In Friday's /roundup.asp?rid=&cid=6460 (link has expired) Legislative Round-Up I highlighted a new letter being circulated in the Senate by Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and James Risch (R-ID). The letter, which is the top item on the "Take Action" page on the AIPAC website, focuses exclusively on President Obama's call for Arab states to take steps to normalize relations with Israel, making no mention of the president's call for Israel to stop settlement activity (and implying that steps Israel has already taken - like removing some checkpoints and PM Netanyahu's belated support for the two-state solution - are sufficient demonstration of Israel's commitment to the peace process).
This morning, APN sent a message to every Senate office urging Senators to refrain from signing the letter unless and until it is amended to also reflect the real steps to achieve peace the President Obama has asked Israel to take. Full text of the APN letter to the Senate:
From: Lara Friedman
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 9:04 AM
Subject: APN to Senate: Bayh-Risch Letter Undermines Obama's Middle East peace efforts
Dear XXXX ,
Late last week a Dear Colleague from Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and James Risch (R-ID) began circulating in the Senate, related to the Obama Administration's efforts to promote Middle East peace. APN urges members of the Senate to refrain from signing this letter unless/until it is amended to reflect the real steps needed to achieve peace that President Obama has asked Israel to take.
On its face, the letter seems to make a straightforward and reasonable demand for the Arab world to normalize relations with Israel. As strong supporters of Israel who believe that Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace are critical to the viability and prosperity of the state of Israel, we would like to see this happen, and see a day when Israelis and Arabs can travel freely throughout the region and enjoy normal, good relations.
The subtext of the letter, however, directly contradicts and undermines the efforts of President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell to promote Middle East peace.
President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Special Envoy Mitchell are investing a huge amount of energy and political capital in trying to create a dynamic with Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states, asking all to take tangible steps that can create confidence in the peace process and help build momentum toward Middle East peace. This is a promising effort - one that holds out real hope for achieving Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace and, along with it, real normalization of Arab-Israeli relations.
- They are pressing Arab states to demonstrate good faith by taking a range of steps toward normalization of relations with Israel, in the context of meaningful steps taken by Israel toward peace. This is an effort that Congress should support.
- They are pressing the Palestinians to improve and expand on the positive actions already taken on security, to act forcefully against incitement, and to refrain from any action that would make meaningful negotiations less likely. This is an effort that Congress should support.
- With respect to Israel, as everyone knows, they are pressing on one main issue: for Israel to stop settlement activity. This position is consistent with longstanding US policy and with promises Israel has made, repeatedly, to past US administrations. It is also consistent with Israel's own best interests: settlements represent an economic, political and security liability for Israel. Settlements also erode the confidence, even among Israel's friends and supporters, that Israel is truly interested in peace, and make the eventual resolution of the conflict more difficult and more costly for Israel to carry out. This effort to get Israel to stop settlement activity is something Congress should also support.
The Bayh/Risch letter conspicuously ignores Israel's continued refusal to stop settlement activity and its recent decision to "up the ante" by approving a highly controversial settlement project in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem - a project that has been on hold for more than 20 years.
Indeed, the Bayh/Risch letter never once even mentions the word "settlements."
President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Special Envoy Mitchell are right to be pressing Arab states to match positive Israeli steps with positive steps of their own, and it is right for Congress to echo this message. But this letter sends a different message altogether: that signers of the letter do not support President Obama in his efforts to achieve peace for Israel and bring security, stability, and normalcy to the region. It sends a message that signers consider settlements more important than peace.
We look forward with longing to the day when there is real peace and full normalization of relations between Israel
and the entire Arab world. We strongly believe that the Obama Administration's approach offers the best
opportunity to achieve this goal.
We urge all Senators to support President Obama in his efforts, and to refrain from signing this unhelpful letter, unless and until it is amended to also reflect the real steps needed to achieve peace that President Obama has asked Israel to take.
Sincerely,
Lara Friedman
Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now
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Obviously, many Americans, maybe most, don't care about the settlements in Judea/Samaria. They are a particular obsession with the Jewish Left. Why is this? One would need a psychologist to really analyze but I would venture to say that it is a paranoid reaction to the inherent contraditions of being a "progressive Zionist". "Progressivism" is inherently a "Universalist" ideology, rejecting Jewish nationalism (Irish, Scottish, Palestinian nationalisms are okay, just not Jewish according to this world-view), and yet Zionism calls for the existence of a Jewish state. Add to this guilt feelings over the defeat of the Arab attempts to push the Jews into the sea in 1948 and 1967 (non-white people are always "victims" and thus must be pitied, no matter what aggressions they carry out). Thus, in order to transfer the guilt feelings off themselves, Jewish "progressives" rant and rave about the settlements, hoping that this will show them in a positive light to their fellow "progressives" who are essentially anti-Zionist and anti-Israel. This self-flaggelation is also designed to get the Arabs to acquiesce to Israel keeping everthing conquered in 1948, but which they adamantly refuse to do since they view ALL OF ISRAEL as "occupied Palestinian territory" and Tel Aviv as an "illegal settlement", not just those in Judea/Samaria. Thus, I can only say that Bayh and Rich have a much clearer view of the Arab/Israeli conflict than do the Jewish "progressives".
This is excellent and I will be interested in learning what the response is. B. Burston's article in 7/27 Haaretz about the need for Obama to sell these goals to Israelis seems important now.
Love the look of your site - are you having fun with it? Keep up the good work and good luck with your site!
I agree with the previous writer. Can APN encourage President Obama to speak directly to the Israeli people, very similar to what he did in Egypt? Having him make the visit and tell them they need to make the hard sacrifice of removing the settlements and compromise on Jerusalem is what is needed; I've totally lost faith that any of the Israeli leaders are capable of doing it themselves.
Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand,
I urge you NOT to sign/endorse the current Bayh/Risch Dear Colleague re President Obama's Mideast Policies. It fails to call on Israel to freeze all settlements (new and expanding). Arab countries require this at a minimum and have gone on record re this.
As my representatives, I urge you as lawyers to remember that ALL the settlements are illegal under international laws and to sign on to this Dear Colleague sends the wrong message to Israel. Israel must respect international law. Thank you.
Mary Buchwald
Unless the settlements are frozen, all chances of a two state solution are gone-then what?
If Obama "directly addresses" the Israeli people in a way to say that the United States maintains its "special relationship" with Israel, this will automatically mean to the Arabs that he is no different than all the previous Presidents, and it will destroy his attempt to show the US is pro-Arab. This is because the Arabs view the Israeli/Arab conflict as a zero-sum game.
Brit Tzedek has also called on its members to call their senators and relay the same message as in Lara Friedman's letter. So the message is being relayed both individually and corporately.
It is rather disengenuous of YBD to claim that the Arabs view the conflict as a zero-sum game as he has demonstrated repeatedly on this and other blogs that this is how he views it himself.
Tom-
Please show me, in their statements to their own people, that they want peace and don't view the conflict as a zero-sum game, and what they want is a Palestinian state side by side with a JEWISH state in a condition of prosperous cooperation. Please give me an example of a single leader of the Palestinian Authority that says this.