ZGram - 8/27/2002 - "Chief Rabbi: Israel set on tragic path"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

August 27, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

[START]

Israel set on tragic path, says chief rabbi

Guardian interview will shock Jewish community

Jonathan Freedland
Tuesday August 27, 2002
The Guardian

Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, today delivers an 
unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that the country is 
adopting a stance "incompatible" with the deepest ideals of Judaism, 
and that the current conflict with the Palestinians is "corrupting" 
Israeli culture.

In a move that will send shockwaves through Israel and the world 
Jewish community, Professor Sacks departs from his usual policy of 
offering only public endorsement of Israel, and broad support for 
moves toward peace, by giving an explicit verdict on the effect that 
35 years of military occupation and decades of conflict are having on 
Israel and the Jewish people.

"I regard the current situation as nothing less than tragic," he 
tells the Guardian in an exclusive interview. "It is forcing Israel 
into postures that are incompatible in the long run with our deepest 
ideals."

He goes on to speak of being "profoundly shocked" at the recent 
reports of smiling Israeli servicemen posing for a photograph with 
the corpse of a slain Palestinian. "There is no question that this 
kind of prolonged conflict, together with the absence of hope, 
generates hatreds and insensitivities that in the long run are 
corrupting to a culture."

He also admits that in 1967 he was "convinced that Israel had to give 
back all the [newly-gained] land for the sake of peace" - and he does 
not renounce that view now.

Prof Sacks is at pains to underline his continuing, avowed support 
for the Jewish state - citing repeated efforts by Israel to make 
peace, and the Palestinians' failure to take the same "cognitive 
leap" towards compromise. Nevertheless, and despite the careful 
phrasing of his remarks, referring twice to dangers "in the long 
run", many in rightwing Jewish and Israeli circles will be angered by 
his comments.

"The nature of these comments are quite unlike anything he has ever 
said before," one senior Jewish community figure said yesterday. "The 
right will be surprised and angry." Liberal and dovish Jews are bound 
to welcome his statements.

Since becoming chief rabbi in 1991 of Britain's Orthodox Jews, and 
the de facto leader of the country's 280,000-strong Jewish community, 
Prof Sacks has successfully avoided any overtly political 
pronouncements on Israel.

He has preferred to be a public defender of the country and to offer 
broad support for the pursuit of peace as a divinely-sanctioned 
endeavour. At the time of the Oslo peace process, he was in regular 
correspondence with the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

But he has steered clear of opining on the moral status of Israel's 
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, in sharp contrast with his 
predecessor, Immanuel Jakobovits, who sparked outrage more than a 
decade ago when he condemned Israel for "lording it over" the 
Palestinians.

Community insiders predicted that Prof Sacks' latest comments could 
prompt a similar wave of fury. Much of Anglo-Jewish opinion has 
followed the Israeli shift to the right since the outbreak of the 
current intifada two years ago.

The chief rabbi is bound to cause further controversy by calling for 
dialogue with the most extremist representatives of radical Islam.

In today's interview, timed for the publication of his new book, The 
Dignity of Difference, which is serialised in the Guardian this week, 
Prof Sacks says he would even sit down with Sheikh Abu Hamza - the 
fundamentalist north London cleric who admits to sharing the views of 
Osama bin Laden and who describes himself as a Taliban sympathiser. 
Yesterday the sheikh was quoted saying it was "OK" to kill 
non-Muslims, and equating Jews with Satan.

Nevertheless, Prof Sacks says a meeting between the two is "a thought 
worth pursuing. I absolutely don't rule it out."

The chief rabbi, 54, also reveals that he has already met one of 
Iran's highest-ranking clerics, Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi-Amoli. At a 
meeting brokered by the Foreign Office and never disclosed until now, 
the two met for secret talks during a UN conference of religious 
leaders in New York in 2000.

"We established within minutes a common language", says Prof Sacks, 
the "particular language believers share."

The chief rabbi's new book is subtitled "How to avoid the clash of 
civilisations", and aims to offer the world a roadmap away from 
disaster. He calls on orthodox faiths in particular to realise that 
difference is not a problem to be managed, but an "essential" part of 
creation itself.

[END]

(Source:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,781113,00.html )