My speech to our Palestinian cousins By Rabbi Berel Wein (February 7) The recent furor about Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg's plan to address the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council set me thinking. If I were invited to speak to this august body, what would I say to them? I have thought about this matter long and hard, and I think my speech would go something as follows: My Dear Cousins: I wish to tell you what is within my heart without rancor or hatred. We have been engaged in a long, bloody and seemingly intractable struggle for the past century. This dance of death claims daily victims. It is seemingly unstoppable, out of control, almost without rhyme or reason. Yet, it can be stopped. And I believe that you have the ability to stop it. In an ironic sense, the fate of this struggle and the fate of your people will be decided not in Brussels or Washington or New York or Oslo or even Jerusalem, but rather in Ramallah. As always, you hold the key to your own future. And that key is not to some imaginary lost house in Jaffa or Haifa. It is to the hearts and minds of the people of Israel. For only they can give you what you claim you want to have. And it is to their door that you will have to use your key. We do not trust you. We currently have no belief in your solemnly signed documents, let alone in your words. We see and hear your calls for jihad in your media daily, we watch your mobs cheer lynchings and the killing of innocents, we read your textbooks which foment hatred of us and deny our right to exist, we view your maps of the Middle East which never show Israel, and we are convinced therefore that there is no current partner for peace. We are frightened by the lack of democracy in the Arab world and within your Authority. We are discouraged by the rampant corruption that exists in your administration, by the speeches of your immans and muftis that demand war and blood and preach bigotry and intolerance. We are dismayed that you have not resettled one Arab refugee from the dismal squalor of the camps that are completely under your control. We are sickened that you allow the training of 17-year-old youths as suicide bombers. We ruefully remember that when Yitzhak Rabin, who died for the cause of peace with the Palestinian people, shook hands with Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn almost a decade ago, he said to Arafat "No more blood, no more war," Arafat said not one word in return. We hoped that this would change and we therefore granted you territory, sovereignty, arms, economic aid, international standing. We are greatly dismayed that the words of peace, of "no more blood, no more war," have yet to be uttered by the Palestinian leadership. Until they are, and in Arabic to your people, in sincerity, firmness and hope, there is really no way out of our current impasse. A noted scholar on Islam and the Muslim world, Bernard Lewis, in his book What Went Wrong, put the issue to you this way: "[Either Moslem societies, especially those in the Middle East, will continue in] a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression, [with all that implies for a horrible and troubled future]; or they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences and join their talents, energies and resources in a common creative endeavor [for their benefit and the rest of the world.] For the time being, the choice is their own." Our Torah, which you also revere, says it very succinctly: "Behold, I have placed before you today the choice between life and death, between good and evil. Choose life." Choose life for your children and grandchildren. Help remove them from the current climate of hate and bigotry and from the squalor of poverty and hopelessness. Give us a sense of confidence in you and your intentions. Stop killing us and forcing us to kill you in return. Give your people something to live for instead of hate-filled causes to die for. If you truly turn your face towards peace you will find now, as before, our hand stretched forth to welcome you and to work with you. Otherwise, our hand must remain clenched and powerful and set against you. President Sadat and King Hussein demonstrated that the future of their peoples lay in peace and not war with us. Your future is in your hands. Do not continue to squander opportunities and goodwill. Choose life! That is my speech. Shabbat Shalom