Daniel Lubetzky

James F. Smith of the Boston Globe just did a story about a OneVoice Tour through New England that captured the essence of OneVoice rather well.  It also highlighted the importance of keeping the message and movement alive, now more than ever.

Roi Assaf of OneVoice Israel (left) and Nisreen Abdallah of OneVoice Palestine spoke this week at Harvard Divinity School, the first of several stops on a tour of New England schools. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

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His face is so calm
Full of love and tranquility
How blessed we are
to have warm shelter and peace for him.

How hard and how painful
for the millions upon millions
who lack peace, or water or heat,
who may not have bread or milk to give their children.

How hard and how painful
for the parents who’d lose a baby to a missile
or the babies who’d lose a parent to a bomb
and the nations who’d lose their innocence along the way.

That juxtaposition gives me anxiety:
the peaceful nap of our little baby
against the horrors and hatred brewing around our world,
whether a few blocks up, or 7,000 miles away.

For my baby’s peace cannot be guaranteed
his Spring cannot be counted upon
so long as babies anywhere else in our globe
are suffering, being targeted or killed.

It is for our baby here
that peace must be waged there.

War and horror tend to shake us out of complacency, to force us all to confront ugly realities and say what needs to be said, poignantly, once and for all, even if it is not pretty and requires nuance in an otherwise partisan puddle.

And so The New York Times writers who have been following the Hamas-Israel war seem to have been at their best this weekend, when they poignantly summarized three core themes that are required understanding for those who truly wish to end the conflict:

• Take-away from Ethan Bronner (full article below): Partisan Absolutism will only protract the conflict; for far too long each side has been speaking past each other and does not even understand the meaning of the words from the other side, let alone what historical sacrifices it will take if they want to resolve this conflict and build a future based on co-existence and respect rather than on denial of the humanity of the other side; if each side continues to believe itself the absolute victim and the other side the absolute perpetrator, we will be condemned to eternal war.
• Take-away from Tom Friedman (full column below): Time is really running out for a two-state solution; all parties must be brought to the table for negotiations that will bring about a solution, lest militants from Hamas and militant settlers permanently destroy the prospects for peace.  And we are not far off from getting there.
• Take-away from Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges (full opinion piece below): it is not just about the substance of what the solution will look like but about the dignity with which the negotiations are approached; the existentialist fears and existentialist rights of the Israelis and the honor and suffering of (and injustice towards) the Palestinians need to be acknowledged by each other if a peaceful solution is ever to be agreed upon.

For OneVoice, too, time is running out.  The Movement was born to propel a resolution of the conflict, not to manage it or endure it with niceties.  We should be bold about the final efforts to make an impact, and either succeed or fail for trying, but not fail because time ran out and we did not try hard enough for fear that we’d fail.

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Whether you are an Israeli who supports the IDF’s defense of Israeli civilians and faults Hamas not just for raining 10,000 missiles at Israel over the last 8 years but also for also for booby-trapping civilian homes and forcefully setting rocket launchers in homes of Palestinians who beg them to leave…

…or whether you are a Palestinian who feels the Israeli army indiscriminately attacked and ended up killing 1,000 innocent Palestinians and who feels the source of the conflict is the continuing occupation of Palestine and subjugation of Palestinian people,

…or whether you are an Israeli, Palestinian or international citizen who recognizes the only way out of this conflict is to once and for all achieve a peaceful agreement between two proud peoples and two proud States – Israel and Palestine – to live in peace and respecting the rights of freedom, security, dignity and respect of both sides…

…the words and attitudes of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish at this moment of devastating loss -where 3 of his daughters were killed by an Israeli mortar attack on their home – should resonate with you.  Let his tragic loss be the end of it, the signal to all Palestinians and Israelis to stand up and say, enough, let’s ensure that this tragedy does not repeat itself again, let’s ensure that we lead our political representatives to achieve a historic compromise, to ensure that nobody sells either side with delusional visions of vanquishing the other side and achieving an absolutist victory over the other, to ensure that outside forces do not use Israelis and Palestinians as pawns in their geopolitical games, to ensure that we build a better future for all the children of the region.

Dr. Izzeldin is a respected medical doctor from Gaza who for years has practiced at the Soroka Hospital in Israel.  He worked with OneVoice out of Gaza for a period, and he always exemplified devotion to peace and humanitarianism.  

[Addendum: Even Prime Minister Olmert shared publicly that he saw this report and he cried at learning of Izzeldin's loss.]

I got a note from a friend in Gaza a couple weeks before the latest breakdown of the cease-fire, which means what you read below has only gotten worse.

"you can hear the people complaining about the situation and cursing the day that Hamas was voted in. The people say that Hamas had tricked them into voting for it and after that Hamas had destroyed their lives."

Full letter…

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Ehud Olmert is on his way out.  He was attacked by former supporters who turned on him when his political positions evolved.  Now he has nothing to lose.  And it shows – finally he is standing up to extremists Jewish settlers, freezing funds and deploying legal tools like administrative detentions, arrests, and trials against Illegal settlers.

Israel Will Halt Funds to Illegal Settlements, NY Times, Nov 3, Isabel Kershner

JERUSALEM — Ehud Olmert, the departing prime minister of Israel, announced a series of measures on Sunday in response to a rise in violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including a halt to all direct or indirect government financing of illegal outposts.

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My friend Eytan Heller conceived this fantastic inspirational video and campaign (sponsored by PeaceWorks Foundation) allegorically calling for the 2018 World Cup to be co-hosted by Israel and Palestine – to help Palestinians and Israelis visualize what a peace agreement could bring about.  It is part of the Imagine 2018 campaign of the OneVoice Movement.

Now life is moving in the direction of civic activism and art.

Tomorrow for the first time in history, an international match (between Jordan and Palestine) will be held in the West Bank town of Ram, at a Palestinian stadium built to FIFA’s standards, and attended by FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter.

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The Associated Press reported that Zakariya Zubeidi, who used to be seen as a major terrorist organizer just two years ago, has been granted full amnesty by the Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet.

This is a major milestone to a significantly underreported transformation of Jenin from a hotbed of extremism into a pillar of progress, thanks to progress by Prime Minister Fayyad and President Abbas, with support from the US Military envoy.  It could be a critical turning point not just in the construction of a vibrant and secure Palestinian State, but of course also in the process of achieving a comprehensive Israeli-Arab agreement – if only more people were informed about these positive developments.

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