THE GLOBE’S thoughtful editorial “Obama should use UN threat to revive Mideast peace talks’’ highlights the opportunity the Obama administration has to turn lemons into lemonade.
Israeli settlements and the pending UN resolution are symptoms of the larger disease that is the ongoing conflict. What better time, with the UN resolution on the table, for President Obama to lay out his vision and urgently push for two states?
Deep support exists in the American Jewish community for a bold, assertive peace initiative that can secure Israel’s future, achieve a Palestinian state, bring about a comprehensive peace that adds much-needed stability to the region — and prevent this resolution from coming to a vote.
As an American Jew for whom Israeli security is of utmost importance, and who supports strong US backing of Israel in an international environment that often treats it unfairly, I am disappointed that the situation has come to this point.
But barring a bold American initiative or an Israeli decision to freeze settlements, I cannot support a US veto of a resolution that so closely tracks longstanding American policy, appropriately condemns settlement activity, and calls on both parties to take the necessary steps toward peace.
Donna Spiegelman
Cambridge
The writer is chairwoman of J Street Boston.
