There will be no peace

The most eloquent indictment yet of Bibi's Bar Ilan speech comes from the pen of David Grossman: award-winning author of several fiction and non-fiction books including the stunning Sea Under Love; outspoken peace activist (along with fellow literary giants and friends Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua); father of Uri Grossman, a 20-year-old staff sergeant killed immediately before the end of Israel's 2006 Lebanon folly.

Read Netanyahu's message is there will be no peace in today's Haaretz.

Giving ground without giving in

When it comes to Israel's future, I'm often at odds with otherwise close friends. (You know who you are and that I love you anyway.) Many are liberal in all other aspects of their lives, but fear that simply recognizing Palestinian grievances and claims to human rights risks threatening Israel’s legitimacy. They also refuse to accept, for example, that Iran’s ability to target semi-guided missiles at Tel Aviv obviates the (always specious) occupied West Bank-as-buffer argument in the same way that Syria’s ability to do the same obviates the (albeit once valid) occupied Golan-as-buffer argument.

There's no good reason to not make peace. From a materialist perspective, the Palestinian population is growing so fast that a Greater Israel will become a minority Jewish state sooner rather than later. From an idealist perspective, Jews can make no ethical sense out of occupying and persecuting another people. Now America finally has a President who treats us Zionists and/or Israelis not as impetuous children, but as mature partners, we have the opening, impetus, and support to make a just and mutually favorable peace with the Palestinians in particular and the Arabs in general.

In the wake of Bibi's Bar Ilan speech, and for those among you who care, here's a quickly assembled list of "must" haves or positions I've long believed central to Israel's peace and security:

• Israel and Syria must talk immediately and with no preconditions. Israel should, however, expect to give back most of the Golan in return for normalized relations, and Syria should be ready to expel extremist organizations and stop arming radicals in southern Lebanon.
• Israel must immediately and without preconditions pursue a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Today!
• Jerusalem must be divided between Israel and Palestine. No messy sharing arrangements. No internationalization. This necessitates tit-for-tat border shaping, because Israel can't accept the imposition of a June 4, 1967 border that keeps Jews from our major holy places.
• Palestine must comprise Gaza, Arab Jerusalem, and almost the entire West Bank. All parts of Israel’s security wall that divide Arab farms, cities, and villages, and that otherwise misappropriate land, must go. Now! If the Palestinians agree to exchange land occupied by some settlements contiguous with sovereign Israel for land of equal value contiguous with the Arab West Bank, Israel may make that exchange. All settlements not contiguous with Israel must go. No exceptions.
• The USA, and only the USA, must form and lead an agency/force monitoring the borders between Israel and Palestine for at least 10 years.
• Israel must guaranty anytime and any-reason passage between Gaza and the West Bank. Also Israel must not impose limits on Palestinian airspace, port traffic, or international travel and commerce.
• Palestinians must renounce any hope of return to, claim to property from, and right to work in sovereign Israel, unless s/he is an Arab-Israeli citizen or the descendant of Arab-Israeli citizens. It's simple: Israel gives up for good any “religio-historical” claim to Arab land; Arabs give up the same to Israel’s.
• Palestine must sign an internationally recognized and mutually binding statement of non-aggression with Israel. In return, Israel must accept Palestine's sovereign right to maintain a defensive army equipped with, for example, tanks and other heavy weaponary. (Any insistence otherwise mocks the term "sovereign.") There is, however, no reason for Palestine to develop purely offensive capabilities including, for example, long-range guided missiles. If Palestine starts building offensive capabilities, Israel has the right to protect herself by legal means.
• Wealthy Arab countries must help repatriate to the new Palestine those Palestinians who wish to live there. They must help nurture the Palestinian economy and help poorer Arab societies integrate Palestinian refugees who do not wish to live in Palestine. Israel must fund the integration into Israeli society of Israelis displaced from the West Bank.

These "must" haves are but ideas. My ideas. They are neither systematic nor complete, but I’ve long held them to be fundamental to Israel’s safe, peaceful future. I'd love to hear what you think of them, good or bad, and what your list of conditions might look like. So please let me know by commenting here, calling me in person, emailing me, or finding me on facebook or twitter.

Meat really is madness

Shavuah tov.

Kathy Freston, from whom I learned—among many other things—that farmed animals produce 40 percent more harmful emissions than all cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships in the world combined, has another great piece in Huffington Post. In Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians, she reminds us—or perhaps informs us for the first time—that people aren't by nature carnivores or even omnivores, but vegetarians for whom animal products are more or less poisonous. I can't say for sure it's an article to enjoy; I can say it's a must read.

Remember: Eat local. Eat organic. Eat vegan.

Friday thought

I don't follow new movies like I did 20 years ago. But forthcoming documentary Food, Inc. has my attention.

To learn more about Food, Inc., listen to NPR's Steve Inskeep interview director Robert Kenner and food author Michael Pollan.

They argue that huge agro-conglomerates with powerful lobbying resources "deliberately" hide the "truth" about what we eat; that the food they shill hurts us and the environment; that they

• Market food to hide how they "manufacture" it
• Abuse animals, genetically alter crops, and mistreat workers
• Threaten the safety of the food chain

None of this is really news, but relatively few are either aware of or care about it. Hopefully Food, Inc.'s release will highlight this catastrophe in process.

Eat local. Eat organic. Eat vegan.

Shabbat shalom. Good shabbos.

Three for the road

Just spent a long weekend in an eerily quiet (and surprisingly cool) Scottsdale. The home-price meltdown there has taken a toll. Hopefully it’s a “darkest hour is just before the dawn” thing.

Three Jewish-related places/experiences of note:

• The New Shul—This wonderful experiment in traditional egalitarianism is maturing nicely. What Rabbis Michael Wasserman and Elana Kanter and their backers started in a nondescript rented warehouse several years ago has blossomed into a 125-family congregation with a beautiful, bright, self-owned facility. Despite its growth, the New Shul has kept its warmth, spirit, and sense of purpose. It was great to catch up with old friends; to take in the rare experience of a non-Orthodox Jewish community firing on all cylinders. I'm sad we've not yet found anything in Austin that even approximates the New Shul's vibrant intimacy.
  
• The Jewish Collection—When Terry Epcar died a few years ago, Phoenix lost a mensch and two great Judaica stores. But Nancy Brooks’ Jewish Collection represents a strong shopportunity. The store's stock is broad and attractively merchandised. It includes everything from Guatemalan kippot, through Sammy the Spider stuffed toys—and, for that matter, stuffed, or gefilte, fish—to Hebrew lettered ASU T-shirts. The store's website and ecommerce don't do it justice. But if you’re ever at the northeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard, it’s worth stopping on by.
  
• Fresh Mint—In recent trips to Scottsdale, we've eaten delightful Asian-inspired meals at Fresh Mint, a vaad-certified Kosher-vegan restaurant. (Yes, according to some standards, it's possible to be vegan and not kosher. And no, I don't know how.) The food there is reasonably priced and wonderfully light, the "home-made" deserts are delicious, and the service is friendly and efficient.