Wednesday, January 26, 2005

On Step at a Time

Israel and the Palestinians ended a nearly two-year freeze in high-level diplomatic contacts Wednesday and agreed to prepare for a first summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas.

Posted by Richard at 1/26/2005 07:32:00 AM

2 comments:

LisaPal said...

This brought me back to the day in 1993 when Begin and Arafat signed the peace accord. I was so moved when Begin ended his speech with:
Oseh shalom bi-m’romav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisrael, v’imru amen.

I know I don't have to translate this for you. (Though Begin did translate it for the benefit of those unfamiliar with Hebrew.)

I decided to celebrate the even by a creating symbolic mini-peace accord. So, I took my Mom and my friend Glenn (accordion player for the klezmer band I was managing at the time) to the local Palestinian restraurant for lunch. (All of us having varying degrees of Jewishness aboard, depending on how you choose to make the distinction. And we've always inferred from one of the surnames on my dad's side, "Palestina," that I may be a rather diluted representation of both sides. That there are Levantine genes a-plenty is of no question. My dad always attributed the blue and green eyes to the Norman Invasion.)

I had such great hope for real peace. I'd fallen in love with Israel during the trips I'd made there in 1991 and 1992. On those trips I had made several Israeli friends, all of whom were very sympathetic to the Palestinians. One friend's grandfather made the keen observation that the treatment of Palestinians in Israel was disconcertingly similar to the what he had experienced as a Jew in early Nazi Germany. (On an unrelated note, another Israeli friend's grandfather was Martin Buber, one of my favorite philosophers!)

My heart shattered the day Begin was assasinated. As we know, it has been downhill since. I've wanted to go back with my children for so long now, but have never felt good about it being a safe thing to do. This post is good news. I just pray that Pharoah...I mean Sharon's heart will be softened and this madness will come to an end. So, this merits a reiteration:
Oseh shalom bi-m’romav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisrael, v’imru amen.

1/26/2005 10:33:00 PM
Richard said...

For those readers who don't know hebrew or where this phrase is taken from, it means, "Praise be God who brings peace to the Universe, please bring peace to Israel, and to all the world." The phrase is more poigent because it is the starting line of the mourner's kaddish (prayer) said in commemoration of those whom have died.

1/27/2005 10:16:00 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)