Rabbi Menachem Fruman, of the West Bank settlement of Tekoa (who made news earlier this week for congratulating a neighboring Hamas member on his parliamentary win), writes about Israel’s prospects for peace with Hamas, in last Friday’s Haaretz:
Is peace possible with Islam? The question that I wish to pose is the opposite: Is peace possible without Islam? Ever since the beginnings of Zionism, the best of Israeli thought has dealt with the question of how to live in peace with the reality in a country surrounded by another nation — the Arabs. Is it possible to live in peace with the Arab reality without trying to get to know the life of the Arabs? Can anyone who opens up to Arab society deny that religious life is central to it? In Israeli society the secular element is dominant and therefore it was natural that leading Israeli thinkers would assume that Palestinian society is also led by secular thinking. But is this the Palestinian reality?I would like, from my experience, to address the burning question of the week: Is it possible to live in peace with Hamas?
Comments (2)
wow.
Is there explicit support from the rabbinic community for Rabbi Fruman’s remarkable and perceptive initiative? Surely it is a responsibility of us all to be rodef shalom.
I have also had some discussions with Islamists, albeit in London. The possibility of a solution consistent with both religions was heartening. In particular, it appears there is nothing offensive to Islam in the existence of the Jewish community in Israel. What is required is some form of contract with the wider Islamic community in the middle east; nor need such a contract be demeaning to the jews (as it is acknowledged were the contracts of the middle ages with jews and christians in islamic countries). What offends is that Israel is perceived and largely perceives itself as Western outpost in the region. Small symbolic changes could go a long way towards building mutual respect and providing a basis for a peace without scarring the Holy Land with a separation between two peoples that both have religious and emotional ties to the whole land. The model might be the binational institutions that give the Republic of Ireland some voice in the North - and which appeased the Republican population in the North.
Beyond that all that is critical is justice at the level of the individual family - a requirement of both religions.