The passionate views of Ami Isseroff, Z”L Ami Isseroff (2nd from right) with wife and children to his left The tireless blogger and commentator, Ami Isseroff, passed away on June 29, 2011, at the age of 65. He made aliyah from the US as a member of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement and remained in Israel for most of his life, working as a science and technical writer, computer programmer and news analyst from his home in Rehovot. He was a passionate voice for socialist Zionism and for peace, but he also became increasingly embittered and distrustful in his final years. And he was often too caustic in discussing political events to win him many friends. Still, he raised a loving family, including three children, and drew the respect of his chaverim in the “ShomerNet” online discussion group. And he focused attention on Muslims who advocated peace with Israel. He also championed the West Bank Hope Flowers School, which pioneered the teaching of peaceful co-existence with Israel and Jews. At a certain point, his views went beyond our usual range of opinions included in this blog and in our recently discontinued print publication, Israel Horizons. To me, Ami’s alienation from the pro-Israel left reflects the vexing nature of the seemingly endless challenges and complications in the struggle for Israel’s peace and security, especially in the wake of the second Intifada and the Hamas takeover in Gaza. The following are posts in this blog that link to his writings up until that point, over two years ago–often including my dissenting notes on his sour tone: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 April fools My understanding is that Prime Minister Netanyahu (ooh, that is painful to write) has something like 30 ministers in his new coalition cabinet (out of 120 Members of Knesset), a record. Ami Isseroff has written a delicious April Fools Day spoof, entitled “Israelis without posts to sue Netanyahu government.” Isseroff includes a lengthy riff on Avigdor Lieberman as the new foreign minister, but, unfortunately, that’s no joke. Sunday, December 28, 2008 Renewed carnage, ongoing quagmire? We of the pro-peace/pro-Israel camp again face anguished days with news of the current wave of IDF attacks on Gaza. We have to wait for the smoke to clear to see if the vast majority of casualties are armed Hamas elements (which seems to be the case). I hope that I’m wrong, but my instincts, plus the history of the conflict, tell me that the severity of these blows will only create more hatred and more violence in the long run. The tireless Israeli blogger, Ami Isseroff, has grown so embittered over the years that it’s hard to classify him politically. In this recent post, while totally supporting the justice of Israel’s offensive, he then questions its wisdom: … After every other solution failed, one would like to hope that the military solution would succeed. But we should not confuse our wishes with reality. Didn’t Israel pound Gaza continuously in 2006 after the abduction of Gilad Shalit? And what good did that do? Didn’t Israel pound Lebanese targets in the Second Lebanon War? Did it oust the Hezbollah? Short of Israel retaking Gaza in what would no doubt be a blood bath, what can be the outcome of this attack beyond Hamas remaining somehow intact and declaring “victory”? Israeli officials are a bit more cautious with their pronouncements than they were in the disastrous Second Lebanon War. Still, before the attack, Israel GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said that an IDF attack would try to “send Gaza decades into the past” in terms of weapons capabilities. Since Israel held the Gaza strip until 2005, it is impossible to understand what Galant thought he was talking about. Can there be much doubt about the outcome of the Israeli attack? The scripting of a tragedy cannot allow for a happy end. … READ MORE…! Thursday, January 24, 2008 Gaza Breakout One would have the heart of a stone not to feel for the thousands of Gaza Palestinians who broke through the border barriers with Egypt at Rafah to buy goods and breathe the air outside their imprisoned enclave. … …. Nevertheless, as we are reminded by Ami Isseroff in his posting of Jan. 23, “Gaza Gimmix,” the severity of Israel’s siege of Gaza is a response to the almost constant attacks against southern Israel and other manifestations of the Hamas regime’s violent intent toward the people of Israel and its internationally-recognized borders. As Isseroff points out: Hamas originally came to power in “democratic” but basically illegal Palestinian elections. The elections were illegal because under the Oslo accords that were the enabling document[s] for the elections, Hamas, which does not recognize the right of Israel to exist and insists on violence, should not have been allowed to participate in elections to a government that is supposed to negotiate peace with Israel. I recall Meretz party leader Yossi Beilin making the same observation, even though he very much wants a cease-fire arranged with Hamas. Still, I think that Isseroff is unnecessarily caustic and hard-hearted in referring to the Gaza “crisis” and “siege” in quotes, as if there is no humanitarian crisis there and no siege. This is all problematic, but unlike how the peace demonstrators see things, Isseroff and I are in agreement that Hamas is a large part of the problem. READ MORE…! Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Isseroff on alternatives to two states Ami Isseroff, an alumnus of Hashomer Hatzair in the US, who blogs from his home in Rehovot, Israel, is a partisan of a negotiated two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Toward this end, he is acerbic, even off- putting, in his passionate expression of inconvenient truths and of opinions that fearlessly defy the conventions of political correctness. I see him as often more provocative in his pronouncements than he needs to be. Still, I feel a certain kinship because I too am not PC in my views and do not conform to popular stereotypes. It is possible that the following article is in part inspired by our recent private email exchange, in which I suggested that Ami write specifically about Jewish neighborhoods and communities that were lost to Arab attacks in the 1948 war. Characteristically, in the emails, he was finding things to argue with me about, even though we disagree on little. This pugnaciousness may come from the frustrations of decades of trying to get Jews, Arabs and others to embrace more reasonable and humane positions. Is there an alternative to the two state solution? Historically, several solutions have been proposed for resolving the Arab- Jewish conflict in the land of Israel (AKA Palestine). Each one has taken into account demographic considerations and no doubt each has been politically motivated: Zionist policy was to obtain a state that is primarily Jewish and democratic. A Jewish majority would be ensured by immigration of Jews from abroad. This entailed a partition of the land into Jewish and Arab states, or a Jewish state and areas controlled by Jordan and Egypt. Following World War II, this became a necessity even without taking into account Arab nationalist claims, because the loss of six million Jews in the Holocaust meant that there could not be enough Jewish immigrants to maintain a decisive majority in all of the land West of the Jordan river. It soon became apparent as well, that explosive Arab population growth and perhaps significant immigration would eventually create an Arab majority between the (Jordan) river and the sea. The Grand Mufti and the Arab states wanted to obtain a state in all of the land. That state would be Arab because all the Jews would be expelled or exterminated, or at least, Jewish immigration would be ended. To this end, the Mufti had apparently planned to build a death camp near Nablus. The fact is, that not one Jew remained in the areas taken over by Arab armies in 1948. In Gush Etzion over 100 were massacred and the rest “permitted” to leave. In Hebron, no Jews remained. In the Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem, Jews were ethnically cleansed by the Transjordan [Arab] Legion – conducted out of the Jewish Quarter by force. Likewise, small Jewish communities around Jerusalem such as Atarot, Neve Yaakov and the Ophel (Silwan) had to be abandoned, as well as others like Kfar Darom in the south. Those who talk about “Arab” Jerusalem should remember that before 1948 substantial numbers of Jews lived in East Jerusalem. “Arab” Jerusalem existed for only 19 years and it was enforced by racist ethnic cleansing and racist immigration and land purchase policies. The one state solution has never been abandoned by the Arab side. With the addition of millions of refugees who claim “right of return,” they reckon that they would have a majority in this state very soon. Faced with the prospect of losing the West Bank, some extremist Jews (not all Zionist, perhaps) have also taken up the cause of the “one state solution”. This would involve annexing the West Bank to Israel. … Click here to read his entire piece online. READ MORE…! Thursday, January 10, 2008 Scurrilous attacks on Sari Nusseibeh My thanks to David Hirsh of the British Engage Online Website (which battles academic boycotts of Israel) and Ami Isseroff of Mideast Web for dissecting the right-wing attacks on Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestinian peace activist who heads Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem. Keep in mind that Nusseibeh has campaigned vigorously and courageously for a two-state solution, even in refugee camps, insisting that the Palestinians must give up on the “right of return” to what is now Israel.