Tchuva, asking for and working towards forgiveness and redemption for doing wrong for making mistakes, is a central feature of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
On the web site openDemocracy sponsored by London University Gershon Baskin who has for many years been an advocate of negotiations with the Palestinians and a Palestinian state, writes a nuanced examination of the Palestinian claim of a “Right of Return” .( http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/the-right-of-return)
In the comments section the discussion quickly turns from discussing the issue to invective on the issue of Israel’s Right of Survival & Existence. In other words the real issue from the POV of what seems a basically Left/Intellectual community is not this or that concession to be made by Israel, but its very existence. In this way the Left perfectly mirrors the basic position of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim world; There is no legitimacy for the existence of a Jewish state called Israel in the midst of the Arab world (which extends unbroken from the Atlantic east to the Pacific.) This in fact is the basis of these one hundred years of conflict.
Then moving on to the west, to San Francisco California USA we have the rabbi of a synagogue in that city inviting as a Yom Kippur speaker an outspoken apologist for suicide bombing, author Alice Walker. (Jewish Telegraphic Association > http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/09/22/1008054/defender-of-terrorism-against-jews-to-spea<) I believe we very much need to be aware of just how successful has been the work of those who are committed to rejection of our legitimate national struggle. I would be tempted to point out how we contribute to this process, but the more I read the more it seems that what we do or say or experience is totally beside-the-point. But I will mention them anyway: Tragically I would begin with the re-division of Jerusalem with a barrier between the Jewish & Arab sections. The withdrawal of Israeli civilians from communities east of the separation barrier. Then working out the technical issues of water, sewage etc. I understand more and more that the changes I believe we must undertake are for our good alone. It will make no significant difference to the Arab/Islamic world and those who are convinced that we are the evil on the earth.
