A letter from a Rabbi

The following is a letter send by a British rabbi to members of his congregation:

Tuesday 13 January, 2009
17 Tevet, 5769

Dear Community

I have never before written to the community twice in one week. But so many people, of many different opinions, all full of anguish over the present and hope for a better future, have spoken to me.

The terrible events unfolding in Israel and Gaza have immense significance for the hope of peace in the Middle East and also affect the future of Jewish Muslim relations, and relationships within wider society, in Europe and the world. I have a heavy and torn heart.

First of all, my prayers for safety and protection are with all our loved ones who may be in danger wherever they are, and with all those who are suffering.

My conscience tells me that I have a religious duty to assert and strive adequately for the value of life, all life, every life. I understand Jewish ethics to teach the inestimable value of every single life and that human rights know no boundaries of race or nation. I therefore beg everyone to pray, act and toil for peace and understanding, however absurd such a plea may at times seem.

I realise as I write that, unlike many members of the community and their children, I do not know what it is like to fight, or see my children fight, for my country. I do not at all know what it has been like to live in Sderot for years with constant danger, or indeed now Ashkelon and Beer Sheva. I do not know and cannot imagine what it must be like to be an ordinary person in Gaza for all these hopeless years, with children, in utter fear now, caught between Hamas and Israel, with the ceaseless sounds of gunfire and rockets.

I do not need to repeat in these circles our abhorrence for Hamas and their culture of terror and murder. I have seen the tears and heard the cry of many whose beloved children and relatives have been killed. There is an utter cynicism and culture of death within Hamas which is terrifying. They have killed huge numbers of their own population. That Israel could not tolerate thousands of rockets being fired with the deliberate intention of killing anyone and everyone, that is to my mind unarguable. If you have any doubt, look on Hamas’ website. Listen to Colin Shindler’s well informed lecture. The rockets must stop.

But I am also saddened and anguished, I know everyone is, at the awful suffering and loss of life in Gaza. This was said many times at the rally. We should have paid more attention to that suffering long ago. That Hamas criminally and cynically uses innocent people as a human shield does not, as we know, clear us of all moral responsibility for whatever happens. All innocent blood cries out to God and to the human conscience. We too have our responsibilities and cannot hide from them. That is why we must call out for the sake of life and peace. Rabbis for Human Rights, to which I belong, are striving courageously as an expression of the love of Israel to ensure that the wounded of all sides are evacuated and cared for and that we do not do more wrongs.

I attended the rally in Trafalgar Square, believing it essential to stand up as a Jew, to support the right of Israel to exist and its right to respond to Hamas, but horrified, pained and fearful about the terrible loss of life in this war. How much blood has been shed? How many people are wounded and terrified? How many people are dazed and grief stricken? What suffering on both sides, about which we have thought too little, lies behind all this? How much new hatred is now being born? How is good to come of this? How is this to be turned into peace? Every speaker stressed our pain for what is happening to the people both of southern Israel and also of Gaza. But we have to mean it, not just say it. That is why we must act, pray and plead that this violence must truly end for good.

Other issues emerge out of this war. We must not be intimated by such slogans as ‘We are all Hamas now’. Terrible things have been said to, and about, Jews and awful threats have been made. We must challenge them.

At the same time we have a responsibility to reach out across the widening gulf of fear, anger and pain, to friends and colleagues in the Muslim community. Where we can, we should talk together, mourn together, hope together. Otherwise we too will find ourselves unable to look each other in the face, without anything we can say or anyone we can say it to. This is urgent and it’s for us to do here, in London, in Britain now.

People have asked me where to go to read different analyses of what is happening in Israel and Gaza, other than the British media or official views for and against. The obvious answer is the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post online. Here, there are a huge range of trenchant and important views from the left to the right of the spectrum.

People have also asked me what we can do.

We should keep closely in touch with friends and relatives in Israel. Contact from us is really, really important. Where we have friends and colleagues in the Muslim community we should keep communication alive. We can share our pain over the loss of all life and our hopes for a better future for all.

We can give money to hospitals caring for the wounded, in Israel, Gaza and elsewhere and to organisations (I only know of them in Israel at this point and they include the Masorti Movement) which help take ordinary people, especially children, out of the range of the conflict.

We should pray, for our loved ones, for Israel, and Gaza, for the wounded and the grief stricken, and for a swift, enduring end to this fighting.

May peace come quickly.

Jonathan Wittenberg


I attach this plea by Daniel Barenboim:

"For the last forty years, history has proven that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be settled by force. Every effort, every possible means and resource of imagination and reflection, should now be brought into play to find a new way forward. A new initiative which allays fear, acknowledges injustice, and leads to the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike. An initiative which demands of all sides a common responsibility : to insure equal rights and dignity to both peoples, and ensures the right of each person to transcend the past and aspire to a future." Daniel Barenboim

Wednesday's letter from Gaza

Dear friend 14/1/2009

Due to the rejection by Hamas of the Egyptian initiative yesterday, I was expecting a hard night , but I was wrong and I gained a long night's sleep , until I woke up on a very big bombardment from an F16 at 5:00 early morning .
I thought that this was in our area only , but I discovered that movement of the Israeli army in all fronts where it exists , was slow and not violent as usual , although the Israeli radio said that last night there were 10 injured soldiers .

On the other side the number of Palestinian victims comes to about 976 most of them were children ( 30%) , women (10%), and innocent civilians (30-40%).
Israeli radio quoted that the one side ( Israeli) cease fire will start today at 13:00 local time for 3 hours . It seems that Israel is changing the timing of the one side cease fire every day to prove to the Palestinians in Gaza that they have the upper hand .

Yesterday conversations with the people whom I met , all wanted this war to have an end , and blaming the leaders of Hamas who are sitting watching in Damascus while the civilians are killed every day in Gaza.
While I am writing this message( at (08:30) ,there were several big bombardments , which we don’t know yet what had been shelled .
We hope that the visit of Ban Key Moon to the area will be fruitful , to end this bloody and dirty war .
Some friends said that may Hamas is waiting for the new resident of the White House in the USA , which means that we have to continue this war for another week ! Everybody in Gaza is suffering , and wants this war to have an end soon . I heard that Hamas proposed a one week cease fire , but this proposal was rejected by Israel . An Israeli official is quoted that the cease fire of 3 steps is almost ready and to be implemented early next week !!!

On the occasion of the visit of the chairman of the Red Cross International to Gaza yesterday , I'd like that some of you to contact the Red Cross International to assist in protecting our Palestinian Ambulances , as well as the Civil Defense vehicles which is considered as targets by the Israeli Air fighters . Several paramedics and Civil Defense officers have been killed during their work to give assistance to the others ( In many cases , the Israeli army forbids the ambulances to reach the injured persons for long time , which resulted to death due to bleeding !! ).

Also while writing this message , and listening to my small radio (adjacent to me for 24hrs a day ) , I heard the Israeli radio quoting the fall of 2 Katusha rockets on Kiryat Shmona at North Israel ( This is considered the 2nd fall since 8/1/2009).

Although it is not so important for me , but the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics estimated the total economic loss in this war until 12/1/2009 by US$ 1.4 billion ( I have my share in this loss !!!) .

Just Imagine....

Just in case this cartoon is unclear, it depicts, under the headline "Just Imagine..." a Hamas jet fighter bombing Tel Aviv as the Hamas fighter pilot speculates "Ha! This will make the Israelis turn against their government! "

Think about it, friends, especially my Israeli friends, think about it....

Today's letter from Gaza

My friend from Gaza writes today:

Last night can be considered quieter than the night that preceded it, especially in the South-Western side of Gaza City .... But this night was marked by heavy machine-gun fire from the helicopters, in addition to other arms such as tanks , Navy artilleries and F16 air fighters , which bombed several Buildings : One of them was the Resident of Mohammad Dahlan, which was confiscated by Hamas since the coup in June 2007.
As a result of this strike , the house of my cousin next to him was partially damaged ( member of Parliament from Fatah ), where his home was a safe haven for a large group of relatives who were representing 3 families in addition to his family!!

Another site which was struck by the F16 was a gas station which burst into flames and smoke still rising from it at the time of writing this letter.

Doctors in Gaza said that Israeli Army may be using Phosphorous missiles due to the burns they noticed on both dead and injured persons .

One can smell the war in every place in Gaza as a result of the excessive use of arms .
There was a continuous bombing raid on the smuggling tunnels in Rafah, in addition to the bombing on all fronts, especially the areas along the Gaza border with Israel (north, east and south) and by the Israeli navy war ships on the coast of Gaza.

The number of rockets fired from Hamas at Southern Israel yesterday, was 12 rockets and the day before it was 15 rockets , compared with about 50-80 rockets per day at the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip !!!

However, on the other hand , we find that the number of casualties on the Palestinian side is increasing, especially among civilians, were number of victims yesterday was , about 38, mostly civilians, while Israel claimed that the death toll yesterday was 50 , most of them were Hamas fighters!!!

In my view, although the Israeli government had announced the recruitment of the reserve for the start of Phase III, but I think that there is a political dynamic on the cease-fire because Israel is afraid of entering the cities where all of very high density, because this will cost Israel many victims ( leaders didn't want to lose many victims before the parliamentary elections in Israel on 10/2/2009) , in addition that such entering will take much time (several months and perhaps a year or more). So I think that the work of the Israeli operations now is to move these troops from their positions to clear ( raze ) the land around it with the assistance of aircraft of all kinds.

Today , the Hamas delegation will come to Cairo, consisting of 3 members from the Gaza Strip and a 2 member of the Damascus Hamas leaders to continue the discussions on a cease-fire . This led to make Amos Gilad to delay his visit to Cairo by one day (tomorrow) , as by tomorrow may be the Egyptians will have answers from Hamas ( The Egyptians looks optimistic ) .

The statement of President-elect Obama that the U.S. Would put the case for war on Gaza, on the top of his priorities when being the President of USA on 20/1/2009 , so may this convince the Israelis that this process should be terminated as soon as the required internationally.

Personally and due to the horror and psychological situation we live , my spastic colon started to operate since many days ago !!

As per all my messages to you , let's hope that such dirty war will come to an end soon , and before it will be too late !!!

An Open Letter to an Israeli Friend

An Open Letter to an Israeli Friend

by Samir El-youssef, a Palestinian living in Europe

Dear Friend

Yet again we find ourselves on opposite sides of a divide where people believe that their own action is totally justified while the reaction of the other side is sheer aggression. Yet again we find ourselves resorting to silence fearing that what we might say could be interpreted as a statement of disloyalty to either one’s own people or to one’s friends on the other side. And yet again we face the challenge of envisaging a language that could spare us both the shame of silence and the accusation of treason; a language that in spite of everything would up hold our hope for peaceful co-existence.

Indeed, the question, is it possible still to speak about peace- and I am not talking here about the meaningless ritual of ‘going back to the negotiation table’- when all this happening? For, let’s face it, what’s happening in Gaza is as ugly as hitting a disabled person. Yes, this disabled person could be a belligerent neighbour from hell; still, battering him is ugly and so is bombarding Gaza, precisely because it is Gaza, where daily life has for many decades been punishment enough without being the target of mass bombardment.

But then- let me ask the question on your behalf- what should Israel do? Wait until this disabled person (to go on with the analogy) possess weapons dangerous enough to kill hundreds or even thousands of Israeli civilians?  No- and here I switch back to speak on my behalf- but without the Israeli siege of Gaza there would have been no justification for rocket attacks in the first place. To which you are bound to respond: Gaza has been under siege because Hamas is an illegitimate power; and it is a fascist organisation of which the destruction of Israel is a major aim. And I could reply and you could reply back and so on, each sitting safely in the lap of his tribe, praising its wisdom and condemning the other’s. Thus, rather than defending the hope of peace, we could easily end justifying the war and the continuation of the state of war. So what is the alternative language and approach, if there’s any?

We have long agreed that to believe realistically in the possibility of peace in Palestine/Israel one must be able to sustain an enduring, hard, and possibly disparate hope; so disparate that sometimes it could only be seen in the most causal of statements and tinniest of signs. And that’s how it seems now; hope need to be dug from under the rubble.  First we need to ignore the shamelessly game-like visual coverage of the media; and let’s for a minute forget the fanatic ideology of Hamas and the cynic agenda of the Israeli Government (rather than protecting Israeli citizens from Hamas’ rockets, it has been widely claimed, that this military operation is a part of the Kadima Government’s election campaign to win voters by proving to them that it could be as tough as the right wing parties.) let’s ask: could we see anything positive or good behind all this?

The answer is yes, but only if we see it in terms of real politics, that’s if we see the actions of both parties not so much in terms of declared ideological or political goals but as an attempt to hold on to their political power. I believe that each Hamas and the Kadima Government of Israel wants the other to deal with it prudently; that’s to deal with each other’s existence without the dictates of ideology and rhetoric. Both Hamas and Israel want to remain sworn enemies, but only on the conveniently ideological and rhetorical level, while in reality each wants the other to allow it to operate within its own domain without hindrance.

Like any political power Hamas wants to enjoy being in control; war would only spoil their fun and that’s why they have been offering truce to Israel. But Israel and its allies, including the Palestinian Authority of Fatah, have been making it hard for Hamas. The Kadima Government of Israel, on the other hand, wishes to stay in power through fulfilling its promise of reaching peaceful solution through the disengagement plan. Judging by the recent, and daring, announcements of Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmret, the Kadima party believes that if Israel withdrew from all the occupied territories, its neighbours would probably leave it in peace. Lunching rockets from an area which Israel has evacuated, Hamas, therefore, doesn’t only endanger the lives of Israeli civilians but also damages Kadima’s ambition. To put it all simply, what both Hamas and Israel want is to have the kind of a long prudential arrangement that has always existed between Syria and Israel; they are sworn enemies but their common borders are the most peaceful borders between any two countries in the Middle East.

This exactly what Israel has accomplished on the Lebanese-Israeli borders since its war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. Contrary to wide spread belief, Israel didn't then fail completely. True, Israel didn't manage to destroy Hezbollah and nor to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers but Israel, albeit, indirectly, forced the leaders of Hezbollah to behave prudently. It's not surprising that for two years and a half, Hezbollah has respected the cease-fire, nor is it a mystery that Hezbollah in spite of its enflamed rhetorical support of Palestinians in Gaza has not taken the expected step of attacking Israel in order to lift some of the pressure off Hamas' fighters.

Hezbollah has not abandoned its fanatic destructive ideology, nor does it lack the military capability to attack and inflict great pain on Israel. It is now the strongest military power in Lebanon and probably the most influential political party (I personally believe that Hezbollah is the real government) and precisely because it is so powerful, and wants to remain so, it can not afford the risk getting into a new war with Israel. Hezbollah knows that attacking Israel wouldn't stop the Israelis from battering Hamas; at best it would only defy Israel’s sense of security and for which Lebanon will end paying dearly. But for Lebanon to suffer yet another massive destruction for no other purpose but to defy Israel is bound to be seen by Lebanese, including Hezbollah’s constituency, as irresponsible. The party of God can not afford to compromise its position among the Lebanese and therefore can’t be seen irresponsible. 

Similarly in Gaza now. Israel has learned its lesson from its war with Hezbollah and has no longer boasted about destroying Hamas. Still, it seems even the declared, and justifiable, aim of putting an end to Hamas’ rockets is not achievable. Israeli Government must know it, yet it continues, not out of stubbornness but because, I believe, it has another idea in mind, to show Hamas the price of the rockets, to tell them: “Every time you throw rockets that’s how much you’d have to pay back? Can you afford it? And is it worth it?” Hamas, on the other hand, will not stop not because they are under the illusion that they could militarily defeat Israel, and not particularly to show the Israelis that they have failed, but rather to remind them that the situation hasn’t changed; Gaza is still under siege and as long as Gaza under siege rockets firing will continue. The solution, which would come eventually through a cease-fire agreement, is to agree on a Syrian-Israeli like prudent arrangement; Israel and Hamas agree to remain enemies but without fighting; Israel lifts the siege off Gaza and Hamas stops rocketing Israeli cities; a truce for the foreseeable  future.

Prudence is not peace but it’s the best available chance to stop the killing of civilians and destruction and perhaps to save the wounded hope of peace from the rubble of Gaza, possibly for only a short time until the next round of bloodshed; but we must never give up!

Your Palestinian friend, faithfully.

Going on a cruise

It's trivial, it's almost ridiculous but it illustrated to me for the nth time the incredible divide between us Israelis (mostly western, Jewish and middle class) and Palestinians who live so close to us in very difficult circumstances.

I am off in a couple of days on a family adventure - a cruise in the Mediterranean on one of those nice cruise ships. Not a vacation that I would have thought of - it's also rather expensive even for middle-class bourgeois types like myself - but my father (95 years old and in amazing shape) suggested it and invited us, so who could or would refuse. I don't expect to have email contact for a couple of weeks so I prepared the following signature on my emails:

Please note that I will be away from my desk (on a cruise vacation in the Mediterranean) until 4th August and therefore unlikely to see or to reply to any emails till then. Thanks for your patience!

Today I got a call from a Palestinian activist in Gaza who belongs to the Fatah and with whom I had some dealings in the past in the framework of Middleway, a Jewish-Arab peace NGO. We hadn't heard from some time from this Palestinian but I heard that he called a colleague a few days ago and told her that his house had been blown up by the Hamas. Today he told me that he just came out of hospital and asked me to send him an email. He probably wants help of some kind. I clicked the Compose button and the above signature came up and suddenly I thought to myself - what would he think? I'm going on a cruise and he's a Fatah member in Gaza.

A British playwright once described the experience of driving (in the "good" old days) with a British diplomat from Tel Aviv to Gaza - a journey of barely 2 hours without checkpoints. He said it was like traveling from California to Bangladesh. Two worlds. Will we ever be able to bridge them?