Disputes letter - The Jewish Standard

Scott David Lippe’s July 17 letter “I side with the settlers” is a terrible distortion of hope and misconceptions. His refusal to acknowledge crime and abuse of the settlers living in the west bank is blatant.

Dr. Lippe’s view that the Arab world considers all Israelis as settlers doesn’t explain signed peace treaties with Arab (that’s right, Arab) states – Egypt and Jordan. He misrepresented the Arabs – basically to advance his right-wing political worldview.

His claim that the entire Jewish people from time immemorial would have agreed with the settler movement is ahistorical. Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and the Labor Zionist movement would not have agreed with Lippe’s assertion.

His assertions are fanciful at best. The settler movement is the source of its own problems. The settlers wielded as much political influence as they could to attain their objectives. They coerced the people of Israel to march in lockstep with them to deny the existence of a Palestinian people and of a state of their own. According to Lippe, they are now marginalized for “political expediency.” I have another term – the hope for peace, eternal peace, between Israel and all of the Arab neighbors.

President Obama will work toward this truly life-affirming goal. Shalom (peace) is the daily prayer of all Jews. We now have an administration that will help us achieve this dream. We must support him and finally set our sights and ambitions on our true hopes and needs.

Rather than allow the settlers to deny our real wants, we must see them for what they represent – as a bar to reaching out to all the Arab states, to recognizing their humanity, their hopes and dreams, and to attaining true, viable peace treaties.

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