Jan 14, 2012
Rhonda
I am writing you to express my disappointment for including my picture in the article that was sent to you by Howard Morry entitled:
Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State.
Showing my picture with Howard in this article gives the reader the impression that I am in support of the position that Howard stated in the article.
As you are aware, Howard and I debated this point at great length at the Arab Jewish Dialogue chapter meeting on Wednesday November 16th
At that meeting I disagreed with Howard’s view of the subject and gave my rational for not agreeing with this position as it is an obstacle for peace. The Palestinian Authority already stated they will never accept Mr. Netanyahu‘s position which he placed as a precondition for negotiation.
We are now at square one, obstacles are again put in place such as this one and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem which have resulted in stalled negotiations and continuation of the conflict. At the meeting I stated that both parties should seize the moment and set down at the negation table and be open for discussing all the issues without preconditions. Changes are taking place rapidly in the Middle East and the time has come to have the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians resolved, this is past due as well. As co-chair of the Arab Jewish dialogue, I am proud of the fact that we can debate all the issues freely in a secure environment without any fear of negative labelling. We don’t have to agree with one another on all issues, all we seek is understanding of each other’s narratives and hopefully find common ground.
Sincerely, Ab Freig
Editor’s response: I put in the photo of you next to Howard becasue you are co-Chairs of the Arab-Jewish dialogue and I thougth it was a nice photo of the two of you. By no means did I mean to imply that you agreed with the content of Howards’s article. Similarly, when newspapers have photos of world leaders next to each other it by no mean’s implies that they agree with eachother on a given point. However, given your letter, I have taken down the photo.
For the record Ab, I think that Netanyahu’s position is not that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a pre-condition to negotiations, but that this recognition will be required in order for any peace agreement to ever be made, otherwise it will not signify an end to the conflect but only a prelude to the next stage of the conflict.
Ab-Can you clarify what you disagree with in particular in Howard’s article. It is a lenghy piece and he said a lot. i.e. Do you agree with Howard that the crux of the dispute is that Israel’s neighbours haven’t accepted a Zionist state in the region, or do you think that Netanyahu has no interest in peace and is simply stalling by introducing irrelevant conditions ?
Ab Freig’s response: As I mentioned above, neither party should place obstacles they know would discourage peace negotiations.
Editor’s response: For the record Ab, I think that Netanyahu’s position is not that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a pre-condition to negotiations, but that this recognition will be required in order for any peace agreement to ever be made, otherwise it will not signify an end to the conflect but only a prelude to the next stage of the conflict.