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Friday, February 17, 2012

My letter to my local paper The Patriot News RE There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East by Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal

RE: AS I SEE IT: There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East by Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/02/there_can_be_a_path_to_true_pe.html

Dear Editor,

"So far, the Israelis’ emphasis has been on security for Israel and insecurity for others. It is about time it accepted that security through weapons cannot bring peace: Only peace based on justice can bring real security for us all. " Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal The Patriot News AS I SEE IT There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East February 17, 2012

Thank you so much for publishing Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal's inspiring op-ed: I was totally surprised and delighted to see that in our local newspaper!

I very much believe that working toward "turning the Middle East, Israel, the Indian subcontinent and indeed North Korea, into a WMD-free zone" is an excellent idea- for everyone's sake. Much better that limited funds and resources here, there and everywhere be put towards education and infrastructure and the ecological challenges ahead, rather than foolishly exasperating an arms race and escalating angry rhetoric.

Jordan has been at the forefront of intelligent and compassionate efforts to help Palestine and Palestinians for decades. Jordan made official peace with Israel years ago, but it is a very fragile peace due to the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict. The current status quo is not sustainable for long. Right now there is still a chance and a golden opportunity to really believe in and build support for official negotiations to shape a fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict- for everyone's sake. But only if negotiations are firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights... and we all must do our part to help calm down the conversation so that reasonable people can be heard- and understood.

The Golden Rule is an easy to remember reminder of the basic logic necessary for calming down the situation with compassion, diplomacy and an investment in real justice so that everyone (regardless of religion and/or nationality and/or gender) can have their fair share of creating and benefiting from the three baskets of the Helsinki process — economy, security and human dignity —.... and peace. Yes it is possible, and it really is the best way forward.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American Homemaker & Poet

NOTES
"Religious conservatism invariably focuses on social and sexual control. Women are the most immediate targets and primary focus of the authoritarianism of the religious right, wherever they may be. As Islamists seem to be finally getting their chance at gaining a share of power in the Arab world, the greatest and most immediate danger they pose is to women’s rights. That is why it is up to everyone else, including both secularists and religious moderates, to insist on the introduction of inviolable constitutional principles protecting the rights of individuals, women and minorities." Hussein Ibish: Islamism and misogyny

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt
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