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APN Disengagement Campaign - "Whose side are you on?"

Whose side are you on? The faces of Israeli democracy. The demonstrators on the right oppose Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from Gaza and dismantling of Jewish settlements. The demonstrators on the left, who gathered on March 19 under the leadership of Shalom Achshav, ...

Whose side are you on?

The faces of Israeli democracy. The demonstrators on the right oppose Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from Gaza and dismantling of Jewish settlements. The demonstrators on the left, who gathered on March 19 under the leadership of Shalom Achshav, Israel's Peace Now movement, support the government's plan for disengagement and want to give the Palestinians' pragmatic new leader, Mahmoud Abbas, a chance to work toward peace.

The choices are stark. Continued occupation of a large and growing Palestinian population, as the Settler Movement proposes, or negotiations with a rational, pragmatic Palestinian leadership, with security for Israel, as Shalom Achshav advocates and 70% of Israelis support.

The stakes are high. Prime Minister Sharon is doing everything he can to see that Israel exits Gaza. But settler leaders and their allies are fighting to stop Sharon's plan. Well-funded and relying on a huge army of volunteers, they have gone beyond organizing legitimate protests: they have compared evacuating settlements to the Holocaust, issued rabbinical rulings against removing settlements, and threatened a civil war. When Israeli soldiers recently tried to remove two trailers from an outpost in the West Bank, they were met by hundreds of angry settlers. One settler even cocked his gun and pointed it at the head of a soldier. Death threats against cabinet ministers and their families have multiplied by the day. And these fanatical settlers haven't stopped at threatening live targets - Prime Minister Sharon has had to protect the grave of his late wife, Lily, from threatened desecration by these extremists.

The goal is clear. As the sister organization of Shalom Achshav, Americans for Peace Now provides a majority of the funds that Peace Now in Israel uses for its activities. Our support is crucial to counter the right-wing American Jews and Evangelicals who help finance the settler movement. We ask for your help. The choice is between continued occupation or using every available opening to forge a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians, leading to security for Israel.

Is there really a choice?