Peace is a vision that we all share, a vision of two states—Jewish and Palestinian living side-by-side free of the fear of violence and further territorial claims. But realizing that vision will require painful sacrifices. But while our arms are extended in peace  Israel is faced with another battle, namely  the escalating campaign to deny it legitimacy—to strip Israel of its right to defend itself, even its right to exist.

We are all familiar with the Goldstone report, the spurious charge-sheet compiled by a UN council that has condemned Israel more frequently than all other countries—Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Libya—combined; the report that found Israel guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity even before it began its deliberations; the tribunal whose so-called judges included one who claimed that Hamas had only fired “one or two rockets” into Israel and that the Jews dominated British foreign policy.

Goldstone is only one component of the global and richly funded campaign to boycott Israel economically, politically, and academically; to force countries and public institutions to divest from Israel, and to sanction Israel financially.  Boycott, divesture, and sanction—in short, BDS.

The BDS campaign is accompanied by attempts to arrest Israeli political and military leaders for war crimes in various foreign countries,  by attempts to portray Israel as an apartheid state and American support for Israel as the product of an invidious Israel lobby. And there are the efforts to deny Israeli representatives the right to speak on campuses.

But BDS also has military ramifications. Internalizing the lessons of Goldstone, Hizbollah has now deployed its 50,000 missiles—three times as many as it had in 2006—under homes, schools, and hospitals, safe in the knowledge that they can be fired at Israel with impunity. If Israel tries to defend itself, it will again be condemned for war crimes.

Tragically, Jewish history has taught us that every attempt to annihilate us has been preceded by a campaign to dehumanize us. And dehumanized, Israel could be rendered vulnerable to the most ominous challenge of all:  the challenge of a rapidly nuclearizing Iran.

This is an Iran that, if it acquires military nuclear capabilities, presents Israel with not one but multiple threats. There is the threat that Iran will live up to its leaders’ pledges to wipe Israel off the map, that it will make a nuclear device and place it atop one of the many missiles it possess that can reach every Israeli city. This is the Iran that could convey nuclear weaponry to terrorist groups and an Iran that could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, transforming the entire region into a tinderbox.

The dangers of peacemaking, BDS, a nuclear Iran—such challenges can indeed seem insuperable. And yet, as so often in our past, Israel’s leadership is rising to meet these challenges, rising courageously and creatively.

The Government of Israel has taken courageous steps to promote peace talks—steps that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton praised as “unprecedented.” Yes, there may be some who will accuse the Israeli government of conceding too much or too little. Still, history teaches us that, whenever offered genuine peace by intrepid Arab leaders such as King Hussein and Anwar Sadat, Israelis have embraced that offer and continued to embrace it unfalteringly.

Facing the threats to Israel’s right to self-defense and existence, the Government of Israel has joined with the Obama administration in combating the Goldstone report wherever in whatever form it surfaces. We are redoubling our efforts on campus, defeating divestiture motions and sending speakers to meet with students of all political backgrounds. We are reaching out to community groups of different religions and ethnicities to explain Israel’s case, and working with local, state, and national representatives to pass legislation against BDS.

In meeting the Iranian threat, Israel appreciates President Obama’s determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and is following his lead in galvanizing international support for biting sanctions on Iran. We welcome the sanction legislation passed by both Houses of Congress and encourage all state and local efforts to deny Iran access to American markets and know-how. We expect the world to act decisively to deny nuclear military capabilities to Iran while reserving the right of any state—and especially a Jewish state that knows too well the price of powerlessness—to defend itself.

We in Israel are meeting all of the monumental challenges confronting us and yet, still, one has to wonder how we do it. How do we wake up in the morning to tens of thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah rockets pointed at our homes, to enemies who reject our past and deny us a future?

We do it because against our eyes we see Israel of 2010: a country at peace with two of its former foes and committed to resolving its conflict with the Palestinians;  a country with one of the world’s strongest economies; a country bonded with this nation, the United States, in a multifaceted, unbreakable alliance.

Yes, we face challenges, some of them quite daunting, but we have overcome similar obstacles in our past and we have prevailed. Reinforced by our faith, aided by our resilience, we have prevailed, but we have never been alone our supporters in the United States, Jews and non-Jews alike, have contributed immensely to our success. And Israel, no less today than in the past, calls once again for your backing.

Support us if we once again decide to make excruciating sacrifices and take extraordinary risks for peace—and support us, too, if we decide that the chances for real peace do not warrant those sacrifices and risks.

Join us in fighting for Israel’s right to defend itself and Israel’s right to exist. Join us in making that the fight of all Americans and of all fair-minded people everywhere. And join us in the fateful fight against Iranian nuclearization.

Join us with diversity, with civility and love, and with the certainty that Israel will once again not only survive but thrive.

5 people like this post.

Unlike

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.