Time to Move

When he met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel in Washington this week, President Bush urged him yet again to freeze expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, whose existence is a constant roadblock in peace negotiations, including the "road map" now in play. Judging from Mr. Sharon's noncommittal response, Mr. Bush's plea fell on deaf ears.

It seems an intractable problem. Anyone who has seen the settlement network will know that it is not simply a few temporary outposts like those evacuated by the Israeli government in the past few months as a means of gaining some international support. It is a collection of small towns, industrial and commercial areas, schools and colleges, roads and public services. When one travels around the settlements, it seems that they've put down roots for good.

Yet at the same time several factors are raising questions about the long-term future of these settlements. The peace process itself may be the biggest threat to them, but there are others. Indeed, many of the settlers themselves, belying their reputation as a right-wing monolith, are saying they're willing to consider leaving.

A survey released last week by the organization Peace Now indicates that more than 70 percent of settlers, a significant increase from previous polls, would agree to eventually leave the West Bank and Gaza if they were compensated, while 29 percent are ready to leave right away. Seventy-one percent of them said they believed that a peace agreement that would require them to leave their settlements was inevitable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/02/opinion/02NEWM.html?ex=1060864657&ei=1&en=7bf108c298b7492f

A Petition: http://www.bringthemhome.btvshalom.org/

We are American Jews who care deeply about Israel and who are filled with sorrow by the continuous cycle of violence and death in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We call upon the United States government to embrace an initiative which can break through the present stalemate, create a new opening for a negotiated settlement, safeguard the lives of Israeli settlers and remove a major obstacle to peace.

We call upon the United States government:

* to urge the Israeli Government to reverse its longstanding financial inducements to Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and instead to redirect those funds to settlers who are now willing to return to Israel proper;

* to provide generous foreign assistance and to solicit contributions from the European Union, other major industrial democracies and the United Nations for this massive relocation effort, irrespective of whether the Israeli government is ready to participate.

FOR THE SAKE OF ISRAEL'S SECURITY, BRING THE SETTLERS HOME

For the past 35 years, more than 200,000 Israeli citizens have been induced by special economic incentives to settle in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A recent comprehensive survey* of settlers found that nearly 80% were motivated by a desire to create better lives for themselves and their families and not by ideological or religious reasons. That dream, however, quickly became a nightmare of constant terror, sniping, murderous incursions into settlements, and suicide bombings. Simultaneously, enormous suffering has been inflicted upon the Palestinian population.

The relentless campaign to settle hundreds of thousands of Israelis amidst millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip threatens the moral foundation of the State. One year after the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Israel¹s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion explained to IDF officers the reasons for Israel¹s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Nearly fifty years later, his speech serves as both warning and grim prophecy.

t was clear that our remaining in Gaza, while the entire world ostracized us would lead to ... finding ourselves in a hostile sea of terrorism. Our military authorities would have had to shoot terrorists on a daily basis. ... We would not have been able to withstand this. For the State of Israel, such a reality would have become a catastrophe ... . Possibly, this would have destroyed us, not militarily, but morally - and in my opinion our morality underpins our very existence.

David Ben-Gurion, Yihud ve-Yi'ud (Tel Aviv) 1971 p. 294
(Translation: Dr. Shai Feldman and Michael Davis)

The settlers have never enhanced Israel's security. On the contrary, their vulnerability to attack has resulted in the loss of nearly a thousand Israeli soldiers and civilians in the last 35 years and hundreds in just the past two years. Those who live on land expected to be negotiated as part of the new State of Palestine -- especially those in settlements that are distant from Green Line Israel and are surrounded by much larger Arab populations -- are an obstacle to peace; their continued presence prevents a viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

FOR THE SAKE OF ISRAEL'S ECONOMY, BRING THE SETTLERS HOME

The cost of sustaining and protecting the settlers is draining Israel's resources; it limits Israel¹s ability to provide vital social services, build a stable economy, and ensure peaceful coexistence between the Jews and Palestinian Arabs of Israel. The unending conflict, which the settlers exacerbate, has contributed to a severe economic downturn, a rising rate of unemployment (over 10%), a dramatic decrease in foreign investment, and an increase in the number of Israelis (now 20%) living below the poverty line, including 27% of all children.

PROVIDING SUITABLE COMPENSATION OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY FOR MANY SETTLERS TO VOLUNTARILY RETURN TO ISRAEL PROPER

A popular misconception claims all settlers would actively resist any attempts to bring them home to Israel; but the same survey* revealed if a decision is made for withdrawal, a clear majority of settlers is prepared to accept a withdrawal from the settlements in exchange for suitable financial compensation. Undoubtedly, among this majority, there are many if not most who would leave voluntarily even in the absence of a comprehensive settlement were they provided with the financial wherewithal to do so.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO BRING THE SETTLERS HOME TO ISRAEL

Please sign the Call and share it with others in your community. In doing so, you will help move Israel one step closer to peace.

*Dr. Micha Hopp, "Settler Attitudes towards Withdrawal from the Territories," July 2002 (Hopp Research Company)

ON EDIT: I FIXED LINK: http://www.bringthemhome.btvshalom.org/

n/t

Why did they not follow it, I wonder? So much suffering whould have been averted and so many lives saved.:-(

Please help us meet our goal of tens of thousands of signers by Israel's 56th Anniversary in May 2004. To support "the Call," fill out the form below. Then spread the word about "the Call"
by clicking.

If you go to the link you can add your name they have about 6500 signatures.

As you signed mine.:-)

There was a time in Americamn history,,only about 50 years ago, when there were actual signs saying "No Jews, Blacks(the polite version,or dogs allowed to live here.

The Germans under Hitler had signs calling for the eimination of Jews ,Poles,Homosexals etc from their soil.

There are over 1 million Arabs living in Israel and they are welcome as they are good citizens for the most part.

Of the 900 000 Jews who lived in the Arab world in 1945 about 20 000 are left.

No Jews or Christians can live in Saudi Arabia and the last of the Iraqi Jews have left for Israel.Palis who have lived in Lebanon for even three generations are not allowed citizenship.

What is wrong with under 250 000 Jews living a Palestine of the West Bank as citizens of that country if they so desire ,with all of the rights that Palis have in Israel? What is all the fuss about ?

all live in peace with the Palestinians-NOT!

This is the problem, Loquat-the settlers didn't take most of that land legitimately. Much of it was stolen. Other times the Palestinians were removed from an area to make room for settlements.

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return the U.S.A. to the Native Americans with the exception, perhaps, of at least Texas to the Mexicans?

Hypocritical, eh?

A distinction needs always to be borne in mind between the territory of Israel, within the de facto boundaries recognized on its admission to the United Nation, and the territories overrun in '67. In the latter, Israel has no recognized right, save that of conquest. Returning land here to those who owned it, sometimes as recently as four or five years ago, is a very different thing than those that you suggest as comparable. No land is going to be returned from within Israel proper, and no one with any sense of the situation expects that to happen as a part of any negotiated peace.

These are voting citizens of Israel living amongst a group of people who by religion or ethnicity who live under military rule and have no political rights.

Either the settlers need to be Palestinians or the Palestinians need to be Israeli's and the first isn't palatable to the Jewish settlers and the second isn't palatable to anyone in Israel.

There is plenty of ``fuss,'' and with good reason. These people have been killing each other for generations. The West Bank and Gaza are where most of the violence is taking place. It will continue until the settlements are dismantled. This is a horrific situation and needs to be stopped by taking whatever steps are necessary to end the cycle of violence, once and for all.

The settlements must go: certainly the greatest part of them anyway. It is encouraging to know that most of those resident in them understand this is in fact a requirement for a peaceful solution in the region. Once again, the people are considerably in advance of their political leadership.

It is important to remember the greatest proportion of the settlers are not fanatics, but simply people attempting to better their standards of living: what subsidy has drawn to move east, subsidy can surely draw to move west.

It is true that a poor construction can be placed on the liquidation of the settlements. A person so disposed might well dub it ethnic cleansing, or worse. Those labels do not matter to me: it seems a practical fact that they must go, in the greater interest.

things.:-)

I understand that the Israeli people were drawn to the settlements because of the subsidies. It is the fault of the leadership, not the people, who are also victims in this. It is now the responsibility of those in leadership, who are proponents of peace, to direct the subsidies elsewhere. The people will follow. But where are these leaders who desire peace? This post-dates my post, but when I heard the phrase ``targeted killings,'' my blood ran cold. How can these actions meet with anything but reprisals and an escalation of the violence? This is a subject for another thread, but I found it incredibly disheartening.;(

I have said, often, that no sacrifice is too great, if peace is to be brought to this region. Labels do not matter. The only thing that truly matters here is an end to the violence. The people, on both ``sides'' desire it fervently. I have seen interviews with both Israeli and Palestinian people who express this hope. They have all gotten their hopes up far too many times.:-(

Of course the Jordanians don't want the Palestinians and Jordan was created as a Palestinian homeland. Go figure.

England partitioned the Emirate of Trans-Jordan out of what was then known as Palestine for quite different reasons.

When the French evicted the Hashemite Feisal from his ephemeral post Great War kingdom at Damascus, a number of his adherents fled to the south, and the largely un-policed desert region east of the Jordan river became a base for guerrilla operations against French rule in Syria. Relations between France and England in the Near East were already under great strain, and England feared wider repercussions to the continuance of such activity from an area under nominal English control.

To achieve the effective policing of the area, Churchill conceived the idea of placing it under the rule of Feisal's martial brother Abdullah, at the same time as Feisal was bought off by granting him a monarchy over Iraq at Baghdad. Abdullah was quite disatisfied with the boundaries, as these deprived him of any coastline, or of much agricultural land. Among the sweetners offered to persuade him to accept despite this was a promise that no part of the territory of his Emirate would form any portion of the proposed Jewish "National Home" specified in the Balfour Declaration. Abdullah accepted Emirship over Trans-Jordan, and within a relatively short time, with some assistance from the Royal Air Force, put an end to guerrilla raids into Syria. Later, he was promoted to a reigning monarch in reward.

That was excellent. We can always depend on you.:-)

The unfortunate thing is that many Palestinians have fled to Jordan, as refugees.