Palestinians or Israelis? Stay or leave? Claim or blame?
There is no right answer to the wrong questions, especially 60 years on and counting.
There is no consolation for the dead of war, especially when combat is not their choice.
There is no excuse for our politicians who don't take a stand, especially when the voices on the street are so loud.
A few years ago I attended a work in progress screening of Shiri Tsur's On The Objection Front, a documentary about the Refusniks. Images of coexistence continue to pile up. And voices of engaged civil societies are getting louder. All the while, children bleed to death in Gaza, and humanity chokes.
Where is the active Arab political conversation?
Where is the enlightened political dialog?
Where is that stand countries like Jordan can take at a time like this?
Where is the strategic power of diplomacy that should be taking place between wars?
It's an important time for Jordan to take this stand. It's a vital time for Jordan to cultivate and exercise some clout using its advantage as a signatory to the paper of peace.
We need so much more dialog, not less. We need it every single day until we are able to imagine a tomorrow that works for everyone. The vision for a future that could work needs powerful imagination. It's not going to fix the past. It's not going to sound logical today. It's not going to heal wounds nor console pain. But it will save the soul of this region for a better world for our kids.
1/10/2009
Reading the pictures, imagining the future
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4 comments:
do you honestly believe Jordan has any clout with the US or Israel or any other country. We keep confusing the relationship of friendships vs mercenary. Israel is a friend of US. Germany is a friend of US. Jordan's monarchy is a contract security guard for the US. to them we are a non-democratic backward third world country with one job only, to protect israel's borders. so let's wake up to the reality that everyone else knows but we in Jordan do not want to accept. we accepted to play this role. no one forced us into it.
Nadine...are you actually saying that 60 years blur right and wrong? What Arab political conversation? Why do you want an elightened political dialogue? What do you expect from Jordan which has been created to buffer the Palestinians from their occupied land? Our only salvation is putting amends or acheiving the same by mass Arab revolt. It is high time that we pay a "real" price for our liberation (see Algeria in its war of liberation).
Your friend Omar
we can talk all we want and create dialogue.. but the fact is that we as arabs do not have a united and coordinated front and it will take a lot of time and effort... seeing how the work ethic in jordan in general is not professional at all i dont know how well or how long this would take..
Like everyone else, i'm really angry and sad from what is happening in Gaza. But i don't understand the Palestinian and Arab reactions!
We are such a sentimental and shallow nation (not a real nation) that we just remember Palestine when there are dead kids on tv, we move when we see blood, then when it's over we totally forget about it for a year or two. Why don't we give a damn about the hundreds of thousands massacred in Darfour? It is in an Arab country as well.
We go out on the streets, shout, burn flags and break, then go home feeling better about ourselves, taking out the frustration. There is absolutely no local or pan Arab "strategies" towards Palestine and Israel in our heads, "kill them? Peace?" and it ends there, no how, why, when
What is happening in Palestine is unfortunately nothing close to a proper revolution, and no one is thinking how we can attack Israel or even make peace with them. Just shouting for opening border to the arab nation will take us nowhere, it didn't for the past 60+ year.
The other problem is that Arab leaderships are so far away in their thinking from their people, they realize the facts and limitations but can't offer explanations, so it's not an honest relationship, which makes it worse, simply no dialogue.
Too bad all these people are dying
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