washington, jon stewart hold peace conferences

The same test being applied to Obama is now being applied to the American Jewish community. This past weekend, I was fortunate to be able to attend the first national J Street Conference in Washington, DC. There, I saw an amplification of the activists that I got to meet in Nazareth at the New Israel Fund board meeting back in June. Many of the same people were there, but they brought all of their friends and colleagues with them this time. In addition, there were hundreds of students who feel similarly about the conflict and a need to end it, as it's time. This event marked a turning point in the American Jewish rhetoric, with the masses to back it despite others' fears and criticisms leading up to the event. They should be afraid; no longer can the American Jewish community sit around and watch a minority feed its agenda to Washington, perpetuating the situation in the Middle East. Peace is security; force, occupation, and military might are not.

The atmosphere in the conference was slightly euphoric, optimistic, and--yes, even--realistic. It went like this: these are the facts, this is the situation, this is the way out, take it or leave it. I attended presentations about the settlements and their being an obstacle to the peace process, Palestinian economic empowerment, civil society in Israel and Palestine and how they use social change to bring communities closer to peace and stability, and other panels dealing with relevant activities and issues. There were great speakers, among them being Daniel Sokatch, the new CEO of the New Israel Fund. I had the pleasure of meeting him, and in our short conversation I told him what an incredible position he had and how important his job was, wishing him the best of luck. His reply? "It will be your job in 10 years or so!" Insha'allah. Overall, I felt very positive about the message and the goals of the conference, and one of the most interesting aspects was that while the vast majority of the participants were American Jews, there were quite a few Christians and Muslims from all over the world, including Arab states. It's great to see that these efforts at changing the attitude of Jews in the US and policies in Washington are appreciated by members of the Palestinian community.

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In addition to this, I read an article on a blog that I frequent and I invite you all to read, The Black Iris of Jordan, containing video of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which he holds his own peace conference with an American Jewish woman, Anna Baltzer, and a Palestinian, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti--both non-violent peace and human rights activists. I encourage you to watch the videos posted in the link, obviously. The only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable was Baltzer's praise of the boycott initiative as a non-violent struggle for Palestine. I feel that a boycott of Israel is a serious threat to Palestine, seeing as how over a million Palestinians are Israeli citizens and many products in the West Bank (not sure about Gaza, but I would imagine the same is true) come from Israel. A boycott of Israel would make the already difficult lives of Palestinians even more difficult. I had a discussion about this exact sentiment with Palestinians and Americans at the J Street Conference the other day, as a matter of fact.

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Yes, the general trend in America these days is to oppose shying away from our discomfort with political decisions that perpetuate instability and injustice in the world. We, as a community and hopefully as a government, are confronting our evil policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we are confronting our unfair and blind support for Israel and its cruelties towards Palestine and the Palestinian people. While there are many people working towards such positive progress in Israeli society, I wish I could see a corresponding trend that would bring that society toward a unanimous and genuine peace process. Still, unfortunately, I do not see that kind of thing sweeping Israeli society anytime soon.

Peace שלום سلام,

Abraham