Category: Politics

The Middle East needs a Bob Marley

Annapolis will probably be remembered just as a photo op. The negotiations that follow the conference don’t bring too much hope. The main problem is that the leaders cannot deliver. They lack the political leadership that is needed to end the conflict.

Peace in the Middle East

Israeli PM Olmert was never a charismatic person. Since the war, which came at an early stage of his reign, he’s a lame duck. He is also still in trouble with allegations of corruption.

Mahmoud Abbas, the “Rais” of the Palestinian Authority, is even more lame. He lost control over Gaza. In the West Bank, he lacks a strong grip. If it weren’t for the IDF, I assume that Hamas would take over also there.

And President Bush? Well, the war in Iraq, and his stupidity in general, don’t make him a serious broker for a peace accord. With Bush as the leader of the free world, freedom is very shaky.

The Jamaican Example

Bob Marley making peace
Picture Source: Wikipedia

From 1976, there has been serious civil unrest in Jamaica. Prime Minister Michael Manley who came into power in 1972 made serious socialist reforms. This angered investors, political rivals and the CIA that backed the opposition leader Edward Seaga.

The political culture became violent. Gunmen hired by both parties were fighting on the streets and assassinating their rivals. The situation deteriorated and a civil war looked imminent.

In 1978, a big concert named One Love Peace Concert was organized. Bob Marley, by then a famous reggae musician was the main performer. During the song “Jamming”, he called both political opponents on stage. They didn’t really like it. He then forced them to shake hands. The song finished with Manley and Seaga holding hands together above Bob Marley’s head.

This historic and exciting moment calmed down the civil strife in Jamaica.

Open Positions: Political Leaders

We are in need of a leader in the magnitude of Bob Marley. Saadat, Begin, Rabin, Hussein and Clinton were such leaders. If you have someone in mind, I’ll be glad to hear.

In the meantime, you can see the exciting moment from the One Love Peace Concert, April 22nd, 1978:

Doubts about Annapolis

In less than 3 weeks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders, amongst others, will meet in Annapolis for major regional peace conference. I doubt that this summit will be fruitful. I would love to give peace a chance, but even a left wing optimist like myself can’t ignore the dire situation. The Palestinians’ situation is terrible. I’ll concentrate on my country’s side.

People find it hard to believe our Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Too many allegations of corruption, and a deeply flawed war last summer in Lebanon don’t help him gain support in the Israeli public.

He earned points for the raid in Syria, which is widely seen as an essential and successful strike on a nuclear facility. He also won some sympathy for revealing his prostate cancer.

But this isn’t enough. His major coalition partner, the Labor party is offering a cold shoulder. The party’s leader and minister of defense, Ehud Barak, has a painful memory from pushing towards a peace conference. In the summer of 2000, when he headed the country, he pushed for the Camp David summit with Arafat and Clinton. Two months after the summit’s failure, the Intifada broke out. 6 months later, Barak was out of office.

The Israeli public still holds him accountable despite offering “everything”, a deal wasn’t struck. Not only that a historical end to the conflict (as Barak phrased it) was never signed, a bloody strife began.

So, now Barak is very careful. Well, planning a raid on Gaza for the day after the conference couldn’t be called being careful. Barak is being more “right winged” than Olmert.

Those are the politics. Without wide public support, Olmert can’t go far.

And what happens on the ground? Contrary to promises to the American administration, illegal outposts aren’t evacuated in the West Bank. The outposts are provided with electricity and water, making them harder to evacuate in the future.

Except the settlers, hardly any Israeli visit the occupied territories. Yet the government always saw them as part of the country. Here’s some evidence:

The way to Ariel

The road sign points to Ariel, the biggest settlement in the West Bank, located in the heart of the Samaria mountains. Ariel is a small town that no sane person goes to. Still, it receives special attention. Yes, also road signs are political decisions.

So, with the settlements still thriving, the vision of a Palestinian state and long lasting peace seems far.

Bad Coffee

The coffee in Tel Aviv (and also throughout the country) is great, excellent, superb. I always praise it. Also tourists do. Yet, two coffee networks are currently in the news, and for the wrong reasons. Both networks, in certain branches in Tel Aviv, have brutally violated their workers’ rights. Here are these two coffee disputes in a nutshell.

Espresso

Coffee Bean

This network, which boasts good coffee and excellent ice-coffee fired one of it’s workers that tried to form a union. The worker, Alon-Lee Green, sued the Israeli franchise for illegal dismissal. He won and he’s now back to work.

The struggle consisted of a demonstration in front of Coffee Bean’s branch on Ibn Gvirol street, lots of posts in the Israeli blogosphere. Many articles were written. Here’s more info..

I used to drink their excellent cold coffee in the Dizengoff center branch. No more.

Coffee To Go

The second case is currently in the news.. Elite Coffee, which belongs to major Israeli corporate Strauss Elite. Their branch at Tel Aviv University, formerly known as Coffee to Go, distributed the tips in an unfair manner. In addition, tip money was used to complete their underpaid salaries.

The waitresses decided to get up and stand up for their rights. Negotiations failed, and they went on a strike. The management deployed other workers at the cafe, but the protesters beside the cafe make customers go elsewhere.

Except the aforementioned strike and protests, the management lied about the waitresses’ salaries. The last move was an evil one: the management filed a libel suit against 3 waitresses. The story is still developing.

The Hebrew blogosphere is closely covering the story. I thought I’d share it with English readers as well.
The striking workers have set up a blog (Hebrew).

I stick to drinking my coffee in local cafes, that are not part of a network.

Globalization

Face of Globalization

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got Styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin’ in the free world

About the picture: A homeless man sleeping on a Tel Aviv bench beside a glowing globe. The globe is one of 100 globes of an exhibition that celebrates Globalization.

No Voice For Peace

The big events of OneVoice movement were postponed. It began with threats against the event in Jericho, which led to it’s cancellation. A day or two later, the event in Tel Aviv and all the other mirror events around the world were canceled by Daniel Lubetzky’s movement.

I was communicating with them via email and I’ve also followed their blog. They have been preparing for this big day for many months. All their energy was directed towards October 18th. I had the privilege to meet Lubetzky in Tel Aviv, tow months ago, and was impressed by his positive and optimistic spirit.

They had a tough choice. They could let the show go on, without the Jericho event. This would send a message saying that despite the threats and the cancellation of the Jericho event, they are still pursuing peace.

On the other hand, that would have missed the main message: One Voice. Without the parallel event in Jericho, there wouldn’t be one united voice for peace.

I hope that the events are only postponed, and that a new date will be set up soon. Insisting on having parallel events, as originally planned, and making it happen after this week’s disappointment, will just make the message stronger. A terminal cancellation will be a big blow.