Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Encountering Peace: J Street is my street

Encountering Peace: J Street is my street
By GERSHON BASKIN
03/26/2012 22:05
 
I am writing from J Street in Washington, DC. Two thousand five hundred 
American Jews, including more than 650 university students, have come 
together for J Street’s annual conference, under the title “Making History.”
 
This amazing outpouring of support for a Jewish, democratic and peaceful 
Israel is a remarkable boost for the soul of a lonely Israeli, Jewish, 
Zionist, peace activist. Invited to inspire this part of the American 
Jewish community, instead I am inspired by them.
 
Amos Oz was the featured speaker at the conference’s opening. He was 
brilliant, eloquent, forceful and so clear in his vision of a just, 
democratic and Jewish Israel where social justice also means peace with 
our neighbors and a determination to not allow anyone to miss what very 
well may be the last opportunity for a fair two-state solution.
 
An elated Oz received a standing ovation, in response to which he 
commented to the people sitting with him, “it is hard to imagine this 
kind of response in Israel today.”
 
He is so right, and Oz, one of the most inspiring Israelis I know, was 
inspired himself by what he heard and saw at J Street.
 
There are some members of Knesset, such as Danny Danon from the Likud, 
Otniel Schneller from Kadima and others, who have the chutzpah to accuse 
J Street of being anti-Israel. Shame on them. J Street is more 
pro-Israel in its real and honest concern for Israel’s future than the 
likes of Danon, who wage war on Israel’s democracy, advocate the 
suicidal policies of unilateral annexation of vast parts of the West 
Bank and call on the government to bypass the Supreme Court.
 
J Street and its thousands of supporters across the United States say 
proudly: We come together as proud supporters of the two-state solution. 
We believe to our very core in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish 
homeland and a democracy that guarantees equality to all its citizens.
 
We fight for an Israel whose people live in security with recognized 
borders, an Israel living in peace and prosperity alongside a 
Palestinian homeland, where citizens can thrive and build their own country.
 
We believe in an Israel that is guided by its principles, its ethics, 
and its values, as enshrined in its founding documents. We believe that 
“tikkun olam” is part of building a Jewish homeland, not separate from it.
 
This should be the platform of every political party in Israel. This 
should be the credo of our prime minister.
 
What is anti-Israel in this platform? If you truly care about Israel, 
how can you not support this doctrine of belief in Israel and the role 
of the Jewish people around the world in helping to secure Israel’s 
future? It is really heartening to feel the passion of support for 
Israel, for peace and justice expressed by J Street participants through 
their deep sense of commitment to Jewish communal life, Jewish 
organizational participation and activism for a just and democratic Israel.
 
There is no despair here, hope is still alive. J Street members 
personify the belief in Israel and an allegiance to the classical 
Zionist dream of building an exemplary state that we can all be proud of.
 
J Street activists, not surprisingly, are also on the front lines of the 
struggle for social justice in the United States. They have taken to the 
streets in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that has spread across 
America because the same values and moral fabric which shape their views 
on Israeli political issues puts them in the forefront of progressive 
politics in the United States.
 
The Jews who marched with Martin Luther King for equality in the 1960s 
and were on the front lines of the demonstrations against the war in 
Vietnam and then cried in joy with Israel in 1967 have been reincarnated 
into the movement of thousands of American Jewish voices of J Street. I 
was a child living in the United States when I first linked arms in 
demonstrations and sang with Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez that “We 
Shall Overcome.” Those experiences of fighting for justice then shaped 
my identity and my memories.
 
When, at the age of 14, I joined Young Judaea, and at 16 decided to make 
aliya, and when I completed my undergraduate education, these 
experiences were part of my Jewish soul and Zionist identity.
 
It was then, in 1975, when I first came to the awareness that being 
Jewish, Zionist and Israeli meant that we had to share our land with the 
other people living on it. The only way to be pro-Israeli is to be 
pro-peace.
 
If you are not, you cannot claim that you really care about Israel’s 
future. Being pro-Israeli means that one must also be pro-Palestinian. 
Israel’s survival and Israel’s very soul is invested in its ability to 
live in peace in our part of the world. This is not a hippyish “Kumbaya” 
– let’s hold hands and make believe that everyone loves us. In the words 
of Amos Oz, we need to make peace, not love. He is so right.
 
I thank J Street for existing, for bringing together this proud and loud 
critical voice of American Jews.
 
Every American Jew and every single Israeli citizen should be a 
supporter of J Street! If you are not, then what are your values that 
prevent you from supporting tikkun olam, peace and democracy for Israel 
as the homeland of the Jewish people?
 
Gershon Baskin is the co-chairman of IPCRI, the Israel Palestine Center 
for Research and Information, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, a 
radio host on All for Peace Radio and the initiator and negotiator of 
the secret back channel for the release of Gilad Schalit.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=263528&R=R1
 
 
-- 
Sostieni Rete ECO
 
http://rete-eco.it/it/sostienici.html
 
 

 supporter of J Street!
 
pero' Ilan Pappe no. E Persio appoggia Ilan Pappe
Ho l'impressione che Persio sia un pirla


Ma Persio non si incazza sempre tantissimo quando qualcuno sostiene che
ogni qualcosa dovrebbe fare qualcosa?
 
Eh sì.
Persio è proprio un grossissimo pirla.
 
 
-- 
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of  freedom, must, like men,
undergo the  fatigues of supporting it.”  - North Idaho 21st Batallion of
Light Foot