The problem with the Middle East peace process is that the foes of compromise are more active than the supporters of the peace process.
What President Obama needs is to energize a broad moderate activists constituency. We need moderates out there pushing and advocating on behalf of peace. Peace makes sense for Israelis and Palestinians. The only solution is the two-state solution. And while it may not make everyone happy right away, the fruits of two-states will create an environment in which benefits will be seen almost immediately.
The hate level will drop significantly, especially when the majority of "haters" who are really just angry and frustrated proponents of peace who have lost faith because of 20 years of peace atrophy, start to regain their faith in peace.
Peace doesn't mean an immediate end to violence. The fanatics and extremists won't allow peace to succeed on its most important goal, bringing the violence to an end. In fact, violence will increase before it decreases. But in the long run, it will decrease significantly and Israel and Palestine will be safer places to live.
As safety increases, peace will grow. And as peace grows, contacts between Palestinians and Israelis will increase.
But we can't just rely on the restarting of direct face-to-face negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to make this happen. The negotiators need a constituency that has impact and a loud enough voice to marginalize the extremists.
The extremists do not want peace. They don't care if they have victory, either. They benefit most from the conflict. The continued conflict gives them a reason for being. It creates their existence. It gives them a "job." They have something to do. It allows them to exercise their passions and create an environment in which they regale.
Moderates, on the other hand, want peace and are not happy until they get it. And since they have never really had peace, it gets to be frustrating. They need some form of satisfaction which should come from moderate Palestinians and moderate Israelis coming together to create one voice. One movement. One body of shared thought.
We lack a strong and cohesive moderate movement out there. Instead, we have pockets of moderation. And to quote the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, "Either hang together or hang separately." Right now the moderates are hanging separately. They are working for themselves rather than for the larger agenda of peace. The so-called moderate groups, most based in Washington DC, have also come to accept the quasi state of needing peace but never getting it. It gives them a life of their own also, hoping for peace. Even if we never have peace, advocating ineffectively for peace is a life, I guess.
But I expect more. Far more. I expect and we should all expect leadership that actually overcomes the divisions and brings people together based on compromise, commonsense, reason and the adherence to principle. Principles like this one: "As a Palestinian, I must be able to condemn the murder of an Israeli before my condemnation of the murder of a Palestinian can have any meaning."
The same goes for Israelis. They should be able to condemn the murder of Palestinians before their condemnation of Israelis can have meaning, too.
There is so much evidence already that the peace process is failing. The very people who say they support peace -- Palestinians and Israelis -- are the ones expressing the most skepticism. We need to focus on the fruits of peace not the reality of the past failure of peace.
We need to speak out for peace, not find reasons to oppose peace.
And, we need to stop putting kerosene on the peace process and lighting the fuse of anger that foments into hatred.
Israelis are upset that Palestinians who have been deemed murderers by Israel have been released from prison. While Palestinians are upset that Israel continues to expand its settlements and imposing harsh restrictions on the rights of non-Jews in Israel and in the occupied territories.
We have to look past those as problems of the past that will be erased when peace comes. When peace comes, we will be able to look at a criminal on the basis of the crime, not on the basis of their religion or ethnicity.
But, we have to believe in peace. We have to believe that peace is more powerful than hatred, conflict and violence.
We have to have the courage to resist our anger and not allow anger to become hate. We have to turn our passions and emotions into the fuel to make peace work. We have to fight for peace. Jihad for peace. Mitzvah for peace.
Let's do it.
RAY HANANIA
www.hanania.com
