With regard to the Resolution on the Israeli – Palestinian Peace Process adopted at the 2008 Plenum, the Orthodox Union does not agree with and dissents from the statement that “The organized American Jewish community should affirm its support for two independent, democratic and economically viable states – the Jewish State of Israel and a State of Palestine – living side-by-side in peace and security.”

As stated in our amendment to the resolution’s text, “[w]e note, with sorrow, that Israel’s repeated offers to establish ‘two democratic states living side by side in peace and security,’ have been met, time after time, by violence, incitement and terror.”

Hamas controls the Gaza strip and continues to wage open warfare and terrorism against Israel. The Palestinian Authority, which controls the Palestinian areas in the West Bank, has not demonstrated sufficient capacity or willingness, as noted by the resolution, to prepare its people for recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and the homeland of the Jewish people. If anything, such a statement appears to reward the very acts of terrorism and anti-Israel behavior that other provisions of the resolution criticize.

The Orthodox Union further disagrees with and dissents from the resolution’s statement that the American Jewish community should support an Israeli government’s negotiation efforts with regard to the status of Jerusalem – should that include the Government of Israel’s possible assent to the re-division of the Holy City which the global Jewish community continues to view as the “eternal and indivisible capital of Israel and the Jewish people.”
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