Israel’s Midwest consul general makes mockery of fair peace deal
It’s difficult to understand how President Trump’s recently announced plan to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could possibly “jump- start” the peace process, as Aviv Ezra, the consul general of Israel to the Midwest, argued in his recent op- ed. On the contrary, it serves only to make a greater mockery of a truly equitable two state solution.
Ezra exhorted Palestinians to “negotiate directly with the Israelis,” but they did indeed do precisely that during the Oslo Accord talks — a period in which Israel dramatically increased its settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Israel has been expelling Palestinians from East Jerusalem through home demolitions, revocation of residency permits and the construction of the barrier wall.
While Ezra claimed Israel has always been willing “to sit down at the negotiating table,” it has clearly sought to determine the final status of Jerusalem unilaterally by creating its own demographic facts on the ground.
Ezra condemned Palestinian violence yet remained curiously silent on Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I was particularly astonished by Ezra’s claim that Israel has “never once called for violence,” using only its “pens, voices and advocacy” in this conflict. In the end however, the real issue at hand is not rhetoric, but rather the institutional, systemic violence Israel has been committing against Palestinians for decades through a brutal military occupation.
Aviv Ezra’s cynical words do not speak for me or for the growing number of American Jews who seek a truly just peace in Israel/ Palestine.
Brant Rosen Co- founder, Jewish Voice for Peace