The Citizens Proposal for a Border between Israel and Palestine  is the result of efforts to envision a border that would respect equally the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. We also see the value of this border in providing a context for modifying some of the incongruous relationships, built over many decades, between Jews and Arabs. We see the opportunity to tap into the beauty that is both the people of Palestine and the people of Israel in a way that could generate tremendous dividends.

This website lays out one specific proposal for a border. We invite both Palestinians and Israelis to examine this proposal and to consider whether they would be satisfied that said border could represent them—in what they would wish for themselves and what they would be willing to give to the other side—or at least serve as a good basis for negotiation.   (continued)

POSITION STATEMENTS

We should Applaud Herzog and Livni for Reclaiming Zionism

February 17, 2015

In a recent article in the San Diego Jewish World, Rabbi Dow Marmur echoes the Israeli writer Amos Oz, who criticized Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni for naming their coalition party “Zionist Union.”: The name suggests, he said, that “they’re afraid that the electorate only recognizes the right-wing block of Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett as authentic Zionists, while Herzog and Livni are trying to say defensively that they’re also Zionists.” Oz, who is a supporter of the far-left Meretz party, speaks to a kind of purity that takes it for granted that a true Zionist is a liberal democrat, whose thinking is set forth in Israel’s Declaration of Independence which proclaims that Israel respects the rights of all. He thinks that any good Israeli should be able to see that the thinking of Netanyahu and Bennett, who see no place for Arabs and other minorities within the borders of a Jewish State that includes the West Bank lands of biblical “Judea and Samaria,” is a brand of revisionism that does not embody the original Zionist spirit.

We think Oz is unrealistically optimistic about the state of the Israeli electorate, which for over six years has largely supported Netanyahu’s way of thinking. Over the last decades the Right has brought this revisionism into the mainstream of Zionist thought. Hence Herzog and Livni are right to bestow on their party the name “Zionist Union” and join in the battle for the definition of Zionism, which speaks to the very purpose of the State of Israel.  This is a fight that we pray Herzog and Livni will win, for on it depends the soul of the Jewish people.

Netanyahu and Bennett would, for the sake of political gain, pander to fears of ISIS or Iran as reasons for Israelis to sacrifice the basic ethical principles of Judaism.  By lifting up the Islamist bogeyman, they continue to justify victimizing Palestinians who want nothing more than the dignity afforded to themselves as Israelis, which is to live in a state of their own. In the name of security, they would continue to enlist Israel’s youth in committing corrupting acts of violence and oppression against a mostly defenseless people, which deadens their souls to the living presence of the Almighty.

Herzog and Livni are asking Israeli electorate to take stock of the direction that Netanyahu & Co. have been taking their country, and ask themselves, “is this the Zionism that our forefathers signed on to? Will our children be proud of a Zionism that bristles with intolerance and hate?” At this juncture in history it is the right question to ask. 

Journaling: Hope and Despair - Seven Weeks In

Rebecca Sullum, Co-Director of Kids4Peace Jerusalem
July 31, 2014

"Rebecca, How are you? How is Kids4Peace been managing during this very difficult summer. My hopes and prayers are with you.”

Every day, friends from around the world reach out to me. They want to hear how I am and how my Kids4Peace community is coping during this very violent time.

This post is an attempt to share with you how a Jewish Israeli Zionist who is also mother, wife, peace activist, is coping. I want to share my insights as Co-Director of Kids4Peace, where I engage daily with hundreds of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, Palestinian and Israeli families.

Six weeks have passed by since the kidnapping of the 3 Israeli youth, Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, in Gush Etzion on June 12. Since that morning, I can no longer answer the question “How are you?” It is just too complicated. 

My cousin studied at Yeshiva (Jewish religious boys school) with two of the kidnapped youth. Friday morning when it had become clear that the 3 boys had been kidnapped, my sisters and their daughters spent the morning picking berries in Gush Etzion, just a few kilometers from the location of the kidnapping. I wasn’t there. My husband Itai requested that I do not pick berries in occupied Palestinian territory, since weeks earlier the IDF detained Palestinian girls for picking cherries on their way to school. Itai thought that it would be too ironic, too cruel, to exercise my freedom in a way that even Palestinian girls can’t act freely. So I spent the Friday morning at home. As the Shabbat approached and the youth were nowhere to be found, I fell into despair that lasted for 18 days. (continued)

Palestinian Unity: Not a Deal-Breaker

May 3, 2014

The State Department is wise to be wary of a unity agreement between the Fatah and Hamas. The agreement does not, however, have to spell disaster. In time it may even strengthen the peace process by transforming Hamas from a militant threat to a responsible player in the diplomatic arena. (more)

Proposal on Governance of the Holy Basin

May 26, 2013

We of the Citizen's Proposal endorse the substance of Prime Minister Olmert's 2008 offer to set up an international trusteeship to govern the Holy Basin, which he advanced during his talks with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. We consider that his offer, while seemingly a concession, actually provides the best way forward toward a shared future for the three Abrahamic Religions for the long term. We also believe that by sharing the burden and responsibility for protecting the Holy Sites, it will enhance Israel's security. (continued)

A Proposal on the Issue of Palestinian Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State

Alison Wakelin
March 31, 2014

 It is strongly desirable that the long term goal of the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that are being mediated by Secretary of State Kerry is total reconciliation between the two peoples.

Restoration of Family Relationship

This will eventually restore their identity as siblings, children of Ishmael and Isaac, as would have existed within the family of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar before Hagar and Ishmael were banished. Over time, the family relationship will have opportunity to develop.

The Two State Solution

 Within this context, the Two State Solution is seen as a necessary step. It will give each side space for a necessary period of healing after long suffering and conflict. The world can recognize the need of the Jewish people, who have suffered for millennia as a persecuted minority, to have a state of their own. However, Israel can afford the Palestinians the rights and dignity of a state as well, and the two states can over time learn to live in peace with one another. This will provide the opportunity for reconciliation between the two peoples, who were set at enmity so many millennia ago by that act of banishment. 

To the Palestinian Negotiators

Since Mr. Netanyahu makes his demand that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state on the basis of the Jewish people’s historical claim on the land dating from biblical times, he has opened the door for Israel also having to take responsibility for the historical origins of the Jewish people in the family of Abraham and Sarah. Within that family, it was Abraham and Sarah who caused Hagar to become the mother of Abraham’s son Ishmael. Regardless of how the conflict between Sarah and Hagar developed to the point where Sarah demanded her banishment, together with her child Ishmael, we have to acknowledge that responsibility for that situation lay with both Matriarchs and with Abraham.  As this conflict occurred in the family that is at the root of Jewish history, it cannot be separated from Israel’s current claim to be a Jewish state.

Therefore, rather than reject Mr. Netanyahu’s demand outright, we propose that the Palestinian negotiators take the following position: “We recognize Israel as a state for the Jewish peoples that gives due consideration to all the children of Abraham.”

By taking that position, the Palestinians preserve their obligation to advocate for the rights of Arab Israelis and can hold Israel accountable. Furthermore, the phrase “due consideration” can become the basis for a final status agreement that provides some satisfaction to Palestinian refugees, both as regards financial compensation and also for Israel to possibly agree to take in a limited number of refugees for such purposes as reuniting families.  

To the Israeli Negotiators

It is proposed that Israel accept this position, if it is offered. It would satisfy the fundamental requirement that the Palestinians recognize Israel’s Jewish character and sovereignty. It would reassure Israel that the Palestinians have no intention to press their claims under the Right of Return to the point of overwhelming Israel with non-Jews. But at the same time it would reaffirm what Israel already requires of itself according to its own founding documents, that it is a democracy that provides equal rights for all its citizens, including its Arab minority.

Furthermore, down the road, Israel could request that the Palestinians accept symmetrical language that would oblige them to provide rights and protection for Jewish settlers who choose to remain in the future Palestine, thus: “We recognize Palestine as a state for the Palestinian people that gives due consideration to its Jewish minority.” 

Netanyahu's War

Andrew Wilson and Louise Strait
July 31, 2014

Surely, if Israel is attacked, it has the right to defend itself. Whenever Israel faced implacable foes in the past, beginning in 1948 with its war of independence and continuing in the '67 and Yom Kippur wars, we in the West applauded as Israel's plucky defense forces defeated the enemy and built the bulwark of liberty that has made Israel a democratic bastion of freedom and a beacon to Jews everywhere. Nevertheless, that freedom came with the responsibility to show respect to the defeated. The world applauded when Israel made peace with Egypt. This only left the Palestinians. So the world has been watching how Israel treats the Palestinian issue, longing for a just resolution in the establishment of two states. 

So last year when President Obama came to Israel and gained Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's agreement to begin peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the hopes of the world were behind that effort. Those talks were precisely what the world was asking for, and America was asking for too when it vetoed Palestine's request for statehood at the UN Security Council in 2012. America said that Israel and the Palestinians need to solve this problem together, that Palestine cannot become a state unilaterally. Consistent with that principle, Secretary of State Kerry did all he could to encourage an agreement. 

The key to beginning the talks was the agreement last summer between Kerry, Abbas and Netanyahu that Israel should release 103 Palestinian prisoners in 4 tranches. For that concession Abbas was willing to drop his earlier precondition, which he had held since 2010, that Israel cease new settlement construction. He was also willing to suspend his plans to go to the UN and the ICC. So prisoners were released and the talks began. But on April 3, 2014, the agreed-upon date to release the 4th batch of prisoners, Netanyahu reneged. At that point the talks broke down. 

After a few more weeks of back-and-forth to no avail, having seen the failure of the talks, which was clearly Israel's fault, on April 23 Abbas signed the unity agreement with Hamas. Netanyahu could not accept it; he objected vociferously, saying that Israel would never negotiate as long as Hamas was in the government. But the American government was willing to suspend judgment, seeing as how Hamas had agreed to come under Abbas's wing in terms of its foreign policy and participate in a neutral, technocratic coalition government. Dr. Wilson has written elsewhere of a possible peaceful path, through negotiations and diplomacy, whereby Hamas could move away from its traditional policy of non-recognition of Israel, just as the PLO had done two decades earlier. 

Failing to obtain American buy-in for his hard-line position, Netanyahu began to plot how he could break the unity government. So when the three Israeli teens were murdered on June 12, he seized upon that moment to launch Operation Brother's Keeper, an offensive in the West Bank against Hamas members. This was a well-orchestrated operation, disguised as an attempt to rescue the "kidnapped" teens whom Israel knew were already dead and probably not even killed by Hamas. But no matter, Israel's purpose was to attack Hamas. The IDF arrested hundreds of Hamas sympathizers all over the West Bank, and also began bombing Gaza. For Hamas, which had been honoring the 2012 cease-fire, too many red lines had been crossed. They responded with missiles, first on June 16 with only 4 launches. Israel responded by bombing and invading Gaza, and here we are. 

The facts are clear. This war is Netanyahu's war. It is the bitter fruit of his decision to scuttle the peace talks when he reneged on the agreement to release the prisoners and to go on an unprovoked offensive against Hamas in the West Bank. Israel is clearly responsible for this, regardless of all the hasbara that the government is throwing up to justify its actions. Hamas did not begin this war; it had been honoring the 2012 cease-fire and exercising restraint, more or less. It could have continued that restraint while taking the diplomatic route in a unity government. 

It was Netanyahu who set events in motion. He had a choice between peace and war, and he chose war. It was a choice between negotiating in good faith for two states and maintaining the occupation by any means necessary. He chose the latter, "by any means necessary." 

It is also a self-serving war, a "tail wagging the dog" war. That is, it neatly serves Netanyahu's personal political agenda by rebuilding his base in Likud, pandering to his settler constituency, and cementing a coalition that was in danger of fracturing when the peace talks ended. Recall the trenchant criticism from Yair Lapid and and Tzipi Livni back in early May, and noises that they were contemplating leaving the governing coalition and joining with Labor Party leader Chaim Herzog? The Gaza war put a stop to all that. Netanyahu is clearly a most clever politician, but as a statesman he is venal and short-sighted. 

No one likes to have their life disturbed by missile attacks, even if largely ineffectual. We can well understand how ordinary Israelis are rallying around the flag and supporting the war. But the circumstances of this war, along with the disproportionate deaths of civilians in Gaza, especially children, are repugnant. Israel has forfeited the moral high ground, weakened its relationship with the United States, its staunchest ally, and may risk the wrath of Europe. And it is all because Netanyahu could not bring himself to sincerely work with Abbas for an honorable peace agreement that would establish a Palestinian state on the West Bank. 

We still hope that when the dust settles, after mourning the dead, Israelis can begin to reassess themselves, where their country is going, and what sort of future they want for their children. Israelis need to understand that their future will be secured by working for peace, based on love and respect for all members of the human family. But if Israel continues to only think of its own welfare while it persists in frustrating the hopes of the Palestinian people for peace with dignity, we fear for its future.
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