cnewmark

Daniel's OneVoice blog

You might already know I support OneVoice, a mass movement of Palestinian and Israeli moderates, maybe half a million strong, and growing.

This isn't a do-gooder movement; rather, it's just ordinary people who want to make a deal, and who are serious about it.

Daniel Lubetzky's one of the main guys behind it, and has starting blogging the movement here as the big date nears.

The Clinton Parameters lay out clearly how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be resolved. The Heads of State of both Israel and Palestine were elected on a platform to end the conflict. Both Olmert and Abbas want a two-state solution. The Israeli and Palestinian public have clear supra-majorities that support a two state solution (at least still now, though not forever!). It is time for the politicians to sit, lock the door, and not exit the negotiating table till they work out the details for an agreement premised on the Clinton parameters (which the OneVoice Pillars from the People are based on).

This is a big deal, for real.

Toes with cream cheese?

Delicious!

I'm not going anywhere...

Like I tell people everyday, I do serious customer service at craigslist, everyday, and by "everyday" I mean every day.

My exit strategy for customer service is death; that is, I'm only be doing customer service as long as I live. After that, probably over.

I keep saying this repeatedly, not sure how the rumor started otherwise.

Yellow Ribbon Fund: help service members and families

Hey, I just found out about these guys, they do good work:

The Yellow Ribbon Fund assists injured service members and their families while they recuperate at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center by offering free rental cars, taxi rides, hotel and apartment rooms, job mentoring and internship opportunities and tickets to sporting and cultural events.

I learned about Yellow Ribbon from Stephen Colbert via his "wrist strong" campaign.

Mideast peace and my own DIY Marshal Plan

I'm promoting the efforts of smart people toward the end of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. My own effect is very small, but when you get a lot of this going, you got something with traction.

The focus is on people getting real stuff done, not do-gooders who mean well, but aren't effective.

The areas are:

• One Voice a mass movement of moderates, hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians who are tired of the fighting and want to make a deal. They've gotten real traction.
• Microfinance and other ways to get credit to small and medium sized businesses, so they can hire people. This includes talking to Kiva, maybe some Calvert Foundation stuff, and on a larger scale, the Mideast Investment Initiative.
• Getting bloggers on both sides to talk to each other, and maybe recommend businesses who need loans.

Next week, I should have good news regarding what I call the "Craig Newmark memorial latrine" in Jericho, but to be sure, the folks at American Near East Refugee Aid have done the heavy lifting.

I've been getting encouragement from sources including ordinary people on the ground on both sides, and even people in the US and Israeli governments, all informal.

The Marshall Plan helped turn Germany and Japan, post WWII, from enemies to friends.

This is just a start; more to come.

A podcast and a few links

The folks at Techtalk posted a good podcast of a brief interview I did with 'em yesterday (8am on a Saturday) but
more importantly, we talked about OneVoice and Sunlight Foundation, and the links are there.

Progress with Congressional ethics reform

I just got a small update regarding the current bill, from the folks at Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight, of which I'm a microscopic part, was one of a bunch of reform groups helping out.

Looks like some genuine progress was made, but much more needs to be done.

Congressmen need to disclose "bundled" contributions, where they collect a lot of contributions which together, make up real money.

Earmark requests need to be disclosed, though possibly this provision needs work.

Secret holds can remain secret, allowing Senate Majority Leader McConnell to continue covering up misdeeds, possibly protecting Senator Ted ("bridge to nowhere") Stevens.

More to come, and for the wonkish among you, SourceWatch has more.

What this mushroom?

... growing in one of my potted plants?

Threatdown!

That's a big brown bear outside my window!

UPDATE: I'm not in San Francisco right now, where a "bear" isn't what frightens Mr Colbert, I'm in Colorado for a very brief trip.

RESPONSES:

Heidi, seeing the bear was fun, I'm very fond of nature, when it makes itself convenient. I was mostly wishing I had a good camera with me then. Right now, right outside my office window there's a flock of house finches.

Brenda, please email me a posting id or link to your ad, craig@craigslist.org, and I'll check it out.

Alek, I was in Aspen all right, my room was not too far from the trash bins. I was maybe twenty feet from the vicious man-eater.

Daniel from OneVoice gets credit for marketing venture

Hey, Daniel Lubetzky is the guy behind OneVoice, a peace movement for Palestinians and Israeli moderates that's getting real traction. they've signed up almost a half million people.

He also runs PeaceWorks, which sells products produced by workers from both sides.

The Times has a good article on him, but just doesn't give him enough credit.