Newsletter 20 May 2008
Contents
Much has appeared in recent weeks on Israel at 60 and on the nakba as well as on the overall prospects for peace. Some articles have been included in previous mailings but here is a selection of good recent material.
1. Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years by Jeff Halper
2. Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now? Tony Karom 8th May 2008
3. A Somber Anniversary by Avi Shlaim The Nation May 8,
4. Remembering the Nakba during Israel’s 60th anniversary, Jewish Voice for Peace
5. The Wandering Palestinian The Economist, May 8th 2008
6. Palestine: Liberation Deferred by Rashid Khalidi, The Nation May 8, 2008
7. Tough Love for Israel Henry Siegman, the Nation 17th April 2008
8. Hamas and Peace Financial Times editorial, 21 April 2008
9. Israel’s secret fears Haim Baram, New Statesman 15 May 2008
10. As It Turns 60, The Fear Is Israel Has Decided It Can Get By Without Peace by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian May 7, 2008
1. Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years by Jeff Halper
“Only [by] a reconciling of our celebration with Palestinian loss will we finally begin to deal with the presence ‘in our country’ of another people with equal claims and rights, paving the way to a just peace, reconciliation and the securing of a Jewish national presence in the Land of Israel – whatever political form that might take.”
Full article at http://www.jfjfp.org/background5_general/israel@60_halper.htm
2. Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now? Tony Karom 8th May 2008
Interesting and thoughtful as always, Karom provides a wide-ranging and political and personal account of Zionism and its current obsolescence:
“Israel may be an intractable historical fact, but the Zionist ideology that spurred its creation and shaped its identity and sense of national purpose has collapsed – not under pressure from without, but having rotted from within. It is Jews, not Jihadists, that have consigned Zionism to the dustbin of history.”
Full article at http://tonykaron.com/2008/05/08/israel-is-alive-zionism-is-dead-what-now/
3. A Somber Anniversary by Avi Shlaim, The Nation May 8, 2008 (print edition 26 May)
“The question now is whether Israel will give the Palestinians a chance to build that state or strive endlessly to frustrate it. That is the real test of statesmanship as Israel enters its seventh decade. At the time of writing there is precious little evidence to suggest that Israel’s leaders are willing to rise to the challenge.”
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/shlaim
4. Remembering the Nakba during Israel’s 60th anniversary, Jewish Voice for Peace
Today, Jews around the world are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. These celebrations reflect the understandable joy of Jews who view Israel as the symbol of 60 years of freedom from centuries of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, not all Jews will be celebrating…
Full statement at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1061.shtml
Download JVP’s informational fact sheets about the Nakba and Jews in the Middle East at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/nakba.shtml
5. The Wandering Palestinian The Economist, May 8th 2008
“Whether they be in Nahr al-Bared, Nazareth or Nablus, Palestinians are united by loss and by hope”
An informed overview of the Palestinians over the last sixty years
Full report at http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_ID=11332217
6. Palestine: Liberation Deferred by Rashid Khalidi, The Nation 8 May 2008 (print edition 26 May)
“Another thing has become clearer and clearer over these sixty years: a just resolution of the Palestine question will be far from simple, if it is indeed possible at all; and if it is ever to be resolved, this will depend in large measure on the Palestinians themselves, whose current status is perhaps as desperate as it has been since 1948.”
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/khalidi
7. Tough Love for Israel Henry Siegman, the Nation 17th April 2008 (print edition 5 May)
“The scandal of the international community’s impotence in resolving one of history’s longest bloodlettings is that it knows what the problem is but does not have the courage to speak the truth, much less deal with it.”
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/siegman
8. Hamas and Peace Financial Times editorial, 21 April 2008
“Mr Carter’s perception, shared by two thirds of Israelis, is that Israel cannot make war on half the Palestinian people and expect to make peace with the other half; if there is ever going to be a solution to this conflict, Hamas has to be part of it.”
Full text at http://www.jfjfp.org/background3_hamas/hamas_ft-apr08.htm
9. Israel’s secret fears Haim Baram, New Statesman 15 May 2008
“Israel marks its 60th birthday in a climate of increasing racism, intolerance, corruption and militarism. A nation that has long seen itself as one of the most misunderstood is now almost unable to understand the world beyond its borders. Fear and anxiety provide the mood music of the celebrations.”
Article at http://www.newstatesman.com/200805150023
10. As It Turns 60, The Fear Is Israel Has Decided It Can Get By Without Peace by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian May 7, 2008
“And yet, there are few signs of a genuinely urgent Israeli desire for an accord with the Palestinians. The appearance of efforts for peace, in order to placate the legacy-hungry Bush, most certainly, but a fierce yearning for peace is harder to detect…
Israelis have grown cynical about peacemaking… and few Israelis like to say this out loud, they believe they can get by without peace.”
Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/israelandthepalestinians?gusrc=rss&feed=fromtheguardian