Are there plans for Peaceful Israel/Palestine that Israelis and Palestinians really prefer over remaining in the current situation?

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Are there plans for Peaceful Israel/Palestine that Israelis and Palestinians really prefer over remaining in the current situation?

The BEST PLANS project will present a wide uncensored variety of plans for progressing beyond the current situation to politically representative samples of Israelis and Palestinians (“customers” of the plans).

Participants will carry out a deep democratic process on a web site and a series of workshops in which they will fertilize the evolution and crystallization of plans presenting an attractive vision and a practical path to realize it, in the well-considered opinion of majorities in both “mini publics”. The project will promote the evolved plans in the public, political and diplomatic arenas.   

Create an account in www.TheBestPlans.org in order to:

1.       Actively participate in the “mini public” and enroll friends from the full diversity of opinions.

2.       Spread the word and help recruit resources and sponsorship for the project.

3.       Help to produce the project and in any other way.

Project Importance

Although the “two state” principle is accepted by the leaders and the international community, no specific plan has yet proven to win stable and well-considered preference of the majority of Israelis and Palestinians over the current situation. The BEST PLANS is a Crowd Sourcing project of citizens for citizens seeking to scientifically investigate if there is any plan today, based on “two states” or any other principle that wins stable and well-considered mutual majority preference and therefore has high likelihood of being successfully implemented.

Project Uniqueness and Innovation

The BEST PLANS project is not a classical “peace project” but rather a “reality check”. It is a research performed with the support of “The Free Muslims Coalition Against Terrorism”. The launch event is held in cooperation with IPCRI and with the generous support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The Project seeks to cooperate with the widest possible coalition of organizations across the political spectrum, corporations and a-political organizations.

The project is unique in providing the best possible conditions for the evolution of plans preferred in a well-considered and stable fashion by a majority in both sides:

·         The project is about creating a well-defined product.Plans that evolved in response to “customers” preferences.

·         The “mini publics” are selected to politically reflect the wider public. Including skeptics about the possibility of a viable plan or those who want a very different plan than the “standard”.

·         The plans compete against the status-quo and not against each other. A person may prefer several plans, even very different from each other, over the current situation. Preferring one plan doesn’t automatically mean opposing the others.

·         Submitters are not constrained by the project. They don’t have to “stick” with their plans but only improve them in any way so they win the well-considered mutual majority preference.

·         The process is conducted in a series of rounds: presenting plans, getting feedback from mini publics, and improvement of plans. This enables plans to evolve according to the real needs and preferences of the people and enables people to evolve their thinking by exposure to the variety of plans.

·         Everything is presented in full transparency and identically to both symmetric “mini publics”.This allows realistic coping of the real problems and understanding the “other side” as it is reflected in the “mini public”.

·         No censorship on plans, opinions or participants. Participants decide what is acceptable and a person from the “silent majority” has the same influence as someone from the “elite”.

What if no plan wins mutual majority?

This is possible. It will indicate that the populations are still far from supporting an agreed plan. This would mean that a settlement requires either ripening or enough power to compensate for the lack of democratic support.

How the project works

1.      Mini public members register to www.thebestplans.organd use it to review short presentations of plans, read their briefs, evaluate them and suggest improvements in clarity, presentation and substance.

2.      Every mini public member is allocated several plans that he/she reads in full, comments on the actual text and then revises his overall evaluation of the plan.

3.      Plan submitters use the feedbacks received to improve their plans, while directly communicating with mini public members as needed for further clarifications. They may also “borrow” good segments from other plans, merge with other plans or withdraw.

4.      Improved plans, together with screened promising new candidate plans, are put to another round of evaluation and improvement by larger mini publics.

5.      The process continues as long as the plans continue to improve in terms of being mutually preferred over the current situation.

Are there plans for Peaceful Israel/Palestine that Israelis and Palestinians really prefer over remaining in the current situation?

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SPME

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is not-for-profit [501 (C) (3)], grass-roots community of scholars who have united to promote honest, fact-based, and civil discourse, especially in regard to Middle East issues. We believe that ethnic, national, and religious hatreds, including anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, have no place in our institutions, disciplines, and communities. We employ academic means to address these issues.

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