It is rare for an American secretary of state to speak in the voice of the shofar.
Yet Secretary Colin Powell’s recent speech, calling the Israeli settlements on the West Bank an obstacle to peace as well as demanding that the Palestinians stop terror attacks — bespeaks what Jews everywhere hear Isaiah plead on every Yom Kippur: For justice and for peace, we lift up our voice like the shofar.
Isaiah calls for us to bring the homeless to our house — yet on the very morning after Powell spoke Nov. 19, the Israeli government demolished 18 more Palestinian homes. And some Palestinian ultra-nationalists have already responded with terror attacks.
Yet this could become the moment for a real breakthrough toward peace in the Middle East.
If the United States government were to move forward beyond the secretary’s words by vigorously insisting on peace; and if both Israeli and Palestinian voices for peace could be strengthened by voices from America.
Our voices are crucial. Many Israelis and Palestinians have said that both peoples are caught in a narrow cave where each can see only the most immediate violence of the other, and the future vanishes. Only from outside can come insistence that the violent spiral end.
The only “outside” that can matter in this circumstance is the United States.
If not now, when?
Let us lift our American voices like a ram’s horn — to seek peace, justice and security for the state of Israel and a new state of Palestine.
Let us call on the two peoples to set a peaceful example to all the nations, as our traditions teach that the families of Abraham should do.
Mr. Sharon:
Commit yourself that by next Rosh Hashanah, you will bring Israeli settlers and soldiers safely home from an occupation that has brought needless death upon them, that is a cancer eroding Israel’s moral and ethical value structure, and that undermines Israel’s own security.
Respect the integrity and safety of Palestinian homes, orchards, villages, land and people by ending at once the demolition of homes, the uprooting of olive trees, the expansion of settlements, the besieging of towns and the bombardment and invasion of cities.
Recognize the right of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza to govern themselves, to erect a Palestinian capital in their neighborhoods of East Jerusalem in a sisterly relation with the Israeli capital in West Jerusalem, and to control their holy sites on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif while Israel controls the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Mr. Arafat:
Put forward a detailed proposal for maps of a viable demilitarized Palestine based on a modified 1967 boundary, and a plan for the safe escort home of Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Start placing on trial for conspiracy to commit murder the officials of any organization that claims to be responsible for suicide bombings.
Put forward specific proposals for the return of a limited number of Palestinians (especially those who before 1948 actually lived in what became Israel), in ways that will not weaken the Jewish character of Israel.
Put forward proposals for the resettlement of refugees within the emerging state of Palestine.
Publicly affirm, and make sure that all Palestinian schools start teaching, that both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people, the two families of Abraham, have an ancient and honorable connection to the land that Abraham walked and to the Holy City, Jerusalem, al Quds.
Make sure at once that Jews have safe and adequate access to such shrines as Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and safety from harassment at the Western Wall.
Messrs. Sharon & Arafat:
Join in creating an international criminal court for the Middle East to bring to justice those accused of terrorism, whether Palestinian suicide bombers or the Israeli settler underground that has been attacking Palestinian villagers — so that neither nation can harbor them and neither can subject them to extrajudicial assassinations.
Join in denouncing and dropping from all governmental rhetoric and education any teachings of contempt or hatred for each other’s people.
Create a day of common mourning for all who have died in this conflict.
Let us Americans lift our voices to our own government, urging:
That the United States re-engage as an honest broker for a just and equitable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
That the United States recognize a new demilitarized state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, with borders close to the 1967 boundaries as modified by the mutual agreement of both parties.
That the United States insist on and assist with the safe return of all Israeli settlers and soldiers within these agreed boundaries.
That the United States list as banned terrorist organizations any Palestinian or Israeli organizations that do not clearly renounce and abandon the use of terrorism against civilians.
Against fear and rage and entrenched privilege and habit, it will take many of us to shift three governments. We can do it by lifting our voices like the ram’s horn: Blowing grief for the past. Blowing alarm for the future. Blowing transformation — now.