The following advertisement by Israeli peace group Gush Shalom appeared in Haaretz on September 30:
“Few of us will mourn the defeat of Binyamin Netanyahu.
“But Ariel Sharon is not a man of peace, either. With the enthusiastic support of the Labor Party ministers, he exploits every opportunity to escalate the attack on the Palestinians.
“He does not want a cease-fire, and even less negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, in order to reach an agreed solution. His utterances about “security” are but a cover for his plan to annex large parts of the West Bank and to “fix the border unilaterally”. Every attack on Israeli citizens helps him in promoting these aims.
“The time has come for those who want peace and an end to the occupation to organize an independent and vigorous opposition, both in the street and in the Knesset.”
Antony, in a lecture at uni not long ago, I was told (wrongly I thought) the main Israeli based pressure/interest groups were; Peace Now, the Yesha Council, and B’Tselem.
My understanding of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc?) is that it is a far-left peace group advocating one state (therefore the destruction of Israel) with around 300-500 members, based in Tel Aviv.
This is interesting because the lecturer used the theme of pressure groups to claim that Israel was not democratic, and the govt limited such groups. She didnt mention Gush Shalom.
I realise you do not consider Israel a democracy, but tell me- do you consider Gush Shalom a genuine activist group??
Gush Shalom isn’t one of the largest peace groups in Israel, true enough. Many of the largest though, such as Peace Now, have in many ways supported Sharon over the last years, especially in relation to Gaza.
Gush Shalom isn’t far-left in my view at all, in fact, Uri Avnery, its head, whom I met some months ago in Tel Aviv, advocates a two-state solution.
Indeed he does, and I have recently unsubsubscribed myself from his mailing list, because I feel he is just providing a pseudo-left fig-leaf to the more and more transparent would-be leaders of the palestinian bantustans (plural, since it is now clear gaza and westbank will be separated).
Gaza and the West Bank are separated. Look at a map. They always have been.