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CounterPunch
January
9, 2003
Calling All Nine Million Plus
By DEB REICH
Somewhere
inside each and every Palestinian and Israeli is a noble human
soul--the most magical, unquenchable, irrepressible entity on
the planet. Come out, come out, wherever you are! Come out and
get to work!
I'm talking to you out there, all nine
million of you -- my Eastern Mediterranean sisters and brothers
and cousins from the Jordan River to the sea, from Mt. Hermon
to the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba: Step back from the fray, take a deep
breath, and look at the landscape here with a broad, all-encompassing
perspective. Forget about the guns and the soldiers for a second.
What do you see? I see more than nine million people with infinite
potential who are doing very little to actualize it because they're
too busy battling over who is in charge, who is right, who is
holier, who has been more wronged by the other, who better deserves
the world's support. What a waste!
Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, Druze,
Baha'i, Palestinian, Israeli, guest (foreign) worker: We all
add up to a vast cosmic wealth of magical human creativity drawn
from many lands and many traditions, most of which is being criminally
squandered for lack of a unifying vision of sufficient beauty
and drama to gather us all together under its wings. And while
all that talent and energy literally bleed away into the earth,
a few thousand of us are actually (if often anonymously) pleased
because they profit handsomely, one way or another, from the
status quo. When are the rest of us going to wake up? (I particularly
hoped someone would wake up in time for the January elections
in Israel but, thus far, all the candidates appear to be sleepwalking.)
Who profits
now
Who is profiting from the status quo,
you ask? A few examples: Those who trade in weapons; those who
trade in the labor of the disenfranchised during times of crisis
like these, such as the extortionate foreign-worker wholesalers
and the bureaucrats and politicians who grease the wheels of
their deals, and the sex trade magnates whose cynically cruel
commerce would be drastically marginalized in normal times; the
very wealthiest citizens with posh second and third homes abroad,
who can afford to remain unmoved by the escalating chaos threatening
to bury the rest of us; tragically misguided clergy of any faith
who use the ethical lapses of the other side to prove that the
Eternal God of All the Universe is on this or that side, thereby
diminishing our concept of the Deity to something akin to a Mafia
power broker in a local election campaign; self- serving political
and military strategists who plan unforgivably brutal campaigns
and cynically wait to launch them until some suitable provocation
is offered by the other side--you get the idea.
Let us remember, however, that our salvation
will not be attained by focusing on the few who profit from the
status quo. Our salvation will come rather from changing the
mindset of the many (all the rest of us) who have been letting
them get away with it, and sometimes cheering them on.
Reclaiming
our pride
In historical terms, over several centuries,
our collective religious, artistic, scientific, and philosophical
heritage gives us much to be proud of. And the modern Palestinian
diaspora of the last half century, like the long Jewish diaspora
that preceded it, has proven over and over again how capable
we are in exile of distinguishing ourselves in academia, in public
life, in the various learned professions: working hard, educating
our children, rising above all obstacles to contribute on many
levels to the society around us. Yet here at home, look at us--not
moving ahead to forge a better future together, but the opposite:
marching backward into brutality, anarchy, and poverty.
So long as we continue to focus on outwitting
and outmaneuvering one another to see who can capture the lion's
share of the pie (while the other fellows, to hell with them!,
can starve, for all we care), we are dooming ourselves to more
of the same. Wake up, brothers and sisters! Wake up, cousins!
The only way to deconstruct the dead- end dynamic born of our
collective stubbornness, short-sightedness and greed is to harness
our collective synergy. Synergy is the magical self-empowerment
that comes with the realization that the whole is capable of
far, far more than the sum of its parts. Our synergy can save
us, but first we have to unshackle it.
We're almost
there
The Israeli-Palestinian women's peace
movement has birthed an inspired new slogan in the last year
or so around the theme of "we refuse!" as in: We refuse
to be enemies! This is a giant step in the right direction. What's
needed now is to vault past the negative mindset (what we know
we must stop doing) to a new cohesive vision that is marked by
a truly positive, proactive, vibrant, inclusive, glass-half-full
approach. We need a powerful new self-help campaign for the whole
nine million plus. Without delay, now, today, we must start thinking
of ourselves as a nine-million-strong collective because, like
it or not, we have a common destiny: We can go on as we are,
spiraling down into ever-worsening despair; or we can roll up
our sleeves and start working together to make this land a realm
of enlightened prosperity for all. We certainly have the raw
material required, and then some. We are more than nine million
talented, passionate, energetic people here. Let's bring everyone
into the game, for a change: the whole nine million plus.
You know, that's actually a pretty good
name for a new and creative enterprise here: The Whole Nine Million
Plus. How about a good Eastern Mediterranean fusion theme song
for the new campaign? We have a lot of talented lyricists and
composers living somewhere between the Jordan and the sea. Go
for it! Get to work! Write us a good song we can all learn to
sing... together. Today is a fine day to get started.
Deb Reich,
author, editor, and translator for Ha'aretz- International Herald
Tribune and for NPOs in civil rights and related fields, was
born in Manhattan and educated at Barnard College. She lives
and works in Karkur, Israel. Contact her at debmail@alum.barnard.edu.
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January
4, 2003
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Something
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Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
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and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
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by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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