MarcGopin.com

The Jewish Holocaust in Europe is the preeminent memory of millions of Israelis, many of whose families perished. It is a memory that spurs many Jews to suspect any possible coexistence with the Palestinians and the Arab world in general. This psychological reality of Israeli Jews has been resisted for decades by Palestinians precisely because it is so unfair that they should suffer because of what Europeans did to the Jewish people. Khaled Mahameed has challenged that resistance and has instead embraced the suffering and humanity of Jewish victims as a bridge between Palestinians and Jews, and as a way for each group to begin to humanize the other. Watch his methods in this documentary’s excerpts, especially the second video excerpt. Khaleed is representative of a cutting edge approach to conflicts that seem to be irresolvable in which courageous individuals and groups are going to the heart of the rage on both sides, leaving behind momentarily all the interests and bargaining positions of adversaries.

The Heart of the Other: A documentary about Khaled Mahameed, a Palestinian-Israeli Arab who recently opened the first Holocaust museum in the Arab world. Directed by Harvey Stein.

“The Heart of the Other” features the passionate peace activism of Khaled Mahameed, a Palestinian-Israeli living in Nazareth, Israel. In 2005, Khaled founded The Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education, the first Holocaust museum in the Arab world.

Khaled alienates some (including most of the Arab press, as well as the ADL), but converts many others to his view – including members of Hamas. He asserts, “People say I am a crazy for making this issue the center of my life. They should realize that I am serving the Palestinian cause. The world will not see our Nakba [the "disaster" or flight of Palestinians from their homes in 1948] before we can feel for their Holocaust.”

The world of disaster relief, overseas aid, and development has always had a difficult time with mixed motives. Why does anyone give large sums to poor nations in desperate need of help? Millions of people donate money to thousands of non-governmental organizations precisely in order to help people who are sick, poor, and in disastrous circumstances, especially when natural calamities occur. The motivation is mostly altruistic. But governments are massive donors as well. The problem is that once government gets involved there is always the question of mixed motives, national interests and economic interests mixed with public expressions of altruism. The problem is even more acute when it is not just the government but the military. That is why there are strong objections to the U.S. military getting into the business of aid and disaster relief:

“Our [foreign] policy is out of whack,” said Kenneth Bacon, a former assistant secretary of defense who now runs Refugees International, a nonprofit organization. “It is too dominated by the military and we have too little civilian capacity.”

Bacon is particularly concerned about Pentagon plans for a new US Africa Command. In a report published this month, Refugees International called on the next administration to limit the military’s role in Africa to conducting security-related tasks, such as training foreign militaries and providing critical humanitarian assistance – and to leave the rest to civilian specialists.

“The military should not take on what [the US Agency for International Development] does or the State Department,” Bacon said. Still, US military strategists believe they have an expanding role to play in exerting America’s soft power.

The problem with the objections is that, when it comes to mixed motives the State Department will be no different than the military. Both will operate in places of the world in which they have determined some national interest for the United States. Furthermore, getting some part of the Pentagon to become deeply involved in humanitarian aid will set up a healthy tension between that aspect of the Defense Department engaged in “smashing things”, to cite the great humanitarian Donald Rumsfeld, versus those engaged in preventing things—and people—from being smashed. This will be good for the overall objectives of humanizing American foreign intervention. Of course, if I were a congressman I would give the most to funds for NGO’s, secondly to AID and State, and only thirdly to the Pentagon. But given the reality of the massive and excessive funds given now to the Pentagon which funds military bases in 160 countries, it is better that some in that building start seeing the advantages of “soft power” over “smashing things”. That is why these scenarios are welcome, in my opinion:

When a US military team arrived by helicopter in Cambodia’s rural Kampong Chhnang Province in late May, the imam from the local mosque spread the word and hundreds of locals descended on the Americans.

But it was not confrontation they sought. It was free healthcare. The Friendship Clinic, offering primary and vision care, dentistry, a women’s health center, and medical training, was part of a first-of-its kind humanitarian mission called Pacific Angel by the Honolulu-based 13th Air Force.

In recent months, Navy war ships have been dispatched to some of the poorest nations to administer medical aid, the Air Force is flying regular humanitarian flights, and teams of US military personnel are helping rebuild schools in Latin America.

Obama scored a major political victory in Jerusalem last week in his interview with The Jerusalem Post, the major English-speaking conservative newspaper of Israel. David Horovitz, its lead editor, is a hawk who watches every move of his interviewees. His immense respect for Obama’s substance and performance is irrepressible as we can see here:

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists.

In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and I conducted with him, looked to Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction.

On Wednesday evening, toward the end of his packed one-day visit here, Barack Obama, the Democratic senator who is leading the race for the White House and who lacks long years of foreign policy involvement, spoke to The Jerusalem Post with only a single aide in his King David Hotel room, and that aide’s sole contribution to the conversation was to suggest that the candidate and I switch seats so that our photographer would get better lighting for his pictures.

Several of Obama’s Middle East advisers – including former Clinton special envoy Dennis Ross and ex-ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer – were hovering in the vicinity. But Obama, who was making only his second visit to Israel, knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects.

There is a limit to what can be gauged of a politician’s views as expressed in a relatively short interview at the height of an election campaign. But Obama, who chose to give the Post one of the only two formal sit-down interviews he conducted during his visit, was clearly conveying a carefully formulated message – and it was striking in several areas.

He sought to sound resolute on thwarting Iran’s nuclear drive, while insisting on the need to “exhaust every avenue” before the military option. He was optimistic on the prospects of potential Syrian moderation. He was succinct and blunt on Jerusalem – and distinctly different from the “poor phrasing” of his “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided” comments during his address to AIPAC’s policy conference last month. And most notably, he was explicit and unsympathetic on the matter of West Bank settlement.

Obama embodies in this interview expertise, wisdom and skill. The net effects of his highly professional three hundred man foreign policy team are showing, and his own capacity for listening and balance are emerging at every turn in this overseas trip. Now Obama is paying a price with the Left and with the Arab world for his positions on Israel at this juncture. Al Jazeera carried a piece, for example, entitled “Is Obama an Israel appeaser?” by Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. The heaviest price Obama is paying is for Dennis Ross being so central to his Israeli policy formation. There has been a stark choice in recent years between blame being placed mostly on Yasser Arafat for the failed Camp David talks, and blame for the pro-Israel tilt of Dennis Ross’ role in the talks. It is impossible to say whether Ross’ role now is an indication as to who will take the lead in Israeli/Palestinian interventions of an Obama presidency. But there is no way that Barack Obama can steer the United States back into a positive role as peace broker without a large portion of the pro-Israel community joining him.

The United States is a country that overwhelmingly supports Israel, but also a country where the majority of Jews and the majority of Christians support a two-state solution, even 50% of the evangelicals. The tragedy of the last eight years has not been the pro-Israel stance of the U.S., but a militant White House ideology of force and force only in the Middle East that therefore turned a blind eye to militant settler and IDF behavior on the West Bank and in Gaza, all of which literally brought Hamas to power in Gaza, and Iran to vastly increased regional influence. There is a pervasive habit in global conflict of self-fulfilling prophecy. Militants are always the best friends of militants on the other side; they feed off of each other. And the outgoing White House, Hamas, and the Iranian President fed off of each other.

There will be a sea change on the ground in Israel and Palestine if we simply return to a White House that is committed in word and deed to a real peace process. If we have, come November, an American president who is engaged and serious about peace processes–and a centrist political leadership survives in Israel and Palestine until then–we may have the makings of a three-way partnership in a new peace process. That is what Obama, even with Dennis Ross in tow, can bring to the situation. This is undoubtedly angering the anti-war Left in the United States as can be seen from this article:

It isn’t just Afghanistan, however, that provides a clue as to Obama’s future development as a wartime president in the tradition of Bush, Truman, and FDR: the appointment of Dennis Ross as his principal Middle East adviser is good news for the War Party, specifically for that crucial branch of it that specializes in promoting Israel’s ambitions over America’s national interests.

What these folks are missing is that reversing the damage of the last eight years is going to take a steady and slow pulling back of the United States to the political center on the global stage. Much has changed in eight years that suggests that this time around serious Israeli/Palestinian peacemaking can yield results. There is a significantly greater eagerness in the Arab world to permanently solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, including in Syria and Saudi Arabia. There is a significantly greater unity of purpose in the Arab, European, and American worlds that Iranian military escalation of the region through proxies has got to change, and that what is called for is an aggressive diplomatic and economic approach to Iran that is coordinated and global. There is significant agreement globally, and in the U.S., that American military adventurism in the region is a disaster. All of this bodes well for the timeliness of a new American foreign policy spearheaded by a charismatic, centrist, youthful and idealistic new president. What has also got to change is an official American intoxication with violence. Get rid of that, put in a president that embodies that change, and many, many things will begin to shift in the Middle East, including the Arab/Israeli conflict.

Below is a letter from Elana Rozenman, an important religious peacemaker in Israel. The letter is a window into a world of Jewish/Christian/Muslim/Druze peacemaking that few know anything about outside of Israel, and yet their experiments in coexistence, dialogue and cooperation need to be studied and embraced. Notice the way in which the group copes with an attack in Jerusalem.

Hebrew translation follows תרגום לעברית בהמשך
Dear Friends,

July 2- 3 we held a gathering of the Abrahamic Reunion CC in Zichron Yaacov along the Northern coast of Israel. We were men and women — Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Druze — sheiks, imams, rabbis, priests, and spiritual leaders. We were Israeli and Palestinian — joined by Sufi International supporters from the U.S. and Germany, including Anna and Shahabaddin David Less, and Andy Blanch. Our joint coordinators were Eliyahu McLeah, Ibtisam Mahamid, and Jirias Mansour.

The Jerusalem group had traveled together and drove by the site where there had been a massacre earlier in the day on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem when a Palestinian driving a bulldozer killed four Israelis. Everyone arrived feeling shocked and saddened by such violence. We opened with a reflection on all the violence taking place between Israelis and Palestinians and prayed to strengthen the forces of non-violence, understanding, and love.
We sat outside under a mimosa tree in a circle and shared all of our successes and disappointments. Attached is a picture of some of us there. After meeting regularly for three years, we have truly become a family that is involved in the celebrations and sorrows of each other. One member had to leave early because his wife is in the hospital with complications of her pregnancy and prayers from the different faiths were offered for her speedy and complete recovery.

Sheik Khalil Albaz, the imam of the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva in the South of Israel, and his wife, Sana, arrived after spending an hour and half with Prime Minister Olmert discussing their recent problems after his wife was given the honor of lighting one of the torches at the Israeli Independence Day ceremony as a recognition of her outstanding work in creating an exemplary Day Care Center for her Bedouin community. The day following the ceremony, their car was torched and their house firebombed by other Bedouin who objected to her participation in the National Ceremony. When the Prime Minister asked where they were headed next, they told him about their interfaith work with us and he was

happy to hear that Israelis and Palestinians of different faiths were meeting together and working for mutual understanding.

An Orthodox rabbi presented a booklet he had created with materials from Jewish sources for teaching Israeli schoolchildren about how to treat the Other with respect — and he’s working with imams who are preparing similar materials for Palestinian school children. We elected a steering committee to consider various projects and proposals from members of the group. One proposal was from a Druze Sheik who is ready to donate 4 denims of his land to build a House of Prayer for all religions — a center for all faiths.

Ibiza Mohamed from Fred’s shared that she had been selected to be honored as one of the Unsung Heroes of Compassion for 2009 who will be blessed by the Dalai Lama in San Francisco in April. This was the result of her attending the URI Reception for Bishop Swing we held in the home and Naqshabandi Sufi Center of Sheik Abdul Aziz in the Old City of Jerusalem last January. There she met Jack Cornfield, the Buddhist teacher, who offered her name for this award. So it’s another URI success story!

We ended feeling strengthened and supported by having this precious time together in such a tranquil setting to renew ourselves and recommit ourselves to our challenging work together.
Love,
Elana

חברים יקרים,
ב-2 ו-3 ביולי ערכנו מפגש של “איחוד מורשת אברהם” בזכרון יעקב בחופה הצפוני של ישראל. היינו נשים וגברים- נוצרים, יהודים, מוסלמים ודרוזים – שייחים, אימאמים, רבנים, כמרים, ומנהיגים רוחניים. היינו ישראלים ופלשתינאים- ביחד עם תומכים סופיים בין-לאומיים מארה”ב וגרמניה, כולל את אנה ושהאבאדין דויד לס ואנדי בלאנץ’. המתאמים שלנו היו אליהו מקלין, איבתיסאם מחמיד וג’יריאס מאנסור.
הקבוצה הירושלמית נסעה צפונה יחד ובדרכה עברה ברחוב יפו שבו אירע טבח מוקדם יותר באותו היום כאשר פלשתינאי שנהג בדחפור הרג ארבעה ישראלים. כולם הגיעו בהרגשת הלם ועצבות עקב האלימות שאירתע. התחלנו את המפגש עם מחשבות על כל האלימות שמתקיימת בין ישראלים לפלשתינאים והתפללנו לחזק את העוצמה של אי-אלימות, הבנה ואהבה.
ישבנו בחוץ במעגל תחת עץ מימוסה ושיתפנו אחד את השני בכל הצלחותינו ואכזבותינו. מצורפת תמונה של חלקינו שם. לאחר שנפגשנו בקביעות במשך שלוש שנים, הפכנו למשפחה שמעורבת בשמחות ובצער אחד של השני. אחד מהמשתתפים היה צריך לעזוב את הפגישה מוקדם עקב היות אישתו בבית החולים עם סיבוכים בהריונה ותפילות משלושת הדתות נאמרו להחלמתה המהירה והשלמה.
שייח חליל אלבז, האימאם של הכפר הבדווי תל שבע בדרום הארץ, ואישתו סאנה, הגיעו לאחר שבילו שעה וחצי בחברת ראש הממשלה אהוד אולמרט בדיון על הבעיות שהתרחשו לאחרונה לאחר שלאישתו ניתן הכבוד להדליק אחד מהמשואות בטקס יום העצמאות כאות הוקרה על כך שהקימה מעון יום לקהילה הבדווית. ביום למחרת הטקס, מכוניתם הובערה וביתם הופצץ על ידי בדווים אחרים שהתנגדו להשתתפותה בטקס הממלכתי. כאשר ראש הממשלה שאל לאן הם נוסעים הלאה מפגישתם, הם סיפרו לו על העבודה הבין-דתית שהם עושים אתנו והוא שמח לשמוע שישראלים ופלשתינאים מדתות שונות נפגשים ועובדים יחד לקראת הבנה הדדית.

רב אורתודוקסי הציג חוברת שהוא הכין עם טקסטים יהודיים שנועדו ללמד תלמידים ישראליים צעירים איך להתייחס אל “האחר” בכבוד, והוא עובד ביחד עם אימאמים שמכינים חומרים דומים בשביל תלמידים פלשתינאים. בחרנו ועדה שתיקח בחשבון פרוייקטים והצעות מחברי הקבוצה. הצעה אחת הייתה של שייח דרוזי שמוכן לתרום ארבעה דונם מאדמתו כדי לבנות עליה בית תפילה ומרכז לכל הדתות.

איבתיסאם מחמיד מפרדיס שיתפה אותנו בחדשות שהיא נבחרה כאחת מה”גיבורים של חמלה של 2009″ שיזכו להתברך על ידי הדאלי לאמה בסן פרנסיסקו באפריל. היא נבחרה כתוצאה מנוכחותה בקבלת פנים של ה-United Religious Initiative לכבוד הבישוף סווינג שערכנו בביתו ומרכז הסופי של שייח עבדול עזיז בעיר העתיקה של ירושלים בחודש ינואר שעבר. שם היא פגשה את המורה הבודהיסטי ג’ק קורנפילד שהגיש את שמה למועמדות לפרס. עוד הצלחה של ה- URI!

סיימנו בהרגשת חוזקה ותמיכה מהזמן היקר יחד בסביבה כל כך רגועה שחידשה אותנו והביאה אותנו להתחייב מחדש לעבודה המאתגרת שלנו ביחד.

באהבה,

אילנה

Mepeace.org burst onto the scene of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking very recently. This is a crowded field of many fledgling and worthy groups, each seeking to make change in their own way. These groups have one overriding challenge in this most lasting Middle East conflict. That is the challenge of equality and equal voice. There is no greater or more important task today than to create a platform and envision a space in which Jews and Palestinians can engage in equality as they struggle to make positive change. There has been a lot of language thrown around in this conflict, language about coexistence, about dialogue, and about reconciliation. All good words. But we have come to understand that much of this framing is inadequate to addressing the deepest roots of the conflict, as well as a methodology of change that will really make a difference.

The platform provided by mepeace.org, the nature of its conversations that are constantly evolving, are creating a space for deep dialogue, for the evolution of friendships, for networking to engage in positive joint actions. But above all it is in the nature of the platform that all voices are equal. And that is the key to the method of engaging the present moment, the key antidote to the tragedies of the past, and the key to hope in the future.

As with much of web-based relationships, there is a certain nakedness to the engagements, these two peoples at war with each other are represented by such diversity in all its glorious imperfections. But this is the real world of indigenous peoples, of expatriates, of old and young, of the passionate and the loving, of the intellectual and the rash, all searching with biases in tow. This is the real world, not the artificial constructs of academia or foreign ministries. What moves Jewish and Palestinian people here is likely to be moving, what appalls people here is likely to be appalling, and what makes sense to a spectrum of both peoples here is likely to be sensible.

This is rare, in terms of serious peacemaking, conflict resolution and diplomacy. It is the equality of voices, young and old, seasoned and biased, naïve and idealistic, male and female, spiritual and agnostic, intellectual and activist, that makes it the most compelling place today to test out new ideas and new approaches.

It is also the new way of organizing the future. It occurs to me of late, with the violence and self-destructive behavior reaching such absurd levels, that more than anything Palestinians and Jews need a future, and actually need to believe that there is a future. Mepeace.org is a vision of that future. It is the embodiment of what we Jews and Palestinians, Arabs, Christians, and Muslims, Europeans and Americans, would be doing with each other if we had no weapons but were armed only with our over-active minds, our quirks, our stubbornness, our biases, our anger and pain, our memories, our love and passion, our yearnings for each other–and our hopes. This is a gift.

Badea Abu Al-Naja and Michael Cousins write important pieces on the revolutionary conference that has just taken place in Madrid sponsored by the Saudi Custodian of the Two Holy Places and the World Muslim League. In attendance were hundreds of prominent religious participants representing all the major religions of the world. The event was inaugurated by the two kings of Saudi Arabia and Spain, and the entire cabinet of Saudi leadership. I was there and can attest to the accuracy of these reports. The organizers bent over backwards to demonstrate a new era in Saudi embrace of world religions, and an attempt to develop a non-political track of interfaith engagement that would enhance global cooperation.

The level of responsiveness to participant concerns was at times astonishing. One day there was a very respectful comment from two people, including Rabbi Arthur Waskow, that it would be good if women could be included the next time on the panels. Immediately, the next day, a woman speaker appeared on the program with very powerful and persuasive evidence on the importance of women in interfaith dialogue. Rabbi Waskow has written an excellent piece on the conference as well, putting to rest some of the nastier efforts in the press to downplay the significance of the event.

Throughout the three days, and even after the event has concluded, some of us are still deeply engaged with the Muslims present, exchanging information and opening up worlds of information to each other, from information on the inner workings of American Jewish politics to the inner realities of the Madrassas of Pakistan. We have been in in-depth conversation with Saudi journalists, Saudi sheikhs, and Pakistani activists. I was also on Saudi Television last night and was amazed by the respect that I was shown. This is the essence of how and when religion can become a bridge of peace in a complicated world.

In particular, from my experience with senior Saudi officials in the last two weeks in several venues, I get the impression that the leadership of Saudi Arabia at the highest levels has made a strategic decision that now is the time in their history to open up to the world. Considering the dangers that currently abound, the disastrous war in Iraq, the still unanswered Arab League call to Israel for comprehensive peace, the dangerous state of relations between Iran and the United States, the dangerous state of affairs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, I think that they have decided to launch a new era in Saudi history.

This official embrace of the global trend toward interfaith relations and cooperation is the most profound indication to date that the Saudis want to put behind them any use of religion for political purposes that leads to violence and extremism. The heavy price for this Cold War tactic, that was led by the CIA in many cases, has left us with a disastrous set of violent results in many Muslim countries. From private conversations and recent public events that I have witnessed, it is abundantly clear that the Saudis are signaling Washington that the era of using Islam for geopolitical purposes is over. No more pitting of Wahabbis and Deobandis in Pakistan against Shi’ites as a tactic against Iran, for example.

Thank God this era is over. The senior Saudi leadership in a single set of days has moved right past acceptance of the de-politicization of religion all the way to a whole-hearted embrace of multi-faith engagement and cooperation. And now if we have new leadership in Washington we can put to rest the use of Islam-and religion in general-as a violent American international tactic as well. Americans have to face the painful fact that this American Cold War tactic led eventually led to the creation of thousands of jihadis like the 9/11 hijackers. Military and policy professionals in Washington call 9/11 “blow back”. What a callous, primitive phrase. It is much more than blow back. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been wasted, a generation of young people destroyed, by exploiting religion for political and military purposes. It is a new day, an Islamic Vatican II, when the Saudi Kingdom treats Shi’ites, Jewish rabbis, and Buddhist nuns with honor and respect. I saw it with my own eyes. I hope the American Vice President and the National Security Advisor are paying attention. Islam is not for sale anymore.

Excellent progress has been made in the Middle East due to the clever replacement of the United States as a third party. First Turkey, which helped engineer the official channel of a rapprochement between Syria and Israel, and now France in terms of a rapprochement of Syria and Lebanon. They have both played pivotal roles in dramatically changing the possibilities on the ground. I heard through the grapevine that Syrian officials had said over a year ago, “If you see us moving toward Iran it means war, if we move toward Turkey it is peace.” This does not mean that Syria does not maintain a deep relationship with Iran, but all its major public moves of late are moving Syria toward Turkey and France.

Most significant is that for the first time in modern history there is a real chance that Syria and Lebanon will engage in an amicable separation.

Syria and Lebanon agreed in Paris to exchange diplomatic ties for the first time in 64 years of independence from French mandate rule. The historic agreement was announced Saturday evening by presidents Bashar Assad and Michel Suleiman, in a joint press conference with their French and Qatari counterparts, Nicolas Sarkozy and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, respectively.

The agreement, that has to be approved by the constitutional institutions of both Syria and Lebanon, gained immediate welcome from the Arab World and international community. Sarkozy described the move as “historic. It reflects the joint will to develop relations between the two states.” However, he said, the move requires “settling some legal issues.”

Israel has been forced to leave Lebanon twice after two miserable wars, Syria was forced to leave a couple of years ago in a most humiliating way for its troops, but now the independence of Lebanon will be etched in legal and diplomatic stone, an actual demarcation of borders, and an amicable exchange of ambassadors. Based on all my years in Syria, I cannot emphasize how much of a milestone this is. It is the end of an era of influence for certain groups in Syria that still believe that Lebanon is Syria. That does not mean that Syria will not assert a role in Lebanon in the same way that powerful neighbors do all the time. But Bashar Assad is setting the stage for an above board relationship with his neighbors. This is revolutionary.

Finally, due to the power sharing agreement brought about between the Lebanese factions, Shi’ites are in a better position than ever before to achieve real political power and security. In my opinion, this sets the stage next for asking Iran to leave Lebanon as well. Hizbollah will do just fine on its own, heavily armed as it is. What the Middle East does not need is Iran sitting with a virtual proxy on the border with Israel. Hizbollah needs to be free to act on its own in the Lebanese national interest and its own Shiite constituency:

The most important elements of preventing war in the Middle East right now is for Iran to withdraw from the Arab/Israeli conflict, and for Israel and the United States to withdraw any existential threat to the Iranian regime. The only serious alternative that will not create an international disaster is the biggest carrot in the room—full diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran in exchange for fully verifiable demobilization of the threatening elements of Iran’s nuclear program. But this will not happen till next year, at best. So we hold our breaths now and hope that the White House and the Republican Party do not use a war with Iran to hold on to the White House.

Years ago I was experimenting with all sorts of alternative therapies to deal with some back problems, and one was called Polarity Therapy. Well, Richard Haass in the May/June 2008 edition of Foreign Affairs has come up with an interesting paper, “The Age of Nonpolarity: What Will Follow U.S. Dominance”. His prognosis for the world and for the United States, however, is one of worry and concern, predicting a world that will be bad for America. While his insights on globalization and its effects are spot on, I do not agree that a non-polar world, one in which America is no longer a unipolar power, will be bad for America in the long run. On the contrary, as soon as American policy makers internalize the reality of “non-polarity”, a world in which there are no simple poles of superior state power, the more quickly will American resilience step to the fore once again, as it always has in history. Our economy is deteriorating rapidly as is our political influence globally. Despite massive and distorted military expenditures our military reputation is also worse than ever.

What is needed I argue is “Non-Polarity Therapy”, an understanding that the United States is not the dominant power in the world, that it is being marginalized by many other poles of power. These new poles of power include many rising states, but also the rising power of many citizen-based international entities, as Haas, among many analysts of globalization, rightly points out. The United States needs to figure out a strategy of resilience, influence, and coalition building for its basic interests with these many poles of power. This emerging trend may be feared as an evolution of chaos, but in many ways it is also the evolution of the democratization of power. In the long run it may be the single most liberating force on the planet if more and more innovative and positive international forms of linkage are established between citizens across the globe. Accepting this reality and working with it constructively is the most rational and scientific path.

This parallels the maturation of the human race since the 16^th century when Tyco Brahe noticed a supernova in the sky and stated conclusively and decisively that we Terrans, earth dwellers, are not the center of the world. It took centuries to prove that we are not even close to being at the center of the universe, but are rather a small crumb in a galaxy that is one of billions, and even that galaxy is nowhere the center of the universe, if there is a center. A mature scientific approach to the world accepts one’s modest position in the world and operates from there. It also happens to be the case that a good dose of humility will do wonders for an America drunk with the false promises of a victorious military war on terror, fought everywhere.

Where are America’s strengths, and what is its added value in the community of nations and peoples today? How can we help make a safer and more prosperous world for ourselves in conjunction with all the other poles of power today, both states and citizens across the world? That is the question for this century.

Originally published in Common Ground News Service

WASHINGTON – It is the innocent victims of war that break our hearts when nations and groups cannot lay down their arms. We watch them bleed, we watch them die on a battlefield that is their home, and then we seethe with the outrage of Biblical prophets. But there are others among us who have no patience for impassive prophetic rage. They are the ones who sidestep the violence and, instead of shirking the bleeding of the innocent, replace the lost blood. They repair the bodies and thus embrace with both arms the ancient art of healing.

There is a particular group of healers that share a common DNA. They are from two traditions, both tracing back to Abraham/Ibrahim, whose grave lies not far from the bodies that they repair. I speak of Jewish and Palestinian doctors who have partnered in their determination to find the requisite blood, medicines, and surgical equipment th! at their trauma patients need to survive. These doctors, while not explicitly political, know that saving anyone’s life is a powerful protest against senseless killing.

For all of their work in the Holy Land, they have come to rely on one religious Jew who lives 6,000 miles away in Washington, DC, where he goes to synagogue every Saturday. His name is Leo Kramer, and he opens up doors at the most senior levels of Israel’s diplomatic, health, and military establishments—doors that no one else has seemed able to open. Leo understands borders between enemies, for he has been crossing them his whole life.

The border between Israelis and Palestinians decides the fate of the innocents. Do they live or do they die? Do they give birth and haemorrhage on the spot? Does the heart attack turn fatal on the border? Does the medicine sit and rot, or is it stored in a cool emergency refrigerator? These are a few of the questions answered on this border between enemies. It ! is only through the social networks of courageous people that borders can be conquered, where a bond between healers and lifesavers can be established.

Leo does what he does because his American and Jewish values call on him not to pander to the smaller minds of nationalists who live in fear and hatred. A life is a life, and blood from an innocent body is an outrage as old as the blood of Abel; Leo will not let that blood cry from the earth into which it seeps. One Israeli Jewish doctor said of Leo, “After 20 years that I am treating Palestinian patients, facing numerous obstacles on my way, for the first time, thanks to you, I actually met the people in charge from both sides.”

The Palestinian doctors who have engaged in this effort do not have an easy life. It is not easy to simply focus on medicine when injustice and deprivation surround you. It is not easy to persuade family and friends that your engagement with ‘the enemy’ has a higher purpose, that engagement can build a more hopeful future. The Jewish doctors do not have! it easy either. It is much easier to go to work unaware of the medical disasters a few miles away. It is not easy to enter this raw reality and discover the dark side of your culture, a culture you may otherwise be very proud of. These Palestinian and Jewish men and women are the quiet heroes of this terrible fight, a struggle that has entranced the world’s media viewers. To reinforce these quiet heroes and overwhelm the fear and humiliation of both sides, we need to weave a larger tapestry of cooperation, illustrating empathetic diplomacy and the social networking of enemies.

Leo Kramer is a classic citizen diplomat who models what I argue is the hope of the earth’s future. Citizen diplomats have the flexibility and independence of conscience to engage people across enemy lines, the capacity to both love and buck their cultural and national identities at the same time. They become bridges where none exist, beacons of hope in the dark realities of war. I cannot thin! k of a better model of citizenship as we Americans struggle – as a peo ple and as a nation – to crawl our way out of eight disastrous years navigating the borders between enemies.

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* Dr. Marc Gopin is the James Laue Professor of Conflict Resolution and Director of CRDC, George Mason University. His website is www.marcgopin.com, and he can be reached at: mgopin@gmu.edu. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

This article is part of a special series on Israeli-Palestinian cross-border medical practices.

Source: Common Ground News, 10 July 2008, www.commongroundnews.org.
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Video courtesy of Haaretz.com TV, April 22, 2008.