Re: American Jews force Sharon's hand

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] American Jews force Sharon's hand

More importantly, Sharon embraced what last night's episode of SOUTH PARK said was the basis of the U.S. political system, the principle of saying one thing and doing another.

Sharon also said that the current settlers didn't have to worry about losing "their" land. He wants to set up a bunch of bantustans and call it a "Palestinian state." They've already forced regime change on the Palestinian Authority...

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Burford [mailto:cburford@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 1:57 PM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] American Jews force Sharon's hand
>
>
>      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."
> .
> 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."
> .
> 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.
> .
> 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.
> .
>