Statements

12/28/06

On December 28, 2006, Meretz USA President Lilly Rivlin criticized the government of Israel for yesterday's announcement that the country intends to build a new settlement in the Jordan Valley.

“Coming so swiftly on the heels of the positive measures announced after the meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Israel’s initiation of new settlement construction – however it tries to legitimize it – is a retrogressive and deeply disturbing action.

11/07

Click here to read the joint ad placed in Forward by Meretz USA and Ameinu.

11/07/2006

Meretz USA salutes the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Israel on the occasion of its Gay Pride and Tolerance Parade, scheduled for this Friday, November 10, in Jerusalem.

10/24/2006

On October 24, 2006, Meretz USA President Lilly Rivlin made the following statement.

"Meretz USA expresses deep concern and alarm regarding the decision of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to incorporate MK Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party into the government coalition. Because we support an Israel that pursues both peace and equal rights, Meretz USA regards Lieberman’s impending entry as a potentially catastrophic step backward on both counts.

08/04/2006

New York, New York...The current hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah pose difficult choices for Israel. Israel has the universally acknowledged right to defend its population and territory, but the intensity and impact of its responses have undermined international support.

07/14/2006

New York, New York...The opening of hostilities, ostensibly between Hezbollah and Israel, on Israel’s northern border is a pointed and urgent wake-up call to the entire democratic world that radical forces, concentrated in, but not restricted to the Middle East, are capable of destabilizing the region, and if successful, beyond.

06/2006

On June 23, 2006, the Senate passed bill S. 2370 (also known as the Palestinian Anti-Terrorist Act of 2006 – its companion in the House is HR 4681, passed earlier this year). This bill includes significant alterations over previous versions and over the House version – changes that address many of the concerns of Meretz USA and its allies.

06/11/2006

New York, New York...Meretz USA and Ameinu, progressive Zionist organizations which support an end to the occupation and a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have historically and consistently opposed economic boycott, divestment, or other methods of economic pressure against Israel as a means of influencing the Arab-Israeli conflict. In simple terms, such efforts are polarizing, indiscriminate and inappropriate methods of impacting a complex conflict in which rights and wrongs obtain on both sides.

05/25/2006

New York, NY….Meretz USA President Lilly Rivlin today sent letters to President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister  Ehud Olmert applauding  their statements of support for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their joint press conference Tuesday. Her letter  to the President praised his continued, clear commitment to a process of negotiations as the only way to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, citing his statement that, “[A]ny final status agreement will be only achieved on the basis of mutually agreed [territorial] changes, and no party should prejudice the outcome of negotiations on a final status agreement.”