Peace at the Crossroads

This story is by Dr. Bob Newport and was part of our 2024 Spring Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

Peace at the Crossroads

The banner, Peace for Palestine, flies over the crossroads, 21st and H streets, just outside George Washington University’s Student Center where Laurie Bernstein, a graduate law student, has just finished hanging it.

She is excited. Today is the day! One she has been preparing for as chair of the TA Union’s Political Action Committee. She had watched in horror, along with countless other American Jews, while a modern version of the holocaust unfolded just days earlier, on October 7th. An event forever inscribed in her soul, as it would be for millions of others.

Gut-wrenchingly painful, she could not think about it.

But the more recent Gaza bombings, the innocent civilians, what of them? She cannot get the images of dying and dead, children out of her head. She can’t quite decide who is worse, Hamas or the Israelis. She has to act. And today is her day, an autumnal beauty, inviting a walk to her rally in the Mall.

She spots the White House, gleaming brilliantly in the sunshine, once on Pennsylvania Ave.

What are you doing in there? Can’t you stop this travesty? This slaughter of innocents? Well, I can at least try, and she forges on to the Washington Monument and the National Mall, the site of her rally.

Poor Laurie Bernstein. What do we make of her? Raised a liberal, an educated Jew, she’s safe in a country where antisemitism is deeply repressed. She believes with all her might that peace and love is the only answer to humanity’s problems with violence and war.

Shaking her head, she continues on, now in a hurry to set up, as the first of the thousands of expected demonstrators begin to enter the mall. Her booth is one amongst the many. She will be vending ‘peace and love’ icons, along with the flags of both peoples; Palestinian red and green, and Israeli blue and white, which she imagines will bring both the Palestinians and the Jews to her booth, where she is convinced they will see the light.

She’s happily tying flags to a canopy over her space, when she hears a shout.

“Hey!” yells an intense Jewish boy, “why are you doing this…”

Confused, she hops off the ladder. “Are you talking to me?”

“I am! Why are you doing this, displaying the flags of the murderers and rapists?”

“What? You can see what I’m doing.”

“I sure can. You’re Jewish, and you’re a traitor, displaying the enemy’s flags.”

“Hey, I know you. Your David Cohen, from Law and Ethics class.”

“I’m sorry, your name is Laurie? Right? You’re our TA? Right?”

“Yeah, Right.”

David blanches, She’s one of my instructors! He only feels safe when he is anonymous.

“Why aren’t you standing with me, David? We have to be smart to stop all of this madness. Doesn’t our ethics prof teach ‘two wrongs don’t make a right?”

“I don’t stand with traitors!” he yells.

She starts to get angry, then catches herself. “David Cohen! I am not a traitor. Well, maybe a traitor to the right-wing madness that is infecting Israel, but I am a ‘Patriot for Peace’.”

“What’s a—a — Patriot for Peace? That’s crazy? Peace? When the murderers and rapists are still alive? They do it again as soon as they can!” He’s still shouting.

“The innocent civilians,” says Laurie quietly, trying to deescalate, “are not murderers and rapists, they are victims of both sides!”

“Victims! You sound like one of those stupid libs, raised in wealth and privilege, like in California or somewhere — I don’t know — You’ll be the death of Israel! And I don’t care if you are my TA, you’re wrong.”

At this point, a tall, scowling, man, well dressed with a black and white keffiyeh, wearing a scruffy beard, approaches them, saying to the young man; “I am going to interrupt you right here; You’re the one who’ll be the death of Israel, young man. You Jews are the evil ones. Murderer’s of children, and women!

David, a mere child, really, trembles in fear. He doesn’t know what to say, and feeling scared, and that something is amiss, retreats into the crowd.

The Palestinian man turns back to Laurie; “And why are you displaying the flags of the occupiers? Aren’t you promoting peace?”

Laurie faces the man. She replies; “Sir, I’m here to promote peace. I’d love to discuss this with you. My name is Laurie Bernstein, what is yours?”

The newcomer, taken aback by her disclosure, surprises himself, by saying his name; Victor Amr, “in English,” he adds.

Laurie brightens, “Well Victor, you know, we can’t have peace until we bring both sides to the table.”

“Table! What table? We have only a battleground called Gaza. Gaza, my home, my table and my family, have all been blown up by Israeli bombs, destroyed!”

“So why can’t you agree to — “replies Laurie, startled by Victor’s intensity, “Hasn’t there been enough killing? Can’t you feel the pain of both Arab and Jewish mothers for their lost children and husbands? Can’t you…,” she’s interrupted by the sight of Victor sticking his fingers in his ears.

“I won’t listen to this crap! You shut up! I’ve lost my family, my house, my occupation. I’m a doctor, they’re fucking bombing hospitals. Because I’m not a mother, my suffering can’t be recognized by you Jews.”

She, pulls away, again angry, “Goddammit! You know I’m not just talking about mothers and children. I know damn well men are getting killed too! My cousin’s boyfriend was at that concert. Your Hamas shot him and–and–I — I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to swear at you. That’s why we must stop this war, both si—”

Victor interrupts, harshly, with a “Pah! You’re spouting nonsense, there is no stopping the murderers, they must be destroyed. That’s the only solution! Sell me a poster-board and some of those markers, I have a message for the national news. ”

She’s frightened, “Yes. Yes. Take whatever you want. And, sir, please forgive my outburst. My parents taught me better, but I still believe—,”

“Believe—Oh yes, you can believe. You’ve lost nothing.”

“No, but I’ve seen my own mother — loving, forgiving — lose her faith. Her sister’s child, my cousin, was to be married to tha —. She’s raised her voice again, out of fear, and angry at herself, she thinks, My parents taught me; I have no reason to fear when I am speaking truth. She collects herself, takes a breath, speaks, “Dr. Amr, sir, again I have to apologize–,”

Doctor Amr snaps, “Apologize all you want, apologies won’t bring back my family!” He’s not looking at her, he’s busy writing something on the poster-board he picked from her wares.

She goes on, “Maybe not, but peace might bring back what I have lost. What we’ve all lost.”

“What have you lost, Jewess? He’s still writing in large red letters.

“Not my family, no. My sense of security; a psycho getting his hands on an Ak47 and murdering Jews in a synagogue.

Her erstwhile customer continues, unaffected by her distress. He writes in English, “Death to the Nazi Occupiers, From the River to the Sea”. He shows her his work.

She replies, “That’s no solution, it only leads to unending war. That’s why —”

Brave Laurie continues her spiel, until Dr. Victor Amr opens his coat, then, only then, she stops speaking, her heart jumping into her mouth, strangling her tongue.

Victor Amr, visibly agitated, in opening his coat, has exposed a vest bomb, loaded with dynamite with detonator dangling.

“You see this? It’s a bomb!” He’s screaming, “This is the only way the murderous Zionists are stopped!”

Laurie feels the life drain out of her. She can’t move, she can’t breathe, she can’t think. And Victor knows it. He laughs at her.

To make matters worse, her booth, and the unlikely sight of a Jewess and an Arab talking together, has attracted the press and Laurie sees a reporter with a TV camera focusing on them.

The Palestinian doctor, Victor Amr, takes his shot.

He, too, has seen the reporters.

He, too, wishes to make a statement. He turns to face the press, waving his sign aloft, his intent showing under his open coat with his left hand on the detonator’s trigger.

In that instant, Laurie, making her choice; jumps up on her counter, screams and leaps on the doctor, grabbing for the detonator, hoping to defuse his bomb.

They both fall to the ground, Laurie landing on top.

In that instant, their roads have crossed. They catch each other’s eyes. They see their terror, they see each others’ humanity, and in that; love….

  KaBoom!

Banner headlines read,

Jerusalem Times: TWO DEAD. HEROIC JEWISH COLLEGE STUDENT SAVES HUNDREDS IN ISRAELI PALESTINIAN RALLY TERROR ATTACK!

Al Jazzera: HAMAS MARTYR STRIKES GREAT SATAN’S HEART!

Round and round it goes;

Rest in peace, Laurie and Victor.

###