[GushShalomPress] Mitzna's victory a sign of hope but tone still set by violence

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press Release
November 21, 2002

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Gush Shalom: Mitzna's victory a sign of hope but the tone still set by violence
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In what could be called a silent mass demonstration for peace, tens of thousands of Labor 
party members decided this week to give the newcomer a chance. The not so cautious Haifa 
Mayor Amram Mitzna had challenged the hawkish Ben-Eliezer as well as the balancing Chaim 
Ramon with a more outspoken peace agenda than we remember ever anybody having 
succeeded with - in the race for the Labor Party leadership.

Amram Mitzna is, as so many before him, a former general but after his army career ten years 
ago he became the mayor of Haifa. And he displayed exceptional courage and wisdom in this 
binational Jewish-Arab town during the ethnic strive in the beginning of this Intifada. All in all we 
wish him success and hope that with the same daring and opennes he displayed so far, he will 
succeed to open up more Israelis - all those who show themselves to be rather dovish in theory 
- as appears from the polls - but who never heard the truth from a politician whom they were 
willing to trust. 

However, the fact of Mitzna's success inside the Labot Party is the first and so far also the last 
good news. In spite of the many non-violence events - such as the near-daily joint olive harvest 
of  Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals, or - on other occasions - the joint non-violent 
resistance to the bulldozers - by barring their way with not more than one's body, 
it is still those who use violence who set the tone.

Today's  busblast took the lives of eleven old and young, men, women and of children on the 
way to school. It was the work of a 23-year old from Bethlehem - this means revenge on the 
town of Bethlehem and is it now looks also on the Gaza Strip - as it was claimed by Hamas 
which have there their stronghold. 
Before, during and after each Palestinian suicide attack there is the routine brutality of the 
occupation: no day without some renewed 24-hour curfew, no day without announced or 
implemented house demolitions; actually there passes no day without killings which don't 
make headlines and whose victims are mostly Palestinians.

The Israeli and the Palestinian people are stuck in a murderous vicious circle: 
On the one hand, the Palestinians will not be intimidated into submission and the terrorism will 
not end without the occupation be lifted. (Sharon  personally this week warned the soldiers in 
Nablus that "Palestinians are willing to give their lives in order not to be defeated.")
On the other hand, those in power in Israel use terrorism as an excuse not to end the 
occupation. Until now they got the support of those who ultimately want a two-state solution 
but for the time being don't want to "reward terrorism."

Let's hope that before we all drown in this quagmire enough people of the latter group will again 
remember that wars are not decided by who has the best weapons, nor by who uses the 
more"legitimate" way of killing, but by the one who is fighting for a just cause. 

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