Daniel Lubetzky: with an assortment of his nutritionally and spiritually fortifying products If you don't know who Daniel Lubetzky is, you should. The founder of PeaceWorks, a hugely successful international company that promotes peace through business, and OneVoice, a movement of Israelis and Palestinians joining forces to achieve a grassroots, tangible means towards working together for peace in the region, Lubetzky is a proven master at turning theory into action. PeaceWorks offers a range of popular specialty food products and currently does business with Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Turks, Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Australians. Meanwhile, over 640,000 citizens have signed on as supporters of the OneVoice Mandate.

In this interview, Adam Neiman of No Sweat submitted eight questions to Lubetzky, Helen Jupiter submitted four, and Joey Kurtzman tacked one on at the end.

ADAM NEIMAN: Your father was a holocaust survivor. How has this informed your engagement with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the occupation?

DANIEL LUBETZKY: I think everything I do is through the prism of the son of a Holocaust survivor, for both good and bad; the positive way to explain it is that I made myself a promise to do whatever is in my power not to allow what happened to my father to ever happen again to anyone else; the more neurotic explanation is that I live under a shadow of persecution and feel an enormous drive to build bridges and create better bonds on a personal basis as well as between cultures, religions, nations, and peoples.

Specifically as it regards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I first approached this as a progressive Zionist who felt very strongly that Israel has to be the homeland for the Jewish people, a haven for those escaping the type of persecution that my Dad was not able to avoid when he was taken to Dachau as a little kid; as I began working deeply on the issue, I also felt a strong affinity with Palestinians who were deprived of freedom and dignity in ways that did painfully remind me of stories my Dad would share about his experiences at the Kovno Ghetto (NOT AT ALL like the dehumanization and death faced in a concentration camp, but with restrictions of movement and denigrations that serve nobody but extremists who prey on despair).

Israelis and Palestinians are destined to share a future – each needs the other to achieve the full potential of freedom and security for their offspring; they can either get their act together and make the difficult but necessary historic compromises to achieve a comprehensive peace, or they can be deluded by absolutist visions that will eventually drag them to a truly intractable and eternal war.

AN: I read that you wrote your master’s thesis on economic cooperation between Israelis & Palestinians. This issue seems to have called you for many years. What’s the Daniel Lubetzky genesis story that brings you to this intensely charged place and time in Jewish history?

DL: It was a Senior College thesis, not a masters, but it was 268-pages, the first time I was intellectually stimulated to become a real nerd, in 1989-90; the son-of-a-holocaust-survivor experience and education certainly got me committed to forging peace between Israel and its neighbors; the concept of economic cooperation as a means for fostering peaceful relations came from combining my passions for the Middle East peace and for entrepreneurship; since childhood I had run a few businesses, from being “Houdani” (instead of Houdini) the Magician during middle school, to setting up “Da’Leky Times” and “Watch-U-Want” kiosks at shopping malls selling watches and clocks while in high school and college; when I went to Israel for my year abroad and was studying at Hebrew University and searching for a thesis topic, the idea hit me that market forces could be powerfully channeled to advance peaceful relations.

Good Theory: good practiceAN: You started with a for-profit venture, PeaceWorks, marketing food products created by Israeli and Palestinian partners back in the 1990s during Oslo. Now your focus seems to be largely political, with OneVoice calling for negotiations leading to a two-state solution. How did that evolution come about?

DL: PeaceWorks was my effort to turn theory into practice. It evolved from my college thesis, and subsequent work in law school on how to create incentives to encourage joint ventures among neighbors striving to co-exist. When I realized the theory was making people fall asleep and going nowhere, I decided to give it a shot. Around the time that I was finalizing my research, I came across this obscure little jar of sundried tomato spread that was delicious, and when I found out the Israeli company that made it had gone out of business because they were sourcing their glass jars from Portugal and their sundried tomatoes for Italy, I realized there could be a way to prove the theory by sourcing glass jars from Egypt, sundried tomatoes from Turkey, and olives and olive oil from Palestine, etc. That is how MEDITALIA and Moshe & Ali’s started – and it is still goes on 15 years later, with relations that have withstood the test of time and the vicissitudes of the conflict.

The PeaceWorks Family: of products Eventually my company PeaceWorks, expanded to include a venture in partnership with a women’s cooperative in Indonesia – Bali Spice – bringing Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist women together to make a line of Asian sauces. We also created a new division to market healthy snacks not made in conflict regions, but donating 5% of their profits to the PeaceWorks Foundation, which is how KIND Fruit and Nut Bars were born.

The evolution into creating the PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement came about as I realized that economic cooperation is a positive but not sufficient ingredient in the equation for ending the conflict. After the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations and the breakout of the second intifadah and the cycle of violence in 2000-2002, I was enormously depressed and initially did not understand where all my Palestinian business partners and all those Palestinian moderates I knew had gone. Why weren't they raising their voices? They were shocked when I confronted them with this question, and showed me that from what they saw in the Arab media, it appeared that the missing moderate voices were those of the Israelis.

We then realized the huge problem society faces: that it is in the nature of the overwhelming majority of moderates to be passive, and uninteresting, while a passionate minority of extremists – including violent extremists with absolutist visions that deny the humanity of the other side – will stop at nothing to spread their message. We also realized that traditional media magnifies the influence of this extremist minority because it’s what makes for “compelling” TV and news coverage.
So we recognized that we needed to build a human infrastructure of moderates across Israel and Palestine, and to create tools that would amplify the voice of moderates to help them seize back the agenda for conflict resolution.

Today OneVoice has offices in Ramallah, Gaza City, and Tel Aviv; it has chapters in pretty much every Palestinian and Israeli University, as well as across most refugee camps, villages, and cities; over 640,000 citizens have signed on to the OneVoice Principles or OneVoice Mandate, and over 3,000 Israeli and Palestinian youth leaders have participated in OneVoice programs to organize themselves and their communities at the grassroots level to propel their elected representatives towards a two-state solution.

AN: What are your thoughts about the recent economic initiatives and the Palestinian Investors Conference?

DL: The day the investor conference took place coincided with our 6th Annual Board Meeting in Jerusalem, so I regretted I was not able to attend. A few of our Palestinian and International Board members attended, as did our Israeli Honorary Board member MK Ephraim Sneh. I heard good things about it, but don’t have first hand info. It's easy to be skeptical about it and paint it as a PR stunt, but it seems to me that it generated hope and interest in Palestinian economic development, both of which are very important. I was also told by several Palestinian friends that this was the first time they saw enormous effort on the part of the Israeli government to truly create a very comfortable environment for the conference attendees and the people of the region, with far less checkpoints and very courteous relations. The week to me seemed filled with energy and buzz.

I am extremely supportive of economic development at this stage, and consider it critical to building a vibrant Palestinian civic society and Palestinian State. It has to occur in tandem with political progress, but it is certainly vital. Tony Blair and Prime Minister Fayyad both seem very committed to achieving progress on the ground, which is also important to contrast this approach in the West Bank to Hamas’s apocalyptic and totalitarian governance in Gaza.

AN: Recent polls say that a significant majority of Palestinians consider peace talks futile or counterproductive. Most Palestinians I know think talks are just window dressing for the occupation and that Israeli deeds--expanding settlements, checkpoints, and constraints on movement of goods and services--are all that matters. And many Israelis also believe that Palestinian talk of peace during the Oslo period was just a smokescreen for expanding “security” forces that turned into terrorists when push came to shove. Has the very word “peace” become degraded in this context? Has language lost all currency?

DL: Yes, most Palestinians and Israelis have lost the ability to visualize that peace can be achieved, and the word “peace” has indeed been devalued. Everyone says they want “peace,” but they hang on to this word while hanging on to absolutist or unrealistic positions that are not consistent with peace. That's why OneVoice launched the Imagine 2018 Campaign this year: To compel people to dare to visualize what their lives could look like in 2018 if a framework agreement was achieved this year (as the Heads of State committed to) and implemented over the next year, and to deal with the problem of restoring some meaning to the word "peace." We also instituted a “Breaking the Taboos” series of Town Hall Meetings.

Can OneVoice Accomplish Enough: for World Cup 2018 to be hosted in Israel/Palestine?AN: Last year, OneVoice had to cancel long-planned simultaneous concerts in Jericho and Tel Aviv because of security threats on the West Bank. OneVoice’s current focus is on the latest round of peace talks, with a clock on the OneVoice site ticking down to 12/12/08--my 52nd birthday, by the way. These talks were initiated by three very weak leaders, with an outcome that at the very best cannot be implemented before the next Palestinian elections--again assuming a Fatah candidate can run and win in Gaza. Does this strategy carry a huge risk of increasing people’s cynicism and despair? Have you created a large target and sent an invitation to the extremists to blow it up?

DL: The reasons for postponing the OneVoice Summit are thoroughly (and painfully but earnestly) discussed on my blog, in the entries between September and November 2007. The "clock" started ticking on 12/12/07, your 51st birthday, which coincided with the date when the Israeli and Palestinian Heads of State started their negotiations. In our OneVoice Mandate, signed by hundreds of thousands of people over the course of 18 months, we demanded that the elected representatives immediately restart negotiations, which should remain uninterrupted until the achievement of a comprehensive agreement, within a framework of no more than one year.

When we made this demand, even our Board members thought we were taking too big a risk, as negotiations had not been conducted for 7 years, and the conflict hadn’t been solved for decades. We explained that it is the role and duty of citizens to push and propel their leaders to do this, without us worrying about political repercussions, and that we would rather try and fail than not try at all. In fact, we succeeded: At Annapolis, Bush, Olmert, and Abbas all agreed not only to rekindle negotiations, but to our surprise, they even committed to a framework agreement within a year. So the Clock is an effort to hold them accountable.

That said, I sadly feel that you may be correct, as given all the internal problems Prime Minister Olmert is facing, not to mention the challenges Abbas faces in Palestine and the fact that Hamas controls Gaza, most observers feel there is no chance an agreement will come through in 2008.

We are indeed evaluating whether we should change our call to action. That said:
1) We should also take into consideration that part of the reason why “Leaders are Weak” is because we as citizens make too many excuses not to act to strengthen leaders with moderate agendas; and so instead of making excuses for why it is futile to act, if we are able to again galvanize public support, it is at least more likely that progress will be made.

2) We should bear in mind that some progress in the negotiations and political environment is critical, as we are not just at risk of giving up the upside of an agreement, but also of seeing Hamas spread its reign into the West Bank if the political track does not show that diplomacy and a two-state-solution are a better alternative to nihilistic absolutism.

AN: I spent a couple of weeks in the holy land at the beginning of the 2006 war with Hezbollah, half on each side of the green line. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians were absolutely convinced that the Western media was hopelessly biased against them. Are they both right, or both wrong? How is US and European reportage informed by anti-Semitism and/or racism? Is there a feedback loop between the conflict and what could be described as the world’s longest running reality horror show?

DL: The media is biased towards news that sells, and news that sells tends to be news that exacerbates conflicts, reinforces stereotypes, and plays into our primal defensive instincts. So, in a sense they are both right and they are both wrong: They are right that the media is biased, but it is not biased in the favor of the other--it is biased in the bent towards extremist views. The only way to change that is for citizens to vote with their feet and demand deeper and more nuanced coverage, which is unlikely to happen, or to generate newsworthy events about the otherwise “boring” mainstream citizenry that cherishes a resolution of the conflict.

Yes, there is a dangerous feedback loop between the conflict and the “reality horror show” of this conflict. The more negative things one sees about the other, the more we adopt bad opinions about them and assume they are all “the enemy,” which leads to false polarization. We then become entrenched in a garrison mentality of Us Vs Them. The only way out of it is by forcing ourselves to think for ourselves, and to meet the other at a human level.

AN: One Voice appears to be resolutely secular. Your list of “partners” doesn’t include any representatives or affiliates of the denominations of any of the Abrahamic faiths. Is this by accident or design? It has been noted that the real conflict here may be internal: Between secular elites in Israel and Palestine and a multitude of people with little education or income but a boatload of belief. Considering that religion is an enormous part of the problem in the holy land, is it realistic to think a solution can be found that doesn’t include the voice of the faithful? Do you see any positive role for people of faith in resolving this conflict?

DL: Our Honorary Board actually incudes foremost religious leaders of all the Abrahamic Faiths, from Imam Feisal Abdel Rauf, to Rabbi David Rosen, to Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, to Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and on and on.

Progressive Religious leaders such as the above are very much part of the solution, but they face the same problem discussed earlier: The media find it less sexy to interview sensible people than big screaming extremists.

HELEN JUPITER: Through OneVoice and the Imagine: 2018 contest, you are working to engage and amplify the moderate voices on the subject of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict--voices we rarely hear. How have you inspired moderates to take effective action?

DL: First, we asked Israeli and Palestinian kids ages 13-17 to share their vision for what 2018 could look like if a framework peace agreement were to be achieved. The Palestinian Ministry of Education imparted this essay campaign across the West Bank. We imparted it through our staff in Gaza. And in Israel our staff imparted it with the cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Education and other youth movements and kids’ websites (Tapuz). Tens of thousands were exposed and participated; thousands were finalists. We will soon announce the 100 winners and publicize some of the essays in Israeli and Palestinian newspapers and on the web.

The next phase, which we've just started on, is to work with foremost filmmakers (from Hollywood as well as from Israel and Palestine) and ask them to select one essay that speaks to them and turn it into a 1-5 minute short film. We also have two more phases that are big surprises to be shared later in the year.

HJ: Is it possible to spark galvanizing passion in moderate thinkers?

DL: It is possible, but it is very difficult. It is in the nature of moderates to be less assertive, and if we are to tackle the challenges our world will face this century, it is imperative that we re-educate ourselves to understand activism is necessary.

HJ: What can Jewcy readers--largely based in the US--realistically do to have an impact?

DL: The OneVoice site has a section with a list of very specific and concrete ways in which people can get involved, starting with something as simple as joining the movement, signing up to receive our updates so people hear the deeper news and not just the alarmist partisan news, forwarding the news updates to their friends and encouraging them to join, making donations in cash or in-kind, volunteering in their communities, hosting presentations about OneVoice, and/or writing to media and policy makers with this message.

HJ: It seems to me that there are three major branches in your thoughts on ending the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: economic, grassroots activist, and political. With PeaceWorks, you've developed a business model that manages mutually-beneficial relationships between Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian, and Turkish companies. With OneVoice, you've brought together over 645,000 citizens in support of a two-state agreement. Market forces and grassroots peoples' movements are important and can be effective, especially in conjunction with one another, but are they powerful enough to influence political policy-making? What progress have you seen through your campaign thus far?

DL: I think that the two greatest accomplishments are:
1) Helping re-frame the conflict, from the view circa 2001 that this conflict is one of Israelis vs. Palestinians or Jews vs. Muslims, to a more nuanced understanding that the conflict is not about “us” vs. “them,” but about empowering moderate voices on both sides to help overcome absolutism and nihilism.

2) Injecting into the political arena the concept about the possibility of achieving a two-state agreement within a one-year framework – what is still missing a commitment to uninterrupted negotiations, which is the only way to guarantee getting there: You get in the negotiations room and don’t come out till you conclude an agreement.

JOEY KURTZMAN: Palestinians sometimes protest that when Jewish-Americans call for “peace” in Israel/Palestine, they are actually calling for Palestinians to surrender their right to struggle. Does Peaceworks believe that Palestinians have the right to select the means by which they pursue their own national liberation?

DL: PeaceWorks actually does not deal at all with these political issues – it just fosters economic cooperation; the OneVoice Movement does not deny people their “narrative,” but it focuses on bringing about working solutions that can truly pull the Israeli and Palestinian people out of the “intractable” conflict; the conflict is only “intractable” if you insist you want “peace” but you deny that peace entails some painful compromises. If either Israelis or Palestinians hang on to absolutist positions, they should at least recognize theirs are not consistent with the pursuit of “peace.” While OneVoice does not pass moral judgments, the OneVoice Principles for Engagement require a) mutual recognition (of the humanity and rights of both peoples), b) a recognition of the need for personal civic action to wrest back the agenda, and c) a recognition that civic action must be non-violent to achieve its goals.

11.05pm: Jaffa Gate, Old City, Jerusalem.
Far from the madding crowds flowing out of Jerusalem’s ancient stone walls, a white car was waiting at the bus stop down the hill, ready for the first leg of our journey to another holy city, one less trodden by tourists: Shechem (or Nablus, as it’s commonly known). Kever Yoseph, the Tomb of Joseph, son of Jacob, lies in the center of Nablus, which has a population of over 160,000 souls, making it the largest Palestinian city – and also one of the most hostile. In brighter days Jews could worship there freely but the Kever now falls under Palestinians Authority Area A and is thus forbidden for Israeli citizens to enter the city. The only way there is under cover of darkness – and with an army escort. So be it.

11.40pm: Ofra, West Bank.
Within seconds of getting out of the car, an American in his 20s ran towards us, gleefully waving a book in the air--On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society--whilst muttering clichés about wimpy ‘liberals’. Welcome to Ofra, one of the first West Bank settlements established by the messianic right-wing Gush Emunim movement in the 1970s. We were early for our bulletproof bus but, in true Israeli style, we had to wait an hour before boarding. On the pavement, the atmosphere was starting to get festive, with a mix of starry-eyed settler youth, mainly from the central and southern West Bank, whose knitted skullcaps and long peyos dangled alongside those of the Breslav Hassidim, some of whom sneaked into the Tomb in 2003 in defiance of the military, leaving seven with gunshot wounds. But not everyone had registered with the authorities, a necessary requirement for entering ‘enemy territory’, leaving dozens stranded. It was too much for one teenager, who threw himself under the bus, narrowly missing its wheels.

12.13pm: Tapuach Junction, West Bank.
Word had spread that there was going to be a knisah [entrance] to Joseph’s Tomb, and the Tapuach checkpoint was packed with over 100 people trying to get in. Some had given up hope and resorted to davening in the middle of the road, whilst some ingenious haredim attempted to hide in the luggage compartment of our bus. Things were getting serious. It had been several months since the last Knisah, and it seemed like Joseph had never been so popular; “There’s lots of pent up demand,” said the American rabbi sitting next to me, who had prayed at the Tomb twice before--once recently with an army escort, and another time more freely in the 1990s, before the days of checkpoints and intifadas (and with half as many Jewish settlers in the West Bank).

12.55pm, Huwara Village, south of Nablus.
After leaving Tapuach, we found ourselves in a convoy with three other buses flanked by army vehicles, all of which soon came to a halt at the next Palestinian village where Jewish pilgrims were trying to outsmart the bewildered border police. Aizeh balagan. We took a right past the notorious checkpoint to which the village lends its name, and that serves to keep would-be terrorists from Nablus at bay whilst maintaining a virtual siege on the rest of the city. We climbed the hill in the direction of the Elon Moreh settlement (not a place I thought I’d be returning to so soon after my last jaunt there).

01.24am: Army checkpoint, somewhere east of Nablus.
The 50 people on the bus burst into song and chants of “Od Yoseph Chai” and “Yoseph, Yoseph, Yoseph HaTzaddik” as soon as we burst through the checkpoint. “It’s nothing physical, they just want kesher [contact] with the Tzaddik,” said the Rabbi. “It’s ridiculous. This is our land and we have to sneak in at the middle of the night.” The irony escaped him that the Palestinians in Nablus/Shechem feel the same: This is their land, but are barred from traveling freely inside it whilst settlers zoom through the checkpoints and freshly-tarmaced roads and with ease.

01.39am: Joseph’s Tomb, downtown Nablus.
We officially arrived. The tomb itself is a shadow of its former glory, covered in ash and rubble after being partially destroyed by Palestinian riots in 2000, but that didn’t dampen the euphoria of the crowd, who filled the building’s central chamber with songs of exultation. Outside, the streets were deserted, save for our bus and two army vehicles straddling them. I get the feeling that if the locals wanted to take a potshot at us, it wouldn’t be too difficult.

For once, I found myself in agreement with the rabbi: The situation was ridiculous. As exhilarating as it is to visit the resting place of our forefathers, the price to pay is steep: soldiers putting their lives on the line, whilst Nablus and the rest of the West Bank are on lock-down. No one wins. It’s a similar story at the resting place of Joseph’s mother, Rachel, sliced out of Bethlehem by the ominous separation wall, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in the walking Kafka novel that is present-day Hebron. Jews should have access to our holy places, but it makes me wonder if the apparatus of checkpoints and settlements encircling them help ensure our rights to them or the opposite? The experience of the last 41 years is less than conclusive.

02.27am: Evacuation, Joseph’s Tomb. Soldiers with loudhailers round up the excited worshippers, no easy task when half of them are tucking into the steaming cholent that appeared from nowhere (via Bnei Brak). After a pause at Tapuach, a hitchhike arrives and we’re homeward bound.

04.19am: Jerusalem, Israel. The car pulls in near King George Street, passing Israeli teenagers wandering home after a night on the town. I glide up the four flights of stairs, take off my Nike Air trainers, painted black by the soot from the Tomb, and head to bed to ponder the night’s surreal events.

Imaginary Coordinates is inspired by antique maps of the Holy Land in Spertus' collection. The exhibition juxtaposes these maps with modern and contemporary maps of this region, all of which assert boundaries. It brings these together with objects of material culture and artworks that question national borders, as a way of charting new spaces, fostering conversation, and imagining new communities.

Imaginary Coordinates: real controversy
Included in the exhibit are antique maps, a two-minute video-loop of a naked Israeli woman hula hooping with barbed wire, and video of a woman in Jerusalem asking people for directions to Ramallah.

Imaginary Coordinates opened on May 2nd, and closed after a week for “building maintenance.” Since the Spertus museum is a brand new facility opened in December after a $55 million renovation project, it seems unlikely that maintenance was really the issue. The exhibit reopened on May 15th, but now you can only be admitted to the exhibit as part of a guided tour every hour. The exhibit has also been rearranged, in order to “shift fragile items away from harsh light” according to the Chicago Tribune.

The exhibit presents both Israeli and Palestinian ideas about land ownership, cultural capital, and borders of all kinds. Predictably, there are elements of the Jewish community that are upset by the inclusion of Palestinian artifacts and art. These elements are pushing the Spertus to close the exhibit again, and are threatening to withhold funding if Imaginary Coordinates remains open.

I’ve been on one of the guided tours of the exhibit, and didn’t find the material to be particularly upsetting. Yes, there are pieces that imply that Palestinians feel a strong connection to Israeli land, and even a sense of ownership over land in Israel, but so what? In the immortal words of Marriage Encounter ‘Feelings aren’t right or wrong, they just are.’ What would be the point of denying that Palestinians feel strongly about land, that they miss the towns they used to live in, or that they don’t think Israelis have proper respect for their land? You can still think their political ideology is bad or wrong, you can hate their methods and call them stupid, but failing to acknowledge how they feel about the situation is just willful ignorance.

If you live in Chicago or are planning a visit soon, I encourage you to plan a trip to Imaginary Coordinates, and to leave your hopefully positive feedback for the Spertus curatorial staff. Admission is free on Tuesdays from 10 am-12 noon and Thursdays from 3-7 pm. At other times general admission is only $7, and $5 for students and seniors.

If you don’t live near Chicago, and don’t plan on seeing the exhibit, please email Rhoda Rosen, the museum’s curator, and give her your support. Here’s a sample email:

Dear Ms. Rosen,

Thank you so much for reopening Imaginary Coordinates. I’m glad to hear that Spertus is tackling issues of land ownership, mapping, and patriotism is such a balanced and thoughtful way. I know that you worked on this assembling this exhibit for three years, and I applaud your efforts.

I hope that you will keep the exhibit open to the public for its full run, through September 7th so that the community has plenty of opportunity to see these important pieces.

Sincerely,
Your name

Read reviews for Imaginary Coordinates here, here and here.

*** Update: Spertus seems to have closed the exhibit on the same day this post went up on the blog.  I encourage you to still email Rhoda Rosen, as it shouldn't be too late for it to be reopened. 

Ala ‘Alaeddin, the chairman of PITA (Palestinian IT Association of Companies), opened an enlightening session on ICT sector opportunities: ‘Digital Bridge to the Future’, with some interesting facts about the growth of ICT in the West Bank and Gaza (and East Jerusalem): There are 270 ICT enterprises, which contribute 0.5% to the Palestinian GDP; there are 3600 current ICT professionals here, with 17,000 students currently enrolled in ICT-related fields at college.

“Come invest in Palestine, make it an ICT success story,” Mr. ‘Alaeddin appealed to the audience of about 200.

It seemed fitting that during this session, the young Palestinian businessman next to me played with his iPhone. I haven’t seen many of them in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, and have craved one since being in New York during their spectacular launch last year. Without lifting his eyes from the sexy device, he assured me that yes, they are available locally, and yes, the coverage is fine.

Later, Prime Minister Fayyad chaired a session which was filled to capacity on Gaza. A 100-strong delegation had come from Gaza, with tense negotiations going on for weeks between the conference organising committee and Israeli officials. Only 10 applications for visas from Gazan’s were refused. One of the delegates from Gaza spoke from the platform: “I hope we have hit rock bottom.”

While the situation in Gaza (from an outsider’s perspective) seems hopeless and locked in a bitter stalemate (although Egypt is trying to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel), some brave souls are trying to maintain business and look to the future. There are several fish farm projects in development for Gaza. Let's hope that peace brokering will cause the fledging tilapia to flourish.

Sir Ronald Cohen Speaks of the Road to RawabiAfter the Gaza session we became acquainted with Sir Ronald Cohen, a British Jewish philanthropist. He made his money through a private equity firm, is a graduate of Oxford with an MBA from Harvard, and sits on the board of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. His foundation, the Portland Trust, has offices in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, is a driving force behind micro finance in Palestine, and has also prioritized an affordable housing program. Sir Cohen was a formidable Western financial presence at the conference, and it is an optimistic sign to see diaspora Jewish wealth flowing in.

One of the projects that the Portland Trust is backing is the creation of Rawabi, (Arabic for ‘the hills’) a brand new Palestinian town based on principles of social, low-cost housing, on a hill 9km outside Ramallah. It's planned to feature 5,000 housing units with a residential capacity of 25,000 inhabitants. Development of the town will occur over five years, costing over $350 million, and is a partnership construction project between a Palestinian firm, Massar International, and Diar Real Estate from Qatar.

Walking around the Pavilion was perhaps the highlight of the conference for me. Here, in a polystyrene block mock castle, in the conference center’s carpark, were the local Palestinian people who had goods to show and sell, and who wanted to chat about everyday life without an undercurrent of big business deals. An unfolding spectacle of sights, sounds, and smells, here were stone masons and mosaic artists, organic olive oil producers (the wonderful Zaytoun, who are big exporters to the UK), salami producers, weavers of Bedouin rugs, embroiderers, and many others. This was the place to visit when the intensity in the center below became overwhelming.

Sure, a few suits walked up the hill, and they visibly unwound when they interacted with real people, but in general this area was the halfway house between the political-business dealings in the center, and the sharp realities of the city of Bethlehem below.

A Sketch of Rawabi: palestine’s first planned community The one depressing aspect of the Conference in my eyes was the sheer amount of materials that were thrown at it. In every corner of both the Jacir Palace Hotel and the Conference Center, piles of booklets, briefing papers, and general bumf were stacked. In addition, the amount of freebies in the form of paper bags (at least they were paper bags) full of pens, sun hats, mugs, and other giveaways was disconcerting. I won’t deny that in my role as journalist I have brought some of this stuff home to wade through, but at least it can be recycled here, or kept, or passed on as a resource.

Perhaps you could argue that a Western audience of investors and regular conference goers expects this resource, but I’m sad that despite all the political and economic difficulties the Palestinian Authority faces in trying to establish itself as a democratic presence, the environment doesn’t come up on top of the list. In all the sessions I attended—including those with Tony Blair and Bernard Kouchner—the environment and the sustainable use of scant resources were barely mentioned.

I met the executive director of the Palestine Wildlife Society, Imad Atrash, but we didn’t have long enough to debate this issue. Also, representatives of the Fair Trade market in Palestine, including Zaytoun, provided information at their stand, but this issue didn’t make it into the main conference session on boosting the agricultural sector.

I talked to a Bethlehem manager of a Stone and Marble Manufacturing Company, and pressed him on the issue. He agreed that water and its lack scarcity was a key issue, but knew of no ways to reduce its usage in his highly water-intensive business. Palestinian stone companies earn a rough total of $450 million annually. This Company had just signed a deal with the Chinese government to supply $6 million worth of stone to a hospital project in Jordan, being built by China.

Blair, Before Nearly Being Shot Out of the SkyOn Friday afternoon it was leaked in the British media that on his way to the conference from Sharm El-Sheik, while flying in his Quartet-funded private jet, Tony Blair’s pilot ignored Israeli air traffic controllers and nearly got shot down by Israeli warplanes. I’m still pondering the possible consequences (for Israel and the Middle East) of that narrowly averted mishap.

I asked several participants and Palestinian media what they thought of the role of Blair and his presence in Palestine. Their response was mixed: One guy was vehement in his hatred of “the imperialists Britain and the US.” Most, however, welcomed Blair’s input, although many thought his Israel bias prevented too much easing of restrictions for Palestinian movement, and some questioned the wisdom of inward investment in Palestine unless trade visas were opened up significantly.

The concluding half day of the conference was something of a disappointment, as many of the delegates had already left, and there weren’t many other foreigners around. In some ways, those who remained were able to take a breath and relax.

Unfortunately, it was now the American Security guards turn to be unnecessarily hostile, although it really wasn’t clear who they were guarding (or whom they were guarding from whom). This attitude of imperial self-importance contrasted sharply with the sense of pride that came from the dignitaries wrapping up the final session.

Blair and FayadPrime Minister Fayyad vowed that he and his government would “now build on the progress achieved here. Despite the chaos of traffic congestion during the event... Our response is in the mission of Palestine. We send a message of peace from here. This conference was convened in Bethlehem—the womb of success.”

French Foreign Minister (and the extraordinary humanitarian behind Medecins Sans Frontieres) Bernard Kouchner, sounded a celebratory tone, in the light of his earlier meetings with his Israeli counterpart—“What a success, huh?"

He concluded with the beautifully informal “See you soon. Be good.”

The Conference began properly at 4 o'clock, with President Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad (the Prime Minister of Palestine), and Tony Blair entering through the middle of journalists hovering around the main conference room. We media had been told in advance that we couldn’t enter this session, and were ushered along—with the many delegates who found there was no room for them either—into another room to watch proceedings on a screen, complete with faulty translation devices. Abbas apologized for the chaos evident at the conference, asked for our sympathy in light of it being their first, and promised to make amends in the future.

In the midst of the day, news filtered out—mainly between journalists on the phones to their bureaus, and then referred to by Abbas in his speech—that Israel and Syria had announced they were in talks towards a peace treaty. Abbas welcomed this, but then cataloged the many ways Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians made economic development difficult. Judging by the wealth on display amongst the delegates milling outside, this is a little hard to believe. Interestingly, he reached out to the “brothers in Gaza” and hoped that there would be change there soon. A delegate whispered to me that there were many Hamas spies amongst us, mixed in with the suits, and possibly wearing the robes of sheiks and sultans. I remained vigilant.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the PNA, at the Opening Ceremony If you’ve been to Bethlehem before, you will no doubt have visited the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square, perhaps Solomon’s Pools and the Shepherd's Field (a strange place, filled with dozens of little churches, crypts, and olive wood carvings available from the olive wood carvings superstore across the road). It's a curious place. There’s a strong sense that something needs to give in this city—it is a tourist ‘mecca’, but the tourists only trickle through, partly because of the facts on the ground, and partly due to fear.

I’m not a newcomer to Bethlehem, and was here almost a year ago for a conference of a similar length run by an American organization dedicated to the cause of non-violence. It was a great experience, and it's great to come back with an entirely different focus. The first conference was laid back, and took place at several venues across the city, without such security measures in place. The highlight was seeing Martin Luther King III arrive with a huge delegation of African Americans in tow.

Suits or Spies?With the dawn of the third day, the PIC was really underway. The venue moved to the newly built conference center, a swish pile high on a hill overlooking Solomon’s Pools. Upon arrival, I noticed that there was a different energy to the event—the delegates had slept well, they were being well-looked after (fed, watered, and given lots of freebies), and were in their stride, networking and doing deals left, right, and openly in the hallway. The moving and shaking was really happening, and the delegates from far and near had taken over the asylum.

Booths had been erected in the conference center lobby: the Islamic Bank (great toffees), USAID (lots of smiles, and paper bags loaded with papers), and the Brits, in the form of DFID (Department for International Development), who weren’t so forthcoming, but who did have a great big flag, which made my heart flutter a little.

Opening CeremonyUSAID has half a dozen programs running in the West Bank including loan guarantees, which shore up fledgling projects during the current weak state of the US economy. One project is a drip irrigation program for small households of 1.5 dunam plots, encouraging self-sufficiency in vegetable growing; another is the Khaizaran herb farm in Tubas. This is the first commercial Palestinian herb enterprise, and since opening in May last year, has tapped into lucrative markets in Europe, Russia, and the US.

At the DFID booth I met a Brit, Mark Pearson, who runs Hucksters, an advertising and publishing consultancy firm which has been developing call center facilities in the West Bank. This is a good example of the raw potential in Palestine, which is being seized upon by investors and business entrepreneurs alike.

Later, I talked with Rob Quartel, the CEO of FreightDesk Technologies, who has pioneered an innovative software application to manage goods and trucks in and out of border crossings. This is up and running in Jordan, and he was in Bethlehem to investigate whether the Palestinians can make use of it. He's optimistic it will work here...

Last week saw the Palestine Investment Conference, a three-day affair in Bethlehem organized to highlight investment opportunities in the Palestinian economy. Jewcy contributor James Murray-White was there to cover the event from start to finish.

Crossing into Bethlehem from Jerusalem is an experience. Coming back is tougher—being amongst Palestinians who are searched, held up, and often refused is a difficult sight to witness. Returning to Jerusalem on a little bus through the hilltop suburb of Beit Jala shows the interconnectedness of the hills and the land here: the continual heat beating down on us, the rocky fields interspersed with olive trees, two peoples living together on one piece of land.

Once you’re through the gray concrete monolith that is the checkpoint and wall complex, it hits you: Bethlehem, Palestine—a different country. Yellow taxis vie for your attention immediately, the terrible driving is worse than Israel, and the ever-present security wall runs into a town composed of rundown houses, shops, and buildings. The road is smooth, with a recently added speed bump, and the welcoming flags and banners attempt to hide the fact that not much is going on here at all.

The Palestine Investment Conference hosted here last week was an attempt to change that. Held at two impressive venues—the Jacir Palace Hotel and the brand new Convention Center (so new that the road was being built as I drove up to it, and conference registration took place in a tent next to the front door)—the Conference, organized and pushed for in part by the Quartet Representative Tony Blair (the program refers to the Prime Minister as ‘His Eminence’), sought private and governmental investment in the area.

The Long and Winding Road: to the palestine investment conference Under the Conference slogan "You can do business in Palestine", this effort came as part of a US $7.7 billion commitment from the international donor community for a comprehensive 3-year development and rehabilitation plan for. The conference itself cost a total of $3 million, with half of that coming from various sponsors, and the remaining half paid for by the Palestinian Authority. This comes hand-in-hand with intensive and highly secret discussions between the Israeli and PNA negotiation team to achieve a peace plan, including a final status agreement on Jerusalem and the establishment of a formal Palestinian State.

Upon arrival, journalists were ordered to convene outside a side entrance to the Jacir Palace and watch the guards figure out how to assemble the type of security gate that beeps when you pass through with metal in your pocket. Then the media scrum had to surrender all of our possessions and cameras and tripods and watch as the Palestinian Police/Army/Security (it never was clear which was which) had their latest security gadget—a sniffer dog—sniff it all. Security was extremely heavy, including snipers on the surrounding buildings. It was intimidating, but they cannot risk losing a key player in the slow political machinations.

Securing the Convention Center Once we all got through the newly-assembled gate, the media congregated for the press conference. Oddly, it was in Arabic, and the few foreign media were told that this was because the translation services were set up “in another room.” This could have been a disaster, but thankfully the Governor of Bethlehem and Chairman of the Conference, Saleh Al-Ta’mari, spoke English and translated from the podium. He and a few other high-ranking officials told us that 1200 participants had registered for the conference, including 7% from America, 5% from Israel, and 300 Palestinians from abroad. For the 109 projects on the metaphorical conference table, $2 billion was being searched for. I clutched my pocketful of shekels tightly.

We were informed that we must all stay at the venue, probably for security reasons. It's generally a mistake to try to keep a pack of journalists—Palestinian or otherwise—in one venue for several hours with little happening. Watching the many delegates arrive and rating them on a scale of importance, or slowly befriending the security guys couldn’t entertain for that long.

Speaking of the young, lean security guys: I'll stick my neck out here and say that I believe a lot of the US/EU money has gone to dressing them in Armani suits and Italian loafers. Never mind earning a living and supporting a family: Protect the ‘Rais’ (Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas—and all the others at the top of the importance scale, for that matter) and you will be measured up for a very fine silk-lined suit indeed, yours to keep while upholding the nascent Nation’s honor. They were impeccably turned out, putting Mr. Blair’s pasty English minders in threadbare Government surplus hand-me-downs to shame.

Journalists were provided with a small ‘media center' that contained a few laptops and comfy chairs to lounge in, plus limited access to food and drink, although the venue was clearly stretched way over capacity.

Adam Neiman Inspects a No Sweat Tee Thankfully, I had a meeting set with Adam Nieman of No Sweat Apparel—the only Jewish-owned company participating in and looking for investors at the Conference—which turned out to be the highlight of the day. We retired to a nearby eatery, and Adam shared with me his formidable achievements in bringing business to Palestine from Boston, Massachusetts, and his no less extraordinary hopes and plans for the future. Adam brought his business, Bienestar International, to Bethlehem two years ago, and was delighted to be back in a place he regards as “the Gordian knot of global geo-politics.” Later, he introduced me to Khaled J. Al-Arja, the owner of Arja Textile Company in Bet Jala, Bethlehem, who is the manufacturer of Adam’s 100% organic cotton T-shirts.

Title: The Truth About Camp David Author: Clayton Swisher Description: Before Swisher wrote this book in 2004, conventional wisdom dictated that the collapse of the 2000 Camp David negotiations was all Arafat's fault and that Barak was a victim. Swisher, who was at Camp David, interviewed all the players and demonstrates that Barak was as much responsible for the failure as Arafat. Additionally, he shows that the Clinton "peace team" helped doom the Camp David talks by acting, in negotiator Aaron Miller's words, as "Israel's lawyer" not as an honest broker. This book helps Jews get beyond the blame-the-Palestinians game to the realization that peace was almost achieved, and that the reason it wasn't is due to mistakes, blunders and, in Barak's case, the sheer arrogance of the various parties. The book also helps one understand just how Barak evolved from peace negotiator to the hawk he is today. The answer: he hasn't evolved. He is no more skeptical about negotiating with Palestinians today than he was then. Recommended By: M.J. Rosenberg is the Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum (IPF), a position he has held since the spring of 1998. In this position, MJ heads IPF's Washington, D.C. office and writes IPF Friday, a weekly opinion column on the Arab-Israeli conflict which is widely circulated throughout the United States and the Middle East. In addition, MJ has published numerous op-eds, in the national and Jewish press.

The New Jew Canon is a long-term project that seeks to canonize essential Jewish (and some Non-Jewish) reads as recommended by extraordinary rabbis, experts, and cultural leaders. Suggestions are welcome via comments or tips.

Previously: Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Recommended by Vanessa Ochs

Our post earlier this week about No Sweat, the sweatshop-free apparel company creating jobs for Palestinians in Bethlehem, set off quite the debate. Whatever your stance on the work Adam Neiman and company are doing, one thing is for certain: A number of their organic, Bethlehem-made T-shirts are must haves. Here are a few of our faves:

Organic Bethlehem Green Menorah Tee, $18: "The Shalom Center of Philadelphia does remarkable interfaith work with an integrated approach to the issues of peace, justice and environmental responsibility. Their new green menorah covenant campaign is focused on climate change. It's an especially good fit on our Palestinian produced organic t-shirts from Bethlehem, West Bank. $4 per t-shirt goes to support the Shalom Center's climate change campaign."

Organic Bethlehem Vision in Action Tee, $18: "There’s only one symbol in the holy land that’s embraced by Jews, Christians & Muslims & this is it, the eye of Fatima (or Miriam), encircled by a Japanese proverb that fits the moment to a T: Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. Fatima was Mohammed’s daughter, Miriam, Moses’ sister. It is said that the symbol actually represents the hidden female aspect of the deity and is used as a talisman to ward off the evil eye. For us the placement of the eye in the hand implies vision in action - what we strive to provide every day."

Organic Bethlehem Musicians Against Sweatshops Tee, $20: "Musicians Against Sweat Shops™ official tee is here, and only here! Support this initiative to help wipe sweatshops out of the music merchandising business while raising awareness of the issue. $5 on every T goes to MASS."

Previous: Alternative Jewish Grooves for Passover

Saving The World Is: no sweat. especially in cool kicks like these.You may have heard about No Sweat: A little apparel company aiming to make a big difference in the Middle East. Run by CEO Adam Neiman, No Sweat is more than just 100% union made apparel. In addition to creating sweatshop-free, organic and vegan products, Neiman is dedicated to creating jobs in Palestine. Unlike a lot of clothing manufacturers, No Sweat is upfront about their sources and production sites, such as the Arja Textiles factory in Bethlehem, Palestine. So, why did a Jewish guy from Boston want to source from a textile factory in Palestine? I'll let him tell you in his own words:

"While economic development is no substitute for a diplomatic settlement, no settlement can survive without a sustainable Palestinian economy. So while waiting for a diplomatic resolution, we have created a mechanism for ordinary citizens of
good faith to build goodwill on the ground, and support the peace to come. The concept is simple. When faced with an apparently irresolvable conflict, if there is any one thing all parties agree on, do that one thing and see what happens."

Neiman's optimistic ideals and goals for No Sweat have garnered a lot of positive press over the past couple of years—they've even been the subject of an Al Jazeera profile. That said, No Sweat still needs major funding to pull off this experiment in entrepreneurial diplomacy properly. As Neiman put it, "Hamas has chosen guns. Abbas has bet on butter. If we don't provide Palestinians on the West Bank with butter—good private sector jobs NOW—Hamas and guns will certainly prevail."

You can help No Sweat by voting for them in this month's Ideablob contest, where they're finalists competing for $10,000. You've got until March 31 to vote.

Totally fierce: KashouForget the presidential election. Up until last week, the most interesting—you might even say fierce—competition on TV was the battle to win Season 4 of Bravo TV's hit series “Project Runway.” Would it be Christian “Young, Fierce, and Talented” Siriano, Jillian “I Can Make Twizzlers Look Sexy” Lewis, or Rami “Drapery” Kashou?

Last Wednesday Christian emerged as the winner, but Ramallah-born Rami was a close second, and the judges praised his talent, vision, and drive. Rami didn’t talk much about his background on the show, leading many Jewish viewers to wonder if he was a member of the tribe (though his big crucifix suggested otherwise). In fact, he grew up as a Catholic on the West Bank, leaving the country for the U.S. after high school to pursue his fashion dreams. Prior to appearing on the show, he ran a small successful line worn by Hollywood stars like Jessica Alba, Tyra Banks, and even Paris Hilton.

During the show, the judges often worried that you relied too much on your talent for drapery. Did your background inspire your style as a designer?

I am the son of a mother who was a lover of fashion. My mother, who died when I was five, was Miss Jordan. She had all these amazing pieces in her closest, all these cocktail dresses. I guess because I saw women who wore veils with drapery, I liked the beauty of the fabric and the way it fell. So I guess maybe subconsciously that led to the draping in my designs on the show.

When ["Project Runway" mentor] Tim Gunn visited me right before Fashion Week, he looked at my collection and asked, “Where's the drapery?” That was when I realized I don't care what the judges say. I'm happy with my final collection for Fashion Week and that's all that matters. I'm finding my own voice and I'm glad they 'got it' in the end.

Mellow yellow: A typical Rami Kashou designYou already have a store and a studio in Los Angeles. Would you consider opening one in New York?

Yes! I'd love to, are you kidding me? I was in New York for a few days recently and what I love is that in New York, everything is so compact. There are so many people in small spaces—it's kind of like being shoved in an elevator--and all these people were coming up to me, and you never know who you'll meet next. It's easier to network in N.Y. than L.A. because of that.

What about in your home country?

I'd love to open up in more than one country, but with checkpoints in the Middle East, it could be hard. But it would be nice to have my work in different countries, to make it more accessible.

Do you think your previous fashion experience worked against you?

Honestly? Yes. You know, Jillian said something to me during the show that I thought was interesting. She said to me, “Rami, we want the career you already have.” But I don’t think people realize that I was doing it all on my own before the show. OK, I already had a label, but I wanted to win the money, not really the title, because the money would help my business. I do all of the dirty work for my label, which in a way takes away from the creative process sometimes. I deal with all the business stuff, all the bounced checks, arranging of events, everything. I just happen to be lucky that some celebrities liked my work.

Good sports: Rami and Chris MarchSpeaking of Jillian, what was your relationship with her like?

She was my BFF on the show and after the show.

When it came time to pick the three final contestants, the "Project Runway" judges had so much trouble choosing between you and Chris March that they ultimately asked you to compete in a separate contest. What was that like?

I'm sure it was really stressful for Chris, too, but when the judges said that both Chris and I had to design three outfits for them and then they'd choose between us, I thought, “Oh, great.” It kind of took the fun out of show—I felt like they cuffed our hands behind our backs and said, “Go design.” I used this analogy before, but to me, when the judges said they had to choose between Chris and me, it felt like I was handed a birthday cake without the candles...like, great, I don't get to make a wish?

How did you decide to audition for the show? I’ve heard previous contestants Nick Verroes and Santino Rice inspired you to sign up.

I was acquaintances with Santino, but I knew Nick from the same social setting and he said more good comes out of the show than bad.

Do you think your season was as gossipy as it’s been in past years?

Because I watched the previous seasons, I expected some gossip. However, I did learn after that there was a lot of editing done. People do say things and they get mashed up or get taken out of context. But other seasons were a LOT worse, I'll tell you that.

Grecian earn: A stunner from episode 11Did it bother you to see how you’d been edited?

Well, one thing they didn’t show is that I made all the shoes, hats, and pocketbooks the models wore. Only once I used a pair of Bluefly.com shoes because I needed a certain size. I liked working with Bluefly.com, but I wished the show acknowledged that I did all the etching and sewing and designing for the model's shoes, hats, and handbags—and I'd never designed handbags before. The chains were all custom-made, as was the quilting. I sewed all the bags and I'm happy with how the bags came out.

What's next for Rami Kashou now that the show is over?

Back to business! I just shipped out the Spring/Summer 2008 collection which you can find in NY at the store Big Drop. I’ll also be selling a design on the Home Shopping Network. And in mid-March, I’m flying back to the East Coast to attend an event for Seeds of Peace, which aims to improve relations and encourage peace in the Middle East. I'll be a guest there—it's a big deal. In the past they've had Susan Sarandon and Zac Posen as guests. It will be nice to move beyond fashion for this because I believe in the cause.

[[Correction: Rami initially said his work would be sold at Intermix, but it's actually Big Drop.  We regret the error.]]

Birthright Palestine: the trip of a lifetimeBirthright Israel has a doppelgänger called Birthright Palestine. The Palestinian program aims to "gather first-generation, western-born Palestinians (over the age of 18-years old) in their ancestral homeland, so that they can reunite and witness firsthand how their brethren are living under illegal Israeli military occupation."

Birthright Palestine participants are offered opportunities to volunteer in Bethlehem, take daily Arabic language classes, engage in cultural events, and party hearty. Although the program mimics the structure of its Jewish, Zionist counterpart almost exactly, there are some fundamental differences between the two. Shocking, I know.

One major difference is that Birthright Palestine doesn't support a two-state solution. Another is that they describe some of their destinations as the "1948 territories, which some people refer to as 'Israel.'" (Emphasis mine.)

Other differences: The Birthright Israel trip is a 10-day gift that covers roundtrip airfare, hotel, transportation, most meals and other associated land costs, while Birthright Palestine requires participants to cover their own airfare and pay approximately $1,000 to $3,000, depending on the length of their stay.

Though the site describes Birthright Palestine as a "concept created by the Palestine Center for National Strategic Studies (PCNSS)–a new non-profit, non-governmental Palestinian organization," the Birthright Palestine domain name is actually registered to Palestinian-American Nader Muaddi at an address in good ol' Pennsylvania, and Muaddi is an alum of the Palestine Summer Encounter–a strikingly similar program.

The first annual Birthright Palestine Program is launching this summer, and in case you're not convinced, more details about the experience can be found here.

PalestineThe division of the Palestinian territories into a ‘Hamastan’ in the Gaza Strip and a ‘Fatahland’ in the West Bank is a disaster. A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis.

Will the Palestinians overcome this split? It seems that the chances for that are getting smaller by the day. The gulf between the two parties is getting wider and wider.

The Fatah people in the West Bank, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, condemn Hamas as a gang of fanatics, who are imitating Iran and are guided by it, and who, like the Ayatollahs, are leading their people towards catastrophe. The Hamas people accuse Abbas of being a Palestinian Marshal Pétain, who has made a deal with the occupier and is sliding down the slippery slope of collaboration. The propaganda of both sides is full of venom, and the mutual violence is reaching new heights.

It looks like a cul-de-sac. Many Palestinians have despaired of finding a way out. Others are searching for creative solutions. Afif Safieh, the chief of the PLO mission in Washington, for example, proposes setting up a Palestinian government composed entirely of neutral experts, who are neither members of Fatah nor of Hamas. The chances for that are very slim indeed.

But in private conversations in Ramallah, one name pops up more and more often: Marwan Barghouti.

‘He holds the key in his hand,’ they say there, ‘both for the Fatah-Hamas and for the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.’

Some see Marwan as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. In appearance, the two are very different, both physically and in temperament. But they have much in common.

Both became national heroes behind prison bars. Both were convicted of terrorism. Both supported violent struggle. Mandela supported the 1961 decision of the African National Congress to start an armed struggle against the racist government (but not against white civilians). He remained in prison for 28 years and refused to buy his freedom by signing a statement denouncing ‘terrorism’. Marwan supported the armed struggle of Fatah's Tanzim organization and has been sentenced to several life terms.

But both were in favour of peace and reconciliation, even before going to prison. I saw Barghouti for the first time in 1997, when he joined a Gush Shalom demonstration in Harbata, the village neighbouring Bil’in, against the building of the Modiin-Illit settlement that was just starting. Five years later, during his trial, we demonstrated in the courthouse under the slogan ‘Barghouti to the negotiating table, not to prison!’

There is hardly anyone who is more popular with the Palestinian public than Marwan Barghouti. In this, too, he resembles Mandela while in prison.

It is difficult to explain the source of this authority. It does not emanate from his high position in Fatah, since the movement is disorganized and there is hardly any clear hierarchy. From the time when he was a simple activist in his village, he rose in the organization by sheer force of personality. It is that mysterious thing called charisma. He radiates a quiet authority that does not depend on outward signs.

The war of vilification between Fatah and Hamas does not touch him. Hamas takes care not to attack him. On the contrary, when they submitted a list of prisoners in exchange for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit, Marwan Barghouti, in spite of his being a Fatah leader, headed the list.

It was he who, together with the imprisoned leaders of the other organizations, composed the famous ‘prisoners’ document’, which called for national unity. All Palestinian factions accepted the document. Thus the ‘Mecca agreement’, which created the (short-lived) Government of National Unity, was born. Before it was signed by the parties, urgent messengers were sent to Marwan, in order to obtain his agreement. Only when this was given, did the signing take place.

How will the Palestinians get out of this bind? How can they re-establish a national leadership that will be accepted by all parts of the people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, able to lead the national struggle and make peace with Israel, when peace becomes possible?

Barghouti's followers believe that at the right time, when Israel comes to the conclusion that it needs peace, he will be released from prison and play a central role in the reconciliation – much as Mandela was released from prison in South Africa when the white government came to the conclusion that the apartheid regime could not be sustained any more. I have no doubt that in order to bring such a situation about, Israeli peace forces must start a big public campaign for Barghouti's release.

What will happen in the meantime?

There is hardly anyone on the Palestinian side who believes that Ehud Olmert will conclude a peace agreement and implement it. Hardly anyone believes that anything will come out of the ‘international meeting’ that is supposed to take place in November. The Palestinians believe that the meeting is a bone thrown by President Bush to Condoleezza Rice, whose standing has been dropping dramatically. And if that has no results?

‘There is no vacuum,’ one of the Fatah leaders told me. ‘If the efforts of President Abbas do not bear fruit, there will be another explosion, like the intifada after the failure of Camp David.’

How is that possible, after Fatah activists have turned over their arms and foresworn violence? ‘A new generation will arise,’ my interlocutor said. ‘As has happened before, one age-group gets tired and its place is taken by the next one. If the occupation does not come to an end and there is no peace, a peace that will enable the members of this generation to turn to the universities, to family, work and business, a new intifada will surely break out.’

To achieve peace, the Palestinians need national unity, much as the Israelis need a consensus for withdrawal. The man who symbolizes the hope for unity among the Palestinians is sitting now in Hasharon jail.

I’ve never been a big fan of the OnFaith series that Newsweek does because the commentaries usually seem a bit obvious to me, but while I was in Dublin I was pointed to this inflammatory piece by Arun Gadhi, Mohandas’s grandson, now president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, at the University of Rochester in New York.
Arun Gandhi: no more Mr. Nice Guy

Arun Gandhi wrote:

Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence

Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience -- a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger.

The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?

Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.

Wanna guess how many comments there are on that post? Well over 400. And no, most of them aren’t full of joy and good tidings, if you know what I mean.

Gandhi and Arafit Sittin' in a Tree: H-A-T-I-N-G O-N I-S-R-A-E-L
So, Gandhi obviously wrote a lame little retraction:

My Apology for My Poorly Worded Post

I am writing to correct some regrettable mis-impressions I have given in my comments on my blog this week. While I stand behind my criticisms of the use of violence by recent Israeli governments -- and I have criticized the governments of the U.S., India and China in much the same way -- I want to correct statements that I made with insufficient care, and that have inflicted unnecessary hurt and caused anger.

I do not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people. Indeed, many are as concerned as I am by the use of violence for state purposes, by Israel and many other governments.

I do believe that when a people hold on to historic grievances too firmly it can lead to bitterness and the loss of support from those who would be friends. But as I have noted in previous writings, the suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust, was historic in its proportions. While we must strive for a future of peace that rejects violence, it is also important not to forget the past, lest we fail to learn from it. Having learned from it, we can then find the path to peace and rejection of violence through forgiveness.

A Street In Bethlehem: and the wallI’ve met Rabbi Melissa Weintraub a few times, most notably last year at Limmud NY, and she’s just completely amazing on so many levels. One of the awesome things about her is that she was one of the founders of Encounter Programs when she was living in Israel. Here’s Encounter’s mission statement:

Encounter is an educational organization dedicated to providing Jewish diaspora leaders from across the religious and political spectrum with exposure to Palestinian life.

Motivated by the relentless Jewish pursuit of hokhma (wisdom) and binah (understanding), Encounter programs bring participants on journeys to engage with Palestinians face-to-face and witness realities first hand.

Within a supportive, uniquely caring, and pluralistic framework, Encounter invites participants to ask questions and grapple with fresh perspectives, in order to create human connections across lines of enmity, and expand personal and political understanding.

Israel education is a hugely important factor in any Jewish community and Jewish life, but I don’t feel like I’ve ever gotten an adequate exposure to Palestinian life, and I think it’s incredibly important for Jewish leaders to talk from a place of experience when they talk about the conflict, and that means visiting Palestinian homes and engaging with Palestinians. So I hope I’ll be on an Encounter program soon.

I have a number of friends who have been on Encounter trips and they’ve all come back feeling confused by enlightened. And maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but that sounds like exactly the appropriate reaction to the situation as a whole.

Support Encounter Programs here; learn more about going on a trip yourself here.