Let's Just Start Our Own Mainstream
Jewish Voice for Peace (my favorite marginalized Jews for peace nonprofit) is currently conducting a campaign for the Shministim 2008-a group of young conscientious objectors refusing to begin service in the Israeli Army. (They've also got about 800 supporters on Facebook.)This group of about 100 12th graders has articulated their reasons for refusing to serve in this smart and clearly heartfelt letter. The students are not protesting mandatory service but rather the policies of the Israeli government in the West Bank and Gaza. They see the government's current policies as moral indefensible and a dead end.
They also call for dialogue and an end to the claim that there is no one to talk to on the Palestinian side: "In a place were there are humans, there is someone to talk to."
It is moving to see young Israelis choose to serve repeated jail sentences rather than act in opposition to their moral views.
If you're interested, you can send a letter of support for their cause to the current Defense Minister, Ehud Barak.
this website you might find interesting too. Spread the word ...
http://telaviv-berlin.com/um-himmels-willen-israel-ii/
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Its good to hear word of this.
Extremism and isolation on either side can only be bad.
Here in the UK we often don't get to see the more reasonable voices within Israel.
The sooner both sides can view the other as a diverse group of people, instead of some one dimensional enemy, the better.
In reality its only a small minority of violence hungry people on either side that is really driving this.
B'Tselem (http://www.btselem.org/), is another Israeli organization doing sterling work in human rights and humanitarianism.
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