Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism Statement on Israel, Self-Defense, and Peace

Recent terrorist violence in Israel and Israel’s consequent imperative need to defend its citizens, its existence, and its right to live in peace have attracted the attention of much of the news media and the world. From its inception, Conservative Judaism has emphasized the peoplehood of the Jewish People as a core principle of our belief and commitment. Grounded in this conviction, Conservative Judaism continues to support the right of our Jewish People to national self-expression in our ancestral homeland.

Israel, taking action rare among the nations of the world, willingly moved its troops out of Lebanon despite a history of using that territory to launch attacks upon it, and Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza to allow the Palestinian people the opportunity to realize their own national self-expression and to rise to the responsibility of living in peace. Tragically, the response from both borders has been unprovoked attacks, as Israel’s borders have been violated from Lebanon and from Gaza and innocent hostages seized. Iranian and Syrian sponsored Hezbollah has used Israel’s good will to launch hundreds of missiles on Israel’s cities, villages, and farms. This deliberate assault on civilians violates every international standard of legal warfare, as does Israel’s enemies’ insistence on placing their bomb labs, military supplies and centers amidst Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, putting them at great risk.

With Lebanon’s refusal (or inability) to prevent violence initiated from its own territory, and with the Palestinian Authority’s refusal (or inability) to prevent attacks launched from its own territory, Israel has been forced to assume responsibility for the safety of all its people – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim.

The LEADERSHIP COUNCIL OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM stands with Israel in its right to live in peace, its insistence on protecting its civilians, and on its pursuit of peace with its neighbors.

• We affirm and celebrate Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state in the national homeland of the Jewish people.
• We insist on the right of every Israeli to live in peace. We affirm that same right for every civilian in the Middle East.
• We stand with the State of Israel and its citizens during this difficult and dangerous time. Our prayers for strength, well-being and peace go out to them. We pray that those in captivity be returned home soon; that those harmed will have their pain alleviated and that all in anguish be granted strength and courage.
• We extend our love, care and support to our Masorti/Conservative communities, those in the north who have suffered and those who have provided homes and help to the displaced.
• We deplore Hezbollah’s recourse to intentional assaults against civilians and its deliberate kidnapping of Israelis within Israel’s territory.
• We deplore the morally-bankrupt equivalency that falsely equates the deliberate targeting of Israel’s population centers and its consequent murders with the tragic collateral loss of civilian life necessitated by Hezbollah’s criminal practice of putting innocent people in harm’s way by locating their weapon caches and missile manufacturing in the very center of residential areas.
• We salute the government of the United States, both the executive and legislative branches, for its stalwart support of its democratic ally and of Israel’s need to defend itself against terror and violence.
• We express appreciation to those nations and international organizations that have recognized Israel’s need to defend its people and have condemned Hezbollah and Hamas’s criminal violence.
• We salute the students of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Seminario Rabbinico, and the Schechter Rabbinical School who affirm their love of Zion and the unity of the Jewish people by continuing their studies in Jerusalem.
• We salute the more than 800 teenagers of our movement participating on our Ramah and USY summer programs in Israel and their parents who are continuing their activities in Israel affirming their commitment and caring for the people of Israel.
• We reach out to all men and women of good will, eager to see a peace in the Middle East that extends to all its inhabitants, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, to insist on an end to terrorism, and to advance the right of Israel and Palestine to secure and recognized boundaries.

The Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism

Cantors Assembly	Hazzan Steven S. Stoehr, President
Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs	Dr. Robert Braitman, President
Jewish Educators Assembly	Lonna Picker, President
Jewish Theological Seminary	Prof. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor
Masorti Foundation	Gloria Bieler, Earl Greinetz, Co-chairs, Board of Directors
Masorti Olami	Alan H. Silberman, President
MERCAZ	Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, President
NAASE	Glenn Easton, President
Rabbinical Assembly	Rabbi Alvin Berkun, President
National Ramah Commission>	Morton Steinberg, President
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies	Rabbi David Golinkin, President
Solomon Schechter Day School Association	Andrew Cohen, President
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism	Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein, President
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism	Gloria Cohen, President
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies	Rabbi Bradley Artson, Dean