Rabbi Waskow's Letter to Obama on Middle East Peace

A friend just alerted me to this wonderful letter to Senator Obama from Rabbi Arthur Waskow, founder and director of The Shalom Center.

See link for complete source: Newsweek.com

Rabbi Arthur Waskow has been one of the creators and leaders of Jewish renewal since writing the original Freedom Seder in 1969. In 1983, he founded and has since been director of The Shalom Center (www.shalomctr.org). In 2007, Newsweek named him one of America's fifty most influential rabbis.

Peace and Ethics in the Mideast

Dear friends, I am writing this out of personal experience and my own individual ethical concern, not on behalf of any organization or campaign. It comes with Martin Buber's teaching ringing in my brain: that he had no idea what it meant to say that "the ends justify the means," but that for sure the means we actually use will become the ends that we actually achieve.

Or as ancient Torah teaches, "Justice, justice shall you pursue." Why "justice" twice? To teach that just ends can only be achieved through just means.

A lesson for all who work to change society. Perhaps especially for those who profess a religious commitment to do so.

Shalom, salaam, peace -- Arthur

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dear Senator Obama,

I met you at your talk with Philadelphia Jewish leaders in April. It was I who as you entered the room handed you a copy of the original Freedom Seder, which I wrote in 1969, and which bound together the freedom struggles of Blacks and Jews. And during Q & A, it was I who asked you how as President you would deal with the peace-obstructing settlement policy of this and many previous Israeli governments.

I was satisfied by your answer -- then. But since then, I have become increasingly concerned by your words and actions concerning the Middle East and Islam.

I asked that question because one of the advance speakers for your meeting, Congressman Roth of New Jersey, had just asserted that you believe the failure of the peace process has been solely the result of the absence of a Palestinian partner for peace.

"Solely the fault of the Palestinians?" I thought. "Surely he doesn't believe that!" So I rose to say that hundreds of rabbis and hundreds of thousands of American Jews see Israeli settlement policy as obstacles to peace, and asked what as President you would do about it.

Your answer cited the vigorous debate on these questions in Israel -- more vigorous than here; the recognition by most Israelis that for peace to unfold, there will have to be a shift in settlement policy; and your sense that most Israeli know that internal debate would be so wrenching that they want to know there is a partner for that decision before going through the debate.

Though you avoided saying what you would do, I was satisfied with your answer -- then.

I was especially ready to be satisfied because I knew that earlier, when you met with Jewish leaders in Cleveland, you had gone even further, saying:

"I sat down with the head of Israeli security forces and his view of the Palestinians was incredibly nuanced because he's dealing with these people every day. He was willing to say sometimes we make mistakes and if we are just pressing down on these folks constantly without giving them some prospects for hope, that's not good for our security situation."

It would be profoundly important to have a President who understands that! Yet more recently, in your speech to AIPAC, there was no such language. And you slid so far into simply repeating official shibboleths like "Jerusalem undivided" that you had to correct yourself the next day.

No one knows better than I that many of the "official" Jewish organizations would go ballistic to hear a presidential candidate bring such ideas to the fore in, say, a major speech about making peace across the whole region that Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah walked.

And no one knows better than I that millions of American Jews , Christians, and Muslims want exactly that kind of honest talk and vigorous diplomacy. They would support any President who insisted on exactly the kind of broad pursuit of peace you have sometimes affirmed, and the changes in not only Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian but also Israeli and American behavior it requires.

I know some people who carry a strange mixture of cynicism and wish-fulfillment in their heads -- who think you can, will, and should say anything to calm folks like the AIPAC membership and thereby get elected, and later will work hard for a real peace. I know people who think that you can, will, and should pretend you never met Palestinians and heard their suffering, never got to understand their understanding of their history as you have so eloquently explained that you have heard and understood the Jewish story -- all in order that once you are in office, you can bring your "true" knowledge into policy.

But I don't think it works that way. Not only would that kind of campaign be an ethical failure and a personal self-betrayal, abandoning the honest, nuanced, politics of change that you claimed to represent -- but I think it won't work politically.

First of all, that kind of campaign will greatly weaken your appeal to the passionate supporters you have had -- just like your betrayal of your own understanding that the FISA bill violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of searches without warrants. Already, the drop-off of small contributions to your campaign suggests that these people are dismayed. And they are the core of your strength, as you yourself have repeatedly said.

Secondly, it will weaken your ability if you are elected President to take the steps necessary for peace. For it would weaken and delegitimate the millions of American Jews, Muslims, and Christians who seek precisely a policy of peace for Israel alongside a peaceful Palestine, and peace between Iran and the United States. Who would thank God -- literally! -- for a President who would seek to meet the crucial needs of all these peoples while refusing to humiliate or subjugate any of them. There will be many people and organizations ready to attack any President who takes such positions. There need to be people and organizations motivated and mobilized to support them.

To strengthen such a faith-based coalition, you will also have to make clear -- by where you speak as well as what you say -- that of course American Muslims are as much a part of American society as any other religious group. So your unwillingness to speak in any mosque -- presumably for fear that might reinforce the wicked rumors that you are really a Muslim -- simply strengthens the mind-set that thinks to demonize you on the false grounds that you are a Muslim, and any Muslim must be anti-American.

I remember being moved when in your speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, you said, "If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties." That line had no political pay-off in numbers of voters. It was a principled statement, fearlessly swimming against the tide of public opinion. And -- against all "realistic" calculation -- it won vigorous applause from those assembled number-centered politicians!

You owe it to Americans of all faiths, to Jews around the world, to the Arab and Muslim billions - - to treat all these people as part of the world community that must work together to heal our planet from war and eco-disaster.

Just as in Philadelphia you expressed compassion for white working-class anger without surrendering to right-wing policies that ignore Black poverty and despair-so you can express compassion for Jewish fears without surrendering to oppressive right-wing Israeli policy. And in the same new approach to change, you can include Muslims in the body politic and express compassion for some Muslims' anger and fear, without affirming violence and terrorism.

You will need to address these questions honestly if you are not to be caught against your will in years of war and terror that would destroy an Administration you might lead as it did the last one, will damage America at least as deeply as our deafness to others' narratives has damaged us this past seven years.

Just as the racial chasm has haunted and daunted American democracy two centuries and more, the growing chasm between "the West" and "Islam" will haunt and daunt every effort to make peace and heal our planet, if we and you do not address it in all its depth and difficulty.

So just as you spoke in Philadelphia with nuance and compassion about race, I implore you to speak as clearly with nuance and compassion about these questions.

With blessings of shalom, salaam, peace.

World Economic Forum 2008 Day 1 - Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt

Greetings from the World Economic Forum in Sharm al Sheikh, a truly global gathering of nearly 1500 leaders convening to discuss current political and economic issues of the Middle East. I feel privileged to be a participant, as it's quite an impressive group and a beautiful setting. I'm somewhat disappointed I will not have the chance to dip in the Red Sea or lie on the beach, but discussing the very pressing issues of the Middle East trumps relaxation time. Listen in to the live webcasts at WEF ME Forum

Here are a few notes from Day 1.

The opening session consisted of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah, and President Bush. Mubarak and Abdullah focused on the Palestinian issue as we just passed the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel, al Nakba, the "catastrophe" to Palestinians. Mubarak and Abdullah also highlighted many of the economic successes achieved in their respective countries, including growth rates of about 4 percent. Unfortunately, this growth has not trickled down to average citizens, who in Egypt, are increasingly agitating against the government due to increases in food prices and decreased subsidies on food and fuel.

As so often happens in US communication in the Middle East, there appeared to be a disconnect between the US and Arab message. Both sides emphasized justice, freedom, and liberty. For the Arab leaders, that was tied to the Palestinian issue. For the US, it is tied to defeating Hamas, Hizbollah, and Iran. Bush again emphasized and nearly chastised Arab leaders for not doing more to promote democracy, freedom, and human and women's rights. What seems to be lost on our President is that this admonition rings hollow for many Arab leaders, who view the US as supporting suppression of democracy and freedom in many Arab lands, especially the Palestinian Territories, in addition to our favored allied nations.

Day 1: Hot Topic: Iraq's Shaky Progress
Panelists: Vice President Adil abd al Mahdi, Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, and Congresspersons Christopher Shays and Jane Harman.

Below are notes:


Rep. Jane Harman (Democrat from CA): al Qaida, although reduced, remains a dangerous threat. Even if quashed in one area, can move elsewhere. But these successes must necessarily change US interests on the ground. The US should not leave precipitously; we do have a commitment and responsibility to rebuild. It was our invasion that resulted in a failed state. Our posture should change, provide assistance to counter terrorism, porous borders, protect our Embassy, and train Iraqis. We should end our combat mission in Iraq and support withdrawing combat troops and by end of 2009 have a different posture.

Barham Salih (Deputy Prime Minister)
The success of the past six months is because of a fundamental change in attitude on the ground in other communities. Delivered a serious setback, but resourceful enemy.

Basra instructive: government taking on other groups, and the US in supportive role. We are not yet able to do it on our own. Progress serious, tangible, but fragile.

Rep. Chris Shays (Republican, Conn.)

If Iraq goes badly, it’s because the US at the very point that it should move forward, we’ve left them. The Iraqis are more effective than the US politicians, when you take into account that they need 70% of legislator approval to pass legislation.
Signs of success:
--new Sec of Defense who is not tied to past policy mistakes.
--surge is working
--tribal leaders effective; Sunnis want to be part of govt.
--political leaders able to work on the issues.
--elections, de-Bathification
Leaders don’t get credit they deserve.
We were wrong. There were no WMD. And then we really screwed it up, but that was then. We are not making progress, and I'm fearful that the American public will drop Iraq at a crucial time. These leaders deserve our commitment. I would risk my election because these leaders risk their lives.

Hoshyar Zebari (Foreign Minister, Iraq): Iran is a major regional player and have to face this reality. Encouraged dialogue between the US and Iran about Iraq.
--addressed concerns to Iranians. Want to keep confrontation away.
-only way to deal with powerful neighbors and influence is for Iraq to get stronger. Also, Arab countries need to help and have so far failed Iraq.

Abdulla-Janahi (Co-chairman of WEF on ME): Iraqis must sign status of forces arrangement with US. Arab countries have indeed failed Iraq. Iraqis also failed Iraq. Much bigger thing than al Qaida. Elites happy to see Iraq bogged down, impoverished, were fearful of democracy. Now it’s been discredited.
--lessons learned: corruption.
--partnership with Iraqis: we only see it from one side, the American perspective. To the US, tell the truth and do better at PR. Iraq PR is abysmal.

A letter from a Vietnam vet in response to "Five years in Iraq"

I wanted to share with you all a response I received from a friend of mine who is a former infantry officer who served two tours in Vietnam. He sent me this after listening to a podcast of a talk I gave entitled "Five years in Iraq: How did we get there and where do we go from here?" You can listen to the presentation by clicking on the "podcasts" link from this site: Prin radio I found his remarks so heartfelt, interesting, and a serious call to action for all Americans. I hope his comments spur thought about the endeavor in which we find ourselves.

Dear Janessa,

My wife and I finally carved out time this afternoon to listen to your
moving talk at Prin on the 5 years in Iraq. We felt like we were sitting
in the front row!

It was really hard to stay up with your dialogue as my feelings kept
coming out as I pictured my fellow soldiers trying to do the only thing
they knew how to do and then suddenly realizing that it was accomplishing
nothing permanent. No hills were taken; no territory was captured;
no enemy army surrendered. Only death and doubt and frustration day after
endless day. How we find men and women who return there for their
third (and some their fourth) tour, knowing they will make no difference,
yet willing to return again and again, laying their life on the line.

So, you did everyone a service by carrying us back to 2003
and without a bias or an agenda, laying out the facts surrounding 2004-2008 for all to see.
Hearing the letter from your brother regarding one of his Seal Team Five
buddies that was lost was soul crunching. such a waste!

I know that prayer is the ultimate future course of action, for only
through this course can we bring the full power of God to this problem. There is
no human power that can peacefully resolve the problems in the Middle East.

Yet, the politicians, being politicians, and not have their sons and daughters over there,
will look for yet another course of action that preserves
the oil, preserves the administration's reputation, gives the appearance of progress,
and places the blame for failing on the other political party. Insane.

At a CS (Christian Science) Lecture last Thursday evening, Ryder Stevens reminded us
not to expect a quick reconciliation between the Shia and Sunnis as they
have been enemies since the year 620!! If we leave next year, they
will kill each other; if we leave in 2020, they will kill each other. The
difference between choosing those 2009 and 2020 to depart is how many
more American lives and American dollars are we willing to spend to
delay the ultimate killing of each other. It's really a form of insanity.
Forgive the terminology, but in Hawaii, we used to refer to this type of
thinking as "pissing into the waves"...you only get wetter.

So long as we seek diplomatic, political, military future courses of action,
soldiers will be walking the same ground, being killed by the same (or more sophisticated) Iranian IEDs
next year, the year after, the decade after that. I remember on day
on a daylight patrol north of Qui Nhon SVN in 1970, the point man stepped
on an antipersonnel mine which blew his leg off. He was lifted out
by medical helicopter and we continued our mission. Thirty minutes
later another soldier triggered an antipersonnel mine, and the shrapnel
killed him. At that point, the soldiers let me know by nothing but the
expression on their faces that whatever lay ahead was not worth one more life today.
They didn't refuse to continue forward; I refused to command them to do so. We reversed our direction,
went to a safe pickup zone and returned to the base came. We would have
accomplished nothing by continuing on the patrol...would have killed or
wounded another soldier before the day was over.

Wonder if some day, soldiers will no longer get in vehicles and go down
roads knowing that if not today, then tomorrow, they will be blown up
and killed by an IED? Interesting question. Of course when the IEDs
cause us to stop going a certain place, using a certain route, then the
insurgents have won.

Yes, the US people are tired of the war and I'm afraid the government
and the US media do not want the American people to become too attached
to what's going on or they would begin to influence decisions made in
Washington. So long as the public doesn't have to pay for the war with
direct taxes and so long as it is not their sons and daughters dying over there,
they will, like those of 1971, continue to visit Walmart, complain about high
gas prices, and plan their vacation trips as if peace was a permanent given.

I remember in 1971 in Vietnam, the country had almost totally turned
off their TVs and stopped reading any story in the paper about Vietnam.
Yet, each and every hour, we felt we had a reason to be there, we had
daily examples of freeing villagers from Viet Cong oppressors.

But you know, we shouldn't have been in Vietnam either. And had LBJ
not used the fallacious attack on the destroyer Turner Joy as a reason
to execute a massive build up of forces we would never have been there.

So now, as I hear our navy cruising up and down the Straits of Hormuz
taunting the Iranians to send out small gunboats, I wonder how long it
will be before the Iranians launch an anti-ship missile into the side of
one of our ships, and in response our government launches a HUGE
response into downtown Tehran and off we go again.......
Except this time, he war will have to be fought by the air force
and navy ONLY as we have no Army or Marine units to put on the
ground in Iran.

Should be interesting.

I pray you will be watching it from an office in the US somewhere...but I know that
will probably not be the case.

Back to the talk: Years from now as we see how history ultimately unfolds,
the students and parents you have touched with your talk will reflect on that
night when they first caught a glimpse of a huge American diplomatic and
military blunder that could have been prevented had honesty and patience
prevailed.

Looking back at the length of my thoughts about your talk, you can easily see it struck a chord with me.
Humanly, I really feel very small and powerless to do anything about Iraq...Yet, spiritually, there is prayer, and
I know the power of prayer, so I do have a purpose, and I commit to that purpose.

Sincerely,

a former Infantry officer who served two tours in Viet Nam

The Baghdad Observer - Rulers of Iraq

I really enjoy the entries on the blog, The Baghdad Observer. Here's one of Ms. Fadel's postings from February 26. http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/baghdad/

Rulers of Iraq
We walked into the Iranian embassy today to interview the ambassador. It was built 70 years ago and reoccupied by the Iranian mission after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. My translator looked at me as we walked through the double wooden doors to interview the Iranian Ambassador.

"This is the second ruler of Iraq," she said.

I looked at her.

"After Crocker," she said, referring to the U.S. Ambassador. She never mentioned the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al Maliki. She expressed what most Iraqis feel, Iraq is a tug of war for power between Iran and the United States.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Baghdad Observer is written by Leila Fadel, the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered the war in Iraq for Knight Ridder and now McClatchy on and off since June 2005, as well as the 34-day war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006.

Five years in Iraq--who is the parent and who is the child?

I've been kicking myself for not writing an article on Iraq to be published on the five-year anniversary. Anniversaries prompt reflection, and there's certainly a lot upon which to reflect. Iraq is changed; we are changed; indeed, the world is changed.

Ideally, that change would have been positive, akin to the growth a child experiences in five years, as it miraculously develops its faculties, comprehension, and independence. I had that hope in Iraq in 2003. Many of us felt like mothers in a way-- helping to birth this new nation, a country remade, liberated from a dictator, free to celebrate human rights, freedoms, equality and justice for all. And the Americans weren't alone. The Iraqis whom I met were so overjoyed to be rid of Saddam, so hopeful for the future, and so sure that the superpower had a plan for their country--that soon the streets would be drowning in dollars.

Alas, it's as if we birthed a child only to leave him to the wolves. There was no plan--no post-war (Phase IV) plan, no understanding of realities on the ground, and countless errors of inference. Those early mistakes are well known: standing by while looting engulfed Baghdad, robbing it of its antiquities and heritage, laying waste to infrastructure in government ministries, stealing and destroying an estimated over a billion dollars. In the process, we showed Iraqis that this new sheriff in town was not a sheriff at all, and so new criminals rode into town--al-Qaida, Shia militias, gangs, insurgents.

Add to that the infamous triad of errors enacted by L. Paul Bremer during the Coalition Provisional Authority, that permanently stunted the growth of the child:

--De-Bathification: A CPA order established a commission to prosecute former Baathists and eliminated Baath party members (above Firqa level) from government posts, i.e. the technocrats, professors, bureaucrats with experience and expertise.

--Disbanding the Iraqi army. Despite an estimated 130,000 soldiers waiting in the wings to come back to service, Bremer disbanded the army, without consulting Iraqis or Americans on the ground in Iraq. This instantly put nearly half a million trained, professional soldiers out of work. It's no wonder that an insurgency started developing thereafter, as you had a lot of unemployed, unhappy guys trained to use guns, and who also knew the locations of the unguarded weapons caches.

--Aborting the Interim Iraqi government. ORHA head Jay Garner had been assembling an indigenous group of key leaders to serve as an interim government--moves Bremer quickly quashed as he instead moved the US presence to a legal US-led "occupation", a term not taken to kindly in the Arab world, given the Israel parallel.

So, there we have our child, first robbed blind of clothing through looting, then stripped of its faculties through De-Bathification, abused through disbanding the army, with its independent growth stunted through aborting the moves towards interim government. It's no wonder that the child is confused, conflicted, and fighting to survive.

And what of the parents? Don't we have some responsibility to our child? Do we attempt to redress the errors we committed in its upbringing? Should we plead for forgiveness, pledge to start over, and shower it with affection, the right tools and education? Or, do we give up, and have another one? (Iran, anyone?)

The answer to all of these questions is simple. As parents, we have to realize, that Iraq is no longer a child. In the eyes of the world, she is an adult--a sovereign nation, and free to do as she chooses. Although, like many eighteen year olds in the US who are savoring their legal independence, Iraq seems also conflicted between complete independence and the reliance on parents, however ill-equipped they are. "Do I want to leave their house, (i.e. kick out the Americans), or do I need the security (troops) they provide for a while longer?" As parents, we need to realize the child is grown, that it's impossible to start over. And who would trust us to have another child after the mess we made of the first one? Perhaps the CIA's December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which indicated Iran's cessation of nuclear weapon development in 2003, was like showering the mother on welfare with contraceptives.

But who is really the parent here? And who the child?

In reality, the most astonishing lesson of the Iraq war for Americans is that rather than the Mothers or parents of democracy, we are indeed the children being taught the ways of the world. And perhaps, rather than mere children, Iraq is acting out the role of parent.

Iraq is perhaps the ultimate Mother-figure, the historic Mesopotamia, the "land between the two rivers", between whose flows the cradle of civilization was birthed. Iraqis are people with true wisdom--they first established farming techniques, government, writing, mathematics, astronomy. They have persevered, persisted through millenia of conquest, invasion, and upheaval, and are still surviving. In the span of this long lifetime, five years of hardship are but a drop in the bucket.

America, however, is perhaps the child--the rebellious youth bracing against chastening life experiences. We are loathe to learn that we can't always have it our way and that we don't know it all, that we're no longer invincible and innocent. We're coming face to face with our own mortality; our unbridled, youthful strength is weakened; our empire, crumbling. We learn that change does happen, and it's not always for the better.

One hopes that the youth at this point becomes humbled, and realizes that there is so much that he does not know, that he must prepare, do well in school, study and work hard, and earn a place at the table. He can no longer take success for granted because he has youthful strength and an air of indomitability. He must rather doggedly live by his ideals and pursue his dreams. If not, he will not be successful, and must pass the mantle to others. Those who put in the work, who have results to show for it, will become the true leaders, and they will deserve it.

Meeting with Iraqi Minister of Electricity

A few days ago, I met with the Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Karim Wahid (pictured far right), about the "Solar Cells for Peace" project. I had told a friend of mine at State Department about our solar cell project the day before and she mentioned the Minister happened to be in Washington on a trip. So, through my Iraqi contacts in Washington, I was able to arrange a meeting with him to tell him about the idea.

A fascinating guy, Mr. Wahid, is an electrical engineer by education and trade, having worked at the Ministry since 1975. He described the changes that have been made in the Ministry since Saddam's time, especially the increase in strategic planning and the focus on training for the Ministry's staff in all areas. Since becoming the Minister last year, Mr. Wahid said he has put together a ten-year strategic plan that will get Iraq fully powered in that time. He was in the US to urge American companies to aid Iraq by bidding on the plethora of projects, contracts, etc. they need implemented. He said they have the money and the plan; they just need the expertise and the muscle to do them.

I asked him all about the Ministry's plans for "going green", ideas for alternative technologies, and our Solar Cells for Peace idea. He recounted that they wanted to power a large portion of streetlights in Iraq using solar means, but that individual homes were too expensive. I showed him our figures that are based on a thorough and interesting study done by the Naval Postgraduate School estimated about $9,000 per home. (see Naval report: OPERATION SOLAR EAGLE: A Study Examining Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Power as an Alternative for the Rebuilding of the Iraqi Electrical Power Generation Infrastructure)

In any case, I didn't get any immediate promises for funding, but I was heartened to see that the Ministry is looking at solar options for some functions and that he was at least open to meeting with me and promised to review the ideas. We'll see...!

Happy holidays to all. I've just arrived to beautiful Northern California, but I'm thinking of the Holy Land, especially Bethlehem in the Palestinian Territories, where I was last year near this time. How important to think of "on earth peace, good will toward men," for ALL peoples and places.

Solar Cells for Peace

We've been working on a new idea at Euphrates Institute. Solar Cells for Peace is an idea to improve the daily lives of Iraqis by meeting their acute power needs sustainably, using Iraq’s most abundant and renewable resource, the sun. We want to conduct a demonstration project to equip 100 homes in Baghdad, Iraq with solar generated power by Fall 2008. In so doing, we not only accrue benefit for US efforts in Iraq by showing Iraqis tangible evidence of American goodwill, but we also benefit Iraq’s physical environment and the well-being of its people through provision of a sustainable alternative to the dilapidated power grid or to expensive and polluting traditional generators.

There are many groups out there doing incredible alternative energy projects throughout the world, as well as projects closer to home. (You've all heard of Brad Pitt's initiative in New Orleans' lower 9th ward.)

Here are a few of the fantastic groups that have inspired me. Enjoy!

Solar Electric Light Fund

Blue Energy Group

Blue Energy Group's Founder Mathias Craig's philosophy

Muslim - Christian Rapprochement

There is the most incredible development taking place on finding common ground between Christians and Muslims. In response to the Pope's comments in September disparaging Islam as medieval, a group of over 130 Muslim scholars responded with an open letter entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You".

The letter identifies two "foundational principles" on which Christians and Muslims are duty-bound to work together: love of God and love of one's neighbour.

The following is an excerpt from The Guardian's December 1st paper:

"Love God, the letter states, is not only the basic message of the Quran; it is also the first and greatest commandment of the Bible. Jesus preached the need to love your neighbour as yourself, just as numerous injunctions in Islam emphasise the paramount importance of showering love and mercy on one's neighbours. This common ground, say Muslim scholars, is sufficient for the two faith groups to build permanent bridges of peace. We are not asking for "polite ecumenical dialogue", say the scholars. With Muslims and Christians locked in battle everywhere, fighting with the terrible weaponry of the modern world, "our common future is at stake". Christians and Muslims need to rise above their differences and vie with each other only in righteousness and good work.


Go to this site for details, especially click on the tab, "Christian Responses" to see the letter in response to the Muslim scholars' letter that was signed by over 300 American Christian leaders and was published as an ad in the New York
Times. You can also personally endorse the letter on the site!

A Common Word


Great things are happening! Developments like this are just what the Euphrates Institute stands for, finding our commonly held values and building bridges between humanity.

Interview airs today on APM's "The Story with Dick Gordon"

Check out my interview on American Public Media's "The Story with Dick Gordon" on Blackwater and US foreign policy. You can download the podcast from the link. It airs on over 50 NPR stations across the country.



Monday, October 22

Ahmed's Diary
People in Baghdad are still talking about what happened on September 16 - the day an incident involving the private security company Blackwater USA left at least 17 Iraqis dead. Ahmed Abdullah visited the scene in Nisour Square and talked to witnesses. One witness, an Iraqi soldier, told Ahmed that he tried to get Blackwater personnel to help the wounded. Instead, one of them took aim at the man and shot him in the chest.

Surviving Blackwater
Janessa Gans
Janessa Gans had regular contact with the private security company, Blackwater. Between 2003 and 2005 she was working in Iraq, and on many of her trips around the country she traveled in vehicles driven by Blackwater contractors. Janessa talks to Dick about both the professionalism and recklessness she experienced firsthand.


In her opinion, every time a Blackwater convoy passed through an Iraqi town, the company lowered the reputation of the United States in the eyes of Iraqis.


The job of a contractor
Ken Sherrod went to Iraq for the first time as a soldier with the Air Guard Reserves. When he got the opportunity to go back as a private contractor in 2004, he took it. Ken spoke with Dick in April of 2006, when he had just returned after working for 2 years as a military contractor in Iraq. While he was there, Ken had to get a client to the airport - an extremely risky assignment. The vehicle he was in was shot at, but Ken got lucky: the bullets missed him by a few inches. Despite the many dangers, Ken said he'd be willing to go back.

Op-ed Receives National Media Attention

It's been a busy week and a half with all of the media attention generated by the LA Times oped on Blackwater. I've received requests for interviews from CNN, CBS, NPR, Democracy Now, and Radio Netherlands.

So far, the CBS Evening News and Democracy Now pieces have aired. Here are links if you'd like to read or view...


CBS video link




Here's the transcript of the CBS video.

(CBS) Janessa Gans, a former U.S. official who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, often traveled around Iraq in a Blackwater convoy.

After the Blackwater shooting incident on September 16 in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left as many as 17 Iraqis dead, she wrote an angry letter to the Los Angeles Times saying that Blackwater's aggression on many occasions had undermined the diplomatic work she was trying to accomplish in Iraq.

"We would careen around corners, jump road dividers, reach speeds in excess of 100 mph and often cross over to the wrong side of the street, oncoming traffic be damned," she wrote.

"I began to wonder whether my meetings, intended to further U.S. policy goals and improve the lives of Iraqis, were doing more harm than good ... how many enemies were we creating?"

CBS News found Janessa Gans safely back in the U.S., teaching political science at Principia College in Illinois.

This is an edited transcript of our interview with her:

CBS: When you heard about the shooting in Nisour Square on September 16th, were you surprised?

Gans: Frankly, I was surprised at how long it had taken the Iraqi government to be upset about the activities of Blackwater inside their country. During my more than two years in Iraq, I saw first-hand the aggressive tactics of Blackwater in the streets, and I wondered why is the Iraqi government not speaking up about this?

CBS: What was it like to be a passenger in a Blackwater convoy?

Gans: Well it just felt like you were suiting up to go on a roller coaster. I remember just telling myself, "Just pretend it's a roller coaster ... rolls and flips and jumping over barriers." It was just uncomfortable ride - always fast, all the time.

CBS: Were Blackwater guards especially aggressive?

Gans: Well I did ride with other companies, and my personal experience was that Blackwater was the most aggressive.

You want the biggest, meanest guys protecting you [in a war zone] and they do their jobs very well most of the time. Think of their 100 percent success rate ... no diplomats in their care killed.

During my more than two years in Iraq, I saw first-hand the aggressive tactics of Blackwater in the streets, and I wondered why is the Iraqi government not speaking up about this?

Janessa GansI was grateful on a daily basis for protection from Blackwater - without which I could not have gone to meetings or done my work, but I think that softer tactics would have been appropriate.

I'm very pro-military. My brother was a Navy SEAL for 10 years and my father was in the Air Force. It's just that these guys were making my job harder.

Their approach was "We're getting you from Point A to Point B - and nothing will stand in our way. And if there's a hint of anyone approaching, we view that as a terrorist threat or a possible decoy and we will do what it takes to remove the obstacle."

If the sole mission was to get me safely from A to B, then they were 100% successful, and correct - but the mission was larger: to improve the lives of Iraqis and achieve peace and stability.

If the Iraqis' only contact with Americans was with aggressive convoys of security contractors - with guns, speeding around, delaying their traffic and pelting them with water bottles, damaging their cars - then certainly their image of the United States was not going to be positive.

CBS: Did you ever protest to Blackwater?

Gans: I did in one incident in which it seemed obvious that there was a family in a car driving in front of us. They were clearly not terrorists. They couldn't get out of the way in time and so we forced them off the road. And I thought, "Was that necessary?"

I asked one guard if he thought their tactics might be creating more terrorists. He had never considered that possibility. He'd just never thought of it that way before.

For Democracy Now:

You can watch it on their site. or on youtube

Will keep you posted on other interviews to air soon! Meanwhile, I'm working on my next oped entitled, "Blackwater Not Black and White", an attempt to bring more substance into the Blackwater conversation. Blackwater is not the enemy; it's a symptom of a larger problem of the US's undue focus on the narrow mission of force protection when the conflict demands a larger view of the mission to win "hearts and minds", not alienate the population, and win the war. There are lots of qualities and tactics that go into winning this larger battle that we need to develop in our military, in our private security contractors, and our diplomats.

Controversy over LA Times Op-ed

Just wanted to share two of my favorites of the many, many emails I've received to date about my op-ed in Saturday's LA Times, entitled "I Survived Blackwater".

It's not the first time I've mentioned something about the effect our actions have on the lives of Iraqis. My two other op-eds all concentrated on the same issue, yet they garnered very little attention.

The Blackwater issue is highly sensationalized and unfortunately for the firm, has become the scapegoat for American frustrations about the war in Iraq.

So, on the with fanmail (or not),



Janessa,

We met briefly in Baghdad when I arrived. I read your LA times op-ed, which was linked to Talking Points Memo. I'm glad you published it - at least three Iraqi colleagues of mine have been either shot at or forced off the road by private security contractors, in separate incidents. Every Iraqi I know - even very pro-American Kurdish friends - fear these security companies and resent their presence. Certainly, those of us in the NGO world are uniformly upset about the damage groups like Blackwater do and we question the need to use them rather than US soldiers or marines.

Best,

_____


Janessa,

I just read your October 6, 2007 piece on latimes.com. How silly can you get? You didn’t mention your idiotic concerns to your protectors until..... Wow Sweetie!!!!

However you’re alive and well and enjoying life right here in good old America after having spent some time in Iraq. How do you think that happened? Was it a matter of chance? Is it possible that Blackwater did what it takes to keep your sorry backside alive?

It is too bad that Blackwater couldn’t have played a game of security ping pong with your security, that is the kind of security game you support, without also endangering their own lives and failing to meet their commitments so that if someone hadn’t been able to survive and return it would have been just you. That sounds really fair to me.

I think its a boy thing so I don’t believe that you will ever be able to really understand. You are, after all, a girl and you really didn’t belong where you were in the first place. It was a place for men, not girls. OH I KNOW!!! WHAT A TERRIBLE THOUGHT!!!

I suggest you continue to study political “science” whatever kind of “science” that is, and get your hair and nails done frequently or perhaps you could get a tattoo or have a hole drilled in your lips or some other part of our body so you can appropriately express whatever it is those kinds of things display.

I would suggest you also get married and have children but I am not really sure children is a good idea. Who knows what you would teach them.

However, you could marry a guy that gets a vasectomy. You wouldn’t even have to use any other forms of birth control to keep from adding to the world population. I mean, how modern can you get?

Ta Ta Sweetie,

Jihad and Crusade: Questions from MEEF Q&A on Islam

I've been quite remiss in writing lately, but I can't pass up the opportunity to share the best MEEF to date last Thursday. (For those of you not well-versed on the acronym yet, it stands for the "Middle East Engagement Forum", one of The Euphrates Institute's initiatives in Washington, DC).

We invited reps from the Muslim Public Affairs Council (http://www.mpac.org) to come address our group and engage in a very frank discussion on Islam. The speakers, Safiya Ghori (Director of Government Affairs) and Dr. Hassan al-Ibrahim (Board of Directors), were comprehensive and compelling, and fully responded to every question the group asked.

The questions ranged from the basics to specifics, and included the following:

1.) The Quran was written a long time ago. How do you know the meaning of the words has not changed in modern-day Arabic?

2.) Are non-Muslims allowed to touch the Quran? Is the text regarded as the literal word of God? What do you do about contradictions within the text?

3.) What is the meaning of jihad?

4.) Why is there no groundswelling of condemnation in the Muslim world against acts of terrorism, yet there are mass protests about a Danish cartoon or an Apple store called "Mecca"?

5.) What is the difference between Wahhabists and Salafists? Sunni and Shia?

6.) What do you think of the terms used in the media, such as "Islamo-fascist, radical Islamist, jihadists"? What if the groups refer to themselves in those terms?

7.) How do misperceptions affect Muslims living in the US?

My attempt to recall the answers in their entirety will leave a lot to be desired, but here goes...

1.) Classical Arabic has remained the same and has been safeguarded through the generations through the focus on memorization and repetition of the Quran. So, the meaning of words has not changed.

2.) The Quran is the literal word of God. Contradictions arise from reading phrases out of context.

3.) Jihad means "struggle" or "exertion of effort". Dr. Hassan al-Ibrahim likened the term jihad to Westerners to "crusade" for Muslims. There are different meanings and contexts for the word just like jihad, yet to Westerners and Muslims, the words generally mean fighting all the infidels/heretics.

4.) MPAC described the tireless efforts of their and similar Muslim groups to denounce terrorism, yet they are rarely discussed or picked up in the media.

5.) Salafists are essentially fundamentalists, and Wahhabists are a certain strain of Salafists, named after Muhammad ibn 'abd al Wahhab. Wahhabism is the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia, and is the form subscribed to by Osama bin Laden.

6.) These terms feed the overall picture of Islam as a violent religion, with violent adherents. These groups are largely political, fighting to realize political aims, yet are using religion as propaganda and to enhance their appeal. We should not give in to their desire to paint policies and ideas in a light that pits religions against each other. Rather than these terms, we could say "terrorists, radicals, insurgents, etc."

7.) MPAC commented on the widespread misperceptions of Americans about the Muslim religion and Muslims in general. One of the speakers said that her children are constantly jeered at and labelled "terrorist", although they were raised in the US.

Our next activity will be visiting a mosque in the area...will hope to get even more insights and learn more. Check the website for info!

Getting the Inside Scoop--Dinner with Iraqi Officials

I had dinner this week with two Iraqi friends who are senior members of the Iraqi government. Sobering, but interesting, as always, to hear the inside scoop on what's actually happening there.

A few interesting points they made...

1.) Current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is even more disorganized than former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'fari was. I'm actually not sure this is possible, as we had an impossible time ever finding someone in the office to follow up on things and who was efficient and knew the whole picture of what was going on. The office was entirely in reactive mode and in pure chaos. My friend gave as an example that Maliki was in Japan while he was here in DC and he needed to get in touch with him about a matter. He called the office in Baghdad and no one in the staff there knew how to get a hold of him.

He also mentioned how Maliki's staff is comprised entirely of his party cronies (Da'wa party), who are largely inexperienced and incompetent. (When I was there, Ja'fari's staff included 7 medical doctors with no experience in politics, with whom Ja'fari was close. Ja'fari himself was a medical doctor by trade.)

2.) Sunnis lack leaders. The ones there now are content with making maximilist demands and are not prepared to do the tough, compromising work required of minority leaders in a mult-dimensional environment. (Most Sunni leaders with whom I spoke wouldn't ever admit they were a minority. They still maintain they're the majority.) My friend noted how few of them are actually in the country and are just running around the Arab world raising money for what could be conjectured as for future coup attempts. In any case, the Sunni leaders are doing their people a disservice.

3.) Sectarian strife party-driven. My friend mentioned that with the two sectarian parties in power, they view every issue, every bill, every conversation, every act, through a sectarian lens. Of course this is fueling violence; of course this is fueling extremist positions on each side. What is needed is support for liberal, moderate parties and institutions that safeguard them. He of course blamed the US for putting those extremist parties into power in the first place in the Governing Council, in which their participation secured them a foothold they've greatly expanded.

4.) Support for Moderates Key. He worried that the next elections will be stolen, violently altered, bribed, propagandized, etc. Somehow the US should ensure outside institutions are monitoring the elections commission, the parties, the ballots, he hoped. Moderates are losing ground in Iraq and we, as the US and their biggest supporter, must find a way to bolster them. (He mentioned generally media, education of a culture of openness and tolerance, financial support, etc.)

Disturbing Trend of Islamic Fundamentalism

The inclination towards Islamic fundamentalism was extreme in Iraq. Moderates saw an almost immediate decline in their ability to dress the way they wanted, go to theater, cofee shops, hair salons, and mix genders after 2003. Whereas, in the West Bank last year, the people with whom I spoke (mainly Christians) saw it as a gradual threat, but one they were less concerned with than Israeli occupation. Yet it is growing...and outside pressures such as war, occupation, and economic depravity (occurring in both Iraq and Palestine) only abet the causes of it.

Here's an interesting article from Friday's CS Monitor:

Book ban turns intra-Palestinian fight cultural
Hamas's ban from schools of a book of folklore has fueled moderates' concern about greater Islamist constraints.
By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK

For more than 30 years, anthropologist Sharif Kanaana has been collecting and studying Palestinian folk tales so that people at home and abroad would understand the story of his people.

This week, the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority (PA) added a new chapter: a directive to pull Professor Kanaana's book from school libraries and destroy it.

"I don't want to generalize about all of Hamas – I rather hope it's a unique case, a mistake by an individual," says Kanaana, a scholarly, bespectacled academic who was just heading into semiretirement when he inadvertently became the poster child of the Palestinian divide between liberals and ultra-conservatives. "Unfortunately, it confirmed some of the worst expectations people had for this government."

The decision underscores the struggle for ideological and political hegemony, one that is making itself felt more strongly than ever before.

While literature lovers and others on the more progressive side of Palestinian society see the order to ban the book as an attack on the cultural freedoms, the Islamist Hamas movement and its supporters see the move as a democratically endorsed step toward protecting students from "harmful" influences and "offensive" language, in the words of one leading official here.

"The book was withdrawn because of the problems with offensive language which contradicts our beliefs and morals," says Sheikh Yazid Khader, who is the director-general of the PA's Ministry of Education.

Hamas says it's guarding values

Religious conservatives say that they didn't like five stories within the 400-page book of folklore, which includes academic explanations and theory, because of references to body parts or human excretion.

The decision to pull the book "Speak Bird, Speak Again," first published in English in 1989 and later in Arabic in Lebanon, was issued by the education ministry last month in a letter to teachers, who were instructed to destroy it.

"Our society depends on Islamic values and has for hundreds of years," continues Sheikh Khader. "Our most important objective is to make curriculum adhere to our social values."

In his viewpoint, too many Western influences are seeping into Palestinian society, and children must be better shielded from them.

"This new generation is unable to distinguish between what is harmful and what is beneficial, so we have to protect them from these harmful influences," he says. "The Israeli occupation is interested in introducing us to Western values that work to destroy our Arab and Muslim values."

The fresh wave of negative press for Hamas, domestically and internationally, comes at a particularly uncomfortable time for the organization, whose name is an acronym that stands for the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Hamas and Fatah, the mainstream and secular political faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), are moving closer to reaching an agreement that would pave the way for the creation of a national unity government.

The two sides have been wrangling after what was hoped to be a breakthrough powersharing deal reached in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last month. Banning of the book, written by Kanaana and coauthor Ibrahim Muhawi, adds to concerns of many Palestinians that Hamas has not moderated on core issues, be it reconciliation with Israel or making Palestinian society more Islamic.

Many notable Palestinians have condemned pulling the book from schools. Yahya Yakhlef, who was the PA's minister of culture until a year ago, when Hamas formed its cabinet after its landslide election victory in January 2006, says he was shocked.

"We consider this an act of ignorance," says Mr. Yakhlef. "What we are worried about is that the trends become a normal pattern in our life, and we'll get to the point where we'll be like a Taliban culture. We will not allow medieval values to dominate."

First nonpolitical book to be banned

Still, many Palestinians say that, thus far, having Hamas leadership has been felt as a political issue, even perhaps in the form of a worsening economy and lack of security – but not as a sign of cultural oppression.

One of the incidents people here cite happened two years ago, when the Hamas-run municipality in the West Bank city of Qalqilya banned a cultural festival that would have including the debke, a Palestinian folk dance that includes men and women holding hands.

"We can say now that Hamas is being revealed to the Palestinian people," says Yakhlef. "I think the popularity of Hamas has dropped."

It's not the first time the PA has banned a book. In the 1990s, the works of intellectual Edward Said were banned because of his criticism of the PLO and the Oslo Peace Accords. Israel once used to censor Palestinian newspapers and periodicals. But this is the first time that a book is being taken off the shelves for something other than its political content. "Speak Bird, Speak Again," is still being used in colleges and can be purchased in stores.

All of this surprised Kanaana, who wrote the book with an audience of graduate and PhD students in mind. The book was later added to school libraries – usually just one per school – so that teachers could access it and choose an appropriate story or two to share with children or teenagers.

"Any folk tales of any people in the world will have an obscene term or two. I recorded these stories in colloquial Arabic in the exact words people use, because otherwise, there's no point," says Kanaana who sat calmly drinking his afternoon coffee. At the insistence of his wife, he has turned off the phone for a break from nonstop calls.

"All that attention is not over me," he says. "It's toward Hamas and the political struggle."

Busboys a Bust

Well, we were very much looking foward to our second Middle East Engagement Forum tonight at DC's most happening spot, Busboys and Poets. We had booked the "Poet's Corner" and had a wonderful speaker lined up. Nadia Oweidat, a Rand Corp. Middle East affairs analyst was going to speak about "Reasons for the Increase in Radicalism in the Middle East".

However, when we got there, we found out they messed up our reservation and we were stuck in a long table in the middle of the restaurant, which happened to be PACKED, and therefore, LOUD. There was no way anything was going to be heard. So, we just sat down to a nice dinner instead and viewed the evening as a mingling event. At least the food was great and conversation better. We were in good company as well. That night, in honor of "International Woman's Day, there was a reception for two Congresswomen in the room next door, one of whom was Maxine Waters, Rep. from California.

So, stay tuned for the next forum, which will be two weeks from today, at a much quieter place where we will be able to hear the remarks about this incredibly important topic.

Thank you, Jimmy Carter

I've been in a lot of discussions lately about Carter's book, Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid. I am so grateful for his book which is indeed effecting his stated aim, to stir debate. I found the below article very interesting, a response to the book from Rabbi Michael Lerner, published on www.tompaine.com


Thank You, Jimmy Carter

Rabbi Michael Lerner

December 06, 2006

Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine, rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue, which meets in San Francisco and Berkeley, and national chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. He is the author of Healing Israel/Palestine (North Atlantic Books, 2003) and of the national best-seller The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right (Harper San Francisco, 2006).

Jimmy Carter was the best friend the Jews ever had as president of the United States.

He is the only president to have actually delivered for the Jewish people an agreement (the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt) that has stood the test of time. Since the treaty, there have been bad vibes between Israel and Egypt, but never a return to war, once Israel fully withdrew from the territories it conquered in Egypt during the 1967 war.

To get that agreement, Carter had to twist the arms of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat. Sometimes that is what real friends do—they push you into a path that is really in your best interest at times when there is an emergency and you are acting self-destructively.

When the U.S. government is following a self-destructive policy, even a policy backed by people in both major political parties, its best friends are those who try to change its direction and are not afraid to offer intense critique. That’s why a majority of Americans, and 86 percent of American Jews, voted in the 2006 midterm elections to reject Bush’s war in Iraq and his policies suspending habeas corpus and legitimating wire-tapping and torture. Not because we were disloyal, but precisely because we love America enough to challenge its policies even when Vice President Cheney questions our loyalty. We know that critique is often an essential part of love and caring.

That is precisely what Jimmy Carter is trying to do for Israel and the Jewish people in his new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

So it’s astounding to see the assault on Carter that has been launched by the ADL chair Abe Foxman, law professor Alan Dershowitz and a bevy of other representatives of the Jewish community. I recently received a mailing from our local Jewish Community Relations Council containing four such attacks on Carter, with zero representation of American Jews who support the Israeli peace movement.

Of course, any selection of facts is always going to be a choice, and those who buy the mainstream narrative of either the Palestinian or Israeli partisans are going to be unhappy with moments in which their narrative is not the dominant one in this book.

Carter recognizes the mistakes on both sides—precisely what the “You are either for us or against us” crowd in both camps cannot stand. Nuance, recognition that both sides have at times been insensitive to the legitimate needs of the other, insistence that both sides need to take steps that are currently rejected (by Hamas in the Palestinian world, by the Israeli government in the Jewish world—this is what makes for rational discussion.

Here’s an easy way to tell an extremist on Israel/Palestine issues: Just ask that person if he or she can list at least three terrible errors his/her side has made in this struggle, errors that deserve moral condemnation. If they can’t, chances are that no amount of evidence or moral reasoning is ever going to open their minds.

Instead, you’ll hear Palestinians who talk about their own refugee status but never acknowledge that, when Jews were refugees trying to escape the Holocaust in Europe, the Palestinian leadership convinced the British to not allow any Jews to come to Palestine. Nor will they talk about the human suffering that results when Palestinian terrorists explode bombs in cafes, movie theatres or dance halls in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Or you’ll hear the right-wingers in the Jewish crowd claiming, quite mistakenly as we’ve demonstrated in Tikkun, that Palestinians rejected a reasonable deal presented to them at Camp David in 2000. They’ll make the equally absurd claim that the Gaza pull-out of troops in 2005 “gave the Palestinians what they’ve been asking for and yet they continue to fight.” In fact, the Palestinian Authority had pleaded with Sharon not to pull out unilaterally but to negotiate an end to the occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank, recognizing that negotiations would give credence to the Palestinian Authority for being able to deliver something in return for the nonviolent stance it had taken since the death of Arafat, while unilateral withdrawal would give Hamas an important chip (which it was able to use to parlay itself to electoral victory, claiming that it was their violence that had driven the Israelis out). Similarly, the apologists for the current policies of the State of Israel simply ignore the ongoing suffering that constitutes collective punishment for the entire population of Palestine when Israel cuts off food and funds and allows tens of thousands of people in the Occupied Territories to suffer from malnutrition. The partisans always have to see themselves as “righteous victims” and the other side as “the evil other.”

Carter does not claim that Israel is an apartheid state. What he does claim is that the West Bank will be a de facto apartheid situation if the current dynamics represented by the construction of the wall, by the passage of discriminatory legislation and by the inclusion of racists in the leadership—most recently that of pro-ethnic cleansing Israeli Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman—continue. The only way to avoid Israel turning into an apartheid state is a genuine peace accord.

In an interview that will appear in the January issue of Tikkun magazine, Carter points out that he is “not referring to racism as a basis for Israeli policy in the West Bank, but rather the desire of a minority of Israelis to occupy, confiscate and colonize Palestinian land.” To enforce that occupation of Palestinian land, Israel has built in the West Bank separate roads for Jewish settlers and Palestinians, built separate school systems, has totally different allocations of money, water, food and security for each population, wildly privileging the Jewish settlers and discriminating against the Palestinians whose families have lived there for centuries.

What Carter is arguing is that the best interests of Israel and the United States are not served by the current policies. Some still cling to the fantasy that holding on to land in the West Bank will improve Israeli security, but, as the recent war with Hezbollah conclusively showed, increasing sophistication of military technologies makes holding land no serious barrier for those who wish to send rockets and bombs hundreds of miles away.

The only real protection for a small country like Israel is to have good relations with its neighbors, and that is precisely what the occupation systematically undermines. The Geneva Accord provides a good foundation for the lasting peace both sides say they want. And it will eventually provide the foundations for any settlement: the creation of a Palestinian state on almost all of the West Bank and Gaza, with full control of its own borders; full recognition and security agreements for Israel with all of its neighbors; joint coordination on security and anti-terrorism between Israeli and Palestinian police and military forces; reparations for Palestinian refugees; and a peace and reconciliation process that dispels the lies and propaganda that have become “accepted truths” in the diaspora communities of both Jewish and Arab worlds.

Jimmy Carter is speaking the truth as he knows it, and doing a great service to the Jews.

Unfortunately, this peace is impeded by the powerful voices of AIPAC and the mainstream of the organized Jewish community, who manage to terrify even the most liberal elected officials into blind support of whatever policy the current government of Israel advocates. Ironically, this blind support has had the consequence of pushing many morally sensitive Christians and Jews to distance themselves from the Jewish world, which makes blind support for Israeli policies the litmus test of anti-Semitism. Younger Jews cannot safely express criticisms of Israeli policy without being told that they are disloyal or “self-hating,” and elected officials tell me privately that they agree with Tikkun’s more balanced “progressive Middle Path” which is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. But we’ve found that even Jews in the mainstream media have ignored or condemned our new organization, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, which is, among other things, trying to be an interfaith alternative to AIPAC.

It’s time to create a new openness to criticism and a new debate. Jimmy Carter has shown courage in trying to open that kind of space with his new book, and he deserves our warm thanks and support.

Hotel Rwanda and Saddam's Mass Graves

My dear friend from grad school, Sara Farley, works for the World Bank and is also a consultant for the African Development Bank, with whom she's on the continent right now doing assessments. She shared with me her experience at visiting Hotel Rwanda--a chilling account and to me, a vivid reminder of the Kurdish mass graves I saw in Northern Iraq. We had to observe the graves during the period they were uncovered to collect data for Saddam's trial. A horrid scene--two of the estimated twelve mass graves were exposed--one of men and the other of women and children. The men were shot by machine gun and then bulldozed into the grave while the women and children shot at close range right at the back of the head. It's difficult to explain the emotions surveying a scene like that and now Sara has had a similar experience. I've included the poem I wrote about my experience below Sara's account.


Thursday, February 9, 2007

A driver told me on Monday that all roads in Rwanda lead to only three places: up the mountain, around the mountain, or down the mountain. Yesterday my hilly journey took me down the mountain, down to the very lowest possible place.

For two days I have been under the watchful care of the Dean of the Agriculture University within the National University of Rwanda. Through his contacts, I had 25 different interviews. I saw fish firms and met acquculturists, talked to coffee farmers and met the heads of farmer cooperatives, and spoke with the Dean of the only Medical School here. I even attended a celebration for the School of Crop Science (where I had to give an impromptu speech about Rwanda’s future crop scientists “…And may your harvests be bountiful!” I must have sounded like a Pilgrim). I even met luminaries—the Ministers of course, but more importantly, the first ever Ms. National University (think Ms. America but more gracious, enrolled in the crop science Bachelors program, and without the swimsuit), and the Pride of Rwanda—a young girl (she couldn’t have been more than 20) who has developed a perfect sense of taste for coffee. She works as something called a cupper on the big new Quality Coffee Cooperative. She tastes over 150 cups of coffee a day to score them and determine which export markets are likely to buy individual coffee harvests based on the level of quality her talented taste buds assess.

The Dean insisted, however, that my visit to Rwanda wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t go to the genocide memorial outside of Butare. I had wanted the opportunity, so I happily agreed to the trip between field interviews. What I saw there yesterday is something I will never forget, no matter that I already wish it were possible.

High on a mountain outside of a small village called Murambi sits a technical and vocational school much like any of the same such schools that dot the countryside across Rwanda. 24 class rooms still stand clustered near a large dining hall within an easy walk of the village. In April 1994 as the genocide was reaching a fevered pitch, Murambi became the site of one of the worst single events of planned killing. The chaos in the surrounding area meant confusion for most people—where to go, who to trust, how to find safety in the night for children and mothers. Officials told villagers the technical school would be used as a dormitory until peace came. Instead, machetes, clubs studded with nails, axes, and guns met the babies, children, men and women—55,000 in total—at Murambi.

“You must be strong to see this,” the Dean warned. “But you’ve now seen the good in Rwanda this week. To know our country, you must know the bad. You must know this.”

We were met by a stoic Rwandan woman who met our car to lead us to a large pit. She explained this was the site of the septic tank for the school. With the help of the French government, it was unearthed and opened to provide a receptacle for “the needs of the soldiers.” 600 bodies were dumped inside of it the night of the attack on Murambi.

Next we walked toward the classrooms. The Dean warned that unlike the Genocide museum in Kigali, Murambi is much more “unsanitized.” Since the people that were killed were not buried under ground, the bodies did not decompose. To remember the tragedy, they have been left the bodies in the classrooms for people to see. I felt my breath shorten as I walked across the bright green grass in the glaring sun toward the first bank of six rooms.

Bodies? How many? What will they look like? Are they covered? Should I be here?

We walked through the open door of the first classroom. Three rows of six cots 12 inches off the ground lay in the room. On top of each cot 15 maybe 20 bodies lay side by side. Covered in a white powdery preservative, the bodies looked more skeletal with creased dove-white leather skins than corpses. I looked at the first room fighting to maintain some kind of mental divide between dead people and these white-washed prunes that I saw. One room. Two rooms. At the third room I felt the divide I’d tried to erect in my mind crumble as I heard a moan and a loud gasp. The sound came from my own mouth as an almost autonomic reflex when I panned the bodies to find a baby on the cot nearest to the door—the white substance his tiny body was caked in hadn’t permeated all of his hair. The black tight curls looked so healthy, so real, so undeniably human.

“You see there where the machete cut his head?” asked the Dean pointing to another child lying next to the one I was staring at.

In a single second I was in a room of 100 brutally murdered people. Crushed skulls from axe wounds, missing limbs, fingers and mouths frozen in the terrified moments when a mother reaches to shield her child, a father grips his wife’s hand as death comes…

The woman escorting us through the memorial wrapped her arms around me, hearing the sobs I couldn’t contain. I cried in her arms surrounded by her dead friends, her dead father, her dead children. “I am so sorry, I am so sorry, I am sorry…” the only words that I could utter.

We walked through all 24 rooms, each one an above-ground cemetery. With every room, any iota of faith in human beings as “evolved creatures” capable of morality or empathy dribbled away and down my cheeks. After room 24 the woman escorted me to a tiny latrine and shut the door. I didn’t know what to expect. Did she think I needed to use the bathroom? With the door closed, was it her turn to cry? Time to wipe the mascara off my face? Yes, that must be it.

She took a roll of toilet paper from the cement floor and wrapped a long piece of paper into a little bundle. She knelt to the ground in front of me and began to wash my feet that had become speckled in dirt from the walk through the memorial. In silence, I watched her cleaning me—me this person who did nothing to deserve her compassion for my sadness. No words were exchanged between this woman and me. She spoke in Rwandan to the Dean, he would translate for me. But as we walked out of the restroom, she took my hand in hers. Something in that gesture and the foot washing felt to be as profound a connection as any I’ve had with someone I’ve only just met--empathy and understanding in its purest form.

Out of the restroom an old man met us whose head was horribly disfigured. I learned he was one of only FOUR people to live through the massacre at Murambi that killed 55,000. He began to cry when he saw me and took my other hand. The three of us walked together to a long formal grave. Here the bodies that were too disfigured or decapitated were buried under the ground, four crosses atop a cement slab above them.

I learned that when the French soldiers “arrived” at the site of Murambi they were quick to act: they erected a tennis court above the septic tank that served as the largest of the mass graves and plunged a French flag in the ground. There is no active French embassy in Rwanda today as the Rwandan people are still waiting for any acknowledgement or apology for the role of the French in aiding and abetting those who perpetrated the genocide.

As we drove away from Murambi, down the mountain, little children dressed in the bright blue national school uniform ran after our car screaming, “Mazunga! Mazunga!” (i.e., “Whitey! Whitey!”). We were stopped at a police barricade in the road, the children excited for the opportunity to wave and smile. The police interrogated the driver—“Who is she? Why is she here? Is she French?” The driver assured them that I was not French but rather American, here on an African Development Bank mission. The policeman bid us through the check-point and wished me best of luck in my mission.

I wished him best of luck in his.



~Sara Farley
Hotel des Mille Collines Kigali (aka Hotel Rwanda)



Sunday, February 11, 2007

After the Afterthoughts…

The biggest impression I take with me as I fly high above the clouds over Rwanda en route to my next destination, Johannesburg, then on to Maputo, is an enduring hope in Rwanda. The creation of the Gacacas—the 10,000 local courts for the prosecution of Category 2 crimes committed during the genocide (i.e., meant to maim and accidentally killed, was forced to kill by a higher authority, assisted someone else in killing) and Category 3 crimes (facilitated racist crimes in preparation for genocide, such as taking property from Hutus)—the massive reforms in education designed to ensure every child has access to basic education and to ICT, and the sheer beauty and happiness observed in the people of Rwanda each validate my cause for hope. It is amazing to me the joie de vivre that lives in societies with incomes below $300 per person per year. Without shoes or regular meals, access to running water or electricity, people still smile, they hug, they laugh, they dance. Man, do they dance. Development in Rwanda is as much about preserving this happiness as it is about ameliorating disease, obliterating hunger, and promoting education.

I wrote in the Memorial Guest Book at Murambi—“Any society that can endure this [the genocide] and survive, can achieve anything.” After meeting the heads of government, universities, the private sector, research institutions and technical schools along with Rwandan entrepreneurs, farmers, physicists, doctors, fishermen, students, drivers, mothers, fathers and children, my optimism for this country only grows.


And here's my poem written November 2004 after seeing the Kurdish mass graves in Ninewa province, Iraq.

Al Hatra

I’m no artist.
I can’t use witty metaphors or paint poignant images of death.
I can only tell you of the smell that burned my nostrils,
Of the searing heat beating down on the already-beaten…
Baking their mangled remains.
I can tell you of the mother clutching her baby through the blanket,
Of the outlines of clothes and shoes once filled with little bodies and little feet,
Clothing adorned with bright colors, elaborate decoration
Impossible to mistake the traditional Kurdish designs…
so many layers as they took all of their possessions with them
the bags crammed with the necessities—
Food, spare clothing for their children.
It’s said they were told they were going for a picnic,
The shots to the back of the head told a different story.

I can tell you of the sickness in my stomach hours later,
The inability to wash myself clean,
To rid myself of this sight, that smell, the sin
I ran to the pool to dive into clean waters—
To Uday’s pool.
Ha, clean is not the word.
How strange to go from the worst of their destructions
To the best of their pleasures.
The extremes make me dizzy.

But who am I to see this?
I am not their loved ones,
I did not suffer their trials, their injustices, their deaths.
I can only shed a tear for them,
And beg God to help me understand,
That the innocent never suffer.
My sympathy goes to the accuser, the afflicter,
Whose self-inflicted punishment
is surely relentless.
The heat…so much more than
Baking sun.

“Shepherd, wash them clean.”

Middle East Engagement Forum a Success

On February 8th, a colleague and I hosted the first "Middle East Engagement Forum" here in Washington. We had an incredible group of over 20 individuals from various countries, regions, and religions, who contributed to substantive and constructive conversation on Middle East issues. We had the discussion "WorldCafe" style, (http://theworldcafe.com), which if you are not familiar with it, is a wonderful way of eliciting the most constructive and creative ideas and potential from a large group. In just two and a half hours, we just scratched the surface on these topics and there was a feeling of needing more!

I'm looking forward to many more forums and exploring Middle East issues and foreign policy with a conscientious, smart, and energetic group. Here are the results from the meeting..not surprisingly, dealing with the Israel/Palestinian issue was a winner.

Middle East Engagement Forum
February 8, 2007

Reason for starting the forum and our long-term vision:

To be a world-wide network of committed citizens who are bettering the relationship/policies between the Middle East and US.

World Café Discussions: (top 3 reasons in each category bolded.)


Forum Question #1: Why is the Middle East important to you?
# of Stars

Israeli-Palestinian conflict 3
US presence—because we’re there.
September 11, 2001 1
where the action is
A personal connection, my faith, my neighborhood.
philosophy of Islam that drives extremism; fundamentalism; unhealthy expression of Islam; ME culture backsliding into fundamentalism. 7
oil-energy 1
not important to others—no national movement
Religious conflict (epicenter) 1
Security issues--terrorism
Cultural misperceptions
Global/local identity (west vs. east; tribe vs. tribe; core vs. gap)
Trillion-dollar war 2
First must define the region: Arab or Muslim? Does it include Iran, North Africa?
The way governments treat their people has implications for everyone. 4
Middle East instability/radicalism affects global security.
Secularism under attack.
America and ME governments: rock and a hard place. 1
Contrast/tension between acceptance and rejection of Western liberties/values/lifestyles.
Jihad vs. McWorld—nation-state under attack 2
Question #2:
How can the US improve its relationship/policies in the Middle East?

Do not impose values. 2
Understand tradition is different than religion. 1
Interact/communicate (town hall meetings) 1
Mediate/facilitate Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Balance our support between the two. 9
Engage more /less?
Fight the ideology 1
Become energy independent
Improve US institutions
Learn more about the language and culture. 5
Improve educational institutions
Mitigate US arrogance. 1
Global community- less cultural isolation
Public diplomacy 2
New leadership-clean start
Work for basic human rights, including women’s rights. 5
Don’t support dictatorships 1
Ask what “they” can do for themselves 7
Break cycle of dependency. 1
NGO/independent initiatives. 1

Question #3: What can we personally do?

Take an interest 1
Try to get Arab news on US cable 2
Educate who we meet—talk to others 4
Travel there! 5
Share information; send emails.
Read the Quran. 2
Educate and inform ourselves. (what are the traditions, terms used, language?) 6
Be open-minded—listen.
Pray 3
Have meetings like this 1
Talk to Janessa. Janessa for President. (Very funny, guys.) 2
Lobby Congress.
Internet. 1
Marry an Arab. 3
Talk with Muslims. (Azim) 3
Visit a mosque. 1
Eat more hummus.
Go green-energy conservation 3
Networking/mobilizing. (Use technology to connect to the M.E. & to community here.
Donate time/labor/$ to human rights initiatives. 2
Political activism 1
Prepare yourself/invest in your specialty/ contribute/be an expert 2
Think critically about media coverage. Look for the positive stories and get the stories OUT. 2
Get rich and give. Follow the money—a lot comes down to resources 2

Large Group Debrief:

Things unexpected:

• Met new neighbors; surprised to learn many Arabs supportive of the US.
• Level of personal interest; so many in DC not jaded.
• Learned lots of diversity within the Arab world
• You can become an expert if you want
• Movement that can start
• Not radical; normal to be engaged and care about these issues.
• Hearing about human rights issues, (such as women not being able to get passports without male consent.)
• Learned form of US democracy may not work; not one size fits all. will take time. What is the right model to use to influence?
• Realized how difficult it is to think of how we can help.

Things that resonated/ideas especially important:

• LISTEN so you can understand the other.
• Personal connections/sharing
• More intelligent conversation.
• Awareness!
• US policy well-intentioned, but uninformed.
• Go there/ travel.
• Be open-minded.
• Use better terminology.
• Learn Arabic/Get Arabic channels.
• Learn more about Islam; go to a mosque.

Ways that this forum can help/be a vehicle.

• Should have a practical goal to work towards
• Cultural exchanges: movie night, book club, field trips, Arab dance lessons
• Networking- meet with other similar groups and individuals.
• Speakers: balanced perspectives who engage the group for discussion (no lectures!)
• More discussions
• To do vs. to be

Nothing is impossible

Tonight was the Superbowl, with its attendant physical feats, catching and holding onto the unwieldy football in the pouring rain. Even so, the Bears and Colts don't hold a candle, however, to the story of overcoming limitations of Dick and Rick Hoyt. Their story expresses what a determination motivated by selfless love can accomplish--the impossible. Their triumph really hits home since my brother David (pictured here) is mentally disabled and can't speak, but has also defied the doctors' predictions. They said he would unlikely live long, would have physical difficulties throughout his short life, and would never be able to swim or ride a bike. Well, they couldn't have been more wrong. David is still going strong, loves swimming and biking above all else, and has never had any physical problems.

So, what does this have to do with the Middle East? I suppose if Dick, a self-described "porker" who didn't know how to swim could do 212 triathlons pushing and pulling his son, perhaps peace in the Middle East is possible after all. Also, if we viewed "the other" as having real value, whether they're from a different country, a different religion, or a different mental make-up, perhaps they would stop being "the others" and become our friends.

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

And the video is below....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE