If you listen to the rhetoric of virtually all of Israel’s political parties—from the left (or what is left of the left) to the middle to the right, from secular to religious—you hear the refrain: “The two-state solution is dead.”
They’re probably right, for many different reasons.
But what comes next? A one-state solution in which Jews will ultimately be a minority? The “encouraged emigration” that the right speaks about? That’s an international non-starter, a moral morass, and utterly unrealistic. So, then, just sustain the status quo?
But is the status quo really sustainable? How can we know? And if it’s not, what do we do?
In this era of grandstanding and bluster, of political machinations over serious thinking, Meredith Rothbart and her colleagues at Amal-Tikva are working to create the infrastructure for a different reality—one that my grandchildren and her children might actually choose to live in.
We hear today from a woman who brings passion, deep intelligence, moral nuance, and a very keen sense of realism—all grounded in her religious worldview—to work that we should all hope will succeed.
In this season of elections, international opprobrium, violence, and war, it’s easy to imagine many of us saying, “Really? At a time like this, who’s going to think about peacemaking?”
That, of course, is what too many of us also said on October 6.
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With Rosh Hashanah just a week and a half away, a reminder that during the holiday season, we will be on a slightly reduced schedule Weekly podcasts for paid subscribers will of course continue to appear on schedule, but other content will be reduced as many of us devote time to preparing for and welcoming the New Year, which we pray will bring much better tidings to Israel, our region and the world at large.
Meredith is the co-founder and CEO of Amal-Tikva, which works to build the infrastructure needed for peacebuilding to become a professional field capable of achieving lasting, scalable social change within and across Israeli and Palestinian societies. She often describes Amal-Tikva’s work as serving as the “stage hands” for peace.
She moved to Israel from Allentown, PA in 2008, and studied at Nishmat, a center for advanced Torah study for women. She first encountered the depth and complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during her military service, where she served in COGAT as a liaison to foreign governmental and nongovernmental organizations working on civilian infrastructure projects for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Meredith holds an MA in International and Community Development from Hebrew University, a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from University of Pittsburgh. She is a fellow in the Shai Doron Future Leaders of Jerusalem Fellowship at the Jerusalem Foundation and alumnus of Jerusalem-based Nishmat, a center for advanced Torah study for women.
She serves on the advisory board of the B8 of Hope, a Swiss foundation supporting grassroots peacebuilding, and has addressed the UN Security Council, the White House, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was featured on PBS Global Perspectives. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children.
The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.
For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
