Mowing The Lawn Won’t Lead To Peace In Israel And Gaza ::posted Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:38:35 +0000:: ift.tt/1rCRJhw It seems that no one can try to even start a discussion about the Israeli - Palestinian conflict without it devolving into personal attacks and shouting matches. The current conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is no different. You cannot question the wisdom of Israels strategy or ask whether they had other options that would reduce civilian casualties without being called anti Isreal and anti-Semitic. You cannot call Hamas out for hiding arms and artillery deliberately in civilian areas or building tunnels solely to kidnap and ransom Israelis without being told you support the massacres of school children and bombings of UN facilities. And thats just the start of the shouting match. However, if you want to look for a real solution you can’t work backwards from a politically biased conclusion. Baggage from betrayal by colonial empires, to a history of political upheaval and geopolitical chess has not served either side well. Combine that with the fact that everything about the area is infused with religious history, symbolism, prophecy, and purpose and any attempt at a objective look at the actions either side seems to only steel people’s opinions and divisions rather than inspire people to seek some lasting resolution. Even so, there are some real hard truths that all sides need to come to grips with. If we are ever going to get past the endless cycle of armed conflict in Gaza or the region as a whole we have to take a look at these truths and act accordingly. The Bible states that there will always be strife in the Middle East, lest there be the end times. Some on the political right in the US even feel our foreign policy should be guided by a principal of bringing all the Jews back to Israel so that those very end times would finally be triggered. Truth one is that trying to force Gods hand is not a sane foreign policy, a sane military policy or a sane religious philosophy. Im sure if God decides to call it quits we wont actually have much say in the matter. We need to work assuming God isn’t about to pull the plug and focus on a long term solution instead. Truth two which neither side can avoid is: endless intermittent war is not a solution to any problem. War is a terrible awful beast that does nothing but devour people whole, - Souls - Bodies - Minds and Morals. Everything about war tears people apart at the seams. It changes its victims into awful beings of darkness, transcribing their light into something more heinous, something unrecognizable. The current conflict does nothing more than serve to recruit future soldiers for both sides. If your actions perpetuate a conflict consider stopping them. The third truth the radicals on both sides absolutely need to get is: You are not going to be able to drive your opponents into the sea. I dont know another way to put it. There isnt a solution with one side being victorious and the other side being obliterated. 6000 years of history bears that out. Against these truths the actions of both sides have no place in a long term solution. Israels current military policy in dealing with Hamas in Gaza called “mowing the grass” in the Jerusalem Times isn’t a solution. The current Israeli government has concluded there is no stopping the violence and so they simply deal with it until it grows to an intolerable level and then they invade to mow down the military capability of Hamas. The proverbial lawnmower here is massive IDF (Israels armed forces) action bent on crippling the insurgents and driving violence back down to acceptable levels. It’s a frightening metaphor. Thinking of people as just blades of grass, that needed to be trimmed and shaped or simply cut down, is no way to create a lasting peace. The problems are the grass includes innocent people with no involvement in the conflict, and the reality is the violence always grows back. And to follow the lawn maintenance analogy that is being used – the weeds (people in fact radicalized and recruited by terrorist groups to perpetuate the violence) only spread. Hamas strategies and goals are equally unlikely to produce anything other than more conflict and more death. If your stated goal is to completely eradicate the state of Israel you dont exactly give folks much to work with. It violates truth three above. Its not a solution. As a practical matter it isnt even a sustainable way to govern. It didnt work for the Nazis, Stalin dealing with the Tartars, or the Crusades. Theres no example in history of this type of underlying principal working. In fact Hamas is finding it harder and harder to govern by sloganeering and hate. The street did not come to the defense of Hamas because they arent delivering the basic essentials people want in a government. People dont want enemies. They want good jobs, good schools, and safe streets. The current tactics of this movement lead to none of that. They only lead to a more hardened Israeli population determined not to negotiate anything other than how low to set the lawnmower blade. Building tunnels to kidnap civilians and soldiers alike from their own homes and public places to ransom them sounds like something from a Clive Barker novel. Hiding your arms in hospitals and locating your artillery and rocket launchers in schools and homes deliberately putting the people you claim to be fighting for at risk of death just to get publicity is cynical at best, diabolical at worst. War is not a game of freeze tag. There is no base you can stand on to avoid being tagged. Theres nothing about creating that level of fear that creates anything but a violent response. Neither of the current strategies employed by either side is going to bring about the end times. Neither is going to create lasting peace. Ultimately neither side is going to be driven into oblivion. Instead of figuring out how to find an acceptable level of violence or a way sustain violence as a substitute for building an actual functioning economy there should be a hard look at other solutions. Start with demilitarizing Gaza (and the West Bank) in exchange for a permanent end to the economic blockades and embargoes. Allow the Palestinians to build a real economy with real jobs, schools and a modern transportation infrastructure. Demand any government in Gaza (and by extension the West Bank) be an actual functioning democracy where a real judiciary roots out corruption, and where people can in fact elect leaders who are interested in creating a real nation not perpetuating an endless conflict. Gaza, unlike the West Bank, doesnt have the same conflict over borders, settlements, and religious sites. There is a way to step away from this conflict and instead of being grasses that eventually gets mowed, the children on both sides of the border in those areas get to grow up and become beautiful flowers. It means working with these fundamental truths towards something that isnt just meeting in the middle between two visions where violence never ends and there will always be blood on the fallen leaves. What is needed isn’t a short term ceasefire. All sides need to start thinking like a gardener that will take the land, and plant beautiful plants - trees that with the most beautiful blossoms, and flowers that have enticing scents - people at peace. Because when a garden is tended the right way, nurtured, cared for, and cohesive, the sky is the limit. Reposted from State Senator Curt Thompsons blog (D-5th). He resides in Tucker, GA and is Chairman of the Special Judiciary Committee. Make sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. His website is ift.tt/1v6Wx4G submitted by curtbthompson[link] [comment] [Forwarded by the MyLeftBlogosphere news engine. Link to original post below:]
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:01:43 +0000
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