Brit Tzedek v'Shalom

Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace

Educational Resources

recommended articles, January 2003

For articles on the following topics click below:

1. Current Events -
   1. Israeli Election
   2. The Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli Refusers
   3. Academic Boycotts
2. Brit Tzedek v'Shalom's Seven Principles
   1. Settlements
   2. Non-Violence
   3. The Occupation
   4. A Palestinian State
   5. Jerusalem
   6. Palestinian Refugees
   7. U.S. Foreign Policy
3. The Peace Process
   1. The Collapse of the Peace Process
4. Jewish Fears, Jewish Identity, Anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust
   

1. Current Events:
   
   
   1. The Israeli Election
      1. The Results are In, Peace Lost (January 29, 2003)
         By Gadi Taub New York Times
         An Israeli professor briefly and clearly explains the deadly, symbiotic Arafat-Sharon dynamic that is keeping both men in power.
         
         
      2. Likud wins almost double Labor's seats, Ha'aretz, January 28, 2003
         Likud has won a huge victory in Israel's election. Ariel Sharon now faces the difficult task of forming a stable government in the light of Labor's refusal to join a unity government and Shinui's refusal to sit with Shas.
         
         
      3. Political Observations (January 21, 2003)
         First Responses on a Disastrous Evening (January 29, 2003) (click on "What's New?" link)
         By Gershon Baskin, Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information.
         Gershon Baskin offers some pre-election observations on the likely outcome of the election and the slim opportunities for a peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. His post-election article looks for hope amidst the darkness and gloom of Israeli society.
         
         
      4. Israel waits for Godot (January 19, 2003)
         by Thomas Friedman, New York Times
         Friedman describes the disinterest, even despair, of Israelis in the run-up to the election. Without a candidate offering them a solution to grinding conflict, since "the Messiah is not on the ballot," they'll vote to re-elect Ariel Sharon.
         
         
      5. Labor: No to a Sharon Government by Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz,January 14, 2003
         Labor leader Amram Mitzna has announced he will not enter a coalition government that includes the Likud Party. If Labor follows through on this promise, this eliminates the scenario of National Unity Government in Israel's near future and asks Israelis to choose between a continuation of the hard-line Likud policy or a return to the negotiating table with Labor.
         
         
      6. It's Their Turn Now by Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, January 12, 2003
         The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that Israeli Arab MKs Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi can participate in the upcoming Israeli election, rejecting an attempt to prevent them from doing so. Levy calls on Israeli Arabs to turn out in large numbers and support the efforts of the peace camp.
         
         
      7. In Israeli Left-Right Divide, Center May Hold the Balance of Power by David Makovsky, January 10, 2003
         Journalist David Makovsky analyses the current state of the Israeli electorate in wake of recent scandals. He argues that Tommy Lapid's anti-religious Shinui party may hold the balance of power in determining the make up of the next Israeli coalition government.
         
         
      8. Voters Care Only About Security Issues by Nehemia Strasler, Ha'aretz, January 5, 2003
         A journalist explains that Israeli voters are most concerned about security problems, and trust Sharon more than the Israeli left to deal with them.
   2. The Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli Refusers
      1. Israel's Slippery Moral Slope By Neve Gordon, In These Times, January 31, 2003
         Neve Gordon describes the surreal "ends justifies the mean" philosophy exhibited by Israeli officers-in-training to whom he lectured about "leadership."
   3. Academic Boycotts
      1. Leading Oxford Scientists Condemn Academic Boycotts targeting Israel by Richard Allen Green, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 20, 2003
         Several leading British academics argue that academic boycotts which target all Israelis - regardless of their political views - are racist and should be opposed.

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2. Articles related to Brit Tzedek v'Shalom's Seven Principles
   
   
   1. Settlements
      1. Test Mr. Sharon Editorial, Washington Post, January 31, 2003
         The Washington Post endorses the idea of conditioning US economic aid on a full settlement freeze.
         
         
      2. Equivalent of Over Half of US Economic Aid to Israel Spent on Settlement Movement, Peace Now, January 23, 2003
         Peace Now reports that Israel is spending over half a billion dollars a year on settlements - equivalent to over half of US economic aid.
         
         
      3. Aiding Israel in Ending the Settlements by Debra DeLee, Washington Post, January 21, 2003
         The President and CEO of Americans Friends of Peace Now explains her organization's campaign to support Israel's request for additional US military aid while making additional economic aid contingent on a complete freeze on settlement expansion in the Occupied Territories.
         
         
      4. Guarantees to Perpetuate the Occupation by Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz, January 6, 2003
         Eldar lays out how the US is perpetuating the Occupation by becoming the first US Administration to completely ignore the issue of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. This is a sharp contrast to the first President Bush, who rejected loan guarantees in 1991-92 as long as Israel continued to build settlements.
         
         
   2. Non-Violence
      1. The Suicide Bombers by Avishai Margalit, New York Review of Books, Jan 16, 2003
         In this deeply disturbing article, Margalit describes the motivations of Palestinian suicide bombers and the horrific consequences that the ongoing cycle of violence has for both peoples.
         
         
   3. Occupation
      1. Half a Democracy By Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, January 26, 2003
         Levy argues that the continuing Israeli Occupation is undermining the future of Israeli democracy.
         
         
      2. You Can Drive Along and Never See an Arab by Amira Hass, Ha'aretz, January 22, 2003
         Amira Hass describes how the growing number of Israeli-only bypass roads connecting West Bank settlements is erasing the "Green Line" and literally cementing the Occupation in place.
         
         
      3. The New Math by Tom Friedman, New York Times, January 15, 2003
         The dean of American Middle East columnists argues that Ariel Sharon's "all-stick, no- carrot" approach will get him reelected, but in the long-run, continued Occupation will ultimately undermine Israel's future as both a democracy and a Jewish state.
         
         

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3. The Collapse of the Peace Process
   
   
   1. Traveling a One-Lane Road Yossi Alpher, Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2003
      Yossi Alpher argues that the only possible peace initiatives that currently stand any chance of success are the unilateral ones on each side: Israeli proposals for unilateral withdrawal and Palestinian proposals for stopping attacking on Israelis.
      
      
   2. Swing Your Partner By M.J. Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum, January 17, 2003
      Rosenberg deconstructs the oft-heard and rarely-refuted argument that "Israel lacks a partner for peace" by explaining that one obviously makes peace with its adversaries, not with its partners. Lack of a "partner" is no barrier to restarting peace negotiations.
      
      
   3. Partner for War By Henry Siegman, New York Review of Books, January 16, 2003
      Henry Siegman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, describes how Arafat's ineptness and Sharon's duplicity have created an ongoing dynamic that serves to perpetuate the status quo of continued violence by both sides
      
      
   4. Israel is Blocking the Road to Peace By Saeb Erekat, Financial Times, January 13, 2003
      The chief Palestinian negotiator explains how the Sharon government has been putting roadblocks in the path of a return to continued peace negotiations.
      
      

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4. Jewish Fears, Jewish Identity, Anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust
   
   
   1. Elective Affinities / Reality Bites, an interview with Amos Oz and David Grossman by Ari Shavit, Ha'aretz, January 10, 2003
      Two of Israel's leading intellectuals contemplate the complexities of Israeli and Jewish identity in the two years since the collapse of the Oslo Peace Process. Oz and Grossman reflect on a wide range of subjects including the peace process, Sharon, Arafat, the upcoming elections, anti-Semitism, terrorism, globalization, Islam, Christianity, and more.