President Obama’s speech in Cairo on Thursday did not do a number of things: it did not completely mend a history of broken trust and animosity between the west and the Muslim world; it did not erase the legacies of 9/11, Iraq, or Afghanistan; it did not set in motion a detailed point-by-point plan of action for how to resolve conflict in Israel and Palestine. It could not have been expected to do these things - it is, after all, just a speech.

But what it did accomplish was no small task: before the Muslim world and the world at large, President Obama said what needed to be said, about settlements as well as violent extremism, about Israel’s right to exist as well as Palestine’s, and about the personal responsibility that all of us have - Israelis, Palestinians, and the international community - to work together to resolve the conflict. He did so without pandering or whitewashing, and without being self-righteous or patronizing.

This was more than mere rhetoric. With this speech, Obama set a new tone and direction for achieving a two state solution - one that starts with earnestness. "It is time," he said, "for us to act on what everyone knows to be true" but which most only acknowledge in private: that it is in everyone’s best interest, the US included, to see two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace.

On this front, Obama is working with a clear mandate from the ground. Recent polling conducted by OneVoice finds that a majority of Israelis and Palestinians - 78% of Israelis and 74% of Palestinians - are willing to accept a two state solution. The poll also reveals that 77% and 71% respectively strongly desire a negotiated peace.

But the poll also reveals some serious problems that - if left unaddressed - could spell the downfall of yet another peace process: by and large, Israelis and Palestinians have yet to come to terms with the compromises that will be required of them in order to reach an agreement. What’s more, no one wants to take responsibility: neither Israelis nor Palestinians acknowledged their own personal or national responsibility in failing to resolve the conflict; both blamed the other or outside elements.

Most people are willing to talk about two states, so long as we avoid the sticky topics - refugees, settlements, Jerusalem, violence, and occupation. Most are supportive of peace as long as they can blame somebody else for failing to achieve it. Or, as Tom Friedman put it in Wednesday’s New York Times, "everyone wants peace, but nobody wants to buy a ticket."

Obama has made the call for us to get in line and figure out what it means to buy a ticket. OneVoice, among other organizations, is working to give Obama’s call a mantle of legitimacy - bringing a grassroots mandate for a two-state solution to Washington DC, and an earnest discussion about what it will take to make real progress.

There are no easy answers in the Middle East - no easy route past the political quagmires, no easy solutions to the conflicts and wars that dot the landscape, no easy remedy for decades of patchwork American involvement in the region. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is certainly no exception. There have been so many missteps, false starts, disappointed hopes, and stalled processes it is hard to know how to begin working toward a negotiated resolution that fulfills the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians for life in secure, independent, internationally-recognized, and peaceful states.

But perhaps the best place to start is simply saying what needs to be said - that which numerous leaders, both past and present and on all sides, have been artfully avoiding saying: That the settlements and occupation, as much as violence and incitement, are an impediment to building a secure and safe Israel. That violence and incitement, as much as the settlements and occupation, are blocking the way forward to a free and independent Palestinian state. And that being an "honest broker" has to mean more than empty rhetoric without action: the US has to be prepared to make its friendships in the region and its support for a two state solution mean something.

We need to deal with the issues at hand with sincerity, courage, and candor. Obama’s Cairo speech was a first step at doing just that. Mr. President: We - and hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians - are with you.

Darya Shaikh is the Executive Director of the PeaceWorks Foundation and the Chief Operating Officer of the OneVoice Movement.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/06/one_voice_for_a_two-state_solution.html

By Dina Kraft

Achinoam Nini, left, and Mira Awad thank supporters at a Tel Aviv bar at a send-off party on April 30, 2009 ahead of their performance in the Eurovision Song Contest. (Dina Kraft)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Singers Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad look out at the crowd cheering them on at a packed Tel Aviv bar and beam delighted, almost surprised smiles as they sing their duet: a call for peace in Hebrew, Arabic and English called “There Must be Another Way.”

The Jewish-Arab duo hasn’t heard much applause since being named Israel’s representatives for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, which is something of a cross between the Grammys and “American Idol.”

Their selection during the recent Gaza war instantly made them — Awad, especially — targets of the country’s hard-line left and hard-line right. Both said it was wrong for them to represent the country and called on the duo to quit the competition.

Surrounded by supporters April 30 at a party shortly before their departure for Moscow, where the contest will be held later this month, the two sound a triumphant note. They defend their message of coexistence and their own friendship, which they say helped them get through this conflict within a conflict.

“There needs to be a moderate voice to advance things,” Nini, a major Israeli star, says after their brief performance. “Unfortunately, we see moderation get less of a stage because it seems boring and gray against the violent elements who photograph well in the media.”

“True, maybe we also look good in the newspapers — even though we don’t call for violence and don’t even French kiss like Britney Spears and Madonna,” she adds, laughing and jangling a large necklace of plastic geometric pieces that resembled a chandelier. “We just sing our message with our hearts and our heads.”

Neither is a stranger to politics.

Nini, 39, long has been an outspoken advocate of a two-state solution. Awad, 34, says she sees herself as part of the Palestinian nation while also feeling very much Israeli, as one of Israel’s 1.5 million Arab citizens.

Awad found herself under attack as soon as the announcement was made in January by the Israel Broadcasting Authority that she and Nini would represent Israel at Eurovision. This year marks the first time an Israeli Arab will represent Israel, and the timing of the announcement — during the war in Gaza — prompted fellow Arab citizens and Jewish activists and artists to write her an open letter urging her to change her mind.

"The Israeli government is sending the two of you to Moscow as part of its propaganda machine that is trying to create the appearance of Jewish-Arab ‘coexistence’ under which it carries out the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians,” the letter said.

Some right-wing lawmakers, meanwhile, questioned Awad’s loyalty to the state and suitability to represent Israel.

Awad, a singer and actress who grew up in Haifa, speaks of how difficult it was at the time to reconcile the Gaza war and the news that she would be performing at Eurovision.

She says she viewed the criticism from some fellow Arab moderates as of a piece with the Israeli Arab community’s complex feelings about their lives in Israel.

“I think sometimes my people here tend toward a militant way of expressing the pain; that’s just my personal thoughts on this,” she says. “At some point I tried to rise above that kind of guilt and say I need to look above and look at life here. I have a lot of friends who are Jewish Israelis, people who love me and would give their life for me. And therefore it opens your eyes when you realize the human connection is first and foremost, and then come the issues of nationality and religion.”

The two make a striking pair as they weave their way through their send-off party, their music blasting through the bar’s loudspeakers, laughing and embracing. Of the two, Nini, of Yemenite descent, has the more typically “Arab look” — dark olive skin and tight black curls. Awad, whose mother is Bulgarian, is lighter, with honey-colored hair and pale skin.

They seem to revel on mixing up stereotypes and grow angry when asked if their performance, and the song they wrote for the competition, is something of a gimmick

Gil Dor, Nini’s longtime musical partner, who accompanies her on guitar, also will be performing in the contest. Dor introduced the singers to each other eight years ago, suggesting they find a way to make music together.

Their cover of the Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” was one of their first collaborations. They have an album of 12 songs, the Eurovision entry among them, coming out soon.

Dor says he ordinarily would be offended at the idea of musicians facing off in competition, but that in this case there is a noble mission involved.

“We are representing the country in an ideal in how it wants to look and how all would like to see its future,” he says. “So we are very proud to be representatives in this.”

Irit Pearlman, chairwoman of OneVoice, the grass-roots peace group that hosted the farewell party, says the song Nini and Awad will be singing sums up the feelings of the majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, who seek “another way” out of the violence of a conflict that seems to know no end.

“We are optimistic people and we want change,” she says. “I have two soldiers at home, two boys. I cannot get up in the morning without feeling I’m doing something to change things here. I want a better life for the next generation and we have to work on it.”

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/04/1004896/arab-jewish-duo-head-for-singing-contest-amid-criticism

Darya Shaikh

A poll by the OneVoice Movement indicates that most civilians want a two-state solution – resolving the conflict is not impossible.

George Mitchell, US special envoy to the Middle East, visited Israel and Palestine last week, trying to jumpstart a stalled peace process. He carries with him the weight of the Obama administration’s stated commitment to brokering a two-state agreement, but what sort of mandate does he have from those on the ground, those who will be most affected by the outcome of his efforts – the Israeli and Palestinian peoples?

A new poll released by the OneVoice Movement fills in some of the answers – providing a snapshot of where we are, and where we should be going.

Building on some of the public opinion and public diplomacy methods employed in the peace process in Northern Ireland, the poll was designed to engage Israelis and Palestinians on final status issues and procedural processes, with questions meant to push beyond the usual, intransigent yes or no responses and get to the heart of what people on the ground are willing to accept and how they think the process should play out.

The big picture? The findings indicate that despite fears to the contrary, the two-state solution remains the only resolution that is acceptable to the majority of both Israelis and Palestinians: 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis would be willing to accept a two-state solution, while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of Israelis find a single, bi-national state to be unacceptable.

What’s more, Israelis and Palestinians are as convinced as ever that negotiations are the way to get there: 77% of Israelis and 71% of Palestinians find a negotiated peace to be either "essential" or "desirable".

Of course, that’s the macro view, and it’s not the whole story. There are significant gaps in public opinion on the toughest final status issues: Jerusalem, settlements, refugees. And there are even wider gaps on national priorities: the findings imply that mainstream Israeli and Palestinian populations still have yet to acknowledge the significant concerns on the other side. While the issue of greatest significance for Palestinians is freedom from occupation (94% deem it a "very significant" problem in the peace process, ranking it the primary issue on the Palestinian side), only 30% of Israelis find it to be "very significant", ranking the issue 15th on the Israeli side. Similarly, the primary issue on the Israeli side is stopping attacks on civilians (90% rate it a "very significant" issue). This issue meets with 50% approval on the Palestinian side, and ranks as 19 in a list of 21 issues.

So how do we push past the impasse and how do we ensure that this process isn’t subject to the same failings of all the others? The poll gives us some interesting answers here, as well.

First and foremost, there is a clear desire for civic engagement in the peace process: ordinary Israelis and Palestinians not only want to be informed on negotiations progress, they also desire greater involvement in the process.

Progress at the negotiating table is only one step in the process. An end to the conflict that satisfies the primary needs of both Israelis and Palestinians – end to occupation and assurance of security – will come only when the leaders come to an agreement that their peoples are ready to understand, accept and support. And this means civic education and true engagement of the grassroots. Yet it is in nobody’s interest to be naive regarding the challenges facing those interested in ending this conflict. There is a catalogue of well-worn arguments as to why peace is further away than ever. We have recently seen the election of a rightwing government in Israel; the political environment in Palestine appears to be critically divided; and we have, of course, just witnessed one of the most horrific outbreaks of violence in the history of this conflict. Within each challenge, however, there may exist an opportunity.

Rightwing Israeli governments have a history of surprising many by pursuing peace and making concessions; the divisions within Palestine, while a serious problem, are in many respects a reaction to the lack of progress in negotiation; and the unprecedented loss of life seen during the recent war in Gaza has painfully illustrated two stark realities – that the status quo is unsustainable, and that the only thing that will bring this cycle of violence to a close is for Israel to feel secure, and for Palestinians to have a state. Most importantly, while many commentators are pronouncing the death of the two-state solution, roughly three quarters of Israelis and Palestinians believe the rumours of its death to be greatly exaggerated. It is up to the leaders on both sides to finally deliver on the wishes of their people.

Governments alone can’t take this on. They need to work in tandem with civil society groups to ensure true connection between the top-level negotiations process and the will of the majorities on the ground.

As part of this effort, OneVoice is launching a Town Hall Meetings series throughout Israel and Palestine, which will start in May and continue throughout 2009. The meetings will use the results of the poll to start critical discussions on final status and mutual recognition issues – to highlight consensus where it already exists, and work toward consensus where there is none.

Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not impossible – failure is not a foregone conclusion. The shape of an agreement is there, and there is genuine possibility to work toward compromise on even the toughest of final status issues. But without more attention to the process – without engaging the people on the ground, who will have to live with whatever agreement is put down on paper – we will inevitably fall victim to the shortcomings and failures of the past.

And our children will have to pay the price.

Download the full polling report here (pdf).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/22/israel-palestinian-survey-two-state-solution

A vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians want to see a two-state solution to their conflict, a poll released Wednesday has found, dpa reported.

According to the survey, 74 per cent of Palestinians and 78 per cent of Israelis want to see an Israeli state and a Palestinian state living side-by-side, while the idea of one bi-national state is rejected by 59 per cent of Palestinians and 66 per cent of Israelis.

The poll, commissioned by the OneVoice movement, was conducted by Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool together with Israeli pollster Mina Tzemach and Palestinian pollster Nader Said. Some 500 Israeli adults and 600 Palestinian adults were questioned.

A almost-total majority of Palestinians - 97 per cent - said they saw the establishment of a Palestinian state as urgent, and a similar number - 95 per cent - said they regarded the Palestinian refugee issue the same way.

Of the Israeli respondents, 77 per cent said their most important issue was Israel’s security .

On the issue of Jerusalem, 94 per cent of Palestinians and 68 per cent of Israelis said the future of the city was a key issue, but 50 per cent of the former and 77 per cent of the latter oppose dividing the city.

Some 86 per cent of Palestinians want a total Israeli withdrawal to the de facto borders which existed before 1967 Middle East War, when Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan, but 60 per cent of Israelis oppose this.

One hundred per cent of Palestinians also insist that Israel dismantle all settlements in the West Bank, and setters return to Israel, something opposed by 53 percent of Israelis.

Asked about priorities for rebuilding confidence in the peace process, 99 per cent of Palestinians said Israel had to lift its siege of the Gaza Strip, and an equal number said Israel had to remove all checkpoints in the West Bank.

On the Israeli side of the divide, 90 per cent said a halt to Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks against civilians was essential or desirable, and 87 per cent said the same regarding a cessation of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

The poll was conducted in February this year. No margin of error was given.

http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/73619/-most-israelis-palestinians-want-two-state-solution-poll-finds.html

The vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians are willing to live alongside each other peacefully in separate states, according to an independent poll released on Wednesday.

Results of the poll, commissioned by the grass-roots OneVoice Movement, indicate that 74 percent of Palestinians and 78 percent of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution.

The margin of error on the Palestinian side was 4.1 percent and 4.5 percent on the Israeli side, the group said.

Polling was conducted over the phone in Israel and was done in person in the Palestinian territories. OneVoice said the poll counters fears that the two-state solution is losing support in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The OneVoice Movement aims to bring Israelis and Palestinians together and advocates a two-state solution, and to "amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution," according to its Web site.

The movement has over 650,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers among Israelis and Palestinians.

The poll was conducted by Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool, Nader Said of Arab World for Research and Development in the West Bank and the Dahaf Research Institute in Tel Aviv.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1080267.html

JERUSALEM, April 22 (UPI) — Some 80 percent of both Israelis and Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Middle East, a survey indicates.

The poll, commissioned by the non-governmental organization One Voice and published Wednesday by Army Radio, also showed both peoples were strongly opposed to the notion of one bi-national state and indicated there was disagreement over Jerusalem and other holy sites, The Jerusalem Post reported.

One Voice is made up of Israelis and Palestinians and seeks to make the voice of moderates on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict heard, the newspaper said. The poll was conducted by Mina Tsemach of the Dahaf Institute and Irish scholar Colin Irwin in the wake of this year’s Israeli military incursion into Gaza.

Some 77 percent of Israelis were against any partition of Jerusalem, while both sides expressed vehement opposition to declaring it an international city, the Post said. Nearly all Palestinians polled cited the establishment of an independent state as their top priority, while it was only 11th on the priority list with Israelis.

The methodology of the poll was not reported.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Associated Press

A new poll shows that the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians are willing to live alongside each other peacefully in separate states.

Results indicate that 74 percent of Palestinians and 78 percent of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution.

The poll was commissioned by the OneVoice Movement, a grass-roots group.

OneVoice says the poll belies fears that the two-state solution is losing currency in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The poll was conducted by Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool, Nader Said of Arab World for Research and Development in the West Bank and Mina Zemach of the Dahaf Research Institute in Tel Aviv.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=927469&lang=eng_news

More than 70% of Israelis and Palestinians are ready for solution of two states for two people, survey conducted among 1,100 people reveals. However, most respondents are against dividing Jerusalem

A vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians are ready for a two states for two people solution, but are against dividing Jerusalem, a recent poll shows.

The survey was ordered by the OneVoice movement and conducted by Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool together with Dr. Mina Tzemach and Dr. Nader Said of the AWRAD research center in Ramallah.

According to the poll published Wednesday morning, 74% of the Palestinians and 78% of the Israelis are willing to accept the basic solution of two states for two people. On the other hand, 66% of the Israelis and 59% of the Palestinians object to one bi-national state.

The results are based on two samples: A representative sample of 500 respondents from the adult Israeli population and 600 interviewees constituting a representative sample of the adult population in the West Bank and Gaza. The poll was conducted in February, after the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

On the Palestinian side, 97% stated that the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state was an urgent issue for them. Ninety-five percent said the same thing about refugee rights, 94% said the same about an agreement on Jerusalem’s future, 91% on the management of holy sites, 90% on the management of the Palestinian state, 89% on the settlements and 88% said the same on the rights to natural resources.

As far as the Israelis are concerned, a very important issue is the State’s security, according to 77% of the respondents. Sixty-eight percent said the same about an agreement on Jerusalem’s future and 62% said this about the rights to natural resources.

Forty-five percent of the Israelis said that a two-state solution was essential or desirable, while 21% said this was unacceptable. Forty-five percent said that the economic development in Gaza and the West Bank was "essential or desirable", and 24% said this was unacceptable. The Greater Israel idea was unacceptable to 47% of the Israeli respondents.

Fifty-three percent of the Palestinians are interested in "an Israeli recognition of the Palestinian refugees’ suffering while most refugees return to the West Bank and Gaza and a few of them to the State of Israel." Sixty percent of the Israelis are against such a possibility.

35% of Israelis: IDF must remain in territories

And what about the security-related issues? Thirty-five percent of the Israelis believe that it is essential or desirable for the Israel Defense Forces to remain in the territories, while 43% find this unacceptable.

One hundred percent of the Palestinian respondents said it was essential or desires for all settlers to leave the West Bank and for all settlements to be dismantled. Twenty-six percent of the Israelis share this opinion, but 53% find it unacceptable.

Eighty-six percent of the Palestinians are interested in an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. Sixty percent of the Israelis say that this possibility is unacceptable, and 73% of the Palestinians believe that a border based on the separation fence is unacceptable. Thirty-five percent of the Israelis share this opinion.

Ninety-five percent of the Palestinians said that it was "essential or desirable" for all of Jerusalem to be part of a future Palestinian state. Fifty-six percent of the Israelis believe it is essential or desirable for all of Jerusalem to remain part of Israel.

What about the city’s division? Fifty-five percent of the Israelis and 61% of the Palestinians refuse to accept such a possibility.

As for rebuilding trust in the peace process, 99% of the Palestinians believe Israel must lift the siege over the Gaza Strip and remove roadblocks. The Palestinians also demand the release of Palestinian political prisoners jailed in Israel and an end to settlement construction.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3704708,00.html

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Eighty percent of both Israelis and Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to a survey conducted by Mina Tsemach of the Dahaf Institute and Irish scholar Colin Irwin in the wake of Operation Cast Lead and published by Army Radio Wednesday.

The poll was commissioned by the One Voice organization, an NGO of Israelis and Palestinians which seeks to promote the voices of moderates on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

One Voice chairman Irit Admoni-Perlman said the data must be presented to the incoming Israeli government as well as to public figures, "so that they’re aware of what the Israelis and Palestinians think."

The poll showed both peoples were strongly opposed to the notion of one bi-national state.

It also showed a will on both sides to cooperate on economic and security issues, but found that Israelis and Palestinians still disagree on Jerusalem and the holy places, the Palestinian refugee and other national issues.

77% of Israelis were against any partition of Jerusalem and both sides converged mostly in their vehement opposition to declaring it an international city. While almost all Palestinians polled cited the establishment of an independent state as their top priority, this was only 11th on the priority list with Israelis. Conversely, the security of Israeli residents was highly important with Israelis but only 12th on the Palestinians’ priority list.

The poll was conducted between the end of Operation Cast Lead in mid-January and the general election in Israel on February 10. Its results were set to be presented at a press conference in Ramallah on Wednesday.

The One Voice movement also plans to hold public gatherings in which controversial subjects will be discussed in the coming year, in order, it said, to influence leaders of both sides to accept the will of the people.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710756487&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Survey indicates around three in four would find outcome at least ‘tolerable’

David Pallister

A majority of both Palestinians and Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution, according to a poll from the international grassroots movement One Voice.

Based on public opinion research methods used in Northern Ireland, 500 interviews were completed in Israel and 600 in the West Bank and Gaza immediately following the Gaza war and the Israeli elections.

Each side was asked which problems they thought were "very significant" and what the solutions might be.

The results indicate that 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution on an option range from "tolerable" to "essential", while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of Israelis find a single bi-national state "unacceptable".

The poll comes as it emerged Barack Obama is to invite Israeli, ­Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House within the next two months in a fresh push for Middle East peace. Obama, speaking at the White House yesterday, said there was a need to try to rise above the cynicism about prospects for peace.

The results of today’s poll imply that mainstream Israeli and Palestinian populations have yet to acknowledge the significant priorities and fears on the other side.

The top item for Palestinians is the establishment of an independent sovereign state at 97%, followed by the rights of refugees at 95% and agreement on the future of Jerusalem at 94%.

For Israelis the top item is security at 77%, followed by an agreement on the future of Jerusalem at 68% and rights to natural resources at 62%.

An analysis of the poll by One Voice says: "It is absolutely essential that the issues at the top of these two lists get dealt with in any peace agreement or it is unlikely that that agreement will last. This means Palestinians need to be aware of and address the ‘Security of Israel’ problem that comes in 12th on the Palestinian list, and that Israelis need to be aware of and address the cluster of issues at the top of the Palestinian list."

The poll also revealed significant divisions about the issues of settlements and refugees, on which there was no single proposed solution which met with majority approval on both sides. Ninety-eight per cent of Palestinians think that all the settlers should leave the occupied territories with the settlements abolished – an option that 53% of Israelis find unacceptable.

More than 90% of Palestinians want refugees to be given the right to return with compensation, while 77% of Israelis say that is unacceptable.

On Jerusalem, the sides are poles apart. The most attractive option for Palestinians – 95% – is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Palestine, and for Israelis it is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Israel at 56%.

The report says that "as these two options are mutually exclusive proposals to internationalise or divide the city also need to be considered".

One Voice concludes that, at a minimum, the results suggest that "the continued insistence of both sides on a negotiated and mutually acceptable resolution could offer significant legitimacy to political leaders looking to push for negotiations toward a two-state agreement".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/22/israel-palestine-poll

By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem

Israelis and Palestinians remain overwhelmingly in favour of a two-state solution as the best way to end their decades-long conflict, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

The findings provide something of a counterpoint to the gloomy outlook for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at the political level – though with important caveats. While the survey makes clear that a majority of Palestinians and Israelis accept the idea of two states for two people in principle, they remain sharply divided over the details of a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The poll was released a day after Barack Obama, the US president, announced he would hold talks next month with regional leaders in a bid to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. The US administration has made clear that it wants to see the conflict resolved by creating an independent Palestinian state – a position that is at variance with that of the new Israeli government.

Mr Obama has also voiced support for the Saudi-led 2002 Arab peace initiative, which promises peace and recognition to Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the territories it conquered in 1967. Israeli officials are deeply sceptical of the plan, not least because it also calls for a ”just settlement” of the Palestinian refugee problem – a demand which Israel fears could include the return of Palestinian families who fled or were driven from their homes inside Israel in 1948.

The new Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far refused to endorse the two-state solution, in a marked departure from both the international consensus and the policy of the previous Israeli leadership.

On the Palestinian side, progress towards a peace accord is hampered by the continuing divide between Fatah and Hamas, the rival political groups, and the split between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The survey, released by OneVoice, a pro-peace group, and conducted by two leading polling groups in Israel and Palestine, finds support for the two-state solution remains strong despite the recent political setbacks.

Among Israelis, 78 per cent of respondents said a two-state solution is either ”essential”, ”desirable”, ”acceptable” or ”tolerable”. Only 21 per cent called it ”unacceptable”.

On the Palestinian side, 74 per cent said they back or could tolerate a two-state solution, with 24 per cent saying it is ”unacceptable”. However, an even greater number of Palestinian respondents said they want a Palestinian state to cover all of historic Palestine, meaning present-day Israel as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Further troubling news for peace advocates came from respondents’ views on the details of a final settlement. On the issue of Jerusalem, for example, 91 per cent of Palestinians said it is essential that the entire city form part of an independent Palestinian state, including the western part - which is internationally recognised as part of Israel.

On the Israeli side, 45 per cent said that all of Jerusalem – including the occupied eastern part of the city – must remain part of Israel.

Both Palestinians and Israelis overwhelmingly rejected a division of the city, either along the lines of 1967 border, or by Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/15fd5530-2f2b-11de-b52f-00144feabdc0.html

DOWNLOAD THE FULL POLLING REPORT

22 April 2009

/ Jerusalem / Despite growing fears that the “Two State Solution” is losing purchase on the ground in Israel and Palestine, today the OneVoice Movement (www.OneVoiceMovement.org) released the findings of a new poll which demonstrates that the two state solution remains the only acceptable resolution for the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians.

OneVoice is an international grassroots collective using civic engagement to mobilize citizens and their leaders to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a mutually-acceptable two state agreement which ends the occupation, guarantees the security of Israel , and establishes a viable, independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

The poll was commissioned by OneVoice in collaboration with Dr. Colin Irwin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool (www.peacepolls.org), and in conjunction with Dr. Nader Said of Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) in Ramallah and Dr. Mina Zemach of Dahaf Institute in Tel Aviv. The methodology, which had been piloted by Dr. Irwin in Northern Ireland and subsequently used in places as varied as Sri Lanka and Macedonia, involved a questionnaire designed through a series of interviews with civil society leaders and political figures on each side. The field work was conducted by Zemach in Israel and by Said in Palestine during February 2009, in the wake of the Gaza war and the Israeli elections.

The results indicate that 74% of West Bank & Gaza Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are willing to accept a two state solution77% of Israelis and 71% of Palestinians consider a negotiated peace ‘essential’ or ‘desirable.’ (an option rated on a range from ‘tolerable’ to ‘essential’), while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of Israelis find a single bi-national state ‘unacceptable.’ Additionally, according to the data, Ninety-four percent of Palestinians and 74% of Israelis think that the people must be continually informed on the negotiations process.

The poll also reveals that consensus still needs to be built. The findings imply that mainstream Israeli and Palestinian populations still have yet to acknowledge the significant priorities and fears on the other side. While the issue of greatest significance for Palestinians is freedom from occupation (94% deem it a ‘very significant’ problem in the peace process, ranking it the primary issue on the Palestinian side), only 30% of Israelis find it to be ‘very significant,’ ranking the issue 15th on the Israeli side. Similarly, the primary issue on the Israeli side is stopping attacks on civilians (90% rate it a ‘very significant’ issue). This issue meets with 50% approval on the Palestinian side, and ranks as 19 in a list of 21 issues. Significant gaps in public consensus persist as well on the issues of settlements and refugees – two issues on which there was no single proposed solution which met with majority approval on both sides.

To address the critical gaps that still exist on some recognition and final status issues, OneVoice is launching a Town Hall Meetings Series in Israel and Palestine to present the findings of the poll and discuss the various issues – from mutual recognition to settlements, refugees, and Jerusalem – that both sides will need to confront in order to reach a two state agreement. Progress at the negotiating table is only one step in the process of reaching an agreement that can be implemented. An end to the conflict will only come when the leaders come to an agreement that their peoples are ready to understand, accept, and support. The series will be launched in May and will be implemented throughout the rest of 2009. It will use the findings of the poll as a starting point for discussions.

Five hundred interviews were completed in Israel and six hundred in the West Bank and Gaza to produce representative samples of both populations in terms of age, gender, social background and geographical distribution. As the polls were conducted during a particularly difficult time on both sides – immediately following the Gaza war and the Israeli elections – the continued insistence of both sides on a negotiated and mutually-acceptable resolution could offer significant legitimacy to political leaders looking to push for negotiations toward a two state agreement.

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About the OneVoice Movement:The OneVoice Movement is an international mainstream grassroots movement with over 600,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine , and 2,000 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution and demand that their leaders achieve a two-state solution guaranteeing both the end of occupation and the establishment of a viable Independent Palestinian state as well as the safety and security of the state of Israel - allowing both people to live in peace with all their neighbors. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting www.OneVoiceMovement.org

Full Polling Report Available for Download

SIR PAUL JOINS HONORARY BOARD
OF GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION
WORKING TO END PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT

23 March, 2009 / Tel Aviv, Israel / The OneVoice Movement today announced that Sir Paul McCartney has officially joined its International Board of Advisors, which includes other celebrities such as Danny DeVito and Jason Alexander, as well as international dignitaries and political figures like Dennis Ross.

McCartney first spoke with Israeli and Palestinian representatives of the group, which seeks to empower the moderate majorities of Israel, Palestine, and citizens internationally to work toward a two state solution to the conflict, during his visit to Israel at the end of September 2008. He met with OneVoice Israel Chairwoman, Irit Admoni Perlman, in addition to staff members and youth activists from the movement. At the meeting, he expressed his support for OneVoice’s activities on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Speaking to Nisreen Shahin, OneVoice Palestine’s Executive Director, Sir Paul reaffirmed his commitment to OneVoice’s moderate, grassroots approach to ending the conflict.

He also travelled to Palestine, to bring his message of peace to the West Bank as well. Later that evening at his concert at Tel Aviv’s Park HaYarkon, he and members of his band wore OneVoice pins in a show of support for the movement and the ideas it promotes.

Said McCartney, “Having met representatives of the association OneVoice, I was impressed, first of all, by the fact that half of the organization is Palestinian and half is Israeli.  Almost 650,000 people have signed on to their manifesto, supporting their steadfast work to bring about a negotiated solution, and peace in the region.” He went on to say of OneVoice: “They told me that the vast majority of people in both societies are moderates and simply want a better life for their families and themselves. This gave me great hope that, one day, people like them will help to bring about a peaceful resolution to the troubles in the area. I am, therefore, happy to lend my support in this way to the cause of peace.”

Over the past six years, OneVoice has built a “human infrastructure” of youth leaders and citizen activists working to mobilize their communities and push their elected representatives to achieve a two state agreement. The movement has trained over 2,000 youth leaders in Israel and Palestine, and counts on its board over 60 world leaders, dignitaries, celebrities, business people, and political figures.

© 2009 MPL Communications Ltd.
Photographer: Emanuelle Scorceletti

By James F. Smith, Globe Staff

There could hardly be a less hopeful moment for peace between Israelis and Palestinians: Israeli forces invaded the Gaza Strip last month, and then Israeli voters marched firmly to the right in elections. Palestinians are more divided than ever, with the hard-line Hamas movement still firing rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns, while the moderate Fatah faction has been sidelined.

Yet Nisreen Abdallah, a Palestinian, joined Roi Assaf, an Israeli, in a conference room at the Harvard Divinity School this week to make the case that this is precisely the moment for compromises that will let Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in two secure states.

It was the first stop on a weeklong tour of a dozen schools and colleges in New England for leaders of OneVoice Israel and OneVoice Palestine, parallel organizations that are pushing for a two-state solution. Their goal: build a critical mass of moderates in each of their communities able to challenge the extremists and move toward peace.

Muslim and Jewish student organizations are cosponsoring the OneVoice meetings around Boston campuses - where Abdallah and Assaf offer firmly nationalistic arguments that reflect the strong emotions flowing from years of grievances and slights in both camps.

At Harvard, Abdallah told of the humiliation she has endured at Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian West Bank, and her hatred of the Israeli soldiers who run them. Assaf told of serving as an Army sergeant in charge of one of those tense checkpoints, at a time of suicide bombings by Palestinians in Israel.

Nevertheless, Abdallah and Assaf both conclude that the only way to protect their own community’s future well-being is to create a viable Palestinian state that recognizes a secure Israel. The OneVoice case is that this is not a naive dream but hardheaded self-interest; the alternative is more years of worsening bloodshed.

They both acknowledged the particularly pessimistic context for their work.

"The option is still there for a two-state solution, but on both sides the window is narrowing down," Assaf said. Moderates have been undermined by the Gaza fighting, he said, because the conflict "pushes people on both sides toward the extremes."

For her part, Abdallah said Palestinians in the West Bank watched with a mixture of anguish and anger as the Israelis have focused recently on Hamas and Gaza while all but ignoring Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the moderate Fatah faction that controls the West Bank.

"The danger is that people start to think that violence can achieve something," she said. "We have a lot of people becoming pro-Hamas because they see that Hamas is getting more attention from the Israelis."

The OneVoice branches operate separately in Palestinian areas and Israel. Unlike some peace groups, the goal is not to get dialogue going with the other side, but rather to energize the moderate center within each community to make its voice heard in favor of a two-state deal.

OneVoice also is premised on moving beyond the vexing historical disputes that underlie issues such as the status of Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees, knowing that Palestinians and Israelis will never persuade each other to concede past wrongs.

"I am not here to discuss every argument," Assaf said. "If you go down the path of arguing each narrative, I will tell you that I am 100 percent right on these issues, and the other side will tell us they are 100 percent right. We are trying to build something to reach a future. If you don’t see a future, you fail."

OneVoice was founded in 2002 by Daniel Lubetsky, a Mexican-born entrepreneur and social activist who lives in New York and Israel. The organization’s Israeli and Palestinian branches boast of signing up nearly 650,000 people, roughly equally divided between the two communities, in favor of sustained negotiations for a two-state solution.

Assaf and Abdallah are the full-time coordinators for the 1,800 volunteer youth leaders in the two movements, who organize local projects in schools and neighborhoods. Their recent programs include the "Imagine 2018" project last year, in which Israeli and Palestinian students wrote essays on what their societies would look like in a decade if the conflict ended.

China Sajadian, the New York-based international program coordinator for OneVoice, said US campuses often are fiercely divided on the issues, pushing programs such as Israel-Apartheid Awareness Week or Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

She said the OneVoice campus tours seek to engage moderates in the United States who will speak out for mutual engagement, rather than remain mired in the old divisions.

By Sarah Kessler

“Entertainment, vision and chutzpah,” was the battle cry of New York’s Israeli consul general, Asaf Shariv, on October 29 at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Theatre. It was the opening night of the 23rd Israel Film Festival, and Lifetime Visionary Award winner Danny DeVito worked hard to include all three elements in his acceptance speech.

“Look around. A lot of you are bald,” said the actor, who was introduced by Michael Douglas — DeVito’s oldest show business friend and former roommate in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment — with a crack about absent hair. DeVito went on to make an earnest plea for support of the grass-roots organization in which he and his wife, actress Rhea Perlman, are involved: the OneVoice Movement, which pushes for peace in the Middle East.

Douglas and DeVito, who kissed manfully on the red carpet at the request of photographers, were the biggest names of the night, but not the only. The respective honorees for lifetime and outstanding achievement were Oscar-winning producer, director and writer Irwin Winkler and the similarly multitasking Edward Zwick. “Growing up in the Midwest, I was a Jewish boy looking for heroes,” said Zwick, whose latest project, “Defiance” (based on Peter Duffy’s 2003 book “The Bielski Brothers”) stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber as Jewish brothers who set up a refugee camp during World War II and succeed in saving 1,200 Jews.

Guests sipped DeVito’s own brand of limoncello (a lemon liqueur) and snacked on that Israeli classic, sushi, before settling down to America’s premiere of Reshef Levy’s box office smash, “Lost Islands.” You can catch the movies — more than 30 feature films and documentaries by Israel’s up-and-coming filmmakers — in New York through November 13.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 25 (UPI) — Young Israeli leaders from the OneVoice Movement met Thursday with British rock ‘n’ roll icon Paul McCartney in Tel Aviv, the group said.

Photo: Reuters

In support of the movement’s mission to empower ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to push for peace and a two-state solution, the group said McCartney promised he would wear a OneVoice pin on his lapel during his first concert in the country Thursday night.

Although McCartney was asked by some groups to cancel the concert in protest of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, he declined to do so, stating his visit was meant to spread a message of peace and explaining he wanted to see what was going on in the region for himself.

At Thursday’s meeting with executive staff from OneVoice Israel and 10 youth leaders, McCartney said: "My father told me that regular people don’t like wars and don’t want conflict. I’m not a politician — I just want to bring a message of peace. In every place I perform I see that people want the same thing."

McCartney made a trip to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem Wednesday, bringing his message of peace to Palestine, as well, OneVoice said.

http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2008/09/25/Macca_meets_with_two-state_solution_group/UPI-65871222379137/

Daniel Lubetzky’s "not-only-for-profit" business has created profitable joint ventures with Palestinians and Israelis. His model deserves attention

by Stacy Perman

I recently came across an article in The Jerusalem Post about social entrepreneur Daniel Lubetzky. The Mexican-born son of a Holocaust survivor, Lubetzky founded PeaceWorks, a successful global business that promotes peace through commercial ventures among Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Turks, Indonesians, and Sri Lankans. The far-flung success of PeaceWorks helped Lubetzky to found OneVoice, a global movement (with some 640,000 participants at last count) that seeks a comprehensive two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians via a negotiated peace process.

Social entrepreneurship (BusinessWeek, 12/14/07) has become a hot topic in recent years, attracting people filled with the loftiest of intentions who want to do good by doing good. But it’s the tricky feat of running a sustainable operation that is the more elusive goal. So when I learned that Lubetzky had created a viable business model (in operation since 1994) that brings Arabs and Israelis together while plowing profits into peacemaking efforts, I rang up PeaceWorks’ New York office and was invited down for a visit.

Lubetzky is an energetic and pragmatic entrepreneur. The walls of PeaceWorks’ open office space are filled with the sayings of notable thinkers ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to Henry David Thoreau. Lubetzky pioneered his "not-only-for-profit" business theory while on a fellowship in Israel to write about legislative means to foster joint ventures between Arabs and Israelis. It was a topic Lubetzky, who holds a law degree from Stanford, was already passionate about. In college, his senior thesis was a 268-page treatise on economic cooperation as a means for fostering peaceful relations.

Coexistence Test Case

While in Israel, Lubetzky discovered a tasty sundried tomato spread but found out the company behind it was going out of business. "The owner was getting their glass jars from Portugal and their tomatoes from Italy," he told me. Fairly quickly he realized he had found a test case for his fledgling theory: what if the company sourced the jars in Egypt, while getting their raw products from Turkey and Palestine? Today, tapenades and spreads under the labels Moshe & Ali’s and Meditalia (both joint ventures established by PeaceWorks between Israelis and Palestinians) are sold in stores across the U.S., including Whole Foods (WFMI). More recently, PeaceWorks introduced Bali Spice, a line of Asian sauces manufactured by women’s cooperatives made up of Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

"We are using market forces to achieve the goal of peace and coexistence," says Lubetzky. Having foes unite in business, he explains, works on three levels: First, it helps break down stereotypes; second, it creates an incentive to continue to work together; third, in doing so, it helps puts an end to regional violence and fundamentalism that feeds off despair.

Same End Goal

Getting entrenched enemies to set aside their animosities and misunderstandings and set up shop together has not always been an easy sell, he acknowledges. But over the past 15 years, Lubetzky’s unconventional vision has brought together a diverse group of individuals who find they are all interested in the same end goal.

About five years ago, a mutual friend introduced Lubetzky to Samer Hamadeh, a Palestinian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Vault.com, a comprehensive job and career site. Initially, Hamadeh resisted getting involved. "I’m not a political person," he told me. "I grew up in Fresno, Calif., I went to Stanford, my parents left Palestine when they were kids and never looked back.

I didn’t realize that I was Palestinian until my teens and not really what that meant until after 9/11.… I’m a red-blooded Republican American interested in our security and I felt the conflict was harming our interests. So I came at it from that perspective, as an American wanting to try and solve that problem."

Now Hamadeh sits on the board of the PeaceWorks Foundation. "There are Arabs and Jews working together and making money," he says. "From my vantage point, it is working. They are not employing tens of thousands of people but hundreds, but they are making the effort tangible. They are showing that the other side doesn’t have to be an enemy. They can be a business partner."

Two-State Solution

When the Second Intifada broke out in 2000 after the Camp David negotiations fell apart, Lubetzky realized that business alone could not singularly push the ball uphill. He cited a survey of Israelis showing that just two months before the Intifada, 90% believed peace was just around the corner. Three months later, less than 44% thought peace would ever be possible. "Business was not enough," says Lubetzky. "We needed a grassroots movement to push government."

With both sides of the conflict drowning in brutal images of the other, Lubetzky says the moderate voices of regular people were being buried. So, in 2002, he launched OneVoice to give people a voice in driving the agenda toward a workable two-state solution. "We needed a platform for ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to seize back the agenda," he says. Today, OneVoice has offices in Ramallah, Gaza, Tel Aviv, London, and youth chapters at college campuses across Israel and the Palestinian territories. Under a rather broad tent that includes those on the left, right, secular, religious, Israeli, Palestinian, Jew, Christian, and Muslim, OneVoice is actively involved in an array of efforts to find a way for people to work and live together.

A Social Bottom Line

Lubetzky does not have a strictly utopian vision for his not-only-for-profit philosophy. Three years ago he started Kind Fruit & Nut Bars, a for-profit venture that channels 5% of its profits into the PeaceWorks Foundation. The operation (it is one of the fastest growing healthy snack bars) is much bigger than the Meditalia line and sold globally. The larger scale for-profit enterprise gives Lubetzky another lucrative channel for his concept of social entrepreneurship.

"At end of day," says Samer Khoury, the executive vice-president of Consolidated Construction, one of the oldest Arab construction firms in the Middle East, "even if politicians want to make peace, they have to have the masses on board." As Khoury, who is also a OneVoice board member, explained to me, "in order to get them on board, you have to have a grassroots movement. And the movement has to convince both societies that peaceful coexistence is the only way forward. I strongly believe that this initiative is a valuable way to bring two societies closer together."

Lubetzky offers an enticing vision, one that combines traditional profit-making models with a social bottom line, attacking an issue from several angles. Moreover, he’s created a space that has brought disparate forces together for a common goal. It sounds good in theory, but it works even better in practice.

Perman is a staff writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.

The future would look very different if we put the peace process in the hands of Palestinian and Israeli children

By: Khaled Diab

A couple of months ago, as Israelis celebrated 60 years of statehood and Palestinians marked six decades of dispossession, I wondered whether there would ever be peace between the two peoples.

Rather than dwell on the depressing present or venture into the minefield of the past, I decided to look forward in time, to a fictional future where peace prevailed.

Commenting on my article, Hitham Kayali of OneVoice, a grassroots movement which has gained the written support of 600,000 Palestinians and Israelis for a two-state solution said: "Only [by using their imagination] will people understand why compromises should be made."

I was pleased to learn from Kayali that Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren have been involved in a similar experiment: using their imagination to dream of what life could be like, 10 years from now, in a peaceful 2018.

I was intrigued to get some insight into the thinking of the coming generation, whose voices we rarely get to hear, despite the fact that they stand to lose the most from this ongoing conflict.

Besides, I have this (perhaps misguided?) sense that children are often more sensible than us adults. At least, they don’t seem to bear a grudge for long – and that is a precious asset in the promised land, where grudges take on a life of their own and can last for generations.

"These children have never experienced peace. They don’t have the chance to travel to other countries to see how it is. This is all from their imagination," Kayali points out.

One Israeli kid from Sderot, which borders Gaza and is on the receiving end of Qassam rocket attacks, imagined that he single-handedly laid the ground for peace! "It all started by accident," he wrote.

He loaded the radio-controlled plane he got for his birthday with sweets. His inexperienced hand soon lost control of the aircraft and it dawned on him that it was on course to become another casualty of war. In a panic, he pressed the wrong button and inadvertently bombed – or, more accurately, bon-bonned – Gaza with his payload of sweets.

The Israeli army couldn’t figure out what had happened … everybody was hugging them and they dropped their weapons at once. I almost started to cry. All I wanted was to get my model plane back … but then I realised that I’d actually brought peace to Israel.

Gaza also features in the vision of a Palestinian boy, who studies at a school for the visually impaired in Ramallah. He starts his essay by describing his reaction to the constant barrage of bad news coming out of the Strip: "My little heart was tormented with pain, for those [images] could cause rocks to cry."

Drained, he snoozes in front of the TV and is awakened in a peaceable country by the sounds of "chirping birds" instead of "bullets and cannons". In his dream, the simple joy of mobility features strongly. He describes getting to school on time because there are no more military checkpoints, passing his uncle who is "happily ploughing his field". He is accompanied by his father because "there isn’t a prison that can deprive me of him, because prisons have been demolished and converted into parks for children".

The boy’s dream may strike an outsider as being quite humble and unremarkable. But for most of his short life, Palestinians have been living the reality of Israeli closures, where going even to a neighbouring village is often impossible.

A Palestinian girl from Tulkarem also dreams of the freedom to roam. In her essay, she flits freely between Jerusalem, Amman, Ramallah, Jericho and the ultimate symbol of mobility, an international airport in Qalandia. Back in 2008, this same West Bank village, which hosted a six-decade-old refugee camp, was "filled with havoc, weeds, and piles of rubble, barbed wire and soldiers with helmets".

In her dreamscape, the newly independent Palestine is a dynamic, multicultural, multiethnic land, popular with tourists. The cities have impressive skylines. She describes forests on the slopes of mountains and how "Palestinian villages fall asleep in the dreamy, green embrace of nature", where there are "no military jeeps on the road and no settlements" on the hilltops.

So, what is to happen to the Israeli army?

This is the subject of another essay by an Israeli boy. Dean, a young Israeli soldier, has been called up for some mysterious mission. His unit informs him that the elusive Hassan el-Hamid has been located.

You get the feeling that something is amiss when they pick up a UN representative and that el-Hamid is perhaps not a fugitive. It turns out that he is actually their commander and he’s leading them on a peacekeeping mission to Iraq. El-Hamid explains that the Israeli army has been renamed the Israeli peace defence force and that "many countries need our assistance in resolving conflicts and deep-rooted disputes and restoring peace".

This is not only a commendable dream but reflects a powerful desire among many Israelis to be fully accepted as valuable members of the Middle Eastern and international community.

"The essays which the Palestinian and Israeli children have written are in fact one of the best indicators or opinion polls of what the situation really is like," Kayali says.

I would go even further and publicly urge the adults to let the children take over the peace process and bring to it the sensibility and competence of childhood.

By: James Montague

Close your eyes and picture the scene: it is the group stage of the 2018 World Cup and England (it’s an outside bet, but for journalistic purposes let’s just suppose they made it to the finals) follow the same path they always do in international tournaments, a narrow victory against some form of footballing minnow followed by a goalless, soulless draw, probably against Sweden. And then comes the crunch match, in a state of the art stadium near the azure waters of the Mediterranean. In, erm, Gaza City.

No, I haven’t been smoking crack. While England, Australia and the United States gear up for a long bout of sycophancy and arse-kissing to secure the rights to host the 2018 World Cup, a rather more problematic, if noble, potential host is coming up fast on the outside fence: a joint Israel-Palestine bid.

The bid is the brainchild of the Israeli filmmaker Eytan Heller and the international NGO OneVoice. "The original idea came in 2006 during the World Cup when I travelled to Ramallah," Heller said. "I was amazed to see the flags of all the European teams on the roofs of the city and seeing the same thing in Tel Aviv in my neighbourhood, it seemed like a continuity of fraternity, so I wanted to launch a campaign to launch the candidacy."

Both host countries would share the matches with Ramallah, Tulkarem and Gaza taking the Palestinian’s share and Haifa, Tel Aviv and Mitzpe Ramon the Israeli games. The final would, of course, be played in Jerusalem. Or Al Quds. Or maybe Jerusalem-Al Quds. Anyway, the aim, according to Heller, is to try and get a critical mass of football fans on either side of the wall, as well as internationally, to support the bid. "It’s a grassroots campaign and the idea is to try and grow organically and stay away from the political heaviness and manipulation of organisations that have links to government and have nationalistic agendas," he said. "Look at Japan and Korea. They were enemies too and overcame that. Why not here? There are a lot of cynics who laugh at this idea and start to ask very realistic questions. How can we build stadiums? Aren’t the territories too small? You can say the same thing about peace but if you don’t believe in it what is the point in being here?"

The idea has already attracted thousands of supporters who can sign up for a seat in the organisation’s virtual stadium on its website, which also has a short promotional video showing Palestinian footballers joyously kicking a ball over the wall. And there has also been some high profile support. Last February IRIS, a French international relations think tank, released a statement from Lilian Thuram backing the bid. "If a peace agreement is concluded…a 2018 World Cup jointly staged in Israel and Palestine would be a fantastic opportunity to consolidate the gains for both sides," wrote Thuram along with IRIS’s director Pascal Boniface. "Infrastructure investment would then follow. The joint organisation of the 2018 World Cup in a place where two peoples were once at war would serve as a powerful symbol of the way that sports can serve the cause of peace."

Boniface admitted that "it is impossible to think of the World Cup in the current situation. But look at South Africa. The World Cup is a reward for them ending apartheid. This bid would be the same, a reward for peace and the end of the war. Peace is not there. This is the biggest obstacle. Not an imposed peace, but a real and true peace."

While the oft abused, and plainly false, maxim of keeping football and politics separate is still spouted by Fifa, those backing the joint 2018 bid think that great things could be achieved if the world governing body took a more politically proactive stance on its bidding selection. Supporters think that the bid could be an incentive for peace in a part of the world obsessed by football, not to mention all the accoutrements that follow it, like the rebuilding of the West Bank and Gaza’s shattered infrastructure.

"Let’s assume that Fifa said ‘we want to inspire people to sign a framework agreement if you do a, b and c’, then I am sure there would be an enormous amount of media pressure," said Daniel Lubetzky, founder and president of OneVoice. "It would inspire politicians and inspire people not normally involved. Israelis and Palestinians are huge soccer fans so if there was such a hope it would get the average soccer fan to say ‘wow, yallah [let’s go]’. It’s one little example of how much better things could be."

So far, so right on. Should England’s footballing burghers, who are themselves planning a bid, start looking over their shoulder? So far the only country to come out in support of the bid is Djibouti and, while every World Cup bid has its unique hurdles, a joint Israel-Palestine bid literally has a huge wall in front of it. The Israeli West Bank barrier is a totemic reminder of a intractable conflict that has incrementally worsened over sixty years. And currently the countries aren’t exactly well prepared to host an international football tournament, what with Israeli road blocks, the threat of terrorism, and non-existent infrastructure.

Furthermore, there are no stadiums other than one in Gaza (itself shelled by the Israeli army two years ago while a local team trained on it) and the hopefully named Jericho International Stadium, which resembles something from the Scottish third division. Oh, and then there’s the issue of whether any Arab states would actually turn up to play a tournament in a country they don’t officially recognise. All of which puts the problems surrounding South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 tournament into a bit of perspective.

But the biggest barrier appears to be getting both the Israeli and Palestinian FAs to agree on anything at all. While the Israeli FA is at least conducive to the idea of football being used to heal deep social and political divisions - they are involved in the yearly Peres Center for Peace football matches where a joint Israel-Palestine team get hammered by the likes of Real Madrid or Barcelona - they still have reservations about working with their Palestinian counterparts. "We welcome any proposal that helps peace in the Middle East," said Gil Levanoni, spokesperson for the Israeli FA. "[But] I think that the Israelis and Palestinians have more complicated problems [than hosting a tournament]. It would be the least and last of our problems. The situation is not so simple between Israel and Palestine. We still have a soldier captured in Gaza."

There’s no love lost on the Palestinian side either. According to the Peres Center for Peace, Palestinian players who participated in any of the peace matches are punished by being dropped from the national team. Certainly when I met Mohammed Sabah, then the Palestinian national coach, during a tournament in Amman, which took place at the same time as the last Peace Match last year, there seemed little chance of footballing reconciliation. "No, I am not sharing [a pitch with] the occupation," Sabah told me outright when I asked whether he supported the Palestinian presence at the peace matches. "The Israelis must know that when we have our rights we can play. But when we are killed and they make checkpoints … we can’t play like in other countries."

But there is some hope. Earlier this year Jibril Rajoub, who is something of Palestinian political institution, was elected president of the Palestinian FA. After spending 15 years in an Israeli jail for throwing a grenade, followed by deportation to Lebanon, Rajoub rose to become Yasser Arafat’s National Security Advisor. As a moderate he was also a leading candidate to replace him as head of the Palestinian Authority when he died.

The job went to Mahmoud Abbas but Rajoub is using his position to spark some footballing détente. One of his first acts as President was to meet Israeli Knesset members about the feasibility of building a joint Israeli Palestinian national stadium over the Green Line.

Still, Heller is realistic that a joint Israel Palestine bid for the World Cup is a long shot, but he believes that even the slimmest of chances is still a chance. "The chances are very small, yes," Heller admitted. "The campaign is more aimed at lighting a match and sparking a different vision. This is the end result of a long-term vision, but there are prerequisites and preconditions. Hosting the World Cup is a dream, but why not? We should be there when the decision is made [in 2011]."

Brian Barwick, you have been warned.

It is fitting Daniel Lubetzky would grow up to be an entrepreneur who tries to bring peace to the Middle East. He recalls how, one summer when he was 12 and working for a textile wholesaler in Mexico City, he overheard people on the bus bashing Israel.

"They were talking about Sabra and Shatilla," he recalls. "They were saying horrible things about Israelis and Jews."

Upset, the boy reported what he had heard to his father, Roman Lubetzky, a Holocaust survivor who talked with him about Israel’s right to exist, its existential struggle. With his father’s help, he wrote a letter to Mexico City’s Excelsior newspaper decrying the double standard of condemning Israel without condemning the perpetrators of the massacres.

At 39, Lubetzky’s youthful passions-for Israel, for raising consciousness, and for business - remain intact.

But he’s come a long way from, as he puts it, "carrying shmattes" in Mexico City. These days, he peddles his food products, including Israeli-made sauces and spreads and Australian-manufactured nutrition bars, to a global market, with a presence in countries ranging from the US to Japan to Dubai.

PeaceWorks, his food company, is founded on the principle of simultaneously making profits and peace by bringing together, in business, people from opposing sides of various world conflicts. He also runs the PeaceWorks Foundation, whose main project is OneVoice, an organization Lubetzky founded to "amplify the voices of moderates" in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As the labels on his products state, 5 percent of all profits go to OneVoice.

Tall and broad-shouldered, with a full, expressive mouth, Lubetzky has the offbeat handsomeness of a character actor. Depending on the light, his large eyes look blue, green or brown. Married this year, he maintains homes in Tel Aviv, New York and San Antonio, Texas, the three cities where PeaceWorks has offices. OneVoice has offices in New York, London, Tel Aviv, Gaza City and Ramallah.

On a recent afternoon, speaking in his slightly Mexican-accented English, he articulated PeaceWorks’ unique philosophy.

"We call it a ‘not-only-for profit company," he says, "meaning, we won’t do something if it is not profitable, but we hope to also make the world a better place."

PeaceWorks has three ventures: Meditalia, based in Israel and operated by an Israeli Jew, which buys ingredients mainly from Arabs in Israel, in neighboring countries and in the West Bank; Bali Spice, all-women-run cooperatives in Indonesia and Sri Lanka that produce coconut milk and sauces; and KIND Fruit & Nut bars, which according to SPINS Market Data (a market research and consulting firm for the natural products industry) have reached the top three spot in the US market in the health snack and energy bar category.

KIND Fruit & Nut are currently sold in over 20,000 stores, including US-based chains Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. They are also sold in countries including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Kingdom, Japan and soon Israel ("We’re in the process of certifying the factory kosher," says Lubetzky).

With their whole chunks of dried fruit and intact nuts bound by a light touch of honey or yogurt, the bars contain no preservatives or additives.

"They’re the Rolls Royce of bars," says Lubetzky. "Made with ingredients you can actually see that have names you can pronounce."

Lubetzky does not own the factories where any of PeaceWorks products are produced. His company owns the brands and handles marketing and distribution.

THE MAIN office of PeaceWorks and OneVoice, located in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, is loft like and minimalist. The 30 employees, 20 who work for the business and 10 who work for OneVoice, sit in partially open cubicles.

Painted on the white walls in blue letters are quotations from luminaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mahatma Gandhi. One quotation stands out: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them" - Henry David Thoreau.

Lubetzky’s office, separated by a glass door and large window, is fully visible from the large room. On a recent afternoon, he sits with Darya Shaikh, executive director of OneVoice, and Erin Pineda, director of communications.

The three are planning a conference in Israel and the Palestinian territories of OneVoice, on which Lubetzky says he spends more time than on his business. While PeaceWorks employs "between 15 and 20" full-time, OneVoice employs 30, he says.

"When are we going to meet with [Foreign Minister] Tzipi Livni?" asks Lubetzky.

"It’s impossible," says Shaikh.

"How can you say it’s impossible, send a letter quickly, we’re six weeks away. And we want to push for meetings with [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas, [negotiator] Saeb Erekat and [Prime Minister] Salaam Fayad. Please remind Fayad I met him in Davos."

Since he established it in 2000, Lubetzky’s OneVoice has recruited almost 650,000 people - about equal numbers of Israelis and Palestinians - to sign a "OneVoice mandate." It’s a short declaration of principles demanding that elected officials work to achieve such ideals as "the rights of both peoples to independence, sovereignty… dignity, respect, national security, personal safety and economic viability." It also demands that leaders negotiate a two-state solution within a year. In some cases, Palestinians received a preamble discussing an end to occupation, and Israelis got a preamble addressing the need for security.

While the organization continues to boost its numbers, it no longer uses the mandate. "There will be something done [with it] in terms of connecting the grassroots to the top level" in government on both sides, according to Pineda.

The organization has also graduated 1,280 Israeli and Palestinian "youth leaders," mostly teenagers, who go through training to speak in the territories, in Israel and abroad about the importance of cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, especially in business. A popular topic is that Israelis and Arabs should oppose divestment campaigns.

Lubetzky flips open his laptop to share a video that appears on the OneVoice Web site of young people circulating leaflets in cities from Tel Aviv to Tulkarm.

"The vast majority of Palestinians and Israelis want to achieve resolution of the conflict, not for the sake of the other side but for their own sake," he says.

He clicks onto a picture of Palestinians sitting in rows in a sparsely furnished room in the Jabalya refugee camp. It’s a OneVoice meeting at which Palestinians are discussing a two-state solution, he says.

He speaks animatedly about an essay contest that took place in both Israel and the Palestinian territories this spring. OneVoice workers, youth leaders and other volunteers distributed forms to teachers, asking children 13-17 to "share with us a vision of what 2018 will look like if there is an agreement for peace this year."

The Palestinian finalists were hosted at a summit of the World Economic Forum in Sharm e-Sheikh in May. The Israeli winners were chosen in June.

In the coming year, based on their essays, 10 kids will be selected - five Palestinian, five Israeli - to work with eminent filmmakers producing short films of their visions of peace.

Lubetzky has already recruited Danny DeVito and Davis Guggenheim, who directed Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, to work with the children.

"We want a new generation to say, ‘Don’t deny us our future, we want this thing to end,’" he says.

On the wall hangs a photograph of Lubetzky with his father, who died in 2003. The elder Lubetzky is seated and the younger leans over his shoulder. Their faces are side by side, bathed in rose light. Hanging nearby is a photograph of a young Israeli soldier holding the hand of an elderly Arab man as the two make their way through a crowded refugee camp.

"I fear that if we don’t succeed the bad guys could succeed and what happened to my dad could happen again," Lubetzky says. "I won’t allow that to happen without putting in the fight of my life."

LUBETZKY’S FIRST venture was Meditalia. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he went to Israel on a fellowship to research the potential for Israeli-Arab cooperation.

One night, he bought a jar of sun-dried tomato spread. Finding it delicious, he returned the next evening to buy more, but the store was sold out. He sought out the manufacturer, only to discover the company was going bankrupt.

Yoel Benesh, the owner, was importing glass jars from Portugal and dried basil from Italy, and couldn’t net enough to cover his costs. Lubetzky demonstrated that importing glass from Egypt, and basil from a West Bank town called Uja, would reduce costs.

"I said, ‘Let me introduce you to your neighbors,’" Lubetzky recalls.

Today Benesh manufactures Meditalia products for Lubetzky. Benesh buys olives from Egypt, sun-dried tomatoes from Turkey and olive oil from the Jahshan Family Farm, owned by a Christian Arab family in Galilee. He also buys produce from Palestinians in the West Bank, but can no longer employ Palestinian workers because of frequent border closings.

While he says he simply buys products where he gets the best price, Benesh believes in the PeaceWorks creed: "Once you do business with people, you trust them, they trust you, slowly, slowly - if ever - that will bring peace," he says.

Hani Jahshan, one of Benesh’s suppliers, an Israeli Arab whose family is among the oldest manufacturers of olive oil in Israel, agrees. "In business, we have already achieved peace," he says.

IT’S THE FIRST day of the OneVoice conference in Israel, and Lubetzky, staff and several board members are visiting Ramallah for a lunch with OneVoice’s Palestinian advisers.

Inside a white building, a cool entryway leads into a large room with a banquet table bearing humous, tabouli, pickled vegetables. Uniformed waiters are pouring drinks.

Lubetzky and several men greet each other with kisses on both cheeks. They include Qadora Farris, described in the bio Lubetzky’s staff circulates as "a close friend, aide and adviser to senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti," Muhammad Naja, country representative of the Education for Employment Foundation, a nonprofit that helps Palestinian graduates obtain employment, and Dr. Samir Huleileh, executive president of the Palestine Development and Investment Company. Several OneVoice youth leaders in their teens and 20s are along.

Lubetzky shares the head of the table with Huleileh. Most of the formal remarks concern ways to bring business into the territories, which Lubetzky and the other participants refer to as Palestine.

"People ask me, ‘Can you invest in Palestine at this time?’" Huleileh says. "I tell them the media is just concentrating on the negative side, not the peaceful side of Palestine."

Naja speaks of the importance of finding jobs for unemployed Palestinian college graduates. "Giving people hope is a very big task," he says. "We have to start on the youth, on both sides of the line."

Lubetzky then speaks about the essay contest, and about a beautiful presentation given by Christina Samir Odeh Yosef, a 15-year-old contest winner.

"We don’t have a lot of other things we feel proud of, as a people," says Huleileh. "We must support our Palestinian athletes, musicians, actors, poets. It’s not just a matter of money but of focus. We must support the Christinas of Palestine."

In October, Lubetzky canceled two highly anticipated concerts. The concert on the Palestinian side would have been the largest recreational event ever to have taken place in the territories. The singer Bryan Adams was to have performed, along with Israeli and Palestinian artists, first in Tel Aviv, then in Jericho. It would have been the culmination of OneVoice’s drive to gather a million signatures to end the conflict. Tens of thousands were expected on each side.

Prior to the event, the Palestinian staff started receiving bomb threats. Around the same time, Abbas’s office withdrew its support and sent out a statement distancing itself from the event. Lubetzky ultimately decided to cancel because of security concerns.

When the joint event did not take place, Lubetzky was crushed, according to Joshua Faudem, an independent filmmaker whom he had hired to serve as cameraman, documenting the week leading up to the event.

"The saddest thing was the last day we filmed," recalls Faudem. "We went to where the concert was supposed to be, and there was nothing there."

But Lubetzky refused to give up on his mission of ending the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

"He’s like Don Quixote," says Faudem. "Don Quixote refused to give up, he had a lot of stubbornness.

"The thing about Danny is, he could be a little, as we say in Yiddish, meshuga - crazy - but he’s sincere."

"He’s a great young man," says former Labor MK Ephraim Sneh, of Lubetzky. "What he’s doing is building grassroots support for a two state solution. All the polls prove that two-thirds on both sides want this two-state solution.

"And by the way, the world is moving forward because of naïve people and not because of the cynics."

"OneVoice encourages moderates on both sides," says MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima). "It can help by changing the atmosphere, and the influence of the atmosphere is very important when dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict."

BUT AT TIMES, an unasked question hovers like an unwelcome guest at the perimeter of all the hubbub around Lubetzky: Could it be that his prodigious energy, warmth and charm bring out the best in everyone for the moment, but only mask the underlying divide? In other words, do projects like the essay contest, the mandate and the concert-that-might-have-been mean Israelis and Palestinians are really speaking in one voice, or that in reality, they are articulating separate dreams?

Hasson chooses his words carefully: "Talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, there is a problem… about meanings of peace."

Lubetzky, it seems, is not blind to this problem.

The following day, at the OneVoice board meeting, he and his staff debate whether the essay project, moving forward, should require Palestinian and Israeli children to acknowledge one another.

"We want… to make sure people recognize what peace means. It’s not an amorphous concept. It requires recognition of the other," he says. "We were born for taking risks. I would rather let the organization die trying than die by not trying."

Nisreen Shahin, director-general of OneVoice Palestine, argues it is best not to speak directly of accepting Israel so that OneVoice can continue operating in Palestinian schools.

"This is what the ministry actually approved to say, ‘Imagine, if a full and comprehensive peace will be achieved this year that would guarantee ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state, how would we imagine Palestine… in independence and peace?’"

Lubetzky points out that one of the essay contest winners was, before receiving her award, painting pictures of Greater Palestine that didn’t show any Israel.

"To imagine that Israelis and Palestinians achieve a peace solution, that’s not very complex language to use but that’s better language than just saying [something] amorphously… and denying the existence of the other side," he says.

Toward the end of the meeting, Lubetzky gently chides several OneVoice staffers who he says he knows agree with him but who haven’t spoken up.

Afterward he says, "I think the conclusion of the meeting was we need to be more specific in teaching children that there must be two states for two peoples and they need to come to terms with the reality of the other."

Lubetzky spends the final evening of the conference on a patio in the back of Jerusalem’s Ambassador Hotel, with OneVoice youth leaders. They are engaged in a spirited debate concerning fund-raising on campuses where OneVoice operates.

"It’s a two-way street," Lubetzky cries. "We need more student participation."

"Daniel, quit shouting," scolds a girl with curly dark hair.

"I’m not shouting," says Lubetzky. "This is Israel!"

The meeting ends. As Lubetzky turns to leave, a plump, bespectacled girl in a blue hijab tentatively approaches. "Mr. Lubetzky," she says, blushing. "I am so grateful for the opportunity."

Lubetzky nods and smiles.

It is a lovely moment, and a human one.

OneVoice Debuts Imagine 2018 Campaign: Finalists Chosen to Participate in Ground-Breaking Session on Critical Taboo Issues in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Process

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt / May 19, 2008 / This afternoon, in an interactive ‘WorkSpace’ Session with some of the world’s foremost dignitaries and business leaders - including Tony Blair, Amre Moussa, Saeb Erekat, MK Yossi Beilin, and Rabbi David Rosen - four young students - two Israeli, two Palestinian - will lead a discussion on their visions for the future of the region, and on the taboo issues that often impede the negotiations process from moving forward. The students are finalists in the OneVoice Movement’s Imagine: 2018 (www.imagine2018.org) campaign – an unprecedented national essay contest run by OneVoice in separate partnerships with the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Education.  The contest calls on students to envision what the year 2018 would look like if Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas were to sign a peace agreement this year.

“Two of the greatest stumbling blocks toward building support for the negotiations process at the grassroots level and for making progress at the negotiations table at the top-level are taboos – the issues that cannot be openly discussed within the two societies – and an inability to visualize the ways that a peace agreement would benefit peoples’ everyday lives,” said Daniel Lubetzky, the OneVoice Movement’s Founder. “People need to be able to imagine what an end to the conflict would look like, in order to be able to work for it, and they need to be able to talk about hard issues in order to prepare for working solutions.”

Immediately preceding the session, contest winners along with OneVoice staff and dignitaries including Tony Blair will take questions from the press.

About the “Building Peace, Breaking Taboos” Workspace: As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggle to move post Annapolis, the core stumbling blocks to progress are becoming increasingly obvious. Many of these blocks are linked to taboos on each side—that which cannot be said or done openly. This session, or “workspace”, examined the consequences of a failure of the Annapolis process, and considered new approaches that break taboos and challenge the established wisdom of how to build a lasting agreement.

“This is a very important opportunity for me, as a Palestinian – to write about my visions of a Palestine that is independent, free, and at peace with all its neighbours, and even more importantly, to talk about that vision with the leaders of the region and of the world,” said Christina Samir Odeh Yousef, age 14, one of the Palestinian essayists who is attending the WEF.

Shahar Hagi, age 15 and one of the Israeli essayists, agreed. “As an Israeli it is also important to talk about our dreams for Israel’s future – about a day when Israel is safe to live in, and a day when Israelis can work with Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Palestinians – all the people of the region – in an open and peaceful way to promote common interests.”

Imagine: 2018 (www.imagine2018.org) is an essay contest designed to enable people to envision some of the tangible benefits that would come from a peace agreement. It is being rolled out in two phases: The 2018 Essay Contest and the 2018: Director’s Cut. Thousands of essays were submitted for the Palestinian and Israeli contests. All of the winners will be announced by June 10, 2008. Ten of the most compelling essays will then be turned into short films directed by some of the world’s foremost directors, including Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) and Danny DeVito. The short films will be weaved into a one hour documentary and shown in the region, as well is in regional and international film festivals.

About the OneVoice Movement:

The OneVoice Movement is an international mainstream grassroots movement with over 600,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine, and 1,280 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two-state solution guaranteeing an end to occupation and violence, and a viable, independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting www.OneMillionVoices.org.

Jennifer Lin

Speakers from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spoke on Monday at UCLA to give their perspectives and offer hope for peace.

OneVoice, an international grassroots movement aimed at finding a resolution to the conflict, presented Malaka Samara of OneVoice Palestine and Shani Gershon of OneVoice Israel on their first stop of a weeklong regional speaking tour of Southern California.

The event was cosponsored by Bruins for World Peace, a new group founded this quarter.

“We are not like a lot of organizations that are out there. We have two parallel movements, one in Palestine and one in Israel, that are quite independent of each other. They’re working for different motivations but towards the same goal of peace,” said Laurel Rapp, international education program manager for OneVoice.

Samara and Gershon are youth leaders in their respective countries but had not met each other until a few days before the event.

Each spoke about the achievements their chapters had accomplished, projects underway for the future and personal experiences living in war-torn neighborhoods.

Samara, a first-time visitor to the U.S., said OneVoice Palestine does not have any political affiliations, but added that the organization has put on campaigns to encourage political activity, especially after the death of former president Yasser Arafat in 2004.

A Black Ribbon campaign featuring the slogan “Gaza in My Heart” was also launched to bring attention to the innocents who were caught up in religious faction fighting.

Samara said life in the Palestinian territories can be difficult, and she became emotional when she spoke about the arrests of one of her five brothers and her father.

But she added that she had “hope for a better life and to live under dignity and peace.”

“Both sides want peace and to end the conflict, but each side has to trust each other,” Samara said.

Gershon admitted that frequent terrorist attacks in Israel had caused her to develop a hatred of the Arab people, but working with OneVoice had allowed her to realize there are many people on both sides of the conflict who hope for an end to the violence.

This is reflected in OneVoice Israel’s “Halas Nimas” (Hebrew for “That’s enough, we’re fed up”) campaign, which involves taking pictures of 5,000 supporters of a peaceful resolution to the conflict and posting them on billboards across Israel.

Hershon said it would serve as a reminder to the government about what the people want.

“We both want a better future, not only for us, but for our children,” Gershon said.

OneVoice is currently pushing for a solution to be developed by the end of 2008 with their One Million Voices to End the Conflict campaign.

Talks have been going on in Annapolis, Md., since November of last year with the hopes of reaching an agreement on the formation of a free Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel as well as determining a nonviolent approach to achieve such a resolution.

The presentation piqued the curiosity of some attendees, such as Jiae Koh, a fifth-year biology student.

“Before I came, I never really thought about the conflict,” Koh said. “(But when) I can really see and hear from two people who come from this reality, it made me really aware.”

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/apr/22/unifying-peace/

Danny Spector

Renowned actor Jason Alexander, best known for his role as George Constanza on the hit show "Seinfeld", will be one of the judges in the “imagine: 2018” contest, sponsored by the One Voice organization, which encourages moderate Israelis and Palestinians to actively promote the peace process between the two nations.

As part of this contest, Israeli and Palestinian youths were asked to imagine what their lives might be like in 2018 during an era of peace in the Middle East. The winning script will be made into a short film directed by renowned filmmaker David Guggenheim.

Alexander noted that this project will allow young, aspiring filmmakers to meet with some of the world’s best known directors and bring across their vision of peace.

The actor also stated that he hopes that these teens would be able to tell a tale of peace that the world has not yet encountered, and that he, personally cannot wait to hear. The conflict in the Middle East is the past, said Alexander, but these stories are the hope that lies in the not so distant future.

T.J. Hall

In the front of Room 2302 in Sangren Hall, two miniature flags stood beside each other on a table. Two more full size flags hung from the adjacent wall. And two young women sat side by side, different in nationality, but alike in their shared belief that one day Israel and Palestine will be at peace.

Monday night, representatives from the OneVoice Peace Initiative Group spoke at Western Michigan University. The event was sponsored by the Palestinian Israeli Peace Initiative of Kalamazoo, in collaboration with WMU Hillel, The Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and The Muslim Student Association.
Guest speakers were Israeli Maya Epstein, Palestinian Duroub Yacoub and American Laurel Rapp, education program manager for OneVoice.

Rapp opened the evening by giving an overview of the OneVoice group and its mission. By building support with Israeli and Palestinian moderates as well as international backers, OneVoice hopes to present lawmakers with one million signatures calling for a peace agreement. Rapp also stressed the uniqueness of OneVoice, showing that it is one group that has two separate operations in both Israel and Palestine. And while Rapp estimates that 95 percent of the work OneVoice does is in the Middle East, it is still essential to build support on the international front.

"We want to bring the voices from the Middle East to speak about the conflict," Rapp said.

Maya Epstein, a 24-year-old student at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, recalled her recent years in the Middle East. After moving from Botswana, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, at 17, Epstein had to adjust to the constant threat of danger.

"Living in terror is not something you can get used to," Epstein said. "It was difficult to even ride the bus."

Epstein also helped put things into perspective for the 50 people in attendance.
"We are just trying to live a normal life," she said. "We envy you [Americans]."
Duroub Yacoub, 25, moved to Ohio after growing up in Palestine. A graduate of Kent State University, Yacoub went back to her home city of Ramallah in 2002 to find it in shambles.

"The whole city was destroyed," Yacoub said. "It wasn’t the city I grew up in." Fighting back her emotions, Yacoub went on to add that she lost a family member in an attack on a church.

"We just want to live like human begins," Yacoub said.

In sharing their perspectives, Monday’s OneVoice speakers hope to foster a cooperative peace effort among people of all ethnicities.

Epstein said of Yacoub, "The most important thing is knowing that I have a counterpart in Palestine who is working toward the same goal."

http://www.westernherald.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&uStory_id=6daad66a-f880-4549-848c-3a8d4f3e3080

http://www.wosu.org/radia/radio‐open‐line/archive=1&date=03/26/2008

By Sean Steels 

Daroub Yacoub, a young Palestinian woman, remembers the moment she realized she wanted to speak out for peace in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Not that she could forget coming home to find the street in front of her house lined with military tanks.

The Alumni wall in front of which she and Maya Epstein, a young Israeli woman, are speaking to a small number of students might remind Epstein of a similar installment on her own campus. There’s only a small difference between the two exhibits: the wall on Epstein’s campus is decorated with the names of the seven students killed in her cafeteria by a suicide bomber, not with alumni.

Maya and Daroub have been brought together to speak at North American universities about their experiences by the OneVoice Movement, a non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. They are aware of the unique nature of their friendship.

“This,” Maya said, waving her finger back and forth between herself and Daroub, “does not happen everyday.”

The battle over the land in the Gaza strip has turned the two cultures into alien neighbours. They explained that the conflict, spurred on by a small minority of violent extremists, has cut traffic between the two states down to a paperwork-laden trickle. Most people don’t believe that the side opposing them would ever be willing to co-operate or keep promises that could lead to conflict resolution. At the same time, a poll conducted by OneVoice determined that 76 per cent of Israelis and Palestinians support a peaceful, two-state solution.

Laurel Rapp, OneVoice’s international education program manager, explained that through the use of its two branches, OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel, the organization is coordinating state-unique efforts at the grassroots level to foster an atmosphere of trust and compassion between the silent and peaceful majorities of the two groups.

“What we have are two separate nationalist movements, OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel, who are working for very different reasons but ultimately share the same goal of ending the conflict and establishing a two-state solution,” she explained.

“We do very few joint activities for two reasons. The first is logistical. Israelis cannot go to the West Bank or Gaza, and Palestinians […] require a lot of paperwork […] to get travel permits to Israel,” she said. “The second is we also realize that, at this point, we’re a bit of a ways from bringing Israelis and Palestinians together to love each other.”

But despite stumbling blocks created by over half a century of distrust and death, OneVoice has managed to break ground in the peace-making process. They’ve obtained over 650 000 signatories to their cause, with an equitable divide between Palestinian and Israeli participants. In the years since the organization’s 2002 debut, it has also expanded to stem the conflict on an international stage with their campus presentations in Europe and North America.

“It’s so clear that this conflict isn’t isolated to the West Bank,” Rapp said. “Coming to North America. you’ll find that this conflict replicates itself on university campuses. What we’re trying to do is bring moderate voices for resolution to campuses and show that Canadian students can be part of the solution rather than the problem.”

Jay Cairns, administrator of the Jewish Students Association (JSA) at the University of Alberta, fell short of directly endorsing OneVoice’s cause, but agreed that there should always be a venue for positive dialogue.

“There are many students that feel various ways about [conflict resolution], but the point for us is that we need to start focusing on peaceful solutions,” he said.

He explained that the JSA doesn’t take a political stance on the issue. The JSA’s first and foremost priority is the support it provides for university students and the security of the Jewish community on campus.

“Whether [the solution] is one-state or two-state, that gets into the political arena, and that’s something that we’re not prepared to do,” he conceded. “As it stands, we’re very happy with the situation on U of A campus. It’s very tame.”

http://www.thegatewayonline.ca/onevoice-movement-comes-to-u-of-a-for-middle-east-peace-talk-20080326-2426.html

Three-year Award to Support Grassroots Initiative to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

New York, NY – 11 March 2008 – The PeaceWorks Foundation today announced it is the recipient of a three-year, $1,015,000 award from the Skoll Foundation for its initiatives aimed at mobilizing the Israeli and Palestinian grassroots in support of a negotiated two state solution. The award is one of 11 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship presented by the Skoll Foundation to recognize the most innovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the most urgent social issues. PeaceWorks joins a prestigious global network of Skoll entrepreneurs, now numbering 59, who are working around the world on issues including tolerance and human rights, health, economic and social equity, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and environmental sustainability.

Since its inception in 2002, the PeaceWorks Foundation and its flagship initiative, the OneVoice Movement, has worked to bring the voice of the moderate majority of Israelis and Palestinians to the leaders and to the world stage, demanding a resumption of immediate and uninterrupted negotiations toward a two state solution guaranteeing the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state at peace with Israel. Via separate, parallel, nationalist movements in Israel and Palestine and an international movement of invested citizens worldwide, OneVoice has succeeded in signing on 650,000 signatory members to its call for a serious peace process to end the occupation and all forms of violence, and achieves international recognition, security, respect, peace, and prosperity for both sides.

“Our work is aimed at and centered on the lives and aspirations of ordinary people – it is based on the urgency of their right to live in a place free from violence and bloodshed and fear,” said Daniel Lubetzky, the organization’s Founder and President. “In the end, sustainable, meaningful change won’t come from boardrooms or statehouses; it will come from these ordinary citizens. We seek to empower grassroots agents of change, giving them the tools to wrest their lives from the grips of interminable conflict. The Skoll Foundation’s generosity will go a long way in helping us to have a real impact on the ground.”

“Daniel Lubetzky and his team at PeaceWorks are tremendous additions to the community of Skoll social entrepreneurs who have demonstrated, through their inspiration and creativity, courage and fortitude, that solutions do exist for some of the world’s most intractable problems,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “We believe their work has the potential for transformational benefit to the area of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we’re honored to support their continued commitment to systemic change at the grassroots level.”

Mr. Lubetzky will be presented the award by Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll, Skoll Foundation President and CEO, Sally Osberg and special guest, former President Jimmy Carter, at a special ceremony on March 27 at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. Lubetzky will be participating in the three-day World Forum along with over 700 attendees from the global social entrepreneurship community.

About the PeaceWorks Foundation & OneVoice Movement

Founded in 2002, the PeaceWorks Foundation works through a variety of initiatives to unite moderates in the Middle East to push for conflict resolution and a negotiated two state solution ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Foundation’s flagship initiative is OneVoice, an international movement of Americans, Palestinians, Israelis, Europeans, Muslims, Jews and Christians who are ready and eager to support a serious process, leading to a comprehensive peace agreement ending the occupation and all forms of violence. With 650,000 Israeli, Palestinian, and international signatories, we work to amplify the voice of the moderate majority of Palestinian and Israelis, empowering them to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution and to demand that their leaders work immediately and continuously to achieve a two state solution through comprehensive negotiations that will lead to the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state living in peace and security with the state of Israel.

For more information, visit www.onemillionvoices.org.

About the Skoll Foundation

The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by eBay’s first president, Jeff Skoll, to promote his vision of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today the Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs - individuals dedicated to innovative, bottom-up solutions that transform unequal and unjust social, environmental and economic systems.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is the foundation’s flagship program. There are currently 50 organizations represented by 59 remarkable social entrepreneurs in the program, working individually and together across regions, countries and continents to evolve the field of social entrepreneurship into a global movement for social change. The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs and other partners in the field via an online community at www.socialedge.org, and through the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation also celebrates social entrepreneurs by telling their stories through partnerships with the PBS Foundation and the Sundance Institute, with the goal of promoting large-scale public awareness of social entrepreneurship.

For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.

Arab and Jew sit side-by-side at the San Francisco Hillel house and explain how the humanity that unites the two women is stronger than the boundaries dividing them.

They feel so strongly about this that the pair spent the week of Feb. 11 in California talking about OneVoice, a grassroots initiative that seeks to empower the moderate majority of Israeli and Palestinian citizens to take a more assertive role in resolving the conflict.

Wafa Nazzal, an Arab from Jenin, and Noga Ron, a Jew from Tel Aviv, visited Sanford University, Sonoma State and San Francisco State universities, U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Santa Cruz to educate interested parties stateside about their volunteer work as two of 3,100 youth leaders working to end the violence.

Although they share a vision of peace and equality, they recognize that they come from different points of view.

Ron, 28, is a thin woman with a big smile and wisps of hair that fall into her freckled face when she speaks. She was born and raised on a kibbutz in southern Israel. After serving in the army and graduating from Tel Aviv University, she became involved with OneVoice.

“It’s easy to say there’s no way to solve this problem.” it’s harder to do something to change it,” she continued. “I believe I can do something. I can change my world. That’s why I’m here.”

Nazzal, 21, wears a wasabi-green hijab that complements her striking dark eyes. She was born in Saudi Arabia and spent her childhood in Jordan. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Jenin, where her parents were born.

The second intifada in 2000 made life difficult for Nazzal and her family. In 2002, things got worse when the Israeli army invaded a Jenin refugee camp. Her family had no water, electricity or food, except what was rotting in their refrigerator.

Nazzal eventually enrolled at the Arab American University in Jenin, where she learned about OneVoice.

“OneVoice is the first organization I’ve found that believes in the power of people to ask their representatives to negotiate,” she said.

OneVoice was created in 2002 to empower moderates who support a two-state solution. It does this through town hall meetings, youth leadership programs, public service announcements and public events in Israel and the territories.

With other youth leaders, Ron and Nazzal have helped get 620,000 signatures — half from Israelis, half from Palestinians — on the OneVoice Mandate, which affirms mutual rights of both peoples. The goal is 1 million signatures.

This year, OneVoice is reaching out to American university students. The Bay Area appearances each drew up to 50 students.

Sarah Kleinman, 22, a graduate student at Stanford, attended the Feb. 13 lecture. Because of its small size (15 students), it ended up feeling more like a dialogue.

Seeing an Israeli and Palestinian sitting next to one another “was a pretty powerful message that we need to make peace — lasting peace,” she said.

“I think our generation recognizes that we need to come together as a global community,” she added. “OneVoice is another instance in which this optimism shines through.”

Nazzal and Ron hope that Bay Area college students like Kleinman will want to get involved with a Bay Area chapter of OneVoice.

Their speech aimed to promote an April leadership-training seminar in San Francisco. The training will establish a network of OneVoice student ambassadors who can help support the efforts of the youth leaders in the Middle East. There are already OneVoice chapters on college campuses in Boston, Washington and eastern Canada.

“We have high hopes for the Northern California network,” Rapp said.

For more information about the upcoming leadership training, or to apply, contact Laurel Rapp at laurel@onevoicemovement.org.

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/34647/format/html/displaystory.html

Israeli Noga Ron and Palestinian Wafa Nazzal are unlikely partners in the movement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But their differences just might work to their advantage.

Youth leaders Noga Ron and Wafa Nazzal spoke last night on behalf of OneVoice, a citizen activism movement working in Israel and Palestine to achieve a two-state solution to the crisis.

Ron and Nazzal are youth leaders of OneVoice, a citizen activism movement working in Israel and Palestine to achieve a two-state solution through non-violent means. The pair spoke at Stanford last night as representatives of OneVoice to discuss the organization’s goals and history since its founding in 2002 at the height of the second Intifada, a period of renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians that began in 2000.

In the past six years, 650,000 Israelis and Palestinians have signed onto the OneVoice mandate that “recognizes the right of both people to independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity and respect.”

Rather than propose its own resolution to the crisis, OneVoice seeks to empower Palestinians and Israelis to demand that their leaders work toward a two-state solution.

“We believe it’s very important to honor our leaders,” said Nazzal, 21, in Building 420 last night. “We support the Palestinian and Israeli leaders in their quest for a peaceful conclusion to the conflict.”

Although OneVoice strives to reach all levels of the population, one of its main objectives is working with young political leaders and urging young people to vote. Both OneVoice Israel and OneVoice Palestine believe that involving the next generation is essential to achieving lasting peace.

“We believe in the young people,” said Ron, 28. “We need to encourage and educate the future leaders.

Ron was born and raised in an isolated Kibbutz in southern Israel. In describing her earliest memory of violence in Israel, she recalled a series of bombing attacks in 1995 that swept the country, including Tel Aviv, where her older sister was living.

After completing her mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, Ron traveled to South Africa and the United States before returning to Israel to enroll at the University of Tel Aviv. She said that she finally realized that something was not right about the way she and her family had been living while she traveled abroad.

“There’s nothing normal about calling my sister at age 15 in tears,” she said. “There’s nothing normal about not going on the buses for eight years because I was afraid. There’s nothing normal about opening your bag every time you go to the cinema because someone may be carrying in a bomb.”

Nazzal was born in Saudi Arabia but was raised in Jenin in the West Bank. She said that she has wrestled with her Palestinian identity since her father moved the family from Jordan to Jenin in 1995.

In April 2002 one of the fiercest battles of the second Intifada occurred at Jenin’s refugee camp. During the ten-day invasion, a brother of Nazzal’s friend, a freelance reporter, was shot in the leg by Israeli forces and later died.

“The smell of death was everywhere in Jenin,” Nazzal said. “You didn’t feel safe walking in the streets because you might be shot.”

Nazzal became a strong believer in the OneVoice movement after attending a town hall meeting in Jenin City. Although her uncle told her that she was wasting her time by coming to the United States to talk to college undergraduates, Nazzal said she still believes a two-state solution can be obtained through non-violent means.

Laurel Rapp, the international education program manager for OneVoice, does not think that discussion of the conflict can be limited to the areas directly affected.

“So often you’ll find this conflict has spread throughout the area,” she said. “It’s spread throughout the Middle East, to the United States, to Stanford’s student groups.”

The OneVoice presentation was not organized by any groups affiliated with the Israeli or Palestinian movements; the event was co-sponsored by the year-old Students Promoting Ethnic and Cultural Kinship (SPEAK).

“Many are interested in the [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] from a political perspective,” said Sarah Kleinman ‘08, co-executive director of SPEAK. “But we’re looking at it from a standpoint of identity.”

Both Ron and Nazzal admit that there are challenges ahead, especially now that Israelis cannot enter Palestinian territories and Palestinians must get special permission to enter Israel. But both said they have experienced the darker side of the conflict — and neither wishes it to return.

BY FANNIE SUNSHINE

Adi Labadi was just 15 when he was shot in the leg while on a street in the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine.

Labadi, now 20, is well aware he could have made "bad" choices after he and a friend were caught in the crossfire of the Israeli Army, but instead chose to join the conflict resolution OneVoice Movement.

"After I was shot, I had anger," said Labadi, adding that his friend died. "At that age, you don’t know right from wrong. My parents were trying to keep me away from bad. And it’s really hard when you’re living in the middle of that."

Labadi and his Israeli counterpart, Smadar Cohen, spoke to York University students on Tuesday, Jan. 22 about their involvement with OneVoice, a grassroots movement working toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution.

"When you lose friends, you become more angry, more aggressive," Labadi told The Mirror, adding he has friends in militias. "But my good friends try to keep me away from anything bad, even if they are involved with bad things themselves."

Life for Labadi in Palestine is vastly different from that in the western world, he said.

"You don’t really live a life, you just live," he said. "There are curfews, check points everywhere, you cannot really move freely and you see people getting killed."

Cohen has also seen her fair share of tragedies.

Her army commander was blown up in a bus outside the base. She’s lost friends in bombings and through army service. Her paramedic boyfriend was shot in Gaza while they chatted on the phone, surviving thanks to a bulletproof vest.

"Everyday life becomes harder," said the 24-year-old. "People are angry, resentful. In my opinion, Palestinian leaders have made problematic decisions throughout history and the Palestinian people suffer from it. We want to show both sides have suffered, but it’s time to look to the future. It’s not what happened, it’s what do we do now?"

Laurel Rapp, international education program manager at the OneVoice Movement, said the organization is not advocating for peace but simply conflict resolution.

"Each side faces particular challenges," she said. "We want the creation of an independent and viable Palestine that lives next door to an independent and viable Israel."

On Sunday, WLU played host to representatives from OneVoice New York, Israel and Palestine. The OneVoice movement is a youth-based initiative to bring peace and stability in the Middle East and end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.

The grassroots movement has transcended borders and has offices in New York, London, Ottawa, Tel Aviv and Ramallah. Through its various offices, the movement has asked that supporters sign the OneVoice mandate that asks that the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to “independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity, respect, national security, personal safety, and economic viability” are respected and recognized.

The public talk, held on Sunday, January 20, brought two field officers from the organization’s Tel Aviv and Ramallah branches to Waterloo to talk about their experiences and the challenges they have faced in spreading the word about the OneVoice movement.

Adi Labad and Smadar Cohen represented OneVoice Palestine (OVP) and OneVoice Israel (OVI) respectively, and each brought with them experiences and stories to share with the audience.

From the outset, Labad made it clear that the goal of OneVoice was not to make “Palestinians and Israelis love each other.” The goal rather was to make each side understand the common ground they shared – a want for a ceasefire and a two-state agreement.

OneVoice New York’s International Education Program Manager Laurel Rapp led the talk and spoke of the dynamics of the organization and how it is run. Furthermore, she highlighted that each office works independently of the other and, as such, OVI and OVP do not communicate with each other.

The reasoning behind this, as explained by Rapp, is that, “Israelis have very particular concerns about the conflict that they’re hoping to secure and in Palestine they want an independent Palestine that exists viably beside Israel.”
This difference in needs is also reflected in each of their mandates, which share main demands but have very different preambles that highlight their varying requirements.

Cohen has worked with OVI in getting people to sign the organization’s mandate, a task she says has not been an easy one. “The problem we face in Israel is that the people are apathetic.… Stopping them on the street is the challenge. In Palestine, they want to do something but have no means.”

Furthermore, the act of signing the mandate was often preceded by statements like, “I’ll do it, but the Palestinians would never do it.”

However, Cohen was quick to assure them that “actually over 300,000 Palestinians have signed – and there was a complete switch and it was interesting to see the start of building trust between both societies.”

The OneVoice movement aims to mobilize the modern moderate strata of Israeli and Palestinian society who are the majority. However, as Labad affirms, “the moderate majority is often silenced by the violent minority…. The moderate majority in Palestine wants to be able to speak, but they are afraid. OneVoice allows them to share their opinion.”

Cohen adds that “the people who are not the majority are often heard because they use violence, and today violence sells. It’s interesting to see them killing each other; it’s not interesting to see them loving each other or at least respecting each other.”

An interesting aspect of the OneVoice movement is that they renounce actual specific political blueprints to ending the conflict. Rather, they aim to get voters to demand that the ceasefire and a peace agreement is initiated and outlined by the government. As Cohen says, “We’re not politicians; we’re just trying to get people to voice their opinions. Our leaders need to get in a room and not come out until the white smoke comes out.”

She added that even within OVI there are arguments over borderlines, but that “this is the job of the government.”

Since OneVoice’s inception in 2002, the organization has taken steps to start a clear, respectful stream of dialogue between the two governments.
The organization also realizes that “when we talk about ending the conflict, we don’t mean tomorrow – we mean in the next few years. The process requires time and commitment and support from both sides.”

The support they have received thus far has been enormous – as of now, they have 600,000 signatories who support their mandate, with an almost equal split between Israelis and Palestinians.

The OneVoice movement has garnered considerable support from North America and Europe as well as within the Middle East. Its funding comes primarily from grants and funds from the US such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation and many other independent donors. The organization is also waiting on charity status from the Canadian government.

The movement and its people are especially passionate about diminishing the gap between the high-level negotiations, such as the ones recently held in Annapolis, Maryland in November, and the people these negotiations really affect.

THANA DHARMARAJAH

Adi Labadi was shot in his right leg in the middle of the street in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

Tel Aviv native Smadar Cohen’s commander was blown up in a bus that the Israeli woman often took home herself.

Labadi, a 20-year-old Palestinian, and Cohen, a 24-year-old Israeli, grew up in an environment where violence became the norm. But on the day when the Israeli-Palestine conflict touched their lives, anger filled their hearts.

"I had anger and hate at that time for everybody," said Labadi, thinking back to the day he was lying on the street beside his friend, who was also shot.

Both youths, now part of the OneVoice Movement, were invited by the University of Guelph’s Jewish Students’ Organization last night to share their experiences and speak about how they’ve moved forward to effect change.

"By sheer luck I was not on that bus," Cohen said. "It really changed my perspective on the conflict . . . Like Adi, at the beginning you only want revenge."

The pair joined the OneVoice Movement, an international movement that aims to resolve the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis by uniting their voices.

Both sides want an end to the bombings, kidnappings, murders and other forms of violence, Cohen said.

Through the movement, the youths speak to citizens of Palestine and Israel convincing them that those on the opposite side also want to live in a peaceful environment. Cohen said that OneVoice doesn’t work to create peace, but rather works toward conflict resolution.

"As an Israeli, it’s very hard to be told that we should love each other and be friends because you have too much emotional baggage," she said. "Conflict resolution is about stopping the killing."

When he’s on the streets of Jenin, Labadi said at first it’s hard for people to see Israelis as humans like themselves.

"When people think of Israel, they think ‘Oh they killed my brother,’ " he said.

Through town hall meetings, OneVoice is trying to build trust on both sides, Labadi said.

In November, negotiations began in the United States that would guarantee an independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel. In the meantime, for about a year OneVoice has been collecting signatures from both Palestinians and Israelis to demonstrate the need for an end to the violence.

When they have one million signatures, Cohen said, they’ll take it to politicians on both sides.

To date, OneVoice has collected more than 600,000 signatures.

tdharmarajah@guelphmercury.com

By Paul Taylor

KRONBERG, Germany, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A senior Saudi royal has offered Israel a vision of broad cooperation with the Arab world and people-to-people contacts if it signs a peace treaty and withdraws from all occupied Arab territories.

In an interview with Reuters, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to the United States and Britain and adviser to King Abdullah, said Israel and the Arabs could cooperate in many areas including water, agriculture, science and education.

Asked what message he wanted to send to the Israeli public, he said:

"The Arab world, by the Arab peace initiative, has crossed the Rubicon from hostility towards Israel to peace with Israel and has extended the hand of peace to Israel, and we await the Israelis picking up our hand and joining us in what inevitably will be beneficial for Israel and for the Arab world."

The 22-nation Arab League revived at a Riyadh summit last year a Saudi peace plan first adopted in 2002 offering Israel full normalisation of relations in return for full withdrawal from occupied Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese land.

Israel shunned the offer then, at the height of a violent Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But it has expressed more interest since the United States launched a new drive for Israeli-Palestinian peace at Annapolis, Maryland, last November, aiming for an agreement this year.

Prince Turki, who was previously head of Saudi intelligence, said that if Israel accepted the Arab League plan and signed a comprehensive peace, "one can imagine the integration of Israel into the Arab geographical entity".

"One can imagine not just economic, political and diplomatic relations between Arabs and Israelis but also issues of education, scientific research, combating mutual threats to the inhabitants of this vast geographic area," he said.

"ARAB JEWS"

His comments, on the sidelines of a conference on the Middle East and Europe staged by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation think-tank, were some of the most far-reaching addressed to Israelis by a senior figure from Saudi Arabia.

The desert kingdom, home to Islam’s holiest shrines, has no official relations with the Jewish state, although both are key allies of the United States in the region.

"Exchange visits by people of both Israel and the rest of the Arab countries would take place," Prince Turki said.

"We will start thinking of Israelis as Arab Jews rather than simply as Israelis," he said, noting that many Arabs historically saw the Israeli state as a European entity imposed on Arab land after World War Two.

Prince Turki, brother of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, holds no official position now but heads the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.

He said Israel could expect some benefits on the way to signing a treaty and making a full withdrawal, noting that after the 1993 Oslo interim accords with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, regional cooperation had begun and the Jewish state had achieved representation in several Arab states.

Those Israeli advances were reversed after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Israel was wary of the Arab League plan partly because it would entail handing back the Syrian Golan Heights captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as well as re-dividing Jerusalem, of which Israel annexed the captured Arab eastern part in 1967.

But an Israeli participant at the conference, Yossi Alpher, co-editor of the Bitter Lemons Israeli-Palestinian Web site and a former senior intelligence official, welcomed the comments.

"I was delighted to hear Prince Turki’s description of the comprehensive nature of normalisation as he envisages it within the framework of the Arab peace initiative," Alpher said.

"His remarks should encourage us Israelis and Arabs to deepen and broaden the discussion of ways to reach a comprehensive peace, implement the Arab peace initiative and reach the kind of cooperation that his highness described."

Alpher said he hoped that once there was a comprehensive peace, Israel’s Arab neighbours would accept Israelis "as Jewish people living a sovereign life in our historic homeland" and not as "Arab Jews" or "European Jews". (Editing by Caroline Drees)

How does a Mexican of Jewish heritage with a background in business and law launch PeaceWorks, an innovative food company, and the ambitious foundation OneVoice, both of which work towards towards peace in the Middle East? Daniel Lubetzky, born and raised in Mexico City, studied in the US, France and Israel, before attending Stanford Law School in California. He then had short stints at a law firm and an investment company before launching PeaceWorks in 1994 and OneVoice in 2002. We spoke last year when the Arab League had just taken a leadership role in the peace process between Israel and Palestine after the Second Intifada.

Janera: What do you think when you hear the term “Global Nomads?”

Daniel: Humanity transcending barriers and borders. All of us are, in essence at least, global nomads.

J: PeaceWorks is a company but you don’t really produce anything. Can you explain how that works?

D: Most big companies don’t own the factories; they contract out to other companies. As does PeaceWorks. We manage the relationships, start the ventures, own the brands and the formulas and work with local partners to produce a product—that is our model. We have joint ventures in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Indonesia. In each of these places, we partner with local manufacturers that trade with each other. For example, the Israeli company buys glass from an Egyptian company, sun dried tomatoes from a Turkish company, olives and olive oil from Palestinian growers.

J: Does the Israeli partner employ Palestinians?

D: No, because it’s against the law. Maybe a handful of Palestinians can come into Israel, but they are not allowed to work in these factories. So the trade in the Middle East is through partnerships. Israelis, Egyptians, Turks, Palestinians each work on their own and then trade with each other. The PeaceWorks model is symmetrical: the ventures can either be trading partners of equal relationships or they can be companies that manufacture side by side.

J: Is it impossible for actual enemies to work together?

D: Starting ventures in conflict areas is very hard. We work with people who believe in what we do. We want to cement and strengthen and expand on good will and go to Israelis and Palestinians who are willing to begin exploring how they can collaborate. We don’t try to convince people who don’t want to work together to collaborate, like a Hamas terrorist and an Israeli militant. It won’t happen—they hate each other.

J: Do you think the process needs somebody from the outside, like you, to come in and create something that will benefit the local population?

D: There are definitely serious barriers for people who are living with daily tragedies. But it’s also a question of leadership. There are many examples of people, locally based, who do very good work breaking stereotypes and fostering cooperation. But I would encourage outsiders to be engaged because I’ve noticed that there are also practical ways, not just mental barriers and psychological barriers, but also legal ways an external person can help.
For OneVoice, our Palestinian staff in Ramallah couldn’t go into Gaza; our Palestinian staff in Gaza couldn’t go into Ramallah. Our Israeli staff cannot go into Gaza. I had to open the office in Gaza because I, as a Mexican, had the ability to go in there. Similarly there are a lot of permit challenges when the Palestinians want to meet with Israelis and they are not given permission, and the Israelis want to meet the Palestinians and they aren’t allowed in to the West Bank. Sometimes you have to be a catalyst who tries to build these bridges.

J: Do you think the Internet can be a catalyst for connecting people who can’t physically meet?

D: The Internet can be an enormous bridge but it can also be an enormous burned bridge. Today it is totally unregulated. What tends to happen is that very aggressive people use this online space to speak unrestrainedly. If you visit these Israeli websites where people from different places speak in English—it’s horrible and scary how negative patriotism can be. I think the same people who write this horrible stuff on the Internet would have a harder time saying it in person.

On the other hand, the Internet has phenomenal power. I’m working on a lot of initiatives to use the Internet as a way to bridge different groups of people—showing them the usefulness of one another and helping them to connect with each other.

J: Do you think that business can improve the social aspect of people’s lives, specifically in Israel, but maybe also in Indonesia and Sri Lanka?

D: I think business plays a very important role and has a big responsibility. If it plays an amoral role or an uninvolved role then we’re missing out on a lot of the potential market. Market forces are so powerful; why not engineer them in a way that they play a positive role?

J: How do you make the PeaceWorks model attractive? How do you get partners engaged?

D: At the venture level, the key to making peace attractive is to make it the partner companies’ business interests. For example the Israeli company was buying glass jars from Portugal. It was costing them a lot more than it was to buy them from Egypt. So it was in their economic interest to switch to Egyptian jars. It’s a business decision. You’re saving money. Better business gets them to the table and the byproduct is peace.

J: And this happens because you’ve decided it at the corporate level?

D: Yes, that’s the beauty of the model. It’s not artificially imposed. It works because there’s openness towards it. The social mission can be advanced as well as the business mission. It’s not sacrificing one for the other. The more people work together, the more they’re cementing relationships and the more they’re saving. This is what I call complementary, comparative advantages—each group of people has advantages that complement the other.

J: Why did you need to start OneVoice, the non-profit foundation?

D: I realized I wasn’t going to achieve peace in the Middle East through the business model alone. While the business model has a positive role to play, I couldn’t scale it up fast enough and the nature of the conflict requires civic engagement.

There are ten million people in Palestine-Israel, and with PeaceWorks we’re affecting 10,000 lives at most. You realize there is no way you can resolve this conflict purely through business.

Also, citizens need to take responsibility for ending the conflict. Politicians alone can’t resolve it. And this is not a conflict of the left versus the right, or the Palestinians versus the Israelis, or the Jews against the Muslims. It is moderates versus extremists. Everyone joining us at OneVoice is against extremism. So you have to frame the conflict properly. OneVoice is trying to help people realize this.

J: How did you get to speak at the World Economic Forum?

D: I received a letter that I had been named a young, global leader at the World Economic Forum in 1997. And I thought: this is a scam. So I threw it away. Then they called me and asked “Didn’t you get our invitation? We want to interview you, it’s for the award.” I went and was blessed to meet a lot of great people who have become very very important figures in my life. OneVoice would literally not exist today without the support of the World Economic Forum. Professor [Klaus] Schwab [founder and president of the WEF] was very supportive and believed in us very early on, when it was a difficult journey. It is a great platform to meet impressive people who want to do something positive.

J: What difficulties did you encounter at the beginning with OneVoice?

D: Trying to get foundations to believe that OneVoice was worth pursuing. I didn’t have any nonprofit experience and they probably thought, “Here comes this Mexican guy telling us that there needs to be a grassroots movement of Palestinians and Israelis.” So nobody gave me money and I gave up—in the beginning. This was 2001. Then in 2002, I remember, there was bombing after bombing and I couldn’t sleep at night — I felt so guilty I wasn’t doing something. I watched the news and it was so clear they were getting it all wrong: they were showing the extremists from both sides. I realized we weren’t seeing the moderate voices. Back then you didn’t hear the word “moderate.”

If you follow speeches in 2001 and 2002, the only people who were speaking like that were King Abdullah and Queen Rania [of Jordan]. Everybody else was in an “us” vs. “them” mentality: it was all about extremism. I called up my friends and said we are going to do this, even if it means we each put down a hundred dollars. That’s how it started.

It’s great going to Israel-Palestine wearing the OneVoice symbol and having people come up to you who know what it is, and they talk to you and see that you are building a mindset and a movement. We have 300,000 members and 2,000 young leaders who have impacted each other and the world. What I’m proud of are our partners on the ground. They are very courageous and are doing important work every day.

J: What is your measure of success?

D: Ending the conflict. Our goal is not for people to get along, for understanding. Our goal is to end the conflict and to achieve a two-state solution.

J: Do you have a time frame for it, more or less?

D: Today. Yesterday. It is such a hard thing to do that people basically write it off and stop believing that peace can come, and they’re going to stop working because they believe it won’t happen. So our goal is to solve it, to do this already.

J: Do you think the recent involvement of Saudi Arabia as a leader in the Arab League helps the process?

D: Yes, I think it has historic potential. I think it can play a very positive role. It’s not a perfect answer, but it’s a much better start than in the year 2000 when the Saudis and the Egyptians told Arafat not to negotiate with Jerusalem. Now they’re saying let’s get this thing done.

J: Do you try to influence policy?

D: Yes, we meet every two or three months with the dignitaries and tell them what we do. Our Citizen’s Negotiation is a process in which citizens themselves are crafting a possible resolution for the conflict. It is something we collect and take to the politicians. It has a lot of moral authority because it is coming from the grassroots level. We regularly brief the politicians and tell them what the people want.

J: So it is like market research in a sense?

D: Yeah, but market research just gives you poll results. Our process actually helps people think as negotiators. It teaches you to be conciliatory. It teaches you the art of compromise.

“This year we’ve seen an explosion of diverse experiments, many of them engineered by onetime Wall Street heavies, that attempt to bring new capital – and capital-market dynamics – to the realm of social good,” said Fast Company Contributing Writer Keith Hammonds. “Through these deals, social entrepreneurs and businesses are raising the stakes, creating both business and social impact, and changing old-style capitalism as we know it.”

OneVoice, a youth-led, grassroots movement that runs in parallel in Palestine and in Israel, has been awarded the Social Capitalist Award because of the organization’s demonstrated social impact, entrepreneurial and innovative approach, and potential for growth and sustainability. In the five years since its inception, OneVoice has worked to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by mobilizing the grassroots, in the past year has nearly tripled its membership – now boasting of over 600,000 Israeli and Palestinian signatory members, in roughly equal numbers on each side. The organization is based in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Gaza City, with international offices in New York, London, and Tel Aviv.

Darya Shaikh, Executive Director of OneVoice US, said, “OneVoice is proud to count itself among the winners of this award, and therefore among those using innovative tools and approaches to shape the world around them for the better. This has been an important year for us, in trying to mobilize the Israeli and Palestinian populations for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, and we are dedicating ourselves now more than ever to our mission.”

The goal of the Social Capitalist Awards is to advance performance measurement and accountability in the social sector in a highly rigorous, data driven, comparative approach. OneVoice is featured in Fast Company’s December/January 2008 issue and will be recognized at a ceremony at the Westin Washington D.C. city Center on January 8, 2008.

Complete information on this year’s Social Capitalist Awards winners, including expanded profiles and links that let you make donations to the groups you find most compelling, can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.

About the PeaceWorks Foundation & OneVoice Movement:

The OneVoice Movement is a mainstream nationalist grassroots movement with over 600,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine, and 3,000 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two-state solution. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice against violent extremism and for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting www.OneMillionVoices.org.

About Fast Company magazine:

Founded in 1996 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, LLC, award-winning Fast Company magazine (www.FastCompany.com) covers the ideas, trends and visionaries that are sparking change and creating the future of business. With a total paid circulation of 746,161, Fast Company explores the profound innovation, creative breakthroughs, best and “next” practices that are driving the business world.

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Monitor Group is a leading global professional services firm working with corporations, governments, and social-sector organizations to help them drive growth. Employing over 1,500 people in 22 countries worldwide Monitor offers a blend of advisory, capability building and capital services.  Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Monitor can be reached at 617.252.2000 or on the web at www.monitor.com

QUESTION: Secretary Rice, one of the most encouraging things about Annapolis was the Leaders’ commitment to strike an agreement within a year, which demonstrated brave and courageous leadership. And we’re very concerned about trying to not lose that window of opportunity. The red lines from each side are pretty clear.  What is normally not said is that they’re not incompatible with the red lines of the other side. So it’s just about sitting down and just striking an agreement instead of endless Mideast bargaining. What can we in the private sector, business sector and the civil society and the citizens do to make sure that we really do try to accomplish an agreement within that year frame?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, let me start with what I think the broader community can do. And part of that is supporting leaders who have taken this broad — this bold choice. And I know that there’s a lot of skepticism and so forth. But you know, skepticism doesn’t get you anything but skepticism. That’s what it buys you. (Applause.)

Sometimes you have to, against all odds, be optimistic. And I would say to populations and to citizens and to the international community as a whole, this time let’s try and give a sense of optimism to these leaders who have taken these bold steps.

It is going to require, and I see — I know there are several members of the Diplomatic Corps, but I particularly see the Ambassador of Egypt is here. And Egypt was extremely helpful in the run-up to Annapolis in helping us, as was Jordan and others.

What we need to do is to say to the leaders, if you make difficult choices for peace, you are going to be supported, not criticized. People are not going to nitpick and say, well, you, Ehud Olmert, you gave up a little bit more here than you should have or you, Abu Mazen, you gave up a little bit more here than you should have. If people are willing to make tough choices — everybody is going to have to compromise. Look, there’s a reason that we haven’t had an agreement. And some of it has to do with unrealistic aspirations that at the last moment crashed past efforts to make agreements. That’s going to require at some point people saying, all right, these leaders have made realistic compromises and we’re going to support those realistic compromises.

I do think that the time that President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert spent in their discussions on the so-called political horizon have given them a pretty good sense that there is a place that everybody could land here. And I think that’s why they eventually decided to move to actual negotiations. I will tell you that two months ago, maybe even six months ago, I did not think that they were going to actually launch negotiations. I hoped they would, but I didn’t think that that’s where they were going. I think it’s only because they’ve had these conversations about some of the most difficult issues that they have a feel for where the other side is. But it’s going to take persistence and, again, it’s going to take the — it’s going to take the international community not nay saying everything that they do. (Applause.)

MODERATOR: Thank you.

Buchanan House - United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland

PRESIDENT BUSH:  The representatives of the government of the state of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, represented respective by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and President Mahmoud Abbas in his capacity as Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the Palestinian Authority, have convened in Annapolis, Maryland, under the auspices of President George W. Bush of the United States of America, and with the support of the participants of this international conference, having concluded the following joint understanding.

We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples; to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition; to propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis.  In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty, resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements.

We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations, and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008.  For this purpose, a steering committee, led jointly by the head of the delegation of each party, will meet continuously, as agreed.  The steering committee will develop a joint work plan and establish and oversee the work of negotiations teams to address all issues, to be headed by one lead representative from each party.  The first session of the steering committee will be held on 12 December 2007.

President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert will continue to meet on a bi-weekly basis to follow up the negotiations in order to offer all necessary assistance for their advancement.

The parties also commit to immediately implement their respective obligations under the performance-based road map to a permanent two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, issued by the Quartet on 30 April 2003 — this is called the road map — and agree to form an American, Palestinian and Israeli mechanism, led by the United States, to follow up on the implementation of the road map.

The parties further commit to continue the implementation of the ongoing obligations of the road map until they reach a peace treaty.  The United States will monitor and judge the fulfillment of the commitment of both sides of the road map.  Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — More than a hundred activists demonstrated Tuesday outside the gates of the U.S. Naval Academy, offering their own very public take on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as representatives of more than 50 nations and organizations met inside to chart a course toward a peace pact by the end of next year.

The rallies ran the gamut from a costumed protester mocking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a peace activist who was hopeful the talks would foster further peace negotiations such as those outlined by President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"We need to make sure that their voices can be heard thousands of miles away," said Erin Pineda of One Voice Movement, which supports Israeli-Palestinian efforts leading to a Palestinian state.

Conservative and liberal Jewish activists, Palestinians, Christians and others planned demonstrations throughout the day outside the academy’s closed main gate and at other locations in the historic Chesapeake Bay city.

The demonstrations in chilly, blustery downtown Annapolis were lightly attended compared with the tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip who rallied Tuesday in opposition to the conference. In the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian police loyal to Abbas violently dispersed a demonstration against the summit, killing one protester, medical officials said.

The one-day Annapolis conference was officially announced only a week in advance. The tight schedule and short notice made it difficult for interest groups to rally large numbers of people.

The events began with a rally by Jewish Americans opposed to the conference. "No peace with terrorists," they chanted. Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of the Coalition of Jewish Concerns-Amcha said the summit amounted to a reward for terrorists. He said the Bush administration was "playing games with the innocent blood of the men and women of Israel."

Liz Houricane, dressed as a prison inmate and wearing a giant papier-mache mask of Rice, said the conference should have included representatives of Hamas, an Islamic militant group.

The summit "is really symbolic, more than anything," said Houricane, a member of Code Pink, a group formed in opposition to the Iraq war. She said Rice should be in jail for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Danielle Greene of Falls Church, Va., said the summit was meant to make the Bush administration look good. She said nothing would come of such an event until the United States accepts Hamas and Hezbollah, the Lebanese umbrella organization of radical Islamic Shiite groups that is a bitter foe of Israel.

Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt and Brian Witte contributed to this story.

Nisreen Shaheen, OV Palestinian Executive Director, flying in from Ramallah
Daniel Lubetzky, Founder, One Voice
Mowaffaq Alami, Gaza Executive Director (in Jerusalem)
Lora Talinovsky, OV Israeli Youth Leader
Darya Shaikh, OV US Executive Director
Jake Hayman, OV International Education Director
Adee Telem, OV West Coast Director
Laurel Rapp, OV International Education Coordinator

WHAT/WHY: CITIZENS CALL FOR TEAM OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIATORS

Annapolis must not be a one-time photo opportunity. Leaders must heed the will of the moderate majority and deliver a systematic, ongoing, uninterrupted peace process, with professional negotiation teams committed exclusively to the completion of a comprehensive agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian Heads of State for a two state solution that will bring about a viable Palestinian State within the context of a permanent peace agreement with Israel.

WHEN/ TUESDAY, November 27^th, 2007

WHERE: NAVAL ACADEMY Gate 1

As the leaders gather to try to take a step forward in negotiating a resolution, we – ordinary Israelis, Palestinians, and international citizens – have a role to play. We need to ensure that Annapolis is not a one-time only photo opportunity. Rather, it should be the initiation of a systematic, serious, ongoing, and uninterrupted process with professional negotiations teams committed exclusively to reaching a mutually-acceptable two state agreement. The agreement must guarantee a viable, independent Palestinian state within the context of a permanent peace agreement with Israel. We do not expect the leaders to leave Annapolis with all the answers, or with a finalized agreement. But we are here to demand that they leave with a process in place to continue negotiations until they do.

We have a rare window of opportunity. While majorities on both sides still overwhelmingly support negotiations towards a two state solution, the numbers opposing are going up steadily, and will eventually surpass moderate voices if no tangible progress is made. The leaders are coming to the table; the opportunity must be seized.  Failure is not an option.

What are we hoping to come out of Annapolis? Many are trying to lower expectations about Annapolis. We see Annapolis as an important first step in a process that needs serious, continuous political and grassroots involvement to be successful. It is imperative that the leaders commit to an ongoing process to develop an agreement that will be acceptable to both sides.

Background on OneVoice

OneVoice is a non-partisan, grassroots movement of 300,000 Israelis and 300,000 Palestinians who, having signed the OneVoice Mandate, stand in support of an end to the conflict through a negotiated two state solution. The organization was founded six years ago in the collapse of the Oslo negotiations process and the outbreak of violence on both sides, with an aim to giving ordinary citizens the tools to seize back the agenda for conflict resolution.

By September 2007, when US Secretary of State Rice announced a Mideast summit would be organized, over half a million citizens had joined the movement, which has since grown to 620,000.  OneVoice has sent a delegation of activists, youth leaders, and executive directors to Annapolis, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands who OneVoice represents, to demand immediate negotiations, uninterrupted till the conclusion of a two state agreement, no later than a year from now.

Fringe Extremists Threatened Palestinian Staff, Performers
“A setback for 600,000 Moderates”

EXPERIENCE THE IMPACT OF ONEVOICE ON CIVIL SOCIETY IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL: WWW.ONEMILLIONVOICES.ORG

Jericho/Tel Aviv, October 15, 2007—In a show of solidarity with OneVoice Palestine, the OneVoice Movement, and artists and celebrities engaged with them, have decided to cancel the OneVoice Summit due to take place this Thursday in Tel Aviv. Security threats late last week prompted the cancellation of a parallel OneVoice Summit planned for Jericho.

Fringe groups waged a slanderous campaign to incite threats against OneVoice staff and supporters claiming that a survey OneVoice release five years ago represented a policy document on final status negotiations.

The OneVoice Peoples’ Summits, the first effort of its kind, offered an unprecedented opportunity for the Israeli and Palestinian people, in parallel, to propel and support their leaders in the quest to resolve the conflict in the wake of the Arab Peace Initiative and in the build up to the November Annapolis Conference. The Summits, and the work of OneVoice, are not an attempt to define the content of those negotiations, but to demand progress thereon.

OneVoice Palestine President, Dr. Fathi Darwish, has vowed to go on with the mission, “We are heartened by this show of solidarity. Now more than ever, we are determined to fulfill the OneVoice mission. I think that most Palestinian and Israeli moderates want to send a message, one message from both sides: We are fed up with the situation. We are facing a fringe minority of loud extremists, but they cannot stop our struggle to end the occupation through a two state solution—the only solution for two peoples.”

Gil Shamy, Executive Director of OneVoice Israel, summarized the OneVoice approach, “The public does not have the power to implement resolutions, but it has the imperative to hold their leaders accountable—and to demand immediate, ongoing negotiations until an agreement is reached.”

Over the past six years, OneVoice has gathered the support of over half a million Israelis and Palestinians. The organization remains committed to achieving their goal of uniting all moderates in the region and empowering the process from the grassroots.

A campaign of lies against OneVoice was launch by radical groups, including PFLP, who oppose the goal of Israel and Palestine living side by side. This then evolved into an intimidation campaign against those due to take part in the OneVoice Summit.

Nisreen Shaheen, of OneVoice Palestine, confirmed, “These lies are completely unfounded and the Palestinian people are being deceived by fringe movements whose existence is premised on the conflict. OneVoice is standing behind the President’s platform.”

Daniel Lubetzky, President of the PeaceWorks Foundation that helped conceive the OneVoice Movement, added “We are very heartened by the steadfast support of all the dignitaries and celebrities, like Bryan Adams, who committed to stay on board and join us as soon as we can re-group to fulfill our vision—for him to perform both in Israel and Palestine. This was a setback for 600,000 moderates. But our work will not cease till we achieve our mission of breaking the shackles of extremism and seizing back the agenda for moderates to live in peace.”

In the meantime, as a response to the postponement, the group has already aligned a partnership with Yahoo! to highlight the power of the people. “We invite people across the world to join us on October 18, 2007 at 7pm Jerusalem time (1pm EST) at video.yahoo.com/onevoice to experience something they have not seen before,” said Lubetzky.

About the OneVoice Movement:
The OneVoice Movement is a mainstream nationalist grassroots movement with over 584,000 (as of 10/13/2007) Israeli and Palestinian members, and 3,000 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two state solution. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice against violent extremism and for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting our website at www.onemillionvoices.org.

Of course the people have demands, whether they be to end the occupation or to deliver security, OneVoice, however, does not have a political platform other than to endorse negotiations for a Two State solution and stands only to support the leaders and demand that the will of the people serve to energize the process. Its Palestinian offices in Gaza City and Ramallah, run by nationalist Palestinians for nationalist Palestinians, exist to do exactly this.
And so, an organization of around 600,000 Palestinian and Israeli signatories, board members from Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Jibril Rajoub, and Islamic Chief Justice Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi to Arab-American Institute President Dr Jim Zogby and Founder George Salem, is being targeted by absolutists with no intention of ending the conflict, who are defrauding the people out of their right to peace, and into being a part of their battle. They must not be tolerated and we implore all of you who are confused by the lies and seek further clarification to look at the OneVoice track record and materials yourselves.

The opportunity is not lost: 600,000 people have already spoken and will not lose the hope and momentum we are building in the wake of the Arab Peace Initiative and the upcoming November Summit.

We will stand by President Abbas and tell him that he can and must deliver something for the people and that we will support him every step of the way when he does because these enemies of peace will attack him too as they did attack Chairman Arafat’s ‘peace of the braves’ and all other efforts toward a just solution that will bring about Palestinian independence, an end to the occupation and peace with its neighbors including Israel based on the terms that he as the Palestinian head of state agrees upon.

These enemies who use intimidation, fear and manipulation to protract the conflict through absolutist ideologies do not have any actionable proposals that will fulfill the wish of the Palestinian people. They have enchained the people for far too long.

By Stewart Ain

Despite lengthy police questioning this week of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into his role in a bank privatization deal, analysts have all but dismissed the probe and said Olmert’s political fortunes have never been better.
“There was a formal statement by the state attorney that if Olmert provides a reasonable explanation for his role in the privatization process, the investigation will be closed,” said Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “So it does not look like there is any danger for him at the moment.”
He said, however, that a newly opened criminal investigation into Olmert’s purchase of his home in Jerusalem appears more serious. But Sulitzeanu-Kenan said there is often a “thin line between a good deal and a suspicious deal.”
Olmert’s popularity rating is still low — only about 35 percent according to a recent poll — but it is better than the single digits of just a year ago, Sulitzeanu-Kenan said.
“But apart from being so unpopular, he stands on top of a very solid coalition,” he observed.
Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, said that in fact Olmert “is in the strongest position he’s been in since the Lebanon War [a year ago], and maybe since he became prime minister” in April 2006.
“It’s not because he’s popular or successful, but it’s because all the other parties are weak and the political system is in a massive state of crisis that Olmert has been able to take advantage of,” he explained. “Corruption investigations could still bring him down, but that is totally unpredictable.”
Calev Ben-David, a political analyst for the Jerusalem Post, said conventional wisdom among many political pundits is that Olmert has “one of the most stable coalition governments in years.”
Citing news reports that the Winograd Commission investigating the government’s handling of the war in Lebanon is not going to suggest Olmert resign and that the police investigations can take a long time, Ben-David said Olmert “can look forward to relative peace on the political domestic front” ahead of next month’s American-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace summit.
Olmert told the opening meeting of the Knesset’s winter session Monday that he is prepared to move ahead with peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“We must give negotiations a chance,” he said. “Israel has excellent excuses to justify stagnation in the talks; I don’t intend to look for excuses. … The peace process is a process that demands … [a] determination to accept brave unavoidable decisions, which involve relinquishing the full realization of the dreams that fed our national ethos for many years. Nothing is easier than to cling on to these dreams, and the price of awakening from them can be heavy for all of us.”
He did not mention the word “Jerusalem” in his remarks, but Vice Premier Haim Ramon said this week that the status of Jerusalem would be discussed at the summit.
“Israel has an interest to get recognition of all of Jerusalem’s Jewish neighborhoods, and to hand over control of Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians,” he said.
In his rebuttal speech to the Knesset the opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, warned that giving up control of East Jerusalem would simply “open the door to Al-Qaeda” and thus threaten Jews living in the rest of the city.
Steinberg said Netanyahu spoke as a man who understood that “he is laying out a strong opposition policy rather than trying to bring down the government immediately because he doesn’t have the forces to do that. Certainly all of the diplomatic activity [surrounding the summit] with Abbas, [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice and others is helping Olmert.”
Rice is expected to arrive back in the region Sunday to see how Olmert and Abbas are coming in the joint statement their aides are preparing for the summit. She may also use the occasion to announce the date of the summit, its location and the invitation list.
But Steinberg said he still believes the summit will have minimal results.
“Major changes will hurt him [Olmert] because it would galvanize the opposition,” he said. “Olmert is a very canny politician who wants to survive and say the right things to the right people but not do much. News reports saying the Palestinians are worried there will be no major agreements [at the summit] are coming from Olmert’s people to lower expectations. And I see no evidence that the Palestinians are ready to deal on the issue of [Palestinian] refugees to accept the small Israeli concessions on Jerusalem. … I think Olmert will try to look magnanimous at the summit and put its failure on Abbas’ shoulders.”
Ahead of the summit, simultaneous peace rallies by Israeli Jews and Palestinians are slated to be held next Thursday in Tel Aviv and Jericho in support of a two-state solution and an Israeli withdrawal to its 1967 borders. The rallies’ organizer, OneVoice, is said to have collected the signatures of more than 500,000 Israelis and Palestinians calling on their governments to make peace.
The rallies comes at a time when left-wing organizations such as Peace Now have garnered little support since the breakdown in peace talks in 2000 and the subsequent Palestinian violence. Steinberg said he believes this rally will be an attempt by supporters of these groups to “reestablish themselves.”
But, he said, “there is no enthusiasm for this among the masses [because] nobody expects Abbas to deliver.”
More than 60 Israeli academics, religious and political leaders are said to have joined the group’s honorary board of directors, including Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs at the American Jewish Committee. Rabbi Rosen noted that this organization was founded several years ago to bring people together who are on different sides of the political divide.
“I see it as an educational effort … to give people in both national communities a sense of hope that it is possible to rebuild trust,” he said. “The psychological dynamic is very important. The political systems in Israel and the Palestinian Authority are not the kind of civil democracies that facilitate significant grassroots impact. Those in the Knesset have a loyalty to their party and are impervious to grassroots influence.”
But Rabbi Rubin said supporters of OneVoice “hope that having enough grassroots support will give political leaders a sense that they have the backing to take the steps necessary to bring about a resolution of the conflict.”
Such rallies and Olmert’s prior statements that he is ready to turn over large sections of the West Bank to the Palestinians in a land swap for the large Jewish settlement blocs has many Israeli Jewish settlers worried but determined to stay in their homes.
“We are not going to give up,” said Ruti Avraham, a resident of Bet El, an Israeli settlement in the hills north of Jerusalem and just to the east of Ramallah. “We are always on alert because we have seen what Israel can do.”
She was referring to the forced withdrawal of more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip two years ago.
“Anybody who thinks that was a nice achievement is a psycho,” Avraham insisted. “This was the biggest mistake Israel has made since the beginning of its origin. Taking people out of their homes — what for? Peace?”
She said she feared that handing over sections of the West Bank near Ben Gurion Airport would put international aircraft in danger from Palestinian missiles.
“You hear what’s going on in Sderot?” she asked, referring to the Israeli border community near the Gaza Strip that has come under almost daily Palestinian rocket attacks.
Avraham said she expected there would be a demonstration from right-wing supporters ahead of the summit, but she questioned its effectiveness.
“How come big demonstrations don’t move the people who are elected?” she asked. “There were demonstrations against Likud [to protest the planned Gaza evacuation], but [then-Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon didn’t give a damn.”

More than half a million Israelis and Palestinians have signed a petition calling on the Israeli and Palestinian governments to reach a peace agreement within the next year based on a two-state solution and an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines.

The petition is being organized by a non-partisan organization called the OneVoice movement, which is planning to hold simultaneous rallies in both Tel Aviv and Jericho next week that will be broadcast around the world in an effort to garner support for the two-state solution.

The moves come as Israeli left-wing organizations with similar ideologies, such as Peace Now and backers of the informal “Geneva Initiative” proposed by Yossi Beilin, have become marginalized in Israeli society following the breakdown of political negotiations at Camp David seven years ago, and the subsequent outbreak of Palestinian violence.

“Every minute delayed in ending the conflict is a minute gained by forces of militant absolutism committed to erase the possibility of a two-state solution,” said Daniel Lubetzky, 38, the Mexican-born founder of the OneVoice Movement.

“If the Israeli and Palestinian heads of state demonstrate progress over the coming months, they will be able to eventually reverse the debacle in Gaza, by pointing to a positive alternative that will undermine extremism,” Lubetzky, a son of Holocaust survivor and a Texas resident, added. “But if they don’t, the opposite will happen and fundamentalist extremist ideologies will spread to the West Bank…and the world.”

The organization, which maintains offices in both Tel Aviv and Ramallah, has enlisted the support of nearly 600,000 Israelis and Palestinians - in about equal numbers - for their petition which calls a peace agreement to be reached within a year based on a two-state solution according to the 1967 lines, with a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem.

“The voice of the people is the critical element in reaching a viable solution for the region that has been missing in the resolution process thus far,” said Dr. Fathi Darwish, General Director of OneVoice Palestine. “If the Palestinian people want to end the occupation, and if the Israeli people want to ensure security and normalization with the Arab world, then each individual must play a real role to bring that about.”

The group, which was established six years ago, had originally aimed to get a million signatures on its petition - which is accessible on the Internet - by their public event next week, but now hopes to reach that figure by the end of the year.

The Tel Aviv rally, which is scheduled to take place next Thursday evening at Hayarkon Park, will include a greeting by Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, and musical performances by rock star Bryan Adams as well as Israeli acts.

More than 60 academics, religious leaders and parliamentarians serve on the group’s honorary board of advisers, including Ben-Gurion University President Avishay Braverman; Interdisciplinary Center President Uriel Reichman; Rabbi David Rosen, International Director Interreligious Affairs at the American Jewish Committee; Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom; MK Ephraim Sneh (Labor); MK Colette Avital (Labor); MK Rabbi Nissim Dahan (Shas); Meimad leader Rabbi Michael Melchior (Meimad); and MK Gilad Erdan (Likud).

On the Palestinian side, these include Palestinian Deputy Minister Ahmad Majdalani; Imad Shakur Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council; and Sheikh Taysir al Tamimi, Chief Palestinian Islamic Justice.

Former US Deputy Secretary of Treasury Stuart Eizenstat; Ambassador Martin Indyk, Director, of the Washington, DC-based Saban Center for Mideast Policy; Ambassador Dennis Ross of The Washington Institute and Jim Zogby Executive Director, Arab American Institute also are on the board.

The group lists among its partners and sponsors the media advocacy group ISRAEL21c, as well as an array of Israeli Palestinian and international peace groups and an impressive listing of international companies such as Yahoo, Wikipedia, IBM and Continental Airlines.

Following the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas this summer, the organization froze its signature drive there, and enlisted Palestinian supporters primarily in the West Bank which is run by Fatah, the group’s founder said.

“What is happening in Gaza and Iran should scare all of us. Either we will defeat them or they will defeat us,” Lubetzky concluded.

The months leading up to the planned US-hosted Middle East peace conference in November have seen a great deal of apathy and skepticism from all sides regarding the conference and the deeper issue - the prospects for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The general apathy is not surprising, and the skepticism is perhaps not unwarranted. For forty years, the Israeli and Palestinian peoples have waited for their leaders to negotiate a resolution, and for forty years, a top-down peace process failed to yield results. Over decades we have all witnessed the domestic political stalemates, the international diplomatic shortcomings and the prolific violence. We have seen the leaders again and again sit down at the table, and walk away without an agreement.

In the meantime, militant absolutists and foreign fundamentalists have successfully used this lack of progress to drive a wedge between the two sides and prey on the situation, wreaking havoc on the region. Moderate citizens who want nothing more than to live their lives, to raise their children in safety and security, have remained silent, disengaged and disempowered, as their lives and destinies are hijacked by the perpetual cycle of violence.

It is a bleak image. But it is precisely this image that inspired the creation of the OneVoice Movement.

A mainstream nationalist grassroots movement with over 3,000 highly-trained youth leaders, OneVoice aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two-state solution. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice against violent extremism and for conflict resolution.

To date, over half a million Israelis and Palestinians have signed the OneVoice Mandate calling on their heads of state to begin immediate, continuous negotiations until a resolution - a two-state solution - is achieved.
It is clear that political leaders, without the backing of their peoples, cannot make peace. Both Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert need public support. That is why on October 18th, the Israeli and Palestinian people in unison will send a message to the world and to their leaders: ‘We demand immediate, uninterrupted negotiations till the completion of an agreement among our heads of State, to be presented to their people by October 18, 2008 - in one short year.’

It will be a clear message to those scheduled to sit down at the table in November, a loud voice resonating in both Israel and Palestine, and echoed by the international community, pledging support for the process and demanding results.

Yes, we have seen peace conferences fail to deliver before. But we - moderate citizens - have also allowed ourselves the luxury of silence and inaction. We must face the reality that we are standing before a quickly closing window of opportunity to change the course of this conflict, to lend our voices to a resolution before extremists succeed in rendering any progress intractable.
The road is not easy. As the Founder of OneVoice, there have been those times when thing seem very dark indeed - when I have questioned the very core of what I have chosen to do with my life, and really wondered whether OneVoice can make a difference. There have been enormous obstacles and setbacks, both on an organizational and on a political level.

But at these times it is necessary to remember there is no alternative but to prevail. Too much is at stake. We will act because there is no other option, and we will succeed because we must.

On October 18, OneVoice and the hundreds of thousands who stand in support of it will do just that - people will take a stand for an end to the conflict, will remind their leaders what is at stake and pledge to support them when they sit down. They will look toward the future - toward the coming year and the coming peace conference - and demand something more of themselves and of their leaders than the usual skepticism. They will demand resolution - NOW, together with one voice.

We need you there with us. The Israeli and Palestinian peoples need your support. Join us.

A campaign to end the conflict: More than half a million signatures

‘What will you do to bring an end to the conflict?’ wonders a campaign led by the ‘One Voice’ organization, which already has more than 500,000 Israeli and Palestinian supporters

A half a million Israelis and Palestinians have already joined the campaign led by the “One Voice” organization, answering the question “What are you willing to do to bring about the end of the conflict?” According to the initiators, “In the past five years, we have

been able to collect more than 500,000 Israeli and Palestinian signatures, constituting a mandate demanding a two-state solution. The signatures are reinforced by surveys and studies that we have conducted”. They add, “We have learned that there is a hidden consensus amongst the two nations and that 76% of the Israeli and Palestinian population are willing to compromise in order to live a peaceful, stable and independent life”.

The “One voice” organization, which was been active since 2002 in Israel and The Palestinian Authority through branches in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Gaza, seeks to “express the voice of the silent majority of moderates”, explains Daniel Lubetzky, founder of the organization. “Our goal is to collect a million signatures of people who will work towards creating two states for two nations. It is important to send the message that business as usual is no longer acceptable to us. Every minute delayed in ending the conflict is a minute lost to the radical military forces”, he declares.

“The voice of the people is critical in reaching a viable regional agreement” summarizes Dr. Fathi Darwish, General Director of the organization in the Palestinian Authority. “If the Palestinian people want to end the occupation, and if the Israeli people want to ensure security and normalization with the Arab world, then each person must play a role to bring it about”.

In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges argues that conflict creates a common enemy, and from that we derive a sense of community, commonality, and shared interest. But what is going on in Israel and Palestine is no longer a conflict — it is chaos. Chaos does not unify. Chaos only serves the most extreme elements of society that seek to destabilize any semblance of order to fulfill their selfish lust for power.

In contrast, peace is an act of enlightened self-interest. Peace is an idea born from hope and the desire to see your children raise a family, walk in a market, and engage in simple pleasures of everyday life without fear. A quest to end the conflict is what binds people like Yaniv Rivlin and Shadha Musallam.

As detailed in a Washington Times column last week, new hope has arrived thanks to many like Yaniv, a 25-year old former Israeli solider with a strong Zionistic upbringing, and Shadha, a 20-year old Palestinian whose family was “so close to Yasser Arafat that she considered him her godfather.” What could ever compel these two to share the same cause? As Yaniv explained, “It’s not about loving the other side.”

For 40 years, Israeli and Palestinian citizens waited for their leaders to negotiate a resolution so they might live in peace. And for forty years, a top-down peace process failed to yield results. For this reason, OneVoice was established.

OneVoice takes a radically simple, rational approach, amplifying the voice of the overwhelming but silent majority who wish to end the conflict, and empowering ordinary citizens to demand accountability from elected representatives. To date, over half a million Israelis and Palestinians have signed the OneVoice Mandate calling on their heads of state to begin immediate, continuous negotiations until a resolution is achieved. But until this goal is reached and every silenced moderate voice joins the growing chorus, our work will continue.

To that end, on October 18th, OneVoice will mobilize hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis at People’s Summits in Jericho and Tel Aviv, linked via satellite with parallel events in London, Ottawa, and Washington, D.C. Ordinary citizens will speak out in unprecedented numbers against violent extremism and demand that their leaders begin negotiations.

Admittedly, countless false starts and hard lessons trigger knee-jerk, instinctual cynicism whenever the prospect for peace between Israel and Palestine is referenced. Over decades we have all witnessed the domestic political stalemates, the international diplomatic shortcomings, and prolific violence endured on both fronts. Why should anything be different now? What great enjoinder will finally rally Israelis and Palestinians to peace? (The Economist asked these very questions two weeks ago — and my response in The Economist is found here.)

This is a seductive but dangerous line of reasoning. There is a natural apprehension to visualize peace. What if our hopes end unfulfilled? What if we fail? With so much violence, such a history of conflict, it is easier to sign off.

But we do not have the luxury of inaction. For every day we do not march onward to build a coalition of moderates to end the conflict, forces of fatalism and apocalyptic absolutism — from Ahmadinejad to Al Qaeda — prey on our divisions and gain a deeper foothold in our minds and our world.

We will prevail because we must.

Soon, on the opposite side of a television screen, real people will demand an end to the conflict that delivers more than diplomats shaking hands. Their simple and unified plea is to raise a generation unlike themselves — a generation that will know peace. To do so, they must become their greatest generation, unlike any other: they must raise their cry for peace and stand firm in the face of violent extremism and dismissive cynicism.

I invite you to listen. And to join us. OneVoice leads to One Million Voices To End The Conflict.

Daniel Lubetzky is the Founder of the OneVoice Movement. Learn more about OneVoice and their October 18th People’s Summits at www.onemillionvoices.org.

More than a half-million Israelis and Palestinians have signed a petition demanding a two-state solution.

The OneVoice Movement said Tuesday it had exceeded its goal — four months early — of 500,000 signatures, with 262,008 Israelis and 274,435 Palestinians signing on.

The petition calls on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately start negotiations and arrive at an agreement by Oct. 18, 2008 — exactly one year after planned rallies in Jericho and Tel Aviv, as well as satellite events in Washington, London and Ottawa.

It calls for the sides to “recognize the right of both peoples to independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity, respect, national security, personal safety, and economic viability” and to “implement concrete confidence-building measures that will improve the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people, including ensuring freedom of movement for ordinary civilians and fostering education against incitement on both sides.”

OneVoice, describing itself as a “youth-led” movement, is funded primarily by Daniel Lubetzky, a Mexican-Jewish entrepreneur. It has the support of, among others, Sheik Taysir Al-Tamimi, the top Palestinian religious judge; Dennis Ross, a former top U.S. Mideast peace envoy now advising presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.); Dov Lautman, a leading Israeli industrialist; and Sir Jonathan Sacks, the British chief rabbi.