Biden Responds to OneVoice Israel

With the country watching, OneVoice Israel gives voice to the moderate majority

 

New York, March 11, 2010—OneVoice Israel staff and youth leaders urged hundreds of people attending United States Vice President Joe Biden’s speech at Tel Aviv University on Thursday not to let the extremists on either side seize the peace process.

 

Eight youth leaders joined OneVoice Israel Interim Director Tal Harris and Coordinator Guy Lupo in distributing nearly 1,000 flyers to attendees in support of the renewal of talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

 

“The agenda in Israel is being hijacked by extremists who work to undermine our government's strategy for peace,” said Harris. “Today, we witnessed 700 students at Tel Aviv University eager for change, who disagree with the appeasement of extreme settlers.”

 

OneVoice Israel’s staff and youth leaders wearing the movement’s t-shirts stood out from the audience during Biden’s talk. Noticing their presence, the vice president gave the first question to our youth leader Danny Shaket.

 

Shaket asked Biden for his opinion on what the U.S. administration, the Israeli government, and the Palestinian Authority would need from the moderate majority in order to reach an agreement.

 

“The United States cannot want peace more than the Palestinians want it or more than the Israelis want it,” Biden said. “You have got to get to the point where the leaders are actually able to sit and hopefully what we can do in these proximity talks, being available to both parties, we can be a bridging mechanism.”

 

Throughout his speech, Biden voiced his commitment to end the conflict through a two-state solution.

 

“For Israel, then, this is about both preserving your identity and achieving the security you deserve, lasting security,” Biden said. “For Palestinians, statehood will not just fulfill a legitimate and long-sought aspiration common to all peoples; it will restore the fundamental dignity and self-respect that their current predicament denies them.”

 

Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in Arab East Jerusalem marred Biden’s visit and was condemned by the United States.

 

“[T]hat decision, in my view, undermined the trust required for productive negotiations,” Biden said on Thursday. “I -- and at the request of President Obama condemned it immediately and unequivocally.”

 

The vice president’s comments were met with applause from the mainly Israeli audience, many of whom were students at Tel Aviv University.

 

“It's unfortunate and dangerous that the Israeli government’s actions are not in sync with their two-state strategy,” said Tal Harris of OneVoice Israel.

 

Click here to listen to Danny Shaket’s question and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s response, starting at 37 minutes and 35 seconds.

 

Click here to listen to BBC World Service interview with OneVoice Israel Interim Director Tal Harris and youth leader Daniella Shlomo.

 

Interim Director Tal Harris engages crowd before U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's talk at Tel Aviv University.

 

Mika Vies handing out OneVoice Israel flyers outside Tel Aviv University.

 

Comments

[Zachary M. Benjamin]

Dear One Voice,

I have been a member of and a believer in the One Voice movement since close to its inception nearly a decade ago. I believe fully and completely in the two-state system, wherein Eretz Yisrael is able to exist in peace alongside a sovereign Palestine that thrives and prospers.

Over the course of the past 12 months or more, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the movement, as it has aligned itself increasingly closely with the corrupt, anti-Semitic worldview of Barack Obama's American presidential administration and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's theocracy in Tehran.

It is clear to those of us who follow world politics that the state of Israel has achieved the principle of mutually-assured destruction with any Arab state that wishes ill on it.

Although this is not the desired outcome, I would expect much more than the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic rhetoric that has issued forth from so-called progressive "peace" organizations such as One Voice over the course of the past several years. What you and the United States government produce is not a rhetoric of peace. Conversely, the dominant rhetoric here is one of Jewish defeatism, and it is imperative that Jews who care about the State of Israel fight this sentiment with every ounce of our cultural and emotional evolutionary and survivalist instinct.

Sincerely,

Zachary M. Benjamin
Instructor and Doctoral Student
University of Illinois at Chicago

[Joel]

Dear Zachary,

I am sorry that you are disillusioned with OneVoice but I have never heard any anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel rhetoric out of the Movement

Can you provide any examples

Kind regards

Joel

[Ezz]

Dear Zachary,
The window of opportunity for ending the conflict based on the two states formula will not be open forever. The Palestinians have introduced the ultimate compromise of accepting an end to the conflict based on the two states for two people formula-22% of historical Palestine. Onevoice Movement on both sides is Saying What Needs To Be Said: Negotiations that can lead to a Win/Win situation, Focus on the Needs not the Slogans and a Compromise that both nations have to understand and introduce in order to end the centaury old conflict.
Best Regards
Ezz

[Priyesh Gupta]

the problem i if any one says anything against israels policies they are immediately setreotyped as anti semitic ... thats not true ... we are more concerned about the plight of the palestinians due to israels actions ..all the world except israel agrees that israel is occupying palestenian land illegally but i cant understand why we let them get away with it .. if any other contry disregards international law they are punished .. why is and why should the attitude be different towards israel ..I feel the unfortunate truth is israeli govermnment is not actually interested in resolving the conflict coz as long as the region is disputed they can gain maore and more land from the palestinians .. i see no other reason for the demands that they make that are unacceptable to the palestininans and the announcement of the the new constructions just before the indirect talks simply confirms this .. do they expect the world to belive that an announcement of such a nature was not calculated and the prime minister was not in the loop

[Joey]

The Palestinians have introduced the ultimate compromise of accepting an end to the conflict based on the two states for two people formula-22% of historical Palestine. Onevoice Movement on both sides is Saying What Needs To Be Said: Negotiations that can lead to a Win/Win situation, Focus on the Needs not the Slogans and a Compromise that both nations have to understand and introduce in order to end the century old conflict.
Regards,
Joe
http://www.mediafilelinks.com