Dove's Eye View

Egypt Calls For Syria-Israel Talks

From the Beirut Daily Star: Egypt urges Syria and Israel to talk.

See here for previous calls for talks. The Dove says any such noises are good signs.

US Out of Iraq?

Alison has been arguing thoughtfully in comments about the wisdom of pulling out of Iraq too soon. I see great merit in the idea that we bought it, we broke it, and however badly we are running things in Iraq, our departure might make it much worse. In this view, we need to stay until we "fix it." My reply was that we're causing so much harm, killing so many people for no good reason (Fallujah) that my emotions want us to get out.

Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times has made a similar argument to Alison's, and a guest poster over at Body and Soul replies.

FirstStepsToPeace.org

A few weeks back someone named Jed Graham posted in comments about steps to peace in the Middle East. I came across his website, FirstStepsToPeace.org, and suggest you go look at it.

From Jed's comments:

The idea is for Palestinians, Israelis and Americans to take the first steps to peace together through a campaign of simultaneous marches in the U.S., Israel and Palestinian territory.

The goal is to mobilize a massive display of support for nonviolent engagement and deliver a clear and powerful message that progress is possible.

The marches will give all sides a platform to say that they share a responsibility to resolve the conflict and wish to do so without more bloodshed. All sides will be expressing a readiness to engage in dialogue and to take constructive steps for peace if the message of non-violence is heeded. All will be saying that they're willing to do their part to work together for peace.

The effort won't advocate any specific agreement. It will carry only a positive message that Palestinians, Israelis and Americans are ready to take the first steps to a better future together. People won't be pointing blame at any group or protesting any specific government policy or official. They'll be marching for a future of hope and progress, not hatred and violence.

Seems to me that you need to join with people who are good at organizing marches. ANSWR is one but their politics are objectionable. One thing they did was get permits to march very early, so that when the Iraq war was looming, Answr controlled the permits.

If I were trying to organize this I would connect with all the active peace groups I could find, and also go to some of the anti-war blogs (starting with Dailykos). Jewish Voice for Peace and Tikkun organized separate protests in San Francisco and other cities against the Israeli incursion into Palestine in 2002. JVP and Tikkun are very active and want your support. There are many other organizations, some Jewish, some not, devoted to activism in this area. Get in touch with them. People would go, once the weather gets better and we've licked our wounds over Iraq and this election.

There are non-violent marches in Palestine all the time. Monitor Electronic Intifada and The other Israel for evidence.

Good luck, Jed.

Tip of the hat to http://www.mideastweb.org/

Films About Islam Win Festival's Top Awards

From The New York Times: Films About Islam Win Festival's Top Awards.

Architectural Mecca: Islamic Influence on US Architecture

From the SF Chronicle: Architectural Mecca / Building design flavored by Islam / Most U.S. cities have buildings with echoes of Islamic design.

In 1961, a year before designing the World Trade Center towers, American architect Minoru Yamasaki completed a much smaller project that would influence the look of his new creation in New York City. The project was 6,000 miles away, in a country Yamasaki would visit many times over the next decade, Saudi Arabia. It's clear from the layout of the World Trade Center that Yamasaki incorporated aspects of Islamic design into the towers. This pattern was most visible at the base of the buildings, which were ringed by pointed arches resembling those found in mosques and on Muslim prayer rugs. The plaza fronting the towers paid homage to Mecca, Islam's holiest place, by replicating that city's courtyard layout, according to architect Laurie Kerr, who has studied Yamasaki's work. Yamasaki himself described the trade center plaza, which featured a circular fountain and places to sit, as a mecca -- "an oasis, a paved garden where people can spend a few moments to relieve the tensions and monotonies of the usual working day."

The article explores many other American architects and their buildings; the Trade Center's homage to Islamic architecture is particularly poignant, considering its fate. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do....

The Dove spent a year as a violin student in the Oberlin College conservatory, also designed by Yamasaki. The building featured those same lacy arches, which some compared to a radiator (college kids!). Practice rooms looked out through slender arched windows onto garden courtyards, another nod to Islamic design. The Dove knew the WTC connection at the time but really didn't see the Islamic connection - the Oberlin building looked more like a modernist take on gothic arches (or a radiator).

Click on the photo thumbnails in the article for larger pictures of Bay Area Islamic influenced buildings. I know and love all the buildings pictured, from the crazy Frank Lloyd Wright Marin Civic Center, to the Alcazar theater in San Francisco.

In this time of hysterical "us vs. them" polemics, an article pointing out the influences back and forth between Islam and the West contributes to knowledge, understanding and tolerance.

Chemotherapy

I started chemotherapy almost three weeks ago. The first two weeks weren't so terrible - I rested and babied myself, functioned pretty well. Then last week my hair fell out. I had beautiful hair, always have, and believed that my hair was my power. Anticipating its loss made me weep. But now that it is gone, I can see that I am still myself. My children still love me. My husband doesn't flinch or turn away from me, despite my grizzled scalp.

The leaves turn yellow, red and orange, fall to sidewalks and lawns, and we rake and haul them away for compost. So with my hair. In the spring, when chemo is done, my hair will return just as the leaves begin to bud.

The sign of hope: you can face anything if you keep breathing. "Let it come, and let it go" says the Zen Buddhist priest down the street who gives me acupuncture.

Meanwhile, my prognosis after treatment is a fabulous 97% chance of surviving 10 years. That's good enough odds for me. I'm really glad to be here.

Israeli President Wants Peace Talks With Syria

Thanks to Joshua Landis at Syria Comment, we learn from CBC News: Israeli president asks country's leaders to accept Syrian offer of talks.

Israel's leaders should take up a Syrian offer to renew peace talks, President Moshe Katsav said in remarks published Thursday, rejecting assertions by Israeli officials that the offer is not significant.

United Nations Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is ready to resume peace talks with Israel "without conditions," but Israeli officials played down the statement, saying it contained "nothing new."

Roed-Larsen's comments followed a meeting in Damascus with Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa.

"In my opinion it is important and worthwhile to thoroughly check out the intentions of Bashar Assad, if he really wants to make peace with us," Katsav told the Maariv daily.

The Dove first noted this development here. Seems that some in Israel are willing...

In searching for the original Ma'ariv article, this squib turns up: Lebanon's president Emile Lahoud told "senior Israeli diplomats" over the weekend that Lebanon wants peace with Israel.

On reading Josh Landis further, another interesting development appears: a group claims that Syria has agreed to pull out of Lebanon by February 2005.

Let's hope all this talk turns into real progress.

What You Can Do

Earlier I posted a link to Tom Hayden's prescription for ending the Iraq war. He suggested six things to do. Here's one:

"...build pressure at congressional district levels to oppose any further funding or additional troops for war. If members of Congress balk at cutting off all assistance and want to propose "conditions" for further aid, it is a small step toward threatening funding. If only 75 members of Congress go on record against any further funding, that's a step in the right direction – towards the exit.

The important thing is for anti-war activists to become more grounded in the everyday political life of their districts, organizing anti-war coalitions including clergy, labor and inner city representatives to knock loudly on congressional doors and demand that the $200 billion squandered on Iraq go to infrastructure and schools at home. When trapped between imperial elites and their own insistent constituents, members of Congress will tend to side with their voters. That is how the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia were ended in 1975.

The Dove has been monitoring her local councilwoman's e-mails and the neighborhood e-mail list. Mostly we discuss street repairs, wandering dogs, and local schools. Hayden reminds us that all politics is local, and national policy can be affected by grass roots organizing. California, like all other states, is suffering from budget crises - community colleges cutting services, medical providers losing funds. There is a connection between our local issues and the Iraq war. Let's all do one thing this month to point out this connection to our representatives.

The Tikkun Community has been organizing trips to Washington to meet with Congress, as well as "teach-ins to Congress" about the Israel/Palestine situation. You could join them, or you could get your own group to do the same. Descend on Washington, have a meeting, and then go visit your Congressional representatives.

Quaker Vision for Peace

Via Helena Cobban: Legislative Priorities, 109th Congress; Moral Values Statement of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. (Quakers)

We are committed to government of, by, and for the people. Current U.S. policies cause the vulnerable to lose hope and allow the wealthy to amass greater wealth. The public good is compromised in favor of private interests without accountability. The Executive branch is undermining laws, and Congress is abdicating its responsibilities to promote the public good.

Friends cherish integrity in public and private life. We call on our public officials to lead by example, to be accountable to the people they serve, and to adhere to the highest standards of ethics and civility.

We know that true security grows from international cooperation and trust, as well as respect for human dignity, economic and social equality, and the rule of law. Fear of further acts of terror is being manipulated to justify an agenda of endless war in the name of "security."
In light of these concerns, FCNL selects the following priorities for its work during the 109th Congress:

• Remove all U.S. military forces and bases from Iraq, and fulfill U.S. moral and legal obligations to reconstruct Iraq through appropriate multinational, national, and Iraqi agencies.
• Promote a framework for national and international security that includes peaceful prevention and resolution of deadly conflicts, active pursuit of arms control and disarmament, adherence to international law, support for the United Nations, and participation in multilateral efforts to address the root causes of war and of terrorism.
• Restore and assure full civil liberties for all persons in the United States or under its jurisdiction, and promote human rights around the world through international institutions and treaties.
• Change federal budget, tax, and fiscal policies to reduce military spending, meet pressing human needs, and address structural economic violence.
• Promote long-term protection of the environment and eliminate a critical cause of violent conflict by reducing oil consumption and accelerating development and use of renewable energy sources.

Salmon Return to Napa River

From the SF Chronicle: As sewage, trash and chemicals have been cleaned up, fall-run chinook salmon are returning to the Napa River.

Sustainable agriculture practices contributed to the return of chinook salmon. Organic farming does more than just free produce of pesticides.