Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Example of what I mean

The following was posted on Huffington Post, I was replying to someone else post about what they wanted from Israel. My reply was deleted with the whole thread, probably because of some other post in the same thread.
young-jews-fed-up-with-Israel
So here's my original. Hope the context makes sense:


I know this question is not directed at me, but I also noticed that my past postings tend to be so one sides pro Israel that it may confuse my true stance.
In a heated argument I tend to move to more extreme ‘pro Israel’ but my core stances are the following.
1:  Israel should remain secular, democratic with Jewish national holidays, and Hebrew (and Arabic and English) as it main defining character.
2: There should be no ‘chief Rabi’ in Israel. As there no ‘chief Rabi’ in the US. Definitions of who is Jewish should be by consensus of the THREE main streams of Jewish thought with a liberal allowance for personal choice and belief.
3: The Law of Return should be modified to reflect an idea of Israel being the ‘port in the storm’ for REFUGE Jews from active organized persecution. All others including non persecuted Jews should have to go though a nationalization process for citizenship. People coming from places with a standing ‘state of war’ with Israel should have to jump though more hoops because that’s simple security but even for them, there should be a workable path to citizenship.
4: The Conversion process of non Jews needs to be updated. Frankly Jews need to stop allowing the extreme orthodox to define what is Jewish. There is ‘Jewish guilt’ felt by many non orthodox Jews, that the Orthodox are more ‘true Jews’ and an unwillingness to stand and say, “No that rule is foolish and was made by ignorant men in an ignorant time.”  Its as bad as if all Christians felt guilt about not being as religious as the Amish.
5: The 67 borders need adjustment, but the Settlements program is a failure. Small adjustments to the 67 make sense, especially since a land bridge will be needed from West Bank to Gaza, but the Old City of Jerusalem should remain under Israeli control, but I think some of the eastern suburbs including some of the settlements be turned over to the Palestinians, so they can have the ‘face saving’ of claiming Arab East Jerusalem as their capital.
6: The settlers left on the east side of the border should be Encouraged to become ‘Palestinian’ citizens with the Palestinians required to take them as part of the agreement, with some 3rd parties watching them to make sure they are treated fairly. Some finical compensation for Palestinians who can document they lost land to the settlers.  But such documentation should also take in account Jews who where expelled from Jordan in the 1940’s.
7: The idea that all Jews must be expelled from the future Palestinian state is as distasteful as the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel. (and accepting only Jews who can prove a blood ties to the land is as repulsive.)
8: Lastly, I support J-Street, and think the fighting, name calling, and out right lies, about J-streets mission by right wing Jewsish organization is as ugly as politics can get and very destructive to Israel’s long term health.

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