A Letter From Daniel Lubetzky

April 30th, 2007

Dear Friends & Board Members,

On behalf of the OneVoice Movement’s executive team, I want to thank you for your support. Before we look to the future and fine-tune the ambitious campaign we have launched, I’d like to spend a moment reflecting on what we have achieved together thus far:

• Over 380,000 Israelis and Palestinians have joined the OneVoice Movement (roughly in equal numbers).
• Over half of them have taken part in our Citizen Negotiations, revealing grassroots consensus on the ten key pillars for conflict resolution.
• New members are now being recruited at a steady pace, thanks to an unparalleled human infrastructure across Israeli and Palestinian cities, villages, farms and refugee camps.
• Well over 2,800 young Palestinians and Israelis have gone through an intensive leadership immersion course and gone on to participate in monthly activities to organize and mobilize their communities. While the challenges to achieve our bold vision are very serious, OneVoice is growing stronger every day.
• OneVoice Youth Ambassadors of the International Education Program have inspired tens of thousands of college students across the US, Canada and the United Kingdom; student leaders are now starting to form chapters across 60 campuses, as they forge rare partnerships that transcend nationalities, religions and ethnicities;
• Our Honorary Board, Trustee Advisory Council, Entertainment Council and Technology Advisory Council have attracted foremost dignitaries, religious leaders, business leaders, celebrities and luminaries across a broad spectrum of backgrounds and beliefs, all joining as OneVoice against violent extremism and for a two-state solution;
• Our teams on the ground have demonstrated exceptional dedication, courage and tenacity. They have stood up to occasional threats and intimidation from extremists threatened by the vision of a resurgence of moderation. They have managed to build a movement of mainstream nationalists across both sides that work in parallel to strengthen the voice of moderation.
• While media coverage has not been nearly what it needs to be for us to accomplish our mission, we have generated thousands of articles highlighting our message to tens of millions of people, generated over 300,000 views of our Eye Opener Video, and built e-mail lists with tens of thousands of followers with whom we now maintain regular communications;
• We have briefed scores of political leaders and listened as they start reframing the conflict as moderates vs. extremists instead of Jews vs. Muslims or Israelis vs. Palestinians;
• Our teams have put together scores of Town Hall Meetings, workshops and training sessions, building and strengthening civil society for the long term - OneVoice Israel through a coalition of the youth wings of all major political parties begun at a time when divisions were inspiring violence; OneVoice Palestine as a co-founder and charter member of NGO peace coalitions and as the pioneers of the first ever non-partisan ‘Get Out the Vote’ campaign in the history of the Arab world.

We have done this by focusing on what unites us all – a desire for a better future for our offspring – rather than on an obsession with different narratives about our past. We have done this by emphasizing concrete action over talk; by asking citizens questions rather than providing all the answers and challenging them to ask themselves what their role is towards ending the conflict. Above all, we have done this by daring to state that our goal is not to manage the conflict but to END THE CONFLICT altogether, through a two-state solution – in the immediate future.

While there is a lot to be proud of, we are not nearly where we need to be: in spite of our hard work, in 2006 extremism prevailed in the region and across the globe. In that sense, we were defeated and we must recognize our shortcomings. This last month in Gaza demonstrated to us once again the danger of allowing extremists to seize the agenda and take center stage while moderates stand quietly on the sidelines.  The new situation on the ground faces us with new and serious challenges, but also new opportunities - we have never been more committed to our purpose nor firm in our goals.

2007 must not be hijacked by extremists again. 2007 must be THE YEAR that we break the shackles placed by forces of violent absolutism.

To this end, we have doubled (even quadrupled) our bet and staked our goal of harnessing all of our energies toward a massive mobilization of moderates on October 18th – a historic turning point - the birth of a movement that will not stop or waver till elected representatives heed the will of the people, rely on the constituency the people build for them, and take the political risk they can now afford, to negotiate and implement a two-state agreement.

As part of the What Are You Willing to Do Campaign, already this year, thanks to the leadership of our Honorary Board Member Professor Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, we brought together Palestinian President Abbas, Israeli Foreign Minister Livni and Israeli Vice Premier Peres together for an historic video-cast encounter at Davos with over 1,000 of our youth leaders from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, all of whom spoke in surprising unison, taking responsibility and pledging to support their leaders, but demanding progress once and for all.

Every month since, we have activated new constituencies and cultivated new networks, gearing up for October 18th. The task at hand is historic in its potential and of course intimidating to all of us. But we may not shirk from our responsibility to lead and cannot be afraid to fail. For only by daring to break this myth of intractability, only by challenging the people to visualize that they can and must play a role to get back their lives, will we actually be able to achieve peace.

Let us invest ourselves in the task at hand and do everything within our power to ensure that we will succeed. Too much is at stake, not merely for us as an organization, but for our peoples and our world. Sincerely

Yours,

Daniel Lubetzky

Comments

[Fred Grissom]

Is there any truth to the rumor that Egypt is going to give a contiguous portion of the Sinai to be the new Palestine and that the Arab world is going to contribute to building it as the first Green country in the modern world?

[Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man]

I was advised to contact Daniel Lubetzky personally.
I am developing an Internet games system centered upo Jerusalem which would allow many people to learn and solve the Jerusalem conflict through going into all its historical and other ramifications.
Can send you CV and an outline, but more details are proprietary.
Please advise about contact