The Jewish Week just posted an op-ed by Debra DeLee suggesting that President Bush reach out to President-elect Obama in order to formulate a strategy to deliver on a lasting ceasefire. Read on…

This morning APN issued the following new statement on the Gaza crisis.  An action alert based on this statement (urging activists to contact members of Congress) will be issued soon.

Also, check our main page (www.peacenow.org) for coverage of Peace Now’s remarkable efforts in Israel.

APN Statement on the Gaza Crisis
January 2, 2009

Supporting Israel Means Seeking a Ceasefire, Now.

We enter this new year in the midst of a new crisis in the Middle East.

Israel is again at war in Gaza.  This tragic turn of events should surprise no one.  Over the past few weeks and days, Israelis, Palestinians, and the world have been witnessing the unfolding of a serious and dangerous military escalation between Israel and Hamas, bringing ever-increasing casualties and ever-growing fear and trauma to innocent people on both sides – people who want nothing more than to live normal lives with peace and dignity.

The government of Israel has the right – indeed, the obligation – to take measures to bring to a halt the terror of incoming fire from the Gaza Strip into communities of southern Israel, as well as to seek to free its captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.

This right and obligation poses tremendous challenges for Israel, given the nature of Hamas and its rule in Gaza.  The decision to try to pressure Hamas through boycotts and the imposition of a near total siege on Gaza has clearly failed, while bringing the people of Gaza to the brink of an entirely man-made humanitarian disaster.

The decision earlier this year to establish a ceasefire was a right one.  Unfortunately, that decision alone was insufficient to achieve long-term stability, since it was not part of a broader, realistic strategy to deal with the fundamental issues at stake.  The breakdown of that ceasefire reflects this failure.

Now, in the face of the current crisis, simply escalating the violence is not going to resolve the situation.

Israel’s military leaders know that while the IDF can achieve short-term tactical gains in Gaza, the Israeli military cannot destroy popular support for Hamas, stop all rockets from falling, or force the release of Gilad Shalit.

Indeed, this escalation risks playing into the hands of extremists, while increasing dangers to both soldiers and civilians – Israeli and Palestinian – and getting Israel bogged down in an open-ended mission in Gaza.

It also raises the specter of a two-front war, should Hizballah decide to renew conflict on Israel’s northern border, with all the challenges to the IDF and danger to Israeli civilians that this would entail.

Many argue that this is precisely what Hamas wants.

We argue that these are important reasons to seek to avoid further escalation and move quickly to a ceasefire.

We are not naive.  We recognize the extraordinary difficulty Israel faces in achieving any sustainable ceasefire agreement, formal or informal, with an extremist, ideologically-motivated organization like Hamas.

We also know that the breakdown of the recent ceasefire does not prove that ceasefires are futile.  Rather, it demonstrates the danger of treating a ceasefire as an end unto itself.

As we have warned repeatedly in the past – indeed, every time we have called for a ceasefire – a ceasefire is useful and desirable only as a means to halt violence and chaos in the immediate term, creating the space to facilitate improvements in the humanitarian situation, stabilize the political situation, and get the process back on track to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Absent improvements in the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the re-emergence of a serious, productive political process, any ceasefire risks becoming merely an intermission to allow those attacking Israel to re-arm, re-trench, and enhance their military capability.

Sadly, this is exactly what happened under the ceasefire that just ended.

Looking ahead, the only way out of the current crisis is to re-establish a ceasefire, but this time not as a short-term fix but rather as part of a serious, longer-term strategy to deal with the core issues at play in Gaza.

In this way, and only in this way, a ceasefire can allow the sides to avoid the re-emergence of violence in the longer term.   The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, at its heart, a political conflict. Palestinian terrorism against Israel – including Hamas-fired rockets from Gaza – is a horrendous aspect of this conflict that cannot be brought to an end simply by increasing the harshness of the Israeli response.

Finally, the painful lessons of the 2006 Israel-Hizballah War should not be lost here.  Any realistic, sustainable resolution to this crisis will require Israel and Hamas to engage eventually, directly or indirectly, to achieve a ceasefire.

The only real questions thus are:

* How many more Israelis and Palestinians will die or be wounded in the interim?

* How much less international sympathy Israel will have when the ceasefire is being negotiated?

* How much bigger will the disaster on the ground be, both in Israel and Gaza, once a ceasefire is achieved?

* How much damage will have been done to the credibility and viability of the peace process and the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps?

* And perhaps most importantly, will a ceasefire this time be accompanied by both the kind of changes on the ground and the establishment of some sort of political process necessary for it to succeed?

Following a recent APN Action Alert on the topic, and an APN letter to the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) from APN, signed by a number of important Israelis and American Jews, many APN activists have been (and are still) writing to the SWC to protest the construction of the “Museum of Tolerance” on the site of the Mamilla cemetery in Jerusalem.  In response, they are receiving from the SWC an emailed document entitled “Important Facts on the Israeli Supreme Court Ruling in Favor of the Museum of Tolerance,” which purports to refute the various criticisms of the project.

APN agrees that the facts are important, so my brilliant friend and colleague in Jerusalem, Danny Seideman, and I have produced a Q & A primer entitled “Setting the Facts Straight Regarding the Museum of Tolerance” — we review all of the facts (and claims) in detail, and also provide a compendium of articles (analysis, opinion, and reporting) that may be of use to people who care as much as we do about this subject.  Enjoy!

Check out my new op-ed / analysis in the Washington Times on how Obama could leverage the Arab League’s peace initiative to kick-start the peace process.

Doug Bloomfield was not the only one who called the Conference of Presidents and the Daily Alert that it sponsors on ignoring the settlers’ Hebron rampage. The New York Jewish Week editorialized on it and the Forward published a news story.  Blogger Richard Silverstein’s posting on this is also worth checking out.

Doug Bloomfield rips the Conference of Presidents’ Daily Alert in this week’s Washington Jewish Week for the Conference’s reluctance to even mention settler violence. Interestingly, today’s Daily Alert did mention the Hebron rampage; better late than never.

Today’s Ma’ariv published a poll indicating that Likud is starting to slip in terms of how many seats it would capture in the upcoming Knesset elections. Read on…

Those familiar with this space will want to know the very sad news that our frequent participant, Meir Carasso, died several months ago. Herewith, an appreciation that appeared in the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) on September 7:

Read on…

On 12/1/08, Cohen writes: ”Getting to such a two-state deal at, or close to, the 1967 borders will require concerted U.S. involvement from day one of the Obama administration. Its tone should be one of tough love, with the emphasis on tough.”

READ

Leonard Fein received the 2008 Elizabeth Wyner Mark Peace Award on November 13, 2008, in Boston

Here are his remarks:
Read on…