Justice Breyer Identifies U.S., Israel Similarities

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 8 May 2002

Peace in the Middle East will come out of the actions and conversations of the too often silent or silenced "community of reasonable people" living in the area, says U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

"It's hard at times for them to make their voices heard," Justice Breyer, just off the plane from a curtailed trip to Israel and Jordan, told delegates to the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Jewish Committee. But what he learned on the trip is that there are reasonable people on all sides.

Although the U.S. State Department is warning Americans not to travel to Israel, Justice Breyer said the department "encouraged me to go" on the trip, once they were satisfied that security arrangements were satisfactory. The trip came at the invitation of Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak.

Justice Breyer said he was struck not only by the beauty of Jerusalem, "filled with color and light and everything under the sun," but also by the "striking similarities" between Israel and the U.S.

"We are diverse and so are they," said Justice Breyer. "We, like Israel, are a democracy. We, like Israel, believe in civil rights. We, like Israel, believe in the protection of individuals by the rule of law." And, Justice Breyer said, the U.S. and Israel share a common war against terror.

In the midst of its war on terrorism, the U.S. realizes, as it didn't during World War II, when it put Japanese-Americans into interment camps, that "in wartime let us at least avoid the obvious repression," he said. Israel has to deal with "very difficult" cases, balancing the needs of war with civil liberties. For example, he said, Justice Barak, in a case involving torture and security, ruled a few years ago that torture was not justified.

"I don't have answers to these things, but I found the similarities of problems striking," said Justice Breyer.

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