Let’s Be Open to Possibilities for Peace May 4, 2011
Posted by jayocallahan in Uncategorized.trackback
I’ve been reading Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, online. A columnist, Gideon Levy, wrote an article recently on leaf blowers. Levy said that leaf blowers would soon be banned in Jerusalem by law. Levy went on to say Israelis are upset by leaf blower noise but are not upset by the fact that the Africans who will be sweeping the streets will be paid substandard wages. He also said Israelis are not upset that Israel is a brutal occupying power but are upset by the noise of leaf blowers.
Levy expressed his opinion. I rarely hear or read anything critical of Israeli government policy in the US press. But this is a time to speak up. There may be a chance for peace. Levy wrote on May 1st about the two Palestinian camps uniting, “Why is it that every time there appears to be a chance for positive change, Israel . . . is quick to hunker down beside its rejectionism. Why?”
Levy is clearly frustrated with Israel and the US being so quick to reject any chance for peace. He concluded his May 1st article saying, “The days go by, a year passes, but the song remains the same.” Rejectionism.
It’s time to be more open to the possibility of peace.
Levy is absolutely right. Let us all have peace.
It is really way past time that the US take a more balanced view of the behavior of Israel and really work toward a peaceful two-country solution. We needn’t waste time celebrating the killing of Bin Laden. It it very unfortunate that we had to use this means of dealing with this deranged person but now that it is done we need to move forward with regret and a hope for a better way of handling things in the future. So it is a good time to rethink our approach to Israel and take the perhaps difficult but more balanced stand and work toward a real peace.
BRAVO, Jay, for reading an Israeli man’s take on this subject that you care about. While these battles have raged on for years, sharing the irony of a city’s discontent with the noise of leaf blowers when war happens daily just a few miles away, might just be what wakes up the American press and the powers that be in Israel. Keep talking. Keep writing. I appreciate this post.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Noam Chomsky speak at Clark University. I came away from his talk thinking about South Africa. Things started changing there when the Universities stopped investing in corporations that profited from the apartheid in South Africa.
Chomsky said that Isreal is operating by the South African Principal: What WE are Doing is Right because – even though the WORLD – says it’s wrong, the U.S. does not oppose us. Therefore what we are doing is NOT WRONG.
Some are advocating a boycott of products made in Isreal. I think it’s time for people to educate themselves, stand up and speak out.
If you get a chance to see/hear storyteller Noa Baum’s program on Isreal and Palestine, it is very good at communicating the problem. Also, a good read is To The End of the Land by David Grossman.