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Democracy and Peace, Progress and
Setbacks, and Silenced Voices
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 00:57:38 -0400 (EDT)
Dear All,
We have witnessed several remarkable events over the past two weeks.
A nation's president who perceived the world as divided into "us" and
"them," and displayed a blatant disregard for the lives of "them," fell
after more than a decade of misused power, brought down by a people's vote
and a people's demand that he accept their vote. A peace process entering
its eighth year, a long process that for all its fits and starts, setbacks
and impasses, has created its own dynamic that has thus far proved (and
may it ultimately prove) unstoppable, has erupted into such violence that
the talk is of "cease-fires."
As actors in and not merely observers of the world in which we live,
we try to understand this ironic juxtaposition of events, one long awaited
for, the other frequently feared. Perhaps the lesson is of the great
power of people acting peacefully. In Serbia, people rose up against a
dictator who, in past years, they had elected. As happened throughout
Eastern Europe a decade ago when Communism fell, streets filled with
people who proved determined to remain until their government was, once
again, their government. They occupied government buildings -- offices
where their work, the work of the people, was supposed to be done.
Of course, it is not this simple, this pure. A year-and-a-half ago,
many of these same people supported the same government during its
murderous campaign in Kosovo. That people become democrats does not
necessarily mean that they will respect the rights of all people of their
democracy. Milosevic had been weakened by various forms of pressure from
the international community, a series of defeats that left his territory
reduced and the economy in shambles. And this was not the first time the
people of Serbia peaceably took to the streets against Milosevic, though
it is the first time that they obtained their objective.
But the fact remains that the people of Serbia had had enough of their
dictatorial president. They elected him out of power, and then they
enforced their democratic choice.
In sharp contrast to the end of a criminal's rule in Yugoslavia, seven
years of peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which only
several months ago in a peace summit saw negotiations at the highest level
on the most intransigent issues, is facing perhaps its greatest threat.
And here in the United States, I suspect that I speak for more than myself
when I say that supporters of the peace process cannot help but feel a
numbing powerlessness, seeking to understand both sides and wishing that
they might seek to understand each other.
First, to understand the frustrations and pain of the Palestinian
people who suffered decades of insults to their dignity, a prolonged peace
process whose promise of independence has yet to materialize, and now a
growing death toll of those who had enough of the oppression, and of those
who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then to
understand the pain of Israelis, who believe that they have taken
significant strides toward peace, made significant concessions, even
sacrificed a Prime Minister to the quest for peace, who now see their
soldiers -- their sons and daughters -- under attack from both stones and
guns, who see a holy site left to the protection of their partners in
peace be destroyed.
And wishing, wishing that the guns would stop firing, the rocks would
stop flying. Referring to his insistence on pursuing peace even as
the costs in Israeli lives lost mounted, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of
Israel earlier in the peace process, said, "My heart was full of
turbulence, but my mind did not regret it." He knew that both justice
and a better future for all required the pursuit of peace. I hope that
Prime Minister Barak does not form a national unity government, which
would be yet another obstacle to peace. I hope that the effort to seek a
cease-fire, if it must be called that, continues and very soon succeeds.
(As I send this, a note of optimism: Prime Minister Barak has agreed to
attend a summit meeting if one is called. The peace process lives.) And
I hope that both the Israelis and Palestinians remember that this peace
process is, as Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak have both called it, a peace
of the brave. When trust has fallen as it has over the two weeks, when so
many lives have been lost, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to be
brave to continue in their pursuit of peace.
The phenomena in Yugoslavia and the Mideast are not inconsistent. It
was, after all, not overnight that the people's choice won out in
Yugoslavia. Over a decade of divisive, deadly nationalism and ethnic
cleansing preceded the fall of Milosevic. In Israel and the Palestinian
territories, no one thought that peace could come overnight. Though after
that famous handshake on the White House lawn seven years ago, who thought
that the road to peace would have been so long, so tortured, so stained
with blood, so fragmented by distrust? But that the road is not the road
about which we have dreamed does not mean that it cannot be the road to
peace. Ultimately, it can still take us to the place of our dreams, a
just peace.
I said earlier that we are actors in and not merely observers of
the world in which we live. The world, it has often been remarked, is a
big place. One injustice in Europe is on its way to being (at least in a
sense) righted. Injustice in the Mideast will, it seems, have to wait a
little longer before it is righted. But though our media often does not
portray this fact, the world is far larger than Europe and the Mideast.
Over the past 3 weeks, more than 1000 people have been killed in flooding
in India and Bangladesh. Over 20 million people are reported homeless.
Twenty million people. See
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/10/08/india.floods.ap/index.html.
For every cry of anguish in the Mideast, or cry of joy in Belgrade,
the most penetrating sound in most of the world probably remains the
sound of silence, the silence of voices that will never be heard again.
It is the silence of voices of people who exist beyond the international
spotlight, voices that were cherished by family and friends who heard them
and will be dearly missed by the same, who will never hear them again.
I am glad that the United States, my country, seeks a constructive
role in the Mideast and Yugoslavia. But we are people who, by virtue of
the age in which we live, are actors on the world stage.
If the people of Serbia could topple a government with the blood of
thousands of people on its hands, surely we can nudge our own government
to be a little bit more humane. If Israelis and Palestinians can continue
down the road of peace after all that has happened, surely we can forge
our own roads destined for a more peaceful and more just world.
I do not know what the U.S. response to the India/Bangladesh flooding
has been. I very much doubt that it has been proportionate to the scope
of the disaster. Temporary camps housing the displaced do not have enough
food or drinking water. See
. You might write to the
President or your Congressperson or Senator urging them to respond to this
situation, both to meet immediate needs, and to work for a lasting
solution. (You can find contact information for your Senators and
Representatives at , and the President
through .)
Before long, I will write again on the single most penetrating silence
in the world today, the voices of those who are dying of HIV/AIDS in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Thank you for your time.
Yours,
Eric
"I have only dreams: to build a better world, a world of harmony
and understanding, a world in which it is a joy to live. This is not
asking for too much." -- Yitzhak Rabin
"Don't say the day will come. Bring the day! Because it's not a
dream." -- Shir LaShalom, Song for Peace
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