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Jewish Community News
News: April 2006
Moms for Peace visit San Jose
By Laura Rheinheimer
In February, an Israeli and a Pales-tinian woman traveled to San Jose and put the Middle East peace conflict into terms everyone could understand—both mothers of three, they wished for peace for their children.
Miri Eisen, a recently retired IDF colonel, and Nonie Darwish, the daughter
of a martyr, have been touring the country talking to groups across the
U.S.
Darwish is the daughter of the foun-der of the fedayeen movement, a group
of Arab terrorists that carried out cross-border strikes against Israeli
targets. Growing up, she said she was taught to hate Jews.
“In Gaza elementary school, we learned hate, revenge and retaliation,”
Darwish said. She said she was told horrific things about IDF soldiers
and that Jews were dogs. She said she was expected not to ask questions.
“Criticism and questioning were forbidden,” she said.
Darwish said it has become common to blame Islamic terrorism on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. “Israel has become the useful enemy—the scapegoat,”
she said. “Blaming Israel has become an industry.”
Miri Eisen, who grew up in San Rafael, Calif. and moved to Israel at age
8, chose a career in the Israeli Defense Forces for 20 years in military
intelligence.
She and her husband, also in the IDF, tried to keep the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict separate from their life at home. But they were unsuccessful.
“It came into our house because it affected every one of us,”
she said.
Eisen said she feels all mothers are responsible for teaching tolerance
to their children. She said she hopes that Palestinian mothers will teach
their children to be doctors rather than martyrs.
Both Eisen and Darwish called on mothers to stand up and speak out. Eisen
said she wants to “strike a chord in mothers and fathers everywhere,”
and asked that they teach their children tolerance and coexistence.
“Terrorists are writing Islam,” Darwish warned. She said Arab
families, who traditionally put priority on the family, need to “take
back their children” and stand up for families.
Darwish said that a turning point will be when “Arabs love their
children more than they hate Israel.”
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