[Salon] Brownfeld letter to the WaPo -

To the editor, Washington Post. The Post article, “Settler violence against Palestinians Surges in West Bank,” tells an important story. According to the United Nations, since Oct. 7, at least 121 Palestinians have been killed on the West Bank. The U.N. Has recorded 171 settler attacks against Palestinians. Almost half of these incidents involved Israeli forces accompanying and actively supporting Israeli settlers. The Hamas terrorist attack against Israeli civilians was a horrible assault and is indefensible. But this should not cause us to ignore Israel’s behavior in the West Bank. It has occupied this territory in violation of international law for more than 50 years. Its three million Palestinian residents have no right to vote or legal rights. Their treatment has been characterized as “apartheid” by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Beyond this, their treatment is a violation of Jewish moral and ethical values. President Biden continues to speak of a “two state solution.” Sadly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects this and speaks of annexing this territory. Some members of his right-wing coalition speak openly of removing its indigenous Palestinian residents. Massive U.S. aid to Israel means that U.S. taxpayers are helping to subsidize this enterprise. Even Israel’s first Prime Minister recognized that Palestinians had legitimate grievances about their treatment. Not long after Israeli independence had been achieved, David Ben-Gurion told Zionist leader Nahum Goldmann, “Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We had taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it’s true, but two thousand years ago, but what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that.” Today, the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank want an independent state, which previous Israeli leaders had promised, and for which Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by a right-wing extremist. Yet, today’s Israeli government rejects such a concept. Israel calls itself a “Jewish state,” but there is nothing “Jewish” about mistreating people because they are of a different religion or ethnic group. Indeed, Zionism has, it seems, turned its back on the universal Jewish moral tradition which Jewish critics of Zionism such as Albert Einstein, Judah Magnes, Martin Buber and Hannah Arendt warned that it would. That tradition still lives among those who seek a world in which Jews, Christians and Muslims can live in peace and mutual respect. The extremists of Hamas and Israel’s right-wing want a different kind of world. Let us hope that they will fail in their efforts. Sincerely, Allan C.Brownfeld, Editor of ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism. (www.ACJNA.org)