“We, liberal American Jews, have the ability, influence, and commitment that enable us to incite, exert pressure, and organize efforts to consolidate liberalism in Israel, and seek to establish a Palestinian state with the same level of skill and cunning with which its right-wing opponents work against it.”
This was the beginning of an article by the American Jewish writer, Celeste Marcus, published by the left-wing Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” on its website.
The writer stressed that what she calls “true Jewish democracy as promised in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” cannot undermine the rights of its citizens, nor can it treat “an occupied people” brutally.
Accelerating the Palestinian state
Marcos stressed that the only moral and sustainable path that allows the Israelis to move forward is to accelerate the establishment of a Palestinian state.
She stressed the need for American Jews to fight the “hateful” regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the dangerous path that Israel is currently taking.
However, Marcus believes, however, that talk about liberalism and democracy seems out of place, as Israel is on the verge of a possible war with the Lebanese Hezbollah, at a time when it is engaged in a raging war in the Gaza Strip.
Definition of Zionism
The writer blamed American liberal Zionists – and she is one of them, by her own admission – because they have long allowed Zionism to be defined as a blind defense of Netanyahu’s actions, including his war in Gaza, which she said resulted in staggering numbers of Palestinian civilian deaths and impossible plans to achieve “total victory.” .
She claimed that every American Jew “from the most politically and socially influential to the least” has the ability and responsibility to normalize sympathy for the Palestinians and support the two-state solution.
She called on American Jews to use their influence to prevent Netanyahu and his “extremist” allies from dominating “Israeli identity.”
The author concluded her article by saying that successive American administrations continued to emphasize the common values that bind them with Israel and the Jews, but those values receded and were betrayed in an unprecedented manner under the “hateful” Netanyahu regime.
