Daniel Lubetzky

12 days ago a slanderous press release was launched by a fringe group that sparked rumours that OneVoice Palestine exists to negotiate away the rights of refugees and international law. OneVoice’s teams here come together to categorically deny this and expose the fact that some Palestinians have been misled by a sinister campaign of hate, coupled with vicious threats of violence from extremists that have spiraled out of control.

OneVoice is a civil society movement to empower the conflict resolution process from the grassroots. We have no power to affect the content of negotiations, but we do have the power to tell the leaders and international community that we will no longer accept a failure to deliver real progress.

The OneVoice Mandate calls on our heads of State to commence immediate negotiations, uninterrupted until the conclusion of a viable Two State agreement in order to amplify moderate forces in the November negotiations. That is the power of the grassroots and without a mobilized grassroots constituency we leave our leaders open to attack and without the strength to deliver real answers.

Of course the people have demands, whether they be to end the occupation or to deliver security, OneVoice, however, does not have a political platform other than to endorse negotiations for a Two State solution and stands only to support the leaders and demand that the will of the people serve to energise the process. Its Palestinian offices in Gaza City and Ramallah, run by nationalist Palestinians for nationalist Palestinians, exist to do exactly this.

And so, an organization of around 600,000 Palestinian and Israeli signatories, board members from Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Jibril Rajoub, and Islamic Chief Justice Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi to Arab-American Institute President Dr Jim Zogby and Founder George Salem, is being targeted by absolutists with no intention of ending the conflict, who are defrauding the people out of their right to peace, and into being a part of their battle. They must not be tolerated and we implore all of you who are confused by the lies and seek further clarification to look at the OneVoice track record and materials yourselves.

The opportunity is not lost: 600,000 people have already spoken and will not lose the hope and momentum we are building in the wake of the Arab Peace Initiative and the upcoming November Summit.

We will stand by President Abbas and tell him that he can and must deliver something for the people and that we will support him every step of the way when he does because these enemies of peace will attack him too as they did attack Chairman Arafat’s ‘peace of the braves’ and all other efforts toward a just solution that will bring about Palestinian independence, an end to the occupation and peace with its neighbours including Israel based on the terms that he as the Palestinian head of state agrees upon.

These enemies who use intimidation, fear and manipulation to protract the conflict through absolutist ideologies do not have any actionable proposals that will fulfill the wish of the Palestinian people. They have enchained the people for far too long.

Weird how amidst all the pressures and turmoil to pull off a feat against violent extremism, amidst little sleep and 20 hour work days, I feel so at peace.

Is it because I know I am giving it everything I’ve got and can do no more than that?

Is it that I feel something far more powerful than any of us is guiding us to do the right thing?

Is it the inspiration of being surrounded by such extraordinary team and such steadfast friends and board members?

Is it the impact of witnessing leadership from everyone from Saeb Erakat and Qadoura Fares to Brian Lurie and Shuki Weiss?

Is it the clarity of purpose?

Is it the dignity of action?

Or is it that my body is so tired and drained and punchy that at 4:31am everything looks more peaceful?

Not sure of the source of this b/c I got it in an email from a friend, but it helped me keep things in perspective…

Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, founder of the Israel’s Islamic movement told Israeli President Shimon Peres that the Arab world is ready to make peace once and for all if the "Israeli occupation" of Judea and Samaria comes to an end. "The Israeli flag will fly in the capitals of 57 Arab (and Muslim) states – something that the fathers of Zionism did not dare dream of," Darwish said on Tuesday at the close of Ramadan Iftar feast hosted by Peres. Darwish also said that the 57 Muslim countries have consented to the Saudi peace plan and that the Arab world wants to sovereignly acknowledge the State of Israel. Darwish also said he would agree to small land swaps between Israel and the Palestinians to give both states territory and that normalization was possible and referred to Israel’s political relationship with Egypt and Jordan. Darwish said, "If they have established diplomatic relations, there’s no reason for other Arab nations not to do likewise." He expressed hope of potential peace and insisted that the window of opportunity not be missed.

Wowa!  Two delegations of OneVoice Youth leaders met with fmr UK Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier today, where he warmly and enthusiastically endorsed the OneVoice Summit.  A press release should come out soon.

Blair is one of the most impressive global leaders, in my opinion highly under-appreciated by the British people, but then again, it is very common that some of the best leaders that are beloved in the world are less popular in their own countries (Gorbachev, Peres, et al.).

Blair’s seal of approval to OneVoice is another step showing MOMENTUM IS GATHERING!

Dion Nissenbaum from McClatchy Newspapers just posted a story about what we are doing for October 18th.  A lot of the questions in his interview made it quite clear that he was biased and apparently is friendly with the extremists that are attacking us, and throughout the course of the interview it was clear he already had reached some conclusions about the state of affairs and impugned that on me. 

This is a challenge, when you notice a reporter has a particular bent and wants you to answer questions conforming to his philosophy, and you try to bear their bias in mind to get them to understand your message.  It is difficult.

My thoughts:

• the first quote is mangled and I do not believe I said things as quoted and is probably out of context; at any rate, I meant to point out this is not a dreamy peacefest but a practical effort designed to once and for all do away with extremists and come up with practical solutions;
• the quote that is accurate and captures the sentiment shared by most people about the situation (even if it is negative) is that:

  [Those who advocate absolutist solutions and counter OneVoice's goals for an end to the conflict are '"a group of fringe extremists and false messiahs" who've led the region into a dead end.'

  "If you want this absolutist vision, keep it in your mind, but shut up and let us move on so those that want to end this conflict can move forward."

Advocates of a "one-state" non-solution (one state solution is an oxymorron b/c there is no such thing! You cannot solve this conflict through an absolutist position, certainly not unless you eradicate the other side) are posting in hatred-filled fringe blogs all their displeasure at our momentum, and falling into their own trap, exactly as we wanted all along.

By opposing the work of OneVoice they are slowly exposing themselves – and helping us gain more momentum!

We have been getting tons of new donations online – from people that only first heard about us after seeing the postings from these extremists, and got upset at their radicalism and rose up to help us overcome that!

This discussion is EXACTLY WHERE WE WANT TO HAVE IT…we are finally re-framing the conflict as it must be properly understood by people – not as a conflict of Jews vs. Muslims or Israelis vs. Palestinians, but as a conflict of the overwhelming majority of mainstream moderates that want an end to the conflict and are prepared to recognize their neighbors’ rights and humanity to achieve this, versus militant extremists or hatred-filled intellectual absolutists who insist on a "solution" that denies the humanity of the other side.  Extremism and absolutism is the enemy.

Etgar Lefkovits just broke a big story on the OneVoice Movement in the Jerusalem Post.

This is a very assertive story that pulls no punches.  It will elicit a lot of feelings from all sides, and further redefine the debate.  Like with Palestinian extremists trying to undermine the OneVoice Summit on the Palestinian side, Israeli extremists will try to undermine it in Tel Aviv.

But this will only help uncover them.

For the record, some of our Honorary Board members’ affiliations in the article are wrong: Avishay Braverman has since moved from being President of Ben-Gurion to be a member of the Knesset; and two of the Board members listed have been very inactive for at least 2 years so they are practically not involved or part of it.  But there are another 50+ that were not listed and are far more engaged…

Another clarification is that the 600,000 signatories do not necessarily agree with a lot of the specifics written in the article.  They all agree on the OneVoice Mandate, which calls for immediate negotiations to establish a two-state solution, but leaves all details to the Heads of State elected by their people.

Still, the article is powerful and strong, worth reading.

Monday was not a simple day.

It started with a trip to Ramallah for meetings with OneVoice Palestine, as they gear up for the OneVoice Summit. 

They are all working so hard and facing a lot of challenges, but the momentum is steady and the impact is already being felt.

Coming in was tricky because a lot of the roads had been closed off, and the Kalandya checkpoint was also closed, quite rare. But we came in and eventually got there.

Then on the way back things got a bit tougher.

All the main roads were closed so we had to transverse the tiny streets within the Kalandya refugee camp.  Eventually we got to the main checkpoint.

Hundreds of Palestinians formed along the closed roads from Kalandya to Jerusalem.  It is the month of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim year, and Palestinians wanted to go pray to Al Aqsa Mosque.

The Israeli Army was under orders to only allow older people to pass through to pray.

I don’t know if it was out of religious conviction or as a planned civil disobedience march, but the crowds were growing and growing, reaching several hundred people in a tiny crowded section. 

Israeli soldiers behind jeeps were holding the line, with weapons pointed, while more and more Palestinians were coming into the area. 

We, in the meantime, were stuck in our car in the very middle, unable to move – for over 2 hours (which made me miss an interview with Time Magazine – sorry Tim).

Even though a couple of shots were thrown into the sky on a couple occasions when a couple rocks were thrown, for the most part this was not a violent event.

And yet it was so very sad and disheartening.

We had front line seats to all the toils of war and occupation.

There was pushing and shoving, there was animosity thick in the air, there was denigration, there was fear, there was hatred.

I saw all of the people in the area – on both sides of the fence – as victims to this conflict, all sad peons to an unfortunate and unnecessary situation that brings misery every day to too many people because of the extremism and radicalism of a few.

if you think I don’t wonder if this is an insurmountable conflict when I see so much animosity created…

It is not going to be easy.

But then again I never expected it to be.

*   *   *

And it is not because it is easy or because we should be driven by our love for each other that we need to be inspired to act.

We have to prevail because there is just no alternative.

The images of today are nothing compared to what was in 2001-2003, and the images of 2001-2003 are nothing compared to what can be if we allow militant absolutism to become the reigning ideology.

Now it is 5:24am – I am winding down after meetings that evening on the Israeli side with the communications team, and then again phone calls with OVP to refine some documents, and then a few hours of email to trrrrry to catch up…

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately from Iranian students and bloggers, explaining they are not in agreement with Ahmadinejad and that the vast majority of Iranian people are ordinary citizens whose aspirations for peace and harmony are similar to those we aim to advance on behalf of the Israeli and Palestinian moderates.

I know.

And I agree.

And I respect and support their efforts – and if I had the time would be eager to also be involved in highlighting this fact.

So, for all Iranian readers, please know that when I use the word "Iran" for short-hand, I am referring to the fundamentalist regime whose apocalyptic ideology is not just a burden to the world outside Iran, but even more so to the very citizens they oppress and suppress through primitive monstrosities like jailing and killing political opponents or by preventing women from having full freedoms, or uprooting people from choosing a lifestyle different to that which the Ayatollahs determine all must follow.

The sad fact is that the Iranian regime fosters terrorism to destabilize and divide the people in Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Argentina, Lebanon and elsewhere wherever they can get their hands on.  And they are the enemy that must be isolated, undermined, and brought down – by the Iranian people with the support of the community of nations.

I went on CNN just an hour or so ago, just a few seconds after they aired Nasrallah’s threats against the Arab world not to participate in the November conference sponsored by the US. 

Why am I not surprised that Hezbollah, created and funded by Iran, is opposed to negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This doesn’t serve the needs of their Iranian patrons, who seeks to use Israelis and Palestinians as peons in the ideological quest for hegemonic control over the region.

It was a good opportunity to juxtapose the will of the overwhelming majority of citizens that are FED UP with EXTREMISM, vis a vis. absolutist apocalyptic visions that are keeping all of us chained to violence and hatred for far too long.

The contrast is clear and people need to once and for all understand there are only TWO options.  You cannot say you are for peace but want the whole thing to yourself.  You cannot say you want peace but on your own terms only.  You cannot say you are representing the hopes of the Palestinian people but the Palestinian people have no right to negotiate or talk with their enemy.  You cannot say you are upholding the rights of the Israeli people but the Israelis have no right to negotiate with their counterparts.

There are only two options: a two state solution recognizing the rights of both sides to freedom, dignity, respect and security – along the lines of the Clinton parameters which 76% of Israelis and Palestinians polled support – OR ETERNAL CONFLICT.

There is no third option.  Let’s be clear about it.