From Tel Aviv
Last year on my birthday, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan. This year on my birthday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) began bombing targets in Gaza to stop the rain of rockets falling on Southern Israel since the end of the ceasefire with Hamas on December 19. I wonder what next year's birthday will bring.
Technically, it is arguable that the incursion into Gaza can be called a war, as it is not a conflict between two countries but rather one country and a political-military entity. In Israel, however, the media has called it as such, as have the politicians. And so I state, that, my observations in Israel during a time of war are most disheartening.
What fails to make sense to me is: How is it that war is still considered an effective method of change? The United States got away with dropping nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945, bringing the war on that front to a stark and horrifying conclusion, but do we, as a human race ever EVER want for that to happen again? Are we not more evolved, more refined, more capable in the 21st century of managing conflict in a place, by the way, where people have more in common that what they have been led to believe?
It is understandable that the world is up at arms, marching through streets shouting slogans to end the war, to call for a ceasefire. It is unfathomable how in a week and a few days, hundreds have lost their lives, thousands have been wounded and those who survive this disaster will be left with nearly nothing to eke out an existence in the aftermath of Israel's attempt to remove Hamas from rule in the Gaza Strip.
However, there is more in the streets than a call for a ceasefire and a call for peace. There is a continued call for the end of Israel, and that is where the conflict intensifies and the Israel-supporting Jews and Israelis supporting the government's decision to invade Gaza, become more hardened, more embittered and more alienated from the rest of the human population.
The discussion, the demonstration, the debate, the tears, the anger cannot be about bringing an end to the State of Israel; it has to be a call for Israel to abide by international law and to make good on its promises. If anyone, the residents of the West Bank have greater reason to be fed up with Israel's policies than with those in Gaza, because Abbas and Fayad are toeing the line and, still, for the Palestinians the situation under occupation has not improved.
The violence is unforgivable on both sides. How it is that Hamas believes it will prevail with this method of rockets falling, killing, destroying, terrorizing and harassing Israelis of all walks of life, including Arab-Israelis, is incomprehensible. How an organization claiming to be for a living, developing nation could be so willing to jeopardize the lives of so many, filling them with hatred along way is also beyond my capabilities of understanding. But they have a right to resist, but they have a right to a country, but they have a right to Jerusalem, to compensation for refugees...
This is not what Hamas wants. Hamas wants an eternal battle, they will always need an enemy, if it is not the Jews or Israel, it is Fatah. If it is not Fatah, it is the United States, it is Egypt, one day it could be their current sponsor, Iran. They play a despicable game with people's lives, with children's lives. Children who have no choice but to emulate what they see and experience in their environment.
At the Tel Aviv University campus last week, Palestinian and Arab-Israeli students held a protest against the violence. Around a hundred students came out in their keffiyehs and their signs of solidarity with Gaza. They were angry and I found out, extremely sad.
My friend Davide and I spoke to two female demonstrators to ask what they wanted to get out of this demonstration. They wanted a stop to the violence. Telling us about a mother and her four children who were killed that morning in IAF bombings. One of the young women said, "They want all of the land," then thought again, "All of OUR land."
I responded to her, "It's all of our land, there's enough for all of us, and we have to all live here, so what do we do?"
I continued to ask her how do we make it stop? What's our plan? Other Jewish students were coming up to them and asking, "what about the rockets?"
They couldn't answer how to make the rockets stop, and neither were they justifying them.
But I wasn't interested in that argument. I was more concerned with the fact that none of us had a plan or a vision of what instead.
I continued to talk to the other young woman about the situation. She continued to tell me about the brutality, the starving, the suffering. And I told her, "I know, I want it to stop too, but how?"
We looked at each other and I asked her if I could give her a hug. I did, and when I pulled away I could feel tears forming in my eyes. When I looked up at her, she had started crying. There was no more anger in her body language, there was total sadness, defeat and helplessness.
She said, "I am so sad I feel like crying."
"Me too," I said.
Technically, it is arguable that the incursion into Gaza can be called a war, as it is not a conflict between two countries but rather one country and a political-military entity. In Israel, however, the media has called it as such, as have the politicians. And so I state, that, my observations in Israel during a time of war are most disheartening.
What fails to make sense to me is: How is it that war is still considered an effective method of change? The United States got away with dropping nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945, bringing the war on that front to a stark and horrifying conclusion, but do we, as a human race ever EVER want for that to happen again? Are we not more evolved, more refined, more capable in the 21st century of managing conflict in a place, by the way, where people have more in common that what they have been led to believe?
It is understandable that the world is up at arms, marching through streets shouting slogans to end the war, to call for a ceasefire. It is unfathomable how in a week and a few days, hundreds have lost their lives, thousands have been wounded and those who survive this disaster will be left with nearly nothing to eke out an existence in the aftermath of Israel's attempt to remove Hamas from rule in the Gaza Strip.
However, there is more in the streets than a call for a ceasefire and a call for peace. There is a continued call for the end of Israel, and that is where the conflict intensifies and the Israel-supporting Jews and Israelis supporting the government's decision to invade Gaza, become more hardened, more embittered and more alienated from the rest of the human population.
The discussion, the demonstration, the debate, the tears, the anger cannot be about bringing an end to the State of Israel; it has to be a call for Israel to abide by international law and to make good on its promises. If anyone, the residents of the West Bank have greater reason to be fed up with Israel's policies than with those in Gaza, because Abbas and Fayad are toeing the line and, still, for the Palestinians the situation under occupation has not improved.
The violence is unforgivable on both sides. How it is that Hamas believes it will prevail with this method of rockets falling, killing, destroying, terrorizing and harassing Israelis of all walks of life, including Arab-Israelis, is incomprehensible. How an organization claiming to be for a living, developing nation could be so willing to jeopardize the lives of so many, filling them with hatred along way is also beyond my capabilities of understanding. But they have a right to resist, but they have a right to a country, but they have a right to Jerusalem, to compensation for refugees...
This is not what Hamas wants. Hamas wants an eternal battle, they will always need an enemy, if it is not the Jews or Israel, it is Fatah. If it is not Fatah, it is the United States, it is Egypt, one day it could be their current sponsor, Iran. They play a despicable game with people's lives, with children's lives. Children who have no choice but to emulate what they see and experience in their environment.
At the Tel Aviv University campus last week, Palestinian and Arab-Israeli students held a protest against the violence. Around a hundred students came out in their keffiyehs and their signs of solidarity with Gaza. They were angry and I found out, extremely sad.
My friend Davide and I spoke to two female demonstrators to ask what they wanted to get out of this demonstration. They wanted a stop to the violence. Telling us about a mother and her four children who were killed that morning in IAF bombings. One of the young women said, "They want all of the land," then thought again, "All of OUR land."
I responded to her, "It's all of our land, there's enough for all of us, and we have to all live here, so what do we do?"
I continued to ask her how do we make it stop? What's our plan? Other Jewish students were coming up to them and asking, "what about the rockets?"
They couldn't answer how to make the rockets stop, and neither were they justifying them.
But I wasn't interested in that argument. I was more concerned with the fact that none of us had a plan or a vision of what instead.
I continued to talk to the other young woman about the situation. She continued to tell me about the brutality, the starving, the suffering. And I told her, "I know, I want it to stop too, but how?"
We looked at each other and I asked her if I could give her a hug. I did, and when I pulled away I could feel tears forming in my eyes. When I looked up at her, she had started crying. There was no more anger in her body language, there was total sadness, defeat and helplessness.
She said, "I am so sad I feel like crying."
"Me too," I said.
Comment
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Comment by Modgala Duguid on January 5, 2009 at 8:41pm
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Thank you so much for sharing. Much love
Modgala
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Comment by Lisa Wines on January 5, 2009 at 8:08pm
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There are so any things I want to say here. But I think that the lesson we must learn is that when we stand face to face with our "enemies," we find out they are just like us. We have differences in tastes and viewpoints, but we are all human. Two important goals of war are 1) for the government and media to participate in fanning fear and hatred towards the "enemy" and dehumanizing them and 2) train soldiers to dehumanize to such a point that they will not hesitate to kill a fellow human being. These two things sustain war. Your hugs and tears, one on one, group by group, neighborhood by neighborhood, state by state, nation by nation, will bring peace.
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Comment by Arnfinn Christensen on January 5, 2009 at 5:54pm
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There is something about this conflict I cannot understand. Maybe I am ignorant. I visited Beirut and palestine refugee camps (Shattila and Sabra) some years ago. There I met Palestinians who still kept small jars with soil from what once was their property in what is now Israel, and even the key to the entrance door of a house probably long since demolished. Why this intense bonding to a particular piece of land? The same goes for Israel. What is so magic with the small area you returned to after the atrocities of WW2? I think that if my homecountry Norway was occupied and I was expelled from my home, I would have become angry. But eventually, I would have tried to find another country and made a new life there instead of using all my energy to reclaim a piece of soil on a tiny green globe with so many other beautiful spots in an otherwise hostile universe. I mean, New Zealand also has mountains and fiords, if that is what I was crazy after. Again, maybe I am ignorant, but if I lived in Israel, I would have considered moving the entire piece of land to somewhere more friendly, like USA. The jews are such a resourceful and talented culture, that you would be able to prosper anywhere. Is this sheer heresy?
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Comment by Jihad n.eter on January 5, 2009 at 5:03pm
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We should all do our utmost best for the War in Gaza to come to an END forever, We should put all our effort to ensure that the ongoing war never take place not there or any were in world , we can only do this by creating awareness to all nations world wide in every way possible through Ipeace , FaceBook , MSN you name it , its time for us to take action in every possible way . The Problem in middle East is so easy to solve , what it needs is a content mind and i.e. accept what you have and give up what is not yours , we can all leave in peace forever. For God Sake Families , lives build in years has been wasted in mater of seconds , what ever our religion is at the end we are all slaves of one God Almighty , do we think what is happening is accepted by God , I assure you the answer is a BIG NO. their is no religion on earth thats says Kill people for what is theirs and take it from them . if they cant give it to them at least shear properly and leave in peace. The war most end Now before its too late .
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Comment by mahmoud alkeshki on January 5, 2009 at 4:50pm
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Isreal itself who put Hamas in Gaza to break down the unity of plastenians .It helped them too much till they become so .Isreal has implemented the hatred between plastenians then Hamas became against Israel itself .If Isreal has helped the plastanians to work ,to cultivate the ground ,to live in different humanitarian conditions everything will be changed .Israel has put plastanian under siege of poverty and suffering that all plastinians want now to be martyr instead of living under such circumstances .Who raise hatred will gain hatred
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Comment by Alan Starkey on January 5, 2009 at 4:08pm
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Protests around the world are aimed at stopping what Isreal does to its neghbours. Western media is very shy of showing the whole truth.
The protests are not about wiping Isreal off the map, as the poster knows full well. Isreal will never genuinly look for peace.
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Comment by Ashraf khan s m on January 5, 2009 at 3:37pm
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This is all Plitics of pwer.In whos interest is the continues trouble, terror, bloodshed and state of uncertainity,? It a war agaist whom? who is suffering: why cann't we stop it? It is the death and destruction of humanity.Blood does not It is Israeli or palistinion or soldier ,civilian,It murder of peace.It is very simple All arab neighbors of Palistine and Israel can get together :tell Hammas not to take Arms,stop atttacking Israel and leave it to them to settle the matters with Israel. tell Israel to stop persicution of Arabs A joint force of friends of Israel and arabs can immediate control.negociate peace settle issues .live and let live ...in peace But...!!!!!
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Comment by David Gould on January 5, 2009 at 3:26pm
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Maybe it will take more than a hug ...but hell a hug is one good place to start out from...HUG stands for Hearts Uniting Giving...and you know people have to lay down their weapons to hug...now that is a start...a HUG is a Huge Unified Gift. It is a giving of yourself to another, it is the accepting of another as an equal, it is a way of acknowledging previous faults and beginning to made amends, it is the connection we need between people. A hug stands for so many positives that a book could be written about it.
"It started with a hug..."
Bless you Heidi for your wonderful heart...hope you will be giving any more hugs and that way something good will happen next birthday.
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Comment by rachel delatour on January 5, 2009 at 1:13pm
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with regards to the legal implications, I do not beleive there is anything such as a JUST war,
(new campaign, JUST BE: CAUSE : ie cause for concern, there is the international criminal court and the UN has their most basic human rights, this firm in england,, maybe open to buildong something, www.ffwlaw.com ( goto the most senior partner, )
there has to be a world council, with new set of rules and stringent made up, Japan has a great foreign policy, they will not go to war and only in response in sending foreign aid, something like that, I am not an expert and forgive me if I am wrong, but there are many brilliant academics in this world who can put something together and advocate to get laws passed, if they are bringing nazi war criminals to justice now, ( I think its the hague in the netherlands) then surely the EU and greater international community must be able to do something, probably one of the most influental groups for doing this is with the group www.eiu.com they reach into every country and have specialists knowledgable in every country, I think its the PRIVY council that pass in new laws,
all the world leaders signed some declaration about 8 years ago for peace, they are accountable to that as well, can we refuse to pay taxes, ie selective taxes, ( education, healthcare, housing, etc, NOT military, if corporates are accountable to shareholders, governments are accountable to its citizens, let open those doors and show transperency, if the governments are to be trusted, they must show us the BOOKS, and surely as a collective force of TAX payers, can we reform the tax system, blacklist those governments that are NOT top be trusted, One stealth bomber 1.2 Billion if each country made one sleath bpmber less and oput the momeny towards rebuildoing and bpeace and eliminating the 3rd world debt, maybe citizens might begin to beleive there is some hope and some givernments that are doing the right thing, too many governments have failed their poeple the response is defferent faction groups estabilsih and brinbg laws upon themselves, excuse the typos, have spinal dysfunction and very hard and painful to type,
must go, god bless, my skype ID is rachdlt3 , if anyone wants to chat,
love always Rach
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have you read the book PEACE IS THE WAY, Deepak Chopra, I strongly recommend it, because he looks at historically the reasons why and the desperation and the kaos and the possible solutions, it is at the very heart, love and awareness the spiritual shift that must affect change, the consequenses we see are a reflection of the beleif systems, in challenging the beleif systems, they are challenging deep seated held beleifs for generations and historically significant. Harvard Negotiation project have worked with Middle east and in their book Beyond Reason ( emotional .. decisions) it gives an example where the leaders talk about their grandchildren, and that was the nly way forward because that was their COMMON ground, there has to be a common vision, MAn belongs to the earth and the earth does not belong to man, also I read in the book
MacWorld versus Jihad by a brilliant american academic, they are trying to elimninate the present to recapture the past, So I beleive underneath it all there is a search for identity, a sense of belonging, ( maslows heirarchy of needs) and messed up beleif systems that have to be challengged and the transition forward has to be with a trusted group of NEUTRAL people whose objective and common goal is Peace, how can there be peace in the world if there is not peace in ones heart,
these people here ymg@mce.be cold facilitate delegation also the ecomomist group, thereare so many other factors to consider like the military spend and those economies that are reliant, military might is a false sense of security I beleive, I have faith and we are all spiritual warrriors that all want the same thing, if these leader were out on the frontline and experienced the kaos, they have to see first hand the very real trauma people are sufferring, not shut away in their ivory towers making policies and decisions that affect the citizen every day, Ownership is another factor, blame is another , no one taking responsibility for the actions, we are all accountable to God, I beleive and we need a new philosophy, can we all beleive in a greater GOD, ONE CREATER over and above all esle, Can we decide to be CARETAKERS of the earth, can the earth BE LEASED, can we get back to the spiritual laws of richness, that is INSIDE, Peace INside must be found in the heart and Home, only then can it be expressed in the external environment, one person, one village, one city, one town at a time, there are regions that have achieved peace and prosperity after the ruins of war, they have rebuilt and when there is peace domestically, there is SOOO much potential in tourism, people have a basic human right to feel safe from harm, let must begin to share this vision, the ad agency saatchis have division called Brand spirit cause related marketing in London, lets get them to branch out in all areas, I want to get ad agencies to donate ad space for the messages of peace, children are great spokespeople, it is their future after all, the world must be a better safer placce for them,
may god bless you all, I feel inspired and love
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