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opportunity

Unprecedented opening for Darfur action exists

But the truth is that committing to ending the genocide in Darfur has never been more urgent. Darfur activists are facing an unbelievable opportunity to affect real, lasting change in the region. And if we don\’t seize this opportunity now, it could be a very long time before such a window opens again.

Fatah fighters’ escape to Israel and what it means

Even for the complex Middle East it was a moment of exceptional irony. Some 180 Fatah loyalists fleeing a series of shootouts and summary executions by Hamas\non the streets of Gaza ran for the border — banking on the mercies of the enemy they usually target

A Little Light Seeps Into Dark Times

It is hard to recall such despairing times.

A young Tel Aviv man spat three times on Yitzhak Rabin\’s memorial — the same number as the bullets that felled him — in front of a Channel 2 news crew a few days before the anniversary of his murder. Glaring swastikas were found splashed across the site on the morning of the yahrzeit (anniversary of his death). Both of these events bring to the surface some of the toxic undercurrents running through this country.

It is hard to believe, eight years later, that this national day of grief becomes an opportunity for some to demonstrate their despicable, baseless hatred. But maybe that is the point, as suggested by many since that terrible night, and in retrospect, we will remember it as the beginning of the destruction of the Third Temple. But just when you think we have sunk as low as we can go, more than 100,000 people turn out to honor Rabin in a memorial rally in the huge square that bears his name and to voice a collective \”yes\” for peace that hasn\’t been heard here in the last three years or more.

Dialing for Peace

In the past two years, a soundproof curtain has descended on dialogue between individuals in Israel on the one hand and Gaza and the West Bank on the other. Without the possibility of interchange, it is but a small step to collective demonization of the other.

If Palestinians and Israelis are linked by anything, it seems to be fear and mistrust.

Now a one-of-a-kind social experiment has stepped into the void, attempting to pierce the soundproof curtain. Not between politicians. Not between delegations. Not between professional groups. Not between celebrities.

With supreme — and perhaps naive — faith in the common man, a local group has come up with a scheme to allow Palestinians and Israelis a first step in one-to-one contact: giving them the opportunity to talk.

A Costly Win

Since the start of Israel\’s election campaign last October, the flamboyant leader of the secular-rights Shinui Party had been promising a secular revolution in Israel.

This week Yosef \”Tommy\” Lapid seemed to have a golden opportunity to fulfill his promises when Shinui — which became Israel\’s third largest party after the Jan. 28 elections — agreed to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\’s new Likud-led government.

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More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.