Miko Peled, son of a famous Israeli general who later became an advocate for peace with the Palestinians, was moved to re-examine his beliefs about his homeland and the myths that they were constructed on, after his young niece was killed in a suicide bombing committed by two Palestinian youths. His sister's refusal to seek vengeance and her statement that she held the Israeli government responsible for the conditions that moved them to the reprehensible act, started him on his current path toward community and solidarity among like minded people seeking a just peace through a democratic one state solution.
Rabbi Brant Rosen speaks of his own journey of recognition that the fundamental values of Judaism are incompatible with political Zionism. He seems to move ever closer to a recognition that Israel, dominated as it is by racists descendants of Eastern European Zionists, is in its present construction the actual existential threat to itself and the "Jewish People".
Co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine
"Moderator: Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and author of "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse"
Miko Peled Is the author of "The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine" (Just World Books) and authors a blog, http://mikopeled.com/ dedicated to creating peace between Israelis and Palestinians, to tearing down Israel's separation wall, and advocating equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. He is an accomplished public speaker who has lectured at universities in the U.S. and elsewhere, and has appeared on numerous TV and radio talk shows.
"There are few books on the Israel/Palestine issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one," Alice Walker, from her Forward to "The General's Son" "Miko Peled's unconventional, historially well-written life story and experiences portrays his desire for moral truths and unlimited possibilities. And one of those unlimited possibilities is for human beings, Palestinian and Israeli, to be born free." Leila Diab
Rabbi Brant Rosen serves a congregation in Evanston and he is currently the co-chair of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council. His writings appear regularly in his popular blog, "Shalom Rav," http://rabbibrant.com/and he has also contributed to the Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other media outlets. His new book, "Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi's Path to Palestinian Solidarity," an anthology of his blog posts and comments from 2008-10, has just been published by Just World Books. In 2008, Rabbi Rosen was honored by Newsweek as one of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America.
"Rosen wrestles openly, 'in the daylight' with his deepest moral delemma: reconciling the classic Zionist narrative that has informed him his entire life with Israel's inexcusable treatment of the Palestinians (and the liberal Zionism often used to rationalize it). We accompany him on his journey. The result is an eye-opening, much-needed contribution to the discourse surrounding Zionism in the American Jewish community. A critical work." Laila El-Haddad, author of "Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between"