July3
Cycle of Violence vs. Root of Violence
The recent heart-breaking killing of 3 Jewish students, followed by the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager, all four of them innocent of any action to hurt anyone, shows that violence on one side calls for a response in answer to the pain, the fury, the memory of the injustice endured. And so the cycle continues. Children see what is happening around them, and they grow up with determination to get even, to hurt the enemy, to eradicate "them"
A cycle never ends. It is futile to say, like Netanyahu recently did, that "we will destroy Hamas". It was futile for the Germans to formulate and attempt to carry through the "final solution of the Jewish Problem" which only ended in the complete destruction of their own country. Jews survived after terrible hardship, and they decided to make sure that something like that should never happen again to Jews. What they should have said was: "This should never happen again to any people of any racial, religious, ethnic, or national origin!"
Instead of pointing to the cycle of violence which never ends, we, all of us, should search for the root of the violence and work to eradicate that.
The root of the violence in Israel/Palestine is the occupation.
A cycle never ends. It is futile to say, like Netanyahu recently did, that "we will destroy Hamas". It was futile for the Germans to formulate and attempt to carry through the "final solution of the Jewish Problem" which only ended in the complete destruction of their own country. Jews survived after terrible hardship, and they decided to make sure that something like that should never happen again to Jews. What they should have said was: "This should never happen again to any people of any racial, religious, ethnic, or national origin!"
Instead of pointing to the cycle of violence which never ends, we, all of us, should search for the root of the violence and work to eradicate that.
The root of the violence in Israel/Palestine is the occupation.
Listen to Max Blumenthal, Journalist and Author of "Goliath"
When we say "Peace", we should not just say the word. "Peace" doesn't mean "We want peace, and you should shut up and disappear". It doesn't mean "To have peace I give this and you give that". It should instead start with the recognition that we are not first and foremost members of a tribe and better than any other, but human, members of common humanity, needing respect and dignity and opportunity and life. The Palestinians were a peaceful people before their land was taken away, before they were put in ghettos and oppressed by the cruel and dehumanizing State of Israel.