2 Sides Find Common Ground at Temple Israel's Mideast Peace Discussion

Hundreds of people filled Temple Israel of Hollywood on Monday night for a discussion about Israeli peace prospects from opposing viewpoints.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the progressive group J Street, and David Suissa, founder of OLAM Magazine, led the conversation about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed during the Obama administration and suggested possible solutions for peace as the United Nations faces the September decision of whether to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

Ben-Ami, who represented the left-wing view of the conflict, said that he believes peace can be achieved through a two-state solution, with the Israeli Jews in one state, and the Palestinians in another.

“The only way to maintain a secure, democratic Jewish Israel is to have a two-state solution….[with the Palestinian people] living side by side in peace and security,” he said. “[Israel] can’t have all the land and remain Jewish and democratic. It has to choose two of the three.”

The Wall Street Journal described a new United Nations report that said the Palestinian Authority was moving successfully toward recognition as an independent state in September. 

Ben-Ami said that a vote to separate Israelis and Palentinians should be delayed.

“If they can delay the vote, that would be the best possible outcome," he said. "I believe that a vote to recognize the Palestinian state would actually be a detriment to the long-term cause for peace and security in Israel."

Suissa, who writes columns for The Huffington Post and The Jewish Journal, said that J Street’s two-state solution leaves out Hamas.

“When J Street talks about a two-state solution, what they’re not telling you is that it’s really a three-state solution,” Suissa said. “When we talk about this two-state solution, we have this inconvenient truth about Hamas.”

“The presence of Hamas as a third state is the mother of all obstacles,” he said.

Suissa said that he is “very stressed” about the U.N.’s possible recognition of an independent Palestinian state. The decision would force people out of their homes and not encourage peace, he said.

To not have one Israeli Jew living in Palestine is “racist,” Suissa said. “If we want to have a great democratic state, it’s helpful to have a minority.”

He went on to say that peace can’t be achieved by simply dividing the two cultures.

“We still have not got these two parties in the same room for some meaningful peace talks, which they were in two and a half years ago,” Suissa said.

The free discussion at Temple Israel, which attracted an audience of 580 people, invited several rabbis in the community to voice their opinions on the divisive viewpoints presented by Ben-Ami and Suissa. Rabbis Sharon Brous (IKAR), Ed Feinstein (Valley Beth Shalom), Zoe Klein (Temple Isaiah) and Shmuly Yanklowitz (UCLA Hillel and Uri L' Tzedek) commented on the conflict in Israel before the close of the event. Temple Israel's Rabbi John Rosove moderated the discussion. 

Brous spoke to Hollywood Patch after the discussion about the importance of having a conversation with the American-Jewish community.

“I think it’s extremely important that the American-Jewish community figures out a better way, a more effective way, to have a relationship with Israel,” she said. “For too long, the options are, as our speakers described, either Israel’s always right even when it’s wrong, or Israel’s always wrong, even when it’s right. And part of what J Street is doing is forcing the conversation to open up and for there to be a deeper and more complexed and nuanced engagement with Israel.”

A group of friends discussing the conflict after the event said that the room seemed quieter than they expected, with very little audience interference. 

“The tragedy that is taking place in the Middle East and the delegitimization of the state of Israel is really tragic and it’s important to achieve peace, and if we have forums to have a conversation about it, hopefully something good will come out of it,” one attendee said. “Both speakers have their supporters and they effectively discussed their messages, but I don’t think there was much changed opinion in the room." 

Although Suissa criticized some of J Street’s beliefs, the two parties seemed to come to an understanding at the end of the discussion that they both supported peace in Israel. Ben-Ami invited Suissa to speak at J Street's next convention, and he accepted. 

“I don’t think anybody expected them to come out and find ways to say I agree with you so many times. That’s as good as making peace right here,” said attendee Sally Mendelsohn, who was visiting from New York.

“I think what’s been going on in the Middle East shows us that we have no idea what’s going to happen next,” she said. “All you can do is just keep trying to get them to work together.”