American Jews force Sharon's hand

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    William Pfaff in IHT

http://www.iht.com/articles/97786.html

Extract

What happened?
.
There are several parts to the answer, but the most dramatic is that major
figures in the American Jewish community want to go where the road map leads.
.
The New York Observer reports that Edgar Bronfman of the World Jewish
Congress and Larry Zicklin of the New York Jewish Federation, together with
14 other leaders of the traditionally united American Jewish community,
have sent a letter to U.S. congressional leaders endorsing the road map.
.
Philip Weiss, author of the news report, quotes one person involved with
the letter as saying "we could have gotten 200,000 signatures." Another
said this shatters the notion, generally held until now, that the whole
American Jewish community would try to block the road map. "No one can
question the bona fides of the people who signed."
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The letter tells Congress that the road map offers a chance "to escape the
bloody status quo," implicitly acknowledging that Israel is trapped in a
cycle of violence. This itself breaks with the official Israeli view that
the Palestinians alone are responsible for the violence.
.
"The extremists have been driving this process for two and a half years," a
signer says. "I accept the fact that Israeli policies have probably reduced
the level of successful terrorist actions. But there's no future in that.
We can't sustain that; it's not a solution."
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The crucial message to American politicians is that if they support the
road map, important Jewish leaders will back them.
.
There are other reasons why Prime Minister Sharon has changed position. One
is that the current aggressive and oppressive occupation, with its repeated
military forays into Palestinian communities, is going nowhere.
.
The second is that Israeli public opinion knows that policy has to change.
According to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the road map is backed by 56
percent of Israeli opinion, with 34 percent opposed. To many, this looks
like the last chance for peace.
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The crucial factor, however, is that an important part of the American
Jewish community has decided that enough is enough. There are still plenty
of obstacles to the road map, and its enemies have yet to reorganize. But
what the Jewish leaders in America have done just might be enough to tip
the balance and bring peace, at last, to Palestinians and Israelis.
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