By Shabtai Shavit and Alon Ben-Meir

As Israel prepares for the parliamentary election in September, its second in five months, most national security experts, politically savvy individuals, and academics suggest that this election may well be the most critical since the year 2000. Since that time, the geopolitics and regional security have changed dramatically, which could lead either to regional conflagration or peace, which largely depends on who the next Israeli prime minister will be and the general political leaning of the new government.

There is a growing consensus among Israelis that if Prime Minister Netanyahu forms the next government, Israel will lose a historic opportunity to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement based on a two-state solution, in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

The question is, how to deprive Netanyahu and his Likud party of winning a relative majority that will allow him to form the next right-wing government—a government which would dangerously escalate regional tensions and forfeit any prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace for the foreseeable future.

The answer is that if Kahol Lavan (Blue and White Party), which was established last April and led by Gantz and Lapid, put the country’s national interests first by ending their personal squabbles, articulating a unity of purpose, and focusing only on national security – where they have an overwhelming advantage over Netanyahu – it can potentially defeat a Likud Party led by Netanyahu and form the next government.

Netanyahu, who is now the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the state, has skillfully made his name synonymous with Israel’s national security. It is true that he has contributed to making Israel a regional power, but he failed to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace, which would provide the ultimate security for the state. Instead, he resorted to fearmongering, persuading a majority of Israelis that the Palestinians cannot be trusted and that a Palestinian state will pose the greatest menace to Israel’s long-term national security.

Now, Netanyahu is running again using the same sinister technique of fearmongering, presenting himself as “Mister Security” who alone can save the country from a perilous future. After serving 11 consecutive years as prime minister, however, Netanyahu has become ever more power-hungry and corrupt. He faces possible charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in connection with three cases. He is now fighting for his political life, hoping that his re-election will spare him from facing up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

As such, Netanyahu has now become a greater liability than an asset to Israel’s security. His vow to never to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under his watch and his leaning toward the annexation of the West Bank will render Israel nothing short of a garrison and apartheid state living by the gun, which is to Israel’s detriment as an independent democratic state with a sustainable Jewish majority.

This is particularly worrisome at a time when the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, have openly allied themselves with Israel against their common enemies — Iran and Global Jihad/Radical Islam — and clearly indicated their willingness to forge peace with Israel, once an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is achieved.

Kahol Lavan must now seize the unprecedented opportunity to deny Netanyahu another term by assuming the mantra of national security. They should dramatically change Israel’s trajectory toward peace with the Palestinians, even though they are avoiding speaking about a two-state solution which most of them privately embrace, provided that Israel’s security is not compromised now or at any time in the future.

Although Israel can militarily defeat any country or a combination of countries in the region, Israel has legitimate reasons to be concerned about its national security, which is embedded in the psyche of every Israeli. These concerns can be traced back to the Holocaust, decades of enmity from the Arab states, Iran and its surrogates’ (Hezbollah and Hamas) continuing existential threats, terrorism, and future uncertainty given the region’s instability and power rivalries.

By embracing national security, they entertain unquestionable superiority in matters of security over Netanyahu, which is a prerequisite to any peace. Lieutenant General Gantz and his colleagues, former Defense Minister and Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon and Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi have the credentials and enjoy tremendous credibility in safeguarding the country’s national security.

What is critically important, however, is that Israel’s ultimate national security rests on a permanent peace with the Palestinians. In any peace talks, they will insist that every measure must be taken to ensure the security of the state, without compromising the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that fully cooperates with Israel on all security matters.

The shifting political dynamic in the region, in addition to Egypt and Jordan’s peace with Israel, is that the majority of the Sunni Arab states recognize that Israel is the region’s superpower, with the most advanced technology, which these states desire. But above all, Israel’s military prowess provides the ultimate shield to protect them from Shiite Iran.

To be sure, Israel faces a critical crossroad and the stakes have never been higher. The leaders of Kahol Lavan stand an excellent chance to garner a relative majority and form a new coalition government with the center and left-of-center parties.

According to almost all polls, a majority of Israelis fully support the two-state solution. They want to be assured, however, that the state’s security will not be compromised with the creation of a Palestinian state but rather enhanced, especially if an Israeli-Palestinian peace is achieved in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, as part of the new Middle East which is being built in front of our eyes.

Kahol Lavan, together with a block of the center-left parties, have a historic opportunity to realize it.

Shabtai Shavit is a former Director of Mossad. Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

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Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced additional key administration and board appointments this week.

Administration Appointments

Office of the Governor

• Tiffany Robinson, Deputy Chief of Staff
• Allison Youngblood, Program Manager for Partnership for Petersburg

Education

• Zach Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of Education
• Alyson Buckner, Special Assistant

Public Safety and Homeland Security

• The Honorable Chadwick Dotson, Director of the Department of Corrections
• Randall Richardson, Policy Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security

Board Appointments

Education Commission of the States

• Dr. Thomas Taylor of Stafford, Superintendent, Stafford County Public Schools

Board of Trustees of the Science Museum of Virginia

• Amishi Amin of Richmond, VP Design and Procurement, Shamin Hotels
• Thomas D. Gottwald of Richmond, Vice President – Environment Health & Safety, Afton Chemical Corporation

Virginia Commission for the Arts

• Mary Louise Flowers of Virginia Beach, arts education advocate

Judicial

Indigent Defense Commission

• S. Mario Lorello of Virginia Beach, Attorney, Zoby & Broccoletti, P.C.

Labor

Board For Hearing Aid Specialists and Opticians

• Desire’e Lewis-Nelson of Henrico, Licensed Optician and Director, The Phoccus Foundation

Board For Waterworks And Wastewater Works Operators And Onsite Sewage System Professionals

• Josh Kirtley of Charlottesville, Environmental Health Technical Consultant, Virginia Department of Health

Fair Housing Board

• Shion Fenty of Chesterfield, Campus Director, Cloverhill Church
• John Scott of Henrico, Owner, Scott Construction Services LLC

Natural and Historic Resources

Board of Visitors to Mount Vernon

• Raynard Jackson of Arlington, President and CEO, Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC

Public Safety and Homeland Security

Parole Board

• The Honorable Patricia West, Chair, of Virginia Beach, former Commissioner of the State Corporation Commission, former Circuit Court Judge
• The Honorable Lloyd Banks, of Cumberland, retired United States Coast Guard

Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority

• Bob Sledd, Vice Chair, of Manakin Sabot, co-founder and former Chairman and CEO, Performance Food Group

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The Staunton Democratic Committee’s candidates forum Tuesday evening allowed audience members to ask questions in a town-hall-style platform.

Each candidate was allowed an opportunity to introduce themselves, then moderator Nathan Sealove volleyed questions from the committee and the audience before each candidate shared a closing statement.

Jade Harris, candidate for Virginia’s District 3, is former vice mayor of Glasgow, Virginia Young Democrats Black Caucus Vice Chair and assistant manager of The Split Banana in downtown Staunton.

Harris said she is running because she does not want Virginia’s big cities to forget Staunton.

“We’ve got serious problems here in the 3^rd, and we need serious people ready to find solutions,” Harris said.

Retired Harrisonburg teacher Kathy Beery is running for District 2 against incumbent Mark Obenshain.

“No one should be running unopposed,” the JMU grad said. “That’s not democracy. We have to have choices.”

Beery’s priorities are affordable housing, affordable child care, transportation, business and public education.

“We need a change. We need to be able to solve problems. I am that person,” Beery said.

Joshua Huffman is running as a Libertarian for District 2. A graduate of Harrisonburg High School, he earned degrees from the College of William & Mary and West Virginia University. Huffman worked as the grassroots director for South Carolina for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2008 and was formerly a member of the Republican Party for 19 years.

“We do need free and fair elections in the state of Virginia,” Huffman said of voters having choices on Election Day.

District 36 candidate Randall Wolf, a photojournalist, is opposing Del. Ellen Campbell, a Republican. He prioritizes personal freedom and rights, women’s healthcare, teacher rights, student access to information and free community college “to build the workforce of the future.”

He also supports affordable housing, confronting gun violence to saves, mental health care access, lower taxes for Virginians who earn less than $75,000/year and solar energy projects in the Shenandoah Valley.

Wolf said.

Adam Campbell, the father of two young children in Staunton’s schools, is running for Staunton City Council. The seat currently occupied by businessman Terry Holmes, who filled in for former mayor Andrea Oakes who vacated the seat in January 2023, is up for election in November.

“We are invested in this community,” Campbell said of himself and his family. He said he wants to help everyone experience Staunton the way he has been able to experience the city. He is focused on improving communication between the city and residents and increasing public participation in city government. If elected, he would make investments with the city’s limited resources for the betterment of Staunton.

He will also work for collaboration with neighboring counties.

The first question posed to all candidates was whether Virginia should remain a right-to-work state.

“Right-to-work doesn’t work. It gives an unfair advantage to most employers,” Beery said. With some employers, the policy exploits workers.

Harris called right-to-work “a Jim Crow-era piece of policy designed to keep down workers and their families so that corporations may benefit and take everything that they can of them and their labor.”

Huffman supports right-to-work. “I don’t think union membership should be a condition for employment at any level.”

Wolf said right-to-work should be repealed in Virginia. He added that union members make 15 percent more.

“Right-to-work’s gotta go,” Wolf said.

A question posed to Campbell was whether Staunton is accessible for residents with disabilities.

“There’s a lot we can do to improve accessibility around Staunton,” the VDOT transportation planner said. He added that 1 percent of curb ramps in the city are ADA-compliant. Audible pedestrian crosswalks and improvements for non-motorized travel are necessary.

If their voting district received $25 million to spend on public education, each candidate was asked how they would propose to spend the funding.

Wolf said he would increase teacher and staff salaries, add more counselors in schools, increase technology education, make pre-K optional and increase school security.

“It takes a lot of people to help educate our students,” he said.

Huffman would spend the funding on teacher pay and recruitment and constructing new school buildings.

“If we don’t have proper infrastructure, if we don’t have good teachers, then how can we expect our students to succeed?” Huffman said.

Campbell said that Staunton’s school need new construction and buses.

Beery would retain teachers and staff with pay.

Harris said more mental health professionals are needed in schools, as well as retaining teachers.

“We shouldn’t just be focusing on metal detectors and school resource officers to meet gunmen at the door. Much of the time that assaults on schools happen, it’s students, former students who feel ostracized, who aren’t having their mental health care taken care of,” Harris said.

More funding for teaching reading and writing is also necessary, according to Harris.

Wolf and Harris share an opinion on the top three budget priorities for Virginia: education, mental health care access and Interstate-81 improvements.

“Interstate 81 is going to take a whole lotta money to fix,” Harris said.

The candidates vary on gun control. Campbell, a gun owner, supports the right to bear arms, but believes in gun safety education. Beery, also a gun owner, said gun regulations are necessary. Harris said deaths from gun violence can be limited with solutions, such as gun safety education. Huffman, a 2nd amendment supporter, supports responsible gun ownership.

Wolf said that Virginia spent $288 million last year on gun violence.

“We need to confront this on many layers,” Wolf said. He supports law enforcement, protecting schools and mental health access.

If elected, Wolf said he will propose a 30 percent excise tax on gun and ammunition sales.

“We need the funding to confront this to really bring those solutions to make an impact,” Wolf said.

Wolf was asked whether Democrats will ever be able to negotiate with Republicans on abortion legislation.

“I think we have to be able to talk across the aisle and find common ground in some ways. That doesn’t mean we back off from where we stand,” Wolf said. Women’s health care and abortion are critical elements.

Huffman, Beery and Harris were asked if they are working to stop anti-choice organizations in Virginia.

Huffman is pro-life, Beery supports access to birth control and women’s privacy and Harris said every woman has a right to make their own decision.

“We already settled Roe v. Wade,” Harris said of Democrats and Republicans when the legislation was made national law in 1973.

Early voting in Virginia begins Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.

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The Child Care Stabilization Act would extend vital child care funding which is set to expire at the end of September 2023.

Funding would ensure that child care providers can keep doors open and continue serving children and families in every part of the United States.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Bernie Sanders of Vermont in introducing the legislation. Without additional funding for child care, 88,265 children in Virginia will lose child care, at least 2,861 child care workers will lose jobs, parents will lose $280 million in earnings after being forced to cut work hours or leave the workforce, and 1,383 child care programs would close.

“The lack of affordable child care in America is holding our families, workers and economy back,” Kaine said. “Parents are locked out of the workforce because they can’t find care for their kids. Workers who are passionate about child care are being squeezed out of their field because they can’t pay their bills. If we let critical child care stabilization funding expire, things are only going to get worse. Millions of families who will otherwise lose their child care are depending on Congress passing this legislation to extend these urgently-needed funds.”

Democrats in Congress delivered historic federal investments to prevent the collapse of families in the U.S. when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an already-fragile child care industry to the edge. Funding included $24 billion for child care, which has made an enormous difference for families across the country, keeping 220,000 child care providers afloat over the last few years and saving child care slots for up to 10 million kids nationwide. The funding is set to expire on September 30, 2023.

Kaine called on President Joe Biden last month to support $16 billion in federal funding each year to prevent a national wave of child care closures. His bill would provide funding each year for the next five years to continue the successful Child Care Stabilization Grant program and prevent a potential crisis.

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The odds are against American federal lawmakers to approve 12 spending bills in time to avoid a government shutdown.

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia joined Prince William County business leaders and local officials Tuesday to discuss the impact a government shutdown would have on Virginia’s economy.

Spanberger spoke out against the hyper-partisanship and political games that have driven lawmakers to this point — and she shared more data about how previous shutdowns hurt Virginia’s economy.

“I’m going to start by stating the obvious: government shutdowns are bad for Virginia,” Spanberger said Tuesday. “They are bad for businesses. They are bad for families. They are bad for Virginia jobs. And they are bad for our overall economy. As Congress heads back to Washington to start our fall session, we have a long to-do list. But our very top priority needs to be avoiding a government shutdown.”

She said that previous shutdowns hurt finances and job security for Virginia families, especially in northern Virginia.

Spanberger also highlighted the need to incentivize lawmakers to avoid repeated, avoidable and reckless potential crises. She discussed her bipartisan bill that would block Members of Congress from receiving their pay during any default or government shutdown.

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Tim Kaine could not run fast enough from the question about Susanna Gibson, the Virginia House candidate whose sex tapes were outed this week by the Washington Post, at the behest of a Republican Party operative.

“I was very surprised at this story. I was at a campaign event in Henrico with many local and state candidates, school board, county supervisor, constitutional officers, House and Senate members on Saturday, and Ms. Gibson was one of the candidates. As far as I know, it’s the first time I met her, and it’s a little bit unusual, because she’s one of the few General Assembly candidates who’s never asked me for an endorsement,” Kaine said, fumbling for words, in response to a question from a reporter on a conference call on Wednesday.

“I don’t really know her that well, but I was very, very, very surprised at the story, and it really took me aback,” Kaine said. “I heard from somebody, this event was Saturday, midday, I heard from somebody very late Saturday or early Sunday, that a negative story might be coming. But when I read it yesterday, I mean, it was very surprising.”

Gibson is the Democratic Party nominee in the 57th House District, one of the seven House seats listed as tossups by the Virginia Public Access Project.

Video content featuring Gibson, 40, a nurse practitioner and married mother of two, from a website calling itself Chaturbate ended up on a non-password-protected site that the GOP operative brought to the attention of the Post, which in its reporting noted that it does not normally name the victims of alleged sex crimes, because obviously, even as Gibson, and her attorney, are alleging just that, that she has been made a victim of a crime.

“We are working closely with state and federal law enforcement, said Daniel P. Watkins, Gibson’s attorney, telling the Post that the dissemination of the videos from the private website without Gibson’s consent is a violation of the state’s revenge porn law, which makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to “maliciously” distribute nude or sexual images of another person with “intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate.”

It’s remarkable that the Post allowed itself to be used by a Republican operative to bring attention to the videos; among other things, you have to wonder if the operative was behind the effort to post the content to the non-password-protected site, and what role the campaign of Gibson’s Republican opponent, David Owen, might have played in the story.

All we get from the Post on that is that the operative “denied a connection to Ms. Gibson’s opponent, David Owen, or to other political groups in Virginia,” which, whew, the operative denied everything, so that’s a big bit of relief there.

Kaine’s shameful effort to distance himself from Gibson stands in stark contrast to the response of Democratic State Sen. Louise Lucas: “They’re looking for anything they can find on any candidate that they think might sway the voters,” Lucas said. In a statement “It all has to do with who is going to get control of the Senate and who is going to get control of the House. It’s all about control.”

Democratic women’s advocacy group Emily’s List also weighed in on Gibson’s side.

“Susanna originally ran for office because of the overturning of Roe, and she’s been very outspoken on standing up for reproductive rights. People are coming out in support of Susanna because they know that Republicans are coming after her because she was standing up for them,” Emily’s List spokesperson Lauren Chou.

One other women’s group got on the record in support of Gibson: the National Organization for Women.

“In light of the anonymous, personal attack on Virginia’s Susanna Gibson this week, it is important that we call out these tactics for what they are: another attempt to silence a strong woman who threatens the balance of power,” said Lisa Sales, the president of Virginia NOW. “It is clear to us she is being attacked because she is an abortion rights advocate who is gaining momentum in an election that is increasingly about maintaining Virginia as the last Southern state with access to legal abortion and which offers safe harbor for girls, women and pregnant people facing crisis pregnancies.

“Virginia NOW applauds Gibson’s refusal to be intimidated by those who will stop at nothing to maintain control over women,” Sales said.

And then there’s Kaine, who doesn’t want to be anywhere near Susanna Gibson.

“You know, legit, she hasn’t even asked me for an endorsement, and so, or any advice about this, and the, you know, the stories, as far as I have read the stories, I’ve read her comment has been, don’t invade my privacy,” Kaine said, by way of tossing a word salad. “I don’t even really feel like, I know some facts as they’re reported, but I don’t know all of them. But again, it was a very surprising thing to read about it, and again, I don’t really have much sense of it. Because, as far as I know, it was first time we’d met, and I hadn’t even been asked to endorse her.”

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A Richmond hospital employee was sexually assaulted in an elevator, and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect.

Officers were called to Chippenham Hospital on Jahnke Road on Saturday at 7 a.m. for a report of sexual battery.

A male suspect was captured on surveillance camera. After the alleged assault, the suspect left the area, possibly boarding a GRTC bus.

The suspect is described as a 35-40 year old male, 5’10” to 6’ tall and weighing approximately 200 pounds.

Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call Detective P. Bruington at (804) 646-3930 or contact Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.

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Joe Biden had a great line this week at a campaign event in Northern Virginia on why Republicans are signaling that they to want to impeach him.

“I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me,” Biden said. “And now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government.”

That’s about as much as we can glean from both of the nonsense pushes from House Republicans, who pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy into launching an impeachment inquiry against Biden without a substantive charge to base impeachment on, as they also threaten to shut down the government for reasons that they haven’t quite been able to explain.

(Ahem, it’s politics.)

Count Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, among those fed up with the House not being able to keep its house in order.

“It’s my hope that reason prevails,” Kaine told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday, knowing as he said the words out loud that he’s expressing wishful thinking more than anything else.

There’s no reason to anything that Republicans are doing with the shutdown threat, and a bill that Kaine shepherded through Congress during the last shutdown is a key reason why.

The 2019 bill guarantees back pay for federal employees following a government shutdown, meaning effectively, taxpayers, during a shutdown, are still on the hook for the costs of government services even though they can’t access them.

“That’s not a fiscally conservative position,” Kaine said.

The shutdown threat, just like the impeachment with no charges, is, of course, all about 2024.

It’s about “leverage,” Kaine said, the thought that shutting down national parks, the IRS, not funding the defense budget, the rest, will somehow get people to want to pull the lever for Rs next year.

“This is a threat that usually goes away at the last minute, and that makes me mad, even if it goes away, because you needlessly scare people when you shouldn’t,” Kaine said. “But especially now that the federal employees are guaranteed paychecks anyway, don’t walk them out of their office and tell them they can’t serve their colleagues.

“So again, it’s my hope that reason prevails,” Kaine said. “And again, this is not primarily a Senate issue because the Senate Dems and Rs are working well together to move forward on budget, but this there’s a core of the House GOP that’s pushing this, and I wish they wouldn’t, you know, not needlessly scare people.”

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Ben Cline just can’t quit self-styled Leninist Steve Bannon.

Seven months after his last appearance, Cline, the Republican who represents the Sixth District of Virginia in the U.S. House, was again a guest on Bannon’s conspiracy-friendly podcast “War Room.”

Cline stuck close to his far-right Freedom Caucus talking points.

Once again there was the irony of Cline complaining about the Biden administration’s alleged lack of cooperation with congressional committees while on a podcast hosted by a man who was sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine after he was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Bannon is free pending appeal.)

Once again there were the reflexive digs at Nancy Pelosi (who is no longer in a leadership position in the House of Representatives) and complaints about “woke and weaponized” government.

To avoid a government shutdown which Freedom Caucus members are threatening, Cline said, the Commerce Department, the Education Department and the Labor Department “need to be defunded just a lot.” Someone needs to ask him what he means by “just a lot” and which programs need to be defunded.

On Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry on President Biden, Cline claimed that the evidence of criminality by Biden is “overwhelming.”

But as CNN reported after fact-checking McCarthy’s claims: “House Republicans have not presented any proof that Joe Biden ever profited off his son’s business deals or was influenced while in office by his son’s business dealings.” Even many of Cline’s fellow Republicans in the Senate think it’s a bad idea.

Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.

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“You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, from his Farewell Address, 17 January 1961

Our holidays all mark something aspirational, or at least they should, until they are commodified. Some are more joyous, some more reflective.

Now comes the International Day of Peace, 21 September.

The UN declared this day by unanimous resolution in 1981. Over the years, some have striven to make it more than a nod to a nice idea.

Few are perfectly peaceful people. The vast majority of us are generally peaceful for much of the time most days.

The idea of the International Day of Peace isn’t so much about perfection, but rather about reminding ourselves that peace is a mighty and worthy goal.

In the US, thousands of events, vigils, dances, trainings, religious services, protests, kids’ celebrations, and much more will be part of Campaign Nonviolence Action Days, beginning on the International Day of Peace and concluding on the International Day of Nonviolence, so September 21-October 2.

The UN resolution declaring October 2 the International Day of Nonviolence was adopted in 2007 and marks the birth of Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948). While Gandhi was far from the first person to practice nonviolence, he pioneered the strategic use of mass liberatory nonviolent action to change policies–whether corporate, public, or institutional.

So the Campaign Nonviolence Action Days are a dozen days of focus on deeper understanding of the roots of a peaceful approach to everything from parenting to teaching to community relationships to peace with the earth and much more. Coördinator Rivera Sun, nonviolence trainer and author of novels that open vistas of human possibilities to transform conflict, notes that these Action Days have been building every year for the past decade.

From a handful of actions in the beginning to more than 4,600 of them last year, the network is growing across the US and the world. Coördinator Sun and others have built a Campaign Nonviolence Toolkit to help people and groups think about how to create an event in their town.

They have created a searchable list of nearly 5,000 Campaign Nonviolence actions, organized by locale, for the 12 days coming up.

If you can’t find some action near you, consider creating your own. Then register it on the Campaign Nonviolence website and others will be drawn to join you. I decided to do a nonviolence training in my town, for example, and it is full with a waiting list.

Since I began this look at peace commemorations with a quote from a warrior, I’m going to give him the last word as well.

“I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”–Dwight Eisenhower, Broadcast with Prime Minister Macmillan in London, 8/31/59

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University, and PeaceVoice Senior Editor. 

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