Nice sentiments help Obama win the Nobel

October 11, 2009 - 12:56 PM by Nicky · 3 Comments
Filed under: Politics, War, coexistence 

I went away for a few days camping and came back to discover that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel peace prize. I was so surprised that I wondered briefly if while I’d been away I had got stuck in some kind of time warp, and a whole year had gone by.

And the prize goes to... President Obama meets Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to push forward peace. Photo by Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash 90

And the prize goes to... President Obama meets Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to push forward peace. Photo by Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash 90

It seemed a far more likely explanation than that the Nobel prize committee had actually decided to award a US president, in power for just a twinkle of the eye, with a peace prize for doing – nothing actually.

I’m a fan of Obama, and I admire what he stands for and the promise he holds. But that’s all we’ve got so far – just a promise, and a few statements about peace and goodwill to all men.

The peace committee said the prize was “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”, while Time Magazine added that it was “primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament.” From where I sit, however, with Iran threatening to blow Israel off the planet and fast approaching the nuclear capacity to do just that, Obama’s sugary wish to disarm the world seems pretty frivolous.

I don’t often agree with Republicans, but Michael Steel, chairman of the Republican National Committee got it right when he said: “What has President Obama actually accomplished? It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who made real achievements working toward peace and human rights.”

Here in this region of the world, where conflict is in your face, and peace seems so elusive and unattainable, there are many people working on the frontlines of the peace movement who really do deserve a prize.

They face the conflict every single day, and still continue working for change, even at great cost to themselves.

What about Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish , the Palestinian doctor who lost his children in the bombing in Gaza, and still campaigns for peace? What about the founders of Parent’s Circle , an organization set up by Israelis and Palestinians who lost loved ones in the conflict but use their bereavement to fight ardently for peace, people like Robi Damelin, who wrote a public letter to Ynet warning of the terrible cost of the intifada as talk grows of the possibility of a new third intifada breaking out in Israel?

What about the dozens and dozens of peace organizations here where Jews and Arabs work side by side, bringing people together, and trying to create a different reality. Every one of us could cite an example. These people aren’t just making nice speeches about peace, they are actually out there making it.

If we are really lucky, in four years from now, Obama will actually deserve a Nobel peace prize, but as we all know, nice sentiments don’t always lead to action. In the meantime, couldn’t the Norwegians find someone who’s actually achieved something?

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A tragedy of the Gaza war

January 20, 2009 - 11:07 AM by David · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, War, coexistence 

abuleishOne of the most heartbreaking tragedies of the recently completed Operation Cast Lead is the story of Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian gynecologist from Gaza City who works at Israel’s Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv.

Abuelaish, a fluent Hebrew speaker and known among his colleagues as an advocate for peace and coexistence, had been a regular interviewee on Israeli news broadcasts during the 22 days of war. On Friday night, three of his daughters were killed by an Israeli shell at the Abuelaish home. The IDF said gunfire had emerged from the home, a claim Abuelaish denies.

What set this tragedy apart from the other innocent Palestinians and Israelis who were killed during the war is that it played out on television According to a report by Ben Lynfield in The Independent, Abuelaish’s raw anguish -captured live on Channel 10 – forced Israelis to take their first real glimpse of the suffering and death caused to Palestinian civilians

Shlomi Eldar, the Channel 10 correspondent, his own voice choking with emotion, repeatedly noted Dr Abuelaish’s connection to Shiba Hospital as he held out his mobile phone, allowing viewers to hear the physician cry and sob: “My daughters, they killed them, Oh lord, God, God, God.”

“I want to save them but they are dead,” Dr Aboul Aish said. In a video of the interview, available on YouTube, the physician can be heard imploring for help while a shaken Mr Eldar pleads on air for anyone in the army who might be viewing to let ambulances reach the Aboul Aish home in the Jebalya refugee camp. “Maybe something can still be saved,” he said.

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The IDF allowed ambulances to come straight to the house, and the doctor’s other daughter, niece and brother were rushed to Israeli hospitals – first to Barzilai in Ashkelon and then to Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv.

Abuelaish, who did his residency at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, was adamant he had not allowed his house to be a Hamas firing position. “They should just admit they made a mistake. There is no shame in making a mistake, but don’t deceive the nation,” he told the Independent.

Israel Television reported that autopsy reports showed traces of Grad rocket fragments in the head of one of Abuelaish’s daughters, the kind of weapon fired by Hamas, and not the IDF. But there has been no followup on that, and it appears that the IDF shell was the cause of the loss of life.

The high civilian casualty count in the Gaza operation has been attributed by Israel to the fact that Hamas both used civilians as human shields and fired from inside major population centers. Most people I know are able to use that as justification for retaining a clean conscience over the civilians killed.

But the Abuelaish case makes it impossible to ignore the victims on the other side. We can blame Hamas for the deaths of the Abuelaish girls, but we can’t just shirk off responsibility, and say ‘tough luck’. Otherwise, we become as inhuman as our enemy seems to be.

If quiet rains down on the South of Israel now due to the Gaza operation, will the loss of innocent life have been worth it? Perhaps. Could it have been achieved in another way?
Doubtful. But the images of a grieving Abuelaish, a man who epitomizes the possibility that Israelis and Palestinians can one day live together in peace, were a chilling reminder that even in winning a war, we are all losers.

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