The Future Is Peace
Apr. 27th, 2026 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to a lunchtime book talk at work today, with co-authors Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon talking about how they came to be working together towards peace in Israel (and hopefully around the world after that).
Maoz Inon told about how he was on the phone with his parents, who lived just north of the Gaza Strip, at 7:30a on October 7; they were in their safe room, and it was clear something was happening. Five minutes later, he couldn’t get through again, nor reach anyone from the community there until 4p, when he finally talked to a local, who told him his parents’ home had burned down and there were two bodies inside. He and his siblings arranged to sit shiva immediately. One of them (London based) asked the rest of the family to consider standing up for not retribution, but peace. It took days to get to the point of considering it, but they did.
Aziz Abu Sarah described growing up in Jerusalem, attending school at al-Aksah, never sure when something awful would happen. He described always going to school with an onion, because raw onion can shorten the effects of tear gas. His older brother had been arrested for throwing rocks, which he denied until tortured, and after a 10-month sentence, returned home, broken and ill, and ended up dying at just 19 years old. Aziz was 10. He avoided learning Hebrew in school, hating Israeli power, despite being required to learn it. He later realized that if he wanted to do more than wash dishes, he had to learn Hebrew, so he joined an Ulpan class where he was the only Muslim. And because the teacher saw his discomfort and made a point of treating him like another human, with dignity, he started to understand that there are people on both sides interested in peace.
They’d met briefly before October 7, enough to be FaceBorg friends, and that light connection grew into much more when Aziz reached out to Maoz offering condolences after the death of his parents. They started talking, and both had committed to working towards peace, with a goal of 2030 (!). Their organization is InterAct, and they’ve written a book together, The Future Is Peace. The talk included more details about the coalition building they’ve done (with other peace groups in Israel, meeting with Congress (2 years ago 3 senators were with them (Warren, Sanders, one other); now it’s 40), meeting with the Pope, carrying an Olympic torch together in the most recent games, etc.), and the hope that each of us will choose to work towards peace.
Thanks to either a local bookstore owner or my employer, there were free copies of the book available (I hope it’s well written), plus a ‘boarding pass’ card for “global citizen”, on flight “Hope Airlines, flight 203”, destination “Peace” which included an Arabic poem, and the English translation.
Maoz Inon told about how he was on the phone with his parents, who lived just north of the Gaza Strip, at 7:30a on October 7; they were in their safe room, and it was clear something was happening. Five minutes later, he couldn’t get through again, nor reach anyone from the community there until 4p, when he finally talked to a local, who told him his parents’ home had burned down and there were two bodies inside. He and his siblings arranged to sit shiva immediately. One of them (London based) asked the rest of the family to consider standing up for not retribution, but peace. It took days to get to the point of considering it, but they did.
Aziz Abu Sarah described growing up in Jerusalem, attending school at al-Aksah, never sure when something awful would happen. He described always going to school with an onion, because raw onion can shorten the effects of tear gas. His older brother had been arrested for throwing rocks, which he denied until tortured, and after a 10-month sentence, returned home, broken and ill, and ended up dying at just 19 years old. Aziz was 10. He avoided learning Hebrew in school, hating Israeli power, despite being required to learn it. He later realized that if he wanted to do more than wash dishes, he had to learn Hebrew, so he joined an Ulpan class where he was the only Muslim. And because the teacher saw his discomfort and made a point of treating him like another human, with dignity, he started to understand that there are people on both sides interested in peace.
They’d met briefly before October 7, enough to be FaceBorg friends, and that light connection grew into much more when Aziz reached out to Maoz offering condolences after the death of his parents. They started talking, and both had committed to working towards peace, with a goal of 2030 (!). Their organization is InterAct, and they’ve written a book together, The Future Is Peace. The talk included more details about the coalition building they’ve done (with other peace groups in Israel, meeting with Congress (2 years ago 3 senators were with them (Warren, Sanders, one other); now it’s 40), meeting with the Pope, carrying an Olympic torch together in the most recent games, etc.), and the hope that each of us will choose to work towards peace.
Thanks to either a local bookstore owner or my employer, there were free copies of the book available (I hope it’s well written), plus a ‘boarding pass’ card for “global citizen”, on flight “Hope Airlines, flight 203”, destination “Peace” which included an Arabic poem, and the English translation.
Travel Tickets
The day I’m killed,
my killer, rifling through my pockets,
will find travel tickets:
One to peace,
one to the fields and the rain,
and one
to the conscience of humankind.
I beg you my dear killer: don’t
Ignore them. Don’t waste such a thing,
But take and use the tickets. Please
I beg you to go traveling.
- Samih al-Qasim (translated by AZ Foreman)
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Date: 2026-04-27 08:35 pm (UTC)So clearly, not universally convincing, though they did address the challenges of power imbalances and needing more than just internal groups to work towards a good solution.
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Date: 2026-04-27 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-27 09:33 pm (UTC)Apparently 2 weeks ago they were on the Daily Show, and they’re working to be as high profile as possible, to pull more folks in.
One of the other things they pointed out is that you don’t need a large majority; apparently there are studies that show 3-4% of folks who are dedicated to moving the needle, consistently working towards the goal (not just showing up a a march every few months), can make a difference.