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Diplomat: Peace efforts require ‘quantum leap’
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An Israeli diplomat told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Tuesday night that peace in the Middle East will not be possible until countries make the psychological leap necessary for collaboration.
Gershon Kedar, deputy consul general of the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, focused his talk of peace primarily on conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“If any people really want peace with Israel, it’s Palestinians. They know the cultural and economic freedoms that they had. They know how much they have to gain, and we also know how much we have to gain, but the problem on both sides is psychological,” Kedar said.
Kedar went on to say the two feel uncomfortable negotiating, and outside forces would be required for them to make the “quantum leap” necessary to overcome this.
He added the moderate camp developing in Palestine must be stronger for them to feel confident about negotiations.
“When we can solve the blockages, we clear the lines of communications,” Kedar said. “We can get the negotiations going even more than we are now, and I honestly think we can get to a two-state solution sometime in the next year or two.”
Kedar also noted this moderate camp is part of the bigger conflict in the Middle East. Instead of Arabs versus Israelis, it is moderates versus extremists.
He spoke at length about the suspected rise of an atomic energy program in Iran. He said research has shown a nuclear bomb could be produced by 2010 and the danger of Iran should not be overlooked.
“Other countries are looking at Iran and saying, ‘This country is dangerous.’ The fact that they are trying to get missile technology that gets to Eastern Europe, southern Russia … means that it’s much more of a danger to Israel, to the whole of the Middle East and the West,” Kedar said.
UW junior Jehad Algharabli said Kedar’s emphasis on Iran was an attempt to draw attention away from bigger problems with Israel itself.
“Any talk about psychologically reaching an agreement is really a euphemism for internalizing and accepting what [Israel] is doing. Palestinians will never incorporate an occupation into their life. They will never accept it,” Algharabli said.
Algharabli is a part of Justice for Palestine, which with the help of several other campus organizations organized a mild protest outside of the Hillel offices on Lake Street before the speech.
His family is from Gaza, and at one point he spoke out angrily about the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli troops.
Kedar, visibly agitated, responded by saying the casualties are a result of practices by those attacking Israel.
“Those people who are attacking Israel deliberately act out of civilian areas. You know why? Because they want Palestinian civilians killed. You know why? To serve their position. It doesn’t matter what’s the truth. Israel will be blamed for every Palestinian killed,” Kedar said.
The event was organized by Madison Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group that promotes education and awareness about Israel.
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Too bad the Badger Herald does not report accurate accounts of campus news.
Maybe you will apply what you learn in J201 by providing UNBIASED articles.
I offer my following short, and to the point poem, that I wrote in 2002 as an encouragement to the many people who are still struggling to find a way to make the psychological leap necessary for collaboration.
Starve War
There is as much hunger for peace in this world as there is for bread. War starves us all.
There is as much love in the home of your enemies as there is in your own. Love unites us all.
There is as much need for understanding in this world as there is for forgiveness. Reconciliation can save us all.
To satisfy the world’s hunger for peace, feed yourself with good judgment, feed your government with good advice, and feed all others with tolerance, goodwill compassion and respect.
To satisfy the world’s hunger for peace, starve war.
I would like to remind people that, in a global quest for tolerance, the United Nations proclaimed 1995 as the International Year of Tolerance. The goal at that time was to generate awareness among both policy-makers and the public of the dangers associated with contemporary forms of intolerance. That year, people around the world resolved to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors. That was thirteen years ago. Unfortunately, as we all know, intolerance is still a present danger.
In my view, tolerance is a necessary condition of peace among individuals, among peoples, among countries, and the indispensable ingredient of a culture of peace. To have peace we must have tolerance, especially religious tolerance, but also tolerance of different lifestyles. Tolerance finds a way to allow differences to be respected and grow. It is fresh and clear, not clouded by aversion to diversity. It is not afraid of differences.
To have peace we also must have goodwill for others. All people deserve to have homes, jobs, schools, hospitals and futures. And to have peace we must have compassion for all people who have suffered and for all people who are suffering now. Lastly, my last ingredient for peace is to say that we must have respect for all people on this earth and for their human rights.
People everywhere would really like to have peace, but it appears that many don’t know what it is, and they don’t know how to get it.
Therefore, I hope this letter and especially my poem will help by condensing a lot of meaning, and a lot of emotion, and a lot of story, into very, very few words.
Peace to all
Robert Hicks 21 Sheridan Drive St. Catharines Ontario Canada L2M 6N8
The only bias I see is in the first comment. This article was well reported and accurate. All sides were represented in story, most notably those of the Palestinian sympathizers, who frankly, were disrespectful at the speech, only hurt their own “cause,” and in my opinion didn’t deserve as many words as the writer allotted to them.
scathing criticism from commentor number one!