In our interview we spoke with Steve Kalishman, of Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives which promotes people-to-people contacts through sister city relationships in Russia and in the Middle East. Because of the war between Russia and Ukraine happening as we speak, and Steve’s extensive background with Russia and Poland, we asked him what his friends from Russia and Poland were telling him, and he told us what he could. He conceded that obviously he doesn’t know all Russians, but this is what he’s heard. This also isn’t a show about history, although we’re seeing it created before our eyes. I think it’s important to listen, regardless of if you agree. The first fifteen minutes of our conversation is on what he’s hearing from people who live in Russia and Poland. Afterwards, we get into the main topic which is Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives’ terrific work in the Middle East. What he’s recounted is very different from what we hear on our news. It sounds familiar because it’s what we’re told that Putin says as well. Probably, I shouldn’t have been so shocked, it’s what is broadcasted on their news. To be fair, what we hear on our news depends on what channel you listen to as well. To many of us, it sounds absurd, Nazis in Ukraine’s government, and it’s President is Jewish? Yet, I’m no Ukrainian-Russian historian, are you? But then again, dead bodies with hands tied, and women and children fleeing seems unambiguous. The situation is complicated, and the only clear conclusion I came to is admitting to myself how our own perceptions create our own reality. Trying not to judge, is a lesson in Peace. May we find the grace to look within and acknowledge, that what we see is a story we’ve created from our own thoughts, and we tell ourselves they are facts, but are they? May we have the wisdom to know the difference. Amen. Steve Kalishman, is a Jewish American, and a lawyer working actively in Gainesville, Florida. He is the Founding Director of Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives, President of the Sister City Program of Gainesville, Inc., and he sits on the advisory board of EcoPeace Middle East. Gainesville is no stranger to sister-city relationships, as during the height of the cold war with Russia, in the eighties, he was able to help establish 300 sister-city relationships between American cities and Russian cities. Today, Gainesville, Florida, also has contacts with Poland as well, and we’ll be able to take an abbreviated sideline to tap into some of what he’s heard from his Russian and Polish friends to learn what they understand about what’s happening in the Russian-Ukraine war. Today, Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives concentrates on encouraging American, Israeli and Palestinian people to acquire a consciousness and understanding of one another as individuals, as members of their communities, as citizens of their countries, and as part of the family of nations, through the formation of three-way sister city relationships. In 1997, Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives used the establishment of a water treatment plant in Qalqilya in the Palestinian Territories to begin a three-way sister city agreement between the Israeli city of Kfar Saba, Qalqilya and Gainesville, Florida. The need for the facility drove the incentive to work together, Peacefully. Amen. We’ll be able to hear many stories of creative programs that have developed since, including music with the Los Angeles-based Hip Hop group Luminaries, sharing children’s art projects online between the cities, and a documentary called, “When people Lead.” We’ll be discussing how establishing these sister-city relationships have helped bridge the gap toward mutual cooperation, yielding benefits far beyond city borders. It’s our intention for PEACE with Penny to be a source of hope, as people see that Israelis and Palestinians do want Peace and bless all of the intelligent, creative and devoted Peace activists who work hard to improve the lives of their communities. We show you that many Israelis and Palestinians, we believe, the majority, do want Peace with one another. Unfortunately, it’s the extremists that make the news. If you’d like to learn more about PEACE with Penny, please reach out to us at Penny@PennySTee.com With the increased violence this week in Israel, and as the Holy holidays of Ramadan, Easter and Passover are upon us, we hope that the situation will calm down. And as the pictures of the horrors appear on our tv screens at home, of the barbarous violence in Ukraine, we’re interested in what Steve’s heard from his friends on the ground in Russia and Poland. We hope you will join us! We hope that everyone will some day Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.
