I have just finished reading your excellent book and feel compelled to commend you both for your grand achievement but more so for your humanitarian courage.
We've all heard the cliche of how "fast paced" or "21st century" our world has become, and to accommodate we often feel that solutions to problems must be abstract, complicated, and be originated from those in positions of power and privilege. But you and I know there's no law that says any of that!
What I found so refreshing about your book is its unreliance on mathematical formulas or cultural equations. Instead, you appeal to that which we all hold in common (I hope we do at least), our humanity.
Name the person who doesn't want a good job with room for growth, and I'll show you a loser. Name the person who doesn't want his children to be happy, healthy, and have access to an education, and I'll show you a terrorist.
There are some issues we can all agree on: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those who don't want that deserve our pity. Those who try to prevent us from reaching those goals, deserve our wrath.
Thank you, Mr. Dahan. Your message will get through because in the least it's completely inoffensive and uncontroversial, and in the most, humane and true.
As always, your comments are thoughtful and eloquent; so much so, in fact, that we can all see, in you, an important writer in the making.
I appreciate your endorsement of my book. I can use all the help I can get in that department, believe you me.
I also agree with your point that our society has become so specialized, and so "fast paced," as you suggest, that we leave it to the "experts," or to the people of "power and privilege," to come up with solutions, solutions which are often "abstract and complicated," as you say.
And yet, with all the specialization, and all the expertise, and all the knowledge at our disposal, we still seem to be sinking ever deeper in the existential quicksand of our own mistakes. What this suggests to me is that the answer to our problems is not all that complicated, and is not confined to the ruminations of experts. The answer is staring us in the face, for all to see, and for all to play a part in.
Let's look at peace, for example. The quesiton is often asked: Where will peace come from? To my mind, in the final analysis, peace will come from the heart and the mind of the man on the street. We can win his mind by speaking to him with common sense and with a sense of personal dignity. We can win his heart by investing in him- by giving him a place at the table, a stake in his future. And we can win the peace by selling him on a Vision of Hope.
Such a common sense apprach will work not because it is hard to understand, but precisely because it is accessbile to all of open hearts and open minds. The gift we were given to bring a semblance of order to this good earth is the gift of common sense. It is "common" because it is accessible to all. It makes "sense" because it is sensible in its approach. And it will work because it gives expression to the goodness and beauty that surrounds us, the goodness and beauty that often eludes us, but that can also become a part of who we are as a people.
Name the person who doesn't want a good job with room for growth, and I'll show you a loser. Name the person who doesn't want his children to be happy, healthy, and have access to an education, and I'll show you a terrorist.
You have just uncovered a people known today as "Palestinians" who have been on welfare since 1948 and whose offsprings are still on welfare.
As to the welfare of their children and women just look at their use as Human Shields.
Thank you for being so observant and pointing it out.
Gabe, As you know by now, I don't share your pessimism, even though I realize that in many respects, we will be required to swim upstream, in order to realize a Vision of Hope, a vision of Peace, Prosperity and Freedom.
I am not so quick to lay blame. I think that there is plenty of blame to go around, on both sides of this conflict, throughout the Middle East, and around the world as well.
Both Israelis and Palestinians have not played their cards well. And the answer will not come from playing the blame game.
The answer will come when we finally realize that we do share more in common than divides us, and that we actually need one another, for a change, in order to survive.
What is happening on the Arab street, even as we speak, can either turn into chaos, or can be used as an opportunity to recognize the mosaic of mutual self-interest that exists in the Middle East, and to use that to build a stategic/economic alliance between the Arab States, Israel, the U.S., and Europe. The strategic part will protect us from extremists, and the eocnomic part will revitalize the region with good paying jobs.
It is a dream, yes, but it is a dream that is rooted in the reality that is staring us in the face.
I am a dreamer, but I dream in real terms. What is happening is real, and if we begin to play our cards right, which granted is a big "if," we can rearrange the pieces that lie shattered on the street into a new model for the Middle East, a model that inspires a sense of hope, and that delivers on that promise.
As always, it is good to hear from you, even if we end up on different sides of the issues.
Blame to go around? You know that this is simply a silly catch all phrase that Leftists and Arabs like to repeat ad nauseum. You state that your father fought in three wars and your wife (just like mine) were thrown out of Egypt.
so the poor war mongering Jews in Hevron were guilty and were therefore ripe to be slaughtered by the Arabs. The Holocaust survivors were guilty of stealing Arab land even in Tel Aviv and the Five Arab armies had the right to invade and promise the biggest slaughter since the Mongols. The Palis had the right to terrorize Israelis between 1948 and 1967 and than the Arabs had the right to ask all Jews to learn how to swim so that they can be pushed into the sea.
You have a weird sense of what is blame!
My dear man, we share nothing in common with the bloodthirsty Arabs and I am including a large portion of what are euphamistically called "Aravim Shelanu"-OUR ARABS aka Israeli Arabs
Yes I do blame the Arabs for refusing to get a State in 1947, 1967 and as late as 2000 and 2008. I blame the Arabs for preferring to kill Israelis than to have a state of their own. I blame the Arabs for killing and maiming many Israelis in terror attacks after Oslo-The so called Piss Treaty. I do blame the Arabs for the anti semitism in the world today.
You must be joking or are simply naive when you look at what is happening in the Arab states and have a optimistic outlook. There will only be a shift to a more Islamofascist outlook as this is what the street wants. You sem to have forgotten Gaza and what is going on in Lebanon.
You may be a dreamer but to label it as realistic is a stretch in any sense of the word.
A primitive and oil based economy cannot turn itself around and that is a fact. Egypt cannot feed its population no matter the government.
BTW. I have been to Egypt and in my travels have spoken to a number of Middle East economists. The outlook in have so many children must stop or there will be a catastrophe in the Middle East and Europe as to where the overflow is going and Europe will not allow itself to be over flowed. Islam as a religion must undergo a fundamental change or enslave its bulging, poverty ridden population.
That my friend is the reality.
As to agreeing or disagreeing, that is not the point. You are living in some kind of Utopia while I live on planet Earth where any miscue can be the end of Israel and Jews. I do not let myself suggest an experiment but prefer to deal in facts and certainties.
You say that an oil economy cannot turn itself around, and that Egypt can't feed its people no matter what form of government.
If that's the case, and it may well be, then we will help them to do that. They may be more receptive to that this time around. Not because they love us, God forbid. But because this time around, everyone in the Middle East is beginning to worry about the same kind of things. In particular, everyone worries about two things: Iran and the Man on the Street.
Now you say that you're being realistic, and I am not. Let's think about that for a moment. Realistically, Gabe, and judging by what's happening even as we speak, you will admit that things can go in a very bad direction. You admit that many of the regimes could end up being run by ideological extremists. So, left to their own devices, if we let well enough alone, we may well end up with 22 Irans surrounding Israel. Right?
If you agree that that's where we may be heading, doesn't it make sense to at least try something else? Even if it doesn't work, isn't it at least worth a try, considering that not trying will almost guarantee a bad result?
And what am I asking you to try. I'm suggesting that it would be appropriate at this point in time to partner Arab capital with Israeli and U.S. knowhow, to create good paying jobs: jobs which grow our economies, jobs which protect the envirnment, and jobs which weaken the hold of extremist thinking.
I am suggesting that we inspire the man on the street with a Vision of Hope and that we deliver on that promise.
I am suggesting that we put together a strategic alliance to meet the threats from extremists, such as the Iranian leadership.
In effect, it could be argued that I am being more realistic that you are, because I perceive the threat, and I agree with you there, but I am suggesting a realistic way to meet that threat head on.
I've actually met with people who have the power and wealth to make something happen along these lines. And believe it or not, some of them are beginning to buy in, and they did so even before the turmoil on the steet erupted.
Reaslitically, Gabe, it's time to think out of the box. Not as some drug crazed Hippies. But as realistic thinkers who see the dead end we're heading toward, and who look for innovative alternatives.
And when I talk about the "blame game," I do not mean to downplay the Holocaust, which still stands as one of the most evil deed perpetrated by the hands of man. What I am talking about is lost opportunities. Both sides could have pushed peace a bit further than they did. The difference now, for a change, is that it may acutally be in their mutual self-interes to do so at this point, because like you, everyone can see the writing on the wall, and it ain't pretty.
