From: Burcak Serter

To: mcsharon@bezeqint.net
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 10:07:12 +0300

Subject: A Muslim Call to the Israelis

I would like to share with you the following article that I have come across
via Internet. It is a call to the Israeli people from a Turkish Muslim intellectual
whom I believe has been thus contributing to the absolutely yet-to-come peace
in the Holy Land. Please take some time and read.

Yours Sincerely,
Burcak Serter

A MUSLIM CALL TO THE ISRAELIS

These days the Middle East is once again the scene of fighting between the Israelis
and the Palestinians. Radicals on both sides are employing the most ruthless
and cruel methods against each other. The Israeli Army is ruthlessly bombing
Palestinian settlements, shooting at children and trying to make Palestine uninhabitable.
Palestinian radicals, on the other hand, are attacking Israeli civilian targets
and spreading violence with their terrible suicide attacks aimed at women and
children.
Our heartfelt wish as Muslims is for the anger and hatred on both sides to die
down, for the bloodshed to stop and for peace to come to the Middle East. We
oppose both the Israeli killing of the innocent and the Palestinian bombing of
innocent Israelis.
In our view, the most important condition for this blind conflict to come to
an end and for real peace to be established in the Middle East is for both sides
to genuinely and honestly understand and implement their own beliefs. The conflict
between Israel and Palestine has taken on the identity of a 'religious war' between
Jews and Muslims, whereas in fact there is absolutely no reason for such a war
of religion. Both Jews and Muslims believe in God, love and respect the same
prophets, and possess the same moral principles. They are not enemies. On the
contrary, they are allies in a world in which atheism and hatred of religion
are widespread.
Based on that fundamental principle, we call on the Israelis (and all Jews):

1) Muslims and Jews believe in one God, the creator of the universe and all living
things. We are all God's servants, and to Him we shall return. So why hate each
other? The holy books we believe in are different, but we all abide by those
books because we believe they are the revelations of God. So why should we fight
one another?
2) Instead of Muslims, would the Israelis rather live among atheists or pagans?
The Bible is full of passages describing the terrible cruelties inflicted on
the Jews by pagans. The terrible genocide and cruelty inflicted on the Jews by
atheists and unbelievers (such as the Nazis, anti-Semitic racists or communist
regimes such as Stalin's Russia) are clear for all to see. The atheist forces
in question hated the Jews because they believed in God, and that is why they
oppressed them. Are not Jews and Muslims on the same side against these atheist,
communist or racist forces that hate them both?
3) Muslims and Jews love and respect the same prophets. The prophets Abraham,
Isaac, Joseph, Moses or David are at least as important for Muslims as they are
for Jews. The lands where these holy figures lived and served God are at least
as holy for Muslims as they are for Jews. So why drown those lands in blood and
tears?
4) The fundamental values of Israel are also sacred to us Muslims. The word 'Israel'
is the name of the Prophet Jacob, who is praised in the Koran and remembered
with great respect by Muslims. The Magen David (Star of David) is the holy symbol
of the prophet David for us too. According to the Koran, synagogues are places
of worship that Muslims must protect. (Koran, 22:40). So why should members of
the two religions not live together in peace?
5) The Torah commands Jews to establish peace and security, not to occupy other
lands and spill blood. The people of Israel are described as 'a light unto the
nations.' As Rabbi Dovid Weiss has said:
The Jewish people are commanded by Almighty God to live in peace with all peoples
and nations on the face of the globe. Our agenda is simple It is to humbly worship
the Creator at all times. As Torah Jews we are called upon to feel and express
our sense of compassion when any person or group of human beings suffers.*

If the Israelis continue to treat the Palestinians as they are now, they may
be unable to account for that to God. Those Palestinians who kill innocent Israelis,
on the other hand, may be unable to account for those murders. Is it not a duty
in the eyes of God to put an end to the fighting, which is dragging both sides
deeper into satanic violence?

We invite all Jews to consider these facts. God commands us Muslims to invite
Jews and Christians to a 'common formula:'
Say, "O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding on
both us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners
with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than
God." (Koran, 3:64)
This is our call to the Jews, a People of the Book: As people who believe in
God and obey His commands, let us come together in the common formula of 'faith.'
Let us love God, the Lord and Creator of all of us. Let us abide by His commands.
Let us pray to God to lead us further on the path of righteousness. Let us bring
love, compassion and peace to each other and the world, not hostility, blood
and tears.
That is where the solution to the Palestinian question and other conflicts in
the world lies. Come, let us find a solution together. The deaths and suffering
of so many innocent people remind us every day what an urgent task this is.

How Can the Palestinian Question be Resolved?
Based on the principles of toleration and moderation we have outlined above,
it is possible to solve the Palestinian question, which has caused so much bloodshed
in the Middle East over the last 50 years. In our view, the establishment of
peace depends on these two conditions:
1) Israel must withdraw from all the territories it occupied during the 1967
war. The occupation that has existed since must come to an end. That is an obligation
under international law, U.N. Security Council resolutions and the concept of
justice. All of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be recognized as belonging
to an independent State of Palestine.
2) Jerusalem must be administered by an international commission attached to
the United Nations. That commission must have equal numbers of Muslim, Christian
and Jewish members. This holy city is a 'religious center' of the utmost importance
to all three religions. That is why Jerusalem can never be the capital of any
political entity. All Jews, Muslims or Christians may regard Jerusalem as their
own spiritual capital, but it is wrong to claim it as a political capital. Jerusalem
must be demilitarized and made a free city in which members of all three religions
can carry out their obligations in peace.
When these conditions are brought about, Israelis and Palestinians will have
recognized each others' right to exist, shared the Palestinian lands, and resolved
the status of Jerusalem, the subject of a great argument, in a manner satisfactory
to the members of all three religions.

* "The Torah Demands Justice for the Palestinians" Presented by Rabbi Dovid Weiss
of NKI at Time Square in Manhattan on Friday afternoon, June 1, 2001.<http://www.netureikarta.org/speech1jun01.htm >

This perhaps is the impression formed by the media. As to shooting children, somebody must shoot at these Palestians children whose bodies are shown .
Anyway here, young soldiers tell many about cruel atrocities inflicted on Palestinians on purpose. While telling the cruelty stories, they laugh and gigle and seem to enjoy themselves very much. Nothing of this kind you will find with American soldiers, that is, not cruelty for its own sake and the joy of it. Rather, you will find there an attitude of integrity and responsibility, since they have been trained to hard self discipline, among other things.

This phenomena of sheer cruelty for its own sake must be uprooted, as have been clarified by many Israeli speakers, including the Minister of Defence

An excellent question. The military law should be full scale active in uprooting these prevalent phenomena by punishing those leading with atrocities, that give bad examples to many many others that follow them

What you don't understand is the difference in the political aspirations of both peoples, which have nothing to do with religion. All the Israeli want is a Home-state for the Jews to act as refuge from any hostile part of the world that exists, to live their Jewish life in the way they choose to do. The Palestinians, on the other hand, being Muslims, can't take the idea that the Jews can be indipendant and sovereign in any part of the world, especially they don't like them to rule over other Muslims (like Israeli Arabs). The Israelis don't mind the Palestinians living in their own state in peace, as long as they let the Jews live in theirs, but most Arabs in the world oppose the mere fact of the Jews having their own state, especially in that part of the world which they consider their own (and they forget the long Jewish history connceting them particularly to that part of the world). If you think you can solve this problem, be our guest.