It's Complicated: Pursuing Peace in a Time of War
By Emily Tamkin
The New Republic
November 6, 2023
"Even before October 7, Jonathan Kessler had as his screensaver the Tom Petty lyrics, 'Everything changed then changed again.'
"'For years, I’ve recognized that we’re living in an age of liminality,' said Kessler, who left the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 2021 to start Heart of a Nation, with an aim ‘to empower emerging American, Israeli, and Palestinian changemakers to improve their political cultures.' He already knew, he said, that 'everything’s in transition.'
"Even so, Kessler said, the last few weeks, following Hamas’s attack and Israel’s subsequent military operations, have been one of the most difficult, challenging periods of his life: 'We’re all trying to get our bearings.'…
"Many liberal-minded, pro-peace Jewish groups in the United States are now finding themselves in a period of change—or, perhaps more accurately, they thought they were in one transitory moment and now find themselves in another.
"Many liberal Jewish organizations spent much of the past year criticizing the policies of the current government, the most far-right in Israel’s history… Now they’re faced with new and vexing questions: What does it mean to support Israel and support peace when Israel is at war?...
"'There was a cease-fire in place on October 7,' said Kessler, who added, 'I don’t believe that we can bring the next generations to a conversation about a better future when they are looking over their shoulders at people that will stop at nothing to crush their souls. Not just Israelis, I’m thinking of Palestinians.'…
"It’s very easy to jump on simple slogans, the reality on the ground is much more complicated…
"'People involved in this work have come to understand that our work is aspirational, it requires an enormous amount of resilience, and that catastrophe not only shatters worlds, it creates opportunities,' Kessler said. Even so, for the past month, the lyric playing in his head has not been the Tom Petty one on the screensaver, but comes from Leonard Cohen: 'You want it darker.'"
Emily Tamkin is a journalist based in Washington, D.C.
About Heart of a Nation
Empowering the next generation of American, Israeli, and Palestinian change-makers to embrace better, together.
אנחנו מכנסים הוגים מובילים, פעילים חברתיים, ומחוללי שינוי לעתיד, אמריקאים, ישראלים ופלסטינאים, המחויבים לשיפור החברות שלהם.
نحن أمريكيون وإسرائيليون وفلسطينيون نبني ونكوّن روابط من أجل التعلم والتفكير والمشاركة معًا حتى نشجع الحلول التقدمية بشأن القضايا التي تهمنا جميعًا.