CAN MODERATE JEWS IN THE DIASPORA AND IN ISRAEL GRASP THE CHANCE FOR REAL PEACE WITH PALESTINE?

Despite the efforts of the Arab countries around the Palestine/Israel region, particularly Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to bring about another shot at peace between Palestine and Israel, Israel’s leaders continue to refuse to budge on the issue of full withdrawal to the 1967 lines and on the issue of right of return of Palestinian refugees to their original homes that are now in Israel. Initially they said they were open to maybe talking about these issues but only because the Arab nations proposal, basically yet another resurrection of the original 2002 land-for-peace proposal, was supported by both US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Now, however, the Israelis, quite predictably, have backed off from direct talks where right of return and complete withdrawal are likely to be the topic of discussions.

But all need not be entirely lost. Time and time again in the past Israel has shied away from the opportunity of peace because it has never been offered on the terms that the right-wing Israeli Zionists would accept. And, of course, the world now knows that what the right-wing Israeli Zionists actually want is a Greater Israel that includes the West Bank, the Gaza, the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. But today things are a little different and there is a glimmer of hope, albeit a rather small glimmer, but a glimmer nonetheless whereby the moderate Jewish people of both the Diaspora, particularly in the US, and the Israelis themselves can grasp the opportunity to gain the peace they have always craved. All they need to do is speak with one voice and demand the peace they and the Palestinian people deserve, and all of the moderate peoples of the world should give their support to these demands and not rest until these demands are met.

If there is any good at all that could come from the disaster that has so far been most of the first decade of the twenty-first century then it must be the opportunity for the world to demand that Israel makes a fair and just peace with its neighbours. The American people clearly are fed up with losing their youth for a cause that is increasingly being seen as not theirs. So too in the UK, the people are likewise unhappy that their leader has taken them into a war that seems to have no end and was based on lies that right-wing Zionists in the US had evolved to instigate a war against Iraq just as they are now trying to push for war against Iran. Around the world the right-wing Zionists and their supporters in the US, the UK and elsewhere have been exposed for the liars and warmongers that they are.

It is up to the peoples of the world now. They know the wars are based on lies and they know those lies were created to justify wars that are only in the interests of the right-wing Zionists. Now all we need to do is say loudly and clearly: ‘Enough is enough. It’s time for peace!’