Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday October 31, 2003

Yossi Beilin, neither a hero nor a traitor

Is doing your best to bring peace to the Mideast a treasonous act?

One wouldn’t think so.

Especially after Yigal Amir killed Yitzhak Rabin, accusing the prime minister of committing treason when he signed the Oslo peace accords.

After that, Israeli leaders urged that the word “treason” not be used so lightly.

But the word has cropped up again. This time it’s in reference to the peace efforts being made by former Knesset member Beilin and a few of his associates.

It’s true that Beilin met with the “enemy” — Palestinians.

It’s true that Beilin agreed to more of a land give-away than any other Israeli.

But it’s also true that Beilin is trying to get the Israeli public to think about peace instead of thinking about the next suicide bombing.

The Palestinians with whom he negotiated in Geneva know that he doesn’t speak for the government. In fact, Beilin doesn’t even speak for the entire leftist opposition in Israel.

So what harm has he done in signing a meaningless agreement and talking with other Palestinians who also dream of peace?

How does this undermine Ariel Sharon’s government? How does this help Yasser Arafat?

Without a doubt, there are Israeli diehards who will tell you that it does both. And that’s just fine as long as those diehards are content with continual bombings and Israeli deaths.

It’s even more ludicrous when American Jews criticize Beilin. They are not living in Israel and putting up with the dangers of eating in a restaurant or taking a bus to work.

If you think Beilin did help the enemy, write us a letter to the editor and tell us how. If you believe Beilin’s peace efforts undermined Sharon, we also want to know how.

But before you write, stop for a minute and ask yourself why the president of Israel invited Beilin to his official residence following his secret meetings in Geneva. Does Israel’s president dine regularly with traitors? We don’t think so.

If Beilin has committed treason, as some critics claim, why isn’t he in jail? And why is he coming to the Bay Area this weekend?

Beilin is speaking at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center on Sunday. Whether you agree with what he has done or not, this is a perfect time to hear him out and hopefully ask him questions.

All we ask is that you keep your mind open and treat all views with respect, even if you don’t agree with them.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.