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ceasefire
June 2009 
Gaza is burning
Posted on Jan 7th, 2009
by 
jhalifax
jhalifax
Reflections on Gaza and the Ritual of Mutual Destruction
Hozan Alan Senauke — 1.2.09
Gaza is burning. The violence must end before anything else can happen. We can all think nice thoughts about right and wrong, who acted first, who acted worst. We can argue about politics — national, international, geopolitical, corporate. Whatever intellectual thread my mind pulls at quickly comes to a hopeless tangle. The reality of fear, death, and destruction is beyond all this. A father weeps for his five daughters who died in their sleep, “collateral damage” in the heart of Gaza City. A daughter cries out for her mother, lost in a Hamas rocket attack on the town of Ashdod. Multiply that scene by a thousand. See yourself right in the midst of it. In this latest round, to date, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli attacks. The Israeli government counts 19 fatalities from Hamas rockets since 2002.
There is, of course, something pointless to the algebra of comparative suffering. But Israel’s attack on Gaza is like shooting fish in a barrel. The body count and vast disproportion of weapons, technology, and killing make me ashamed to acknowledge that my government supplies so much of Israel’s weaponry, and ashamed to be a Jew, even as I fear for the future of the people I was born to. Present day Israel seems to have forgotten the words God spoke through the old prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 12:19,20):
"…and say unto the people of the land, thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; they shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land shall be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid to waste, and the land shall be desolate, and ye shall know that I am the Lord."
I confess, this is not a God I am comfortable with. It seems to be the voice of primitive religion and warring tribes, hardly the standard I’d hope we would be raising today. But in the language of his time and place, Ezekiel speaks the compelling truth of cause and effect.
Lets return to Gaza and Israel today. If you have heard bombs falling and seen the flash and glare of destruction, then you understand the essence of fear. Never knowing where violent death may fall upon you. Anyone who has been to war knows exactly what this is like. If you have not felt it directly, please use your imagination.
Two reflections, 2500 years apart, come to mind.
As recorded in the Dhammapada, Shakyamuni Buddha said:
All tremble at violence,
All fear death;
Comparing oneself with others
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 129
All tremble at violence,
Life is dear to all.
Comparing others with oneself
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 130
Victory breeds hatred,
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
Giving up victory and defeat.
— Dhp. 201
Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to his congregation in Montgomery, Alabama said:
"I think the first reason that we should love our enemies…is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil… Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love."
— "Loving Your Enemies" 17 November 1957
The rest is commentary. In Israel & Palestine, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Burma, and a dozen other killing fields, no resolution will come from spiraling violence. There will simply be more wounded and traumatized people who will wittingly or unwittingly pass their wounds to generation after generation. As Dr. King said, “Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.”
I don’t know precisely how to do this. But there must be a clear intention, a policy of non-retaliation, understanding that retaliation, however emotionally compelling, leads just to more retaliation. Generosity is always an option — offering food, medicine, shelter, and education — rather than death. Generosity is the basis of connection. This offering doesn’t come from the superiority of one or another side, but on the fact that we need each other if we are to survive. We owe each other life, simply on the ground of our shared humanity.
I’ve written before that a policy of generosity — which many will see as hopelessly naïve — can hardly be less effective (or more expensive) than the dance of death Israel and Palestine are presently locked into. I have to say that between Israel and Palestine, the vast preponderance of resources — wealth, technology, arms, food, and water — are controlled by the state of Israel. Palestinian militants seem to have one key resource, the will to say to Israel, we will not let you rest easily with all that you have and all you have stolen from us.
Each side must have the courage and vision first to let go of violence, and then to step very carefully into the very midst of their fears. Israel’s leaders have to let go of their stranglehold on land and resources. Palestine’s leaders have to let go of the belief that 1. Israel is an implacable enemy and 2. that somehow through their efforts Israel will disappear. (Some in Palestine clearly understand this. A friend received a card from Wi’am, The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem that reads: “We do not want to bring the Israelis to their knees; we want them to come to their senses.”)
It is incredibly hard to turn towards ones fears, whether they are personal, communal, or national. In fact, greedy people and power-hungry demagogues on all sides will happily play on those fears to serve themselves. But we can help Israelis and Palestinians set aside violence. We can raise our voices in support of peace. We can remind them that we wish their security and freedom from fear, as they wish for themselves.
Call and write to the United States government and the United Nations to press for a full and immediate ceasefire, and an end to the devastating blockade imprisoning Gaza’s people. Open the border between Israel and Gaza, between Israel and the West Bank. Since the U.S, is the world’s largest arms dealer, we can press U.S. makers and vendors of high-tech weapons to stop this flow that feeds the Israeli military violence.
The essential work of peace will begin in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. But each of us, and our governments, must help rather than toy with them for our own geo-political purposes. We cannot close our eyes or turn away.
Hozan Alan Senauke — 1.2.09
Gaza is burning. The violence must end before anything else can happen. We can all think nice thoughts about right and wrong, who acted first, who acted worst. We can argue about politics — national, international, geopolitical, corporate. Whatever intellectual thread my mind pulls at quickly comes to a hopeless tangle. The reality of fear, death, and destruction is beyond all this. A father weeps for his five daughters who died in their sleep, “collateral damage” in the heart of Gaza City. A daughter cries out for her mother, lost in a Hamas rocket attack on the town of Ashdod. Multiply that scene by a thousand. See yourself right in the midst of it. In this latest round, to date, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli attacks. The Israeli government counts 19 fatalities from Hamas rockets since 2002.
There is, of course, something pointless to the algebra of comparative suffering. But Israel’s attack on Gaza is like shooting fish in a barrel. The body count and vast disproportion of weapons, technology, and killing make me ashamed to acknowledge that my government supplies so much of Israel’s weaponry, and ashamed to be a Jew, even as I fear for the future of the people I was born to. Present day Israel seems to have forgotten the words God spoke through the old prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 12:19,20):
"…and say unto the people of the land, thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; they shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land shall be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid to waste, and the land shall be desolate, and ye shall know that I am the Lord."
I confess, this is not a God I am comfortable with. It seems to be the voice of primitive religion and warring tribes, hardly the standard I’d hope we would be raising today. But in the language of his time and place, Ezekiel speaks the compelling truth of cause and effect.
Lets return to Gaza and Israel today. If you have heard bombs falling and seen the flash and glare of destruction, then you understand the essence of fear. Never knowing where violent death may fall upon you. Anyone who has been to war knows exactly what this is like. If you have not felt it directly, please use your imagination.
Two reflections, 2500 years apart, come to mind.
As recorded in the Dhammapada, Shakyamuni Buddha said:
All tremble at violence,
All fear death;
Comparing oneself with others
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 129
All tremble at violence,
Life is dear to all.
Comparing others with oneself
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 130
Victory breeds hatred,
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
Giving up victory and defeat.
— Dhp. 201
Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to his congregation in Montgomery, Alabama said:
"I think the first reason that we should love our enemies…is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil… Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love."
— "Loving Your Enemies" 17 November 1957
The rest is commentary. In Israel & Palestine, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Burma, and a dozen other killing fields, no resolution will come from spiraling violence. There will simply be more wounded and traumatized people who will wittingly or unwittingly pass their wounds to generation after generation. As Dr. King said, “Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.”
I don’t know precisely how to do this. But there must be a clear intention, a policy of non-retaliation, understanding that retaliation, however emotionally compelling, leads just to more retaliation. Generosity is always an option — offering food, medicine, shelter, and education — rather than death. Generosity is the basis of connection. This offering doesn’t come from the superiority of one or another side, but on the fact that we need each other if we are to survive. We owe each other life, simply on the ground of our shared humanity.
I’ve written before that a policy of generosity — which many will see as hopelessly naïve — can hardly be less effective (or more expensive) than the dance of death Israel and Palestine are presently locked into. I have to say that between Israel and Palestine, the vast preponderance of resources — wealth, technology, arms, food, and water — are controlled by the state of Israel. Palestinian militants seem to have one key resource, the will to say to Israel, we will not let you rest easily with all that you have and all you have stolen from us.
Each side must have the courage and vision first to let go of violence, and then to step very carefully into the very midst of their fears. Israel’s leaders have to let go of their stranglehold on land and resources. Palestine’s leaders have to let go of the belief that 1. Israel is an implacable enemy and 2. that somehow through their efforts Israel will disappear. (Some in Palestine clearly understand this. A friend received a card from Wi’am, The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem that reads: “We do not want to bring the Israelis to their knees; we want them to come to their senses.”)
It is incredibly hard to turn towards ones fears, whether they are personal, communal, or national. In fact, greedy people and power-hungry demagogues on all sides will happily play on those fears to serve themselves. But we can help Israelis and Palestinians set aside violence. We can raise our voices in support of peace. We can remind them that we wish their security and freedom from fear, as they wish for themselves.
Call and write to the United States government and the United Nations to press for a full and immediate ceasefire, and an end to the devastating blockade imprisoning Gaza’s people. Open the border between Israel and Gaza, between Israel and the West Bank. Since the U.S, is the world’s largest arms dealer, we can press U.S. makers and vendors of high-tech weapons to stop this flow that feeds the Israeli military violence.
The essential work of peace will begin in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. But each of us, and our governments, must help rather than toy with them for our own geo-political purposes. We cannot close our eyes or turn away.
Access: Public
thank you for posting Joan. The horrific violence in Gaza calls for our immediate attention and action.
in light & peace~
tess
Mindless in Gaza
Published by Prof. Michael Nagler January 5th, 2009 in Feature, Love In Action, Metta Blog, Upcoming Events
Tags: No Tags.
I
have been searching desperately for some silver lining in the deepening
tragedy in Gaza, and what finally came to me was the chilling words of
the poet Aeschylus: “And slowly, even against our will, wisdom drips
against the heart by the awful grace of god.”
If there is a distinguishing feature in this latest round in the sixty
years of reciprocal violence — something other than its ferocity — it’s
that the futility of the attack was clear as soon as it began. Already,
to no one’s surprise, painfully won progress toward accomodation in the
moderate Arab countries is evaporating, while Israel is clearly
generating another round of “retaliation,” this time with that much
less sympathy from the international community. Even if Hamas’ fighting
ability is effectively abolished by the time the carnage is over, will
Israel achieve the security we all desire her to have, and which is the
rationale for the attack? Only in the very shortest term. Before too
long, the seething hatred in the Arab world, and the increased
revulsion amongst the onlooking world at large, must boil over into
action. (A similarly “devastating” blow has just been landed on the
major rebel faction in Sri Lanka, and a suicide bomber took revenge
within the hour). Before it even revealed the full scope of its
cruelty, the massacre was styled Lebanon II or (by Jakob Rieken) the
“mideast version of the Bay of Pigs.” And as Israel’s wisest analyst,
Uri Avnery, said of this carnage, “logic has little influence on
politics.”
This realization is small comfort, given
the terrorization of a million and a half people, the children blown
apart on their way to school, the devastation crashing into homes and
hospitals; but it could just possibly, if we choose to build on it,
become much larger.
We could realize that this is what happens
when people are so locked into antagonism that they become blinded to
one another’s needs in the confusion of their own hopeless fear. This
is what happens when we arm one side against another (or both against
each other), and reinforce the tenacious myth that security can be
acquired through domination.This is what happens when we concoct peace
treaties and ceasefires around conference tables while- thousands of
miles away- real people on the ground are being humiliated, degraded,
and enraged. This is what happens when small nations let themselves be
used by so-called “great powers,” shielded from the human reality of
their own actions. This is what happens when, as Mikhail Gorbachev just
pointed out, the international community has nothing in place to absorb
the impact of these mad conflicts and interject the logic — and the
plain humanity — that the combatants have forgotten.
And we could, just possibly, go further
than that. More and more of us are in fact beginning to realize that
the problem is not just this war in particular, not just this kind of
war, but war itself. War is a counterproductive atrocity left over from
the prehuman past. “If you want to go East, don’t go West” said a
remarkably simple sage some hundred years ago: If you want peace,
prepare it. Build up all peacemaking institutions, from the cultural
level — peace education, peace journalism, sane entertainment choices —
to real alternatives like the nonviolent intervention teams that have
already saved so many lives at so little cost, in Central America, the
Balkans, and now Sri Lanka, Colombia, Northern Uganda, and the
Phillipines. As Martin Luther King said, we are all “caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
We will never become secure, not one of us, by doing things to tear
apart that mutuality. But there are many ways to peace through peaceful
means that harmonize with and reinforce it.
I have just hung up the phone after a talk
with my friend and colleague Oren Yiftachel, a co-founder, with Dr.
Eyad El Sarraj of Gaza, of the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.
Prof. Yiftachel lives and works in Beer-Sheva, which is within range of
the Qassam rockets coming from Gaza. Yet when I asked him what the
Israeli peace movement was doing to stop the counterattacks he said
simply, “not enough.” The same is true here. There is another lesson or
two for those of us who work for peace and believe in it: we have to do
much more, both quantitatively and qualitatively. That is, we need to
understand more things to do and when to do them, for if the last eight
years’ wars have shown us anything, it is that protests aren’t enough.
There is a time for protests and vigils. This isn’t one of them. We
need direct action, not excluding, when all else has failed, downright
civil disobedience, coupled with vigorous development and promotion of
peace alternatives to replace what we — all of us — must now decisively
reject: the starving of a whole population, the bombing of civilian
neighborhoods in order to ‘target’ individuals within them. In the
final analysis, we need to reject war as an instrument of peace.
Neither Oren nor I were able to reach our
mutual friend El Sarraj, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the Gaza
Community Mental Health Programme — the facility had been heavily
damaged by bombing the night before. But on the latter’s recent blog he
described the terror of his children as the U.S.-made bombs fell
perilously near his home. It made me very angry. I am not sorry that it
did. If more of us were angry and had a constructive way to turn our
anger into the ingredients of a saner future, namely by nonviolent
methods, there might be a silver lining even in this disgraceful
episode.
To survey our globalizing planet
geopolitically today is to see a mixture of hopeful developments
alongside very disheartening ones: on the one hand the election of an
intelligent president in the United States (which is possibly even more
important than the election of the first black president) and the
publication of ‘Charter 08’ presaging, just possibly, the
democratization of China; but on the other hand, ongoing horror in
places like Darfur and Burma. Perhaps, if we can understand its
lessons, Gaza will prove to be a bit of both.