A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Daniel Shapiro today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. “The two state solution will never work and will only lead to increased terror and bloodshed. By promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state the U.S. is only shooting itself in the foot,” the rabbis told the Ambassador.

The Ambassador said that the two state solution was not a U.S. initiative but one that was initiated and promoted by the last four Israeli governments. “We did not pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Our goal – and Israel’s goal as well – is to get both sides to the negotiating table, they should negotiate by themselves without the help of a third party.”

Ambassador Shapiro stated in no uncertain terms that “we consider Hamas a terror organization and that there can be no negotiations with it.”

Rabbi Jospeh Gerlitzky, Chairman of the RCP said that “the RCP was founded in 1993 in order to alert public attention to Israel’s failed formula of “territories for peace.” “For the last 18 years we’ve been making gestures, giving them land and other vital resources and what did we get in return? Terror and more terror, precisely from those territories that we surrendered. It’s time to stop this foolishness.

Rabbi Gerlitzky said that the only solution to the problem is as delineated in the Halachic Ruling based on the Jewish Code of Law Chapter 329 signed by over 350 of the most prominent rabbis in Israel that the value of Jewish life supersedes every other value. Therefore, when foreigners want to enter Jewish border town and state that their purpose is only to pick up straw and pebbles one must violate the Sabbath and stop them militarily for if you will allow them one inch it will ultimately lead to the conquest of the entire land.

Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin, Director of the RCP, told the Ambassador that “for the last 45 years the word “peace” in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict has become synonymous with “Israeli withdrawal.” Negotiations between the two sides will always center on “from where Israel should withdraw, when and how it should withdraw and who will secure the withdrawal. Negotiations will never be “whether Israel should withdraw in the first place, whether an Israeli withdrawal will in fact bring peace?

“Unfortunately the past 45 years have proven without a shadow of a doubt that the “land for peace” formula is nothing but an exercise in futility and it’s about time to change course.” Rabbi Lewin quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week at a conference in Vienna, “we disengaged from Gaza and got 10,000 missiles in return.”

Rabbi Moshe Havlin, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Gat, spoke of the living hell the disengagement from Gaza brought to Kiryat Gat, “we never felt this way before the disengagement. There are over 50 American and students in the Yeshiva in Kiryat Gat but a month ago we were forced to close it down temporarily because of the missiles attack. I have an 18 month old grand daughter who is gripped with fright hysteria every time she hears a siren alerting that a missile is on its way.

Rabbi Gideon Perl, the Rabbi of Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion spoke about Israel’s eternal and inalienable rights to the Holy Land and asked how it is possible to negotiate peace with Abu Mazen who denies that there was a Holocaust? He said that the Palestinians want to destroy Israel in stages and the U.S. should not buy their deceitful ploy.

Rabbi Sholom Gold told Ambassador Shapiro that it seems senior officials in the administration “just don’t get it.” He was referring to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s statement last week at the Saban forum that called on Israel to make bold steps.

“Panetta’s statement proves he does not grasp what is going on,” said Rabbi Gold. “Israel has come to the ‘damn table’ millions of times and has made dozens of bold steps. What gestures or bold steps did the Palestinians ever make?

“Panetta doesn’t realize that we’re dealing here with murderers who while we are meeting here at your office are teaching and inculcating in their youth that all Jews in Israel must be thrown into the sea,” he told the Ambassador

Ambassador Shapiro listened attentively to the Rabbis’ arguments and positions and agreed that a strong and secure Israel is in America’s interests as well. “The U.S. has no better ally in the region and perhaps in the world than Israel,” he said. “We are always open to hear a variety of opinions even though we may not agree with them and thanked the rabbis for sharing their opinion.

In the spirit of Chanukah which celebrates the victory of a few over many, the rabbis presented the Ambassador with a Chanukah Menorah.

(YWN Desk – NYC)