The appeal you will read below has already been signed by figures and members of European Jewish associations, long engaged in the struggle for peace in the Middle East, whose names you will read below.
Our objective is to make public the positions of European Jews, silent for too long, and to make heard a Jewish voice that is in solidarity with the State of Israel and critical of its government’s present choices.
We call upon all those, women and men, who recognize themselves in this text to sign it.
This Call to Reason was presented at an important meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on May 3, 2010.
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Do not forget to sign this appeal if you support it.
Citizens of European countries, Jews, we are involved in the political and social life of our respective countries. Whatever our personal itineraries, the bond to the State of Israel is part of our identity. The future and the security of this State, to which we are unshakeably attached, are a matter of concern to us.
Now, we see that the existence of Israel is once again in danger. Far from underestimating the threat of its external enemies, we know that this danger also lies in the occupation and the uninterrupted pursuit of the settlements in the West Bank and in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which are a political error and a moral fault. And which, moreover, feed an unacceptable process of delegitimization of Israel as a State.
This is why we have decided to mobilize around the following principles:
The future of Israel necessarily lies through the establishment of a peace with the Palestinian people according to the principle “two Peoples, two States.” We all know it: there is urgency. Soon Israel will be confronted with a disastrous alternative: either to become a State where the Jews would be a minority in their own country; or to set up a regime that would dishonor Israel and transform it into an arena of civil war.
It is important, therefore, that the European Union, like the United States, put pressure on both parties and help them reach a reasonable and rapid settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Europe, by its history, has responsibilities in this part of the world.
While the ultimate decision belongs to the sovereign people of Israel, the solidarity of the Jews of the Diaspora obliges them to work so that this decision should be the right one. The systematic alignment with the Israeli government’s policy is dangerous, for it runs counter to the true interests of the State of Israel.
We want to create a European movement capable of making the voice of reason heard by all. This movement means to stand above partisan divides. Its ambition is to work for the survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State, which is conditioned upon the creation of a sovereign and viable Palestinian State.
It is in this spirit that we call upon all those who recognize themselves in these principles to sign this appeal and to have it signed.