11-15-09 My candidacy for president of Palestine is a campaign for peace

My candidacy for president of Palestine is a campaign for peace
By Ray Hanania -- In 33 years of political journalism and election campaigning in America, I’ve learned that no one can predict an election outcome. Surprising things that people did not expect usually happens. And longshots with no hope of winning oftentimes do win. So with all that in mind, I am announcing my candidacy for President of Palestine.

It has several goals. The last of which is to actually become Palestine’s president. First and foremost is my declaration that peace based on compromise is the only future for Palestinians and Israelis.

There is no future for Palestinians or Israelis with today’s situation. The Israelis have turned to the hard conservative right, rejecting real peace and believing they can have everything while Palestinians remain driven by anger and emotion and very little logic.

Sometimes anger is soothed by revenge, but suffering is never avenged by violence. Rejecting peace is the foundation of violence and both Israelis and Palestinians are guilty of rejecting peace each for their own misguided, anger-driven reasons.

So someone has to step up to the plate and say what needs to be said if only to give the people an alternative.

Two states, one Israel and one Palestine is the only answer. It always was and always will be. It doesn’t matter that Palestinians rejected two-states in 1948 when they fought to destroy the Jews or that Israel rejected two-states in 1948 also when they fought but failed to take over the whole country.

Two states, based on land for peace. Israel abandons its hunger for Palestinian land and Palestinians abandon their own hunger for Israel.

Two states, based on the premise of building from ashes rather than turning what remains into ashes, which is where we are all headed at the moment. We just don’t see the end. Although continued suffering and continued fear is in fact an endless ending. There is no end to tragedy driven by vengeance, but tragedy can end when there is hope.

Two states with both sides accepting the inevitable. A sharing of Jerusalem, an end to the Israeli settlements, compromise on the Palestinian Right of Return, and both committed to non-violent and genuine negotiations.

Not easy, for sure. But the most valuable things in life are those that we have to fight the hardest to attain. And nothing is harder than achieving peace.

Even when there is peace, the fanatics on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, will continue to do what they have always done, undermined peace and blamed the other side.

The blame game has no victors, only generations of losers. Losers on both sides who continue to suffer.

Two states means Israel recognizes the rights of Palestinian refugees and apologizes to them for their role in creating their tragedy, and working with the United Nations, America and the Arab World to create a fund to help resettle them in a Palestinian State where they can live in dignity rather than in humiliation and squalor.

Two states means the Palestinians surrender what they have already lost in constant war and failed resistance and failed leadership, recognizing once and for all that Israel does exist. They must set aside the Palestinian Right of Return which is based on the Rule of Law, and instead apply the Rule of Reason.

Israelis must abandon the majority of the settlements and give Palestine land from Israel, one inch for each inch that they keep in settlements. They must freeze their settlement growth which has continued even during the peace process of the 1990s that Israelis wrongly blame on the late President Yasir Arafat.

Israel does nothing willingly. It’s time its people push their government to do the right thing, to recognize their own contributions to the continued conflict and stop blaming others, the Palestinians, for the failures.

Israel is as much at fault for the failure of peace as are the Palestinians.

Palestinians must reject the religious fanaticism of Hamas, a terrorist organization that is no different than the Israeli settler movement. They must stop cheering when Hamas or other terrorists attack Israel. And Israelis must stop justifying the unjustifiable. The murder of innocent men, women and children is a horrendous war crime that has occurred at the hands of both sides.

Two states can bring this to an end. We need a new attitude and a revival in hope. Hope for the future. Hope for peace. Hope for compromise. Hope that reason can prevail.

It’s not easy, but it can be done.

In the face of today’s conflict, I would rather support a reasoned dream than embrace an unreasoned status quo.

There are no innocent parties in this conflict. We can tell ourselves that there are but we will all be judged for the enabling of violence, the acts of violence and more importantly for refusing to support peace to save lives.

Palestine has no hope without compromise and Israel has no hope with a Palestine State.

It’s simple. Enough is enough. Yalla Peace! That’s the motto of my virtual campaign for office on the Internet for now and who knows, maybe a reality if enough people see the errors of their anger.

Support my campaign by visiting www.YallaPeace.com. It’s not about electing me to any office at all. It is about believing that the long shot can bring us great reward in the future and is far better to cheer than the tragedy that we call today.

# # #