What I've discovered about being a "moderate" over 31 years

by Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA)

There are Moderates, there are extremists and there are the “meek moderates.” Before I speak about that, let me tell you a bit about myself and how I got started, turning away from being a doctor to become a political activist and then a journalist.

My mentor was a great man, the late Professor Ibrahim Abu-Lughod. He was a Northwestern University professor who I admired because he was a dedicated moderate who wrote a definitive book called “The Transformation of Palestine.” It wasn’t about Jew-bashing or anti-Semitism, but about factual events that he interpreted. (His wife was Jewish).

Abu-Lughod met me in 1975 after I finished my term of service on the US Air Force towards the end of the Vietnam War. I started publishing an English language newspaper called The Middle Eastern Voice in Chicago (using the $485 I received from the GI Bill that was given to me to pay for my college expenses — I was brilliant and won many scholarships so the GI Bill was just extra cash that I could have squirrled away but decided it was better spent defining a moderate approach to the Palestine-Israel conflict in English. The premise was rejection of violence.

Abu-Lughod was so impressed he asked me to serve as the spokesman for the Arab American Congress for Palestine that year I was their spokesman and eventually even served a stint as President. In 1976 I entered mainstream American journalism (fulltime in 1977), but not before Abu-Lughod asked me to go on national television and debate the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban.

Eban argued with me about the Benelux System, the claim that “Jordan was Palestine” and other political views. But when it came to me, I looked at the TV camera — I debated Eban but I als invested much time speaking to the TV audience. I told the TV audience that my name was Ray Hanania and Hanania was a Biblical Hebrew word that means “God has been gracious” — Eban acknowledged that on the TV show. I noted that my family may have been Jewish hundreds of years ago and that we always lived in Jerusalem — West Jerusalem, Romema to be exact — until 1948 when the Christians and Muslims were chased out of the city (just as the Jews were chased out of much but not all of East Jerusalem). I noted that Abban Eban’s real name was AUbrey Solomon and he was born in South African, which was an apartheid state at the time. And I asked him, why was it that Aubrey Solomon had a right to live in Jerusalem but my father did not?

He couldn’t answer the question in a way that would have sat well with the American TV audience, but he did offer to make special dispensation to allow me to move back to Jerusalem and live there as an Israeli citizens.

I responded, “What about the rest of the 3 million Ray Hanania’s who are Palestinian?”

What have I learned about being a “moderate?” Well first, let me define what a “moderate” is. A Moderate is someone who applies one principle of fairness and justice to himself and to his “foes.” That principle means that when an Israeli kills a Palestinian, he condemns it. But it also means that when an Israeli kills a Palestinian, he condemns that too. A moderate is someone who defines what is right AND wrong not only about the other side, but about his (or her) onw side, too. That’s not easy to do.

A moderate also believes in compromise when it is clear that conflict has failed both sides. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians have achieved any of their real goals. The conflict is 40 years old and it ain’t getting any younger. I was only 24 when I debated Eban and look at me now? I’ve seen the same old arguments and same old hatred and same old one-way denials of Palestinians ONLY denouncing crimes by Israelis but not crimes by their own people, and Israelis ONLY denouncing crimes by Palestinians but not crimes by their own people, too. I;ve seen the same presidents-for-life who have taken over organizations and held on to the title forever, refusing to do anything except talk. Always reactive, never proactive.

So what have I learned? Well, when things are bad, the extremists have a neasy time. They simply tug at the pain, suffering and emotions of the masses of their people, exploiting the oppression and fears to their own benefit, using them to make their extremist views sound good.

When things are good, the Meek Moderates stand up when it is easy and say great things … but run from sight when things get bad. The Meek Moderates are no different than the extremists. They both produce the same bad end results.

Then there are moderates like me who support peace when there is peace and who support peace when there is no peace. When it is hard to stand up in front of a person who just lost a child, a friend or a neighbor to tragedy and have to tell that person that despite the pain and suffering and the hurt, you still must look forward to peace and compromise. Remember the victims of the conflict, don’t dishonor their memory by turning towards revenge or retaliation, which are driven only by hatred.

I have to stand up when it is hard to stand up like it is today, when both sides deny their own crimes and both sides commit the worst possible crimes against each other, Suicide bombing. Extra-judicial murder. Killing with Qassam rockets or killing with F-16 missiles. In the end, innocent people die. It doesn;t matter how you kill and innocent civilian. It’s not the method of the madness but the end result that is the crime and focus on the tragedy and the debate.

I have to stand up and tell my people that compromise is still the answer even though during the entire 10 years of the Oslo Peace Accords, Israel never once dismantled a major settlement, and in fact kept building new ones as they claimed they wanted peace. I have to stand up and tell Israelis that despite the terrorism of Hamas which used suicide bombings not only to kill Israelis but also kill the pace proces itsewlf, we had to stand firm and fight for peace and not surrender to the angerm the hatred.

Moderation is refusing to give in to the ugly side of being human. It is about embracing the truth (as best as humans can) even when the truth hurts yourself as much as it might the other. Moderation is accepting that compromise is the only way to resolve a dispute between two people who claim the exact same thing. Palestine is not a baby. We do not have to fear cutting it in half. We can cut it in half. The key though is to pursue compromise with reason and respect, and do so not to gain the upperhand and say “I got you”. It is about getting what you want while also insuring that your enemy has enough of what they want to accept the result.

Moderation often means, especially at times like this when we are at each other’s throats, that both sides hate you. Both sides attack you. Both sides call you names — rather than addressing the principle, they often go right for the person. I don’t mind it. I have been called some very nasty things in my life by many people and I have learned through trial and error because I have made mistakes that the best response to hatred is no response at all combined with a commitment to stand by the principle and fight for it hard.

I’m not going to change because the principle of compromise will never change either. And I won’t give up on peace just because some terrorist decides to commit an atrocity against the other sides. Instead of backing away from compromise and peace int he face of terrorism, we should push and fight harder for peace and compromise. One State is no state. Two states is the only answer.

So I say fight for peace. Fight for justice. Jihad for what’s right. Steal the thunder from the fanatics. Don’t surrnder to the hatred.

That is what a moderate person according to all that I have learned over 31 years of trying to find a way out of this hell called the Palestine-Israel conflict.

– Ray Hanania