The fact that the fifth grandson of legendary peace activist Mahatma Gandhi, should be forced to resign as head of his own peace institute in the United States, after critical remarks he had made about Israeli policy, should set alarm bells ringing -- not one, but two sets of bells. On the one hand, his forced resignation seemed to confirm the fear that anyone in the United States who dared criticize Israeli policy as aggressive, would be dubbed a "bigot" or "anti-semite," and forced to withdraw from public life. On the other hand, however, a different alarm has been sounded, one that warns that such blanket condemnation of any criticism of Israeli policy, will boomerang, and force an open, honest, no-holds-barred debate on a crucial political and moral issue. So, from this standpoint, I say, let the alarm bells ring.
The ostensible issue, noted en passant by the establishment press at the end of January, was the following: Dr. Arun Gandhi, president and co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, had participated in a January 7 online essay published on the washingtonpost.com's On Faith site, on the theme of "Jewish identity." Gandhi's remarks, as quoted in wire services internationally, included the following: "Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the Holocaust experience.... It is a very good example of [how] a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends.... The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger .... The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak.... We have created a culture of violence (Israeli and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity"
No sooner had the discussion appeared on the washingtonpost.com home page, than all hell broke loose. The national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Abraham H. Foxman stated, "It's shameful that a peace institute would be headed up by a bigot" adding that "One would hope that the grandson of such an illustrious human being would be more sensitive to Jewish hitory." Gandhi issued an apology, clarifying that, although he stood behind his criticisms of violence exercised by the Israeli government, --as well as by the U.S., Indian and Chinese governments--, he did "not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people." He went on to acknowledge the "suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust" as "historic in its proportions," called for "a future of peace that rejects violence," and added the important thought: "Having learned from the [past], we can then find the path to peace and rejection of violence through forgiveness."
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