But I don’t think it’s too much to expect that they accept the Jewish national presence. I don’t think it’s too much for the moderate Palestinian leadership to come forward and say that Israel is core to the Jewish collective identity and that it should be accepted as such. I’d expect that, for example in the area of confidence buiding that at least the PA organs stop delegitimizing the Jewish connection to Israel/Palestine. And I certainly cannot see a long term settlement if the best the Jews get is a 99 year truce.

I agree that Israel’s policies in the West Bank are not the same thing as South African apartheid. However, it is also true that in the occupied territories, Israel has two separate forms of justice for Jews and Palestinians, maintains Jewish-only roads and tunnels and Jewish only checkpoints – and it is certainly difficult to deny that if this current reality continues to the point that a two-state solution is no longer possible, then Israel will indeed eventually resemble something very close to S. Africa.

In writing my posts this past week, it was certainly not my intention to demonize Israel, nor to be inequitable in my analysis of the conflict. I was only trying my best to be reflect the truth of my experiences and to shine a light on certain realities about Israel that are often ignored (consciously or not) by the organized Jewish community. Those of us who love Israel and dream of what Israel can and should be must be willing to honestly face these realities, however painful.

On the subject of the Palestinians’ unwillingness to accept Israel as a “Jewish national state:” I believe that most Jews do not understand what a tremendously loaded term this is for Palestinians – nor do I think that we fully comprehend the ramifications of this when some Israeli politicians insist upon it in negotiations. In particular, it shows a certain insensitivity to what the establishment of a Jewish national state has wrought for their people. But I also don’t believe (nor, for instance, do Palestinians such as Hanan Ashrawi) that such an acceptance is a prerequisite for a peace agreement. There is a big difference between validating the right of another state to exist according to the specifics of their self-definition and simply accepting the reality of another state that exists side by side with you.

I would submit that if we are looking for confidence building measures from the Palestinians (and we certainly should), asking them to pledge allegiance to Zionist principles may be asking a bit too much…

Brant, I think one of the really valuable messages from your blog this week is that we must be careful in over- generalizing on either side — clearly, there are many facets to the “Israeli” and “Palestinian” stories. Let us hope that this kind of witness can help us have a more educated, nuanced discussion than is often the case.

As one of those Americans who have visited and lived for more than a week or two among the Palestinians and Israelis who struggle with the heavy burden of attempting to move towards these goals, I know what a challenge it is to absorb and then resolve for oneself the incredible web of contradictions, hopes and fears that are expressed to American visitors. (I was a volunteer, in the fall of 2004, with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Palestine and Israel (sponsored by the World Council of Churches).

I will be sure to follow your reports with great interest, and have alerted my friends, colleagues and others to do the same.

I do have to wonder why the need to compare to S. Africa on your part. It’s part of the continuing deamonization of Israel, and you should not be playing into that, even when critical of Israeli policy.

Anyway, history shows that even right wing leaders (Begin, Sharon) including Bibi when he was PM, had a willingness to compromise. There is an arguement to be made (in fact you made it as it applies to the Jews, but not the Arabs) that confidence building is an important step. Without re-fighting the past (that would go nowhere) the fact is the checkpoints are a response to a security situation and the intifada.

Of course if both sides would live up to committments, there would have been a peace agreement decades ago.

I hope you will ask the question when you meat with PA leaders, when they, even the moderate leaders, will openly accept the reality and justice of Israel as a Jewish national state. Seems to me that for the Jews, especially Reconstructionist Jews, this is line that can’t be crossed. And they openly (Abbas, Erekat) have said in recent weeks, this is something they do not accept.