Famous actor appeals for Israeli leaders to make sacrifices for peace.
By AMY SPIRO Lior Ashkenazi in a new ad campaign from Peace Now(photo credit: screenshot)
Actor Lior Ashkenazi has joined a new campaign of the Israeli NGO Peace Now.Ashkenazi, one of Israel’s most famous actors, stars in a video clip that was released Sunday by the left-wing activist organization.The seven-minute film was released to mark the 40th anniversary of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt, and is titled Why I Am Still Alive. Within three hours of the video going live on Facebook, it had been viewed close to 30,000 times.Ashkenazi drives around in a car, retelling the dark history of Israel’s relationship with Egypt in the years before a peace deal was signed between prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat on March 26, 1979. He recounts the wars, the fallen soldiers, and the settlements that were built and later dismantled. In a dig at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ashkenazi says that “Begin proved that truly great leaders know how to make brave decisions.”Toward the end of the video, Ashkenazi makes his case for pursuing peace with Israel’s neighbors.“At the end of the day, there are facts on the ground,” he says. “The peace with Egypt has held up for four straight decades. True, it’s a cold peace and far from perfect. But hey – what do you prefer – a cold peace, or war?”With his appearance in the Peace Now video, Ashkenazi has chosen to take an even stronger political stand.“For decades, we haven’t lost a single Israeli soldier in war with Egypt,” he says in the clip. “If we would have listened to the voices who said we cannot give up on settlements, that we can’t trust Arabs, that we must not compromise, how many more dead soldiers would we remember each Remembrance Day?”
