A new war is heating up on the Internet over a petition sent around the world wide web by a group of French intellectuals urging Israel to freeze “settlements.” The original document was generated two weeks ago by JCall, the European version of the Washington DC-based leftist organization “J Street.”
The group sent a letter to the European Parliament asking the group to stop supporting Israel's government decisions. Signed by some 5,665 people, including leftist philosophers Bernard Henri-Levy and Alain Finkielkraut, it called for a halt to Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem restored to the capital as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War.
But close to double the number of signatures on the leftist document -- more than 8,000 and in barely half the time -- were gathered by those who are determined to squelch it.
Opposition organizer Fiamma Nirenstein said the JCall petition “has an Obama flavor,” calling it “trendy” and “prissy.”
Nirenstein noted in her literary counter-punch this week that “intellectuals are often unable to say 'no.'” This “makes it possible nowadays for an increasing number of Israel's enemies to delegitimize the Jewish State, rejoicing that 'even the Jews are with us,'” she added.
Several Jewish members of the European Parliament had signed the JCall petition, which called Jewish construction in these areas “morally and politically wrong.” The petition also claimed that Jewish communities in these areas “feed the unacceptable delegitimization process that Israel currently faces abroad.”
In response, Nirenstein exhorted followers to sign a counter petition that asked people to “Stand for Israel, Stand for Reason.”
“Stand for Israel, Stand for Reason” notes that the JCall document “is inspired by a short-sighted view of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict...” and charges that its signatories “do not have the clear perception of the global physical and moral threat to which Israel is currently exposed.”
Forcing Israel to continue to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority without any reciprocation, it points out, “simply means to surrender (sic) the enemy without any guarantee... they actually ignore the basic element that has prevented success of any peace process, namely the Arab and Palestinian refusal to recognize the very existence of the State of Israel as a permanent nation-state in the Middle East.” (IsraelNationalNews.com)
http://www.petitiononline.com/israel48/petition.html
Topic: Sign the petition: Stand for Israel, stand for reason! (Read 2004 times)