Many signs point to Hezbollah’s increasing presence in the Palestinian territories, a sharp departure to Arafat’s model of Palestinian nationalism being the realm of Palestinian groups only. This is among the most serious (and least addressed) developments over the last few years.
My friend Carmella had commented I looked like an angry assassin at the beginning of this CNN interview. Now that I saw it, I couldn’t agree more!
I hate fake smiles when you are waiting, but now I understand why politicians give those long phony grins. Anything is better than that scary seriousness! 
David Troube wrote an insightful article about what is behind much of the "Boycott Israel" movement.
Thanks to Janera Soerel for an exceptionally explicit and precise interview and article tackling a lot of issues revolving OneVoice, PeaceWorks, and the philosophy underlying them.
Taken from this article about the Gaza-Egypt border debacle, this picture struck me as a sad allegory not just to the challenges of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and of building of a Palestinian State, but further to so many of the challenges faced today in the Middle East, from the peace process, to the struggle between tradition and modernity, to the many divides harming the region, to the threats of nuclear proliferation, etc.
I often carry around old newspapers whose op-eds or articles I hadn’t read. Some times I may be dumb enough to bring one copy across half a dozen trips before getting to it, only to realize I was carrying dead weight.
Not just now, when I caught up with last week’s op-ed page from the New York Times, which included an extraordinary piece from Sarah Vowell and a good column from William Kristol.
From Vowell (whose piece goes far beyond the issues covered here), I read about pure Christian theology’s precepts, as taught by Jesus of Nazareth, to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." Too bad many followers intoxicated by organized religion’s quest for power forgot this precept.
But Martin Luther King Jr. did not. He applied the Sermon on the Mount in his ‘loving your enemies’ sermon:
So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you: ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’
I am a bit embarrassed that I had never heard of this sermon, though I recently went through an experience that made me reflect about similar issues.
Back around late September and early October, when groups that opposed negotiations between Israel and Palestine for a two-state-solution or that did not understand or agree with OneVoice’s mission of mobilizing ordinary citizens to push for an agreement threatened some of our staff and performers, I clumped together attackers and critics, and was overcome with an intense sense of injustice and a hatred that I did not know I had in me.
Postponing the October 18th OneVoice Summit was a painful setback for the team and all our supporters, and it made me feel like I let down so many people and haunted me for a long time (still occasionally now).
Eventually our 18 month campaign not only overcame this setback, but continued to attract support, surpassing 650,000 signatories of the OneVoice Mandate to date, and validating its efforts when the Israeli, Palestinian and American Heads of State committed almost verbatim to the OneVoice Mandate.
But no less important was the internal growth that I experienced during that tough period, when I found myself taking a very wrong path of anger and resentment against those attacking or even just criticizing my team members. Eventually I turned back from that dark alley into a path you can only see from the contrast of the darkness. I felt what it was to hate, and I realized I had to reject it. The experience had a lasting impression and impact on my thoughts about civic activism.
It is not enough to push for the peace process; it is not enough to awaken moderate voices, even though OneVoice recognizes that is tactically the most cost-effective choice to push the process along and highlight there is a partner on both sides. As we gain momentum, we must also truly pursue peace with ALL.
Northern Ireland’s experience is instructive. The movement also started with mainstream grassroots disaffected citizens – Mothers. But eventually it broadened, and it enveloped and involved the leaders from the entrenched militant groups, which were at the table when the deals were struck.
The danger with excluding specific groups and branding them as extremist is that you don’t leave space for the people to evolve in their thought process, but cage them as the enemy, and leave them no other option but to struggle against your vision, which may include the "other", but may exclude some of your own.
Many who believe in a mission of a two state solution think that the only way to get there is to attack those who oppose it, but you end up creating a different type of enemy. Somehow some proponents of peace with the other side have no qualms about fighting with their own.
The journey is as important as the destination. Pursuing peace by demonizing those you consider to oppose it creates a different type of war. Whether it is Israel’s far left which sometimes hates the Israeli right with as much intensity as the Israeli far right hates the Arabs (and the Israeli left), or whether it is someone from Fatah that hates Hamas, or whether it is a Jew who fears or resents a Muslim or vice-versa, all of the paths of hatred must be fought.
As painful as it is to the Israeli left, they need to engage the settlers in a dialogue and welcome them back to the mainstream. This is of course very hard because the settlers are not aching to come in, to say the least, not to mention they want to keep the Israeli left out.
As painful as it is to Palestinian seculars and intellectuals, and to the Fatah power base, they will need to find a way to attract Hamas supporters, many of whom were attracted to the grassroots authenticity of the Hamas movement’s struggle for liberation and turned off by corrupted officials entrenched in power.
And what do you do about those who ideologically cannot reconcile with peace? How do you deal with core Hamas leaders who believe Greater Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (a Trust from the Almighty) which cannot be negotiated away? How do you relate to settlers who feel Greater Israel is a grant to the Jewish people (a Trust from the Almighty), one which cannot be negotiated away?
THESE are the instances where you most must fight all impulses to hate. You must hold on to your principle, and try to reason. But where your reason does not permeate into theirs, you must continue inviting them to come in to your tent one day, and offer that they can reconcile their beliefs with the reality of two peoples destined to co-exist by keeping their spiritual absolutism in their hearts, respectfully, and not forgetting their religious precepts which also require respect and love to other human beings.
It is a very hard thing to achieve an approach of unbending love and respect towards all, and probably only saints like MLK Jr. or Gandhi truly achieve such pure empathy.
After all, when you perceive an injustice to be done, you feel justified, almost morally-bound, to resent the person that commits the injustice. If the injustice is great, you may feel an impulse to hate the aggressor. But I guess you must at least TRY to catch that impulse and fight it. It does NOT mean you don’t fight the injustice; it means you try to get the transgressor to fight it too. And this requires a lot of love.
Otherwise, with so much animosity and pain and fear and suspicions and suffering, it will eat you and turn you into that which you most want to fight.
William Kristol writes about what makes John McCain different from the other Republicans running for their party’s nomination, including being "the not-so-modern type [that is shaped by political consultants, being]…rigid, self-righteous, and moralizing, but (or rather and) manly, courageous, and principled." He tells how McCain memorized as a child, and recited to Kristol on a patchy cell phone call, this extraordinary poem about conviction and courage of the soul:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’dBeyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-William Ernest Henley, Invictus (1875), as quoted by McCain and told by Kristol, who surmises McCain must have recited this more than once during his captivity as a prisoner of war.
What is remarkable about McCain is that for the most part when I hear him (with the notable exception of his California debate against Romney), he seems to be the captain of his soul and to fight to uphold principles he holds dear, including some times supporting a tough military course without hating his enemy and without doing things out of spite. He too lets people like Romney get the best of him. And it is starkly unattractive. But for the most part, he rises above petty politics. He acts out of nobility and puts US interests ahead of himself or his campaign.
For my Jewish and Israeli friends who doubt the sincerity of Arab leaders to achieve a peace agreement and normalize relations with Israel if Israel enables the creation of a Palestinian state, please take a look at the comments from Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Ambassador to the US and former head of Saudi Intelligence. A friend of the OneVoice Movement with whom I have had several discussions, Prince Turki does not mince words and (like the Middle East) he himself has evolved enormously since appointed as founding representative of the WEF’s C-100 Council of Western and Islamic Leaders.
Some excerpts below (full article here):
"The Arab world, by the Arab peace initiative, has crossed the Rubicon from hostility towards Israel to peace with Israel and has extended the hand of peace to Israel, and we await the Israelis picking up our hand and joining us in what inevitably will be beneficial for Israel and for the Arab world."
"One can imagine not just economic, political and diplomatic relations between Arabs and Israelis but also issues of education, scientific research, combating mutual threats to the inhabitants of this vast geographic area."
"Exchange visits by people of both Israel and the rest of the Arab countries would take place."
"The time has come when a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side by side in peace."
- President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address, where he received standing applause across both aisles for committing to achieve a two-stage agreement defining a Palestinian State before the end of 2008.
David Levin, chair of the OneVoice International Steering Committee, arranged for us to brief Tony Blair in Davos, following his meeting with our youth leaders a couple months ago. He was very impressed with our youth leaders and expressed his commitment to help us advance our mission of empowering the voice of ordinary citizens that want to achieve a two state solution. He agreed to meet with our activists later in the year, and to help us on a couple of other fronts.
Later that day, he moderated a session with Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad, and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, President Peres and Defense Minister Barak. He spoke of the importance of empowering moderate voices, as did Tzipi Livni and PM Fayyad.
People should not allow their resentment against President Bush for other reasons to prevent their support of long overdue but positive and courageous steps towards ending the conflict. The statement below is evidence that we are on the right track. And it is no coincidence that much of the below, even if not detailed enough, does show some bold substance in the right direction and conforms with the Clinton Parameters, or the OneVoice Citizen Negotiations, or the Moratinos Non-Treaty, or all the other efforts where Israelis and Palestinians (and international supporters) have sat together to come up with an agreement. For only along these lines, requiring historical compromise and recognition of both sides, can the conflict be resolved.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Jerusalem)
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 10, 2008
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
ON THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS
King David Hotel
Jerusalem
5:27 P.M. (LOCAL)
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I’d like to, first, thank Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas for their hospitality during my trip here to the Holy Land. We had very good meetings, and now is the time to make difficult choices.
I underscored to both Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas that progress needs to be made on four parallel tracks. First, both sides need to fulfill their commitments under the road map. Second, the Palestinians need to build their economy and their political and security institutions. And to do that, they need the help of Israel, the region, and the international community. Third, I reiterate my appreciation for the Arab League peace initiative, and I call upon the Arab countries to reach out to Israel, a step that is long overdue.
In addition to these three tracks, both sides are getting down to the business of negotiating. I called upon both leaders to make sure their teams negotiate seriously, starting right now. I strongly supported the decision of the two leaders to continue their regular summit meetings, because they are the ones who can, and must, and — I am convinced — will lead.
I share with these two leaders the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. Both of these leaders believe that the outcome is in the interest of their peoples and are determined to arrive at a negotiated solution to achieve it.
The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear: There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent.
It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other’s fundamental objectives is key to a successful agreement. Security for Israel and viability for the Palestinian state are in the mutual interests of both parties.
Achieving an agreement will require painful political concessions by both sides. While territory is an issue for both parties to decide, I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous. I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue.
I reaffirm to each leader that implementation of any agreement is subject to implementation of the road map. Neither party should undertake any activity that contravenes road map obligations or prejudices the final status negotiations. On the Israeli side that includes ending settlement expansion and removing unauthorized outposts. On the Palestinian side that includes confronting terrorists and dismantling terrorist infrastructure.
I know Jerusalem is a tough issue. Both sides have deeply felt political and religious concerns. I fully understand that finding a solution to this issue will be one of the most difficult challenges on the road to peace, but that is the road we have chosen to walk.
Security is fundamental. No agreement and no Palestinian state will be born of terror. I reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to Israel’s security.
The establishment of the state of Palestinian is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it. And it will enhance the stability of the region, and it will contribute to the security of the people of Israel. The peace agreement should happen, and can happen, by the end of this year. I know each leaders shares that important goal, and I am committed to doing all I can to achieve it.