Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Europe

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:54 pm

Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:05 pm

Sheryl;1131855 wrote: Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

The continual genocide of Palistinians has much to do with it.

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:07 pm

It seems a stretch to me, but how does one blame a group of people for a supposes ed genocide and the global financial disaster.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:09 pm

Sheryl;1131855 wrote: Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

If they are then they are not being voiced - I have not heard a single person get even close and if "nearly half" of the population was truely willing to state those opinions publicly in a survey then you can be damn'd sure they'd be saying them privately.

Sorry, do not believe it.

Post by **spot** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:28 pm

Sheryl;1131867 wrote: It seems a stretch to me, but how does one blame a group of people for a supposes ed genocide and the global financial disaster.

You know what's funny? The box to the right says US Jewish leader Abraham Foxman says Israel's military offensive in Gaza answered with hatred, attacks against Jews 'from Austria to Zimbabwe.' Civilized world must stand up and say 'No' to condemn 'this vicious, hideous violence,' he adds and I can't tell whether by 'this vicious, hideous violence' he means the attack on Gaza or the negative public opinion it's led to.

Chookie · Post by **Chookie** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:34 pm

Bryn Mawr;1131869 wrote: Sorry, do not believe it.

Nor do I.

Additionally, your source is a Zionist organisation (note: Zionist not Jewish)

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report

What I find slightly risible about the article is that Arabs are also a Semitic people, thus being anti-semitic requires one to hate both Jews and Arabs...........

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:50 am

I don't think for a second thats an accurate reflection of how people feel about Jews in Europe. Its a propaganda piece by an American pro-Israel organization.

There is far, far more hostillity to muslims and Islam than to Jews and Judaism, in Europe.

The hostility in Europe is toward the state of Israel and its actions in Palestine, not to Judaism as a religion, which I don't think there is much hostility against, probably the opposite actually.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:13 am

I don’t agree with that at all, I have worked and travelled much of Europe and have never heard anything that would lead me to believe that.

I think that people are just sick of the issues in the Middle East, and were disgusted with the viciousness of the war in Gaza.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:20 am

mikeinie;1132092 wrote: I don’t agree with that at all, I have worked and travelled much of Europe and have never heard anything that would lead me to believe that.

I think that people are just sick of the issues in the Middle East, and were disgusted with the viciousness of the war in Gaza.

Agreed, hey by the way, we have a few Irish issues to discuss, you know IL&P and Anglo, Patrick Neary, Cowen, etc etc etc. I must get a thread going for us. What a country.

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:27 am

Sheryl;1131855 wrote: Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

I Have A Question So Don't Get In To That Anti - Semitic Crap With Me Ok . What Type Of Hold Does These So-called Jews Have On Some People , When Someone Says Somethem About Them , They Become Anti -This Or Anti That ? Please Don't Say That They're Are God's Chossen People Etc . What Is It ?????

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:33 am

Galbally;1132093 wrote: Agreed, hey by the way, we have a few Irish issues to discuss, you know IL&P and Anglo, Patrick Neary, Cowen, etc etc etc. I must get a thread going for us. What a country.

Ya, start one up..... I've got a great joke for you, I will put it in there.

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:44 am

Daniyal;1132098 wrote: I Have A Question So Don't Get In To That Anti - Semitic Crap With Me Ok . What Type Of Hold Does These So-called Jews Have On Some People , When Someone Says Somethem About Them , They Become Anti -This Or Anti That ? Please Don't Say That They're Are God's Chossen People Etc . What Is It ?????

When you are able to type in legible manner, I'll hold discussion with you.

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:47 am

I just found the article was interesting especially since I saw it a few days after reading this.

Amber Sun · Post by **Amber Sun** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:48 am

Sheryl;1131855 wrote: Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

A lot depends on who did the poll Sheryl and the way it was written up. Sometimes it is written up in such a way as to get the answers wanted. As an example if I didn't like Jews and wanted to stir up some trouble I might begin by blaming them for the financial crisis as many people are feeling the pinch these days. With this in mind I might phrase my question this way.

Q. Who would you say is more responsible for the current economic state? Please choose one answer.

1. The Ukrainians

2. The Hungarians

3. The shoe stores

4. The Jews

5. The school boards

The person on the other end of the line stops and thinks a minute then says "I don't think any of them are".

The person asking the poll replies " well we have to finish this survey and these are the only answers available would you please pick one.

Since the person on the other end of the line hasn't heard anything about the Ukraine or Hungary lately but has 'heard something' about the Palestinians and the beating the Jews are giving them because the Jews are greedy and want more land, the obvious answer then is the Jews. So this is the answer that is given.

The next few times that someone calls you to do a survey Sheryl, go ahead and spend the few minutes and listen carefully to the way the questions are slanted. There is the odd one that wants the truth. For example an auto insurance company may want to know if red cars attract your attention faster than white ones.

One other thing to keep in mind though is that few people will stand their ground about having sentiments that are looked at as negative. Looking someone in the face and saying a prejudice remark about someone is many times harder to do than saying the same remark over a telephone or the internet. The person asking the poll questions doesn't know who you are and you will never meet so you feel free to say what you really think.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:58 am

mikeinie;1132104 wrote: Ya, start one up..... I've got a great joke for you, I will put it in there.

Excellent, I will get on it. I will put it in the Ireland section (we do have a section I think). :wah:

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:01 am

Also in terms of the whole Jewish thing, I will state that I quite like the Jews, I don't know why people were ever down on them; the women are good looking, they have produced a lot of good scientists and thinkers, and they have a great sense of comedy, what's not to like? :-6

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:18 am

Sheryl;1132110 wrote: When you are able to type in legible manner, I'll hold discussion with you.

Sureeeeeeee :wah:

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:41 pm

Daniyal;1132098 wrote: I Have A Question So Don't Get In To That Anti - Semitic Crap With Me Ok . What Type Of Hold Does These So-called Jews Have On Some People , When Someone Says Somethem About Them , They Become Anti -This Or Anti That ? Please Don't Say That They're Are God's Chossen People Etc . What Is It ?????

Sheryl, i don't know why you have said that you can't discuss with Daniyal what he has said in this post.

He is absolutely correct in what he says although the way he says it may not be to your liking.

No other nation is so quick to play the anti card than the Jews. Even on this forum, should the British condemn Bush's foriegn policy in any way, we are accused of being anti-American. However, i know of no other nation that pulls the anti card so readilly. The Jews are worse than 'Ronaldo' taking his 6th dive in a cup final. It matters not who or where the critisism comes from, the jews will play anti-Semitic. If that doesn't work, they will pull 'The Holocaust' card. The Jews see the Holocaust as a personal genocide by the Nazi Party and one that world still has to repay them for. It matters not that the Nazi's also put to death millions of Europeans, including Russians, gypsy and any other un-disirable they could round up to ethniclly cleanse.

The ill feeling toward Israel and the Jews is the continual genocide of Palistinians and the terrorist violence toward them to drive them out of Gaza. When they cease to do that and give the Palistine people what is rightfully theirs, i.e. the land that Israel illegal stole from them along with their farms and business's plus stop burning innocent children to death by the use of illegal white phosperous during bombing raids over Gaza in built up area's, as well as their own independent state with the government of their choice..Hamas, maybe then, we might stop the ill feeling toward them.

Even your newly elected Messiah hasn't got the balls to de-nounce israel as Britain has. So much for outing the Bush legacy?

Chookie · Post by **Chookie** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:01 pm

oscar;1132376 wrote: No other nation is so quick to play the anti card than the Jews.

That's true Oscar, but you are generalising. The State of Israel is not "the Jews", in fact, I'm not sure that it's even Jewish. It's Zionist in origin and outlook.

To me Zionists are, like all religious extremists, bigoted, self-selected (not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jewish) and are possessed of a very skewed world-view.

oscar;1132376 wrote: Even your newly elected Messiah hasn't got the balls to de-nounce israel as Britain has.

When did that happen? Why didn't it make the news?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:15 pm

Chookie;1132398 wrote: That's true Oscar, but you are generalising. The State of Israel is not "the Jews", in fact, I'm not sure that it's even Jewish. It's Zionist in origin and outlook.

To me Zionists are, like all religious extremists, bigoted, self-selected (not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jewish) and are possessed of a very skewed world-view.

When did that happen? Why didn't it make the news?

I will try to find the recent link i saw in a newspaper, but for now:

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Obama vows support for Israel

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:23 pm

oscar;1132376 wrote: Sheryl, i don't know why you have said that you can't discuss with Daniyal what he has said in this post.

He is absolutely correct in what he says although the way he says it may not be to your liking.

No other nation is so quick to play the anti card than the Jews. Even on this forum, should the British condemn Bush's foriegn policy in any way, we are accused of being anti-American. However, i know of no other nation that pulls the anti card so readilly. The Jews are worse than 'Ronaldo' taking his 6th dive in a cup final. It matters not who or where the critisism comes from, the jews will play anti-Semitic. If that doesn't work, they will pull 'The Holocaust' card. The Jews see the Holocaust as a personal genocide by the Nazi Party and one that world still has to repay them for. It matters not that the Nazi's also put to death millions of Europeans, including Russians, gypsy and any other un-disirable they could round up to ethniclly cleanse.

The ill feeling toward Israel and the Jews is the continual genocide of Palistinians and the terrorist violence toward them to drive them out of Gaza. When they cease to do that and give the Palistine people what is rightfully theirs, i.e. the land that Israel illegal stole from them along with their farms and business's plus stop burning innocent children to death by the use of illegal white phosperous during bombing raids over Gaza in built up area's, as well as their own independent state with the government of their choice..Hamas, maybe then, we might stop the ill feeling toward them.

Even your newly elected Messiah hasn't got the balls to de-nounce israel as Britain has. So much for outing the Bush legacy?

I Must Say Truth Is Truth ~ Truth Always Find Away .

Tawuh Antut

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:45 pm

Daniyal;1132494 wrote: I Must Say Truth Is Truth ~ Truth Always Find Away .

Tawuh Antut

antut atha jed noma

;)

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:06 pm

Sheryl;1131855 wrote: Published: 02.10.09, 18:42 / Israel News

Anti-Semitic attitudes still prevail in Europe: An Anti-Defamation League report published on Tuesday showed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.

The study further showed that 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.

The poll was conducted between the dates December 1 and January 13 among 3,500 adults in seven European countries: Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

When i re-read this, i saw it more as anti-European. Does the author believe that all Germans still want to send Jews to the gas chambers? Or the british didn't die during ww11 fighting to free Jews from the concentration camps? It's an insult and nothing more than proganda.

Amber Sun · Post by **Amber Sun** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:36 pm

oscar;1132539 wrote: When i re-read this, i saw it more as anti-European. Does the author believe that all Germans still want to send Jews to the gas chambers? Or the british didn't die during ww11 fighting to free Jews from the concentration camps? It's an insult and nothing more than proganda.

I believe you are right oscar. This is no doubt in response to the ill feeling that the Jews caused in people because of the Palestinian affair. They caused people to dislike them because of what they are doing and the only way they can see to get around it is by trying to make everyone feel guilty by having anti-semitic feelings or yelling prejudice. They just simply won't admit to doing anything wrong.

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:48 pm

Former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Avraham Burg: “The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes

As Israeli leaders continue talks on assembling a coalition, we’re joined now by a former Israeli politician who’s emerged as one of his government’s biggest critics. Avraham Burg is a former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament and former Chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. His new book is called The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes

Avraham Burg, Former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament and former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. His new book is The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We’re moving to Israel, where political leaders there continue negotiations over forming a new coalition government. The general election ended in a near draw, with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s Kadima Party in first place with twenty-eight seats and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a close second with twenty-seven seats. But Netanyahu will have an easier chance at assembling a coalition government, following a strong showing by minor parties that are even more right-wing.

The differences between the two leading candidates are slight. Both support attacking and blockading Gaza and the continued takeover of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said any Israeli government must end the occupation.

PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD: These expectations can be summarized in one sentence: steps have to be taken—tangible steps have to be taken to end the occupation that began 1967, namely, again, ending the occupation that began in 1967 and establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. That’s been the goal since the start of this peace process. It has not materialized. And what has materialized are adverse facts on the ground inconsistent with the viability of the solution, with the need to attain that goal. These are our expectations of the next Israeli government, whichever—however it might be formed, and I hope that will be also the expectation of the international community of the next government in Israel.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Some Israeli dissidents have suggested that a Netanyahu government might be preferable in the long term. Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy says, “Netanyahu’s election is likely to bring the curtain down on the great fraud¦the lie of ‘negotiations’ and the injustice of the ‘peace process.’ Israel consistently claimed these acts proved the nation was focused on peace and the end of the occupation. All the while, it did everything it could to further entrench the occupation and distance any chance of a potential agreement.

AMY GOODMAN: As Israeli leaders continue talks on assembling a coalition, we’re joined now by a former Israeli politician who has emerged as one of his government’s biggest critics. Avraham Burg is a former speaker of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. He’s former chair of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. His new book, though, is called The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!

AVRAHAM BURG: Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re headed back to Israel today, but we’d like to talk about another journey: how you went from where you were, as head of the Israeli parliament in the Labor Party, to where you are today. Talk about your trajectory.

AVRAHAM BURG: Next question, please.

It’s not easy, but at the time, I felt that political walls are closing on me. I had a feeling that Israel became a very, very efficient kingdom, but no prophecy. Deeds are being done. Decisions are being executed. But the ocean liner got no captain, no vision, no direction. Where is it going?

So I started digging into it and looking into it. And the way I know—the way I think for myself is by writing. So I wrote the first book, which was God Is Back. It’s about the religious dimension of world conflicts and the Israeli conflictual reality. And then when I finished the book, I read it, and I realized that I didn’t write about the other items which supports our identity, and this is the only presence of the trauma in our life, which is the Holocaust, which prevents us to trust anybody—to trust ourselves, to trust our neighbors, to trust the world—and therefore creates this kind of a reality. And the minute I realized that this is my inner truth, just published it.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And you talk in the book about how the Holocaust continues to hold so much power and influence over the thinking of Israelis. Could you talk about that some more?

AVRAHAM BURG: Holocaust was such a trauma that it takes, for individuals, years, if not more than years, to overcome. And not everybody who was abused as an individual at a young age can overcome and come out of this inner limbo. And for a while, I was not at all sure that Israel, Israel and the Jewish people, can go out of it. I mean, it happens. And then, the long—

AMY GOODMAN: Your parents were [inaudible]—

AVRAHAM BURG: My father escaped from Berlin in September ’39, which is the very, very last moment. And my mother, who’s a seventh—was a seventh generation Israeli, was born in Hebron and is a survivor of the—by an Arab family, by the way—of the massacre there. So we were born into a kind of a traumatic reality, but we were a trauma-free family.

And the more I think about it, the more I thought about it, I understand that it is not about “yesterday we remembered, and tomorrow we are different people. Oh, no. It’s a process. And the process, the importance of it is that the generation of my children will be the first generation without any living witness. That will be the generation in which the personal experience becomes a memory. What will be the shape of the memory? A cloning of the trauma or a beginning of the road from trauma to trust? I offer the beginning of the beginning in my book.

AMY GOODMAN: But I’d like you to go back further. I mean, you were the speaker of the Israeli Knesset. You were the head of the World Zionist Organization. Explain that, how you rose to power within the Labor Party and as head of the World Zionist Organization—what it is.

AVRAHAM BURG: I was for many years a kind of a strange bird, OK? I was born to a father who was the leader of the National Religious Party. And he was, for many, many years, a member of each and every cabinet of Israel, from ’48 to ’88—that’s the year I was elected to the Knesset and he retired. And actually, I knew something about Israeli politics, but my position was different than my father’s. It was always more humanistic and less introverted. It was always more universalistic and less nationalistic, etc., etc. I was the founder—one of the founders of the protest movement against the war on Lebanon in ’82, and then I walked into public arena and became whatever I became, a young promising promise.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened to you in that protest movement?

AVRAHAM BURG: First, I protested. And then, during this protest, among other things that happened to me, I was wounded in a hand grenade thrown on our rally in Jerusalem, which killed Emil Grunzweig at the time.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what happened.

AVRAHAM BURG: There was a demonstration against the war on Lebanon and for calling for the impeachment of the foreign minister, Ariel Sharon. And there was a hand grenade thrown from the political right side of the map into our rally, killed one of my colleagues, Emil Grunzweig, at the time. I was wounded then.

And then, slowly, I walked into the political arena, became an active member of the Labor Party and rose up the political ladder. And at the time, I had a feeling that I’m doing the right thing. I’m fighting for peace. Oslo arrived, and I was part of the Israeli euphoria. I was part of those who made it possible, but supported it, and then Oslo evaporated. Then I was one of the signatories and initiators of the Geneva Accord, and again, it was a civil society effort to push the stone up the hill, and again it fell down on our heads.

And then I said, “Why isn’t it working? So many efforts, and it’s not working, doesn’t bear fruits. And the reason for me is the—a primary reason, before the ’67 reason, and this is the grip of the Holocaust over our life. And if we will not get a little bit more relaxed about it and understanding, as difficult and as painful as it is, it cannot be the only sole prism through which we see the world.

And then I came to the inner realization that never again for me, it’s not never again for Jews only and therefore we should have the thickest walls around us and the deepest shelter on top of us, but never again is never again for whomever needs my protection. Never again—whomever is the victim today needs the help of the yesterday’s victim to prevent his or her own victimization, be it a battered woman, be it Darfuri, be it somebody in the inner city of Detroit, be it whoever it is. Victims are all over the place. And the Holocaust is not mine only to say, “I have a monopoly over suffering, and that’s it. Oh, no.

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:50 pm

Former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Avraham Burg: “The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes

JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask you, you were still a leader of the Labor Party in 2000, the last major peace negotiations. The myth that has come down from those days is that the Palestinians walked away from the best possible deal that they could get with Ehud Barak. Could you talk about that time and that period and the assessment that is still so widespread, especially here in the United States?

AVRAHAM BURG: It will be very, very difficult to undo the past. And yes, I understand that this is how people remember this period. I’m not at all sure it is right. When you read the memoirs of Bill Clinton and the memoirs of all the people who were involved in the process, you know that it, Camp David, the second Camp David, was an ill-prepared summit, and the sides were not ready for it. And it was Yasser Arafat who said, “I cannot. I cannot. It’s not yet ready. And to say Israel offered everything and then a couple of weeks or a couple of months later went to Taba and offered even more, so how can you offer everything and then offer some more?

And I’m not into this. I’m not into the game of “You were first, and I was second. You started it. You are to blame. I’m not into the blame game. I say the past is finding out who is first, I am not into the blame game. I say the past is painful. Let’s draw a sand in the line [sic.]. Let’s move forward. Let’s create a better tomorrow. And then one day we shall revisit the past. I don’t want to argue about the past so much, because I become hostage of the yesterday’s genies, rather than becoming a liberated person or liberated nation or liberated region. And that’s what I’m looking for.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that the Israeli government should speak with Hamas?

AVRAHAM BURG: No doubt. I have no doubt about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you spoken with them?

AVRAHAM BURG: I’m speaking with everybody who’s available, both in the region—both in the region and around the world. I cannot go to Gaza, because it’s impossible now, but I see them in the West Bank, I see them in Israel, I see them in London.

And I have one thing—I have two things in mind. The first is, I don’t remember even one funeral who came out of a dialogue. I remember many funerals coming out of no dialogue, and shootings. The second is, look at Middle East history. Every time we rejected somebody, we were missing him or her a couple of eras later. Today’s extremist is tomorrow’s moderate. And I ask myself, when will—

AMY GOODMAN: Explain that.

AVRAHAM BURG: When will be the time in which we’ll look back and say, “Ah! We missed the opportunity to talk to Hamas?

Here is ’67. We conquered and we occupied the West Bank. The first thing we did, we kicked out of the Occupation Territories all the king’s—King Hussein—Jordanian supporters. Then the PLO walked in, and we said, “Where are the supporters of the king when we need them? But they were not there, because we were the ones expelled them. Then we said, “We shall never talk to the PLO, never talk to them. So we didn’t talk to them and didn’t talk to them and didn’t talk to them. Now Hamas is there; we say, “Where is the moderate PLO we missed so many years ago?

Now, a day will come, I don’t know when, al-Qaeda will be there in Gaza. It will be the global Islam front, and some of the Palestinians will be disconnected from their national political reality and become part of something else. Then I’ll say, “Where is Hamas? And I say, as difficult as it is, it is there. What will happen? You build a higher wall? You go for more unilateral, arrogant, but still escapism policy? It’s not right. You’re here, Amy. I want to talk to you.

JUAN GONZALEZ: The question of the role of the Jewish community in the United States—there are those who say that it’s even less nuanced in its approach and more emphatic in its opposition to the Palestinians than in Israel. Could you talk about the dynamic there?

AVRAHAM BURG: American Jewry is an unbelievable Jewry. In the last 150-some years, the Jewish people actually created two political entities: the sovereign state of Israel and the semi-autonomous American Jewry. It is less of sovereignty, but very influential. Never did we have such an influential diaspora in our entire history. And I love it, because I, as an Israeli, express the national dimension of myself, and world Jewry, especially American Jewry, expressing the universalist interface between us and the rest of the world, inside-out and outside-in.

But when I see so many of my colleagues and friends making and trying to portray and to lead American Jewry into a single-issue Jewry—Israel and that’s it, no domestic coalitions, no minorities, no responsibility for other social and universalistic affairs—I’m concerned about it, very much so. And when I look at some of the AIPAC’s, OK, activities, I have a feeling that sometimes we’re having three political entities: the United States of America, the sovereign state of Israel, and the independent state of AIPAC, which has its own policy, whatever it is, not working for the best interests of Israel, according to the way I understand it and Yitzhak Rabin understood it, and not according to the best interests of the United States of America. This is a kind of a filter which filters only darkness through it, rather than light through it. And I would like to see the alternative American Jewry, which is expressed through the liberalism and humanism and civil rights and a total commitment toward peace, as the one which expresses me.

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:51 pm

Former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Avraham Burg: “The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes

AMY GOODMAN: As you speak right now, Avraham Burg, just down the road outside the World Zionist Organization here in New York and the Jewish Agency, the organizations you used to head, there is a twenty-four-hour protest that is being led by Jews against these organizations.

AVRAHAM BURG: This is the answer; what is the question? OK? What do you think about it, right?

First, I love people to express themselves. I mean, politically or democratically, when people go out of their homes and they’re not passive and not just watch the TV, zap to the next station, and that’s it, but if they do something, I’m happy about it. But it takes more than a protest movement. It should go into a much deeper conversation between us and us.

And I’ll give you an example, OK? We look at the outcome of the last elections in Israel. Everybody is horrored by Avigdor Lieberman, who bases his—the foundation of his movement on two very infamous American Jews who made it all possible, Rabbi Kahane and Baruch Goldstein . So there is something wrong with some quarters and some neighborhoods of the Jewish philosophies and Jewish thinking that we have to address internally and not just politically.

AMY GOODMAN: He beat Ehud Barak, right?

AVRAHAM BURG: Yeah, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Came in third.

AVRAHAM BURG: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And will make the coalition. What does he represent? What about the asking Israeli Arabs to sign loyalty oaths?

AVRAHAM BURG: Lieberman—Lieberman expresses for me—actually, he’s iconizing for me two kind of phenomena. The first is what happens all around the world, which is very xenophobic. I heard it in the elections here just a couple of months ago. I hear it in Europe with Haider and Blocher and Jean-Marie Le Pen and other. And this is one thing which troubles me a lot, because it is about racism, it’s about xenophobia, it’s about hatred – this time, Jewish hatred and Jewish xenophobia. And I have to fight it. I have to face it personally and collectively.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the US government and what’s happening now? The US House and Senate passed resolutions in support of the Israeli attack on Gaza.

AVRAHAM BURG: A mistake.

AMY GOODMAN: What is your thought on that?

AVRAHAM BURG: A mistake.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

AVRAHAM BURG: Because this is still the energy of the ocean liner of George W. Bush, that “Never mind what Israel is doing. Never mind what my beloved child is doing. I’ll never say no.” Now, it is wrong for the world, it is wrong for American interests, and it’s wrong for Israel, that Israel will do 200 meters from our window what America permits itself—wrongly so, but permits itself to do in Tora Bora, because by the end of the process, America will withdraw from these places, but I have to live with the impacts of all of these unrestrained and unconstricted aggressions. And therefore, what I’m expecting from the White House, what I’m expecting from the new president, what I’m expecting from the new Senate and the Congress is to reintroduce dialogism rather than violence, to reintroduce conversation rather than continue with the cowboy policy.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In the past few weeks on Democracy Now!, we’ve had both former President Carter and also one of his top aides at the Carter Center talking about the potential for a road for peace between Israel and Palestinians. I’m sure you’re probably familiar with President Carter’s proposal. What do you think of it as a realistic possibility?

AVRAHAM BURG: Politics and realistic possibilities are kind of oxymorons, OK, even here and especially over there. But it must be peace. Will it be peace out of hope, or will it be peace out of despair—it’s just a departure point. But eventually, it will be there.

Now, since the archenemy of the region is the Shiite revolution regime in Iran—revolutionary regime in Iran, and all the others are ready to have a different kind of conversation, so all of the sudden the Saudi king—Prince Fahd formula, which is the Arab League policy, saying let’s talk about a comprehensive coalition between Israel and Egypt and Jordan and Syria and Lebanon and the PLO and the Occupied Territories, and all of us together, more rationalistic, more Western, rather than the Shiite devil—that’s the way they see it—that’s an opportunity. There is an opening there.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the proposal of President Carter, specifically to trade land connecting Gaza and the West Bank for some of the land on which current settlements are on?

AVRAHAM BURG: These are details. These are details, because by the end of the day, everybody knows what will be the bottom line. The bottom line will be ’67 lines, and whatever cannot be resolved according to the exact geographic line will be land swap.

AMY GOODMAN: Should Israel pull out entirely from the West Bank and Gaza?

AVRAHAM BURG: Tomorrow morning. No, actually, yesterday, yesterday evening. No doubt about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Pull out all the settlements.

AVRAHAM BURG: Yeah, it pollutes our morality, and it contaminates our policy. And we became hostages of the messianic and eschatological policy of the settlers, which actually leads Israel into a de facto one-state solution, which discriminates one people over the other people. At the same time, the Palestinian society was kidnapped and held hostage by the hands of the eschatological fundamental—Hamas fundamentalists. And both societies must get rid of their prisoners, get rid of these kidnappers and get over this Stockholm syndrome that I’m in love with my kidnapper. And only then we will be able to talk to each other.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, do you support the divestment movement here? You just heard—

AVRAHAM BURG: The what? I’m sorry.

AMY GOODMAN: The divestment movement. You just heard in our headlines that Hampshire College in Massachusetts has become the first college to divest from companies that are doing business with the Israeli military.

AVRAHAM BURG: It stands against my values system to boycott. OK? If I said earlier in this program and earlier in my life, I’m totally committed to conversation, even with my worst enemy. So boycott is not a tool for me. Boycott is an expression of violence.

AMY GOODMAN: Avraham Burg, I want to thank you very much for being with us. He is the former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, former chair of the Jewish Agency, former head of the World Zionist Organization. His new book is called The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes.

Democracy Now.org

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:48 pm

The Israeli government has formalized its stance to condition any easing of the blockade of the entire Gaza Strip on the release a single captured Israeli soldier. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel would only consider lifting the humanitarian siege of Gaza if Hamas secures Corporal Gilad Shalit’s release.

Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit: “The security cabinet decided unanimously that Gilad Shalit will be the first demand of Israel before any arrangement with the Egyptian or with Hamas. We would like to see Gilad back home. Three years have been past, and we think that we cannot come to any arrangement with the Hamas or with the Egyptian without solving the problem of Gilad Shalit. We want him back home.

Shalit was seized in June 2006 from an Israeli military post used to stage attacks on Gaza. Israel has previously negotiated several prisoner exchanges. Some 10,000 Palestinians are currently jailed in Israeli prisons. Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called the Israeli position a non-starter and said Hamas remains open to a prisoner swap.

Fawzi Barhoum: “We will not accept linking the file of Shalit with the file of the ceasefire. If the Zionist occupier wanted a ceasefire with a breaking of the siege, the opening of the crossings and stopping of the aggression, then we are ready for that. If they wanted something other than that, then we are open to all possibilities. We don’t oppose releasing Gilad Shalit, but only with the necessity of the responsiveness of the Zionist occupation to comply with our conditions and demands to release our prisoners and the prisoners of the Palestinian people, in accordance with the list and the general theme that the Zionist occupier already knows.

Democracy Now.org

Daniyal · Post by **Daniyal** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:50 pm

In other news from the region, Israel has paid around $2 million in damages to the family of a British cameraman who was shot by an Israeli soldier in Gaza in 2003. The family of James Miller accepted the payment, saying it was as close to an admission of guilt from Israel as they were ever likely to get. Miller was in Gaza working on a documentary about Palestinian children caught up in the conflict. The documentary, Death in Gaza, later aired on HBO and won three Emmys

Israeli Peace Offer Would Maintain 230,000 West Bank Settlers

The Israeli government has admitted its most recent peace offer to Palestinian negotiators would still leave more than 200,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The offer was made in talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In meetings with US envoy George Mitchell, both Olmert and Abbas confirmed the Israeli offer would remove just 60,000 settlers of the 290,000 in the West Bank. The remaining 230,000 settlers would stay in the large settlement blocs that nearly cut the West Bank in half. Not a single Palestinian refugee would be granted the right to return to their former home in Israel. Palestinians were offered an equal amount of Israeli land in return and shared sovereignty over parts of East Jerusalem. But the settlements are widely considered illegal under international law and a non-starter for many Palestinians. Palestinian negotiators reportedly refused a demand to sign off on the deal that would then be handled by the winner of the upcoming Israeli elections.

Israeli FM Promises “Maximum Settlers on Palestinian Land

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading polls and has rejected any territorial concession to the Palestinians. And even though the offer would still ensure Israeli control over key settlement blocs, Netanyahu’s opponent, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has distanced herself from the proposal as being too generous. Livni said, “I will advance only an agreement that represents our interests. Maintaining maximum settlers and places that we hold dear such as Jerusalem—not a single refugee will enter. Meanwhile, Mitchell continued his Mideast tour with meetings in the occupied West Bank. On Thursday, Mitchell sat down with Abbas in Ramallah.

Report: Israel Hid Settlement Data

Mitchell’s visit comes amidst reports the Israeli government has deliberately hidden its own data showing rapid construction in West Bank settlements. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports an internal government survey found construction in three out of four settlements was conducted without proper permits and, in many cases, on private Palestinian land. The Israeli group Peace Now said this week settlement expansion grew 57 percent last year. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas told Mitchell that Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its expanding West Bank settlements are the main obstacles to peace.

Saeb Erekat: “For the Israelis to continue their settlement activities and at the same time to continue trying to separate between the West Bank and Gaza, because we believe that the Israeli attacks and aggression against Gaza—one of the objective is to keep the West Bank separated from Gaza, and this cannot stand. The West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem are a single territorial unit that’s the territory of the Palestinian state, and we will spare no effort, as President Abbas told Mr. Mitchell, to pursue, with the assistance of our Egyptian brothers, the path of national reconciliation."

Mitchell won’t be traveling to Gaza, as the Obama White House continues the Bush administration’s boycott of the democratically elected Hamas government. In Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh urged Obama to break with Bush policy.

Ismail Haniyeh: “To build relations, as President Obama said, with the Arab and Islamic world stemming from mutual respect and mutual interests, we say the gate to this relationship with our Arab and Islamic world is from Palestine, from the Palestinian cause and from the need of a change in the US policy when it comes to the Palestinian rights and their suffering."

UN Launches Gaza Appeal

The UN,meanwhile, has launched a new humanitarian appeal to help rebuild Gaza and aid victims of the Israeli attack. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke from the gathering of business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

Ex-Carter Admin Official: Israel Ignored Hamas Offer Days Before Attacking Gaza; Violated Ceasefire with Attacks, Blockade

Robert Pastor is a senior adviser to the Carter Center and a professor at American University who met with exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Dec. 14, along with former President Jimmy Carter. Pastor says Meshaal indicated Hamas was willing to go back to the ceasefire if Israel would lift the siege on Gaza. He says he passed along the statement to the Israeli military, but he never heard back. Two weeks later, Israel launched its three-week assault that left more than 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, at least a third children, dead

JUAN GONZALEZ: President Obama has pledged “active engagement for a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In his first day in office, Obama called President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. He did not reach out to leaders of Hamas, who rose to power in democratic elections three years ago.

Meanwhile, Obama plans to announce the selection of former Senate majority leader George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. Mitchell is expected to travel to the region almost immediately upon taking the post. Obama will also meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later today.

Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday, three days before Obama was sworn into office. The twenty-two-day assault killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, at least a third children. More than 5,500 were injured. Hamas also declared its own week-long ceasefire, which ends on Sunday. Hamas is demanding an immediate reopening of Gaza’s border crossings and the lifting of an Israeli blockade.

This is Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum.

FAWZI BARHOUM: But we are stressing that the stopping of the aggression and the withdrawal of the occupation—God willing, with no return—is not enough. What is needed is a complete ending of the siege and an opening of all crossings and a guarantee that the Zionist occupiers won’t go back to this ugly operation.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Israel has refused to fully open border crossings to allow desperately needed aid, goods and construction materials into Gaza. Meanwhile, exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal claimed “unequivocal victory over Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

KHALED MESHAAL: This is the first war that our nation has won on its land, the first real major war. That’s why the battle in Gaza is a turning point in the conflict with the Zionist enemy. It is establishing, with its achievements, its timing, its greatness, a serious and active strategy for liberation that begins from Palestine and extends with the support of the nation to everywhere.

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Pastor is a senior adviser on conflict resolution at the Carter Center and a professor of international relations at American University. Last month he traveled to Syria with President Carter, where they met with Khaled Meshaal of Hamas. Robert Pastor served as national security adviser on Latin America and the Caribbean under President Carter from 1977 to ’81. He joins us now from Washington, D.C.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Robert Pastor. Can you tell us about this crucial trip you took just before the Israeli assault?

ROBERT PASTOR: Well, we have, of course, visited the Middle East many times before that and had previous conversations with Khaled Meshaal. But on this trip, it occurred just before the end of the six-month ceasefire. And the question is whether it would be renewed.

On the part of Hamas, they made very clear that they had done what they could do to try to stop the rockets. And indeed, from the period from late June to November 4th, when the Israelis intervened in Gaza to close down a tunnel, they had virtually stopped the rockets. But from their side, Israel had not complied with the ceasefire. It was supposed to have lifted all of the border crossings, allowing 750 trucks a day to go in. That never came close to occurring. In the absence of opening of those crossings, they said they would not renew the ceasefire.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, one of the things that Israel has been repeatedly claiming is that during the ceasefire, that Hamas was restocking, increasingly smuggling in more arms into Gaza. Your response or sense about the veracity of those claims?

ROBERT PASTOR: Oh, I have no doubt that Hamas was importing rockets during the entire period, but that was never one of the elements in the ceasefire agreement. I don’t even know if it was seriously negotiated by Israel through Egypt. So, their importing the rockets did not necessarily imply a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The key element, from the Israeli standpoint, in the ceasefire was to stop the rockets. Hamas acknowledged that it did not stop them on June 19th, which was required under the agreement. But within ten days, they were able to stop it. And between then and November 4th, a total of eleven rockets, fewer than three a month, were fired. And according to Hamas, most of these came from militant groups, including one associated with Fatah. So from their side, they felt they pretty much kept to the agreement.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you explain, Robert Pastor, who exactly you and President Carter communicated with?

ROBERT PASTOR: Well, in Damascus, of course, we met with the politburo and Khaled Meshaal. I went on to the West Bank in Israel and met with senior leaders from both the Palestinian Authority and other Hamas leaders, as well as senior Israeli government officials, and, in the case of Israel, communicated very clearly that Hamas felt and was willing to contemplate extending the ceasefire if Israel would lift the siege on that. I think, by this time, they considered it, and they said they would get back to me with a very specific response, but they didn’t.

AMY GOODMAN: What exactly happened on November 4th?

ROBERT PASTOR: On November 4th, Israel intervened into Gaza to shut down a tunnel. There is some dispute as to whether that tunnel was intended to capture an Israeli soldier or whether it was a defensive tunnel to protect against an Israeli incursion. But in the course of that particular incursion, which of course was a violation of the ceasefire, six Hamas militants were killed. Hamas then responded with 124 rockets that month. So, to a certain degree, the ceasefire was broken as early as November 4th, but technically it was to extend six months until December 19th.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, Robert Pastor, the continuing insistence by the Israeli government, and backed by the US government, that they will not deal with Hamas—in most other wars or conflicts, the belligerents eventually have to negotiate some kind of a settlement. To what degree is this helping or hurting the peace process in the Middle East?

ROBERT PASTOR: I think for the peace process to go forward, the ceasefire needs to be made much more sturdy, and they need to learn lessons from the first ceasefire from June 19th to December 19th in what went wrong. I would say the most important single lesson is there was no agreed official text between the two sides. The Israelis would not acknowledge—would neither confirm nor deny the text that Hamas gave to us and that I showed to them. Some people suggested that the elements in it were correct. But it was clear that Israel did not want to fully accept such an agreement; if a ceasefire is to go forward, they will need to.

I think, secondly, the United States should play a role in this mediation effort. It’s clear that Egypt is now questioned by Hamas as to whether they were an honest broker, and indeed there is some evidence that perhaps they said different things to each of the two parties. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know that if they want to make the ceasefire work, a good mediation is essential. The text needs to be agreed to. All of the elements need to be agreed to. And it needs to be enforced and monitored in a way that the first ceasefire was not.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Robert Pastor, are you saying that it was Israel that broke the ceasefire and that the Israeli assault could have been avoided?

ROBERT PASTOR: I’m saying that both sides violated the key elements of the ceasefire. The rockets never absolutely completely stopped, even though they went from about 250 a month to fewer than three a month. From the standpoint of Israel, that may not have been good enough. On the other hand, from the principal concern of Hamas, which was to open the barriers, Israel really never tried very hard to open them. The numbers of trucks, on average, that went in increased from 100 to 200, but the amount that was supposed to go in was roughly 750 a day. Israel never came close to that. I think, as I said, to make the ceasefire work, both sides need to comply.

I think, with regard to the question of whether Israel had an alternative than to invade in Gaza, I think the answer is obvious, that it did, that an effective ceasefire, full compliance with the agreement, would have stopped the rockets without the terrible loss of life that occurred.

AMY GOODMAN: If Israel had an offer from Hamas to extend the ceasefire if it ended the blockade, why do you think Israel attacked?

ROBERT PASTOR: I think Israel was of two minds. First of all, whether to accept any deal with Hamas, they were never very clear on what their objective was. Was their objective to exterminate Hamas, which is an awful goal, particularly for a country born of the Holocaust? Was it to punish Hamas or to disrupt their command and control? Or was it simply to stop the rockets? We’ve never heard a very clear declaration of objectives on the part of Israel. And so, we don’t really know what their intention was in going in. And if it were to stop the rockets, however, it is clear that they did have another alternative other than a massive invasion.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And your sense of how Hamas has emerged from this, its standing within the Palestinian community, as well as within the general Arab world?

ROBERT PASTOR: We don’t know yet for sure, because public opinion surveys have not been undertaken in the West Bank and Gaza yet. On the eve of the invasion, ironically, Fatah was much stronger. There was a public opinion poll that came out from Khalil Shikaki that indicated that if there were an election, Abu Mazen, the president of the Palestinian Authority, would win by twelve to fourteen points, and Fatah would win over Hamas even in Gaza. But initial reports coming out after the invasion suggest now the opposite has occurred, that Hamas is stronger, and Fatah is weaker, because of the invasion. And that would be still one more tragic irony of this invasion. If the purpose was to weaken Hamas, apparently it had the opposite effect.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, your thoughts on George Mitchell as President Obama’s choice to be the Middle East envoy and what you think Obama should do now?

ROBERT PASTOR: President Obama was true to his word. He actually told President Carter, and he told others, that on his first day in office he would move quickly on the issue of peace in the Middle East, and he did so with the telephone calls to leaders in the region.

The decision to appoint George Mitchell as special envoy is a very encouraging and a very positive step. This is a man of independent stature, a man of proven capability. In the case of Northern Ireland, he helped bring the IRA into the political process. And to the extent that the challenge in Israel and Palestine is to find a way to bring the spoilers, those who believe that only violent resistance is the way to independence, such as Hamas, the way to bring them into the process—the way to bring peace is to bring them into the process. Certainly, George Mitchell has had personal experience in this. So I think this particular step of naming him is a very encouraging step to all of those who genuinely care about peace in the Middle East and understand that the United States needs to play an honest broker’s role if there is to be peace in the Middle East.

The next step is for him, I hope, to go to the Middle East, as has been promised, and to begin to listen to all parties and to play a role in mediating a really strong ceasefire, so that it will work, that it won’t break by Sunday, which is a concern that some people have, and that, to go beyond that, to seek reconciliation among the different Palestinian entities that would permit a free election and permit Palestine into negotiate on a united way with Israel, and to send a message to Israel that the United States is committed to peace, it’s committed to Israel’s security, but that that security relies on a two-state solution, a sharing of Jerusalem, 1967 borders, a right to return with compensation, rather than necessarily having Palestinians return to Israel. The basic elements of peace are known. What is needed now is real leadership by the United States. And President Obama’s first steps are extremely encouraging.

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Pastor, thank you for being with us, senior adviser on conflict resolution at the Carter Center, professor of international relations at American University.

Democracy Now.org

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:49 am

Sheryl;1131855 wrote:

I didn't realize that these feelings were still ongoing in such a majority of people.

Really ?

I thought it was the main thing that kept the world turning.

Its prevalent everywhere.