“Middle East of Eden”
Let me make my views on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict clear. This is a situation I have thought deeply about and over the past 20 years or so I have not changed my position. In short, I stand with the children whether they are Palestinian, Israeli or any other nationality that may be the victim of violence.
No child should ever suffer injury due to the inability of adults to solve their problems peacefully. Year after year we see conflicts here and abroad caused by nothing more than the supposed exercise by those in charge (adults) of their right to defend from, defeat or in extreme take actions that could possibly start a genocide that is guaranteed to include the cold, unfeeling and careless in the extreme execution of our most precious of all assets, our children.
My stand has always been and will remain that any exercise of rights including those based upon the right of all sovereigns to defend themselves from attack, the protection of the homeland that end in the inevitable death of innocent civilians including those adolescent who have no say in the matter and therefore rely on us, all of us as adults to act with love, kindness and importantly mercy, to solve their problems and avoid the consequences of valuing land, power, revenge, hatred and intolerance more than our collective future.
As I have said before, we are all our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and when in doubt as to the correct actions to take, we must stop with the insane notion that during a “war” there will be casualties, possibly in large amounts that include civilians and yes, their, our progeny.
The answer? Stop bowing to the idiotic. Might does not make right. Love does not come from the barrel of a gun and for all our sake as a species, stop referring to infants, kids and teenagers as “acceptable losses” or “collateral damage”. They are neither and their loss should be regarded as a tragedy caused by a combination of ignorance, arrogance and lack of humanity.
In addition to the pain and suffering inflicted upon parents, family members and friends for no legitimate reason, how can anyone who claims to be “civilized” ignore the physical, sociological and mental harm inflicted upon the survivors? It is my assertion that the goal of every parent is to die after they have done their best to assure the best life for their children once they are gone.
We should respect this obvious and natural right to pre-decease one’s progeny knowing on some level their child’s life will be better than theirs. But, if they are dead, either purposefully or the result of an “accident” the circle is broken, families devastated by their incalculable loss of a part of themselves, cut off like an unwanted rose in a garden dedicated to darkness, bad will and the collection of souls as fodder for the locusts and weeds.
What sane society cuts down its own future in the name of “defense” when there is no enemy to defeat? When there is no honor to be had yet glorifies horrific acts of indiscriminate violence, elevating massacres to battles? Atrocities done in the name of the Lord’s righteous justice to an actual legitimate function of Judeo-Christian or Islamic theology?
How can anyone see the pictures and not wonder, how is it in 2021 we are still engaged in physical combat over the rights to survive based on nothing more than tribal origins well over 2000 years old? Are we not all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve? Does it matter whether we are the children of Israel or Ishmael, the followers of Jesus, Moses or Muhammed?
Don’t we all bleed the same red blood? Don’t we all live, and die the best way we know how? How can we in our ultimate moments of utter blindness claim to know the true and absolute will of our Creator when our belief in the “way” includes the killing of God’s children? Any of them or all of them. It doesn’t matter for the taking of a life, any life is forbidden. My source? The Ten Commandments. Why is “Thou Shall Not Kill” difficult to practice and/or understand?
That harm done to one of us is harm done to all of us and except in the rarest of cases, murder that cannot be justified by wearing a uniform or carrying a flag. If you think I care “who is right” and “who is wrong” you are missing the point. One bullet fired means another bullet fired. One rocket leads to another rocket. One death leads to another and so on and so on.
Tit for tat policies lead to more tit for tat responses while the circle of anger, hate, resentment and intolerance grows in continuance of never ending cycles of violence that can only culminate in the senseless loss of humanity, dignity and life.
Or, we can come to our senses and stop the madness in its tracks. How, by refusing to participate in this endless loop of madness. If we, the adults in the room don’t move to protect the next generation and the one after that now, how will we ever know or experience the wonders inherent to all of us who live and breathe?
What problems would the young, broken bodies lying under a mountain of rubble, or lying in the streets have solved? What cures could have been invented? What knowledge or achievement could this child have produced? We will never know. That, is what I see on the news.
I see hospitals full of the innocent bombed. I see children, mostly young women murdered for wanting to learn how to read. I see younger and younger not men but boys asked to fight in a Jihad as if murder can somehow be justified when done in the name of God. I reject all of this. Categorically, no questions asked.
I have never understood why the world can be so blind as to believe they can separate terrorists, villains and murderers into “freedom fighters”, “revolutionaries” or the “enemy of the people”. Life is either sacred or it is not. If death of the blameless be the price of freedom then I say that price is too high.
One state, two state, red state, blue state. Rich state, poor state, what difference does it make? When will we, they, us, them, realize there is no ideology, theology, institution, constitution worth following that calls for or requires the sacrifice of a single life as part of the path, or way back to sit at God’s side for eternity?
When? I don’t know but I do know that’s when the madness will stop in Israel and Palestine and throughout the Middle East. It is when the killing of decent persons of all sizes, gender and age for no other reason that the color of their skin will stop. It is when we stop poisoning our air and water for no reason other than corporate profit will end.
It will end when we all agree that we are all the children of one God, and part of a single living and breathing entity, one with the universe and beyond. So, when I am asked about the Israel/Palestinian crisis, my answer as it is to all such conflicts, who will be the adult in the region and practice acts of kindness, even in the face of abject torment due to the acts of others, as a sign of their divinity?
For in the final analysis, you don’t make peace with your friends, but with your enemies. You in?
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