Richard Silverstein 24 Febbraio 2009

As human beings, we are shocked and appalled at the mass destruction unleashed by the State of Israel against the people of Gaza in its military operation, following years of Israeli occupation, siege, and deprivation.

As Americans, we protest the carte blanche given Israel by the US government to pursue a war of “national honor,” “restoring deterrence,” “destroying Hamas,” and “searing Israel’s military might into the consciousness of the Gazans.”

As progressives, we reject the same justifications for the carnage that we heard ad nauseam from the supporters of the Second Iraq War: the so-called “war on terror,” the “clash of civilizations,” the “need to re-establish deterrence” – all of which served to justify a misguided and unnecessary war, with disastrous consequences for America and Iraq.

But as Jews of different religious persuasions, from Orthodox to secular atheist, we are especially horrified that a state that purports to speak in our name wages a military campaign that has killed over 1,400 people, a large percentage of them civilians, children, and non-combatants, with little or no consideration for human rights or the laws of war.

While the moral and legal issue concerning Israel’s right to respond militarily in these circumstance can be debated, there is near-universal agreement that its conduct of the military operation has been unjust and even criminal – with only the usual apologists for the Jewish state disagreeing.

As Jews, we stand united with another Israel, the patriarch Jacob, who cursed his sons Simeon and Levi for massacring the people of Shechem in revenge for the rape of their sister Dinah. Like Jacob, “we shall not be a party to the counsel of zealots. We shall not be counted in their assembly. (See Genesis 34. 49: 5-7).

As Jews, we stand united with the Jewish sages who rejected the zealotry of the Jewish “terrorists” at Masada, those who masked ethnic tribalism in the cloak of “self-defense” and “national honor.”

As Jews, we listen not only when the sage Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” but also when he says, “If I am only for myself, what am I?” Hillel’s closing words also ring true in this hour of decision when a full resolution of conflict is demanded of both sides: “If not now, when?”

Finally, as American Jewish progressives, and as human beings, we condemn Hamas and Israel for violating the human rights of civilians on both sides, although we do not necessarily declare these violations to be morally or legally equivalent. We affirm the rights of both Israeli and the Palestinian peoples to self-determination and self-defense, as we affirm the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Signers (affiliation for identification purposes only):

Rabbi Leonard Beerman
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Rabbi Efraim Ben-Yakir
Cantor Michael Davis
Cantor Richard Schwartz
Tony Judt, NYU
Howard Zinn, Boston Univ.
Noam Chomsky, MIT
Brian Leiter, Wilson Professor of Law, Univ. of Chicago
Daniel Boyarin, UC Berkeley
Shaul Magid, Indiana University
Irena Klepfisz, Barnard College
Adam Rubin, HUC-JIR (Los Angeles)
Mark Le Vine, UC Irvine
Daniel Garber, Princeton, Philosophy dept. chair
Ned Block, Silver Professor, NYU
Gideon Rosen, Princeton
Matthew Noah Smith, Yale
Aryeh Cohen, PhD, American Jewish University
Ilya Kliger, New York University
Aaron Greenberg, Univ. of Chicago
Paul Loeb
Alice Rothschild
Murray Polner, former editor, Present Tense
Larry Yudelson
Jerome Slater, SUNY Buffalo
Joanne Yaron, World Meretz
Chana Bloch, Mills College
Marilyn Hacker, CCNY
Rita Karuna Cahn, UC San Francisco
Nance Goldstein, University of Southern Maine
Gordon Fellman, Brandeis Univ.
Harry Mairson, Brandeis University
David L. Green, University of Illinois
Stephanie Sieburth, Duke
Priscilla Wald, Duke
E. James Lieberman, M.D., George Washington University School of Medicine
Norbert Hornstein, University of Maryland
David Auerbach, Univ. of N. Carolina, Raleigh
Joseph Levine, Univ. of Mass., Amherst
Shari Stone-Mediatori, Ohio Wesleyan Univ.
Ido Roll, Carnegie Mellon Univ.
Philip Wadler, University of Edinburgh
Assaf Oron, Univ. of Wash.
Clare Solomon, Washington Univ.
Judith Norman, Trinity Univ.
Steven Bell, Berry College
Charles Manekin, Univ. of Maryland
Yale Strom, UC San Diego
Aaron J. Lercher, Louisiana State University
Ira Glunts, Morrisville State College
Merle Bachman, Spalding University
Arnold Wechsler & Toni Dalton
Miriam Simos (Starhawk)
Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss
Dan Fleshler, Realistic Dove
Dan Sieradski, Orthodox Anarchist
Adrienne Cooper
Steven R. Shalom, William Paterson University
Eric M. Fink, Elon University School of Law
Bram Hubbell, Friends Seminary

Ilana Abramovitch, Ph.D.
Kate Abramson
Seth Ackerman
David Adler
Dina Afek
Delmas and Sally Allen
Tracy Allen
Marshall Ansell
Paul Ansell
Harry Appelman
Darwin Aronoff
Benjamin Arthur
Jesse Bacon
Sonia M. Baku
Walter Ballin
Adam Barolsky
Kathy Barolsky
Tsela Barr
David Basior
Elliott Battzedek
Peter Belmont
Phillip Belpedio
Nicolas M. Benacerraf
Lori Berlin
Judith Berlowitz, Ph.D
Murray & Marcia Bernstein
Nancy Bernstein
Elizabeth Biele
David Eugene Blank
Alan L. Blitz
Hedy Bookin-Weiner
Elisa Bowyer
Sallye Steiner Bowyer
Dennis Brasky
China Brotsky
Ellen Brotsky
Robert Browne
Steve Burke
Patricia Carmeli
Rina Chomsky
Liza DiPrima Cibula
Katherine Cohen
Drew Cohen
Shelly F. Cohen
G. Sherman Cole

Joel Dansky
Richard Deaton
Mariani Didyk
Pioter Drubetskoy
Elana Dykewomon
Bacia Edelman
Carole Edelsky, PhD
Steven R. Edelstein
Lynne Eisenberg
Liz Elkind
David M. Ellis Ph.D
Daniel Epstein
Anita E. Feldman
Andrew Felluss
Micah Fenner
Sarah Bendiner Fenner
Eva Ferrero
Raya Fidel
George Figdor
Daniel Fisher
Terry Fletcher
Dr. Chris Fox
Erwin Franzen
Stephen Saperstein Frug
Racheli Gai
Ellen Garvey
Doris Gelbman
Myles Gideon
Jim Glionna
Roberta Gold
Mary Goldman
Daniel Goldstein
Julius Gordon
Sarah Gordon
Bruce Gould
Julie Gozan
Jessica Greenbaum
Jonathan Grindell
Kathy Grisham
Sherrl Grosse Yanowitz Rogall
Kay Halpern
Tony & Hillary Hamburger
Lawrence R. Hamilton
Peter Handler
Wendy Hartley
Barbara Harvey
Glen Hauer
Paul J Heckler
Katherine Herman
Jacques Hersh
Dr. Annette Herskovits
Neil Hertz
Louis Hirsch
Hanna J. Hoffman, PhD
Jack Holtzman
Rebecca Hughes
Nomi Hurwitz
Spencer Jarrett
Rachel Kahn-Troster
Barbara S. Kane, PhD, LCSW
Ilene Kantrov
Gilda Katz
Wendy Kaufmyn
Mark Klempner
Aimée Kligman
Judith Kolokoff
Steve Kowit
Rebecca S. Krantz, PhD
Terry Krieger
Anton Kuerti
Seth Kulick
Judith Laitman
Susan Landau
Sheldon H. Laskin
Betsy Lawrence
Mirna Lawrence
Shamai Leibowitz
David Leipziger
Jack Leiss
Howard Lenow
Oded Adomi Leshem
Yossi Levanoni
Jeremy Levick
John F. Levin
Michael Levin
Rebekah Levin
Joan Levitt
Mary-Lee Lutz

Andy Mager
Marsha C. Manekin
Richard Manekin
Gideon Manning
Jacques Marchand
Vered Meir
Yitzhak Y Melamed
Marji Mendelsohn
Stefan Merken
Alan Meyers
Gert Meyers
Katya Miller
Sherin Miller
Susan Miller
Daniel Millstone
Sarah Anne Minkin
Cary Moskovitz
Rick Nagin
Richard Nanas
Dorothy Naor
Jim Newman
Germana Nijim
Sara Norman
Henry Norr
Leonard Bruce Novick
Diane O’Bannon
Elijah Oberman
Miller Oberman
Abigail Okrent
Benjamin Orbach
Dr. Stephen Oren
Tova Perlmutter
Karen Platt
Lynn Pollack
Dr. Betty Potash
Harriet Putterman
Avi Rab
Steve Raphael
Joyce Ravitz
Susan Ravitz
Deb Reich
Dorothy Reik
Carole Resnick
Avram Rips
Mara Rivera
Lee Robinson
Stewart Robinson
Danny Rochman
Jennifer Rose
Dorah Rosen
Penny Rosenwasser
Ellen Rosner
Sue Rouda
Novelle Saarinen
Lawrence Saltzman
Meg Sandow
Linda Siegel Sang
Marlena Santoyo
Karl Schaffer, PhD
Cindy Shamban
Wendy Scher
Madeline Schleimer
Eugene Schulman
Kayla Schwarz
Erik Schwarzfeld
Gerald Seligman
Janet Settle
Alexander Shalom
Alexi Shalom
Jessica Shalom Greenberg
Lee Sharkey
Nance Shatzkin
Dr Peter Sheridan
Brian S Sherman
Meryl Siegal
David Siegel
Jessica Siegel
Rich Siegel
Earl Silbar
Marc Silverstein
Shayna Silverstein
Esther P. Simon

Jeffrey Sklansky
Laura Sklarsky
Kathrin Smith
Daniel Sniderman
Louisa Rachel Solomon
Talli Somekh
Nicole Witte Solomon
Dr. Wendy Elisheva Somerson
Doug Sparling
Tova Stabin
Neta Stahl
Aaron Stark
Burton Steck
Jane Stein
Mark Stenzler
Mae Stephen
Lynne Strieb
Danny Stone
Robert Stone
Shirley Stone
Debbie Stone-Bruell
Uri Strauss
Leslie Sudock
Michele Sumka
Cecilie Surasky
Lois & Cy Swartz
Vera Szoke
Shana Tabak
Doug Tarnopol
Amir & Roni Terkel
David Tostenson
Barry Trachtenberg
Theodore Warmbrand
Norman Weinstein
Tom Weltsch
Janis G. White
Pat Willis
Michael Winograd
Robin Winogrond
Rachel Farrell Wofsy
Bruce Wolman, MD
Julie Wornan
Ellen Zaltzberg
Michael J. Zigmond


by Richard Silverstein

Source  > Richard Silverstein.com | Jan 22