Naast zijn pleidooi een deling van Jeruzalem te overwegen, pleit Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky ervoor dat beide kanten hun fouten toegeven.
Kanefsky predicts that no peace conference will succeed until Israelis and Palestinians accept honest versions of their conflict and admit their mistakes over the past 40 years, including the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after the Six-Day War in 1967.
Kanefsky predicts that no peace conference will succeed until Israelis and Palestinians accept honest versions of their conflict and admit their mistakes over the past 40 years, including the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after the Six-Day War in 1967.
Veel Israëli's en Joden zijn Kanefsky reeds voorgegaan in het toegeven van de eigen fouten, van medeverantwoordelijkheid voor het conflict en het lijden van de Palestijnen onder de bezetting. Voor de duidelijkheid: ik vind dit op zich een goede zaak, en denk dat het noodzakelijk is om ooit tot vrede te komen. Maar er ontbreekt iets. Aan Palestijnse kant is nog steeds amper enige erkenning van het Palestijnse en Arabische aandeel in het conflict te bespeuren, of van erkenning van de legitimiteit van het Joodse streven naar zelfbeschikking. Mede daardoor wordt de veelvuldige erkenning van Joods/Israëlische kant van de eigen fouten soms ten onrechte geinterpreteerd als bewijs dat Israël inderdaad de hoofdschuldige in het conflict is, en slechts zij concessies zal moeten doen om tot vrede te komen.
Ratna
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Orthodox rabbi breaks taboo with talk of dividing Jerusalem
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20071028rabitab.html
By Tom Tugend Published: 10/28/2007
LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- A prominent Orthodox rabbi has broken a taboo by publicly advocating that his community consider a possible division of Jerusalem to achieve a lasting peace with the Palestinians.
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of B'nai David Judea wrote in Friday's Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles that the "worst-case scenario" of returning the Western Wall and the Temple Mount to Arab control would be horrifying and unfathomable to him.
"At the same time, though, to insist that the [Israeli] government not talk about Jerusalem at all (including, the possibility, for example, of Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods) is to insist that Israel come to the negotiating table telling a dishonest story -- a story in which our side has made no mistakes and no miscalculations, a story in which there is no moral ambiguity in the way we have chosen to rule people we conquered, a story in which we don't owe anything to anyone," Kanefsky wrote.
The 44-year old rabbi occasionally has startled Orthodox circles with his innovative ideas, but he enjoys wide respect among his peers in other denominations, who elected him to a term as president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis.
Kanefsky predicts that no peace conference will succeed until Israelis and Palestinians accept honest versions of their conflict and admit their mistakes over the past 40 years, including the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after the Six-Day War in 1967.
He acknowledges that the slogan "Jerusalem: Israel's Eternally Undivided Capital" is treated with "biblical reverence by my community," adding that it is "a corollary to the belief in the coming of the Messiah."
It is because of the unquestioned acceptance of this slogan by the Orthodox, as well as Christian evangelists, that he decided to initiate "a conversation that desperately needs to begin," Kanefsky wrote.
Within hours of the opinion piece's publication, reactions began to pour in to the Jewish Journal. Editor-in-Chief Rob Eshman said he received more than 100 letters, e-mails and phone calls about the article, along with a number of op-ed rebuttals.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported on Kanefsky's article as the lead story in its California state section, along with local and national reactions.
Predictably, comments in mainstream Orthodox circles were highly critical, while liberal rabbis and peace groups praised Kanefsky's views and his courage in speaking out.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the community's umbrella organization, is drafting a statement on the article. However, its Web site said "the Orthodox Union is preparing a comprehensive action plan which will call upon members of our community to join on the walls of Jerusalem and become her defenders against those who would divide her."
Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, denounced the article, telling the Los Angeles Times that "Rabbi Kanefsky is completely off-base. I think his call for this discussion is ridiculous. It would amount to religious suicide."
A Conservative Los Angeles rabbi, David Wolpe, also disagreed with Kanefsky's viewpoint.
"To give up Jerusalem to people who want to destroy your country is an emotional high jump you'd have to be better than an Olympic athlete to vault," he said.
However, another prominent Conservative rabbi, Harold Schulweis, applauded Kanefsky's courage "to touch the third rail, which this is. It is a mark of courage and conscience."
Reform Rabbi Laura Geller also praised Kanefsky as "a visionary leader" and hoped his article would lead to a thoughtful debate.
Divide Jerusalem to create a terrorist state?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenRabbi Kanefsky reflects a schizoid personality that the so-called ‘progressive’ Jews of LA suffer of, regretfully. In effect, they feed the anti-Semites and those who wish to wipe Israel off the map and at the same time encourage those intractable enemies of the West who seek world dominion such as fanatical Islam today, which include most of the Arab/Palestinians society.
Rabbi Kanefsky is removed from reality, facts and history.
AN OPEN LETTER TO RABBI KANEFSKY, A MUST READ. EDUCATIONAL.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenDear Rabbi Kanefsky,
Your efforts at upholding the truth are quite commendable. As you rightly said in your last paragraph, “There will be peace the day after there will be truth.” Unfortunately, truth has been ignored by politicians since the “peace process” started in 1993, which explains the existential anguish that Jews and Israelis are going through. I hope Israeli leaders will heed your call for disclosing the full truth so that they can embark upon a new era of lasting peace.
Of course, the pursuit of truth requires knowledge first. What are we to call “truth” if we have no clue of reality? Also, reality should be known in its entirety and this knowledge should not be truncated, as the Palestinians do, a point you aptly emphasize in your article. It is only when all the facts are brought to light that the full story can be told honestly. I have no doubt that honesty is paramount to you, as you mentioned this term – and any variations thereof – no less than 21 times in your piece.
I am prepared to grant you the mantle of honesty but only partially, very partially. Knowingly or not, you jumped on the honesty wagon before ascertaining the truth of what you wrote. And what you omitted from your exposé is so glaring that you are misinforming your readers in a grand scale. Like the Palestinians who regularly present their narrative in their distorted fashion, you too have grossly truncated the truth by limiting your view of reality to the post 1967 period. Had your vision not been so narrowly limited, you would have discovered that the international community recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people to the whole of Palestine, including Jerusalem, back in 1920; that Jewish settlement of the whole land, including Judea and Samaria, was not only allowed but highly encouraged; that these territories were not to be ceded to any foreign power; and that all those provisions received the imprimatur of international law.
Instead, you write that Israel is illegally occupying these territories; that the settlement of these lands should not have taken place; that this situation violates international law; and that those who challenge these views “refuse to read history honestly.” The most eminent legal experts in international law – Stephen Schwebel, Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, Eugene Rostow, Julius Stone and many others – would strongly disagree with each and every one of your assertions. On your side, though, you may find some allies in characters like Jimmy Carter; Arab academics of dubious credibility; the Neturei Karta sect; the leaders of Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah, as well as a host of their Jewish sycophants who have been thoroughly brainwashed by the very kind of article you just wrote. I leave it to you to choose the most credible camp.
Allow me, Rabbi Kanefsky, to conclude with a saying from the Talmud: “If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.” What you did in your article is far worse: you started by subtracting from the truth. This can only be attributed to ignorance, sloppiness or, dare I say, malice. Whatever the case may be, your 21 instances of the word “honest” ring hollow. I don’t know what drove you to jettison the collective rights of the Jewish people and to disparage Jewry in the process. But I suggest that you and your supporters get better informed and, most importantly, get finally over your guilty Jewish hang-ups.
Best regards,
S.B. Toronto, Canada
P.S.: You claim that those who oppose your views “have never offered any alternative solution.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. Consider just a few of the alternatives:
- Dr. Martin Sherman: “The Humanitarian Solution”,
- MK Benny Elon: “The Israeli Initiative”