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  • Popes Promoting Peace: Why Not? And What is the Big Fuss in Israel?

    A curious animosity has arisen on several sides of the Pope’s visit to Israel. Israeli Members of Parliament as well as very prominent rabbis took every opportunity to snipe at every word the Pope did say, should have not said, or should have said. As I watched the media blitz unfold I was amazed at the acrimony. Roi Ben Yehuda, however, has a positive essay on the Pope’s visit and the potential role of peacemaking for religious leaders. Also, various rabbis of the United States and the world were far more generous in welcoming the Pope to Israel.

    I understand policy differences with the Pope. Most of the world has one policy difference or another with this conservative Pope. I also understand that his conservative moves with regard to liturgy have angered Jews who see his reintroduction of a prayer hoping for the conversion of the Jews as detrimental …

  • Bashar, Don’t Take Netanyahu’s Bait

    Josh Landis outlines well the problems with America’s decision to maintain the Syria sanctions, but also outlines nicely what the Syrian and the Americans have done and not done so far in the relationship. Here is an excerpt:

    What has Syria done for Obama?

    * Both Hizbullah and Hamas have reached out to the US, claiming to want engagement and expressing willingness to compromise on key issues. Syria has great influence on these groups and has helped with this outreach.
    * Syria wants intelligence sharing on al-Qaida and Iraq, but it has not handed over Iraqi Baathists resident in Syria to the US.

    What has Syria refused to do for Obama?

    * Syria will not agree to concessions on the Arab peace plan, i.e. stating that Syria will give all resident Palestinians citizenship as part of a Palestinian-Israeli deal. (This is symbolic because Syria is the Arab state that has

    …

  • GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL CONTRACT: THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

    I continue to be completely immersed in Sari Nusseibeh’s Once Upon a Country. I must admit that when I met him once, appeared on a panel with him and spent some time with him I was a little bit in awe and did not know quite what to say. Now that I know the depths of his life, his triumphs and losses, his father, I wish I could speak more to him.

    But the one thing that emerges from the reading again and again is the same lesson I have been gathering from all over the globe. I can sum it up in an Aramaic sentence from the ancient Talmud that describes a chaotic world of lawlessness, L’es Din ve’l’es dayyan, which translates roughly as, “There is no law in sight and no judge in sight either”. What amazes me from Palestine under occupation to Rwanda to all the …

  • An Inside Look at the Occupation. Is it Murder? You Decide

    NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 18

    Find the courage to watch the slow death of an unarmed demonstrator in Palestine. Shamai Leibowitz, veteran Israeli Jewish human rights activist in Pursuing Justice reflects on evidence of an Israel Defense Forces murder of an unarmed and un-threatening demonstrator in the Palestinian village of Bil’in. You be the judge.

    Bil\’lin

    Did you notice what a sunny, beautiful day it is in the film? Does it remind you of the day on the beach in Camus’ The Stranger?  The simplicity of killing, the natural beauty that can coexist with it and not be somehow implicated in a crime against humanity? Are you haunted by Biblical verses on oppressing strangers and God driving people out of  promised lands? Such warnings are a strange and timeless echo of history that screams back at the banality of murder that Camus depicts on the warm, sunny beach. Camus’ …

  • THE TALIBAN AND SHOULD WE ENGAGE EXTREMISTS: A DEBATE

    This important exchange took place at ICAR, my school, in recent days. This debate addresses a topic we must think about which is how and whether to engage extremists who have committed massive war crimes. Inevitably it devolves into questions of what we know and who we know it from, which also gets into issues of trust and distrust of prevailing sources of information in the West and elsewhere. I have come to see in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, especially the Israeli/Hamas conflict and the Hamas/Fatah conflict, that reliable information is very hard to come by. This is where we need to listen to each other, listen to victims, agree on core principles, and move forward with plans that attack the problem from several directions. It begins with Saira Yamin’s letter to NYT, continues with Professor Richard Rubenstein’s response and then Saira’s response:

    More Force in Afghanistan?
    New York Times,

    …

  • PATHBREAKING INTERVIEW ON SYRIAN/AMERICAN/ISRAELI RELATIONS

    Syrian Ambassador to the United States gives an important interview to CNN. The story is significant because Moustapha lays out the parameters of a separate Syrian/Israeli peace track, while also stressing the importance of a ‘comprehensive’ peace for Israel, which must include the Palestinian track. He also stresses that Lieberman is a more honest face of Israel than Livni and Olmert, considering the atrocities in Gaza. He would rather engage the real deal in Israel rather than deal with fake rhetoric. The nuances of his position are quite revealing of the different positions of Syria and Fatah. There is also praise for Obama and Mitchell, but caution that Mitchell’s job is harder than Ireland due to the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.…

  • KAZAKHSTAN TO THE RESCUE? A POSSIBLE BREAKTHROUGH TO IRAN

    Hope springs eternal–and strangely. Kazakhstan, a nation with strong new ambitions, is offering to host a nuclear bank that would make it unnecessary for multiple nations to develop highly enriched unranium on their own. This is a critical alternative to many nations developing dual use technology leading to nuclear weapons grade  material. President Obama, of course, is supporting this proposal–and so is President Ahmadanijad of Iran. If this moves ahead it could form the basis of a non-military solution to the crisis between Iran, its neighbors, Israel and the West. Stay tuned.

    There is a trend emerging here. First Turkey, now Kazakhstan, non-Arab Muslim nations who are stepping up to the plate to break the impasses of the Middle East that have dogged the world for hundreds of years. A confluence of new found confidence of emerging Islamic nations and the arrival of President Obama may be providing a way …

  • NONVIOLENT NONCOOPERATION IN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: ARABIC VERSION

    This is the Arabic version of my previous post. Translated by our new contributor Azziz Abu Sarah of Palestine, new Senior Research Associate at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution which I direct.

    دكتور مارك جوبن

    لقد حان الوقت لحركه واسعة النطاق للنضال الفلسطيني على مبدأ اللاعنف لأن كل الطرق الاخرى فشلت. لدي امال بان حكومة اوباما ستكون الانجح في تقريب الحل بين الاطراف المتنازعة لكن في صميم قلبي شعرت دائما بأن هناك طريق واحد للسلام لم يعتمد حتى الان وهو طريق اللاعنف وعدم التعاون على اساس المحبة. طريق غاندي ومارتن لوثر كينج
    لقد اتخذ العديد من الفلسطينيين في اسرائيل وفلسطين هذا الطريق من خلال المظاهرات السلمية الاحتجاجات ومقاطعة المنتوجات ولكن لم تتمتع هذه الحركة بالدعم الكامل لان النجاح لحركة اللاعنف مرتبط باختياره كالطريق الوحيد للنظال.
    أنا لا أتحدث عن العدل أو انه من مسؤولية الفلسطينيين أن يمدوا ايديهم لليهود. في عالم عادل كان يتوجب على …

  • YOUTH AS A CRYSTAL BALL: THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

    The United Nations released an extremely revealing survey of Palestinian youth that says a great deal about the future of this region, if read properly.

    Palestinian youth oppose violence to resolve conflict Jerusalem – Nearly 70 per cent of Palestinian young adults believe the use of violence to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not very helpful, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study released Tuesday.

    Only 8 per cent believe violence is an important tool, the study, based on interviews with 1,200 Palestinians over the age of 17 in the West Bank and Gaza.

    The study also found out that more than 80 per cent of young Palestinians are depressed, and 47 per cent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian.

    It found that 39 per cent were “extremely” depressed and 42 per cent were depressed by their conditions. Depression was more marked in the Gaza

    …

  • BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: Women Cleaning the Mess Men Have Made of the Holy City of Hebron

    THIS LETTER FROM ELANA ROZENMAN:

    February 26th, 2009
    TRUST- WIN visit to “Cordoba” school, Hebron

    The ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the aftermath
    of the violence in Gaza and southern Israel has put a strain on the ability
    and willingness of many Israelis and Palestinians to engage in
    peace-building activities. In that context last Thursday morning a group of
    Israeli women (Jewish and Christian) set out from Jerusalem with enthusiasm
    and some trepidation to meet with Reem Alshareef who is the Muslim director
    of the Cordoba school in the H2 area of Hebron which is under Israeli
    control. For pictures, press here and search under ‘Women Hebron’.
    The Israeli women were from the left, the right, and the center politically.
    All of them are in our wonderful book “Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli
    and Palestinian Women” (www.sixtyvoices.org) One was an Armenian Orthodox
    woman who is a …

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