A Palestinian shepherd crosses the road in Bethlehem, as an Israeli army jeep passes by on a patrol. (Maan Images)

Believe it or not, there seems to be some movement, slight and certainly not earth shaking, within the American Jewish community and outside it vis-à-vis the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But whether this would bring about more rational thinking in the United States and help pave the way for a final settlement to this chronic conflict on the lines of a two-state solution or a unitary state only time and serious work will tell.

I must confess that by nature I am an optimist and what I witnessed last weekend is something that gives me more hope than wishful thinking. My feeling was triggered by an Israeli play at the Theatre J(ewish) in downtown Washington. An updated version of the 20-year-old Israeli play, set in the near future and now called "Pangs of the Messiah", revolves around an extremist Israeli settler family in the occupied West Bank, which has to evacuate its settlement now that a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement has been signed (in 2012).

The playwright, Motti Lerner, told The Washington Post that he meant to explore the "very deep Messianic urge" among leaders of the Israeli settlements that "motivates them to continue their struggle over the land, in spite of the fact that many Israelis have given up the idea of continuing the occupation."

This urge, he explained, "contains a self-destructive element - which, if the Israeli society is not going to deal with, will destroy it completely."

American Jews, he noted, were not aware of this "danger... it is a warning play." Since the play was well received earlier this summer, the theatre is at present showing it for a second time.

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Another warning shot came in the impressive three-part CNN programme on religious extremists titled God’s Warriors by the network’s articulate chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

The first episode focused on Jewish settlers in the West Bank, much to the chagrin of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, which represents more than 50 national Jewish organisations.

According to the Jewish daily Forward, the groups were urged by the conference "to take up the issue with companies that have bought advertising slots during the show."

The viewers of that first CNN trilogy were said by another Jewish activist to have been "left with the view that Israel doesn’t want peace and that Israel’s friends in the United States don’t want peace." Consequently, CNN was asked, The Forward reported, to avoid rerunning the show before Jewish "concerns about factual errors and bias are addressed and corrected." But it was apparent that the network did not heed their protests. The three episodes were repeated for several days and they can still be accessed on the network’s website.

Adding oil to the fire for Israel’s hardline supporters was the near simultaneous release of "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy", written by two prominent American scholars, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, who challenge the "special relationship" between the US and Israel, nurtured by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. What may have surprised many here was that within a few days of its release, the book has ranked very high on the best-seller list.

To read the full article please visit The Jordan Times.