By Eric Nusbaum, JTNews Correspondent
Yariv Oppenheimer, secretary general of Israel’s Peace Now (Shalom Achsav) movement kicked off his three-day trip to Seattle with a speech and discussion at Hillel at the University of Washington on May 2 that varied from his usual speaking engagements: Nearly all of Oppenheimer’s questions on Monday came from his political left.
One attendee had recently returned from the West Bank, another grew up there. Yet another pointed to news articles showing instances in the past few years when Hamas leaders said they were willing to negotiate with Israel — then wondered why Israel was not willing to be a partner to Hamas.
The critical Seattle audience was not unheard of, but certainly unusual for Oppenheimer.
“Mostly I’m advocating in front of Israelis,” Oppenheimer told JTNews. “The argument coming from them is from the right side. With arguments from the left, I don’t think it’s about idealism and ideology — it’s mostly about tactics.”
Oppenheimer laid out his strong beliefs that a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the key to stability in the region — and argued that the only way to achieve that state would be for Israel to make significant concessions among settlements in the West Bank.
“The two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the essence of Zionism,” Oppenheimer said in his informal remarks before an hour-long question and answer session that covered topics ranging from the newly unified Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to future Israeli elections.
However, the tensest moments of the discussion came over disputes in ideology, such as when Oppenheimer was asked about right of return or negotiating with Hamas.
“I don’t find a basic ground, even as an Israeli in the Peace Campm, to negotiate with Hamas,” Oppenheimer said. He would, however, be willing to negotiate with a unified Palestinian government that included Hamas, so long as two conditions are met by that government: A willingness to discuss the two-state solution, and a military under the control of a non-Hamas group.
Israel’s Peace Now movement began in 1978 as a grassroots effort to urge then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to continue peace talks with Egyptian Premier Anwar Sadat. Since then, the movement has also taken off in the United States as Americans for Peace Now.
“The main goal of this movement is to advocate a solution that’s a compromise with the Arab world,” Oppenheimer told JTNews. “It’s an organization that is taking part in civil society in Israel and gives people who support the two-state solution and would like to fight for it a place in the public arena.”
Oppenheimer himself got his start in youth movements of the Labor party. He was given leave from his military commanders to attend a peace rally in Tel Aviv in 1995 in support of the Oslo Accords — the rally at which then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
In 2006, Oppenheimer was called up as a reserve to guard the settlement Ateret in the West Bank. It was exactly the kind of settlement he advocates dismantling as part of his day job as an activist. Residents petitioned for his removal from duty, but Oppenheimer remained.
Just like his fellow Israelis, Oppenheimer told JTNews that American Jews have an obligation as well to express not just their support for Israel but their opinions on Israeli policy and politics.
“If you are just supporting the government policy without expressing your own views, you are undermining Israel in some ways,” he said. “There needs to be a place for Jewish Americans to say I support Israel but I have a problem with some Israel policy.”
Oppenheimer’s previous stop on his tour of the United States was in Washington D.C. He arrived in Seattle sleepless because he had spent the previous evening among the crowds in front of the White House celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden.
“I felt like an outsider,” Oppenheimer said. “I didn’t feel like I was part of the celebration. As an outsider it reminds me of the celebration in Israel after winning a soccer game, or some contest. A bit like Independence Day.”