With all this talk about animosity towards China and Olympic Torch protests I can’t help but feel slightly positive when I read something like this in the NY Times -
Israel offered on Wednesday to start direct peace talks with Lebanon, saying all issues would be negotiable including a tiny piece of Israeli-held land on the countries’ mutual border that Israel has long argued does not belong to Lebanon but that the Lebanese say is theirs...The announcement comes amid intense regional diplomatic activity, including the planned start on Thursday of a six-month truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, and the end of a second round of indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria.
“Intense diplomatic activity” makes me feel like the Olympic spirit has finally started to seep in somewhere…although I’m sure factors like land disputes, starvation, and death have something to do with these peace negotiations. But think about it – the Olympics is a time and place to bring people together. And nothing says together-ness like Middle East peace talks and the Olympic Games. Maybe this is the year that Lebanon’s basketball team qualifies for the tournament and beats Coach K and his cohorts into the ground or Israel’s Niki Palli takes it all in the high jump. It’s just a thought…But a heartwarming one indeed.
Remember the 2004 Iraq soccer team that made it all the way to the Bronze medal game? An Iraqi man had this to say: "It's like our souls were playing," he said. "You can see outside, there are no cars on the street. It's quiet. It's a great and a beautiful feeling to see this." Sports events can have a healing effect…just ask people here in Detroit when the Tigers won the 1968 World Series. This is what the Olympics Games are all about, folks. Hopefully, this year Arabs and Israelis can unite in the pure joy of the sport….perhaps even peace.
There is an Arab proverb that loosely reads -
against his brother,
with his brother against his cousin,
with cousin and brother
against the stranger.
2008 could be the year that the “cousin and the brother” unite instead of coming to blows. It’s strange what the Olympics can do…even if it’s just that underlying electricity flowing through our veins.
Who knows? But until then, I will eat my kibbee and watch how it unfolds.
Middle East peace negotiations
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