'Peace Now' is a grassroots political activists organization which claims to be dedicated to the cause of Peace. It feels that Peace could be had quickly, and that the decision is up to Israel. All Israel need do is make the decision to take the appropriate risks and to try something new: Peace.
Is 'Peace Now' a pro-Peace group, or is it a pro-Arab group?
Gilad Haymann, long-time member of Peace Now, continues to attack the organization for its support of the Palestinian cause. Haymann, an assistant to Labor MK Ophir Pines, recently wrote an op-ed piece in Ha'aretz newspaper attacking Peace Now for becoming "a small extremist movement [which] does not act today out of concern for Israeli interests but rather from an almost blind identification with the Palestinians". In an interview with Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA yesterday, Haymann said, "Peace Now has taken the attitude of not being concerned with the needs of Israel while maintaining that the Palestinians can do no wrong.
Consider for example that after the bombing of Apropo, poet Daliah Ravikovitch was on the Popolitika TV show and she started talking about Goldstein and the Hevron massacre when the discussion was about Apropo. But what the terrorist did in Apropo was just as serious as Goldstein. The Palestinians have bad intentions... The Palestinians may need help, but they are the other side. What troubles me is the euphoria, excitement and support for Faisal Husseini when he came up to talk at the rally at Har Homa the day of the Apropo bombing. Sali Reshef spoke before him and did not get much applause, but Husseini did... The ideological message of Peace Now is right. But when you carry out negotiations with the Arabs, it should be discussion - not identification".
In the original article, Heymann wrote: "[Peace Now] has turned into a movement today which consistently represents the Palestinian position, so much so that even many of its members - who are full of self-hate towards everyone who represents their state - 'understand' the need to use violence and attacks in order to fight the Netanyahu government".
Today the primary American Jewish groups fulfilling this propaganda function for the Arabs are: New Israel Fund, Americans for Peace Now, New Jewish Agenda, and Michael Lerner's TIKKUN. In Israel there are several political groups which support the Arab propaganda position. They include the Meretz Party, Shalom Akshav [Peace Now], and the left-wing of the Israel Labor Party.
...The most important improvement in Arab propaganda is its ability to utilize Jewish and left-wing groups for its anti-Israel campaign.
- Bernard J. Shapiro, Editor of the Freeman List -
What do "Peace Now" and Neville Chamberlain have in common?
Appeasement or Peace?
By Louis Lechenger - Reprinted from THE MACCABEAN.
There is a strange correlation between those who demand "Peace Now"in the Middle East and the Neville Chamberlain Policies, just prior to the advent of World War Two. These policies of appeasement in the face of Hitler's aggressive actions when he took over the Ruhr and Rhineland territories only encouraged more aggression.
Neville Chamberlain was not the only one to fail when courage decisiveness and quick action were badly needed. The French, under Daladier, blindly went along with Chamberlain, Hitler, and Mussolini at the 1938 conference in Munich. At this conference the British, French, Italian, and German leaders decided the fate of Czechoslovakia while the Czech attendees were locked in their rooms and denied any participation in this European version of a "Kangaroo Court". The enslavement of the Czech people followed soon thereafter.
Within six months the war came and all of Europe and most of the rest of the world was drenched in blood.
There is much to be said for historical memory as a valuable tool to prevent a repetition of past tragedies. How many Jewish parents have passed on this precious knowledge to their children? If they have not, what do they expect of the future in this perilous world? Does desiring peace and dreaming of peace make it a reality? Does a peace treaty written on a few pieces of paper guarantee peace? These simple questions were answered not too long ago by "Blood, Sweat, Tears and Toil"and finally victory. -
Peace is a good thing. Why not 'Now'?
"Peace Now" was a lapel button, not a plan for ending the 50-year war of Arabs against Israel. Wars do not end "now", when somebody calls a rally. They end when one side wins, or both think they will never get a better deal than the one on the table.
- A.M. ROSENTHAL -
Why did President Clinton's initiative on Middle East peace seem to reflect a 'Peace Now' slant?
[There are a] large number of Jews in the U.S. administration -- there are more of them now then in any previous U.S. administration -- [and therefore] it is hard for the President to truly understand the trends in the Jewish community. Why? Because many of these Presidential Jews belong to the American branch of Peace Now. They are wonderful people, and I have been friends with some of them ever since the struggle for the Soviet Jews. But they are not really in touch with their community's political orientation, and it required special efforts on our part to point it out.
- Israeli Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky [former Soviet refusenick] -
If not Peace Now, then WHAT now?
Unrealistic expectations about peace work like a euphoria-inducing drug. What both Israel and the Palestinians could use now is the salutary, if rigorous, therapy of detoxification. The process would hardly be easy or pleasant, but it is the only way out of Oslo's web. Much rides on the ability of Israelis to revive those qualities of steadiness and determination that sustained them for decades when the Jewish state did not expect "peace now."
- by DOUGLAS J. FEITH, Commentary Magazine, Sept 1997 -
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