MarcGopin.com

ICAR Ph.D. candidate Saira Yamin’s article in The News, a leading newspaper in Pakistan, reviewing my latest book, To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy:

People to People Contact
By Saira Yamin
The News, August 8, 2009

Excerpt from the Article:

“Positive change is more often pioneered by individuals of courage,” writes Marc Gopin, a rabbi, peacemaker, and scholar. His new book To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy offers invaluable insights for those who want to make the world a more peaceful place. The narrative evolves in the backdrop of the post 9/11 clash of civilizations, whereby fissures between the West and Islam appear to be growing. Gopin observes that relations between the United States and Syria in particular are mired in distrust and hostility. Former President of the United States George Bush dubs Syria part of the axis of evil, as he prepares a case for possible preemptive military intervention.

The sentiment in Syria is extremely tense, resentful of the US invasion of Iraq, with whom it shares a border. Syria hosts well over a million Iraqi refugees. Sympathy for its neighbours pervades among the general population. Nonetheless Gopin is able to mobilise a process of rapprochement, generosity and self-criticism, thus carving out a conflict resolution trajectory. He shares his experiences, in a very personal and moving account of his travels to Syria, in his new book titled To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy.

Gopin acknowledges that citizen diplomacy is still in its experimental stages but, he argues, it carries with it the element of hope and a message of peace. It is a strategy for relationship building and networking outside the political milieu, and is often recommended as a point of intervention for states at loggerheads. It entails relationship building and promotes conciliatory human encounters between ordinary citizens, hoping to mobilise pubic opinion in favour of peace. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of such exchanges over the years, argues Gopin, could build the critical mass needed to build bridges between the divided global community. Critics therefore question whether such exchanges can be sustainable without the blessings of governments who are prone to estranged relationships. It is clear that such exchanges are vulnerable to policymakers who may authorise them and subsequently suspend them at whim. The outbreak of war and violence can most certainly halt any attempted reconciliation between societies.

Click here to read the full article.

Arthur Waskow

My Ph.D. is actually in modern Jewish philosophy from Brandeis University. Everyone knows that there has been a fundamental weakness to Jewish philosophy and theology since the loss of European Jewry in the Holocaust. But I have studied and been friends with Arthur Waskow for decades, and I can say that he has emerged as one of the most creative thinkers of contemporary Jewish spiritual life. His books are playful, down to earth, but incredibly creative on a spiritual and textual level.

More importantly Arthur  is by far the most courageous in standing up to the Jewish establishment which silences all thought that questions the militancy of their supposedly pro-Israel politics, which is not very pro-Israel. Arthur has managed in his senior years, to create a bridge to the mainstream Jewish community through his championing of not only peace and justice but also environmental transformation. The latter has resonated with thousands of Jews and hundreds of congregations, that are otherwise muzzled when it comes to peace and justice issues in Israel and the Middle East. He has created bridges that stem all the way from the radical Left of the United States to mainstream congregations to Saudi Arabia. I have not always agreed with his positions or interpretations but I have always loved him and admired him.

Now he sits and lies in pain from a car accident. But he takes the time, in bed, to tell his story of the travesty and tyranny of insurance companies that have hurt Americans far more than the the amazing helping hand of social security, medicare, and so many other New Deal-style  programs that saved this nation from a strange tendency to libertarian extremism.

I am all for questioning government programs, i have severe critiques of overseas aid, but ideological extremism always injures, always makes us stupid as a nation, and we cannot afford this as a people who symbolize the success or failure of democracy.

Listen to Arthur’s case below, support his wonderful Shalom Center in all of its courageous work, study his writing  and speeches. And please write to Arthur in his hour of great pain with words of support, Awaskow@shalomctr.org, This man has stood up at great personal sacrifice for love and justice for both Palestinians and Jews for over 50 years, and it is time for us to stand up for him. He has taught me how to fight for good causes without violence, how to struggle for justice without war, and how to engage in conflict and also love everyone. I struggle and often do not succeed with this difficult combination of love and justice seeking, and we have Arthur to thank for a powerful model of patience, perseverance, compassion for everyone, and a lifetime of service.

How I Became a Poster Boy for Lousy Health Insurance

Dear friends, co-workers, readers, co-learners –

For 25 years I have been a member of a private health insurance plan that seemed to be meeting my needs. My problems were routine, and so were their responses.

No longer.

Last Friday, I was involved in a moderate auto accident, driving on I-95 south of Philadelphia. My first resting place after the accident was a hospital bed in Chester PA where I was diagnosed with a fracture of the “Tibia plateau” in my left leg where my leg hit the lower part of the dashboard, and four broken ribs and a broken breastbone where my chest hit the seat belt.

My leg was put in an “immobilizer,” with the expectation it would take about 8 weeks to heal. The broken ribs make it very hard to use crutches or a walker (because putting weight on my chest HURTS). So my own primary doc and the hospital docs agreed I should go to a rehabilitation center that would focus on physical and occupational therapy to get me quickly strengthened and trained to function well. The rehab people came, looked, and agreed I was the Perfect candidate.

But not the health insurance company.

Rehab is too good. Services higher-level that I needed. Costs them more than “skilled nursing,” which does PT only one hour a day — rehab does three. Rehab costs more, reduces insurance-company profits. If I had broken both legs, yes. “BUT,” we said, appealing the decision, “remember the ribs? This is hard and painful work. The more intensive time and energy I can put in, the quicker it will be over!”

NOPE.

Now this kind of decision, remember, was what the companies charged would result from a “government-sponsored public option.” The government would interfere between me and my doctors. But in tens of thousands of cases, the companies do exactly what they say the government would do. They are insuring not good medicine but high profits. The Public option would be able to say, “It’s good medicine, and we don’t seek a profit. Rehab, quick.” They would compete with the private insurers, and keep them honest.

When I told the hospital doc what had happened, he muttered, “What is wrong with us?” Then he said, “Universal health care is what we need.” Then he was quiet for a while and muttered again, “There’s too much power in too few hands.”

“See,” I said. “You knew all along what was wrong with us.”

***

Ted Kennedy, the one Senator who had so many sick siblings and sick kids that he really understood, died yesterday. The old saying, “Don’t mourn; organize,” is wrong. DO mourn – and 0rganize. Make every moment of your mourning for him a time of organizing, and every moment you spend organizing a time to mourn. Your Senators are home this week. Call. Ask them whether, like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, they are willing to give up their own fancy public health-insurance until a public option exists for everybody in our country.

I’m awake at 3 a. m. because my ribs are hurting. I would be grateful if you would pray for my healing. I would be many times more grateful if you would set aside seven sacred minutes to call your senators to urge them to put a “Public Option” in the health-care bill. If you can’t find their home offices, call the US Capitol at 202/224-3121 in Washington, and ask for the Senators from your state.

That’s the healing we ALL need.

Shalom, salaam, shantih — Peace!
Arthur

Written by Aziz Abu Sarah

“Netanyahu and Lieberman are asking the world to recognize Israel as a Jewish state – I say uphold Jewish values! After all, it was Habakkuk the Jewish prophet who said ‘Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!’”, notes Aziz Abu Sarah. (Read the complete article on Middle East Online.)

The Palestinians who have lost their homes, on the other hand, have not been able to rally enough people to draw constant, vehement support. Fatah, Hamas, and the PLO are too busy with their own conflicts to be of any real help to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, and the international community is fond of offering their condolences and condemnations from the safety of the “moral high ground,” so as not to soil their shoes. Of the hundreds of thousands of “pro-peace” Arabs, Israelis, Europeans, and Americans, I haven’t heard of a benefactor has stepped forward to use his connections or finances to help these two families.

Yet my biggest disappointment is with the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement, of which I have been an active part for the last ten years. We hold thousands of workshops on dialogue groups and interfaith discussions, and preach peace and reconciliation. We have people sign declarations and accords. However, we are too divided within our own ranks and organizations to stand together when these incidents occur. Instead, we spend our time measuring our success by the number of workshops we create, the conferences we attend, and the size of our budget. It is time for a change. We must measure success by the people we mobilize and the difference we can make in hard times. A sharply worded press release is not success – success is a movement of Arabs and Jews showing up in thousands ready for action, demonstrating, writing, and sleeping in the tent with the new homeless families.

Read more by clicking here.

"Abolish Child Slavery" in Yiddish, 1909

Jews were pioneers of Labor reform in the United States, most famously for women workers. It is this legacy in particular that still leaves most of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of these folks voting Democrat despite their extraordinary financial success, much to the chagrin of successive Republican presidents.

There are divisions emerging between Jews on these matter, of late, however. Not surprisingly, the leading militants siding with Israel’s most violent policies are also the most opposed to labor rights, such as Sheldon Adelson. Adelson is one of the most extreme influences on American Jewish establishment politics today. This comes as no surprise to me. Moral bankruptcy in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians goes hand in hand with selfishness in labor relations. This is why the poison of the Occupation must go, so that, in addition to doing the right thing, Jews can recapture the proud political traditions of their ancestors and stand up to those who claim to defend the Jewish community but are just corrupting it.

There is no way past the challenges we face until each sub-community of the United States faces up to the problems of its own community. Just as the Jewish community must face up to its own problems, so must others. It is the same in the Middle East. Honest self-assessment is the key to positive change.

Which Side Are We On? Jews Lead Fight For and Against Key Labor Bill
By Nathaniel Popper

…The changing times are evident in the debate about a current piece of legislation that could be the biggest change to labor law since the days when [Bernard] Marcus’s father was working as a carpenter. The Employee Free Choice Act, which was introduced in both the House and the Senate in March, would change labor law from the 1930s in order to make it easier for unions to organize workers.

Today, as in the ’30s, there are a number of influential Jewish union leaders supporting the legislation. But unlike in the ’30s, a few Jewish voices have surfaced as among the most influential opponents of the legislation. Marcus is frequently mentioned among the leading voices opposing the free choice act. In a famous phone call discussing the legislation with other business executives, he said, “This is how a civilization disappears.” That echoed the words of another child of poor Jewish immigrants, Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and Jewish philanthropist who told The Wall Street Journal that EFCA is “one of the two fundamental threats to society,” along with Islamism.

Read more here.

This is a fascinating story about a rabbi’s relationship with a very serious enemy, and, unlike the fear mongering that dominates the establishment organizations, this rabbi proceeds differently. He is part of a noble American tradition pioneered by black preachers. I am fascinated by friendships between enemies, the subject of my next book, and this is a great example to be studied.

Here’s an excerpt from Rebecca Dube’s article in The Jewish Daily Forward, titled “He Conquered the KKK — Now on to Flushing”:

When he was a cantor in Lincoln, Neb., [Rabbi Michael] Weisser confronted diehard Ku Klux Klan leader Larry Trapp, befriended him and eventually inspired the life-long racist to renounce hatred and speak out publicly against bigotry.

Three months before his death from diabetes-related kidney disease in September 1992, Trapp converted to Judaism under Weisser’s guidance, in the very synagogue that he’d once plotted to blow up.

“The truth is, human nature is good, not bad,” Weisser said in a recent interview.

Read the full article here.

I met a fascinating group of people from around the world at Caux, Switzerland a few weeks ago. The man who wrote this article was part of a large contingent from India and Pakistan who had some very serious and exciting exchanges under the able guidance of Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi, former parliamentarian, veteran peacemaker and distinguished author.

Beyond the walls of hatred
By Jawad Naqvi

An excerpt from the article:

Mr Ahmadinejad would do well to get invited to Caux and to listen to Prof Marc Gopin’s views on the states’ culpability in arming militant groups on both sides of the equation. He would gain amazingly fresh insights from the intervention by Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia, about the efforts of a small community of Bosnian Jews, Christians and Muslims to build a life together.

Marc Gopin, a rabbi, is the James H. Laue professor of religion, diplomacy and conflict resolution. Listen to what he says in his priceless book To Make The Earth Whole: The Art of Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy. His belief that there is a marked tendency among the Abrahamic religions to cultivate intolerance has encouraged extremists from all sides to target him.

‘Explaining this principle of kindness and patience with enemies is where I have had the hardest time before audiences from every culture. And I have been attacked for it many times. I would say there are countless people in my community who will never forgive me for reaching out to Yasser Arafat. I can try to explain that Yasser Arafat is to Jews what every Israeli prime minister has been to Palestinians — a source of great suffering and the death of many innocents; yet they expect Arab conciliatory approaches to such prime ministers.’

Link to article at Dawn.com.

I met Aryaratne over twenty years ago in Cambridge, had a wonderful dialogue with him about Buddhist and Jewish approaches to compassion. Laurence Simon of Brandeis University, my old colleague and friend, introduced us, and I have been grateful ever since. Here is an honest article about this extraordinary man and his movement, the Sarvodayah Movement.

A.T. Ariyaratne: Leading Sri Lanka’s Largest Civil Society Movement for 50 Years
By Anuradha K. Herath

Source: The Huffington Post

The meek 77-year-old Ariyaratne, often called the “Gandhi of Sri Lanka,” has become popular for his massive meditation sessions in which hundreds of thousands of people converge to pray for peace. His Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which Ariyaratne established 51 years ago, is based on Buddhist and Gandhian principles — Sarvodaya in Sanskrit means “awakening of all” and Shramadana “to donate effort.” The organization is the largest civil society movement in the country. By its own estimations, it works in 15,000 villages and attracts nearly a million volunteers annually. Some scholars have described its network of organizations with 3000 paid employees as the world’s largest peoples’ participatory development movement.

Those that know Ari, as he is affectionately called by intimates, describe a man with a deep belief in the Buddhist faith on which he was weaned.

“The winning combination for Ari is the sense of connectedness to everyone that is implicit in Buddhist values and connecting that with a very strong commitment to nonviolence,” says Marc Gopin, professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University in Washington D.C., who has known Ariyaratne for decades.

Link to Huffington Post article.

By Agatha Glowacki, PhD Candidate, Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution (ICAR)

Recent news that HAMAS is forgoing the use of armed resistance, specifically the use of the short-range Qassam rockets that for years have flown into Israel, for what it is calling “cultural resistance” may prove that one of the lessons it learned from the war has been that violence doesn’t work. In a recent article by the New York Times, HAMAS leader Ayman Taha explains this policy move as partly the result of popular pressure by a public that increasingly perceives terrorist tactics—such as rockets—as ineffective. The article quotes, ““What did the rockets do for us? Nothing,” Mona Abdelaziz, a 36-year-old lawyer, said in a typical street interview here.”

But this policychange is more than a tactical move meant to appease its public. Instead, it represents a shrewd strategic calculation by HAMAS to move from a physical battlefield—upon which it wasn’t winning—to a virtual battlefield in the arena of global public opinion, on which it just may have better odds of success. HAMAS is pragmatically calculating that by relinquishing terrorist tactics, which have been used by Israel to paint the Palestinian resistance movement as evil and effectively delegitimize Palestinian grievances, it will more effectively “beat” Israel through publicizing the legitimate human rights abuses being undertaken.

The goal now has become strengthening international condemnation of Israel over allegations of disproportionate force, and HAMAS’s energy is now being refocused from militancy towards media. HAMAS already runs a modest media empire, its reach stretching to newspapers, radio, and satellite television, and now it is ambitiously reaching out to the world of film and entertainment, a medium that could prove an even more potent propaganda tool. (Read more in the July 16, 2009 Foreign Policy article, “Welcome to Hamaswood” by Sharon Weinberger.)

“We are not terrorists but resistance fighters, and we want to explain our reality to the outside world,” Osama Alisawi, the minister of culture, said during a break from the two-day conference. “We want the writers and intellectuals of the world to come and see how people are suffering on a daily basis.”

That suffering is quite real, as the article points out. And Israel recognizes its vulnerability in this new battlefield of public opinion and Israeli officials know they must improve public relations and message management. And so the war for opinion is on, and the lesson to be learned by all, perhaps, is that in a globalized world the true battlefield exists virtually in the arena of public opinion—and the true strength comes not from rockets but from the moral high ground.

I love Radiohead for their profound lyrics and powerful music. Earlier this month, Radiohead made available a track that’s a tribute to the late Harry Patch, who was believed to be the last living survivor of World War I. Patch, pictured below, died on July 25 of this year.

t

Source: WSJ

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was inspired to write the song — titled “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” — after he heard a 2005 BBC interview with Patch. Yorke, quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about the song, said: “The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me…It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.”

Yorke used some of Patch’s words from that 2005 interview in the lyrics of the song:

I am the only one that got through
The others died where ever they fell
It was an ambush
They came up from all sides
Give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
I’ve seen devils coming up from the ground

I’ve seen hell upon this earth
The next will be chemical but they will never learn

The Patch/Yorke narrator here references the Battle of Passchendaele of September 1917. Patch was wounded in that battle, and three of his comrades were killed. According to the WSJ, it was “one of the most horrific actions of the war that saw British casualties in the hundreds of thousands during the three months it lasted. In [the BBC interview], Patch said that he went 80 years without discussing his war experiences, even with his family.” All told, that battle saw about 585,000 casualties (out of approximately 37 million over the course of the war).

The Battle of Passchendaele, known for both its huge number casualties and the heavy mud (Source: www.aucklandmuseum.com)

Though reluctant to speak out at first, Patch did become something of a spokesman for WWI survivors, and though he fought nearly a century ago, his message rings true today. It’s about time we heed that message.

“Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” is available for download on Radiohead’s Web site for $1.68. All proceeds will benefit the British Legion, a charity that supports British veterans and their families.