This year, the Jewish festival of Hanukkah ran from December 12 through December 19. The celebration recalls the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after the Jews’ victory over foreign invaders 165 years before Christ’s birth. As I understood Hanukkah when I celebrated it with my Jewish classmates at Columbia University, it represents far more than a miracle of lights: it stands for the dedication of a people to freedom from foreign domination.
Today, 2,174 years later, descendants of the heroes of Hanukkah are themselves occupiers of another nation. Regrettably, all too many Israelis do not see the benefits of ending the 42 years of occupation over their neighbors’ land. Outspoken people the world over wonder whether Israel’s government will ever allow the 4 million Palestinians to live inside secure borders, free from Israeli military controls and Israeli settlers. And will Israel ever be willing to share Jerusalem as its capital with an independent Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?
Yet, the oppressive Israeli occupation and the violent Palestinian resistance to it have severely hardened the extreme nationalist recalcitrance on both sides. Fearing terrorist infiltration, Israel’s army is limiting Palestinians from working inside Israel and established a burdensome and humiliating system of border checkpoints, thus drastically reducing the Palestinians’ freedom of movement and standard of living.
In 2000, Israeli reprisals for violent Palestinian resistance led to assassinations of wanted Palestinians. In 2002, after several Palestinian suicide bombings, Israel began building a wall on West Bank territory, projected to be at least 400 miles long. The Israeli military has kept Palestinian towns under virtual siege with extended periods of curfew that are severely disrupting work and school.
Worse yet, the occupation forces have killed more than 3,500 Palestinians and destroyed numerous homes and olive groves. As could have been predicted, this Israeli terror only provoked more counterterror by Palestinian suicide bombers, both male and female. When Israelis celebrated Hanukkah this season, one wondered how many of them would rather be liberators than occupiers.
Due to the backroom arm-twisting by the Obama Administration, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu went against his hard-line nationalist instincts when he announced a 10-month freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. Now he faces the wrath of the organized Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Nevertheless, there will be continued building in East Jerusalem so that housing for over 300,000 settler residences can be completed while the construction of public buildings is also being sped up.
The claim of minority of Jewish hardliners that a state of 4 million impoverished Palestinians could drive the 7.5 million Israelis with their modern, mostly U.S. equipped armed forces “into the sea” defies credibility. Nobody in the Middle East, moreover, can faintly match Israel’s 150 nuclear warheads.
Recent polls have shown that a majority of both Israelis prefer the two-state solution, particularly if Israel’s security is guaranteed by the United States. The number of groups and projects that work to foster peaceful and productive co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians is much larger than ever reflected in U.S. media. Here a few examples.
Former Knesset member Uri Avnery, founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) in 1993. It has been keeping the drive for peace with the Palestinians alive in dozens of publications and hundreds of demonstrations. The Valley of Peace initiative promotes economic cooperation and new business initiatives which can help both Palestinians and Israelis. Olives of Peace is a joint Israeli-Palestinian business venture to sell olive oil. Hand in Hand runs a network of four bilingual (Arabic and Hebrew) schools that serve more than 800 students in Jerusalem, the Galilee, Wadi Ara, and Be'er Sheva.
In the U.S., the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" group J-Street appears to develop as a Jewish counterweight to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It published a poll of American Jews that finds broad support for American diplomatic efforts toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. That includes promoting a unified Hamas-Palestinian Authority government as a precondition for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.
Last not least, Rabbi Michael Lerner and his magazine Tikkun strongly object to Israel's occupation of the West Bank. He supports the adoption of the Geneva Accords as a basis for an independent Palestinian state.