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 Tahirih-Starr* on January 5, 2009 at 10:57am
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Hi Heidi
Your blog says you women are asking HOW DO WE STOP THE KILLING WARS because we don’t want them.
I want to put a few things into perspective so that the answers will become realized.
Before this Cycle of War (patriarchal mind set) that we are presently in there was the Cycle of the Goddesses where there are no archeological traces of weapons of war. The people of today are living at a time when the patriarchal cycle is ending and we are going into the Cycle of Balance and Harmony where the Female Spirit input into civilization becomes necessary for creating the Balance. So there really is no wisdom in fighting a war that has its roots in the Abrahamic era and the injustices preceived from those days.
There used to be a slogan that I think the United Nations put out that said “War will end when Mother’s stop allowing their children to go to war”. And a Native American Prophecy says: "When the wisdom of the Grandmothers is heard, the world will heal."
"This is the Net of Light that will hold the earth at the times of change that are now upon you. The energies of yin and yang are shifting, and you are needed to do this work."
The Great Council of the Grandmothers say, "The time is now and women must lead. It can be no other way." They are calling us to come forward and step into our power. Perhaps they are also calling you. - from the Grandmother site.
Starr*: So I hail your effort to start dialogue with women around the world to try and heal the insanity of killing one another in a world so out of balance. Women must get in touch with their feminine Spirit.
The following is from a book I wrote which touches on this theme:
"Unfortunately today entire populations of women are being imprinted with the mind-set to have and raise children for the sole purpose of becoming suicide bombers or soldiers ready to die for their country so that they may find a place in paradise or do the heroic thing. The mothers have taken the belief that they will be reunited with their children in heaven who have gained great glory in dying for their country and the greater good. The following poem is my response to that notion.
O PEOPLE OF INSIGHT LIFT THEE THY GAZE!
Depravity in humanity!
Why behave lower than the beasts that perish one may ask?
Birthing children for the slaughter, be it male or daughter?
This is insanity, the height of depravity in humanity!
Through your greed and lust
you sacrifice your children for the dust.
What kind of man sets his seed
for such a murderous deed?
What kind of mother gives birth
for its slaughter on the earth?
This is insanity, the height of depravity
in humanity.
If ever a child to the earthly realm you bring
it is to love, dance, and sing
Not to kill one another,
sister or brother
This intent is not of Me,
it is condemnable and dastardly!
You fear extinction of your race on the dust
but this is only misguided trust
It is far better that your child should never live
if you have no home to give!
So when your children cry and die
it is not for Me, or even your country
but rather for tyrannical patriarchy.
This is insanity, human depravity
lower it is than the beasts that perish.
All the suffering of woman giving birth
is not for that child to be slaughtered on the earth
Be a lamp be a leaven,
so you might endure in heaven
Be not a martyr for nothing!
Lifting the gaze in the Second Cycle of Tahirih Qurratu’l-Ayn
Starr* Saffa 26 March 2004
From: “Tahirih TheAlogy:Female Cosmic Christ Spirit of the Age Concealed No Longer!”, pp 265-266
So dear Heidi – There is a lot to be done by calling the women to become united and stop the killing mentality by taking their rightful positions in civilization as leaders and raising their children not to die for their country but to live for creating Peaceful relations in the heart, the city, the town, the state, the country, the world, and the cosmos.
I wrote Tahirih TheAlogy in the hopes that it would unite the women of East and West being Tahirih called for world unity and equal rights for women in Iran in the 1840’s and Western women in this time are supporting and upholding Her courageous world vision. Tahirih, who had torn off her veil at a conference of men, was reported to have said “you can kill me but you can not stop the emancipation of women”.
I believe that women can get in touch with their loving power, and therefore can lead in stopping the killing by not allowing their children to go to war and by being active in the decision making that governs the world and world relations. Many men understand this wisdom and assist women in this day. Many thanks to men like David Califa and Bruce Schuman for developing interspirit and peace sites where we can communicate and voice these empowering remedies for advancing humanity and civilization.
With Living Love, Starr* Saffa
http://tahirihstarr.info
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Comment by myron joshua on January 5, 2009 at 10:14am
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Heidi, This is so beautiful and sad...
It seems to me that breaking through the wall of anger is possible through the honest empathy and questioning that you describe here. It is the only way to move ahead. (But can political leaders learn this??)
I find that many objective observers on the "outside" of the conflict are missing the emotional means to make that special connection that you did. They look at the facts..and then come to conclusions..against Israel or against the Palestinians.
We know that the truth is not in conclusions..but in inclusion and openess to the future.
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Comment by Banjo on January 5, 2009 at 10:00am
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Hi Heidi,
I am from Northern Ireland. Throughout our troubled times (1968 - 1995) I have lived mostly in this province with all of the anxiety and tension that came with the daily incidents. Too well I remember the random shootings, car bombs, the street violence, the brutality of the people towards each other ... that spiralling hopelessness when one incident incited a reprisal etc. ... and somehow we have (nearly) escaped from what was a nightmare scenario. These days our politicians (most of them) talk more about economic and social (real) issues than about (nationalistic) security and justice issues. However they have still a bit of growing up to do. All the problems have not disappeared but we have removed the brutality from the political and social arena.
Maybe the next generation will fully turn to the real issues of importance in our lives ... In that context I have four children aged 33, 30, 20 and 18. It is interesting to observe their attitudes to their peers and reflect on the different perspectives they hold compared to my opinions of 30 years ago. It seems they can easily correspond with the 'other side' these days. In my younger day it was very difficult and risky to have any association with the 'other side'.
So to get to the point ... In my opinion your efforts to talk on all sides are not wasted. Every step you take along the road has the potential to bring someone with you, and soon there will be a crowd. The momentum can gather and the maddness can end as it has here in Northern Ireland.
Finally, a poem that I wrote many years ago about one ignition point from our troubled times ... what we call 'the marching season'. One side of our deeply divided community remembered their version of our history by conducting marches through the streets. The other side disagreed with the sentiments of the marching pagent. Violence was too often the result. The poem reflects the dispair that I felt at that time, the dispair that is present in your situation at present. I did not think that things could ever change ... but they have. So there is hope. Anyways ...
Enter, the marching season, Kiss goodbye to rhyme and reason,
Dust the flag, prepare the plan, Get the route to every man.
A full turnout supports the cause. Forget the residents, rights, and laws.
Guarantee police overtime, but don't help the battle against crime.
What tradgedy, When will we march underneath triumphant arch
Without the trouble, scare, and cost, the threatened life, the friendship lost.
Never. We will never see the day. Conflict guides our lives that way.
Another death. Who? It doesn't matter. The TV spews the same death patter.
Pictures, papers don't relay, a family shattered in this way.
But when WE are touched by terrors whim, WE harbour grudges deep within.
We kiss goodbye to rhyme and reason. Enter, the marching season.
Keep communicating.
Peace to all,
Tim
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Comment by S.E.Ingraham on January 5, 2009 at 9:58am
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Such a moving story and probably just one amongst hundreds I'm guessing...when are people going to realize that to try and eliminate anyone at any level is ethnic cleansing, genocide...no matter the reason, excuse - whatever. Until all sides agree to lay down their arms and work towards a common goal - that of living together or at least co-existing - there can be no quality of life, or expectation of same. If the stakes weren't so high - the bullies on each side would actually remind me of schoolyard types - angry when they don't get their own way and always the strongest trying to beat up the weaker ones. Can those in power not see how ludicrous this ongoing atrocity is? And how costly to their future? Their children? Both sides must become rational - is there any hope of that - what can the average world citizen do to encourage some reason to prevail?
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Comment by Joseph Gottlieb on January 5, 2009 at 9:07am
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did you ever heard a Jewish Mother are proud if their child would go and blow himself and kill his enemy in the Name of his God ??? No you will never will hear such a thing we have to pray for our enemies as Yeshua said said yes it is hard but we all have to pray for them God Will Have Mercy on this kind of people who daclair to the media day & nighte if she would have hundred kids I would be proud to make them 'Shahid" for Allah!!!
Oh Lord of Abraham Jacob and Isaac Have Mrcy or them they do not know what they are doing !!!
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Comment by Dorit Raz on January 5, 2009 at 8:53am
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It is heartwarming to know that there are so many people out there who perpetrate peace, and feel so strongly about it as to create a vortex of energy that will, no doubt, eventually reach the souls of the enemies who fight each other. This is, however, a very long process, and we must have patience. I believe that the love we send out, when it comes unconditionally and from the heart, not the mind, will slowly make its way to the right place in order to create peace. What's going on here in Israel is simply a message that we, as human beings, still haven't understood the Golden Pathway. It will take time. With love, Dorit
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Comment by Natascha Trautmann on January 5, 2009 at 8:10am
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Heidi
Thank you for sharing and I too so look at the pain The lives. How ican anyone stop Hamas ? Rockets falling, killing, destroying, terrorizing and harassing people Israelis and Arab-Israelis, is frightening. I have never lernt to fight a bully. I have learnt to walk awy or get a whole team approach. The Hamas do not listen to anyone. I think as we as people join more and more then not just because of giverbnebt or kaw will we be able to feel peace. I get angry when my boundry is crossed. I forgive slowly. I do not trust someone who has hurt me, my family or my friend. People ar hurt when a bully is allowed to stay active. Their Victim also hurts others when they stay. The bully andn victim change roles from time to time in that the victim becomes the bully to be heard. In every country we walk away from violent people. We can not stop a violent person. We can understand them by listening but only when it is safe. So how can we bring a safe place to communicate?What paramenters will need to be in place adn how will that look like? An angry person is hard to be with. One never knows what they will do. As long as the anger is only vocal we have more of a chance but when weapons are involved how do we see that the weapons are down. I fear more the children who are brought up with this depth of violence it is not until they are away from teh violence that they are ale to even begin to heal. o even begin to understand what healthy boundries are adn it takes some a life time to overcome to be normal. One can not be violent to others and not be violent to their own. Cultural views are so differant. as are traditions. I do though feel that if we continue to bond with each other and support each other that love will always be more. I dream vision for the saftey to the children. I do nto know how to make peace but I can loe and care. Your experience touchs me. Yet I still believe that Peace can only come when we join together as human beings, bd not allowi land, religion, ideology, race, borders, politics and power to be more then us as human beings.
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Comment by Mo on January 5, 2009 at 7:38am
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Heidi is an incredibly insightful young woman. She sees clearly so many good people want peace and a few filled with hate and rage keep the fight alive. It's not really about nations and organization and political rhetoric it's about the innocents that are slaughtered and the mothers that weep. There must be a way for peace to triumph.
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Hugs, tears, seeing commonalities, it's all good, but I'm with nathalie alony from Italy...there is a solution and we know what it is. We must stop killing now. We must help our "enemies" to rebuild, to heal their communities, bodies and spirit. Having suffered the devastation of a holocost does not justify visiting one upon someone else.
As for the proliferation of terrorism, it is easy to make a terrorist: just strip people of human dignity, inflict them with a relentless loss of innocent lives, dispossess them of a homeland and then give them no hope of ever having a normal life in their life time...you might as well provide them with buses to the training camps too!
Isreal has a right to exist as does Palestine.
Perhaps if America demanded that Isreal use two thirds of the next 25 billion that we send them, to fund a Dept. of Peace and make it's sole purpose to repair Isreal and rebuild the Palestinian Homeland, educate and care for the war victims on both sides...perhaps then the hugs and tears will not wreek of futility. Unless we do this as a world community, we will continue to see this disease of violence and apathy consume our us.
500 years ago, what was to become America ripped Africans from their lands and created a slave class and then a skin color class which endures today in spite of the election of Mr.Obama. From sea to shining sea, America is land taken from a people slaughtered, romantized, ignored and utterly disposed. Today the history and even spirituality of the Indians of North America has been and continues to be rewritten by its conquerors. In short, we in America have our own dirty history and it's consequences to heal. I do not wish to see this happen to any other people. Hugs and tears are a begining, but peace and justice require action by the world community. I am working to establish and fund a U.S. Department of Peace. I hope that people in UN member nations will do the same. Our world is far too small for war to persist as a means of resolving disputes. A home, food, health care, education, love and respect is the birth right of every human being and provision of these necessities seems the best way to heal the ills of our human family. Much peace and love to everyone. Jan Marie
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Comment by Lynda Terry on January 5, 2009 at 6:48am
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Dear Heidi, thank you so much for sharing about this and for your act of compassion, of reaching out and hugging, heart to heart. In that moment the anger dissolved to reveal the sadness underneath, yes, but also, the common bond, the common thread of connection. The opportunity for us is to discover how to take these small moments of peace and common ground and exponentially multiply them. What would happen if 1,000 people met at the borders to cry and hug one another in their common longing for an end to violence, for a lasting peace? What would happen if 10,000 met? 100,000? 1,000,000?
I had a vision in late 2004, while out walking in my neighborhood one afternoon, in which I saw first a few, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, then, soon, millions, of people stepping out the doors of their homes and workplaces and into the streets, all walking in the same direction, and softly chanting the peace mantras: peace, om shanti, salaam, shalom... when I had this vision, I understood that I was to help manifest it into reality. And I began to cry because I thought, "How can I, one woman, do this? It's too big ... too big ..." How can I walk with peace and convince millions of people to join with me? And I heard these words, "We'll walk with you," in response - and felt the energy of a legion of unseen souls fall into step behind and beside me. And I continued to cry, yet knew, these tears were as important to peace as the walking and the reciting of words of peace. A couple of years later, I was told by a shaman that it is the tears of women that will heal the world, the earth ... and so, Heidi, I thank you for your tears ... and for giving me hope that the time of my vision's coming to fruition may be coming closer. With love and in peace, Lynda
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