Writing and analysis on the Arab-Israeli conflict in the tradition of Major-General Yehoshafat Harkabi, former chief of Israel’s Military Intelligence, “Machiavellian dove,” strategic thinker and progressive Zionist
Friday, March 6, 2009
Bibi and Barack: A Chance for Peace?, by Doni Remba
Is the new hardline Netanyahu government in Israel on a collision course with the Obama administration – and the rest of the world? What can President Obama do to advance Israeli-Arab peace even if the Israeli government is led by a man who refuses to endorse the two-state Palestinian-Israeli solution backed by the U.S., previous Israeli governments, the Palestinian Authority, the Arab states and the international community? Read more here.
Gidon (Doni) Remba is Executive Director and President of the Jewish Alliance for Change (JAFC), and co-director of the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel. A veteran progressive pro-Israel activist, political analyst and communications consultant, he previously served as National Executive Director of Ameinu: Liberal Values, Progressive Israel. He co-founded and for 6 years was President & Regional Director of Chicago Peace Now, an affiliate of Americans for Peace Now (APN), a Jewish, Zionist organization which supports Israel's largest peace group, Shalom Achshav. His essays have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Ha'aretz, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Nation, the Jerusalem Report, the Jerusalem Post, JTA, Tikkun, the Forward, and many other publications. He served as Senior Foreign Press Editor and Translator in the Israel Prime Minister's Office from 1977-1978 during the Egyptian-Israeli peace process. He translated the Knesset speeches of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and other Israeli leaders for the foreign press during the period from Egyptian President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem until the Camp David Peace Accords. For a fuller bio and publications, please click here.
Visit the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel
Available to Speak on "President Obama, Israel & Peace in the Middle East"
Gidon D. Remba is available to speak on "President Obama, Israel & Peace in the Middle East" at synagogues, churches, universities and other communal institutions.
Mr. Remba, who served as Executive Director of the Jewish Alliance for Change, is a veteran Middle East political analyst and pro-Israel peace advocate. He was Senior Foreign Press Editor and Translator in the Israel Prime Minister's Office from 1977-1978 during the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David peace process. His commentaries on Israel and the Middle East have appeared widely in the Jewish and general press, including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Chicago Sun Times, the Nation, Ha’aretz, the Forward, the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), Jerusalem Report, Tikkun, and many other publications.
To arrange for Mr. Remba to speak at your event, contact dremba@comcast.net
To learn more about Mr. Remba as a speaker, including recent appearances and reviews, please click here
I have supported the progressive Zionist peace camp in Israel, including Peace Now, a movement of Israeli pragmatists, ever since its founding by a group of 348 reserve IDF officers in 1978 during the ground-breaking Egyptian-Israeli peace talks. Shalom Achshav, as it is known in Hebrew, has never been a movement of pacifists, but a mainstream force of Israeli realists who believe that Israel must pursue peace with its Arab neighbors as aggressively and tough-mindedly as it prosecutes its just wars.
Peace agreements—buttressed by a powerful military able to defeat aggressors and deter future attack—form an essential part of Israel’s security bulwark. Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt ended the series of multi-front wars Israel suffered during the first twenty-five years of its existence. The peace treaty with Jordan a decade ago has helped keep Israel’s eastern flank secure from cross-border terror attacks and ground assaults from radical Arab states.
Progressive Zionists and Shalom Achshavniks, in short, are tough doves; or, in the words of Israel’s former Chief of Military Intelligence Yehoshafat Harkabi, Machiavellian doves. Yes, Harkabi too was one of us, along with a fair number of contemporary Israeli generals, intelligence and security officials.
But in the ornithology of Mideast war and peace, doves must sometimes fly like hawks, protecting Israel by the sword when necessary. That’s why, for me, some of the paragons of the progressive Zionist way also happen to be among Israel’s most illustrious war heroes, men like Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Ezer Weizman, and even Ariel Sharon, who though hawk’s hawks for much of their careers, all became tough doves, each in his way (if only imperfectly).
What is Zionism? A Progressive Vision, by Gidon D. Remba
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