Dear Friends,
For years, Meretz USA has been an invaluable source of
information, opinion and analysis about Israel and the Middle East. We have hosted lectures and conference calls
with prominent figures on the Israeli left.
We publish our thoughtful quarterly magazine, Israel Horizons, and a
biweekly e-newsletter. We host the
Meretz USA blog. We issue press releases
and statements, and we continue to conduct our unique annual weeklong seminar
in Israel, the “Israel Symposium”.
But the one thing we haven’t done enough is to let you, our
supporters, make your voices heard on the issues we progressive Zionists care about so
deeply.
This is about to
change.
Starting this summer, Meretz USA will be launching a new
initiative that will let you direct your concerns about Israel straight to the
people that matter most: the Israeli decision-makers who are determining that
country’s future.
Meretz USA invites
you to join us in a new Zionist discourse.
When additional West Bank settlements are built, we will let you tell
Israel’s Housing Minister what you think about these obstacles for peace. When members of Knesset try to pass laws that
institutionalize discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens (as they did
only recently), we will initiate a campaign that allows you to tell the bill’s
sponsors that we can’t rightly defend a policy which severs Zionism from democracy
and equal rights.
Of course, we also look forward to campaigns that express
support, not only disappointment. If an
Israeli Prime Minister bravely moves to dismantle unauthorized West Bank
outposts, for example, we’ll want him (or her) to know this step has the
support of thousands and thousands of concerned American Jews.
Prime Minister Olmert recently called for a “new paradigm”
in the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. Well we agree, and we are guided in this
regard by the clarion words of the late Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg:
“The American
Jewish community is torn right now between its love of Israel and its distaste
for Israel's policies. We who love Israel have an obligation to say what we
believe... We have long lived with the
notion that Israeli governments, from right to left, have tried to inculcate in
us - that they determine policy, and we are privileged to say amen on cue. This
nonsense is now bankrupt.”
Keep your eye out for our leadoff campaign calling on the
Housing Minister of Israel to stop building in disputed territory around
Jerusalem, and when you receive it, we encourage you to sign on, and then share
it widely with your colleagues, friends and family.
It is time for progressive American Jews who care deeply
about Israel’s future to tell its leaders what we think – not count on our
government to do so on our behalf. It is time to engage with Israel, not
turn our backs in despair. It is time for a clear, unapologetic
progressive Zionist voice!
Sincerely,
Meretz USA
The brazen murder of eight yeshiva students, mostly teenagers, in a landmark mainstream Orthodox institution in Jerusalem, has convulsed Israel in sadness and outrage. That this has occurred within a week of the massive operation in the Gaza Strip, killing about 120 Palestinians, is no accident. About half, if not more, of this latter toll were of fighters of the terrorist factions, but dozens were non-combatant civilians, including children.
Meretz USA President Larry Lerner and Chairman Theodore Bikel have sent greetings to all the participants in the meeting 
