Friday, Jan. 17 - reporting from the Arlozorof-Namir Tel-Aviv junction
Throughout Israel car drivers were confronted with the nearly taboo word "peace."
"You are approaching the Peace Intersection" it said on banners hung around 50 junctions. Grassroots activists of different groups brought together by the inftatigeable Naftali Raz were letting passers-by sign on a peace pettion "63% for peace say the polls - I am one of those." And at each junction a VIP took part. This was an effort of veterans to overcome suspicion and cynicism, so widespread in today's Israel on the left as on the right - and mobilize some support for Kerry's Sysifus labor. At our crossroads Former Knesset Member Yael Dayan - not in good health - was seen energetically approaching drivers who had to stop for the traffic light and passers-by, handing leaflets and stickers to people many of them too young to remember and recognize her face. The right-wingers who held a noisy counter vigil, gave up after an hour.
Was it a success? It was less satisfying than helping Palestinians to plant saplings where settlers had destroyed their olive trees, but at least for once, the energy of activists was invested in, in the first place, approaching the Israeli public.
See also: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/50-shades-of-peace-at-the-crossroads