Comments Related To: From Jerusalem: Supporting Israel, Body and Soul

Mitchell, this is deepest call to American Jews I've read in a long time. Eretz Yisrael was founded in a burst of messianic enthusiasm, with the hope that it would be the "light to the nations." That has not happened. If we are to regain anything from that original dream, it will be because American Jews, lucky enough to be secure in our Judaism and free from true terror (aside from Bush's yellow alerts), push Israel to re-embrace the vision, and give Israelis the means to do so. I personally favor supporting the strong ecological movements in Israel, which I think hold out some hope. I despair of the politics.

It is reported by Prof. Bernard Lewis in "Semites and Anti-Semites" that three thousand, five hundred 'Palestinian' Arabs were murdered by militant Arab factions, betwen the years of 1918 and 1947. These were community leaders, educators and even some clerics.
There was never to be a peaceful solution. It is a fantacy. The politics of the reigon was simply too violent and oppressive. Plus, it utilized religion to indoctronate and control its subjects. For example, the al-Husseini family (Grand 'Mufti's from early 20th century until early 1950) were both royalty--in the sense that they were owners of vast amounts of Palestinian land and therefore were primal power brokers, and were also Muslim clerics-trained in Saudi Arabia. While people point to the secular nature of the Palestinian-Arab populations, this too was a partial fansasm, as Yasser Arafat was also 1/2 warrior and 1/2 cleric. His decision to hold Jerusalem as the 3rd most holy site in Islam helped sabotage the peace negotiations of 2,000 and indirectly led to (or cultivated) 9-11-2001. In reality, Jerusalem was abandoned as a holy place by the Islamic prophet Mohammed, when Mecca became known as the "Sacred Temple". The Dome of the Rock was a Catholic Church until 70 years after Mr. Mohammed's passing away. In the only reference to Jerusalem in the Qur'an it is called: "The Promised Land" and it appears in Surah 17 entitled: "Children of Israel". Yet, Mr. Arafat falaciously continued to assrt that the Dome and Mosque were designated as Muslim holy placed in the Qur'an, and that by law and custom, not one cyllable could be altered. Of course, their reference is impossible, given the time-lapse mentioned above. However, Arafat's position in reality was backwards, because it was he who had altered the scriptures for his own political benefit.
The Arabs went from being downtrodden, oppressed and poverty-stricken under Turkish rule, to being movie-stars in the 20th century oil-centric economy. This was far too much of a swing of extremes and their egos ran wild, especially their religious pride, which has controlled the mid-east situation for 90 years.
The Israelis are far from angels. I know a few I would like to slap around, including a retired general. But there is no moral equivilance between the sides.

I am not really sure what Mitchell is saying. He is speaking in parables. What exactly is his plan?? Does he support the patriotion of 5-million Arabs as Israeli citizens? Because that is what is being demanded by the Saudi Peace initiative. Short of that, this state of conflict is not likely to abate any time soon.
For the first and only time in the history of the world, refugees were given leave by the international community to pass their "refugee" status down through new generations. For the first and only time in the history of the world, the UNHCR has been politically blocked from re-settling these nationless people in normal quarters. While about 20-million Arabs were given citizenship in a variety of Euro nations, very few of them were Palestinian-Arabs.
Mitchell's pep talk does little to address these crimes against the Palestinians (both Arabs and Hebrews).

Thank you Mitchell. I appreciate your passionate plea for diaspora Jews to wake up and support Israel's soul (it's ethical, moral identity) as well as it's body (its military security).
Your plea echoes the words of Oded Naaman of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli IDF veteran who recently spoke in the U.S. & had two appearances in the Bay Area. He also made a passionate plea to American Jews to recognize the present danger to Israel's soul. He said that the Israel we love would soon be utterly lost if we continue to only support her physical survival.
As an American Jew, I am heartbroken over our failure to recognize the necessity of support for the soul of Israel. I know that Martin Buber would be similarly heart-broken were he to return. If only the early Zionists had followed Buber's prophetic vision for an Israel/Palestine confederation based on Jewish-Palestinian cooperation. Then we would truly have been "a light to all nations".