Daniel Lubetzky

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.

So, your challenge is to come up with a compelling video that people will forward virally to each other, something funny, or sad, or powerful which will provoke people to share with others.  Your problem is that the product you want to promote is a door knob lock!  How do you make that funny?

Before you click on the answer, see if you can come up with anything so you will see how ingenious the following is:

http://www.hallpass.com/media/surelock.html

A Message in A Bottle from An Iraqi Kid: Here is a remarkable example of hope, grassroots activism, and simple excellence in marketing thought!

Stefan Sagmeister, who created the OneVoice Logo for us, just mailed me a banana as an invitation for an event to unveil his latest book…

Worth visiting the home page of this Dutch Department store… …give it a few seconds to see what happens… VERY CREATIVE:

http://producten.hema.nl/

A revolution inside the human brain is taking place far beyond our capacity to understand.

What we call "A.D.D." or attention-deficit-disorder will become the norm rather than the exception, if it hasn’t already.

Our brains used to de-construct and decompress during leisurely walks between work and home, but if you see people walking nowadays, odds are they are speaking on a cell phone.  No time to waste: we crave more input.

Email processing makes us "efficient" (though it can also invade our management time) but changes the very way we organize ourselves and communicate.  The constant feedback mechanism turns us into creatures desiring a flow of data and messages.

Instant-messaging, social network platforms, the way we seek news over the internet, and email reminders, are all transforming the way we think, process, relate to other human beings, and relate to our brains.

The impact of this constant-feedback/short-span model of communications is already felt in entertainment platforms, where Youtube’s short-clips are becoming more the rage than long-format movies. 

When we design a video presentation for OneVoice or PeaceWorks, of course we forget about the 1 hour or 20 minute pieces, but now even the 5 minute piece which was acceptable a few years ago is a total eternity.  You have 1 minute max to convey your message, no matter how deep or complex.  After that you’ve lost your audience.

I will not be surprised if the next generation of human beings is radically different in the way people relate to one another.  We have no idea what we are going to become.

And I have a fleeting feeling (as feelings and thoughts increasingly are) that it is not going to be pretty.

My friend Martin Varsavsky wrote an insightful note on the dangers of credit abuse, on America’s over-reliance on credit to shore up the global economy, and the lessons that we can draw from Argentina’s experience.

For years I have been anxious about the excesses of consumerism in America, for both their economic and social implications.  Credit abuse has created phantom prosperity which is now just beginning to catch up with us.

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. 

“Blessed are those who are peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

- Jesus is said to have delivered this statement as part of his Sermon on the Mount, but yesterday this statement was brought to life when President George W. Bush received this inscription during his visit to the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have walked on water)

Something big has already happened, and something bigger and historic could come during 2008, and yet a region buried in sorrow and skepticism is not paying attention.

It is striking.

President Bush’s visit to Ramallah was literally a historic moment: the first time ever that a sitting American President visited this city which is currently the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

And yet nobody seemed to notice.

I was in Ramallah yesterday, and barely anyone was talking about Bush’s visit.  To the extent people noticed it is because the day prior streets were blocked and a couple hundred demonstrators against Bush and the US Administration were a bit too-forcefully dispersed by the PA.

In Israel, all newspapers cynically mocked Bush and Olmert as being disconnected or disingenuous, and most people just ignored or didn’t even know that this historic Presidential visit was taking place.

It is so easy to complain and criticize and question and belittle.  It is so easy to raise doubts and be cynical.  And there are plenty of valid reasons to be skeptical and to question the commitment of many of the leaders to the finishing line.  But not only does pure fatalism get us nowhere – it is also not warranted given the visible facts.

The leaders are doing something!  They are trying to strike a historical deal within a defined and bold timeframe of a year.

The time has come for citizens to put their skepticism aside and do their part.

It takes more effort to do something positive than to just dismiss others’ efforts.  If people say they want a better future, they have a responsibility to help bring it about.

The time has come.