Deb Reich
Israel
“The Internet age has given us a kind of global nervous system for all humanity. We are certainly becoming one extended human family; one community. In that reality, everyone’s human rights are inherently interactive and interconnected – starting with the reciprocal right of all human beings on this planet to refuse to be enemies.”
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I see new reason for hope in all the places where peace has eluded us for so long – places like Palestine, and Israel, where I live. Here, the term “peace” has become almost emptied …

- by Patricia Smith Melton
Founder, Peace X Peace
Editor, Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women
Sobhi Bahloul is a middle-aged Gazan. He does not look like a terrorist, nor does he speak like one. There is a gentleness in his face and, if you look closely, you will see a weariness around his eyes.
He speaks softly in a proper but tentative English and will obtain his PhD in English and Hebrew later this year from Tel Aviv university. Sobhi has the nerve and determination of a man building a …

- by Patricia Smith Melton
Founder, Peace X Peace
Editor, Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women
Take your side. Israel is a democracy vs. Israel is a fascist state. Israel is a propaganda machine vs. Palestine is a propaganda machine. Humanitarian ships are a Turkish ploy because Turkey wasn’t accepted into the European Union vs. humanitarian ships are providing desperately needed goods to Gaza. Hamas controls the Gazan people vs. the people of Gaza are turning against Hamas. Gazans are devastated from the blockade vs. Gazans are just fine. (. . …

 
- by Patricia Smith Melton
Founder, Peace X Peace
Editor, Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women
“You are here to help us, and, therefore, I must help you. I tell my people there are people everywhere in the world watching and wanting to help.”
The only solution to the conflict between the Palestinians, specifically those in the West Bank and Gaza, and the Israelis is with civil society. The people themselves have to want to seek—and find, and implement—an answer. Too few Israelis choose to look at the people (so similar to …