JERUSALEM -- A throng of paparazzi gathered on Feb. 24 in Petach Tikvah, 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv, for the unveiling of yet another initiative to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They were attracted neither by the location -- a minimalist auditorium of blond wood inside the well-secured and modernly curvaceous glass IBM headquarters -- nor the dry and lengthy press conference agenda.
Their prey was Jason Alexander, better known as George Costanza. The photographers had waited 45 minutes, circling around him while a Member of Knesset spoke. They had to wait another 45 minutes before Alexander finally strode to the podium.
As everybody in the room knew, Alexander had come to Israel to generate attention for OneVoice, a grassroots peace initiative attempting to get individuals personally involved in negotiating a solution to the conflict. Through a process of interviews and focus groups, OneVoice has developed a ballot of ten "pillars," statements designed for the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement. Palestinians, Israelis, and anyone else interested can vote on those statements; in OneVoice's poll, individuals either agree or disagree with each statement and then allocate 100 negative points among the pillars with which they disagree, allowing them to emphasize which issues they consider most objectionable.
If all goes according to plan, OneVoice's panel of experts will analyze the results of the voting and revise the statements for another round of balloting, repeating the process until they have established widespread support for a specific framework. At that point -- projected to arrive between three and 12 months from now -- OneVoice plans a media blitz to announce their success and disseminate the final pillars.
To the uninitiated, this might all sound a bit farfetched. Alexander disagrees. As the cameras clicked away incessantly, he declared his expectation that a year from now he will, without fear, bring his children to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah in celebration of the peace agreement brought about by OneVoice. Edward Norton and Muhammad Ali have signed on in support, along with Hollywood power couples Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.
What this support means in the Middle East is unclear. Alexander brought out the press, but coverage focused almost exclusively on the actor; OneVoice received minimal mention. He certainly did not inspire people in the region to take his involvement seriously by drawing a lengthy comparison between the ongoing conflict here and the near-collapse of a marriage. "You are in a troubled marriage, my friends," he concluded. "None of it will ever be forgotten or forgiven, and any resolution that seeks to do so will fail But this can be the greatest story of nation-building and democracy the world has ever seen."
While Alexander may have been inappropriately glib, he was more engaging than the IBM representative who spoke about the consulting services and custom-designed software that IBM has donated to OneVoice. The IBM suit's endless PowerPoint presentation was punctuated with Seinfeld catchphrases in English. (Predictably, for example, IBM's groundbreaking web-based interface will be the "master of its domain.") His speech made it clear that OneVoice, regardless of its political results, has the makings of a phenomenal IBM commercial.
Yet there is something exciting about the optimism behind OneVoice. As founder Daniel Lubetzky explains, "The process itself is what yields the most value: engaging individuals in challenging their own preconceptions and forcing them to recognize that absolute rejectionism is not going to get them anywhere; teaching people about the need for compromise and the art of negotiations; and providing frustrated moderates with concrete means to express themselves."
OneVoice is not the first program to encourage grassroots involvement in response to the current political impasse. Copies of the Geneva Accords, a nongovernmental agreement negotiated by former political leaders on both sides, were mailed to every address in Israel in an attempt to create a groundswell of support. Another grassroots initiative, the Peoples' Voice, is being spearheaded by Ami Ayalon, who previously served as both commander of the Israeli Navy and director of the General Security Service, and Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University in East Jerusalem. The Ayalon-Nusseibeh initiative has collected over 265,000 signatures in support of six general principles upon which to base a settlement.
Lubetzky stresses the active involvement that OneVoice demands from participants, insisting that pressing people to engage with the difficult issues at the heart of the conflict is more likely to create a movement for change than is simply asking for support of a previously negotiated statement of principles. He may be right; however, OneVoice's complexity comes at the risk of subdued popular interest. Celebrity appearances certainly bring out the paparazzi, but it's not obvious how much they benefit the Hollywood stars' peace plan of choice.
To genuinely improve the initiative's prospects, the celebrity endorsers must show a more serious an engagement with the issues. The day after tossing off blithe analogies between the intifada and his marital problems in Petach Tikvah, Alexander went to Ramallah for another promotional event. The Israeli Defense Forces were conducting a raid in the city, and the OneVoice contingent was delayed at a checkpoint for over 90 minutes. When the press conference finally started, attendees could hear repeated gunfire nearby. Alexander, sticking gamely to his talking points, insisted he did not hear anything happening outside. Such willful ignorance is not simply unproductive; it sets a poor example for the citizens who are supposed to grapple substantively with the conflict.
Jeff Mandell is on a year-long leave of absence from the University of Chicago Law School. He is living in Jerusalem, where he is a Dorot Fellow and a Leifer Social Justice Fellow.
