Peaceful Solutions (also see One State – Two State)
Updated 2024-08-28
The Real Fauda – Documentary Can a TV drama bring life-long enemies together? Set in the cloak-and-dagger world of the IDF’s undercover special forces – the Mista’arvim – Fauda is an Israeli-produced TV drama which has garnered praise for its realistic depiction of military tactics alongside its empathetic portrayal of Palestinians, militant or otherwise. BBC Arabic joins the production of the hotly anticipated second season, and tries to understand how it might one day pave the way for a dialogue between the two sides built on mutual understanding and compassion. https://www.journeyman.tv/film/7282
“Peace Train” featuring Yusuf / Cat Stevens | Playing For Change | Song Around The World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpjR6-Uuks&t=47s
2024-08-21 Former Israeli and Palestinian Fighters Join With US GIs to Call for Peace in Gaza A group of former fighters from Palestine and Israel plus active duty U.S. GIs announced last week why they decided to stop participating in war and urged U.S. military members to tell Congress to stop funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza via the ” Appeal for Redress v2.”
The online news conference was organized by Veterans For Peace and featured a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) special forces member, a young Israeli who just finished 85 days in jail for refusing to join the military, a former Hamas youth activist, and three active-duty U.S. military members who are awaiting discharge as conscientious objectors.
Elik Elhanan is a former special forces soldier in the IDF who, from 1995-98, served in south Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. In 1997, his 14-year old sister was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. He joined Courage to Refuse in 2002, co-founded the Israeli-Palestinian group Combatants for Peace in 2005, and now serves on the board of American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
Sofia Orr, 19, spent 85 days in an Israeli military jail for refusing to join the Israeli Defense Force. Granted conscientious objector status and released in June, she wrote in her statement of refusal: “I refuse to enlist in order to show that change is needed and that change is possible, for the security and safety of all of us in Israel-Palestine, and in the name of empathy that is not restricted by national identity… I want to create a reality in which all children between the Jordan River and the [Mediterranean] Sea can dream without cages.”
Ahmed Helou, now 52, lives in the West Bank and is a member of Combatants for Peace. He said: “I was born to a refugee family that was forced to flee from their home in 1948. “At 15, I was invited to join a group called Hamas, to fight for the freedom of my people. It was 1987, the First Intifada. I threw rocks and made Palestinian flags. In 1992, I was sentenced to seven months in an Israeli military prison as a political detainee. When my parents visited, they told me about the Oslo process and I couldn’t stop thinking about how we could have another life.”
USAF Senior Airman Larry Hebert said: “As an active duty servicemember who joined believing our military was a force for good in the world, I’m horrified by the position of the United States government to fully support the genocide and occupation of civilians in Palestine.
USAF Senior Airman Juan Bettancourt said: “After 311 days, the death toll is appalling: nearly 41,000 innocent lives brutally taken, the majority women and children. Excruciating reports estimate a devastating total of 186,000 deaths, with almost 93,000 more suffering from severe injuries. Stories of widespread sexual violence, merciless executions, torture, and an endless list of war crimes flood the news, and yet our government remains apathetic to the suffering of Palestinians and the cries of millions calling for a lasting cease-fire and justice. As conscientious objectors, as advocates for peace and human rights, as service members with a shred of moral decency left in us, we adamantly refuse to be accomplices in this genocide.
USAF Second Lt. Joy Metzler said: “As an active duty service member, I have been told repeatedly that military strength is the only way to counteract the threats we face in the world. But once again we see that violence, this time perpetrated by the Israeli government, only leads to death and destruction in an ever growing conflict.
Mike Ferner, special projects coordinator for Veterans For Peace, said: “It is highly significant that former fighters from Israel and Palestine have joined American GIs to say, ‘War is not the answer.’ https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israeli-palestinian-fighters-peace
2024-06-24 An Age of Coexistence in Palestine Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley. He is the author of the Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World. https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-25-2024/
2024-06-10’Glimmer of Hope’ as UN Security Council Approves Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution In a move that boosts the three-phase plan announced by President Joe Biden late last month, the United Nations Security Council on Monday voted 14-0—with permanent member Russia abstaining—in favor of a U.S.-sponsored resolution for a cease-fire in Gaza. Russia chose not to exercise its power to veto the resolution, which urges Israel and Hamas to “fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
Responding to the vote, Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that “although the Biden administration should have allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a permanent cease-fire resolution many months and many slaughtered Palestinians ago, we welcome today’s development as a positive and long overdue step toward ending the genocide.”
“The Biden administration must now use American leverage to force [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to agree to a permanent cease-fire so that the massacres of Palestinian civilians can end, all hostages and political prisoners can safely go free, international tribunals can begin holding those responsible for war crimes accountable, and the world can finally begin pursuing a credible end to the illegal occupation of Palestine that has fomented decades of injustice and oppression.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/cease-fire-resolution-passes
2024-05-12 19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony The lives of everyone connected to Israel and Palestine will never be the same since October 7th 2023. With tens of thousands of lives cut short, families torn apart, children traumatized, now more than ever we need to continue to show up for one another to mourn and remember. And, as we do every year, call for an end to the violence and demand a political solution that brings freedom, justice and safety for all. With all eyes of the international community on Israel and Palestine, now more than ever, we need to unite around our sorrow and stay strong in building hope that another way is not only possible but imperative.
This year the 19th annual Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony was organized by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle-Families Forum. It is the only one of its kind and it is the largest Israeli-Palestinian jointly organized peace event. Last year over 15,000 people were in attendance physically and around 200,000 virtually from all around the world. The event is held every year on “Yom HaZikaron” (Israeli Memorial Day), a national day of mourning for Israelis. https://cfpeace.org/israeli-palestinian-joint-memorial/
2024-04-13 The Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development Today’s conflict in Gaza has come to the point that it stains the collective soul of humanity. Though it is born out of decades of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and amidst a swamp of imperial ambitions, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Jan. 26 delivered an undeniable verdict: Israel is on the verge of creating a genocide in Gaza. Either an end to this conflict is reached soon, or the words “Never Again,” which were so clearly stated at the end of the Nazi holocaust during the 1940’s, will forever ring hollow. https://laroucheorganization.com/larouche-plan-southwest-asia
2024-02-12 Which Side Are You On? Israel wants all the territory devoid of Palestinians so they can claim it for their own, giving the U.S. commanders of capital an even more powerful base in the Middle East/Southwest Asia.
Under capitalism’s laws, owning the means of production gives the capitalist class the right to all of the surplus value we workers create—and there’s no limit to how much wealth any one capitalist can accumulate.
There was a meme circulating on Facebook, “It’s 80,000 BC. You are immortal. The world is still frozen in an ice age. You decide to save $10,000 every day, never spending a cent. 82,021 years later, it’s 2021 ($300 billion). You still don’t have as much money as Elon Musk.” That’s an example of how much surplus value they are allowed to accumulate on an individual basis.
But we have the ultimate power in our hands to stop them in their tracks by withholding our labor—rendering them helpless. We must build and support our own workers’ party democratically controlled and run by the working class and dedicated to fighting for our interests—a party against war, environmental destruction, police repression, racism, and sexism. A party that stands for turning the ownership and control of the means of production and the surplus value our labor creates over to the world’s working class.
We have the means right now to build a Labor Party of our own that supports socialism and opposes all capitalist parties—a party that can win freedom, democracy, economic and social equality, and justice—a socialist world under the democratic control of the masses of working people. https://www.socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_24/marapr_24_02.html
2024-02-05 As Israeli’s Mass Murder Continues, U.S. Makes it Worse The world is riveted, as it should be, on Israel’s horrifying war on Gaza. The fact that Israel, critically supported by the most powerful imperialist state in the world, is committing the worst crime of genocide the world has seen since World War II, has sunk in, even in the U.S. Most Americans, especially the young adults, are disgusted by what Israel is doing, and showing it, by conducting numerous demonstrations demanding “Cease Fire Now!,” and dropping President Biden’s approval rating into the toilet.
Now comes the question of what is the plan for saving this persecuted and terrorized people? It’s certainly not killing off the Jews, which no one wants, but which some imperialist/terrorists assert is the case. And it is certainly not a “two state solution,” which is a ridiculous folly. Two people—one more powerful and murderous than the other—living side by side with the same paper border that they have now? Really?
First, we must note, that these two peoples lived side by side in peace in the same area for centuries before feudal-capitalist cultures screwed everything up.
Second, the boundaries and inequalities of nationalism and capitalism must be scrapped by scrapping nationalism and capitalism and replacing them with equality and socialism. This means that the state of Israel—along with any entity that equates a political entity with a religion—must be demolished. The Palestinians have never been a recognized state.
Last and most important, a secular, united, and socialist Palestine, uniting all ethnicities and based primarily on none, and linked in with a socialist federation of Mid-East socialist states, must be the goal. It will, of course, be necessary for nationalism and capitalism to be abolished first, in a revolution of the working-class masses. https://socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_24/marapr_24_03.html
2023-12-26 Netanyahu Says Peace Depends on Hamas’ End, Demilitarized Gaza [MEK Note: Let’s look at Netanyahu’s prerequisites from a Palestinian viewpoint: End of oppression of Palestinians, demilitarize internal Israel forces and make Palestinians full and equal members of society with Jewish members]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined three prerequisites to achieving peace in its war with Hamas: the destruction of the group, the demilitarization of Gaza and for Palestinian society to be “deradicalized.”
The comments, made in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Monday, come amid rising pressure on Israel to scale back the conflict in Gaza, which began following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on southern Israeli communities that killed 1,200 people — with Hamas militants kidnapping scores of Israelis. “In destroying Hamas, Israel will continue to act in full compliance with international law,” Netanyahu wrote, saying that eliminating Hamas “is the only proportional response to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netanyahu-says-peace-depends-on-hamas-end-demilitarized-gaza/ar-AA1m1P1G
2023-12-23 Man whose parents were killed on Oct. 7 calls for peace in Gaza As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, the word “peace” may feel like an unreachable goal. For Maoz Inon, it’s the only thing to hope for. Inon’s mother and father were both murdered by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, along with hundreds of other Israelis. His mother, Bilha, was 76, and his father, Yacovi, was 78. Both were still “in the prime of their life,” Inon said, practicing Pilates and yoga and participating in their kibbutz.
But on Oct. 7, their home was burned to ashes. Security officers said two bodies were found inside. After receiving the news, Inon entered a seven-day period of mourning in the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva. After that, though, Inon says he “woke up.” Since then, Inon has called for peace and an end to the war, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has claimed 20,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza.
“I strongly believe this land was promised to both Israelis and Palestinians,” Inon said. “A military invasion into Gaza will just makes things worse, will just keep this cycle of blood, the cycle of death, the cycle of violence that’s been going for a century. We must break this pattern of violence of answering, and terrorist attacks with more violence. We need to stop. And we need to act differently because we are acting the same for a century and receiving the same results.”
Inon has joined many of his countrymen in protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Demonstrations against Netanyahu have occurred in the the country almost every night since Oct. 7, and his approval rating has plunged, with a new poll finding that less than a third of Israelis find him “suitable” for his position. Many critics say that Netanyahu is using Israeli deaths to justify even more death in Gaza, a statement that Inon agrees with. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/man-whose-parents-were-killed-on-oct-7-calls-for-peace-in-gaza/ar-AA1lWGzU
2023-12-12 WHAT IS THE PATH TO PEACE IN GAZA? After Hamas’s depraved attack and the unfathomable destruction of Palestinian life, infrastructure and society in Gaza by the Israeli military offensive, any hope for the territory feels far away. But once the guns fall silent and Gazans are allowed to contemplate the reconstruction of their shattered home, the time will come when Israelis, Palestinians and the rest of the world must wrestle with the future of Gaza and its people.
Times Opinion reached out to thinkers, political leaders and experts for their vision of what might meet the moment. Because in the end, two neighboring groups of millions of people must find a way to live their lives. Here are 10 ideas for a path forward. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/12/opinion/gaza-israel-palestinians-plans.html
2023-11-27 “There Is an Alternative”: Meet the Israeli & Palestinian “Combatants for Peace” Urging Nonviolence With Israel and Palestine experiencing the worst violence in decades, we speak with two co-founders of Combatants for Peace, a group composed of people from both sides of the conflict who have committed to nonviolence and peaceful coexistence. Avner Wishnitzer is a former member of Sayeret Matkal, one of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite commando units, and Sulaiman Khatib spent more than 10 years in prison after being arrested as a teenager for an attack on Israeli soldiers. The two recently co-authored a piece for The New York Review of Books on modeling a nonviolent path toward peace. “We are offering a different direction that’s based on partnership and common interest and common values,” says Khatib. Wishnitzer adds that only a political solution can bring lasting peace. “When people are fed with the idea that there is no choice but violence, they respond with violence to each other,” he says. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/27/combatants_for_peace_israel_palestine
2023-11-21 The Best Primer I’ve Heard on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts It is too early to talk about a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. With the trauma of Oct. 7 still fresh for the Israeli public and with the ongoing devastation in Gaza, any talk of conflict-ending solutions is cruel fantasy. But it wasn’t always. Peace efforts in the Middle East have been tried over and over again. It is not a history without breakthroughs. There was a time when a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would have been unthinkable. But that agreement lives alongside a long list of collapsed negotiations. Why?
I wanted to have someone on the show who could help me read this checkered history. Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo… Few people have been as intimately involved in the many Middle East peace processes as Miller. He’s a decades-long veteran of the State Department who has touched peace negotiations under the Reagan, the Clinton and both Bush administrations. His book is the best I’ve read on the peace processes and what went wrong. In this conversation, we explore the frustrating, uneven history of Arab-Israeli peace efforts, Miller’s hard-won insights about the reality of peace negotiations and the idiosyncratic personalities who have most influenced the prospects for peace in the Middle East. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8eeZO_x6PI
2023-10-27 The Courage of Calling for Peace When the World Wants More Blood War begets hatred. War begets fear. War begets insanity History is taught from one war to the next. Winning, losing: This is so much easier to understand, to organize around, than, for instance, words such as these from the Dalai Lama: “We can help ourselves only if we help the Other. It is the cultivation of love and compassion, our ability to enter into and to share another’s suffering, that are the preconditions for the continued survival of our species. . . . The feeling of community with all living creatures can be attained only if we recognize that we are all basically united and dependent on one another.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/calling-for-peace-amid-war
2023-10-17 The Case for Hope in Israel and Gaza. Really https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/10/17/the-case-for-hope-in-israel-and-gaza-really/
2023-10-15 Peace in Palestine: Solving the Solvable An Improbable Yet Possible Solution to the Israel/Palestine Conflict – Let Peace and the Right of Return Rule! Average Israelis and Palestinians must be brought to the peace table: Not “Israeli” governmental lunatics, or Palestinians who have sold their souls to the occupational forces (collaborators).
The idea of a two-state solution to the conflict has been around for decades, but it’s time to accept that it’s outdated. The idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip may have been feasible back in the 90s, but since then, “Israel” has expanded its settlements so much so that there is very little land left for Palestine. Also, many Palestinians want to return to their homes in what is now “Israel,” and accepting a two-state solution means having to give up that right.
The only way one can move forward is if “Israelis” start to acknowledge that the homes they have built in Palestine are not in line with international law. “Israelis” have to start taking responsibility for the illegal settlements they have built in Palestine and relinquish them. Palestinians aren’t wrong when they say that they want their land back. However, is it unrealistic to think that Palestinians can peacefully have all their land back in what is now “Israel?”
An ideal solution would be to create a state for all, where Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace. This solution would require “Israelis” and Palestinians to put aside their differences regarding security fears, language, culture, and religion, and work towards creating an inclusive society that nurtures a culture of peace, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence.
It’s time for “Israelis” and Palestinians to come together and acknowledge that for the greater good, a peaceful solution must be achieved. It’s time to move from toleration and coexistence to genuine understanding and compassion for the other’s historically based pain and fears. That kind of growth would require real courageous work on both sides. But imagine the positive impact it could have. It’s time to lead with love and end this conflict once and for all! https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/peace-in-palestine-solving-the-solvable
2010-12 23-Palestinian-Jewish Solidarity Statement This statement is written and signed by Palestinians, Jews, and others who are committed to holding complex truths and striving to overcome polarization. We feel the pain of our people, identify with their pain, and need to work together to uplift our shared humanity.
The unfolding horror in Israel and Gaza is an escalation of decades of state-sanctioned violence by Israel against Palestinians. We condemn the horrific actions of Hamas against Israeli civilians. We likewise condemn Israel’s unbridled bombing and cutting off access to all basic needs, including food, water, electricity, and medical care. Attacks on Palestinian and Israeli civilians are repugnant.
Israeli violence against Palestinians has been intentionally hidden, slow, and steady. Contrary to what the media is reporting, this attack was not unprovoked. The Israeli and American governments have worked together to suppress and deny the inhumane acts against Palestinians that have led to this moment. There are Palestinians and Jews who have been raising red flags and warning about this inevitable outcome for decades, only to be dismissed and ignored.
The world’s failure to challenge Israel’s ongoing occupation, apartheid, and unbridled violence by settlers and soldiers in the West Bank provides the context for what is happening now. The recent Israeli government’s escalation of violence, encroachment of Al Aqsa Mosque, and its 16-year siege of Gaza has led to the current explosion…More https://www.tikkun.org/statement-of-solidarity-with-israel-palestine/
2023-10-08 Fellowship of Reconciliation Condemns Palestine – Israel Conflict In condemning Hamas’s attack launched on Shabbat and Simchat Torah, we are also led to condemn Israel for its decades of occupation, siege, and human rights violations and abuses that have led up to this moment. FOR unequivocally condemns actions of violence that avoid the harder battles of justice. The killing and maiming of civilians, whether by Hamas rockets or Israeli airstrikes are unjustifiable, a war crime under international law. Also, unjustifiable are the actions of Israel that led to this current war: decades of military occupation with no end in sight, apartheid policies, recurrent massacres, and a siege so brutal that has turned Gaza into the largest open-air prison on earth.
FOR recognizes and condemns the failure of the Biden administration to pursue a peaceful solution to this entrenched conflict while providing Israel with almost $3.8 billion annually in unconditional military aid. Even while pursuing normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries, the U.S. has not worked to bring an end to the occupation or demanded an improvement in the rights and status of Palestinians. To call Hamas’s actions “unprovoked,” as the White House initially did in a statement today, is to put one’s head in the sand.
Whether this current war results in another status quo in Gaza, as past wars have, or a reoccupation of Gaza by Israel, this violence will not aid the aims of safety, equality, freedom, and peace for all people between the river and the sea. In the words of renowned theologian, political analyst, and former FOR executive director, A.J. Muste, ‘There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” https://countercurrents.org/2023/10/fellowship-of-reconciliation-condemns-palestine-israel-conflict/
2023-09-14 The Mothers’ Call, 2023 Women from the Israeli movement “Women Wage Peace” and the Palestinian movement “Women of the Sun” will hold a joint event on October 4th demanding to end the cycle of bloodshed and to promote “The Mothers’ Call” which was formulated by both movements and calls on peoples of both nations – Palestinian and Israeli, and peoples of the region to join our call and demonstrate their support for the resolution of the conflict. https://www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/the-mothers-call-2023/
2014-07-30 Rays of Hope in Gaza: 13 Israeli and Palestinian Groups Building Peace Sami Al Jundi, a Palestinian former militant-turned-peacemaker whose story I chronicle in The Hour of Sunlight, once boiled down for me his vision of a peaceful future in the Middle East: Israeli children will only know safety and security when Palestinian children’s rights and needs are secured; and Palestinian children will only know safety and security when Israeli children’s rights and needs are secured. Below are just a handful of the organizations and initiatives that are building toward true peace—a peace that comes with dignity, security, equality, and respect for human rights for all Palestinians and Israelis. https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2014/07/30/13-peacebuilders-in-gaza
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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