Dear friends,
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will face US President
Obama for the first time – in a meeting that could make the difference
between war and peace in the Middle East.[1]
Ordinary Israelis and Palestinians still want peace, and polls show
they want Obama to lead.[2] Experts agree that only such strong
leadership from Obama can forge an agreement now, but powerful
extremists in the region and the US stand in his way. Israel’s
far-right foreign minister is even boasting that Obama will do as he’s
told.[3]
On Monday we’ll find out – Netanyahu will ask Obama to take a back seat
in a new flawed process designed to fail. We urgently need to show
Obama that ordinary people in the region and around the world will back
him to exercise a strong and fair leadership role – click below to
watch the new TV ad campaign and help saturate the US airwaves with it
in the next 72 hours:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/obama_for_peace/45.php
The situation in the Middle East is dire – the King of Jordan warned
yesterday that there are only two choices now – war or peace.[4]
Israel’s new governing coalition has extremists in the driving seat and
is seeking war with Iran and Hamas, while promoting illegal settlement
(a euphemism for colonization) and de facto annexation of Palestinian
land – corralling Palestinians into small pockets and subjecting them
to constant harassment. Gaza remains under crippling blockade, unable
even to get the materials to rebuild from the destruction of the war.
Palestinians have flawed and divided leadership and are caught between
the corruption of the secular Fatah leadership and extremism among the
religious Hamas, and small numbers of rockets continue to be fired at
Israel. Ordinary people on both sides are losing hope in a peaceful
two-state solution to end the 40 year occupation and conflict.
But there is hope. New polls show clear majorities of support for Obama
to lead a new peace effort, and a recent extensive consultation by the
Avaaz team in the region confirmed that on all sides people want Obama
to rescue the situation with a fair peace proposal and pressure on both
sides to agree to it. Powerful extremists in Israel and the US are
determined to block this last chance at peace. Their new strategy:
avoid directly opposing Obama, but feign a new interest in peace and
bog him down in endless talks that are designed to fail.
We can’t let that happen. There has never been a powerful worldwide
movement for peace in Israel-Palestine that can challenge the
extremists and back leaders like Obama to do the right thing. Let’s get
this ad on the air, and let Obama and everyone else know that this
movement is coming:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/obama_for_peace/45.php
With hope and determination,
the Avaaz team
1. Bloomberg, “Obama to Confront Israeli Settlement Surge in Netanyahu Meeting”:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=abPE7AMWQTWQ&refer=home
2. Avaaz’s own polls on this are about to be released – also see e.g. Yediot Aharonot poll, May 2009:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3715759,00.html
Hebrew University of Jerusalem polls:
http://www.forward.com/articles/105046/
3. Lieberman’s statement that the US will follow Israel’s lead was made
to Russia’s Moskovskiy Komsomolets – see The Forward, 22 April 2009:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/Middle_East_Obama_Plan
4. “King Abdullah of Jordan's ultimatum: peace now or it’s war next year", The Times of London, 11 May 2009:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6262080.ece