Tag: Rockets


  • Nonviolent Noncooperation in Palestine and Israel: The Time Has Come for Arabs and Jews

    I just published this essay in the Common Ground News Service:

    Non-cooperation can bring a revolution to the Holy Land
    by Marc Gopin
    26 March 2009

    WASHINGTON, DC – It is time for a mass movement of nonviolent non-cooperation and resistance amongst Palestinians-because everything else has failed. I have hopes that the Obama Administration will be the best yet in moving the parties toward resolution, but in my heart I have always felt that there is one path to peace that has never been adopted, and that is the path of nonviolent non-cooperation – but with love – the way of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

    This is something that a number of Palestinians within Israel and Palestine have tried through nonviolent marches, protests, and food boycotts, but it has never received full backing because it only works when it is adopted as the only means of resistance.

    This …

  • American Congress Discovers that Gaza Has Been Bombed!

    Read this important story about United States Representatives Keith Ellison and Dr. Brian Baird. In an American Congress that is utterly silenced about Palestinian needs and concerns, these two congressmen should be commended for going to Gaza. They will be punished by the Lobby and it is important for them to be supported. I hope that the Jewish alternative lobby, J Street , will do so. If there were a serious non-Jewish lobby for Palestine in Washington that really wanted to change things for Palestine it too would support every positive act coming out of Congress–with votes and cold hard cash. Alas, progressives don’t get it.

    Here are excerpts written by veteran Post writer Tovah Lazaroff:

    “When have lentil bombs been going off lately? Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?” asked Rep. Brian Baird (D-Washington).

    He and Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) called on Israel to end

  • BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: A Letter from Syria’s Hind Kabawat

    TECHNICAL CHALLENGE WARNING: WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER WEB BROWSER HAS A FLAW AND ISĀ  UNABLE TO DISPLAY MY WEBLOG PROPERLY. TRY FIREFOX AND OTHER BROWSERS, AND ASK MICROSOFT TO BE MORE COMPATIBLE. THANKS!

    Blessed Are the Peacemakers is a new series in marcgopin.com that will feature writing by or about significant peacemakers who are confronting the conflicts facing humanity with courage, creativity, and passion.

    The essay below is written by Hind Kabawat, the foremost peacemaker of Syria and my partner of five years in Middle Eastern peacemaking:

    WHAT THE MIDDLE EAST NEEDS IS THE “AUDACITY OF HOPE”

    For the last five years or so, I have been actively working with Jewish colleagues in the US and elsewhere to help broker a lasting reconciliation between Israel and its Arab neighbours. But in the wake of the carnage in Gaza, it is impossibly difficult to be optimistic about the future of the …

  • Radwan Masmoudi on Urgent Questions about Gaza and Global Demonstrations

    Radwan is one of the most passionate voices for Islam and democracy in the world today. He is an important force for change in Washington. He wrote this letter to me:

    Dear Marc:

    I just participated in a conference call, organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, with Shibley Telhami on the situation in Gaza. I took a lot of notes, and wanted to ask several questions, but unfortunately did not have an opportunity to ask them. So, I wanted to share my comments and questions with you in the hope that they may help us to find the right solution to this very dangerous situation in Gaza and in the Middle East.

    First some important comments:

    1. It is very dangerous and counter-productive for the US to be always siding “unconditionally” with Israel. Yes, of course, Israel has “the right to respond”. To be fair and balanced, and therefore …

  • Blaming the Arab World Is Inappropriate Right Now

    Joel Suarez found fault with my previous posting on Shahids and Hayals, in that I come down hard on the rage in the Arab world at this time. Over the weekend I got many more reports of the atrocities occurring in Gaza at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces, and the fact that the Arab world, unlike Israel and the United States, sees the direct evidence of this regularly on their television screens. It occurred to me that Joel’s critique was a good one, even though I may disagree with some facts. I will regularly post guest writers and I think this piece has good merit. Joel is a graduate student at Columbia University and writes at joelsuarez.com .

    Joel Suarez writes:

    Dear Marc,

    I recently read your post on hatred in demonstrations. I’d have to agree that it is extremely disappointing to see bigotry injected into protests …

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