Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: This is a very complex question, and it is grounded in a very, very long and complex history, but it has a lot to do with the political will of not only the countries that comprise the Middle East but the other countries that are not in the Middle East but have interests in the balance of power in the Middle East. It also speaks to the political will of the leadership of these countries in the Middle East as well as not located in the Middle East. It really speaks to the potential of a shift of power if these countries were to be divested of their respective positions. -- We do need to address the issues of justice, human dignity, and what is actually going on on the ground with the people actually live in the Middle East. Political will does not always translate to human justice, human dignity. And therein lies a significant problem.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: Well, I believe the reason is that there are fanatic people on both sides. On both sides. There was a time when parts of the people in the Middle East thought they could sweep away the others from the Middle East. I mean, some arabians thought they could destroy the state of Israel. As long as they believed this and were convinced that it was justified, they had no interest in peace. The state Israel had to defend itself in order to survive, but has its own fanatics, nowadays known as the "settlers" who want to inhabit parts of the palestinian region as they assume that this country is israelian property from a godly instruction which cannot be ignored. Nowadays, I believe, most of the people on both sides , i.e. most palestinians, most arabians and most israelian people do know that there is no alternative, that they have to accept the situation, the others. The israelians know that they cannot rule another country, that they are not supposed to rule another country. And the palestinians and the arabs know that they cannot sweep away the state Israel from the Middle East. That they are doomed to live with a state Israel. Nevertheless there are fanatics, fundamentalists on both sides, who always turn the situation to riot and violence and thus worry and devastate the population. I believe if we somehow bring the democracy into lead, if the will of the bigger part of the population wins, then we will have peace because the way is very clear, how we are supposed to walk it. There hast to be a palestinian state, and an israelian state, and both need to cooperate. This is the only possible solution.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: Why is there no peace in the world? The answer in a way is very simple about peace. We must first ask, if we have peace within ourselves? How can we have peace anywhere if we are not at peace with ourselves? Mr. George W. Bush, who is not truly the president of the United States, has proven he’s not. Is he at peace with himself? How can he speak of peace? How can one speak of peace, when you’re not at peace with yourself? First, we must come to a peace with ourselves. Once we understand this, then we can start radiating out, rippling out into the world. In the Middle East, there is so much conflict. When there is so much conflict, it disrupts the groundation of the human spirit. When this is imbalance, it’s very hard to achieve an internal peace; therefore, it’s very hard to achieve an external peace. Hopefully, someday soon, there will be peace within our hearts that we can then express externally into the world. Peace exists within our hearts at all times, we just need to access this. We need to meditate on, why were here? And what we’re we doing? Need to review the effective of the sun and the beauty of this world. The peace that, that is ever present within the moment, we can tap to that moment of peace. This is truly the purpose of our life is to obtain peace, that we can sit here unaffected by everything. This is a very beautiful gathering. The people from all over the world, so many people are here for peace. The woman from Iraq, the woman from Afghanistan, brought here to help bridge this connections so we can learn from our indigenous friends and our professors on how to create a more peaceful world. And I believe opinions with oneself. Let’s make peace. Ohm shanti. shanti. shanti. Ohm peace, peace, peace Ohm shanti, shanti, shanti Peace is in every moment and breath.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: There is no peace in the Middle East yet because of historical reasons or decisions. Decisions of centuries that []. A beginning of peace in the Middle East should come in a process of wide reconciliation that involves different sectors and societies that are in conflict. This is a challenge. The challenge is that we have to solidarize ourselves until a process of change that seeks for peace and security in order to avoid innocent people having to pay for consequences political decisions.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: I think we got very close to middle east peace at the end of the Clinton administration. There was furious negotiation going on and an offer on the table that would have provided a solution for Jerusalem. And a decent offer I think that could have been accepted both sides. It’s a tragedy of history that Yasser Arafat could not bring himself to accept that solution. And as Clinton said to him, you know, you’ve made me a failure in this and perhaps if Clinton had had a few more weeks in office or Arafat had been able to lay it down and to accept that then the middle east would have taken a better course. Since then with assassinations and additional wars and now threats of additional nuclearization of the area we’ve clearly gone dramatically back where we got right to the edge I think of peace. The only way we can get peace in the middle east now is probably to work for a generation trying to raise economic standards, making a real effort at doing development of the people who’ve been oppressed for so long and in the process giving the state of Israel the security it needs which is part of any truly lasting solution to middle east peace.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: Because, both sides don’t wish the peace, at least not till predominance of one of them is satisfied. So each side expects that the predominance will remain on their side, until this doesn’t become real, no kind of peace suits them. However, this stalemate situation of the whole region suits the superpowers of the world. Through this their role, apparently as peacemakers, and actually of interventions and patrons, extends into the infinity. Superpowers love not only being judges in the ring where none stop the feasts are exchanged, but also supreme judges. In situations like that, it’s hardly possible to overcome the state where the peace exists only as truce or fire pause. This absolutely doesn’t end this war that is going on for decades.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: There are many ways to look at this question. One is that racial, ethnic and religious differences, political differences are not appreciated. When differences are a source of division rather than a source of richness and diversity, then conflict often follows. Maybe another way of looking at this is that there’s been a huge history of fear and in the Middle East particularly. I feel that based on old and very tired beliefs often stemming from a misguided sense of religion that has become patriarchal. This crazy idea of man and God-man being in charge, head of the thought; and what comes out of this is a whole ideology of control. There’s also a lot of economic competition and that’s not just true of the Middle East, but it’s also true of the world and we ought to shift towards cooperation. Another big thing that is not really appreciated by many people is that there is a huge shortage of water in the Middle East. I think behind a lot of the wars has been the desperate need to control water. If you look under those areas around West Bank and so on, there’s a lot of deep [unknown] there. I know that Israel is very concerned about water and as population increases then the pressure to secure water becomes huge. I think that’s one of the resource wars, if you think about it – I think behind a lot of this is a resource war. Then, another angle, of course, is the colonial imperialism and the Western powers have a lot to answer for here, particularly Britain and France; of course, America today, other countries. There’s been a lot of lies and deception and a lot of corruption and this is disguised as economics. It’s extremely poor behavior on behalf of our leadership. One of the things that inspires me is what’s been going on in South Africa after apartheid to the Truth and Reconciliation Councils, which I want to speak about more later. But the principle there is to use forgiveness to release us from the past. My feeling about them at least is that the past is running the show. We’ve got to make a collective effort to really forgive ourselves, and then from there to take this huge creative leap into the future. And so, what kind of future do we really want, and it’s got to be a future where we live together. I’m feeling deep pain about the Middle East.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Catherine David: There will be no peace in the Middle East as long as the israelian question has not be solved, in a just way may be difficult, but in a coherent way, in a way which is acceptable for the palestinian people. So we have to create an autonomous state which diposes of its own suzerainty and which diposes of all the resources to preserve its authority. So as long as the Palestinian people do not dispose of an own state which is constituted and viable, there will be no peace in the Middle East, and this all the more as this region is abused and instrumentalised for a lot of economic wars which do not directly affects the region, and as a kind of iraqisation of the region takes place under the deranged view and in every case on the impassive and even less active watch of most of the european states and beyond, so there is no reason to hope that there will be peace soon in the Middle East if the situation continues to be like that and if we let it continue in this way.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: I think it's a matter of religion and maybe less interest that we have on these two countries. And if we want to help I think we should look at them not as Muslims and Jews, I think we should look at them as a country and people. That will help us more to understand and to solve their problem. And I think there is also a lot of influence and a lot of interests from the Arab side, from the European side, from the American side, but I also feel that these two countries, the leaders should - they are stubborn, but I hope that both sides of the leaders will encourage their people not hate each other. Because also the Palestine and the Jews, the Israelis should remember one thing, that it is the leaders and not the people. I hope the people should leave the politics to the leaders and get to know each other more, because the more you know each other the more you won't call each other Jewish or Arab, you will call each other people. And I think this could be a challenge to the leadership of the world and leadership of Israel and Palestine to make peace. Because imagine where your children will stay, how your children will live on when you will leave them with nothing but hatred and propaganda, which is not true. I think the two countries should be based on truth should be based on fairness. I think this could help them to achieve peace. We should also look close and learn more about those two countries so that we can try to help them. We understand; we will help. If we don't understand, we can't help.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Cornel West: There is no peace because there is not enough justice there. Any context in the world, any region in the world there will never be peace until there is justice. When we talk about why there is no justice, it has much to do, of course, with the oil. There is no doubt that if the Middle East were littered with artichokes rather than oil, it’d be a very different set of foreign policy from America, Europe, Asia. There is no peace because of the lack of justice for Palestinian brothers and sisters living on their occupation of the state of Israel. There is no peace because of tremendous paranoia, understandable, of Jewish brothers and sisters, Israelis, fearful of over 20 Arab countries who rhetorically constitute a threat, no major threat militarily but rhetorically constitute a threat. There is no peace because U.S. foreign policy has been so biased in terms of its alliance with the state of Israel and refusal to really engage the suffering of Palestinian people. There is no peace because the autocratic rule of Arab politicians, who often use the Palestinian issue as a football, not seriously concerned about the suffering of Palestinians, but concerned about preserving their own hierarchical rule in respective Arab countries. And the combination of these forces produces just obscene levels of suffering in the Middle East and the relative lack of justice in the Middle East. Until there is justice across the board, security and justice for Palestinians, security and justice for Israelis, security and justice for the everyday peoples in Arab countries and justice in the U.S. foreign policy.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: If you are going to analyze why is there no peace in the Middle East, for me there is not yet a common recognition by the people who are living in the Middle East to come into peace. The problem is the politicians are not also trying to give peace a chance. Its leader wanted to prove their own strengths. But unless both parties will enter genuinely into negotiations that would make them agree that they have to make peace for themselves, that’s the time that peace will be realized in the Middle East. Maybe one of the causes why there is really no peace yet in the Middle East is the outside interveners. These people sometimes who are - who would like to intervene sometimes add to the problem, not make part of the solution. And the most important thing, I think, that we could as citizens of the world can offer to the peace situation in the Middle East is to pray for world peace and pray for the Middle East people to realize the beauty of being at peace in your own lands is sleeping very comfortably in your own land. So, may we pray that the leaders, especially the leaders in the Middle East will realize and come together genuinely and agree to themselves to make peace in their backyard for the benefit of their inhabitants because war does not lead to anything that is positive. It always result in negative, destruction, displacement, casualties and those are the things, I think, that we don’t like to happen in our own backyard. And we hope and pray that people in the Middle East will genuinely come together and say let’s make peace genuinely for ourselves. And often times to work for peace, you should begin by peace by yourself. Be a peaceful person before you work for peace, and that should be the qualities of the leaders in the Middle East.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Dritëro Kasapi: Because I feel that the Middle East is a playground for big powers. I think Middle East is a place where big powers like the United States, in Europe, and this growing Arab power that is consolidating in different ways are using the Middle East and especially the Palestinian/Israeli one for, as a field of demonstrating power, and pushing their political wills forward. And unfortunately, the Palestinian people, and the Israeli people are caught in this, in between this kind of, this game. I wouldn’t really imagine that both Palestinian and Israeli people would not want peace. I think this is being made impossible because of, I’m not sure if this is right, but I think it’s because of external power play and interests that are invested in the region, which have very little to do with the everyday life of a Palestinian refugee or an Israeli person.

by Dritëro Kasapi

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Eliane Potiguara: As long as there are religious intolerances, economic interests, personal interests the wars will go on. As long as there is capitalism, the exploration of certain commercial products, that enriches A or B, the wars will go on. So, as long as there is this intolerance, this disputes all wars will go on. The autonomy and the decision made of every state and every country must be respected. Why do the United States have to be in every mind and dominate everybody, this is just power and this is the point. As long as the US will remain in this situation everybody will go on with their wars, to defend their countries. They want to defend their houses and their people, we all defend ourselves. If I have, for instance, a production of beans in my house which has been planted for my people, for the community, I, of course defend those beans. Why should I take my beans and hand them out to Ronald Reagan voluntarily? Reagan for me is a person that can be compared to Hitler. Hitler died but he has left his heirs, one of them regrettably is Ronald Reagan, who is a son of Nazism, Fascism and of the hegemony between states. This has to stop.

by Eliane Potiguara

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Eliot Weinberger: Well, obviously, the continuing conflict in the Middle East is promoted by political forces that use it to consolidate power. There is no better way to consolidate one’s own power than creating the threat of enemies. I think we need to recuperate a vision of the Levant as it once was. And Levant was a multi-religious, multi-ethnic society of Jews and Christians and Muslims. And one of the great nexuses of civilization, I mean, in the year 1,000, the most civilized city in the world was Baghdad, and Baghdad was a tremendous city of culture and the arts and sciences. It was Muslim, it was Jewish, it was Christian. And I think we need to -- there has to be a kind of movement towards a kind of Levantine consciousness that would replace the idea of, say, pan-Arabism or of Jewish identity in that sense. And I don’t see how peace in the Middle East will be possible without that. My dream -- in Israel, I think I no longer think in terms of a Palestinian state and an Israeli state, and my dream would be a single state with both cultures living in it, with of course absolutely equal rights.

by Eliot Weinberger

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Elisabet Sahtouris: The question of why there isn’t peace in the middle east yet is a complex one. And there are many levels involved here. One of the problems is that the middle east has been a fairly tribal set of cultures that has had artificial boundaries imposed on them by people form other parts of the world, from Europe and America. And this causes conflicts inherently because it has disrupted some peoples from their homelands and put them into other places. So there’s that complexity. And then there’s the complexity of the outside intervention of my country, the United States, and other countries that have played roles in the middle east. There are complex alliances that we don’t hear about in the media. We’ve had some documentaries in recent years showing close alliances between the Saudi oil family and the Bush family in the United States. So there’s a lot of collusion of various kinds going on behind the scenes, some of it out in the open. So it’s an extremely complex situation. I certainly don’t think that the United States has done much to foster peace in the middle east when it comes in and attacks countries like Afghanistan where there have been no solutions due to our intervention. And in Iraq where we are told there is the solution of having removed Saddam Hussein from power. We all agree that he was a brutal dictator, however I believe that the people of Iraq would have overthrown Saddam Hussein himself if my country had not actively been involved in preventing that. I do not believe in foreign intervention on the part of my country. I wish it weren’t happening. I don’t know whether there would be peace in the middle east, probably not, if we had not intervened there. However, supporting dictators and then taking them out of power in the interests of foreign capitol are not the way to go to create peace in the middle east. I would love to see peace in the middle east based on the brotherhood of the sons of Abraham and I have a strong feeling that all the people who go in there to do conflict resolution are successful on the small scales they’re permitted to work on and could be successful on a much larger scale if conflict resolution was seriously supported by the world. I hope for peace in the middle east. I believe that people can get along with each other and that in general we are headed toward the formation of global family in the world. The conflicts worldwide have been reduced in the past century and I hope they will continue to be.

by Elisabet Sahtouris

Sep 9, 2006 12:10:00 PM cite

Ervin Laszlo: There are many, many complex answers to this social, political, economic, ecological culture. The basic reason for this conflict goes back thousands of years. Different cultures sharing the same territory, they have territorial conflict with each other now going back to 4,000 years. And this territorial conflict is only made worse by different social and political and economic systems being created in the same area. So, people do not have confidence in each other. They do not tolerate each other and the peace itself would require much more understanding overcoming age of cultural conflicts and that is yet to come.

by Ervin Laszlo