{"id":7661,"date":"2011-06-11T12:05:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=7661"},"modified":"2011-07-16T13:14:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T09:14:53","slug":"live-long-and-prosper-leonard-nimoy-supports-two-state-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/live-long-and-prosper-leonard-nimoy-supports-two-state-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Live Long and Prosper’: My Message to Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dear Friend,<\/p>\n

When I was a teenager, I told my dad I wanted to be an actor. In response, he gave me the only piece of advice he ever offered me\u2013\u201dLearn to play the accordion.\u201d And he was serious. He said, \u201cYou can always make a living with an accordion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because I ignored his advice, I never found out if he was right. Instead, I\u2019ve lived 80 creative years pursuing acting and photography, and working as a director and poet.<\/p>\n

If I had listened to my father, and hadn\u2019t done any of those things, chances are you wouldn\u2019t have recognized my name and you wouldn\u2019t be reading this. Now that you are, I\u2019d like to ask you to consider what I have to say. I reach out to you as someone who is troubled to see the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continue apparently without an end in sight.<\/p>\n

In fact, there is an end in sight. It\u2019s known as the two-state solution\u2013a secure, democratic Israel as the Jewish State alongside an independent Palestinian state. Even Israel\u2019s nationalist Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has come to see this as the shape of the future. The problem is how to reach that end point. It\u2019s something we should be concerned about\u2013not only as world citizens, but as Americans.<\/p>\n

You might recall the episode in the original Star Trek series called, \u201cLet That Be Your Last Battlefield.\u201d Two men, half black, half white, are the last survivors of their peoples who have been at war with each other for thousands of years, yet the Enterprise crew could find no differences separating these two raging men.<\/p>\n

But the antagonists were keenly aware of their differences\u2013one man was white on the right side, the other was black on the right side. And they were prepared to battle to the death to defend the memory of their people who died from the atrocities committed by the other.<\/p>\n

The story was a myth, of course, and by invoking it I don\u2019t mean to belittle the very real issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians. What I do mean to suggest is that the time for recriminations is over. Assigning blame over all other priorities is self-defeating. Myth can be a snare. The two sides need our help to evade the snare and search for a way to compromise.<\/p>\n

This is the message that Americans for Peace Now seeks to spread. I\u2019m a strong supporter of APN and the work it does. It is a leading voice for Americans who support Israel and know that a negotiated peace will ensure Israel\u2019s security, prosperity and continued viability as a Jewish and democratic state.<\/p>\n

The Middle East is only getting more tumultuous. The upheavals throughout the region show that what happens in the Middle East can\u2019t help but affect us in the United States. This year, we\u2019ve seen oil prices rise sharply and America become involved militarily in Libya. The cost to American lives and our economy continues to rise at a time when unemployment and deficits are sapping our country\u2019s strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then that will make it easier for Arab states and the Gulf states to support us when it comes to issues like Iraq and Afghanistan. It will also weaken Iran, which has been using Hamas and Hezbollah as a way to stir up mischief in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are the words of candidate Barack Obama in 2008. And although they\u2019re just as accurate today, time has not stood still.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also seen a marked increase in violence: a Jewish family was murdered in the West Bank and a woman is killed in a bus bombing in Jerusalem. A rocket attack on southern Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip resulted in a school bus being hit and a teen died of his wounds. Israel, in turn, has retaliated. We need strong American leadership now to pivot from the zero-sum mentality of violence to an attitude that focuses on the parties shared interests: security and prosperity.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve learned something from this letter, I\u2019ve succeeded in my preliminary task. Now I ask for your support to continue APN\u2019s educational efforts in this country\u2013to spread the message that there is a peace solution, and to let Congress and the White House know it\u2019s preferable for America to be part of the solution than to be drawn into another conflict.<\/p>\n

There is a sizable number of influential voices in Israel saying the same thing. In April, a group of 50 prominent Israelis, including the former heads of the Mossad (Israel\u2019s CIA), the Shin Bet (its FBI), and the military, issued a call for two states for two nations. Their plan includes a Palestinian state alongside Israel with agreed-upon land swaps. The Palestinian-populated areas of Jerusalem would become the capital of Palestine; the Jewish-populated areas the capital of Israel.<\/p>\n

These experts are not na\u00efve. They know that even if the Palestinian pragmatists of Fatah reconcile with Hamas, there will be extremists who will try to sabotage any future peace deal. They know how to deal with violent extremists. These people were entrusted with Israel\u2019s security and are saying that the work they did alone isn\u2019t enough to bring Israel security. We cannot know yet what this unification of Hamas with Fatah means and we have to wait and see what emerges. Regardless, the principle of establishing two independent states, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, is still critical in this region for both Israel and the Palestinian people. That is the goal, to support the rational and moderate course.<\/p>\n

Their action plan echoes the 348 senior Israeli reserve army officers and combat soldiers who came together in 1978 to urge their government to sign a peace treaty with Egypt. They formed Shalom Achshav, Israel\u2019s Peace Now movement which APN provides nearly 50 percent of their funding.<\/p>\n

Peace Now\u2019s activities and programs\u2013such as Settlement Watch, the ongoing monitoring of settlement construction on the West Bank\u2013keep peace on the world\u2019s agenda. Peace Now gathers and publishes detailed information on settlements and is widely cited in Israeli and international media as the foremost authority on settlements. Peace Now is likewise well known for mobilizing demonstrations and organizing grassroots pro-peace activities. Innovations include an interactive online map of the settlements, \u201cFacts on the Ground,\u201d also available as an app for iPhone and iPad developed by APN applying Peace Now\u2019s courageous work.<\/p>\n

Like those Israelis who issued the peace plan, the members of Peace Now have their boots on the ground. They serve in Israel\u2019s military reserves and see every day what life is like without a negotiated peace with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m a supporter of APN and Peace Now.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll join me, and lend your voice to the influential and credible peace lobby that exists here as well as in Israel. Please give the tax-deductible contribution you can afford.<\/p>\n

Dare I say it? It\u2019s the logical thing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEONAR NIMOY, TABSIR: There is a viable plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s the ‘two-state’ solution and its application is, how should I put it, simply logical. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":7662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,83,171,119,60],"tags":[1832,24,423,1103,2024,3182,2453,18300,575,4857,227,2734,1248,1228,18306,18321,18311,726,18332,191,3276,3589,18297,1747,2608,18302,580,2099],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}