Whatever your opinion on Jimmy Carter and his controversial trip to Syria to meet with President Assad and with Hamas leader Khaled Maashal, reading the report in Carter’s own words should be of value:
You may be surprised to learn about some of what is happening in Gaza. Read this letter:
Dear All,
Onevoice movement in the Gaza Strip expanded its campaign and organized its fifth Town Hall Meeting in the North of the Gaza Strip.
The Objective to introduce the Movement & gather support for the two states for two people notion.The Participants about 60 activists from Jabalia refugee camp and Bait Lahia city.
Ezz started the meeting by introducing Onevoice Movement vision of Ending the Israeli military occupation which started in 1967, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state next to the state of Israel. Ezz then moved to the issue of not allowing other states in the region in particular Iran & Syria to dictate for us Palestinians what to do. Ezz talked about the importance of delivering a message to our President Mahmood Abbas telling him to move forward with the direct negotiation with the state of Israel and to reach at least by the end of 2008 a comprehensive framework agreement with Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert.
Moafaq talked about the need to abandon violence as a mean to resist the Israeli military occupation, and adopting nonviolent methods to resist the occupation. he also introduced the notion of imagining 2018 if Palestine and Israel reached a peace agremment in 2008. Moafaq went on saying that Palestine will not be a poor state, but rather a rich state since Palestine will generate money from the religious tourism and from natural resources such as the gas mines off the shores of Gaza cost.
The participant told us that this is the first time that they actually hear something like this in Gaza. Usually what they hear is enticement against Israel and calls for revenge, the audience congratulated us on our brave decision to continue our public activities in Gaza and the majority asked us if they can become active members of the movement.
We explained to the participants that this meeting and other like it are only the beginning, and we are planing on holding a massive gathering sometimes this summer. Also, we told the participant to check our website and to add their comments to it..
Daniel Levy asserts (see his Point #4) that the Bush Administration is blocking negotiations that both the Syrian and Israeli Heads of State desire. He quotes Ambassador Martin Indyk (a member of our Honorary Board and a man who nobody would accuse of coming from the left) on his testimony to the House Foreign Relations Committee:
As I understand it, the Bush Administration is unwilling to encourage Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations…this puts the U.S. in the unprecedented and invidious position of opposing an opportunity for Arab-Israeli peacemaking even when our ally Israel is keen to pursue it.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Olmert is again being investigated on allegations about political fundraising activities that took place well prior to his tenure as Prime Minister.
Some opposition lawmakers called on him to resign because of the investigations.
Prior investigations that started with a lot of bravado have gone nowhere, as Knesset member Yoel Hasson (who serves on OneVoice’s Board) noted.
To me the plethora of failed investigations is evidence of the politicization of the legal process, as opposed to evidence of wrongdoing.
ALL of these investigations relate to the period when Olmert was running for Mayor of Jerusalem, as part of the Likud party, and with a far more hawkish stance of things. Much of his financial support presumably came from very conservative Jewish sources that are not happy with Olmert’s peacemaking efforts.
It seems quite possible, or likely, that some of Olmert’s past donors are disenchanted with his goal to strike a framework agreement with the Palestinians this year, and they are trying to "cooperate" with the Israeli police to derail the hope of a two-state-solution.
Is this a proper outcome of the democratic process?
As is most common in stable democracies, shouldn’t the Head of State have a significant degree of immunity from politically-inspired allegations, particularly if dating back to before the Head of State’s tenure, and particularly if not dealing with national security issues?
OneVoice Israel just commenced an exhibit titled "Till White Smoke Emanates" urging the Israeli and Palestinian heads of state to continue negotiations non-stop till they strike an agreement (the only missing ingredient in the leaders’ commitment to "ongoing" but not "uninterrupted" negotiations, as the OneVoice Mandate urges).
The "white smoke" concept is borrowed from when Archbishops close themselves off and don’t come out of a big hall till the Pope has been selected. The Exhibit revolves around 24 wood chairs that Israeli artists were asked to transform into statements about this issue.
Their Exhibit is now on display at Itzhak Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Another article about it in Hebrew is here.
Here is a teaser of two separate parallel campaigns about to be launched to mobilize Palestinian and Israeli citizens to push for a two state agreement in 2008.
The guy in the picture, by the way, is Sefi Kedmi, a OneVoice Youth Leader who used to belong to the right-wing Moledet party and then changed his political outlook and has been one of our most committed youth leaders on the Israeli side. He took the initiative to create an Israeli college campus network of activists and several other grassroots campaigns.
It is undeniable that AIPAC has tilted to the right over the last 10 years, almost hijacked by hawkish constituents. Perhaps then the birth of JStreet is an unavoidable outcome. My concern though
Our leaders in Gaza have expanded on their recent campaign and are reaching out to more and more places. Below are a couple of pictures from their most recent town hall meeting in Jabaliyah Refugee Camp, building on the message of empowering citizens to propel a two-state-agreement.
It may surprise many, but OneVoice continues its work and its message for a two-state solution through empowerment of the ordinary citizens on both sides who are fed up and want this conflict to end once and for all.
Below are a few pictures from recent town hall meetings conducted by our executive leadership in Gaza.
The title of the workshop was "Examining the Palestinians’ National Aspirations and the Two States for Two People Alternative."
A prior workshop in Deir El Balah in Central Gaza took place earlier in the month and an outline of what was discussed can be read by expanding this posting (clicking "more")…
