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No one reading this is unfamiliar with the tension between Israel and it’s neighbors.  A Jewish community in the middle of an Islamic region.

Currently we are seeing news about the strike Israel is making against it’s neighbors in Gaza.  Clearly this strike has been provoked by the constant bombardment of Israel missiles and suicide bombers.  It would be difficult to really look at the facts and blame the Jewish people turning to war.

The evil situation in the middle east is one that is extremely complicated, and will most likely require a complicated resolution.  Is war and violence the answer?  Or even part of the answer?  I believe alternatives are needed to really bring this region closer to peace.  Alternatives that are far more difficult than war.

The problem with violence

Military retaliation may be the quickest partial resolution to violence inflicted on the Jewish people.  However, it will only fuel the hatred it’s neighbors have for them.  This goes way beyond Hamas or the PLO.  These organizations are inherently violent and are unfortunately part of what may be a violent religion.  It’s the civilians that are gaining hatred for Israel.  Perhaps because their apartment complex was bombed, or witnessing their loved ones injured and killed (who may or may not be part of a terrorist organization).

I would imagine for every attack on Gaza, at least one new enemy will be created.  For example, with each attack in Gaza; Hamas and others like it are getting more support for their cause.  The five year old witnessing this war will be all to eager to prepare him or herself to be the next suicide bomber.  There is no shortage of these people in any of Israels neighboring nations.

The underlining question here is whether or not a problem of violence and terror can be fought with violence and war.  Can you stop someone from bombing you… by bombing them?  Unless everyone in Gaza is killed, and every enemy of Israel removed, there will be terror inflicted on the nation of Israel.  Someone will be in line to bring harm to the Jewish people.

Diplomacy may be the only really answer.  Peaceful action instead of war may be what is needed to bring peace.  This idea may seem so unreasonable and optimistic that it isn’t even worth consideration.  But if the goal is peace at some point in the future, then peaceful action must be used in replace of violence.

I certainly don’t have the answer as to what peaceful action needs to be done.  It will no doubt involve some major creativity.  It is easy for me to sit here watching the news and form my judgment of the situation.  And as I mentioned I can not blame Israel for taking violent action, but this doesn’t make it right or the most productive in the long run.

Peaceful force by Israel will no doubt require great sacrifice on their part.  Just as Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to bring about a peaceful revolution.  I do not think the world will stand by watching the genocide of a peaceful Jewish nation.

The argument can be made that as long as the Koran is teaching it followers the art of holy war there will be violence and pain.  But that is beyond what I am prepared to discuss in this post.  It will no doubt require the power of God, and the triumph of the human spirit to bring about the revolution needed to solve a crisis like this.

I blame Israel no more than I blame it’s neighbors. I would consider myself on the side of God’s chosen people.  And it is on them that I call to take the higher, more difficult road.  Following the ways of our Lord and allowing his power to prevail.  Turning the impossible into reality.

In my deepest being I believe Peace can NOT be attained through Violence.

Taken from ‘Nonviolence’ by Mark Kurlansky and the Dalai Lama. Written as 25 lessons in the history of nonviolence Each one of these is at least one blog in and of itself. Many of these require much more information to be fully understood. But nonetheless each one is a great conversation starter, and will get you thinking. Hopefully I’ll expound on these ‘lessons’ in coming blogs.

• There is no proactive word for nonviolence.
• Nations that build military forces as deterrents will eventually use them.
• Practitioners of nonviolence are seen as enemies of the state.
• Once a state takes over a religion, the religion loses its nonviolent teachings.
• A rebel can be defanged and co-opted by making him a saint after he is dead.
• Somewhere behind every war there are always a few founding lies.
• A propaganda machine promoting hatred always has a war waiting in the wings.
• People who go to war start to resemble their enemy.
• A conflict between a violent and a nonviolent force is a moral argument. If the violent side can provoke the nonviolent side to violence, the violent side has won.
• The problem lies not in the nature of man but in the nature of power.
• The longer a war lasts, the less popular it becomes.
• The state imagines it is impotent without a military because it cannot conceive of power without force.
• It is often not the largest but the best organized and most articulate group that prevails.
• All debate momentarily ends with an “enforced silence” once the first shots are fired.
• A shooting war is not necessary to overthrow an established power but is used to consolidate the revolution itself.
• Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.
• Warfare produces peace activists. A group of veterans is a likely place to find peace activists.
• People motivated by fear do not act well.
• While it is perfectly feasible to convince a people faced with brutal repression to rise up in a suicidal attack on their oppressor, it is almost impossible to convince them to meet deadly violence with nonviolent resistance.
• Wars do not have to be sold to the general public if they can be carried out by an all-volunteer professional military.
• Once you start the business of killing, you just get “deeper and deeper,” without limits.
• Violence is a virus that infects and takes over.
• The miracle is that despite all of society’s promotion of warfare, most soldiers find warfare to be a wrenching departure from their own moral values.
• The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done.

~Mark Kurlansky