A dialogue for peace

When it comes to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, Mona Eltahawy wrote “our respective sides demand not only absolute lockstep with their ideas but that those on the other side march in step too.” In an article entitled On Self-Hate and Fence Sitting.

Kindly know that every one is hunkering for some one to take a neutral stand in finding solutions. I will take that approach in developing an understanding of the problems and finding solutions.

I want to develop a small team of about 10 people, some of whom are passionate and some are not, but both must have the will to sit down and listen and have a genuine dialogue. A dialogue occurs when both sides give full value to the other, if one starts out with an idea that the other is wrong, even before listening to him or her, his efforts will be to assert his position, and obviously the other will dig in his heels. What is the point?

Why is the dialogue necessary? I believe, we have to bring a resolution to the ongoing conflict; neither party can annihilate the other or drive them to the sea, neither one can become God. The Palestinians deserve to have the very basic of life in their lives; hope and the Israelis deserve to live in security; to be able to drop their guards and live in peace.

I am planning on setting up a dialogue on Israel Palestine conflict. The first phase of the dialogue is to have both sides to share every aspect of the conflict from their point of view, let's put everything on the table. The next phase is to separate the myths from facts, those myths that would be acknowledged by both sides. Finally work on finding common grounds that may be acceptable by listening to each other's point of view. I would like three passionate Jews (Israeli-American, Israeli and American) and three Passionate Palestinians (Palestinian Muslim, Palestinian Christian and Palestinian American) armed with facts and information to be on the panel.