Israel-Palestine Developments the U.S. Left & the U.S.
Jewish Left Seem to be Ignoring

by Ira Grupper
Submitted to Portside by the author

Labor Paeans-July/August 2011
(Published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky
FOR [Fellowship of Reconciliation])

US Left Should Support Palestinian Acknowledgment

There have been two recent developments around the Israeli-
Palestinian situation.  Peace in the world affects the U.S.
labor movement, so this Labor Paeans will concentrate on it.

The NYTimes reported (May 5):  " (Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority) signed a historic reconciliation accord, vowing
common cause against Israeli occupation.."

The next day, Hamas leader Khaled Mishal, issued a statement
implicitly accepting a Palestinian state, alongside Israel,
and demarcated by the 1967 border.

So, we now have every viable organization in the occupied
territories all in consensus in accepting the 1967 border as
an approach to resolving this conflict.  This includes
Fatah, Palestinian Peoples Party, and the Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

I have a dear friend, Yossi Khen, who was born and raised in
Israel.  He was a sergeant in the Israeli army (IDF) in 1973
when he publicly stated his refusal to serve in the Occupied
Territories (West Bank and Gaza).   He refused to pick up
arms against his Semitic cousins, the Palestinians, and
spent time in an Israeli military jail as a result.

Yossi left Israel and moved to the United States.  We met in
the 1980's, while we were both active in New Jewish Agenda
(NJA), an amazing group of 5,000 U.S. and Canadian Jews
calling for a state of Palestine, next to the state of
Israel, both with secure and recognized boundaries.  NJA
closed shop in 1993.

Well, Yossi, along with Los Angeses area Jewish peace
activists Jeff Warner and Estee Chandler. recently
circulated a petition (link:
http://www.petitiononline.com/USfor67/petition.html):

"We urge the United States Government to join the
international community in recognizing Palestine alongside
Israel on the 1967 borders, with its capital in East
Jerusalem.

".The peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine have
been deadlocked for many years. They have failed to reach
any substantial agreements. Meanwhile Israel has expanded
its settlements that effectively appropriate 40% of West
Bank land slated for a Palestinian state.

"The Palestinian Liberation Organization/Palestinian
Authority (PLO/PA) accepted the existence of the state of
Israel in 1988, and has stated many times they are ready to
accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines (the "Green
Line" of the 1949 Armistice agreement brokered by the United
States).

"Recognition of Palestine on the 1967 border will jump-
start, not negate, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Negotiations will be needed to assure an orderly end of the
occupation and to arrange thousands of issues of mutual
concern including, but not limited to, land swaps, access to
religious sites in the old city of Jerusalem, and water
resources.

"We urge the United States to honor the democratic movement
that gave rise to the Arab Spring, and support the
Palestinian request for statehood in the United Nations."

How do liberal and left U.S. groups respond to these
monumental events?  J Street calls itself ".the political
home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.  The organization
gives political voice to mainstream American Jews and other
supporters of Israel who, informed by their Jewish values,
believe that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is essential to Israel's survival."

J Street seems not yet ready to back this initiative,
supporting instead President Obama's call for beginning
negotiations.  Yet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu's recent speech to the U.S. Congress made it clear
that he was closing the door to meaningful negotiating.

The Palestinians are thus left with no alternative but to go
to the UN and the world community.  J Street needs to
reconsider its approach, to take the bold step and welcome
the Palestinian initiative.

Then we have Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP),".the largest US-
based grassroots organization dedicated to promoting full
equality, democracy and self-determination for both Israelis
and Palestinians."  And  U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation, ".a diverse coalition working for freedom from
occupation and equal rights for all by challenging US policy
towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Both these groups have been longtime and steadfast
supporters of a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
impasse.  Yet neither will support this new Palestinian
statement.  Respectfully, they need to listen to these
Palestinian organizations, and the various NGOs, based in
the Occupied Territories, as they now take their campaign to
the UN.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas, seemingly against so
many odds, are calling jointly for a Palestinian state.
They did not call for Israel to cease to be, so I conclude
they are calling for two states.  Repeat:  two states.  And,
last time I looked, they held state power.

We might do well to heed Isaiah:  "Make the heart of this
people calloused/ make their ears dull, and close their
eyes./Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with
their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be
healed."

[Ira Grupper is a labor journalist based in Louisville,
Kentucky.  He is a retired factory worker, served 8 years as
a delegate to the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council .
Grupper has made five trips to the Middle East , spending
time in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Amman, Jordan,
and Cairo, Egypt..  He lived in Jerusalem from November 1999
thru April 2000.]

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