Friday, February 10, 2006

Peace moms push tough love in Arab-Israeli conflict

Arab women must stand up for their children against terror gangs, one says.

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Nonie Darwish was encouraged as a child to kill Jews after the 1956 assassination of her father, who had directed attacks on Israel.

On Wednesday, she turned the focus on her own culture.

"Arabs don't suffer from a shortage of land, but we suffer from a shortage of freedom and tolerance," she told an audience of about 100 reporters and others. "It's time for Arab women to stand up for their families. They need to take back their children from the destiny of self-destruction at the hands of terror gangs around the Middle East."

Darwish's tough-love message is part of a six-city Mothers for Peace tour sponsored by The Israel Project and other Jewish organizations. Joining her on the tour is Miri Eisen, who recently completed service as a colonel with the Israeli Defense Forces, the same military branch that carried out the attack years ago on Darwish's father.

Both are mothers of three who believe teaching their children tolerance is a key component to peace. It worries Darwish that Palestinian textbooks still deny the existence of Israel and schools are named after "shadeeds" or martyrs like her own father.

"In such a climate, children learn quickly to become like the oppressor and not like the oppressed," said Darwish, who founded the Web site ArabsforIsrael.com.

At a time when a controversial Danish cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad has fueled destructive demonstrations in the Muslim world, the Israel Project's founder said Darwish's message is unusual - and dangerous.

"There are few and far between, Arabs who are willing and able to speak out," said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi. "There's a lot of intimidation and pressure."

Born in Cairo, Darwish lived in Gaza during the four years that her father, Lt. Col. Mustafa Hafaz, served as head of the Egyptian Army Intelligence in Gaza, which was then occupied by Egypt. He founded the "Fedayeen," or "armed resistance," group that carried out attacks on Israel.

Darwish was taught to sing songs calling Jews "dogs" and to memorize jihadist poetry in school.

"I had fear and hatred . . . for Jews," she said during an interview. "I was scared of them."

She was 8 when she heard the explosion from a booby-trapped package that killed her father at his headquarters. Her family quickly returned to Cairo, and she remembers Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his top officials visiting their home to offer condolences.

"Which one of you kids will avenge your father's death by killing Jews?" she remembers one of them asking.

She didn't want to retaliate - a source of guilt for years. That guilt disappeared only after she moved to the United States and after certain experiences - her brother's life was saved in an Israeli hospital after a stroke he suffered 10 years ago - taught her a different way of thinking.

Eisen, who was born in California, learned about Darwish's father in the 1980s because his assassination was the first targeted killing by Israel. In her speech Wednesday, she discussed Israel's evolution over recent years into a country that recognizes the need for a Palestinian state and is committed to using the media and other nonviolent means to defeat terrorism.

Darwish's activism began with articles she wrote after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. She recognizes the risks, which is why she isn't speaking out in Gaza, she said. But Arabs are hearing her message, she said.