Like most people, I have a small number of heroes - Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King among others. One less well known perhaps is Daniel Barenboim, the great classical pianist and conductor. He combines for me two of my great passions in life - music and politics, especially the politics of peace. Over 30 years ago I bought a boxed set of the Beethoven piano sonatas played by Barenboim which I still cherish today, but I had no inkling then that he was to become a remarkable man of peace, even more remarkable given that he is an Israeli.
Just this week, he has written an article published in the Guardian newspaper opposing Israel's attack on Gaza and arguing that peace and security in the Middle East can never be achieved by military aggression. He argues that even if Hamas is in some sense defeated, other even more militant groups will rise up to replace it.
Israel's attack on Gaza is not just brutal and wrong, but is against the long-term interests of the people of Israel too. Barenboim is undoubtedly right, but it is the cruelties being inflicted on the Palestinians now which must be our immediate and primary concern.
It is clear that the attack on Gaza has been launched quite cynically in the last days of the Bush Presidency, and Israel can do nothing without the patronage of the USA. The last act of the appalling Bush is again an act of war against a poor Arab people.
The reality is that Israel can only have a serious future if it stops brutalising the Palestinians and begins to work towards a long-term peace based on justice.
This will not happen while Israel occupies the West Bank, permits Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and builds a concrete wall to exclude Palestinians from what is in reality part of their own country. Encircling Palestinian communities and then making life intolerable for those who live there is again grotesquely unjust and simply adds to the justified resentment of the Palestinians.
The only solution is for a radical change of direction by Israel, beginning with a return to its agreed international boundaries before the June war 40 years ago when Arab lands were occupied. Israel should then agree to, and actively help in creating a Palestinian state, with the Israeli West Bank settlements handed over to the new state of Palestine.
During the last year I have chaired a number of meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues which seeks to find intelligent and humane ways of avoiding and resolving conflicts. Speakers have included former Foreign Secretary Lord Douglas Hurd and Cabinet Minister Hilary Benn MP, as well as a less known contributor who put the case that conflict arises from three major factors in particular - a democratic deficit, economic deficits and deficits of esteem. The Palestinians suffer all three and these must all be put right for a just and peaceful future for all in the Middle East.
To secure peace for the long term, Israel should use its wealth and power to promote economic development and prosperity in the new Palestine. The developed world - especially America and Europe - must also contribute to building this new Palestine, because it is vital for peace in the wider world too that the running sore of the Middle East is healed.
And finally, to return to Daniel Barenboim, amidst all the conflict and hostility in the Middle East he has created a classical orchestra of young people from both Palestine and Israel, sitting together to play beautiful music. That is the path to peace, not the bloodshed of recent days.
I wish all readers of the Herald and Post a very Happy New Year.
Kelvin Hopkins MP
