PERSPECTIVES ON MIDEAST PEACE : Don’t Rock the Boat With Rhetoric : American activists should stifle their civil-disobedience proclivities as Israel leans toward talks.

As the Bush Administration’s Middle East peace initiative gathers new momentum, the reality remains that there is no simple solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s valid security concerns and the Palestinians’ equally legitimate national aspirations, while not mutually exclusive, are not easily synthesized.

Accordingly, individuals who involve themselves in the peace process must be careful not to promote extreme measures that can only thwart any possible compromise. This caveat is especially applicable to American Jews; while they are entitled to criticize policies of the Israeli government, they do not have the right to advocate actions that could destabilize Israel.

Last month in Jerusalem, Michael Lerner, the editor of the California-based Tikkun magazine who considers himself a spokesman for the anti-Establishment Jewish left, suggested that Israelis refuse to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Nothing will happen in Israel,” he argued, “as long as the average Israeli is protected from the consequences of the current policy. A dedicated and militant minority can ensure that no one can live a quiet daily life, protected from having to confront the moral outrage of . . . Israeli oppression of Palestinians.”

I, too, am a dove. I have been an active supporter of the Israeli peace movement since the late 1970s. I believe that Israel will eventually have to give up its political control over most of the occupied territories. In December, 1988, I was one of five American Jews who met in Stockholm with Yasser Arafat and other leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the hope of moving the peace process forward.

However, I am first and foremost a Zionist. I believe that there exists a symbiotic relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. I, and others like myself, belong to the peace camp out of a commitment to and concern for Israel and its future. That is why I would have to disassociate myself from any advocacy of disruptive civil disobedience.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Lerner says that he does not personally advocate civil disobedience or refusal of military service in Israel; that his remarks were to illustrate alternative strategies.)

Lerner is an American. At no risk to himself, he suggests that Israelis break the law. By now, he is comfortably back home. What responsibility is he prepared to take for his words and actions? Is he ready to join Israeli conscientious objectors in jail? Or will he send them a Hallmark card from his Oakland office?

I, too, believe that the expansionist policies of the present Israeli government constitute a formidable barrier to any viable Middle East peace process. But I consider the continuing Arab economic boycott to be every bit as harmful to an eventual political solution.

I, too, oppose the peppering of new Jewish settlements across the West Bank. But I also recognize that many Palestinians have not given up their hope of ultimately destroying Israel.

I, too, would like to see the occupation come to an end, but not at any cost; unlike Lerner, I would not prefer to see it replaced by anarchy, or by a PLO-dominated Palestinian state.

I, too, believe that the Palestinians are entitled to all fundamental civil and human rights, including the right to self-determination. But not at the expense of Israeli lives or Israel’s survival.

Under international law, Israel has an absolute obligation to maintain order in the West Bank and Gaza. Lerner does not seem to realize that Israeli soldiers protect the civilians who live there, Jews and Arabs alike. Given the choice between an Israeli soldier engaged in carrying out an unpleasant task and a Palestinian thug wielding a knife against an Israeli or even another Arab, Lerner and those who share his views will favor the Palestinian every time.

Lerner’s priorities and allegiances are simply different from mine. In his eyes, Israel and its government can do no right. Some years ago, he published a new prayer to be recited by Jews at the Passover Seder. In it, he listed all the wrongs allegedly committed by Israel against the Palestinians. Buried somewhere within the litany was a half-hearted acknowledgement that Palestinian crimes against Israelis are also to be deplored.

In sharp contrast, moral Israeli doves know full well that Arab enmity has been the cause, not the result, of the wars and bloodshed that Israel has had to endure since its creation. At this critical time, the priority for American peace activists--Jewish or otherwise--must be to help bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together without weakening or undermining either side.