Daniel Lubetzky

POTENTIALLY BIG POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT! Leaders listening to and following the will of their people, the OV people!!! Read the article below: it is, to the word, the language we demanded in the OneVoice Mandate that over half a million Palestinian and Israeli citizens have signed up to. It is the same language that many thought was too bold and risky to demand.

If indeed the leaders issue such statement, which is not yet confirmed, it will be worth all the challenges and uphill battles we’ve had to climb and surmount over the last year.

The challenges to the Heads of State are still very real and the gaps in the negotiations quite serious, but the potential is also enormous. We could have a historic breakthrough if they really commit not to stop negotiating until they crank out an agreement.

From The Guardian Newspaper in the UK

Israel and Abbas agree to peace talks

· Two sides will seek final deal within one year
· Syrians and Saudis also ready to participate
Ian Black in Jerusalem
Saturday November 17, 2007

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed a pledge to negotiate "immediately and continuously" to reach a final peace agreement within a year in a joint declaration to be issued in 10 days at a key summit in the US.  – The Guardian

We often think about the immediate issues of the conflict – justice, security, walls, barriers, rockets, military threats, checkpoints, land, dignity, etc. – as the drivers that provide but the challenges and the opportunities for what needs to be addressed in order to end the conflict and build a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.

But increasingly the status quo is harming the essence of Palestinian and Israeli societies at the very core – in areas like education.

Data over the last few years points to a deafening brain drain from Palestine and Israel.  Can you blame talented individuals who decide to escape the chaos?

Educated Palestinians more and more are moving to Jordan, to the United States, to Egypt, to the point that writers have started to call the "Palestinian National Dream" in jeopardy.

And educated Israelis more and more are moving to the US and Europe at alarming rates.

I just read a Wall Street Journal excerpt from a BusinessWeek article by Neal Sandler highlighting how serious the danger and impact is on the Israeli educational system:

Israeli students ranked 33rd out of 41 countries in a global survey on math and sciences in 2002, the last time they participated therein, contrasting to the 1960s when Israeli students were among the world’s best;

Only 30% of 18-year old native-born conscripts into the Israeli Defense Forces passed a standard Hebrew reading comprehension test in 2005, down from 60% two decades earlier

Israeli teacher salaries are the LOWEST in the industrialized world, acording to the OECD

So for people that are clinging to a Greater Israel or Greater Palestine vision, it is time to understand: your children’s future is at stake.  This region, with so much potential to bring light to the world, is going to implode and become a sad example of what hatred and absolutism reaps, if we don’t get our act together.

Anyone who has not taken the first step of signing on to the OneVoice Mandate demanding IMMEDIATE UNINTERRUPTED NEGOTIATIONS TILL AN AGREEMENT IS REACHED AMONG THE ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN HEADS OF STATE should do so now.

A few friends wrote to me alarmed and saddened by the poem I wrote, Haunted.  They mentioned I am always ‘so positive’ and encouraged me not to lose hope.  Some encouraged me to share positive thoughts as they tend to see me do, rather than to succumb to the plentiful doom.

So I thought I’d share a few related thoughts:

1) no, I am not in a state of deep depression, or suicidal, and I am not about to give up on our mission;

2) I am a human being like everyone else, who has worries and doubts and fears, and I have always had these; indeed, this is what drives me to try to prevent such dark vision from prevailing;

3) when I made the commitment to write this blog, I decided I needed to be true to myself and those who read this journal, so it will continue to reflect the reality of my feelings at the moment when I use the journal to share them, and my best efforts to provide an accurate reflection of what I see happening around me;

4) I am sobered up and increasingly worried that time is running out, that partisan hatred is so deep, that all the best efforts of OneVoice, and PeaceWorks, and the hundreds of groups working in this space will not be enough if we don’t achieve the critical mass necessary, which requires ordinary citizens to recognize their power and responsibility to join this effort;

5) the challenge requires MORE, not less dedication to it; and so OneVoice is already working on several fronts to strengthen its efforts, as is the PeaceWorks Foundation;

6) I wrote "Haunted" late at night after watching the very poignant and powerful but sad movie The Black Book, which brought back memories of what my Father went through during the Holocaust, and marrying that with the growing animosity overtaking the Middle East, and the increasing sadness I personally feel at seeing so much hatred, so much suffering, so much anger, so much partisanship and dehumanization.

7) The silver lining is that a lot of this anger and hatred is also a sign of the winds of change.  Groups opposing a two state solution are mobilizing with passion because they also see the writing on the wall; my only hope is that they won’t see a two-state-solution as their defeat, but their opportunity – not an opportunity for total justice as they may envision it, as total justice is by definition unattainable when seeking a political agreement and historical compromise among two parties, but an opportunity for them to help build a better future for their children and for the children of the region.

The window of opportunity for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state agreement is closing, and with that the hope for building hope and prosperity for the overwhelming majorities on both sides that cherish that.

9) The prospect of this region becoming an eternal battleground is truly scary.

10) This conflict is not intractable today.  I hope we will seize the opportunity before it gets too late.

11) Change is not going to come about without action from the ordinary citizens on both sides whose lives are most affected.

{I requested and got permission to share excerpts of this letter on my blog}

Dear Daniel,

It is my great pleasure to write to you and reach out to you on a cause that we both stand for and work for: Peace in the Middle East and in the World. A cause that is worthy of devoting ones life to. I was introduced to your team in a conference held by University of California Irvine, through the Center for Citizen Peace Building. I can not begin to tell you how touched and moved I was by the courage of the young students from both Palestinian and Israeli side. It was truly inspiring to see something so extraordinary and so pure.

I’d like to give you a brief overview of the journey that led me to that conference and why our paths have crossed. I’m an Iranian American who survived the Iran Iraq war and never really unveiled it until recently. I have been in the rubble, I have seen people killed and youth as young as 12 years old dragged to the army to fight in the name of religion and let me tell you I did not believe in Peace. As a matter of fact, it would really upset me to see people preach it, I felt like they have no idea what it’s like to have bombs come down on them, and they have no idea that it is the last thing on one’s mind when running for shelter.

So you may ask yourself "what happened, and why a person of my background started working towards causing peace?" Well, I realized that being tired, resigned or apathetic is the source of it. I realized that it is not just about me the Iranian American kid, it’s about that Palestinian kid, that Israeli kid, that American, African, Sudanese… kid it’s about all of us. I realized that our biggest pitfall is that we have forgotten that before we’re Iranian, American, Israeli, Palestinian, we are human beings. Simple really simple yet so powerful that we have missed it and had wars get the better of us.

Please know that I’m not reaching out to you as an Iranian American, Muslim, Jew, republican, democrat, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Shiite, Sonni, catholic, protestant, but I’m reaching out to you as all of the above a fellow human being.

…

…

You know Daniel, although I don’t know you or seen you, I know that it’s people like you and me and those who truly believe if there is a will, there is a way are the ones who take actions for the better good of human kind and inspire others to make it happen with them! People ask me, "you are not even Israeli or Palestinian so why do you care so much?", and I tell them I’m a human being and it is my human duty to care.

…

Although I run two businesses and run a humanitarian organization, I will drop everything for this cause and for a chance to make an impact, so please know that whenever you or anyone from your team calls they are welcome.

Your kindred Spirit,

Sunny Zia

More and more
The darkness haunts me
The memory of before I was
The stone sinking deeper into the sea
The inevitability of evil
Will it never change?

More and more
The sleepless nights
The failure to bring light
The stone sinks deeper, a rope attached around:
A noose around humanity

More and more
The breathing gets harder
The tears are dry, crude salt
A grayer soul has seen the tombs
A frayed body finds its limitations

Maybe he was right that knowledge burns and hardens the heart.
Maybe he was right that only Generals can set the tone.
Would a final offering, foregoing life’s sustenance itself, awaken?

This poem is an apt warning to the dangers of political apathy and inaction when someone other than yourself is being persecuted…

First they came for the Communists,
- but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,
- but I was neither, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews,
- but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Catholics,
- but I was not a Catholic, so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

This poem is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.  For more info, take a look at the wikipedia entry here.

"Be KIND whenever possible.  It is always possible."

- The Dalai Lama

[just learned about this great quote, which fits perfectly for the PeaceWorks Foundation AND for KIND Fruit and Nut bars!]

Here is a not untypical message we got from one of our amazing supporters – a rare amalgam of Christians, Muslims and Jews, Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Europeans and Mexicans – who grow more loyal and more determined with every attack extremists and absolutists make against the mainstream moderates who want to break the shackles of hatred…

I know you must be feeling a little down after putting so much effort into the Oct. 18 event. You’re entitled to feel a little down, but don’t be down for too long because shit happens and what you are trying to do makes sense; I wanted you to know that even though this hasn’t come off right now, that I want to be very much supportive of your efforts going forward. I thought that maybe this would be a good time to make an additional $10,000 contribution to walk that talk. Feel free to use this money to defray any of the exceptional costs of the cancellation. I just want to help you move through all this stuff and put it behind you so that you can do your important work.

Keep the faith.

Last night, I had a painful nightmare.  My Dad was having convulsions, pain in his chest and stomach, and I was helpless, unable to help him.  He was dying of what seemed like a heart attack, and I was paralyzed with fear.

The image has haunted me all day.

My Dad passed away four and a half years ago, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about him, but never this way.  I remember his kindness, his love for life, his good sense of humor, his treating every human being with respect.

I think the nightmare must have emanated from the subconscious but deep frustration I’ve experienced this last week with encountering so much pain, fear and ignorance, all transformed into hatred and anger, from vocal minorities that do not recognize the imperative of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by recognizing the humanity and rights of both sides.

I think the helplessness in the dream was a metaphor for the deep feeling of disappointment that I shared with all my team and all our volunteers for the setbacks in showing the voices of moderation on both sides, as we had intended. 

The fear I sensed is probably the fear of not being able to carry out our ultimate vision of bringing peace to the region, a mission I set for myself to do what I can so that others will not have to suffer the way my Father did in the Holocaust, which to me translates as the imperative of resolving the conflict so that the Israeli and Palestinian people will both have a future of freedom, security, dignity, and respect, not to mention to build prosperity and progress and light for the world.

What my Dad had to go through, I don’t want anyone again to go through.  I know I can’t help in all the areas where people ARE going through this (like Darfour!), but at least I want to make what little contribution I can to help the Israeli and Palestinian people.  And yet the utter dehumanization and self-righteousness that has overtaken some small but vocal segments of the population makes this an even harder task.

I don’t want to give up, as much as it is tempting to just say, "I’ve had enough." 

But too much is at stake.

I don’t want to be overtaken with anger and hatred myself, as increasingly hard as it is.  I need to resist the impulses, to try to understand, and to channel frustrations to constructive action.

I don’t want to disappoint the memory of my Father, as much as I fear doing so.

[Note from DL: This is a Very Important Development that I heard from our partners in OneVoice Palestine!  This press conference mentioned below was aired on Al Jazeerah, Al Arabiyah, and several other stations]

In a press conference earlier today, October 18, 2007, in Ramallah, where Dr. Saeb Erakat was briefing the media about the Rice visit, he concluded with a clarification that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked him to give regarding the OneVoice Movement. 

Below is the transcript of his words in English, which correspond almost verbatim to his words in Arabic [brackets provide differentiation]

I want to say one another thing, there was supposed to be an event today by an organization called OneVoice and the President asked me in my press conference to clarify the following:

- This organization sent invitations under the auspices of the President without consulting him [the Arab transcript also adds that "the organization has apologized for this"]

- Nevertheless the President would like to say that OneVoice organization is an NGO that has every right to work and that its political program, after Abu Mazen read it, reflects the President’s platform and the Palestinian objectives, and Abu Mazen would like to reiterate his full support to those NGOs and Civil society organizations that work for democracy, , culture of peace and ending occupation on the basis of two states solution.

- And he said, contrary to what was widely spread, he read the document of OneVoice and this document corresponds with his political program of ending the occupation that began in 1967 by having two states: a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital next to Israeli state at 67 borders and solving the issues reserved  to the permanent status negotiations: Jerusalem, borders, refugees and settlements  consistent with  relevance to the security council international resolutions.