Permit me to say that I am deeply moved.

I wish to thank each and every one of you, who have come here today to take a stand against violence and for peace. This government, which I am privileged to head, together with my friend Shimon Peres, decided to give peace a chance -- a peace that will solve most of Israel's problems.

I was a military man for 27 years. I fought as long as there was no chance for peace. I believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here -- and they are many.

I have always believed that the majority of the people want peace and are ready to take risks for peace. In coming here today, you demonstrate, together with many others who did not come, that the people truly desire peace and oppose violence.

Violence erodes the basis of Israeli democracy. It must be condemned and isolated.

This is not the way of the State of Israel. In a democracy there can be differences, but the final decision will be taken in democratic elections, as the 1992 elections which gave us the mandate to do what we are doing, and to continue on this course.

I want to say that I am proud of the fact that representatives of the countries with whom we are living in peace are present with us here, and will continue to be here: Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, which opened the road to peace for us. I want to thank the President of Egypt, the King of Jordan, and the King of Morocco, represented here today, for their partnership with us in our march towards peace.

But, more than anything, in the more than three years of this Government's existence, the Israeli people has proven that it is possible to make peace, that peace opens the door to a better economy and society; that peace is not just a prayer.

Peace is first of all in our prayers, but it is also the aspiration of the Jewish people, a genuine aspiration for peace.

There are enemies of peace who are trying to hurt us, in order to torpedo the peace process.

I want to say bluntly, that we have found a partner for peace among the Palestinians as well: the PLO, which was an enemy, and has ceased to engage in terrorism. Without partners for peace, there can be no peace.

We will demand that they do their part for peace, just as we will do our part for peace, in order to solve the most complicated, prolonged, and emotionally charged aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict: the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.

This is a course which is fraught with difficulties and pain. For Israel, there is no path that is without pain.

But the path of peace is preferable to the path of war.

I say this to you as one who was a military man, someone who is today Minister of Defense and sees the pain of the families of the IDF soldiers. For them, for our children, in my case for our grandchildren, I want this Government to exhaust every opening, every possibility, to promote and achieve a comprehensive peace. Even with Syria, it will be possible to make peace.

This rally must send a message to the Israeli people, to the Jewish people around the world, to the many people in the Arab world, and indeed to the entire world, that the Israeli people want peace, support peace.

For this, I thank you.

Nov 29 2000 The Other Israel, a veteran Israeli peace group, reports on pro-peace demionstrations on university campuses, on a conscientious objector on his way to military prison, 40,000 trees uprooted by the IDF, and more. Check it out


Nov 28 2000 No to a Sharon-Barak War Government Peace Now: "The proposed Emergency Government is a declaration of a unilateral withdrawal from the Peace Process, which will isolate Israel and create a danger of war with the Palestinians and Arab world. The movement will move to build a peace oriented opposition to the Sharon-Barak war government." Peace Now will hold a protest vigil at the Knesset today, Tuesday, November 28th, 15:00. Contact Noam Hoffshteter, 054-218518.

Nov 27 2000 Jimmy Carter on Land or Peace in the Israel-Arab crisis He negotiated one of the foundations of the peace process - the treaty between Menachem Begin's Israel and Anwar Sadat's Egypt at the original Camp David summit. He knows it all comes down to one question: Land or Peace. This brief article is mportant reading to understand the impasse.

Naftali Raz announces establishment of The Israeli Peace Corps (TIPC)

Nov 26 2000 Bring the settlers home by David Tartakover


Gila Svirsky reports on the meeting with Faisal Husseini at the Orient Huse

Nov 25 2000 Uri Avnery writes an open letter to the settlers calling on them to come home...

Nov 24 2000 Gush Shalom announces a meeting with Faisal Husseini at Orient House for tomorrow, the 25th, and a meeting at Tel Aviv Tzavta on Sunday the 26th with Shulamit Aloni, Salem Jubran, Dov Yirmiya, Me'ir Pa'il, Ilan Pappe, As'ad Ranem, and Maya Rosenfeld and Uri Avnery as moderator

Nov 21 2000 Gila Svirsky: "We refuse to be enemies" A report from one of the leading women peace activists in Israel.


Kids at war by David Tartakover
"The Palestinian authority and the terror organizations that send their children to the front of the friction spots as activists, are making cynical use of these children and endangering their lives. The IDF regrets any loss of life and particualrly the loss of children's lives, but it should be remembered that those who don't want their children harmed won't send them to a place where a war is taking place." -- IDF Spokesman, November 20, quoted in Haaretz.
In the photo, the Kfar Darom, Gaza, settler school bus hit by a shell on November 19, in which 2 children were killed and nine other wounded.

Nov 21 2000 A report on a peace demonstration in Wadi Ara from Rela mazali of New Profile

Nov 20 2000 Peace Now condemns the murderous attack on the school bus in the Gaza Strip this morning. Prof. Arie Arnon, Peace Now: "The killing of innocent civilians, especially children, is an unforgivable crime. The continuation of such attacks can only serve those who oppose peace. No agreement can be reached until Arafat and the Palestinian leadership demonstrate a willingness and ability to put an end to the violence." Further information: Didi Remez Peace Now Spokesperson 972-54-302796 ddremez@netvision.net.il (private) peacenow@actcom.co.il (work) http://www.peace-now.org

From: Libby & Len Traubman
To: Our colleagues in Palestinian-Jewish Dialogue, near and far away
Re: An update on dialogue group activity in the San Francisco Bay Area

Nov 20 2000
THE CHILD

By Karen Alkalay-Gut

He wets his bed at night and in the morning
runs to the junction to throw stones. What
did he eat for breakfast? Who washes his clothes
when he comes home at dusk full of dust and the sight
of his friends (from the same bench at school)
fallen in blood? Behind him his uncles
are urging him on and shooting over his head
at soldiers still boys themselves. In the kitchen Mother
wrings her hands and takes comfort in the fact
that her child is her savior, alive or dead.
To the rest of the poem

Nov 19 2000 An on the ground report from Uri Avnery on what the Intifada looks like

Nov 18 2000 121 Palestinian political and academic personalities have issued an appeal to the Israeli public in which they outlined their grievances and aspirations. The appeal was published in major Israeli newspapers and on the web and has since attracted wide international attention. Please visit the website http://www.arabrights.org/palestine/statement/index.html and add your signatures to supprort its content and the people who wrote it. You can send you comments as well. So far over 100 people from all over teh world have sent in their words of support.

Nov 15 2000 Condolence messages for Leah Rabin

The Windows Channels for Communication Network sends a communique on their latest activities, including reports on meetigns with Palestinians, and a letter from teve Sosebee, a journalist and the president of the Palestinian Child Relief Fund (PCRF).

Nov 14 2000 We, Palestinian and Jewish women, citizens of Israel, have organized a joint protest in Wadi Ara this coming Tuesday (November 21, 200) to proclaim: The Right to Exist is the Basis of Co-Existence

GUSH SHALOM annunces their General Motors campaign was successful: and announces some demonstration activity.

Nov 12 2000 Here are the essential lines that Barak must draw as he leaves for his meeting with Clinton: Israel's basic borderlines are the 1967 borders (with a few minor border corrections), without a hold on the territories -- on condition that a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip not become the first stage in a multi-staged plan to destroy Israel (or to destroy its Zionist premise of serving as a haven for the Jewish people).
The thrust of a settlement should therefore endorse a complete withdrawal (almost), along with strong security arrangements that will prevent a Palestinian state from posing any future threat to Israel's existence.
Moreover, the arrangement should assure that the right of return of the Palestinians is relinquished and hatred of Jews and of the State of Israel ceases to be fomented in schoolbooks, the media and religious sermons

Nov 11 2000 MidEast Citizen Diplomacy announces Compassionate Listening Delegations to West Bank and Israel

Where are you? by David Tartakover


Nov 10 2000 Gila Svirsky reports "On the reaction of "the left" in Israel to the violence of the past 6 weeks.

Nov 10 2000 Economic and social councils and similar institutions from 27 countries, including Israel and the Palestinian territories, agree on a joint message to the Marseille Ministerial Conference Read about it here

Nov 8 2000 The Israel Interfaith Association reports on: THE SITUATION AND US" - Open Discussion and Exchange

YOUTH MOVEMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE DEMANDING A RETURN TO NEGOTIATIONS "THERE ARE MANY MORE STONES TO TURN OVER ON THE PATH TO PEACE" Activists, aged 14-18, from a coalition of youth movements, will voice their refusal of their generation to give up on peace. They will call for an end to the violence and for the reopening of dialog. Speakers will declare to Barak: "There is a partner for peace, because peace is the only partner." Participating Youth Movements: Peace Now Youth; Hashomer Hatzair; Meretz Youth; Hadash Youth; Israeli Communist Youth Alliance. The demonstration will take place Thursday, November 9th, 19:30, at Paris Sq. (across from the PM’s residence in Jerusalem) More info: Contact: Keren Assaf, Peace Now Youth Spokesperson, 972-54-688101

Nov 7 2000 Settlement construction reports: From Peace Now and from the Foundation for Middle East Peace

Nov 4 2000 -- Here's something interesting from Science magazine, as if it should be a surprise: More than 70% of Jewish men and half of the Arab men whose DNA was studied inherited their Y chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors who lived in the region within the last few thousand years.

Nov 7 2000 A Peace Now analysis of the Barak government's budget proposal for 2001 shows that the settlement movement will benefit from some $300 million in tax breaks, construction subsidies and road-building. Here's a precis of the report.

Nov 3 2000 Women -- Not Generals -- Make Peace
We didn't get our sons safely out of Lebanon for them to be killed or kill in Judah and Samaria.
Friday, 3 November at 10:15 a.m., a demonstration of Mothers and Women for Peace will take place opposite the Givatayim Theater (40 Remez St., Givatayim) during a speech by the Prime Minister inside.
We will call upon Barak to leave Gaza, Judah and Samaria peacefully. We didn't get our sons out of the superfluous war in Lebanon for them to kill or be killed in another superfluous war!
We women call upon the government of Israel to speak and not kill. Listen to the woman's voice of wisdom, because the age of generals is over!
For further information:
Zahara Antebi (formerly Four Mothers) Tel. (06) 694 6807 or (050) 33312
Atalia Boimel (Mothers and Women for Peace) (04) 999 1001
Michal Pundak-Sagi (New Profile) (09) 955 2484 or (053) 751 261