Good Morning and Merry Christmas. May your day be cheery and bright. I'll be heading off to join my family celebrations shortly but my heart is with those heading off to Cairo to join in the Gaza Freedom March. It was with warmth and solidarity I read an excellent Op Ed by Christopher Dickey in Newsweek this morning.
But given that it's Barack Obama who's president of the United States, the Jesus question has a relevance today it wouldn't have had even a year ago. No, Obama is not the messiah. I'm not saying that. But Obama actually uses the word love in a way that Jesus would have understood. So while the question of what Christ might do in today's Holy Land is hypothetical, the question of what Obama will do is not. And some of his most cherished ideas about peace, love, and understanding could be put to the test Dec. 31 when activists are hoping to stage a massive Gaza Freedom March.
It is precisely the kind of protest Obama himself called for in his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last June when he said Palestinians must abandon violence, and held up the example of the civil-rights movement in the United States, and of similar struggles by people from South Africa to South Asia, from Eastern Europe to Indonesia.
The choice would seem to be a clear one between the policies of terror, occupation, corrosive combat, and cynical politics that we've seen for so long from both the Palestinian and Israeli leadership, or policies of civil disobedience and sweet reason, which is what Obama says he wants. But don't expect to hear much about that march when it happens, if it happens at all. Egypt as well as Israel may make it impossible for foreign peace activists to join the marchers in Gaza. Protests come and go in the Palestinian territories, but only blood normally draws media attention and even then, not much.
1300 people from 43 countries have assembled for a this non-violent march and tho the Egyptian Government asserts it is keeping the border closed thru the holidays we remain confident. The Gaza Freedomo March Steering Committee sent out an email to members and supporters with this message:
Although we consider this as a setback, it is something we've encountered-and overcome--before. No delegation, large or small, that entered Gaza over the past 12 months has ever received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border. Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of Cairo to Rafah. Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let them pass.
From personal experience I know what it is like to be told by the Egyptian Authorities the passage of our 68 member delegation was not allowed, only to be let in once we reached the border.
Dickey reminds us either we believe in non violent resistance or we do not.
He goes on to say
I kept wondering when Obama, this admirer of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, would pay more than lip service to their greatness and get down to the core question of peace among Arabs and Jews. In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred, he said in Oslo. And nowhere is that truer than in Gaza.
Your help is appreciated. Please contact the Egyptian Embassy and request.
Tel. (415) 346-9700 /(415) 346-9702 / (415) 346-7352 Fax (415) 346-9480 email: egypt [at] egy2000.com
And call Obama! Let the Freedom Marchers in so they may join with the thousands of Gazan Freedom Marchers on the other side. Free Gaza.
Enjoy the holidays everyone. Peace on Earth. Please excuse my sporadic presence in the diary today.