From Egypt to Israel with Love and Hope

Mohamed Mosaad and Tamir Sorek

The letters below were exchanged between Dr. Mohamed Mosaad, an Egyptian peace and human rights advocate, and Tamir Sorek, an Israeli who signed the "refusenik" petition against service in the occupied territories. The exchange of letters originally circulated by MidEastWeb has been translated into Arabic and is featured at http://www.meejann.com/, a Web site originating in Lebanon.

The letters are a testament that the will to peace is still very much alive on all sides in the Middle East, and that there are people in every country who have not lost the conviction that peace is the only way.

Dear Mohamed,

As one of the signers on the 'refuseniks' petition I would like to thank you for your support. I wish we could hear more voices of peace from the Egyptian people, even though this is a hard time for peace seekers. These days in Israel, the refusal to serve in the army is extremely difficult, since people are being killed everyday by terrorist attacks and the refusal is considered by some people as a declaration of support for terror (fortunately, I am abroad until the summer so I don't have to face these pressures). However, someone should try to break the circle of violence and that's what we are doing. We hope to convince as many soldiers as we can to join us. Maybe this is the expressway to end the occupation and the beginning of better days for Israelis and Palestinians.

Best regards,

Tamir

[Tamir Sorek] 

Very Dear Tamir,

Thank you so much for contacting me. I know how difficult situation those soldiers have now, especially with the continuous Palestinian terror against civilian Israelis inside the green line. Those soldiers, however, are putting the Arabs in a difficult situation as well. Normally the Arab media would like to portray the Israelis as bloodsucker monsters. How would they deal with such a simple fact? Israeli soldiers are declaring openly their opposition to the occupation and the daily humiliation of the Palestinians. Unfortunately, instead of facing this simple fact, these media are trumpeting the victory of Intifada! The defeated Israelis are afraid from our brave boys! What a stupid and blind propaganda it is! They can't simply recognize the simple fact because they would have had to question the legitimacy of the Palestinian suicide operations. Is not it a crime to shoot a school bus? Is not it a crime to murder teenagers at a pizza restaurant? Is not it a crime to explode a disco club? And is not it a crime to assassinate an old man because it happened that he was walking by a suicide bomber nurse at that moment?

Nonetheless, those brave soldiers are not only challenging  the fake media; they are also challenging the Palestinian masses, the yet silent masses. The Palestinian silent masses are those civilian people whose homes are firstly evacuated and occupied by Palestinian snipers to be secondly bulldozed and demolished by Israeli forces. They are those people who could not watch the TV to know about the optimistic news coming from both the European Parliament and the American President because at the time they had been bombarded by F16s as a retaliation for the killing of three Israelis. They are those people who can't go beyond the green line to continue their work, not only because of the brutal checkpoints but also because of the terrorist operations committed beyond these checkpoints.

The brave soldiers put all these masses in a difficult position. After all, these masses are not military people, having to obey the orders. Why don't they go to the free Palestinian press to air their voices? Why don't they go to the democratic Palestinian TV to express their ideas? Should not they move to defend their own lives? Can't they shout, "stop the terrorist operations"? And, the most important, why can't they? Who are preventing them? Moreover, the brave movement redefined "the enemy". If those IDF soldiers are not the enemy, so who is the Palestinians' enemy? And if those occupied Palestinians are not the enemy, so who is the Israelis' enemy? The brave movement put Sharon and the suicide bombers in the same side against both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples. If IDF soldiers don't want to fight occupied people, so who is maintaining this war? There is one enemy for both peoples indeed, his Israeli version is enjoying his trips to Washington and relaxation on his farm, while his Palestinian version, Khaled Masha'al, is enjoying his time between Qatar and Beirut.

The one enemy is sending young Palestinians and young Israelis to their death to maintain his power and his own interest. Why does not Masha'al send his son as a suicide bomber? And why does not Sharon send Omri to serve in the West Bank? Another simple fact is that Sharon is running this war to compete with the Labor Party and maybe Netanyahu as well. Masha'al, on the other hand, is competing with Arafat and the other Palestinian factions. They both are playing the same ugly bloody game sacrificing daily two entire nations for their own sake. Masha'al and Sharon are in the same side. Masha'al and Sharon are indeed harmoniously cooperating with each other. Masha'al is in urgent need to F16 as much as Sharon is in urgent need of  more suicide bombers. The brave soldiers are threatening the both of them! Finally, those brave soldiers while retreating from this war they are engaging and making the all of us to engage in another war, a war against Masha'al and Sharon.

Now those whom the brave soldiers are challenging are we, peace seekers. We, Arab and Israeli civilians, who should insistently move to face our common enemy, be his name Sharon or Masha’al. We, passive citizens, should protect our lives and further peace and understanding in our land. We, men and women, Arabs and Israelis, should do better than watching out the TV and waiting for the decisions coming down from our very unwise and dishonest political leaders. We should do more for these soldiers than signing a petition. That's what the brave soldiers would expect, not just signing an Internet petition, but a real and sincere effort to make peace prevail in this land. Peace on Internet could be abundant, but we need to make it happen here in the real world by making a real effort from all sides.

All the best,

Yours,

Dr. Mohamed Mosaad

Cairo-Egypt  

Wake up. Things Can Get Even Worse

Ahmad Humeid