| דְּרָכֶיהָ דַרְכֵי-נֹעַם וְכָל-נְתִיבוֹתֶיהָ שָׁלוֹם Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs, 3, 17.
Who we are!
Orthodox Jews For Peace is an Organization representing Jews from all streams of the Orthodox community who believe in the discussion and promotion of a peaceful solution to the current conflict in the Middle East.
We believe the notion that the Jewish and Palestinian peoples are inherently incapable of coexistence is a mistake.
This mistake has unfortunately been accepted by a large part of the public, as well as by increasing numbers on both sides of the conflict, and has led to an enormous of amount of innocent bloodshed..
This mistaken idea has been promoted at times inadvertently and sometimes purposefully by politically motivated individuals on both sides.
Our experiences coupled with our understanding of the religious texts involved tell us that the ideological strivings of both our peoples pose no contradiction to peaceful coexistence.
We thus reject the viewpoint that living together peacefully necessitates compromising our religious aspirations, we rather subscribe to the view that through understanding our differences we can coexist peacefully while strongly adhering to our respective religious traditions.
A Third Way settlers and palestinians as neighbors Please Donate Here to help complete this Documentary
Notes and Opinions
Just Wondering By Anonymous Oct, 9 10. Of all the questions that have been raised concerning the new born mania in Israel to have non - Jews swear loyalty to the state as an incarnation of some vaguely articulated religious/folk identity, perhaps, the most painful one of all has been left unsaid. If stated, it would so thoroughly discredit the entire enterprise of post emancipation Jewish political thinking and activism as to leave all our advocacy in the social realm forever tainted by a Darwinian tribal morality. In sum, it could (should?) end all our claims to objective discussion of political matters in Europe, America and, well, just about everywhere.
Simply stated, if Jews are allowed to declare Israel a Jewish state then why can't England or France or Germany similarly declare their states to be identity based? What would have been wrong with England declaring itself a Protestant state, which indeed it did for a long time? But, weren't we always in the forefront of those who told the non - Jew that this was a most wicked thing to do? And, hasn't our triumph in history allowed us, in Europe in particular, to not only tell the Gentile how evil group identity polities are, but in many lands have we not also advocated and achieved the criminalization of such sentiments?
What is one to make of this stunning contradiction? Obviously, our first line of defense is to scream anti -Semitism at any who raise it. Alas, that seems to be a strategy that is succeeding less and less of late.
So, what then is the difference? Why is the unity of religion or folk with the state evil for the Gentile but good for us?
Might it be that when we live among Gentiles the advocacy and maintenance of an identity-less state is (or, at least we think it is) good for our own interests but, in reality, we know that if a people wishes to survive as nation, it must so define and understand itself. And, in reality, we care nary a whit about Gentile peoples' survival.
Now, I don't mean to suggest in the sense that simplistic, literal minded folks put it that there is some centrally controlled Jewish Elders group plotting this all out. "Let's sell the dumb goyim on pluralism and diversity, forbid them to see their nations as having or stating any group identity, while in Israel we'll do the reverse, ha - ha!"
No. It is far worse than that. The inability to view mankind through the lens of truly reciprocal morality seems part of our makeup, deeply embedded by a process beyond the scope of this essay.
So be it. But who wants such a playmate? You know the kind that plays with a different set of rules than those he demands of all the other children?
Really there are but three options on the table. Either we grant the Gentile the same moral legitimacy to have identity based politics and stop demonizing the nationalist right in Europe and America. Or, we state clearly that Israel is a secular state with no identity base. Of course, there is the third option of tribal morality, tell the Gentile some story about pluralism and hope that he never gets that we don't practice what we preach.
For the meantime it's the third strategy that has been selected. Read more Notes and Opinions
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November, 21,11. Reclaiming Parshat Hayei Sarah.
November, 2011. A Palestinian Sufi Sheikh and an American-Israeli Jew share inspiring stories of hope about grassroots peace efforts Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, Director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Nazareth, a center promoting tolerance and interfaith dialogue, together with Rabbi Eliyahu McLean, director of Jerusalem Peacemakers, a network of religious leaders and grassroots peacebuilders, will share their experiences encouraging understanding and reconciliation in the Holy Land Peacemakers Swim Against the Tide
May, 30, 11.
Frank Mulder
UTRECHT, The Netherlands, May 29 (IPS) - Although politicians seem to have put the peace process on ice, there are many different groups in Israel and the Palestinian territories that still believe in reconciliation. They call on the world not to believe in stereotypes. "The minute you choose sides, you become part of the conflict." "We're a minority, but revolutions always start with just a small group," says Shlomit Benjamin, a sociologist at Tel Aviv University. She is Jewish, but because her father is Syrian, she is a 'mizrahi', an Arab Jew. "That's why I can't see the Arabs as the enemy. They are part of my family culture."
Benjamin is one of the signatories to the manifesto "Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011", recently written by young Arab Jews to express their solidarity with the young demonstrators on the streets in the Arab world. They recognise their problems, the Arab Jews wrote: "We, too, live in a regime that tramples the economic and social rights of most of its citizens (...) and constructs racist barriers against Arab-Jews, the Arab people, and Arabic culture."
The conflict between Jews and Arabs is often aggravated by stereotypes, but the young Mizrahis don't want to choose sides. They are not the only ones.
"Most people I know really want peace, but most of them don't trust the other side," says Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, working on the West Bank for Rabbis for Human Rights, speaking to IPS on phone. "Palestinians are afraid, obviously, because their land is occupied. But the Jewish fear is grounded, too. Many had their families completely wiped out in the Second World War. Their fear Hamas, when they hear them talk about the destruction of Israel. Both sides have to change and to build trust."
About 120 rabbis from different political backgrounds are connected to the organisation, which just received the prestigious American Gandhi Peace Award this month. "We want to bring the values of Torah into reality, focusing on the micro-level. For example, we accompany Palestians with the olive harvest, or we act as spokespersons for them in court cases against settlers. At the moment, I'm waiting for a group of Americans, to lead them around in East Jerusalem."
"Either we survive together, or we perish together," says Hanna Siniora, the Palestinian co-executive director of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), a think-tank that studies practical solutions for the conflict. "Take environment, for example. We neglect our water resources because of the conflict. Sometimes aquifers are contaminated. If we don't work together, we will face a disaster.
"Of course, my people, the Palestinians, are oppressed by the occupation, and they need their own state. But after that our futures are still intertwined. We live together on a small strip of land. That's why we're paving the way for warmer relations between the two peoples."
That can be very hard, acknowledges Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-executive director of the Abraham Fund, which promotes cohesion and solidarity between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority inside the state of Israel.
"We work together with both communities, and sometimes, it is difficult to gain the trust of everyone at the same time. Especially since we don't confront the government, as other advocacy groups often do. We try to work with both the communities and the government, for example when we teach Arab language and culture at the Ministry of Education, or when we assist the police to improve their service to Arab citizens. You can imagine that this is very sensitive."
Internationally, the work is very sensitive as well, says Salim Munayer, director of Musalaha Reconciliation Ministries. "Organisations all over the world accept one side but reject the other. We are often asked to prove our loyalty to either the Palestinians or the Jews by denouncing the other side. But we can't do this if we are working towards reconciliation. We have to be advocates of the other side. We need to be pro both people. The minute you choose sides, you become part of the conflict."
Musalaha consists of Christian Palestinians and messianic Jews. "We share a common faith in Jesus, who taught us to love the enemy. But we work with people from all backgrounds. One of our activities is the Desert Encounter, for Palestinian and Israeli youth and youth leaders. During a camel trek or a hiking tour they learn to know each other."
What sense does it make to learn to know each other, when other people suffer, and the conflict is deepening? That's what Musa Subeh, accountant in the municipality of Bethlehem, sometimes thinks about.
"I had the opportunity to meet Israelis who are working for peace. It was not a complete waste of time and it changed our orientations a bit, but in the end it didn't help in implementing peace. Both elected governments have become more extreme, you can see the trend. The majority are far away from peace in action and thoughts."
"The only thing I could say to people like Musa is, we need you", says Rabbi Grenimann. "My people have a real fear. We need Palestinians to meet them and to take away this fear. When people don't want to meet each other because they think the other is dangerous, this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But our government is using this fear. That's why we should help people trusting each other and seeing that the other is created in God's image. Trust is self-fulfilling, too." (END/2011)
Click below for full text of the letter, "Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011"
Bereaved Israeli father backs Obama's peace push
May, 22, 2011 By Associated Press. JERUSALEM (AP) -- The speech that President Barack Obama delivered last week may have sparked a crisis with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the president's mention of Israel's pre-1967 lines as a starting point for new borders. But the bereaved Israeli father Obama singled out took no offense. Toward the end of his wide-ranging Mideast address Thursday, Obama spoke of the difficulties of making progress in peace talks and how suspicion and hostility have been passed on for generations. "But I'm convinced that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would rather look to the future than be trapped in the past," Obama said. "We see that spirit in the Israeli father whose son was killed by Hamas, who helped start an organization that brought together Israelis and Palestinians who had lost loved ones." The father is Yitzhak Frankenthal, who founded The Parents Circle-Families Forum in 1994 after his son, Arik, was kidnapped and murdered. Today the organization has more than 500 members - half Israeli, half Palestinian and all of whom have lost immediate family members in violence. "President Obama is not naive," Frankenthal told The Associated Press Sunday. "I believe that he understands that we cannot continue to say peace from one side, to continue the occupation from the other side, not to be ready to make compromises from the other side and to continue to build settlements ... it cannot go on, it cannot continue. And this man, I hope, will say enough is enough." Arik Frankenthal was a 19-year-old soldier when he was killed, and his father said the tragedy made him realize that he lost his son because of the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. "As a father, I got a feeling that I failed. I brought a child to this world and instead of continuing to live and be with us, unfortunately he was murdered, and he was murdered because there is no peace," he said. "It's not a question of being naive of not naive. Neither President Obama nor I. We are not naive at all - there is no other way." Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. www.theparentscircle.com
Video of Rav Froman and his struggle for Peace in the Holy land. [Hebrew]
May, 11, 2011.
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