Palestinian Brings Message Of Cooperation To Waterford Temple

By PATRICIA DADDONA

Day Staff Writer, Waterford

Published on 1/9/2006

Waterford - For Jiries Atrash, a former high-ranking aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the political void left as a result of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disabling stroke makes the need for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs more critical than ever.

"Look," he told area Jews gathered Sunday at Temple Emanu-El, "Israel is our enemy, but Israel is our friend. We cannot live without Israel. Israel does provide goods and services we need. It is one land, two peoples, but we have to have commerce between us."

Atrash is a Palestinian, but a Greek Orthodox Christian. His wife, an American, lives in Cleveland while he is from Beitsahour, a town near Bethlehem. After years spent organizing visits for Arafat with the Pope, former President Bill Clinton, and various heads of state, Atrash today is general director for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

This weekend he was visiting the Rev. David Good, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, whom he met on an interfaith trip to the Middle East four years ago, said Jerome Fischer, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut. Atrash is helping Good organize another trip to the Middle East.

Fischer learned of Atrash's short stay here and invited him to speak at Sunday's forum, part of a program called the Institute for Adult Jewish Studies.

After the forum, Sema Stein of Niantic asked whether, if one side wins the struggle for control of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, the other wouldn't be destroyed in the process.

"We must co-exist," Atrash said. "We're cousins."

The death or even the disabling of Sharon will leave an enormous political vacuum, Atrash told his audience. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may be able to continue Sharon's policies of compromising with the Palestinians, but Olmert does not have the following or "courage" of Sharon. Nor do Palestinians have a bona fide leader to guide the peace process, he said.

Though Atrash never personally met Sharon and criticized the Israeli leader's involvement in the massacres of Palestinians in 1982, he praised Sharon's truthful dealings with the Palestinians and disavowed the terrorist tactics of Hamas, an armed faction seeking power in upcoming elections.

Sharon "is the first Israeli leader who dealt honestly with the goals of Israel: to build borders, build walls," Atrash said. "He wasn't sneaky. He said, ?This is what Israel wants.' For that, he prepared the Palestinians well to answer his demand."

Under Sharon, the Israelis pulled out of Gaza, but Atrash said the move spawned lawlessness instead of a model for future cooperation. Hamas has a chance to gain power in spite of its terrorism because the group has rejected the influence-buying efforts of the United States, which recently provided $20 million, ostensibly for roads and sewers, that was funneled to Palestinian political candidates instead, Atrash said.

"It's not that I believe in Hamas," he said. "It's just because Americans are telling us not to vote for Hamas. We say, ?Don't interfere in our politics.'"

Peace "will happen," Atrash said, but in the absence of a strong Palestinian leader, "the Israelis have to give... They have to give land, they have to turn down war, they have to take settlements from the West Bank. They have to compromise."

One person in the audience wanted to know why "it always has to be the Israelis that do the compromising."

"We control no land," said Atrash, who maintains that the majority of Muslim and Christian Arabs alike want peace. "No water, no border, no passages to other countries. We cannot give the Israelis anything except one thing: We can tell them, ?No more bloodshed.' "

Asked to explain why Palestinians say the terrorism of Hamas is counterproductive but don't go so far as to call it immoral, Atrash answered, "From me you will hear it: It's immoral. It's a low form of fighting to regain your land. It's immoral to kill civilians."

Fischer ended the forum by warning of the dangers of generalizing about all Palestinians, as if they hold identical political beliefs.

"The Christian Palestinians are in a particularly precarious position," he said.

Source

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