ISRAELI STRATEGY AFTER THE RUSSO-GEORGIAN WAR

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:54:03 -0400

By George Friedman
Friedman is the founder of Stratfor, an organization for analysis of world strategic relationships.
September 8, 2008

The Russo-Georgian war continues to resonate, and it is time to expand our
view of it. The primary players in Georgia, apart from the Georgians,
were the Russians and Americans. On the margins were the Europeans,
providing advice and admonitions but carrying little weight. Another
player, carrying out a murkier role, was Israel. Israeli advisers were
present in Georgia alongside American advisers, and Israeli businessmen
were doing business there. The Israelis had a degree of influence but

Interfaith push for M. E. peace

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:38:16 -0400

By LARRY SNIDER
Sunday, September 07, 2008
SPECIAL TO THE TRENTON TIMES

On March 24, twenty people from the Philadelphia area flew together from Newark to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. These twenty, actually nineteen were local Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy and lay leaders who I brought together to form the Delaware Valley Interfaith Delegation To Israel/Palestine. The twentieth member of our group, my Rabbi, Sandy Roth of Kehilat HaNahar, (kehilathanahar.org), in New Hope, Pa., already was in Israel and would be meeting us at the airport along with Leah Green, director of the Compassionate Listening Project, (compassionatelistening.org), and Maha El-Taji, her associate.

To McCain & Obama: PUT ISR-PAL PEACE HIGH ON YR AGENDA

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:13:49 -0400

[Brit Tzedek v'Shalom has put forward a rabbinic letter that urges Senators Obama and McCain to set the peaceful and mutually agreed resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict high on the agenda of whichever of them is elected president -- along with willingness to wield vigorous US efforts to make sure both leaderships get moving. About 250 rabbis have signed. They seek many additional signatures. The full text can be seen here. To see FAQ's about the proposal and to sign it, please go to --

http://ga3.org/campaign/letter_mccainobama/ ]

We the undersigned, call on you, the Republican and Democratic

The "Free Gaza" Movement

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:31:25 -0400

[This report was circulated by Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel -- ED NOTE]

By ]Jeff Halper

September 1, 2008

Now, a few days after my release from jail in the wake of my trip to Gaza, I'm posting a few notes to sum things up.

First, the mission of the Free Gaza Movement to break the Israeli siege proved a success beyond all expectations. Our reaching Gaza and leaving has created a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world.

It has done so because it has forced the Israeli government to make a clear policy declaration: that it is not occupying Gaza and therefore will not prevent the free movement of Palestinians in and out (at least by sea). (Israel's security concerns can easily be accommodated by instituting a technical system of checks similar to those of other ports.)

Six Degrees of Separation: 'Pro-Israel Realists' Versus 'Worried Jews"

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:25:44 -0400

by Aaron Ahuvia

[This article is reprinted from ISRAEL HORIZONS magazine, the quarterly periodical of Meretz USA. See the entire summer 2008 magazine. The article was also distributed by Brit Tzedek v'Shalom. See below the essay for more information on the author and on Brit Tzedek.]

How can advocates for a two-state solution win the debate within the American Jewish community? To a large extent, we already have. In February 2008, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella agency representing 14 national Jewish groups and 125 local Jewish community relations councils, voted that "the organized American Jewish community should affirm its support for two independent, democratic and economically viable states -- the Jewish state of Israel and a state of Palestine -- living side-by-side in peace and security."

In Memory: Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian National Poet

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:59:19 -0400

Mahmoud Darwish, known as the great national poet of Palestine, died on August 10, 2008. Great outpourings of people came to bury him in Ramallah, Palestine, and in the Israeli region of Galilee, where many Israelis of Palestinian culture live. This memorial essay was written by Uri Avnery, one of the most persistent of Israeli peace activists, one of the wisest and most revered, a former Member of Knesset, editor and publisher for many years of the newsweekly Ha'Olam Hazeh, now leader of Gush Shalom.

The Anger, the Longing, the Hope

[See the end of this essay for a few poems by Darwish and then a comment by Rabbi Arthur Waskow.]

Whom do we mourn? -- Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Americans?

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:57:29 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

The day before Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of independence, they will pause for "Yom HaZikaron” (Day of Remembrance) to mourn those Israelis killed in various wars with the various Arab states and the Palestinian people over the last two generations.

In 2008, especially as we observe this 60th anniversary, we may need to rethink whom we should mourn –- especially since recently, there has been a concerted effort to persuade American Jews to publicly mourn the deaths of Israeli civilians killed in attacks by Palestinians. That effort intensified with the deaths of eight students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in March, 2008.