In 1969 David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel visited Cape Town. He was by far the most important Israeli visitor to our small town. I remember his visit vividly. He met with the the leaders of the Zionist youth groups. At that meeting he was asked by one of the counsellors whether any Palestinians were expelled from Israel during the War of Independence. He responded passionately and angrily that no Palestinians were expelled in 1948 and that the Zionist leadership encouraged them to stay. They chose to leave because the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem told them that they would get two houses once they had driven the Jews into the sea. This was his version of the history of 1948 and I believed him.

This year is the first year that I hear Israelis remark that the State may be a temporary phenomenon: "I am happy to live in a Jewish state, to be alive at a time when Jews have a state. But the last state we had, the Maccabean one, two thousand years ago, lasted a hundred years, and this one will probably be shortlived, as well. We don't know how to be an autonomous people and live in a larger world. We are always overtaken by fanaticism," one Israeli told me.

As much as the defense of human rights is contingent on the just administration of law and the proper protections that the law offers, it equally depends on the attitudes of populations. Whatever the law may be on the books, policemen and women, soldiers in the field, prosecutors and average citizens all become responsible for the protection or violation of human rights.

I will never forget touring Silwan with Arik a few years ago when we went to Israel to rebuild the Dari home. We listened to a local Palestinian resident of Silwan talk about the harassment from those religious Israeli extremists who have occupied homes of Palestinians in Silwan.

They put fences and barricades around their homes, and have a security force to protect them, as their hostile takeover of these homes is not supported by their neighbors (big surprise!). One can see these houses by the huge Israeli flags that dot the neighborhood, also conveying a clear and powerful message.

On March 8, as expected, President Bush vetoed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which would have restricted the CIA to interrogation methods found in the Military Field Manual and outlawed without exception the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. In his weekly radio address, the President defended his decision as a matter of national security, saying “We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.”

It is natural that some people find the special reading on the coming Shabbat, March 15, of Deuteronomy 25:17-20 regarding the wiping out of the memory of Amalek dificult to understand, or even somewhat off-putting. The wiping out of a whole people feels too much like collective punishment, even genocide, and though we recognize that there is evil in the world which we must oppose, the absolute voice of the reading feels so harsh that it becomes a source of deep unease. Hasidic literature can be helpful in recovering some meaningfulness in reading about Amalek.

We waited with baited breath to see what the Bush administration might accomplish at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in the week following Thanksgiving. Now that our breath has been baited, it’s time to fish.

Of course, Israel and the Palestinians first have to negotiate a two-state solution and then Abu Mazen and Olmert have to find the political capital to sell the agreement (and not get killed or indicted).

Rabbi Arthur Green has been a member of the advisory board of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America since its inception. He is one of America's most interesting and original Jewish thinkers and as Rector of the new Hebrew College Rabbinical School is training a new generation of American rabbis. To open our human rights forum, he has generously shared with us a portion of his forthcoming book on Jewish theology which deals with our responsibility to honor each human being as the image of God. Read Art Green's message and add your comment:

Judaism’s moral voice begins with Creation. Our most essential teaching, that for the sake of which Judaism still needs to exist, is our insistence that each human being is the unique image of God.