At a time when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feels perhaps farther than ever from a solution, Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are offering something else: a story of hope.

Inon, a Jewish Israeli, and Abu Sarah, a Palestinian Muslim, are on a media blitz for their new book, “The Future is Peace.” Inon’s kibbutznik parents were killed on Oct. 7; Abu Sarah’s brother died in 1990 after being tortured in an Israeli prison. 

The two have become partners in an effort to “step down from the battlefield,” Inon told me Thursday, when I reached him and Abu Sarah as they took the train from New York to Washington for an appearance at the Sixth & I historic synagogue and cultural center. In their book, their travels and their dialogue initiative, InterAct International, they are trying to show that two people usually depicted as mortal enemies can imagine a different, better future. 

On Monday, they took that message to “The Daily Show,” sitting across the desk from a clearly inspired Jon Stewart. The mood was light, even buoyant. Abu Sarah joked that he and Inon found each other on JDate, and that after the two had an audience with Pope Francis, he had to stop Inon from converting to Catholicism. 

“All I want to do is hug you and talk about this beautiful book and how wonderful it is,” Stewart gushed.

Compare that to one of the last times Stewart brought on a guest to discuss Israel. When Stewart and non-Zionist journalist Peter Beinart spoke about the Gaza war last July, the segment was unrelentingly grim. The two agreed that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack was “so self-evidently inhumane and horrific,” as Stewart put it. Even some liberal Jewish critics of Israel complained the segment was one-sided.

By Thursday of this week, the YouTube video of Inon and Abu Sarah’s interview had been viewed more than 300,000 times, and the comments were overwhelmingly positive.

“This is who should be running the peace talks,” read one. “Comedy doesn’t bring me to tears often, but here we are,” read another. Inon “really is the best possible ambassador for our country,” wrote an Israeli.

“I usually don’t read the........

© The Jewish Week