Not Surprised
Lara Friedman is taken aback that her desire for peace found no match at the Arab League’s Conference on Jerusalem, manifest by rejection of any Jewish claim to that city (“Jerusalem Isn’t Just for Arabs, Either,” March 9).
Israel’s conflict with the Arabs has never been about Jerusalem. Since the United Nations approved partition in 1947, an Arab Palestinian state has been repeatedly presented but rejected — since it required accepting a Jewish Israel, albeit with Arab civil and religious rights not available to Jews or Christians — or even Arabs — elsewhere in the region. Too weak to win on the battlefield, the Oslo process was war by diplomatic means, a staged path toward Israel’s destruction, which is why the fabricated “right of return” was always the Arab “red line.” The real amazement is not what Friedman heard Arabs say to each other, words they usually avoid before delusional westerners, who desperately want to believe peace will come. It is that after 65 years of Arabs rejecting any peace that leaves Israel intact, she was surprised.
John R. Cohn
Philadelphia, Pa.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
