To: Ronald Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress

Support World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder’s NY Times op-ed pointing to settlements as...

We, Americans, Jews, and citizens of the world, applaud Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, for his op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday, March 18, 2018, titled “Israel’s Self-Inflicted Wounds,” in which he calls for stopping the settlement project as necessary to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and also goes a long way to bring peace to Israel-Palestine and all the people in the region.

Why is this important?

Mr. Lauder writes as a pro-Israel advocate and he couches his arguments in terms of preserving Israel as Jewish and democratic. Nonetheless, Mr. Lauder’s ideas are more universally applicable to the quest for Israel-Palestinian peace.

Mr. Lauder identifies two aspects of Israeli government policy that undermine any chance for peace in the region:
• Mr. Lauder says that a two-state solution (2SS)—a Palestinian state alongside Israel—is essential for peace. He says that the 2SS is threatened by Israel’s settlement project that expropriates Palestinian land, and calls for a major effort to promote the 2SS..
• Mr. Lauder also says that Israel’s capitulation to religious extremists “is turning a modern, liberal nation into a semi-theocratic one.” He calls for tolerance among the many strands of Judaism and by implication other religions that share the land.

Mr. Lauder’s drive to preserve Israel and Jewish and democratic is also a drive to bring peace to Israel-Palestine and all the people who live in the region. We supports Mr. Lauder and the World Jewish Congress in their quest for peace.

Mr. Lauder’s op-ed is important because it is a firm statement by a major player in the Israel lobby that settlements are the key barrier to peace. We congratulate Mr. Lauder.

We invite all people who desire peace in the region to sign this letter to congratulate Ronald Lauder.