My letter to the Washington Post RE Imbalance in Israel by Richard Cohen

Time for honesty about dialogue with Israel: There’s a healthy alternative to the hypocrisy of engaging Israel privately while condemning "normalization” publicly...  Hussein Ibish:"As everyone who doesn't live inside a warm cocoon of willful ignorance knows, the Arabs and Israel are in constant contact. They talk about everything from security to trade, intelligence to diplomacy."

RE Imbalance in Israel by Richard Cohen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-imbalance-in-israel/2013/12/09/3d0dd316-60fe-11e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html

Dear Editor,

I started reading Richard Cohen's most recent op-ed about Israel totally expecting to vehemently disagree with all he said... and I want to but I can't.  I can, however, see more clearly why so many Boycott Israel activists are also advocates of a one state dream, rather than supporters of a two state solution to actually end the Israel Palestine conflict.

I confess, because of the Boycott Israel campaigns, I had already noticed that one state "pro-Palestine" activists tend to rely on Israeli resources (with facts taken out of context) to arm their arguments, in much the same way that anti-America hate mongers use American resources (with facts taken out of context) to arm their arguments.

Big picture is that Richard Cohen just set a fine example proving that arguing about/for or against Boycott Israel tactics and hypothetical ramifications can be thoughtful diplomacy and savvy publicity for Israel and its most talented authors.

Meanwhile- what about Palestine?!!!!  

Hussein Ibish in a recent article Time for honesty about dialogue with Israel points out that " The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) – where I serve as a senior fellow under the leadership of its President, Ziad Asali – has a strategy of public, open engagement with Jewish-Americans, Israel, and Israelis, in pursuit of its mission to help end the occupation and create a Palestinian state. Hence ATFP simply cannot be intimidated or bullied by "accusations" of "normalization"... On the contrary, ATFP has been able to demonstrate how constructive, positive dialogue with all potential partners – in the open and without any pretense – can make real headway in developing a broader, stronger constituency for the creation of an independent Palestine."

In context, I think it is obvious that what really matters most is diplomacy and conversations that actually empower the creation of a just and lasting peace for both Israel and Palestine- based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

The Last Chance... a poem for Palestine

Remember that Mandela emerged from jail as a peacemaker, not a soldier.

"He inspired us to walk the path of forgiveness and reconciliation and so South Africa did not go up in flames..."

Nelson Mandela Quotes We Love

American Task Force on Palestine front page & ATFP News Roundup December 6, 2013 ... Mandela's mixed legacy for the Middle East

"It always seems impossible until it's done"... Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela's support for Palestine- and negotiations to end the Israel Palestine conflict with a two state solution..."strengthening the voice of peace and friendship in Israel and Palestine"

"Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future." Neslon Mandela

Nelson Mandela, The Global Icon Who Left Footprints Around The World ...Palestinian campaigners describe him as “totally inspirational”

"No one is born hating another person... if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love." Nelson Mandela

Abbas hails Mandela’s ties to Palestinian cause: Nelson Mandela, who first visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in 1999, was an ardent supporter of the Palestinian cause and a champion for Middle East peace. File picture: Jerome Delay

Now that his three-year world tour for "The Wall" has finally come to an end, Roger Waters wants to set the record straight over criticism he's received from Jewish groups regarding his use of the Star of David symbol in the show and his support for a cultural boycott of Israel.

British human rights organization Amnesty International condemns the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip in a statement released on Monday, demanding Israel "immediately lift its blockade" on the besieged coastal enclave

Israel To Build 3000 New Settlement Units

Christmas message from Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun of Palestine..." Today, our little town has become even smaller due to the continued expansion of Israeli settlements, but the message of Jesus Christ remains in our hearts, overcoming with hope the despair of decades of living under a foreign occupation and being deprived of our rights."

Our Compass: Nelson Mandela by Salam Fayyad of Palestine

Hussein Ibish: Freedom and equality are at the core of the Palestinians’ struggle

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

International Emmys Award for Best Documentary to "5 Broken Cameras" in which a Palestinian farmer examines upheaval in a West Bank village.

Arab Idol Assaf in appeal for UN Palestinian agency

"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

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Why Muslims should love secularism: Though secularism is widely misunderstood as anti-religious and iconoclastic, all it means is the neutrality of the state on religious affairs ...  "Muslims must recognize secularism as the only real path to religious freedom, rather than confusing it with an attack against religion." Hussein Ibish

"The direct threat to Israeli and Palestinian existence — and, in fact, to the existence of all peoples in the region — is the absence of peace in Palestine." Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh in The Jordan Times

'It is where religious freedom is most dishonored or repressed that the forces of violent religious extremism are likely to thrive.' Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chairwoman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom: JFK's call for religious freedom can transform...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Live by the Golden Rule

Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring

194

Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Arab Peace Initiative

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Charter for Compassion is a call to restore the Golden Rule to the center of religious, moral and civic life. The path to a just economy and a peaceful world requires listening, understanding and treating all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Freedom for Palestine - OneWorld
 
"The global consensus is practically unanimous: Palestinians deserve a state alongside Israel, which is already a United Nations member state." Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine