The
leadership of the State of Israel has rejected the latest calls for a cease
fire. Only President-Elect Obama has the moral authority to make a call for a
cease fire that could be listened to seriously by the Israelis. But if he is
going to take that step, he should also use this moment to move beyond the
specifics of the present moment and call for an international conference that
could bring together the forces that would effectively insist on a fair and
just settlement.
The
idea that we are going to reach peace some other way is problematic at best.
The current Israeli fantasy is this: the Israelis decimate Hamas, making Fatah
the only remaining force. Then Israel negotiates an agreement for two states,
but the agreement allows the Israeli West Bank settlements to remain in place,
and the IDF to remain there to protect the settlers and the special roads that
criss-cross the West Bank for use by settlers only. The outcome: a Palestinian
state that is defacto a set of isolated cantons fully surrounded by Israelis,
in effect the occupation continuing but in a different form. Fatah Palestinian
leadership might grab at such a two state idea, and that might provide peace
for a few years or even more. But eventually the nationalist and Islamic forces
will revive from the current slaughter in Gaza, and they will see that a Palestinian state of this sort is neither legitimate nor viable, and the
violence will start up again.
The
only plausible thing to do is for the people of the world to come together and
create a solution that is just and fair to both sides.
What
can you and I do to make this happen? The best we can do at this moment is to
get the attention of our president-elect and put forward the idea of how to
make it happen and what it could look like.
Unfortunately,
our attempts to present these ideas in the op-ed pages of the Times, the
Washington Post, the LA Times have been turned down. Our only recourse, and
it’s an expensive one, is to buy full page ads in the major newspapers and
present our plan. It’s the one way we will for sure be heard by President-Elect
Obama.
To
do that we need your help. Tikkun magazine and the Network of Spiritual
Progressives (our interfaith political education arm co-chaired by Cornel West
and Sister Joan Chittister) do not have the money to buy such an ad. We can
only hope that you will help us by donating to the ad (which you can do at
www.tikkun.org
) , signing the ad (which you can do even if you have no money),
and sending this message to everyone on your email lists and asking them to
contribute as well. Here is what
the ad will say:
Text of
Gaza Peace Ad 
Cease Fire Now in Gaza!
President-Elect
Obama: It’s Time to End the
Violence in the Middle East-
Once and For All
Convene an International Middle East Peace Conference to
Facilitate a Final Peace Settlement that is just and fair to All
Parties
A Call for Lasting Peace
President Obama, please issue a public call for an immediate cease fire in Gaza, and call for an International Peace Conference to facilitate a fair and lasting solution to all aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the conflict between Israel and other states in the region. Why do we say “facilitate”? There are too many forces in each country in the region who are committed to continuing this struggle forever. Their provocations will continue until the international community stops the violence once and for all and facilitates conditions of security that will allow the peace and reconciliation forces in each country to flourish. Such a solution would be based on the following conditions:
a. The creation of an economically and politically viable Palestinian state (roughly on the pre-1967 borders with minor border modifications mutually agreed upon between Israel and Palestine); withdrawal of Israel from the Golan Heights, and simultaneously the full and unequivocal recognition by Palestinians and the State of Palestine and all surrounding Arab states of the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state (e.g. celebrating Jewish holidays and the Sabbath in the same way that Christmas gets official sanction as a state holiday in the U.S.) while offering full and equal rights to all of its non-Jewish citizens (preferential treatment for Jews only with regard to immigration, and that to be phased out when anti-Semitism in the world has disappeared; and the same preferential treatment for Palestinians in the Palestinian state as long as they face discrimination or reduced rights or threats to their safety in other parts of the world);
b. An international consortium to provide generous reparations for Palestinians who have lost homes or property from 1947 to the present, and generous reparations for Jewish refugees from Arab states from 1947-1967;
c. A long-term international peacekeeping force to separate Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, to ensure demilitarization of the Golan Heights, to protect Israel and Palestine from each other, to police the borders and the corridor that will need to be established linking Gaza with the West Bank, and to protect both Israel and Palestine from other forces in the region who might seek to control or destroy either state, and treaty agreements with the U.S. and other Western states to protect both Israel and Palestine from any assault by other countries (e.g. Iran, Pakistan, China or Russia);and
d. The quick imposition of robust sanctions against any party that refuses to sign or violates these agreements.
It would be in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab states, the Jewish people, the U.S. and the world if this solution could be facilitated on the parties now. It breaks our heart to see the suffering of the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people and others in the region when we know how unnecessary it is. The basic issues can be resolved. No matter how maximalist the fantasies are on each side about eliminating their enemies, the truth is that the majority of the people on all sides of the struggle would embrace peace if they thought it could be established in ways that provided for genuine security from military assault and terrorism for everyone, real justice for Palestinians, and acknowledgment of the wrongs that had been done to each side as a first step in healing the humiliations and huge psychic woundings that have happened to Arabs and Jews throughout their histories.
A New Spirit of Open-Heartedness and Reconciliation
We know that no political solution can work without a change of consciousness that minimally includes an open-heartedness and willingness to recognize the humanity of the Other, and repentance and atonement for the long history of insensitivity and cruelty each side has shown toward the other side.
All sides must take immediate steps to stop the discourse of violence and demeaning of the other in their media, their religious institutions, and their school text books and educational systems. They should implement this by creating a joint authority with each other and with moral leaders in the international community who can supervise, and if necessary, replace those in positions of power in Jewish, Islamic and Arab societies who continue to use the public institutions of the society to spread hatred or nurture anger at the other.
Once the other parts of a lasting peace have been set in place, we call upon the parties to this struggle to launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, following the model used in South Africa.
We Affirm the Sacredness of All Human Beings
This may well be the last chance we in the advanced industrial societies have to avoid international catastrophe (either environmental or nuclear), if in our way of dealing with the world can model something else besides brute military might, economic self-interest, and indifference to the well-being of others. If not now, when?
It is time to overcome national chauvinism and arrogance, and instead to build ethical and spiritual solidarity among the people of the world. Our well being depends on the well being of everyone else on the planet. So we need to build and strengthen those international institutions that can foster this sense of solidarity which is the necessary foundation for building global peace, social and economic justice, and ecological repair of the planet.
A Global Marshall Plan
The self-described “realistic” version of global politics asserts that we live in a world in which our safety can only be achieved through domination, or others wil
l seek to dominate us first. Of course, when we act on this assumption, it becomes self-fulfilling. We propose, instead, a strategy of generosity-to act on the assumption that people have an enormous capacity for goodness and generosity (without negating the truth that certain conditions pro- mote fear, anger and hatred which sometimes are expressed in horribly destructive ways). For the U.S. and other G8 countries, we call for a Domestic and Global Marshall Plan: for each of the next twenty years, the U.S. and other G8 countries should dedicate 1-2% of their Gross Domestic Product to eliminating global (and domestic) hunger, homelessness, poverty, inadequate health care and inadequate education for the peoples of the world.
We’ve developed the details of a Global Marshall Plan which would carefully monitor and apportion funds in ways that ensure the care reaches the people for whom it was intended. But what is critical is the spirit in which it is done-not as an attempt to manipulate, but as a genuine expression of human caring about each other. The first focus of this Global Marshall Plan would be to eliminate poverty and suffering in the MIddle East. The only protection that we in the advanced industrial countries of the world can ever really have for our lives is to spread a spirit of love so powerful and genuine that it becomes capable of reducing the anger that has understandably developed against the powerful and the wealthy of the world. Similarly, Israel’s security would be greatly enhanced if the money spent on enforcing an occupation and protecting West Bank settlements went instead to build a prosperous Palestinian economy.
The “cynical realists” claim that others are entrenched in their hatefulness, and that war and domination is the only way to battle them. This kind of thinking has led to five thousand years of people fighting wars in order to “end all wars”-and it has not worked. It’s time now to try a new strategy of generosity, both economic generosity and generosity of spirit. As stated above, there will first have to be a transitional period in which real military protections are available to people on all sides of the struggle. But by beginning now to simultaneously commit our economic resources and change the way that we talk about those whom we previously designated as “enemies,” we can begin the long process of thawing out angers that have existed for many generations. Precisely at this moment, when our global economic meltdown requires a fundamental rethinking of how we’ve organized our global economy, we can now shift the funds from military spending and other wasteful production towards building a sustainable global reality–and that requires global economic justice.
Nothing can redeem the deaths and suffering that all sides have faced in this struggle for the past 120 years. But this very moment could also be the time in which the human race realizes the futility of violence and comes together not only to facilitate a lasting solution for the Middle East, but to begin a new era and to recognize that our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet.
The International Middle East Peace Conference should be structured to achieve this end – which means it should have an explicit psychological and spiritual dimension and a visionary agenda.
Unrealistic? Nope.
What has proved unrealistic time and again-whether we are talking about U.S. policy in Vietnam and Iraq or Israeli and Arab policies in the Middle East-is the fantasy that one more war will put an end to wars. The path to peace must be a path of peace.
Help us to circulate this ad in major U.S. media. Please go to www.tikkun.org
and sign the ad and donate to make it possible for it to appear in the Washington Post and NY Times SOON!
posted January 6, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Unrealistic? Yep.
When the terrorist organizations and religious fanatics decide Israel has a right to exist, then the violence will stop. Even the Messiah (aka Obama) and 1,000 “Peace Conferences” will never ever stop this conflict. This is beyond anything Obama or this blog or this comment can ever understand. If Israel was a 1 story building among Arab land…these terror groups would plot around the clock to demolish that building. You can’t sit and talk any of this out. Never have been able to and never will. Israel is doing whatever it has to do to ensure their existence. Now we can be what every other cowardly mindless nation was after 9/11…a useless bystander.
Nice dream though…maybe it can happen, nothing is ever 100 percent!
posted January 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm
David – Peace cannot be dependent on the Other changing. Peace can only come from a decision to change regardless of what the Other is perceived to believe.
Why is Hamas popular in Gaza? Because they provide social services for the people. This does not excuse their violent actions and bad intentions for Israel. But it illustrates yet again how to win hearts and minds – take care of the people! Israel could begin feeding, clothing, housing, and healing Palestinians this afternoon if it wanted to. And in so doing Hamas would be reduced to the fringe extremist movement that it is.
No amount of violence from Israel, justified or not under concepts of self-defense, will defeat Hamas, Hizbulah, and other terrorist groups as effectively as humanitarian acts of peace and love toward the Palestinian people.
5,000 years of war have failed to produce peace. Isn’t it time, as Rabbi Lerner writes, to follow a path to peace made of peace?
posted January 6, 2009 at 4:35 pm
you show no understanding of the situation and the parties involved. frankly, you seem to live in fantasy world.
why don’t you simply call for Israel and all that live in Israel to simply commit suicide. it would be faster and cheaper.
posted January 6, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Is it too much to dream of a country where Jews and Palestinians live side by side, work side by side, govern side by side, for the good of a united country? Is it possible?
posted January 6, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Let’ just talk about the two-thousand pound elephant standing in the living room… the number one goal of the Zionist occupation is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
To put it another way, for Zionism to work, the Palestinians have to be killed – or made into refugees.
Now look at Gaza.
The Palestine Review
http://palestinereview.com
posted January 6, 2009 at 8:34 pm
War is human failure no matter how you look at it. God did not create countries or religions. People created these, and mostly by killing each other. You must conclude that this conflict is insanity. Killing others to stop killing. How much more insane can it be. Non violence can finally solve the problem. And it is not a simple matter of being a “peacenik”. Non violence (Ahimsa or satayagraha) are dynamic forces that can be applied to violent situations to resolve them. It has worked many times on this planet.
posted January 6, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Pride, nationalism, religion, self interest- on both sides. It’s the same old story that mankind has been writing from the very beginning of time. Rationalize and justify that which serves you best. Or better stated, that which you have rationalized to serve you best.
If peace were truly sought by either side, one would pack up and leave. I could never allow my children to suffer from my own foolish pride. Whether it be Israelite or Palestinian, both are wrong.
posted January 7, 2009 at 3:03 am
Applaud! This must work and Obama must enact change to change the world.
posted January 9, 2009 at 10:39 am
While I applaud you for making plans concerning the Isreal and the middle east. I have to say there you go again! Let the people solve there own problems!!!! Outside interference does nothing but make the situation more dangerous and attempts to force a moral and ethical solution to the problem that can only be solved from within Isreal and Palistinian people. You cannot force peace it comes from within each of us. Obama is only a servant of the U.S. people and a protector of our interest in the world. Degrading our strongest ally in geographic area where most nations see us as THE GREAT SATAN is not in our interests. It has to be allowed to play out. If your nieghbor was being eaten by lions would not hand him a pistol to kill the lions or shoot them yourself. It not that you hate the lion but that you must save your nieghbor… Let these people work it out for themselves Isreal has a pistol let them use it…
posted January 10, 2009 at 9:01 am
So much has been written about the Arab-Israel conflicts. It is almost universally accepted that this small piece of the Land on the meeting point of the two continents of Asia and Africa is the greatest flash-point in the world- the most violent, volatile and dangerous one. While at the basic level, it is a dispute between Israel and Palestinians, on a broader level it can be extended and linked to the so-called “Clash of the Civilizations” as enunciated by Huntington.
The current ongoing violence is only one more example in this long and uninterrupted series of violence, death and destruction. While it is very difficult for any definite and final stating of facts in any matter related with the Palestine-Israel conflicts because of the distortion of facts, figures and the accompanied truth in the process, what is generally accepted is that this time it was Israel which attacked the Gaza strip which has been given to the Palestinian population as a result of the Oslo agreements. It is also being believed that the Israeli army and Air force have made many brutal and damaging attacks on the Palestinian civilian population in this region in which many innocent people including even hapless women and children have lost their lives or have been severely injured. Israel, on the other hand, blames the Palestinians, particularly the Hamas for propagating incessant violence and openly proclaims that whatever Israel is doing is only in its self-defence.
As far as the world reaction is concerned, there is a extreme polarization between the two groups. There is no doubt that both Israel and Palestine have their own traditional friends and foes. Then there are others who are seen shifting their positions as per the context and circumstances. USA is the staunchest Israeli ally and the Arab world is generally pro-Palestine. As far as their condemning or protecting either of these two sides is concerned, it generally depends on the siding with two parties.
If one talks to a Palestinian, one will come to believe that there is no one worse than an Israeli in this world. He will present himself as the epitome of all the virtues and pious intentions and will call Israelis with all sorts of names. To them, the entire burden of the conflict will shift on Israel for having committed all sorts of atrocities on Palestine and its people, including taking away their land and displacing them from their beloved homeland. If, at all, Palestine is resorting to any violence, it is only as a last resort- simply to save itself. An Israeli’s opinion will be exactly the same. For him, a Palestinian will be a cheater, a thief, a mercenary, a hateful creature, a most unscrupulous person, a thug, a rogue and a spiteful chap. Again, he will present himself as a gentle, sublime, decent, ethical, aesthetic, simple and law-abiding person who has been condemned, persecuted, prosecuted and harmed for centuries.
So, which of these two groups is true- the Israeli or the Palestinians? To me it seems that the truth, like so many such cases, lies somewhere in between. In fact a general overview of the situation would let people understand that the real guilt lies in the extraneous situations and the circumstances and not with these two affected parties. While this does not mean that both these parties are holier-than-thou or have nothing to do with the hateful violence but it can be easily said that much more than their fault, it is the fault of the third parties, the external ones which has today resulted in such an anomalous and difficult situation having crept in where there is one baby with two fathers. The only practical and feasible solution is a two-nation solution, as and when it gets mutually accepted and practically implemented. It might be in the form of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for Palestinians and the rest to Israel or in any other suitable form.
But why the conflict? The conflict arises from competing Jewish and Arab national aspirations for the same region which one of them calls and believes to be Palestine (a the land they had been living for the last thousand years or so) and the other as Israel (the mythical promised homeland of the world-wide Jews). And the real culprit are the powerful and self-seeking European Nations, Britain being in lead, who left behind so many artificial and non-ending disputes all over the places they ruled and where they created so many irregular, unwarranted and illogical barriers and boundaries that suited them. In this particular case, the British played simultaneously with these two Nationalities making conflicting promises to both in the forms of the Hussein-McMahon correspondence and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It was only because of this two-mouthed British policy that tensions between Arab and Jewish groups in the region erupted into physical violence resulting in so many riots. And when the British thought that the heat being generated out of this was too much for it to handle, it left the place one fine morning leaving the place to simmer and burn with intermittent volcanic eruptions since then.
In 1947, the U.N. did approve the partition of the land but the Arabs of that time underestimated Israelis resulting in the ill-fated Arab-Israel war of 1948.
Without going into any further history, I would end this Article by saying that the Arab-Israel conflict is an extremely sad, ill fated and misfortunate saga of blood and gory. Thousands of innocent people on both the sides have died, giving rise to so many heroes and villains on both sides of border.
But who is the real enemy- once it was Britain and today, it is both of them who are still behaving like the illegitimate fratricidal children of Britain. And what is the way out? The only way out is peaceful, mutual coexistence, without going into the detailed analysis of who did what and who is responsible for what putrid acts. Because getting down to that is like opening a Pandora’s box where there would be no ending to accusations and counter-accusations. So, peace would reign in this region, as and when it finally does, only when they both realize that they don’t have the capacity to exterminate the other and will go on to exist in each-other’s neighbourhood. So why not say enough is enough and accept the other side, even with complete distaste.
Dr Nutan Thakur,
Editor,
Nutan Satta Pravah,
Lucknow
India