NEWSBYCHARLES LENCHNER

Ack! I meant to write, Palestinian Mufti Sheikh Tamimi interrupted an interfaith dialogue meeting with the Pope and other dignitaries to denounce the occupation and Israeli policy. The New York Times reports that he urged Muslims and Christians to unite against Israel.

(Let's play fill in the blank: Muslims, Christians, ___________. What word fits? Israel, or Jews?)

Guest post by Ben Murane

Naomi Chazan, a leading Israeli peacenik and former Meretz MK, made an American tour recently to bolster support among American Jews for progressive causes in Israel. (She's presently President of the New Israel Fund.)

Fiery, witty and on the offensive, Chazan leapt immediately into the speculation about Bibi, Obama and a two state solution and made strict recommendations to Americans: regionalize the solution to the conflict.

Stupidity, she said, is repeating a failure while expecting different results. The Olso process failed and to simply hope that Israel and Palestine can be sweet talked back to the table may have worked eight years ago. But now with Iran influencing Hamas and Hezbollah, the conflict at home is tangled in wider problems. Obama, she says, has done the intelligent thing in dealing with Iran, Syria and the Palestinians together with Israel.

The hypocrisy of Israel's nuclear program existing unacknowledged alongside the battle against Iranian nuclear proliferation stings in the Arab world. Iran's funding of Hamas -- more hardline than the average Palestinian -- by outsiders scuttles diplomacy. Syria's complicity with Hezbollah (also aided by fundamentalists further afield than Lebanon) is the same. The interwoven influences demand addressing all of it or none of it.

It is also no longer reasonable to expect that Israel and Palestine will reach an amiable final status agreement. Not with Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman at the Israeli helm. Not with a neutered Abbas and recalcitrant Hamas divided on the Palestinian side. It may be time, Chazan suggested, for a serious non-military intervention by the international community. Meaning, America and the Quartet should force a settlement agreeable to both populaces upon their politicians. The is even a silver lining for politicians answering to outraged hardliners: "Hey, it's not my fault," they can claim, "the Americans made me do it!"

Furthermore, she said that such an imposed agreement (she didn't like that word and preferred -- "non-military diplomatic intervention") would necessarily be two states for two peoples. "I don't care what is said by otherwise very smart people in the pages of the New York Review of Books," she said with a smirk. "I am a real person, my country is real. The alternative to a two state solution is not a one state solution, it's more of what we have now, wars on the backs of civilians."

That said, she demanded an answer of American Jews: "You voted Obama by 78%...It's as if there's a total disconnect between the liberal values of American Jews and their attitude to Israel...Israel's existence is totally dependent on Israel's soul. An end to the discomfort." An end to the occupation of another people.

We need more progressive voices like Naomi Chazan. But we need there here, home grown in the U.S. of A. Be one.

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Solidarity activists claiming that the US should stop giving weapons to Israel are easy to find. Careful, cautious, realistic policy analysis on the topic is not so common.

Enjoy.

Israel and the United States are among the countries boycotting the UN conference against racism, known as Durban II. Palestinian Israeli parliamentarians were present:

Balad chairman MK Jamal Zahalka, who will attend Durban II, addressed the crowd at the NGO Civil Society Forum March in Geneva on Sunday, presenting himself as a Palestinian victim of "Israeli racist apartheid" and concluding his speech by proclaiming: "No peace without justice."

The first modern Hebrew city was founded 100 years ago on some sand dunes north of Jaffa. Today Tel-Aviv plays host to the largest gay pride march in the Middle East and calls itself 'a city without interruption,' the Hebrew version of 'the city that never sleeps.'

For Israeli Palestinians living in Jaffa, the narrative is just a little bit different. Not to mention the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere still calling themselves 'Jaffans' because that is where they actually come from.

Here is a great clip that pulls together different narratives and juxtaposes them side by side. (Thanks Jewschool!) It's a visual technique that does a real service to helping us experience the 'issues' of the region as 'stories' of real people. Check it out:

Daniel Gavron, a veteran leftist in Israel, has made a brave proposal. Calmly analyzing the current (miserable) political situation in Israel, he arrives at a simple conclusion: the Jewish left should unite with the Arab parties in the Knesset.

...the Jewish left must not be afraid to join up with the Arab citizens of Israel. There are currently 11 members of the Arab parties in the Knesset, but there could be as many as 17 if the Arabs bothered to vote in general elections at the same rate that they vote in local elections. The Jewish left should invite the Arabs into an equal partnership, forming an inclusive social democratic party that could be an alternative to the Netanyahu regime. If the approach is made in the right way, the response would surely be positive.

The Pope:

“Reconciliation, difficult, but indispensable, is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful co-existence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli- Palestinian conflict,” Pope Benedict said today in front of the loggia of the 16th century St. Peter’s Basilica in his Easter message.

I hope the good folks at the Trans Arab Research Institute will forgive me for reserving a spot and then failing to show up at the conference held on March 28-29 in Boston. It looked to be a wonderfully educational event with a diverse group of speakers discussing the future of the 'one state solution'.

Nadia Hijab, one of the most respect advocates for Palestinian rights in this country, attended and spoke there. She writes:

One important fact (simple but of utmost importance) was reiterated by several Palestinians - from the occupied territories, from within Israel, and in exile. They said loud and clear that working for the one-state solution means working with Israeli Jews. As acting TARI chair Hani Faris put it, "The idea of one state cannot fly without a Palestinian wing and a Jewish wing."

Courtesy of MondoWeiss.

This is a Republican talking about the methods and impacts of the pro-Israeli occupation lobby working Capitol Hill. It's sad. I'm grateful to him for speaking out.

At first I was worried that it might have some tinge of Israel-hatred or antisemitism. But then I saw MJ Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum linking to it. That's a kosher seal of approval in my book.

My liberation is not complete until all are free. in that spirit, I'm reproducing a note from Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights.

PASSOVER THOUGHTS
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman

We all know that Pesakh is a time where Jews traditionally clean their homes of khametz (leavened grain products) and that many speak of cleaning our souls of khametz as well. Many traditional sources draw a link between the swelling that takes place as part of the leavening process, and the exaggerated pride and self importance which becomes arrogance. This may seem like a personal, introspective thought more appropriate for the High Holy Days than for Pesakh`s emphasis on the collective. However, it can certainly be applied on a national, collective basis as well. In fact, nationalism itself all too often takes on an extremely chauvinistic tone. Each of you, wherever these Pesakh thoughts reach you, can apply this to the various collectives of which you are a part. Where does healthy pride and self-respect end, and where does arrogance begin? In the words of the seminal sociologist of racism, Gordon Allport, when do in-groups create out-groups? I will offer a few thoughts in the Israeli context.