From the printing press…
To distribution,
To posters across Israel advertising Oct 18
To people as walking signs…
To "VanVoice" – the OneVoice Van!
Let me introduce you to Michael Shapira, who is in charge of our signatory member outreach campaign on the Israeli side.
He is one of our newest staff members, and yet already an integral part of OV.
He has built a network with chapters of recruiters across different parts of Israel…
He takes OV very seriously and passionately and believes about its mission as much as any of our most die-hard activists. And he passes on this energy to his activists:
He brings great energy to the team, and a lot of great ideas, as I will share in another post…
My friend Alan Khazei, who founded City Year, is on to a very bold new effort to build a national youth service movement network among social entrepreneurs.
He quotes President Truman to remind people that the highest office in the land is that of Citizen.
Alen is looking to hire a whole slew of new team members for this new venture, called "Be the Change."
If you are interested in applying or getting more information, email Emily at Cherniak@gmail.com.
Here are a couple of hits on the Israeli press about our meeting the important milestone of signing up over half a million citizens against violent extremism and towards a two-state solution…
On Ynet, the largest portal part of the largest newspaper group in Israel
Can this be true? Is it a dream? A reality? Or does that depend on us?
And also visit www.Goal2018.org – the campaign site!
Antonio Soave, a producer and director who heads Capistrano Productions, helped us put together a filming session to record PSAs from Danny DeVito, Jason Alexander, Annie Cusack, and Elliot Gould.
Doug Deluca from the Kimmel show helped us do this at Kimmel Studios in Hollywood, and Barry Meier was the DP. If you want to see some pics of the filming, click here.
Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark spoke powerfully at an event that Leah Jones from Edelman helped organize on behalf of the OneVoice Movement, hosted by the guys at Think Tank 3.
Craig always cracks me up with his signature wit. He is funny, self-efacing, down to earth and extremely bright. He provided an interesting analogy to how Craigslist thrives because the overwhelming amount of people are decent human beings, and there are far and few bad apples, which the system monitors to do away with.
Craig also quoted his favorite newscaster, Jon Stewart from the Daily Show on Comedy Central, that the reason we hear so much from violent extremists who are so active is "because moderates have shit to do in real life."
Arianna’s Huffington Post is an example of how new media can play a positive role by highlighting the voices of moderation. She explained how OneVoice has to stay on course no matter what challenges or setbacks or skepticism because it has to eventually achieve the critical mass to get to the tipping point that will get moderates to seize back the agenda. We just have no other option.
Bloggers from Arabisto.com to Jewtopia were present, all in all about 30+ people…
People should never confuse freedom of expression with the freedom not to have to listen or lend credence to bad people, which is as fundamental a freedom as any.
Giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia buttressed him and enhanced him not just globally, but, more dangerously, also at the local level in Iran, where many more moderate figures want to expose and highlight the damage that he has caused to the Iranian people. Now the Iranian News Agency will edit the portions of the Columbia speech where he got applause (!) and will use this to advance its propaganda. You see, even some Americans are starting to welcome and respect Ahmadinejad’s message, they will say.
For me the best way to highlight the idiocy of having propped up totalitarian, misogynistic, fatalistic and apocalyptic tyrants like Ahmadinejad by giving him the mantle of legitimacy that came with the Columbia invitation, is to point to how nobody would argue that we should be promoting Hitler’s ideology as worthy of public debate. Would we really want to give Hitler a podium from which to spew his genocidal hatred?
Alas, Columbia seems lost enough to say it would have supported this too!
"If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak in the United States," said John Coatsworth, dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, in an interview with Fox News. "If he were willing to engage in debate and a discussion to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." New York Sun
I reject reactionary hawkish right wing extremists as much as reactionary left wing extremists. But here I guess they are right to wonder whether we have lost our moral compass.
Gary Sharma from Srinagar in Kashmir joined us at a blogger meeting bc
he is stimulated by the OV approach. He explains he and his family
cannot go back to their hometown – and neither can anyone else – since
it literally became a military no man’s land after extremists took
over. A cautionary tale for Israelis and Palestinians.
The only thing more upsetting than giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia University to spew hatred and idiocy, was hearing lame questions from President Bollinger to him.
As anyone could have predicted, Ahmadinejad ignored any questions and just did whatever he wanted with the platform.
Bollinger ran out of steam and out of credit with the audience with his early attacks on Ahmadinejad, which he should have saved for a rebuttal. Instead, by the time he got to ask Ahmadinejad questions, these had no spine or guts, and no depth.
And why did the audience applaud this monster? Partly again because Bollinger created empathy for Ahmadinejad through his initial harsh criticism of Ahmadinejad, ahead of Ahmadinejad speaking, rather than saving it for when it was needed and advisable, which was when he needed to counter and reject Ahmadinejad.
Alas, Bollinger clearly did not know how to debate him. And he decided instead to cover his rear by first giving the ‘disclaimer-to-having-invited-Ahmadinejad-to-speak’ speech. I am sure he will parade that opening statement to all of the school’s donors. But the fact is that at the actual event, Bollinger failed miserably.
At one point he asked Ahmadinejad if his government sought to destroy Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Ahmadinejad avoided answering the question. When Bollinger asked him to answer with a simple Yes or No, Ahmadinejad retorted by asking if the tragedy of the Palestinian people was one that needed the immediate attention of the world community. Bollinger said yes. But then instead of asking Ahmadinejad to now answer himself, he just let him go.
Like the letter he once wrote to Bush, Ahmadinejad is a scary psychopath. He complained about lack of freedom in America, without even hesitating at the irony of his comments, as the President of one of the most repressive and totalitarian regimes in the world.
"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like you have in your country," said Ahmadinejad. It is embarrassing that this bigoted monster is given a platform!
Each time Ahmadinejad wrapped himself around the Palestinian cause, but Ahmadinejad causes more pain to the Palestinian people than anyone else. His manipulation of the Palestinian people has caused so many setbacks to the Palestinian cause. Because of his proxy attacks through Hezbollah and the militant wing of Hamas, the plan to evacuate Israeli settlements from the West Bank (a plan on which Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was elected by the Israeli people) was derailed.
Ahmadinejad at one point complained that his host should have been kinder, as in Iran their culture would have mandated more cordial treatment of their guests. If Bollinger had been better prepared, he could have used this opportunity to mention that Ahmadinejad has jailed, tortured and killed his opponents, and that the "courtesy" he most recently extended to an American scholar trying to help build bridges between Iran and the US was to incarcerate her for many months.