OneVoice for two states

What would happen if John Lennon and Yoko Ono turned up at Jerusalem's King David Hotel to stage a second Bed-In for peace where they sang "Give Peace a Chance" with their long-haired hippie friends? (Assuming John Lennon were alive, of course...)

They'd probably be scorned, ignored, laughed at and dismissed as naive peaceniks.

Idealists are in short supply in these here parts, where not even a peace concert can be held in peace.

Next week, a well-connected, but relatively low-profile, group called OneVoice is organizing a unique peace concert.

Israelis and their supporters will gather at a park in Tel Aviv to hear well-known Israeli artists. Palestinians and their supporters will converge on Jericho to hear Palestinian rappers DAM, Ilham al-Madfai and others.

Aging Canadian rock star Bryan Adams is supposed to appear at both events.

The event is the brainchild of Daniel Lubetzky, a well-connected, ambitious, 39-year-old Jewish businessman who heads up his "not only for profit" New York-based company, Peaceworks.

One of Lubetzky's first business ventures was a pasta spread made in an Israeli factory with some Palestinian ingredients.

The boutique label is called "Moshe and Ali's" and features Moshe, the Jewish chef, and Ali, the Arab magician.

According to company legend, the two conjured up a special sauce whose aroma entranced the rival armies and persuaded the warring parties to turn their swords into spoons to taste the mouth watering recipe.

(The animated video can be seen here.)

Their motto: Cooperation never tasted so good.

In 2002, Lubetzky started OneVoice, which has significant star power, from Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman, to Mohammed Ali and Queen Noor.

Next week's event is supposed to unite thousands of Israelis with thousands of Palestinians in calling for a two-state solution and demanding that Middle East leaders sit down for marathon talks to work it out.

But John Lennon Lubetzky is not.

The son of a Holocaust survivor, Lubetzky calls himself a "determined pessimist."

"Ours is not a message of peace and love and co-existence," he told me. "This is not a message of peace. It's not a message of hope. It's not a message of let's get along and respect each other. It's a message of let's not let this get worse. We are fed up. We don't love each other. You leave us alone and we leave you alone and let's just have a state and get that done before it gets ugly."

Like many before him, Lubetzky has wandered into the political Middle East mine field with his plans, which are now coming under question by left wing activists who view OneVoice as a dangerous ruse.

In short, critics of OneVoice think Lubetzky's group fails to explicitly recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees and want people to boycott the concert.

They have organized a small protest movement called Another Voice, which is laying out its demands, concerns and criticism.

Lubetzky already has a few choice words for the detractors.

"If you want this absolutist vision, keep it in your mind, but shut up and let us move on so those that want to end this conflict can move forward," he said.

Nothing like a little brotherly love to warm the heart and get calls for peace off to an inspiring start!

Still, Lubetzky's frustration is understandable.

The concert is meant to send a general message that there are Israelis and Palestinians who want to live together in the Middle East. The OneVoice platform may not detail what should happen to Palestinian refugees and the other contentious issues that have eluded the world's most accomplished politicians. But it's not meant to be set in stone and presented as a final peace deal.

More than anything, the kafuffle is an all-too-accurate reflection of the region's state of mind these days.

Massive emotional, political and cultural fissures run through the region, making peace ever-elusive. And, when people do talk about peace, it's in the context of two neighbors living side-by-side and having little or nothing to do with each other.

It's not the kind of thing that would make for a very good John Lennon song...