[WCUSP] A message which WILPF should push with members, friends & acquaintances.

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Mercury News  – August 11, 2006 
It's time for Jewish dissenters to challenge Israeli  policies 
By Henri  Picciotto 
I grew up  Jewish in Beirut. Although I left nearly 40 years ago, my memories 
of  Lebanon -- vibrant and multicultural -- have stayed with me. And so, my  
wife and I had started talking about taking a trip there. 
I would show  her the neighborhood where I grew up, the beaches where I swam 
in the warm  Mediterranean waters and the small mountain hotel we loved to 
stay at in  the summer. I would also show her my school, where Jewish, Christian 
and  Muslim children learned and grew together. 
After the past  few weeks, we may never be able to take this trip. Israeli 
bombings have  killed more than 700 Lebanese civilians. Hundreds of thousands -- 
more  than one-fifth of the population -- have become refugees, uprooted from 
 their homes. Lebanon's civilian infrastructure has been systematically  
destroyed. 
We, as  Americans, bear a special responsibility for this carnage. If 
Washington  would withhold its unconditional military, economic and diplomatic 
support  for Israel, the Israeli government would waste no time in starting genuine  
negotiations. Current U.S.-backed cease-fire proposals are so unfair to  
Lebanon that the Lebanese government has already indicated it cannot  accept the 
terms, which do not even include a full Israeli  withdrawal. 
This one-sided  U.S. policy is the result of a combination of factors, but it 
thrives on  the myth that all American Jews stand uncritically behind the 
Israeli  government. 
Many believe  that American Jews unanimously and unconditionally support the 
Israeli  government. That what we learned from the Holocaust is to shoot first 
and  ask questions later. That our commitment to justice and equal rights is 
a  quaint feature of our past. 
There is a  saying ``two Jews, three opinions.'' Now we are told ``1 million 
Jews, one  opinion.'' 
In fact, our  community is profoundly divided: 
Hundreds,  if not thousands, of Jews all over the country have demonstrated 
to demand  an end to the bombing of Gaza and Lebanon. In one of these 
demonstrations,  17 Jewish protesters were arrested in an act of civil  disobedience. 
In the  past few days, thousands of Jews have signed a petition demanding 
that the  United States intervene to stop the wanton killing of Lebanese 
civilians  by the Israeli war machine. 
Jewish  organizations that sponsor such demonstrations and petitions, such as 
 Jewish Voice for Peace (on whose board I serve), are experiencing  
exponential growth. Jews are looking for ways to express their outrage at  the actions 
of the Israeli government, and of the blind support accorded  by the Jewish 
establishment in this country. 
We are appalled  by the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli cities, just as 
we were the  earlier attacks by Israel on Lebanese cities. We mourn the loss of 
 Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese lives equally. We are outraged by the  
destruction of Lebanese airports, roads and bridges, the bombing of homes  and 
private cars, the killing of children, and the other horrors visited  by the 
Israelis on their neighbors. 
It is this kind  of past Israeli behavior that gave birth to both Hamas and 
Hezbollah,  organizations that have strengthened immeasurably in recent weeks. 
Israeli  intransigence has made Israel a pariah state, and is the biggest 
enemy of  all the people of the Middle East -- Arabs and Israelis alike. 
Jewish American  leaders work tirelessly to promote the myth of Jewish 
consensus. Their  tactics include refusing to rent space to dissenters, threatening 
funding  cuts when Jewish institutions question Israel's actions and canceling 
 meetings when they suspect debate might occur. Their most ubiquitous  weapon 
is the hurtful charge of anti-Semitism, hurled at both dissenting  Jews and 
Gentiles. 
Many Jews  question Israel's policies, but are afraid to speak out in their  
congregations or even to their families. But the time has come for Jewish  
dissidents to challenge the policies of the Israeli government. In the  short run 
these policies kill Arabs, mostly innocent civilians; in the  long run, they 
can result only in disaster for Israelis and Jews  worldwide. Our silence in 
this time of crisis is complicity. We need to  help bring about the peace that 
would one day make my visit to Beirut --  and the visit of all Jews -- 
possible. 
HENRI  PICCIOTTO of  Berkeley is a mathematics educator and chairman of the 
board of Jewish  Voice for Peace (jewishvoiceforpeace.org).  
_http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15250169.htm_ 
(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15250169.htm) 
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