I support Israel. I am disgusted with the inability of the Palestinians to recognize peace. But now, I write in disgust abut the right wing Israeli government’s apparent commitment to wither permanent occupation or out and out war. The US needs to extricate itself form the trap being created by Netanyahu and his settler supporters.
I am not an Israeli. I am a proud American, a US veteran, Jew and a Zionist. My own father led a US medical company giving first aid in Buchenwald, a memory that leaves deep scars in me. I want Israel to survive. In my name as all these things. and speaking for survival for the only Jewish state in the world, I urge the US State Department to take a much stronger public stance regarding the illegal outpost of Amona and new settlement developments in Hebron.
These actions by Israel’s right wing government are an existential threat to Israel itself.
During his August 24th press conference, State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said that if reports about what is happening in Hebron are true, “…it would represent a deeply concerning step of settlement expansions…”
As an American who sees the need for peace in the Middle East, I am frightened. The Israeli government is creating an irreversible situation that can only end in a war that will bring in not only the Arab states but the disdain of a world that has little strategic interest in Israel’s survival.
The action in Hebron violates good sense, international law, and even contravenes Israel’s own laws. While, I know about the massacres of the 20s and I know that that the Hebron properties belonged to Jews before 1948, the same can be said of property within Israel that once belonged to Arabs.
In effect Israel is implementing its own “right of return” in territories never recognized by anyone, including Israel and our own government, as part of the Israeli state. The precedent for any peace between two states is unimaginable unless Israel is willing to welcome back 100s of thousands of Arab refugees who would claim their right of return within Israel itself.
What is happening with respect to Amona is another example. Without even the previous Jewish history as in Hebron, the Netanyahu government is encouraging expansion of an illegal settlement presence deep in the West Bank heartland. This land is being unabashedly seized from from defenseless Palestinians.
The U.S. recognizes the rising threats Israel faces in the region. At the same time, the U.S. needs to recognize its own limits. If Israel is determined to act this way, it will become a pariah state .. “it” in this case meaning the US as much as it means Israel.
We need to stop the Hebron and Amona settlement projects, recognizing the rising threat they pose to peace and the two-state solution.
Stephen Schwartz
Professor of Pathology
Cdr (ret) USN Medical Corps