Daniel Lubetzky

Great news for getting OneVoice’s recent polls – which highlight the grassroots mandate for a two-state solution – into the conversations happening at the top levels of DC policy-making: yesterday in his opening remarks for the US Senate Hearing on the Middle East with Tony Blair, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana (R) – who is the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republican leader – cited the recent OneVoice poll as evidence of grassroots acceptance for a negotiated two state solution:

This statement demonstrates that America’s leaders are hungry for public support for the two-state solution, and hopefully our poll will provide them with momentum to aggressively pursue peace negotiations.

A testament of how excellent the leadership from King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan has been, and of how deficient the leadership has been from Israeli and Palestinian leaders in contrast, is contained in the views of young people here in Jordan.

At the World Economic Forum/Young Global Leaders conference, I’ve had a few interesting conversations with young Jordanians – not the high-level participants, but ordinary day-to-day people.  Here is what is interesting:

• most of them are proud of their Palestinian heritage;
• When I ask them if they see their identity more as Palestinian or Jordanian, most of them say it’s the same thing – 70% of Jordan is Palestinian;
• But when I ask them (and press them) on their future fate – would they want Israel, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) and Jordan to be part of a confederacy; would they want Jordan to absorb any of the Palestinian land; other options – they all uniformly confess that they rather leave things alone and let Jordan be Jordan, and let the Israelis and Palestinians continue to kill each other if they so desire.

It is striking how uniform these perspectives are.  "Israelis don’t really want peace.  And frankly Palestinians don’t want peace either," they tend to say. 

So let us stay out of it, they think, and let Jordan grow and thrive, and not be stuck by recriminations of the past.

So the Jordanian Royal couple didn’t just do something very bright by marrying – the inheritor of the Hashemite Kingdom with an attractive Palestinian woman – but also by the vision and policies they have created.

Now, if young people across the border of Israel and Palestine, with family and heritage there, want nothing to do with all the conflict, imagine how does the rest of the world relate?  More and more people I talk to feel the same way: if the Israelis and Palestinians are not prepared to compromise, let them keep fighting.  The more cruel comments, broadly felt but not broadly acknowledged, tend to end with "let them kill each other."

Can this be a wake up call to Israelis and Palestinians to realize they need to recognize that freedom and security for them will not come if the other side doesn’t get the same?

Several hundred media outlets across the world covered the OneVoice poll and related town hall meetings.  Here are just two samples:

• The Guardian: Most Palestinians and israelis willing to accept two-state solution, poll finds
• Jerusalem Post: Poll: 80% of both peoples want 2 states

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From OneVoice Communications:

NEW POLL:

TWO STATE SOLUTION REMAINS ACCEPTABLE RESOLUTION

FOR VAST MAJORITY OF ISRAELIS & PALESTINIANS

74% of Palestinians willing to accept Two State Solution

78% of Israelis willing to accept Two State Solution

MAJORITIES ON BOTH SIDES SUPPORT A NEGOTIATED PEACE

71% of Palestinians & 77% of Israelis feel Negotiations are ‘Essential’ or ‘Desirable’

ONEVOICE LAUNCHES TOWN HALL MEETINGS SERIES IN ISRAEL & PALESTINE

TO ADDRESS FINAL STATUS & MUTUAL RECOGNITION ISSUES

DOWNLOAD THE FULL POLLING REPORT

22 April 2009 / Jerusalem / Despite growing fears that the “Two State Solution” is losing purchase on the ground in Israel and Palestine, today the OneVoice Movement (www.OneVoiceMovement.org) released the findings of a new poll which demonstrates that the two state solution remains the only acceptable resolution for the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians.

OneVoice is an international grassroots collective using civic engagement to mobilize citizens and their leaders to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a mutually-acceptable two state agreement which ends the occupation, guarantees the security of Israel, and establishes a viable, independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

The poll was commissioned by OneVoice in collaboration with Dr. Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool (www.peacepolls.org), and in conjunction with Dr. Nader Said of Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) in Ramallah and Dr. Mina Zemach of Dahaf Institute in Tel Aviv. The methodology, which had been piloted by Dr. Irwin in Northern Ireland and subsequently used in places as varied as Sri Lanka and Macedonia, involved a questionnaire designed through a series of interviews with civil society leaders and political figures on each side. The field work was conducted by Zemach in Israel and by Said in Palestine during February 2009, in the wake of the Gaza war and the Israeli elections.

The results indicate that 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are willing to accept a two state solution (an option rated on a range from ‘tolerable’ to ‘essential’), while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of Israelis find a single bi-national state ‘unacceptable.’ Additionally, according to the data, 77% of Israelis and 71% of Palestinians consider a negotiated peace ‘essential’ or ‘desirable.’ Ninety-four percent of Palestinians and 74% of Israelis think that the people must be continually informed on the negotiations process.

The poll also reveals that consensus still needs to be built. The findings imply that mainstream Israeli and Palestinian populations still have yet to acknowledge the significant priorities and fears on the other side. While the issue of greatest significance for Palestinians is freedom from occupation (94% deem it a ‘very significant’ problem in the peace process, ranking it the primary issue on the Palestinian side), only 30% of Israelis find it to be ‘very significant,’ ranking the issue 15^th on the Israeli side. Similarly, the primary issue on the Israeli side is stopping attacks on civilians (90% rate it a ‘very significant’ issue). This issue meets with 50% approval on the Palestinian side, and ranks as 19 in a list of 21 issues. Significant gaps in public consensus persist as well on the issues of settlements and refugees – two issues on which there was no single proposed solution which met with majority approval on both sides.

To address the critical gaps that still exist on some recognition and final status issues, OneVoice is launching a Town Hall Meetings Series in Israel and Palestine to present the findings of the poll and discuss the various issues – from mutual recognition to settlements, refugees, and Jerusalem – that both sides will need to confront in order to reach a two state agreement. Progress at the negotiating table is only one step in the process of reaching an agreement that can be implemented. An end to the conflict will only come when the leaders come to an agreement that their peoples are ready to understand, accept, and support. The series will be launched in May and will be implemented throughout the rest of 2009. It will use the findings of the poll as a starting point for discussions.

Five hundred interviews were completed in Israel and six hundred in the West Bank and Gaza to produce representative samples of both populations in terms of age, gender, social background and geographical distribution. As the polls were conducted during a particularly difficult time on both sides – immediately following the Gaza war and the Israeli elections – the continued insistence of both sides on a negotiated and mutually-acceptable resolution could offer significant legitimacy to political leaders looking to push for negotiations toward a two state agreement.

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About the OneVoice Movement:

The OneVoice Movement is an international mainstream grassroots movement with over 600,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine, and 2,000 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution and demand that their leaders achieve a two-state solution guaranteeing both the end of occupation and the establishment of a viable Independent Palestinian state as well as the safety and security of the state of Israel – allowing both people to live in peace with all their neighbors. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting www.OneVoiceMovement.org

Full Polling Report Available for Download

Seven+ years after the OneVoice Movement was founded, you would imagine that its guiding principles, message and mission are pretty clear.  But as if common messaging among Israelis and Palestinians wasn’t challenging enough, the Gaza war caused so much mistrust and resentment that even the most ardent believers in co-existence, peace, freedom and security for both peoples questioned whether "the other" side was a true partner that respected them. 

And so began 3 months of intensive triage efforts and consultations among the respective Youth Councils, staff, Board members, advisors, and supporters.  OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel came close to the brink of giving up.  Frankly, so did I.  And that is why it is particularly heartening that I learned the teams, with critical intervention and mediation from their American and European counterparts, had succeeded in re-affirming and even deepening their mission and common message, including recognizing each other’s core fears and needs.  In parallel they also developed more assertive and bold activities for 2009.  On the messaging front, this is what they achieved:

COMMON MESSAGE

OUR MISSION:

To amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution and demand that their leaders achieve a two-state solution guaranteeing both the end of occupation and the establishment of a viable Independent Palestinian state as well as the safety and security of the state of Israel – allowing both people to live in peace with all their neighbors.

Our Guiding Principles: We Are…

· Non-partisan

· A grassroots movement led by the people and for the people

· A global partnership and coalition

· Working for conflict resolution, not conflict-management

· Forward-looking

· Focused on personal responsibility and civic activism

· Consensus-driven: we highlight existing areas of consensus where broad agreement exists amongst both sides, while acknowledging the areas where agreement is most difficult and working to address them

A broad spectrum: we embrace people across political, ethnic, religious and national backgrounds.

· We believe in the principles of justice, freedom, sovereignty, security, self-determination, human dignity, and in the right of all peoples to exercise them.

WHAT IS ONEVOICE?

OneVoice is an international movement of people fed up with the ongoing conflict who are ready and eager to support a serious process leading to a comprehensive agreement that will fulfill the hopes and beliefs of both the Palestinian and the Israeli people for a two-state solution in order to end the conflict, by establishing a viable and independent Palestinian state that lives at peace with Israel.

The people on both sides do not agree on all aspects of the conflict. They live in different realities and therefore have different narratives. Achieving the final status agreement is going to be a challenging and complicated process, requiring extraordinary creativity and courage

While each side clearly has its own perspective, One Voice is certain that there is a mutually acceptable solution that can accommodate the positions of both sides.

Our work is designed to…

· Build a mass grassroots movement that will amplify the voice of the moderates on both sides

· Show that there are partners for negotiations and peace on both sides

· Mobilize citizens to urge and support their leaders to achieve the two state solution that permanently ends the conflict by ending the occupation and all forms of violence, and achieves international recognition, security, respect, peace, and prosperity for the Israeli and Palestinian people.

· Include international and independent efforts to mobilize civil society

· Build understanding that for the majority of Palestinians, peace is predicated on the need to end occupation and establish a viable independent Palestinian state, based on the 1967 borders and a resolution of the permanent status negotiations issues in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions

· Build understanding that for the majority of Israelis, peace is predicated on the need to ensure secure borders that will bring an end to all forms of violence, establishing a permanent end to the conflict that guarantees mutual recognition and normal relations with their neighbors

· Build understanding that an agreement will not be achieved without difficult compromises on core issues like settlements, Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and mutual recognition

· Build understanding that absolutism, violence and war will NOT resolve the conflict and will only bring more violence and suffering to people on both sides.

There are some people in the world that you are just grateful for them being around.  Jeff Skoll is one of them.  He is the most unassuming, down-to-earth, self-effacing guy, and at the same time among the most accomplished, brilliant, strategic, successful and deeply committed to make this a better world.

I have been following him for a few years and wish we could clone him, or at least learn what in his upbringing made him into a person that is so truly committed to human betterment.  Is it Canadian education and society? Jewish family values? Parental role models? Genes? Childhood influences – positive or negative? Socio-cultural exposure?

In his TED talk, he mentions how his Father’s health challenges were a wake up call to him.  But there has to be more.

Anyway, Jeff has now created his next venture: the Urgent Threats Fund, designed to tackle the 5 greatest challenges facing humanity: Global Pandemics, Nuclear Proliferation, Mideast Conflict, Water Scarcity, and Climate Change.

The New York Times reports about it here.

Sally Osberg, President of the Skoll Foundation, shared a note with Skoll Social Entrepreneurs explaining:

I also write to let you know that we will announce today the launch of the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, which will be led by our dear friend and an extraordinary human being, Larry Brilliant. Larry’s new role will be Senior Adviser to Jeff Skoll and President of the new organization, which Jeff will chair and on whose board both Larry and I will sit. This newest venture joins the portfolio of creations—including the Foundation, Capricorn, and Participant Media—that Jeff has founded to advance his vision of a more peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Together with the Foundation’s board and staff, I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead for us all!

You can learn more at the Skoll Foundation site.

Roger Cohen reported about a remarkable group of US statesmen urging a more assertive US role towards Israeli-Palestinian peace… …and recommending specific steps to ensure progress…

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Marco Berrebi (Face2Face) emailed me an insight I thought was worth sharing:

PS : the more I think about the Middle-East conflict, the more I think about the theory of Gauss (mathematician of the early 19^th century) saying that equations with several variables evolving within a wide range of possible values cannot be solved until we limit the range of the possible values. This would mean that until it becomes widely accepted that peace will happen within a space limited by Clinton Parameters / Arab Peace Plan / Geneva Initiative / Ayalon-Nusseibeh negotiation, nothing can happen. Just mathematics …

It is true that complexity makes it harder to narrow down choices. That only gets worse when you add the Mideast bargaining mentality that most Israeli and Palestinian politicians have, and the pandering to each side that has made people assume they can get peace without making compromises. 

Here is a tidbit that Tom Pickering, the ultimate American Diplomat and member of the PeaceWorks Foundation’s Honorary Board, shared with me last time I met him:

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is like riding a bike: if you are not going forward, you are falling down.

Cool project/video program:

http://gaza-sderot.arte.tv/