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Invitation for Action:
Spread the Light of Peace
Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, is being celebrated all over the world. This eight-day holiday commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BCE. During Chanukah, Jews light candles of peace to renew their faith in the ultimate triumph of peace over war. The chanukiah, the lampstand (Hebrew: menorah) of Chanukah, has nine sockets. One of them is distinguished from the rest by being at a slightly different elevation, above or below the rest, and usually in the center of the others or to the front of them. This extra light is referred to as the shamash (a Hebrew word for 'attendant'), and is used to light the other eight candles. Are you willing to serve as a shamash who lights the other candles in your community? Using symbols of Chanukah, it is said there are two ways of spreading the light: To be either a candle or the mirror that reflects it. Are you willing to be the candle that kindles the light of peace in the minds of both Jews and Arabs, and spread it all over? Remember, the light of one small candle can easily expel all the darkness in the world; if you see darkness as a potentiality of light. Every dark place can be lit. You can be the candle that does that within your family, your community, your society. When you stand for peace and hold your candle high for many eyes to see, they may light their candlewicks from yours, and together the joint flame will become a torch that spreads the light of peace everywhere. Your combined small efforts can make a big difference. I am looking for people who are willing to spread the light of inextinguishable hope for peace and make a difference. What kind of people? * I am looking for peace-loving people who refuse to just sit there and listen to the noisy drums of war, but speak out loudly and declare, "I will make a change." * I am looking for peace-loving people who watch the carnage, cruelty and destruction of war in the Middle East and simply say, "Enough is enough! We can and must do better to stop it." * I am looking for peace-loving people who believe that the best way to predict the future is to create it, to write your own history, to write your own narrative. * I am looking for peace-loving people who pray for the eradication of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the affirmation of peace through understanding and communication. * I am looking for peace-loving people who, regardless of their personal political views, desire to see Arabs and Israelis enjoy the blessings of peace. * I am looking for peace-loving people who believe in being part of the solution to the conflict, not part of the problem. * I am looking for peace-loving people who feel that the goal of peace is the right and responsibility of every citizen, not only of governments. * I am looking for peace-loving people who believe that peace is not only possible, but its pursuit is a choice we ought to make. * I am looking for peace-loving people who embrace the popular motto, "Let there be peace, and let it begin with me." * I am looking for peace-loving people who, as George Bernard Shaw stated, can "dream of things that never were and ask why not." If you are one of those dreamers, believers, visionaries; if you believe that peace is not only possible but inevitable; if you treat the word "peace" as a verb, not a noun, and embrace the notion that "Peace, like war, is waged"; if you want to be a peace warrior, one who operates on the frontline of peacebuilding and peacemaking in the Middle East, join the Middle East Peace Network. Whether you are an Arab, Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, you are invited to join my team of peace-builders who are committed to making a difference by transforming the pervasive presence of hatred, hostility, violence and aggression in the Middle East into a climate of peace. What are peace-builders? They act as citizen diplomats, helping personally to promote healthier relations between Israelis and Arabs, between Jews and Muslims, as people. While recognizing that formal diplomacy is a traditional province of governments, they are convinced that political leaders alone are incapable of forging peace in the Middle East. They believe that citizen diplomacy can do it in a big way, making direct contacts with "the other," building transnational or interfaith bridges of understanding, setting up a network of constructive relations, using a variety of methods that help create unofficial "peace from below" to supplement and enhance the official "peace from above." There is so much that the average man, the ordinary citizen, can do, and enjoy doing it. Do you have an idea? We can help you translate your idea into action. You, alone or together with friends, can bring an innovative and bold citizen diplomacy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict arena and create there "ecology of peace." This vision is attainable if you choose to believe in it. If you do, if you believe that peace matters too much to be left to politicians, then become part of this Middle East Peace Network (MEPN). "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it," writes Albert Einstein. "We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings," says Helen Keller. Opposite of peace is not war; it's apathy, passivity and indifference. We are all accomplices!
Responsibility lies equally with private citizens, who together are the beneficiaries of peace and the victims of its absence, to participate in peacebuilding and peacemaking. Responsibility lies especially with those who live in peace to contribute to other societies that desperately need it. Chanukah is truly a human story, not just the Jewish one. People celebrate military victories, tell stories about their national heroes of the past, and commemorate those who gave their lives in defense of freedom and independence. They should. But the real victories that shape civilizations and determine the fate of nations are not so much military as moral and spiritual. Napoleon was right when he said, "There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run, the sword will always be conquered by the spirit." It is out of my deep sense of commitment to peace and the belief in the power of the human spirit that I invite you to join me. My invitation to you goes beyond all partisan constraints. It suggests the introduction of a totally new equation into the broad Arab-Israeli conflict: All who yearn for an end to the conflict, all who support the principles of peace, all who believe that Arabs and Jews can move beyond what divides them, all who desire a brighter future for their children and grandchildren should join hands within a broad framework, where human interactions transcend all boundaries. We need to battle for peace as fiercely as we had waged war. T Basil O'Connor, Chairman of the American Red Cross from 1944 to 1947 and its President from 1947 to 1949, stated when commenting on the unprecedented human tragedy caused by World War II: "The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectuals pygmies." So you have been invited. I would love to hear from you. In the words of Edmund Burke, "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." To my Jewish friends everywhere: Happy Chanukah To all my friends wherever you are: Peace, Salam, Shalom! | 
