Waging Peace, The US congress, and Gaza

Hi there,

Well every morning the news is worse, more people slaughtered in Gaza. War is horrible and the conflict there is complicated and has been a long standing one. There is plenty of blame to go around.

What finally spurred me to write this morning was what I heard come out of the US Senate. They passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority voicing support for Israel's right to defend themselves. In the same resolution they said they fully support the "peace" process.
This illustrates so well, as did the overwhelming support for the war in Afghanistan, that our elected government is so militaristic they are blind to reality. So far, it seems, Obama is in this camp too, I hope he surprises me. Dennis Kucinich, my favorite of the dems in the primary, was one of the few senators to speak out against the resolution.

We need to WAGE PEACE, not war, if peace is what we want.

If the goal is peace then the question is what is the best action to take to work towards peace. I suggest the action taken by Hamas, Israel, and condoned by the US Senate is exactly the wrong action and will only deepen the conflict.

Interestingly enough this conflict in Gaza has flared up between the birthdays of Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. Today I am discussing with my discussion group here at school the subjects of peace, justice, and equality in preparation for next week's march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Now sure, Israel has the right to "defend" themselves. I personally take issue with the degree of "defense" they are engaging in. If the boy next door throw rocks at your house you don't go and burn theirs down while their baby sister is trapped inside and then prevent the fire department from rescuing the screaming child.
Last I heard ten Israelis had been killed (four by Israeli friendly fire) and nearly 800 Palestinians had been killed 20% of which were children.

The stories are horrific of course, war is horrific. We are talking about children laying with their dead mothers for days while the Israeli troops prevent the Red Cross from entering the building to rescue the survivors in the bombed building (this according to the Red Cross). Regardless of what Hamas has done to provoke this how will those children grow up to feel about Israel?
But I do not want to argue whether or not Israel has the right to defend themselves in this way. My feelings should be obvious. But I would argue with the idea that this is the smart thing to do if Israel wants the bombs from the Palestinians (and support from countries like Iran) to stop.
It is insane logic and has been proved wrong by all the previous military action taken by Israel.


The fact is by bombing and killing people you just increase the hatred and fear felt by the people in that country. This fear usually radicalizes at least a large percentage of the population who in turn end up supporting more radical, militaristic governments. The Palestinians need to learn this. With every bomb they send they put fear in the hearts of Israelis and give increased support for their right wing leaders.

When Israel isolates places like Gaza, when they turn their country into a virtual prison, keeping the people in poverty, (what the Vatican likened to a concentration camp) they cause the Palestinians to become increasingly desperate as well. Episodes like this where Israel goes in and slaughters and maims thousands of people, destroys thousands of homes, schools, and mosques, this really must put fear in the hearts and minds of the Palestinians. I doubt any of us reading this blog can even begin to imagine what it would be like. This will not be easily forgotten by the people who survive and will certainly turn some to take actions we would call "terrorism". War is always "terrorism". What do you think Bush's "Shock and Awe" in Baghdad was all about? It was meant to "terrorize" the Iraqi's into submission.

War is not the answer!

And after this horrific overwhelming use of military forces it DISGUSTS me that the US Senate would take the time to pass a resolution in support of Israel. Why not spend the time to call on BOTH sides to stop the fighting! And our government, by doing this, is negligent in their duty to keep the American people safe. Our elected officials claim they want to protect us from terrorism. How do you think the Arab world feels about the US when they watch what is happening in Gaza and then they see our government falling all over themselves to voice their support for the slaughter. Regardless of what you believe, this is not a wise strategy in the push to end the hatred that drives some to use terrorism against us.

The cycle of violence will only stop when one side decides to stop it. The only way to stop it is to STOP being violent. If Hamas stops then Israel will have no way to legitimate it's military actions and if Israel stops then same can be said about Hamas.

Now there is one other factor and that is the fact Israel has so much control over Palestine that they can terrorize the Palestinians without using military force, as we have seen in their isolation of Gaza during the recent cease-fire. For this reason Israel has more responsibility in this picture. Israel, if it wants peace, must show it by WAGING PEACE on Palestine. Open the boarders, let Palestinian farmers go to their farms, through economic aide uplift the Palestinians so they are not in desperate poverty. Not Israel's responsibility you say?, well if they want peace it might be worth the investment. Or perhaps they should meet with Egypt, Iran, or other Arab nations and allow them to provide humanitarian and economic aide to Palestine.

Point is someone has to turn the other cheek, be the BIGGER person, and to truly wage peace.

Same is true of the American Government! We should cut our military budget by say 5% a year. This money could be invested in an effort to wage peace in countries we believe are a threat. Building schools instead of bombing them, helping farmers, providing water, building hospitals. Lifting people out of poverty would give them less reason to hate us, take away the leverage their extremist governments have, and reduce the ability of radical groups like Al Qaida to recruit new members.

It is simple, if Al Qaida knocks on two doors. Behind one they talk with a man who's family was killed by a US bomb while attending a wedding in Afghanistan and behind the other they find a man who was given a tractor and taught how to farm his land sustainably by the US government which one do you think will join Al Qaida?

As we said in the 80's. No Duh!

In the honor of Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. we need to let our voices for peace be heard. Voting is not enough. Write letters or get out in the streets and shut down cities, whatever your style, don't be silent, if you care about peace, justice, and equality.

work for peace and pray for an end to the killing.