<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Why Jews Around the World are Praying for the Victory of the Egyptian&nbsp;Uprising]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>PNN &#8211; Palestine News Network &#8211; 01.02.11 &#8211; 11:17</p>
<p>By Rabbi Michael Lerner &#8211; Ever since the victory  over the dictator of Tunisia and the subsequent uprising in Egypt, my  email has been flooded with messages from Jews around the world hoping  and praying for the victory of the Egyptian people over their cruel  Mubarak regime.</p>
<div class="mosimage" style="float:right;border-width:2px;"><img title="Image" src="https://i1.wp.com/english.pnn.ps/images/stories/2008/Egyptprotest02.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" hspace="6" width="314" height="208" /></p>
<div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align:center;">Protesters in Cairo &#8211; Archive</div>
</div>
<p>Though  a small segment of Jews have responded to right-wing voices from Israel  that lament the change and fear that a democratic government would  bring to power fundamentalist extremists who wish to destroy Israel and  who would abrogate the hard-earned treaty that has kept the peace  between Egypt and Israel for the last 30 years, the majority of Jews are  more excited and hopeful than worried.</p>
<p>Of course, the  worriers have a point. Israel has allied itself with repressive regimes  in Egypt and used that alliance to ensure that the borders with Gaza  would remain closed while Israel attempted to economically deprive the  Hamas regime there by denying needed food supplies and equipment to  rebuild after Israel’s devastating attack in December 2008 and January  2009. If the Egyptian people take over, they are far more likely to side  with Hamas than with the Israeli blockade of Gaza.</p>
<p>Yet  it is impossible for Jews to forget our heritage as victims of another  Egyptian tyrant—the Pharoah whose reliance on brute force was overthrown  when the Israelite slaves managed to escape from Egypt some 3,000 years  ago. That story of freedom retold each year at our Passover “Seder”  celebration, and read in synagogues in the past month, has often  predisposed the majority of Jews to side with those struggling for  freedom around the world.  To watch hundreds of thousands of Egyptians  able to throw off the chains of oppression and the legacy of a  totalitarian regime that consistently jailed, tortured or murdered its  opponents so overtly that most people were cowed into silence, is to  remember that the spark of God continues to flourish no matter how long  oppressive regimes manage to keep themselves in power, and that  ultimately the yearning for freedom and democracy cannot be totally  stamped out no matter how cruel and sophisticated the elites of wealth,  power and military might appear to be.</p>
<p>Many Jews have  warned Israel that it is a mistake to ally with these kinds of regimes,  just as we’ve warned the US to learn the lesson from its failed  alliance with the Shah of Iran. We’ve urged Israel to free the  Palestinian people by ending the Occupation of the West Bank and the  blockade of Gaza. Israel’s long-term security will not be secured  through military or economic domination, but only by acting in a  generous and caring way toward the Palestinian people first, and then  toward all of  its Arab neighbors. Similarly, America’s homeland  security will best be achieved through a strategy of generosity and  caring, manifested through a new Global Marshall Plan such as has been  introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressman Keith  Ellison.</p>
<div class="mosimage" style="float:left;border-width:2px;"><img title="Image" src="https://i0.wp.com/english.pnn.ps/images/stories/2008/Egyptprotest03.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" hspace="6" width="314" height="209" /></p>
<div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align:center;">Protesters in Cairo &#8211; Archive</div>
</div>
<p>In  normal times, when the forces of repression seem to be winning, this  kind of thinking is dismissed as “utopian” by the “realists” who shape  public political discourse. But when events like the uprisings in  Tunisia and Egypt occur, for a moment the politicians and media are  stunned enough to allow a different kind of thinking to emerge, the kind  of thinking that acknowledged that underneath all the “business as  usual” behavior of the world’s peoples, the yearning for a world based  on solidarity, caring for each other, freedom, self-determination,  justice, non-violence and yes, even love and generosity, remains a  potent and unquenchable thirst that may be temporarily repressed but  never fully extinguished.</p>
<p>It is this recognition that  leads many Jews to join with the rest of the world’s peoples in  celebrating the uprising, in praying that it does not become manipulated  by the old regime into paths that too quickly divert the hopes for a  brand new kind of order into politics and economics as usual, or into  extremist attempts to switch the anger from domestic elites who have  been the source of Egyptian oppression onto Jews or Israel which have  not been responsible for the suffering of the Egyptian people.</p>
<p>Such  extremists could easily be marginalized were Israel to take definitive  action to accept the peace terms offered by the Palestinians in 2007-8  and known to the world through the release of relevant documents by  Al-Jazeera, and were the US in conjunction with Israel to announce a  Global Marshall Plan with first location being the Middle East. Such a  plan has been developed in some detail by the Network of Spiritual  Progressives. We hope that Egyptians will hear the news that they have  strong support from many in the Jewish world.</p>
<p><strong><em>Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun </em></strong><a href="http://www.tikkun.org/"><strong><em>www.tikkun.org</em></strong></a><strong><em> , chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, and rabbi  of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley, California.  He can be reached at </em></strong><a href="mailto:%20%3Cscript%20language=%27JavaScript%27%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20var%20prefix%20=%20%27ma%27%20+%20%27il%27%20+%20%27to%27;%20var%20path%20=%20%27hr%27%20+%20%27ef%27%20+%20%27=%27;%20var%20addy3487%20=%20%27RabbiLerner%27%20+%20%27@%27;%20addy3487%20=%20addy3487%20+%20%27Tikkun%27%20+%20%27.%27%20+%20%27org%27;%20document.write%28%20%27%3Ca%20%27%20+%20path%20+%20%27%5C%27%27%20+%20prefix%20+%20%27:%27%20+%20addy3487%20+%20%27%5C%27%3E%27%20%29;%20document.write%28%20addy3487%20%29;%20document.write%28%20%27%3C%5C/a%3E%27%20%29;%20//--%3E%5Cn%20%3C/script%3E%3Cscript%20language=%27JavaScript%27%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20document.write%28%20%27%3Cspan%20style=%5C%27display:%20none;%5C%27%3E%27%20%29;%20//--%3E%20%3C/script%3EThis%20e-mail%20address%20is%20being%20protected%20from%20spam%20bots,%20you%20need%20JavaScript%20enabled%20to%20view%20it%20%3Cscript%20language=%27JavaScript%27%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20document.write%28%20%27%3C/%27%20%29;%20document.write%28%20%27span%3E%27%20%29;%20//--%3E%20%3C/script%3E"><strong><em> </em></strong></a><strong><em><a href="mailto:RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org">RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org</a><span style="display:none;">This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it </span></em></strong><strong><em> To read details of the Global Marshall Plan, go to </em></strong><a href="http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/GMP"><strong><em>www.spiritualprogressives.org/GMP</em></strong></a><strong><em><br />
</em></strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=9483&amp;Itemid=58">PNN &#8211; Palestine News Network &#8211; Why Jews Around the World are Praying for the Victory of the Egyptian Uprising</a>.</p>
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