councilor.org
| Source | Rabbi Michael Lerner |
| Date | 03/06/22/11:22 |
| Rabbi Michael Lerner
PROPOSED LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ON THE ROAD MAP AND VIOLENCE Dear (place your congressional representative, senator or editor of local newspaper or manager of TV station here, and edit as you see fit--make this YOUR letter): I support the good intentions behind President Bush's Road Map for peace and deplore the current violence in the Middle East that followed the signing of the agreement at Aqaba. I am particularly glad that the U.S. is no longer saying that it is taking a hands-off approach, since that has only left the murderous status quo in place. I'm writing to you because I want the Road Map to succeed. And I believe that you could help if you'd be willing to convey to the Administration my suggestions on how to overcome the roadblocks to peace that have emerged in the last few weeks. I'm hoping that you'd introduce a Congressional resolution or write and circulate a letter to your colleagues that would contain these two ideas I outline below. There are two steps that President Bush could take which would significantly improve the chances for success of the Road Map. Step One: The Road Map Empowers the Extremists. As President Bush noted, there are forces on both sides of the struggle who do not want peace. For example, Hamas and the fundamentalists in the Palestinian camp realize that peace will necessarily lead to the acceptance of an Israeli state--an outcome they believe violates their religious commitments to an Islamic state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Unfortunately, because the Road Map calls for the cessation of terror as a prerequisite to any peace negotiations, fundamentalists on both sides know that in order to pre-empt peace, all they need to do is perpetrate violence on the other side. Because of this, the Road Map, as it is currently formulated, guarantees the immediate escalation of terror and actually rewards violence. Their aim, to stop the peace process, the Road Map tells them, can only be achieved in one way: they must plant bombs! That is why there has been a serious escalation of violence since the signing of the agreement. Not to put the blame all on the Palestinian side, because a significant group of Israeli settlers believe that the West Bank has been given to the Jewish people by God and that allowing its return to Palestinian control would be a violation of God's will. So they engage in provocative acts, like the charade of dismantling settlements a few days ago, only to rebuild settlements nearby a few days later (a move that is obvious to Palestinians on the ground, and makes them feel that the whole process is a trick, but which is rarely reported in the U.S. media). The Solution: The U.S. government must make strong and unequivocal statements asserting that "regardless of how many acts of violence are perpetrated by those who oppose peace, the United States intends to establish a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel within three years, and will not permit terrorists or provocative acts by either side to interfere with that process." This must stand in stark contrast to Ariel Sharon, who continually says that the process cannot proceed until terror has ceasedhe very position that guarantees that it will not cease. Rather than lecture the Palestinians about their need to take "stern measures," disempower the extremists by taking away from them this promise that gives them all the ability they need to stop the peace process. Step Two: The Road Map does not adequately empower the moderates in the Palestinian world. These moderates need to be able to tell their own population that if they distance themselves from the extremists they will succeed in obtaining a viable Palestinian state. But they've heard Ariel Sharon clearly state that at the end of the Road Map--after the three years of jumping through various hoops in which they prove to the Israelis that they can operate as an effective police force to suppress armed struggle against Israel--the result will be "a negotiation" at which time Israel will offer them a state in 42% of the West Bank. Because that is Sharon's intention, he was able to say to his own extremists that they could stay in the settlements and that their great grandchildren would remain in those settlements, while simultaneously misleading our President by assuring him that Israel would offer a Palestinian state. Ariel Sharon's intentions, coupled with the ability to enforce them through military Occupation, makes the "state" that this Road Map leads to very unappealing to most Palestinians. So how can Palestinian moderates use the prospect of these negotiations three years from now to motivate people to marginalize the extremists? The solution: The President must use the power the U.S. gained with Israel (by virtue of having eliminated the Saddam Hussein threat) to publicly and unequivocally state that the United States supports and will insist upon a Palestinian state throughout the West Bank and Gaza, and a return of Israel to the pre-67 borders with "minor border modifications" so that Israel can incorporate the Jewish sections of Jerusalem and a few border settlements--and that these minor modifications will be negotiated right now, at the beginning of the process. And the U.S. should then state other terms as well: (a) the creation of an international fund to provide compensation to Palestinian refugees who choose to live within the Palestinian state, but also compensation for Jews who fled Arab lands from 1948-67; and (b) funds to resettle Israeli settlers within the pre-67 borders of Israel (however, the U.S. should make it clear that those settlers who wish to remain in the West Bank should be allowed to do so, but only as law-abiding citizens of the new Palestinian state and without any claim to protection or interference in their well-being from the State of Israel, just as Arabs living within Israel must live as law-abiding citizens of Israel and without any claim to protection or interference in their well-being from the State of Palestine). The U.S. should also insist that this agreement will include peace agreements, full recognition, and normal relations with all surrounding Arab states. These agreements must include the sharing of the ecological resources of the entire region in an equitable way to benefit all its inhabitants; the creation of a joint Israeli/Palestinian anti-terrorism force that will be supplemented by U.S. intelligence forces and dedicated to fighting terrorism which will continue even after the creation of a new Palestinian state (because there will continue to be elements in both Israel and Palestine who try to undermine the agreement even after it has been implemented); and specific steps to root out from the media and the school systems elements that teach hatred of the Other, along with the creation of institutions aimed at creating mutual respect and understanding of each other's history and culture, and at fostering a new attitude of reconciliation and generosity toward the Other. To ensure the safety of Israel from attack from other states which might at some future time be hostile, it must be given, as part of this agreement, an ironclad mutual defense pact with the U.S. For similar reasons, the same should be given to the new Palestinian state. These steps will not satisfy Hamas, which seeks the total destruction of Israel. But Hamas has grown in strength and support largely because many Palestinians have lost faith in the possibility of achieving a life of dignity for themselves, and have turned to visions of fulfillment offered them by fundamentalist alternatives. While there will always be a core of haters who will try to undermine any peace settlement (and that will include Jewish fundamentalists who believe that God gave the Jews the West Bank as their eternal possession), their support will dwindle dramatically if the U.S. can show the Palestinian people that there is something real to achieve by renouncing violence. These steps are detailed in the Resolution for Middle East Peace being circulated by the Tikkun Community, a progressive pro-Israel, pro-Palestine organization which you may have read about in the June 3rd edition of The Washington Post ("New Group Offers Alternative to AIPAC" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5329-2003Jun2.html). What the President could do now is very simple: he could insist that the negotiations originally scheduled for the end of the three years be done first, right now, so that a complete agreement could be reached now, under the guiding eye and pressure of the U.S., and then, armed with that agreement, both sides would have real motivation to take the enabling steps defined in the rest of the Road Map. Failing that, the U.S. could publicly state the terms suggested above as the major terms that it would seek out of any agreement. There is one other element in the Tikkun Community resolution that is gaining more and more credibility as the current violence escalates: its call for the introduction of an international force to provide a buffer between the two sides by separating them and preventing violence. In the July 2003 issue of TIKKUN a similar idea is put forward: the possibility of making Palestine a short-term international protectorate, so that Israeli troops would be withdrawn and replaced by an international force to oversee the steps of the Road Map, while preventing acts of violence on both sides. Such a force would be stationed on the 1967 borders, and would thus not attempt to do what Ariel Sharon is doing in building a wall through the middle of the West Bank: namely, consolidate the Occupation. I would be delighted to discuss these issues with you in greater detail. It would be a terrible shame if the Administration backed away from its commitment to stay involved and create a peaceful solution. But to help them, they need these specific ideas that could help make the Road Map work. Will you please bring it to the Administration and to others in your community? Sincerely, YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS and phone number |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho