This issue will not end unless we go down to the roots. OCCUPATION. Inhumane, unfair, horrible OCCUPATION….

Check out my blog at
http://www.MiriamsArtJournal.Blogspot.com

I suppose this betrays something about my own prejudices, but it also says a lot about how the two sides are so darn stuck in an endless game of King of the Morality Hill that I can’t even distinguish their rhetoric.

As I’ve said before, I’m still not convinced that an imposed ceasefire is the right answer to the current situation. But I still strongly support Mobius’s efforts–not to equate the two sides’ actions or the results of them, but to point out that we all need to get past the rhetoric and posturing and focus on taking real steps to actually pursue peace. Because peace, not moral high ground, should be the goal.

Thank you so much for organizing this peaceful protest in such short notice. It was an incredible thing to participate in and I really enjoyed meeting everyone that was braving the cold weather! : ) I’ve been catching up on the coverage and so sad to hear about the clash against random innocent people and the NYPD police officers. There is so much rage and hatred but I truly believe that there is a better way to release it than through more rage and hatred. Call me an internal optimist. Yesterday a fellow Jew and Israeli told me that I needed to “wake up” b/c I was “dreaming”. Well, I don’t believe that and like someone else mentioned, yes the Vietnam peaceful protests started very small and grew. Any movement of change is like that; it happened with the Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Women’s Right, Disabled Rights, Native American Rights, etc, etc….a small group of people who hoped, prayed, and believed that PEACE is truly possible and that there is a better solution to end all the hatred and violence.

Like seeds planted in soil, we will grow…
…bit by bit, row by row..
…going to make this garden grow….

Peace be with us all,
Sara Silverstein
the woman with the little purple t-shirt peace signs and blonde hair

PS Thanks for posting such fab pics, looking forward to seeing the videos of us singing, that was truly inspiring!!! : )

I don’t see a viable future for Gazans, or Israelis in the south of Israel under any of the commonly discussed outcomes. Hamas is clear and absolute about their terms and conditions– no israel, no respect, no end to ‘resistance’, no matter the cost to their people. We need to face that reality. Anyone who believes in peace should be against Hamas both for what they do to Israelis and what they do to Palestinians.

I think the only way out is for Egypt to invade and ‘rescue’ Palestinians from the Israeli onslaught. This would restore some Arab pride but defeat extreme, reject-Israel Islamism. Such an event couldn’t happen without Israel implicitly allowing it. Only Egypt has the position and strength and Arab identity to impose civil order on Gaza. Israel can’t, the PA/Fatah can’t, America can’t, Europe can’t, the UN won’t.

The only possible outcome of Hamas staying in power is forever war, with ceasefires only guaranteeing escalation for each next round. I recognize that Egypt is a police state dictatorship, but Egypt is a stable country with a large and viable economy and position in world trade. Gazans should have total freedom of movement to work and live anywhere in Egypt.

Is there any other idea that actually offers hope for a practical and livable future for Gazans and an end to violence against Israel? I’m all ears, but I think this is the direction things need to go.

in political terms, there’s not much to choose from between the elected israeli government and the equally-legitimately-elected hamas administration in gaza: they’re both right-wing nationalists whose tenuous popular support is based on a mixture of social-service programs and religious-right ideology.

however, in terms of their actions, an attempt, like your event, to cast them as equivalent is at best callously out of touch with what’s actually happening in the world, at worst an expression of the most banal prejudice available to jews.

to equate the rocket attacks on southern israel with the past two weeks of unilateral war is to declare that one jewish life is worth that of 47 non-jews. 47 so far, that is – the value of jewish lives is steadily rising. according to the israel project, 19 israeli jews were killed in the seven years of highly ineffective rocket and mortar attacks between 11/24/2001 and 12/28/2008 (i’m not differentiating between civilans and active-duty military). since the beginning of the khurbn gaza, the BBC reports that 900 or so palestinians have been killed by the israeli military (a death toll rapidly approaching twice the total number of israelis killed by palestinians since 2000). there is simply no ethical way to equate the two.

unless, that is, you accept either the assumption, as promoted by rav kook and others, that jewish lives are worth more than those of goyim, or the philosophical pacifist position that no violence of any kind is ever justifiable. in which case you must be prepared to condemn every jewish partisan who took up arms in warsaw, lodz, vilna, and the other ghettos of europe, along with nelson mandela, john brown, harriet ross tubman, emiliano zapata, sholom schwartzbard, and thousands of others whose struggles for justice have not had the luxury of distance from danger.

in terms of equivalency, it might be worth pointing out that according to beterem, the israeli center for child safety & health, as many israeli childen died from bicycle accidents alone each year from 1998-2000 as the total number of people killed in the worst year of rocket attacks (2005). does that mean that livni bombing schwinn would be justifiable? sure, if you accept the equivalency argument that the israeli government’s spokespeople have been making, and which “peace not justice” events like this one support.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2.....ian-rally/

Also, posted on a list tonight by a friend of the victim:

“After walking home from the 42 Street & 7th Avenue Pro-Israel rally, I watched the Muslim rally participants march up 8th Avenue closely controlled by many NYC police to keep them moving along. Even so, it appeared that many of the young men and women were eyeing the bystanders on the sidewalk in threatening ways almost challenging someone to disagree with their Death to Israel and God Bless Hitler chants.

I went back to my apartment where I met my boyfriend who had also just returned from the second Pro Israel rally on 39th Street & 7th Avenue. We walked outside the building and across a major midtown avenue on the West Side to buy some groceries. He was still carrying the Israeli flag and we were both wearing baseball caps with the American flag and USA on the brims. A large number of Muslims were milling around since it seems that their rally had reached its end point and was dispersing. Six Muslim men were being photographed with posters with the words, “Praise Hamas and Hezbollah, Reopen the Ovens” and were taking photos of themselves and their posters. Seeing us with the Israel flag, they began screaming, ” You’re assholes, Kill the Jews, We are going to kill you, This is OUR country,” etc.

We went into the corner deli and they began banging on the window and stood outside in a very threatening mob waiting for us to leave. I heard one man say, “She is a female” – very observant. I don’t know what this was suppose to signal to his fellow terrorists. When we left the deli a mob of the original Muslims and others who joined them came up to us screaming death to the Jews, and one man around 19/20 years old ran up and with force and hatred threw an egg into my friend’s eye. This may not seem like much but I am sure the intent was for the egg shells to be lodged in his eye. The egg was not thrown from afar against his coat but was thrown like a rock would be – to inflict as much harm as possible. The assailant then grabbed our Israeli flag, threw it to the ground, and was spitting on it and wiping his feet on it. When we asked a traffic cop to make an arrest, the assailant ran away down the block but the traffic agent did not answer us nor did he call 911. He passively stood by doing NOTHING.

Two people standing on the street took photos of our attack and said they would email us with the photos to identity the criminals. We then walked back across the street to our building and were followed by a pack of Muslims – about 8 or 10 – who continued to threaten, mock and scream at us. They seemed surprised at our ferocious counter verbal attack. However, they came right within 6 inches of us saying they would kill us. One of the men was about to attack me when my boyfriend saw the assault about to begin and said, “If you touch her, I swear I’ll kill you.” At that point the original traffic control cop came over and a second traffic agent joined him and forced the crowd to disperse. They asked us to go into the apartment building lobby which we did.

We immediately called the police and asked to make a police report. Two NYC policemen came to the apartment about an hour later hour and took the information. They were very courteous and said they will file the report and a detective is to contact us tomorrow. They apologized for taking so long to come by but explained that there were many incidents of a similar nature that were taking place as the Muslim rally broke up. They also shared that 2 NYC police officers had been attacked at the rally and that the Muslims are ‘out of control.’ …”

If you read the news item at the top, it was 7 police officers. This type of incident has occurred many times during the last 2 wks of pro-Palestinian/Hamas/etc rallies, here and in Europe. Let’s zoom out to view the past decade, starting with Intifada II – how many violent attacks on Jews by roving gangs spun off from rageful rallies? Hundreds. Is it ok to make brownshirt comparisons yet? Dig up a few examples of Israeli settler riots if you want but you know the comparisons are absurd.

So I can see eventually negotiating with the Fayyad admin on the West Bank, if things are truly going as Goldberg says (and it’s always 1 step forward 1 step back), but Hamas & friends?