Image by Getty Images

Dear Jane,

I am a Philadelphian who has admired your journalism and writing for many years.

I read with great interest your piece in the January Forward magazine about your Encounter trip in the West Bank this past November.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

I agree positive recognition is deserved by Palestinians who dissent and protest non-violently.

When you report, however, that Near East Consulting’s latest polling shows roughly two-thirds of Palestinians “favor a peaceful approach to ending the conflict”, what does this mean? Do two-thirds of Palestinians ratify the existence forever of Israel as a Jewish State and give up right of return to land their families lived on before the summer of 1948? If so please ask Encounter to ask American Jews to call for an immediate democratic vote among Palestinians in the West Bank as a step toward ending the occupation.

I don’t know if an eventual answer of a federated United States of Palestine composed of two sovereign states could ever work, but shouldn’t Israelis and Jews everywhere know by referendum whether a peaceful resolution means a Jewish majority in at least one of these component states?

The Occupation must end. But are two-thirds of the Palestinians who are polled ready to vote to ratify a Jewish majority state in Palestine?

If they really are, let’s move beyond Encounter and ask the EU to push for an immediate monitored vote in the West Bank.

Are the Israelis ready for this? Are the West Bank Palestinians?

Thank you for everything you do for the making your readers (and writers) THINK.

Yours,

Ramy Djerassi, East Falls

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make your Passover gift today!

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount