Jewish support for Egyptian revolution

A friend from my Berkeley days has asked me whether there is support among Jews for the Egyptian Revolution, now spreading to other non-democratic countries in the Middle East. He asked whether I could get such a statement together and get signatures. I decided, instead, that as an email activist, I’ll present examples of such support. In conversations with friends in Israel the emerging theme has been their “fear” but even in Israel, there is emerging consciousness among Israeli commentators that the new wind of democracy sweeping through the Arab countries is not necessarily bad for Israel.

I just read a “Letter to the Egyptians” from Danny Hartman (in Ha’aretz) which elicited dozens of responses from Egyptians and others, welcoming his letter but questioning why he was not offering this kind of friendship to his neighbors, the Palestinians.

Without a doubt the Middle East is in flux. The earthquake continues and the after shocks are being internalized. I am numbering the links to articles, not in any chronological order, but to make reading easier.–Lilly:

(1) “Jewish Groups Scramble To Adjust to New Mideast Reality.” Read more at The Forward’s website.

(2) Feb. 11th, the J street statement. check it out please: J Street Blog—Statement on Mubarak’s Resignation: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami issued the following statement upon news that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down:

J Street welcomes the announcement that Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as President of Egypt.
We applaud the bravery of the Egyptian people who have inspired the world through their nonviolent movement to secure an Egypt that guarantees representative government, opportunity and dignity. …

(3) Rabbi Lerner sent a message to the Egyptians via Al Jazeera.
Excerpts from Feb. 1 communication from Rabbi Lerner, subject line: It’s pro-Israel & Ahavat Yisra’el for Tikkun to support the Egyptian Uprising in the Pages of Al Jazeera:

….Ever since the victory over the dictator of Tunisia and the subsequent uprising in Egypt, my email has been flooded with messages from Jews around the world hoping and praying for the victory of the Egyptian people over their cruel Mubarak regime.

…..Though a small segment of Jews have responded to right-wing voices from Israel that lament the change and fear that a democratic government would bring to power fundamentalist extremists who wish to destroy Israel and who would abrogate the hard-earned treaty that has kept the peace between Egypt and Israel for the last 30 years, the majority of Jews are more excited and hopeful than worried. …

(4) The following is a “Letter to Egyptians” initiated by Michael Feldman, now on Facebook:

Dear Friends,

This will be quite brief. Please be a fan of the Letter at the following Facebook page ASAP: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jewish-Letter-to-Egypt/195171070502298

Not a nice looking URL, is it? We need 25 (just 25!) friends to get a friendly address, like facebook.com/JewishLettertoEgypt

I’m networking at Limmud LA tomorrow, which should net several more signatures, and possibly a whole lot more if we get a friendly address. I know some of you are engaged in similar networking opportunities shortly.

Also:

Egyptian-Belgian journalist Khaled Diab is now hosting my article about the letter at his website, The Chronikler. It’s the first step into Arab media, but we need to build a lot to get to the mainstream. Visit and rate it at chronikler.com/middle-east/egypt/mazel-tov/. It’s written from a personal perspective, and it introduces the letter, some of your comments and helpful links. (If you visit his other articles, please keep your comments or ratings positive. If you have a sharp disagreement with his writings, that’s fine, but then please keep comments and ratings to yourself, as meeting the gracious hosting of the article with sudden negative traffic would be a bad idea.)….

(5) Last but not least, is an article in The New Republic by Ephraim Halevi, former head of Mossad, who allays the fears of Israelis (“Everyone seems to think the Egyptian uprising damaged Israel’s strategic position. That’s nonsense.“) Highly recommended.