“There is another way."
The Choice is Yours. Your Future Depends on You”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid
Lapid offers a new path to residents of Gaza: Livelihood, dignity, and peace. As fighting ends, PM says Abraham Accords can be an alternative model for Gaza: ‘There is another way’; Gantz says Israel will keep using preemptive strikes to maintain security https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-offers-a-new-path-to-residents-of-gaza-livelihood-dignity-and-peace/
After another round in Gaza, Lapid said, ‘There is another way to live.’ Here’s how. The PM urged Gazans to choose a better future. But they won’t until their schools and media provide an honest take on our complex reality — the last thing their leaders want. https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-another-round-in-gaza-lapid-says-there-is-another-way-to-live-heres-how/
OP-ED by David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel
I mentioned both Lapid’s comments from August 8 and David Horovitz's OP-ED from August 11 to a causal acquaintance yesterday.
His response left me stunned “What do you expect from Lapid, he is naïve to believe that there is another path to a settlement with both Gaza and PA. Sheer force is the only language they understand.”
Here is an Israeli prime minister – OK so he is to some merely a caretaker PM – stating openly that there is Another Way to Live.
Netflix has started to show “Never Stop Dreaming” The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres.
The documentary has the subheadline “In politics, most pursue power. He pursued peace. Shimon Peres’s influence and integrity were instrumental in the founding and preservation of Israel.”
And those of us of a certain age remember clearly Martin Luther King’s August 1963 awe-inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech.
Leaving aside Trump’s crazy antics, the Abraham Accords are inspirational for this region’s continued development and certainly a template for conflict resolution.
As John Lennon sang “Give Peace a Chance”.
Surely it's time to throw caution to the wind and use some Common Sense?
Israel is not going anywhere nor for that matter is the Arab population of Gaza or the PA-controlled areas of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). I accept that the population of these two areas is predominately Muslim; considerable numbers of Christian inhabitants have left for greener pastures.
Is the merry-go-round of conflict destined to continue for generations to come? How many more people, on both sides of the divide need to be wounded and killed before people appreciate that there is another way? How many more lives need to be destroyed?
No doubt a number of the fanatical leaders in Gaza and the West Bank adhere to the adage that “today’s terrorist is tomorrow’s statesman”. To prove the point for this region we need to look no further than Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin.
And of course, there are many other examples; Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Kenyatta in Kenya, and Markoris in Cyprus. For England’s George III, George Washington was a terrorist.
But, it is also worth remembering that far from all uprisings, terrorist/ guerrilla acts bring to fruition the desired results.
For a moment, think about Tony Blair and his drive and resolution to broker the Good Friday Agreement. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-61968177
The April 1998 agreement is based on the idea of cooperation between the various communities as a way to end The Troubles that lasted almost 30 years and cost the lives of more than 3,500 people.
It’s worth remembering that the modern Irish Problem dates back 450 years to the time of Henry VIII, although many historians trace the crises to the Anglo-Norman intervention of Ireland in 1167. https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-the-northern-ireland-conflict
Many would argue that the Good Friday Agreement is far from perfect, but the underlying theme is that it is on the whole working and the various communities are, in cases begrudgingly, working together for the common good.
I am sure that a couple of years on and with the Abraham Accords honeymoon waning, several clauses can be / should be tweaked.
Rather than calling Lapid naive, we should be applauding his courage in standing up and saying loudly and clearly, that there is another way.
While regrettably is not possible to foil a lone gunman, as this morning's incident in Jerusalem shows, I am convinced that the vast majority of the inhabitants of Gaza and the PA-controlled areas of the West Bank (and the Lebanese for that matter) wish nothing more than getting on with their lives.
A dream maybe? While today’s America is far from perfect, MLK’s vision has been fulfilled to a greater degree.
Just think about how prosperous this region could be with cooperation from all sides.
That is a dream Shimon Peres could be proud of.
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