My Two Shekels: ‘Now Israel and the Palestinians must value peace above victory’
by Rabbi Mark Goldsmith
A group of parents at Luton airport sent their 18 and 19-year-old children to Israel last week to participate in the RSY-Netzer Shnatt programme. The children will spend the best part of a year learning and growing alongside the people of the Jewish state.
My daughter was among them. We sent them in confidence that despite the horrific news of stabbings and even gun attacks, somehow Israel would keep them safe.
We did so because Israel is unique, the only place where we know our children will build their Jewish identity and their confidence in themselves as Jews and where they will get to know face-to-face this country with which much of their Jewish experience will be bound up.
Ari Shavit, in his book My Promised Land, gives many examples of where else Israel is unique.
One of these he says is: “On the one hand, Israel is the only nation in the west that is occupying another people. On the other hand Israel is the only nation in the west that is existentially threatened. Both occupation and intimidation make the Israeli position unique.”
Dreadfully therefore, there is no way out of the cycle of violence without both these unique features ceasing. Violence borne out of opposition to Israel’s existence can cease.
We saw that in Egypt and Jordan’s acceptance of Israel as its neighbour, grudgingly and pragmatically, but that was enough. Once both peoples and their leaders aimed for peace and not war, the violence and threat of war halted.
Violence borne out of Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank seems unstoppable.
There is as yet no partnership that can build towards peace and continued occupation, which means that we have no way of stopping violence beyond building ever higher walls between peoples.
It seems to me that first there needs to be a pragmatic if not heartfelt change of attitude among the Palestinian leadership and people.
They need to recognise Palestinian development and future can only be found in making peace with Israel, accepting, even grudgingly, Israel’s existence and future. So too Israel’s leadership and people need to accept Palestinian development and future as their aim too.
Within the State of Israel, Israeli Arabs must be afforded the same opportunities to thrive as Israeli Jews. We have to get on with it together, speedily, before the ideology of groups like ISIS, which care nothing for people, takes hold among enough Palestinians to put us all into even more danger.
The path to peace requires a change of direction. Israel can do it. Israel surely is also unique because our Jewish values put peace as the highest value – even greater than victory, whatever that may look like.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
