LET US LIFT UP OUR VOICES LIKE THE SHOFAR:

CALL ON SHARON, ARAFAT, & U.S. GOVT TO MAKE A JUST, SECURE PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL & PALESTINE

We are facing a downward spiral into still more disastrous violence in the Middle East. Yet this COULD become a moment for a real breakthrough toward peace in the Middle East, if the US government were to take an ethical stand as honest broker and insist on peace, and if both Israeli and Palestinian voices for peace could be strengthened by voices from America.

We hope to both encourage that and encourage any such initiative to be protective of Israel as well as responsive to the legitimate needs of the Palestinians. And we have deliberately avoided recriminations, focusing instead on actions we think need to be taken.

We hope you will join us in signing this statement, first to be sent to much wider Email lists to gather many more signatures, and then to be published as an ad in the NY Times or another highly visible place.

Please invite others to join in this effort, and please also use the coupon at the end to help with the costs of the ad. This is crucial; whatever you can afford will help.

And the coupon — NOT an Email reply here — is now by far the best way to sign up for the ad. Thanks!

With blessings of shalom,

Signers:
For Break the Silence:
Cherie Brown, National Coalition-Building Institute
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, The Shefa Fund
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center

"For Zion's sake, I will not be silent!"

During the disastrous bloodshed of the past year, many of the voices that sought justice , security, and peace in the Middle East — the voices of many American Jews and other Americans as well — have fallen silent.

Yet both Israelis and Palestinians who seek peace have said that it will take strong encouragement from outside the region to make a just peace possible.

Isaiah called us once again on Yom Kippur to lift up our voice like the ram's horn.

Let us once more lift our voices to seek peace, justice, and security for the State of Israel and a new State of Palestine.

We call on Israel and Palestine to set a peaceful example to all the nations, as our traditions teach that the two families of Abraham should do.

AMERICAN VOICES CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE — NOW.

Mr. Sharon —
Commit yourself that by next Rosh Hashanah, you will bring Israeli settlers and soldiers safely home from an occupation that has brought needless death upon them, that is a cancer eroding Israel's moral and ethical value structure, and that undermines Israel's own security.

Respect the integrity and safety of Palestinian homes, orchards, villages, land, and people by ending at once the demolition of homes, the uprooting of olive trees, the expansion of settlements, the besieging of towns, and the bombardment and invasion of cities.

Recognize the right of Palestinians in East Jerusalem to govern themselves, to erect a Palestinian capital in their midst in a sisterly relation with the Israeli capital in West Jerusalem, and to control their holy sites on the Temple Mount/Haram-as-Sharif while Israel controls the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Mr. Arafat:

Put forward a detailed proposal for maps of a viable demilitarized Palestine based on a modified 1967 boundary, and a plan for the safe escort home of Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Start placing on trial for conspiracy to commit murder the officials of any organization that claims to be responsible for suicide bombings.

Put forward specific proposals for the return of a limited number of Palestinians who before 1948 actually lived in what became Israel, in ways that will not weaken the Jewish character of Israel.

Put forward proposals for the resettlement of refugees within the emerging State of Palestine.

Publicly affirm in Arabic as well as English, and make sure that all Palestinian schools start teaching, that both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people, the two families of Abraham, have an ancient and honorable connection to the land that Abraham walked and to the Holy City, Jerusalem, Al Quds — and that this connection is expressed in the right to exist of both the State of Israel and a State of Palestine.

Make sure at once that Jews have safe and adequate access to such shrines as Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and safety from harassment at the Western Wall.

Messrs Sharon & Arafat:

Join in creating an international court to try those accused of terrorism, whether Palestinian suicide bombers or the Israeli settler underground that has been attacking Palestinian villagers — so that neither nation can harbor them and neither can subject them to extrajudicial assassinations.

Join in denouncing and dropping from all governmental rhetoric and education any teachings of contempt or hatred for each other's people.

Create a day of common mourning for all who have died in this conflict.

As Americans committed to a practical and ethical settlement that brings peace to the Middle East and ends the danger that this inflammatory war will spark violence elsewhere, we urge —
That the United States re-engage as an honest broker for a just and equitable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

That the US recognize a new demilitarized State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, with borders close to the 1967 boundaries as modified by the mutual agreement of both parties.

That the US call for a swift end to the Israeli occupation of and settlements in the West Bank & Gaza outside these agreed boundaries.

That the US assist with money and political urgency the safe return of all Israeli settlers and soldiers within these boundaries.

That the US list as banned terrorist organizations any Palestinian or Israeli organizations that do not clearly renounce and abandon the use of terrorism against civilians.

To American Jews and all who love Israel, peace, and justice:

End the silence — Lift your voice now! Join us in this call to achieve a just and mutual peace in the Middle East.

For Break the Silence:
Cherie Brown, National Coalition-Building Institute
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, The Shefa Fund
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center

Miriam Abram
Irving Ackelsberg, Esq.
Martha Ackelsberg, Smith College
Philip M. Allen, Frostburg State University, Maryland
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Temple University
Robin Cohen Anderson, Easthampton, MA
Michael Appel
John Atlee, Institute for Economic Analysi
Peter Barrer
Emily Bazelon
Rabbi Micah Becker-Klein, Congregation Ahavas Achim — The Bernard Bellush, Professor Emeritus, City College of New York
Jewel Bellush, Professor Emeritus, Hunter College
Phyllis O. Berman
Reena Bernard
Julie Bourn
Mary Louise Bross, Marriage and Family Therapist
Addison Bross, Lehigh University
Rabbi David Brusin, Congregation Shir Hadash, Milwaukee
Marvin Carlson
Rabbi Howard A. Cohen, Vermont
Rabbi Michael Cohen, Vermont
Rabbi Hillel Cohn, San Bernardino, CA
Ruth Crystal
Jeffrey Dekro, The Shefa Fund
Rabbi Elliot Dorff, University of Judaism
Rabbi Sue Fendrick, Newton, MA
Rabbi Randy Fleisher, St. Loui
Michelle Frankel, Ph.D. Tel Aviv University and UMBC
Marcia Freedman, Former Member of Knesset
Mia and Joe Buchwald Gelle
Ken Giles, Jewish Peace Fellowship
Deborah Ginsburg, MD
Dr. Jay Gold and Sabrina Harmon
Rabbi Shefa Gold, C-DEEP
Rabbi Robert Gluck
Arlene Goldbard and Don Adams, Seattle
Naomi Goodman, Jewish Peace Fellowship
Arthur Green, Brandeis University
Ellen Grobman
Vegvayzer/madrikh Hershl Hartman, Sholem Community, L.A.
Phyllis and Ivan Herman
Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth University
Linda Hirschhorn, Vocolot
Sue Hoffman, The Shefa Fund
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Margaret Holub, Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, CA
Bernard Horn, Framingham State College
Florence Ruth Kline and Brian Yaffe
Ronnie J. Kweller
Betsy Jameson
Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewi
Mitchell and Helene Kamen
Rodger Kamenetz, Poet and Author
Rabbi Reuel Karpov, Ph.D., Boston
Howard Katz
Dr. Sheila H. Katz
Herbert Kelman, Harvard University
Rabbi Mark W. Kiel, Congregation Bnai Israel, Emerson
Linda Klein, Endicott College
Rabbi David L. Kline, B'nai Israel, Monroe, LA
Steve Kramer
Stefan H. Krieger, Professor of Law, Hofstra University
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian, Chicago Jewish Peace Forum
Richard L. Mandel
Jim and Kathy McGinnis, Institute for Peace and Justice
Eric M. Meyers, Duke University
Joseph Marcus M.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago
Rabbi David Mivasair, Vancouver, BC
Rev. Patricia Ellen Morgan, MSC
Bennett Muraskin, Jewish Cultural School & Society, Northern NJ
William O'Brien, Coordinator, The Alternative Seminary
Dr. Stephen Oren, Community Synagogue, Keene, NH
Sheila Park
Janet Penn
Rabbi Barbara Rosman Penzner, Boston
Judith Plaskow, Manhattan College
Carrie and Jordan Pollack
Murray Polner, Jewish Peace Fellowship
Gail Pressberg
Marlene Provizer
Jonathan W. Reitman, Gosline, Reitman & Ainworth Dispute
Resolution Services, Brunswick, ME
Judy and Steven Richman
Helen Dean Risher, The Other Side magazine
Rabbi Brant Rosen, Jewish Reconstructionist Congr., Evanston, IL
Rabbi Jeff Roth
Max Samson, Board, Americans for Peace Now
Phillip A. Saperia, Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Lynne Schaefer
Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, Cherry Hill, NJ
Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Washington Inst. for Jewish Leadership & Value
Mark Seal
Jerome M. Segal, Jewish Peace Lobby
Rabbi David Seidenberg
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, UCLA Hillel
Rabbi Gerry Serotta, Temple Shalom, Chevy Chase MD
Maurice and Dorothy Serotta
Jeff Shapiro
Cantor David Shneyer, Am Kolel
Sara Hope Smith, San Francisco, CA
Rabbi Eric M. Solomon, Congregation Tehillah
Mark Sommer, Mainstream Media Project
Donna Spiegelman, Boston District Workmen's Circle-Arbeter Ring
Hannah Davis Taieb
Sacha Uljon and Daniel Debowy
Rabbi Sheila Weinberg, Jewish Community of Amherst
Alice Wei
Howard Wettstein, University of California, Riverside
Judi Wisch, Beit Ahavah Community School, Florence, MA
Jonathan Wouk, Ottawa
Jeff Zolitor, Chair, Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations
[Institutions noted for identification only]

Sign and send in the coupon below. (Contributions are tax-deductible in accord with US law.)

--------------------------------------------------------
To: "Break the Silence" % Am Kolel, 15 W. Montgomery
Ave., Rm 204, Rockville MD 20850-4217

___ I join in raising my voice to support a just peace
between Israel and the emerging Palestine.

To help spread the word and help others find their
voice, I am enclosing —
___$1,000; ___$720; ___$360; ___$180; ___$72; _____Other
(Please make out the tax-deductible check to "AmKolel/
Break Silence.")

Name/s _________________________________________________
Address ________________________________________________
Email address/es _______________________________________
Phone/s ________________________________________________

********************************************************