We need to forget about '67, we need to forget about '48, we need to look at 2012 and beyond. The only problem is that when an Arab speaks out against Israel we always go back to terrorist versus soldiers, we always dwell on who fired the first bullet or threw the first stone. None of that is important anymore, what's done is done. We need to put our efforts into ending this cyclical battle.
I know that change takes time and we may not be able to make a big difference now, but who's to say that if enough people aren't convinced by what is said that we can't start something. If we reach enough people with a non-violent message, a message for the future, a message preaching the right to live in a society in which one will not be judged based on a name; whether it is Eli or Ali, Moses or Mohammad, you can live freely, you can live without fear. You can live. This is the message that we need to pass on. The greatest movements in the world all began with a simple thought. My thought is this, if you want an end to our problems we need to educate the youth. We need to avoid the indoctrination of Arab-Israeli hate and focus on what we hope to attain: peaceful, understanding, respectful citizens on both sides of the border. Instead of filling our youth with hatred for an enemy they do not know, we need to educate them so that they can see the truth, the truth that we are all God’s children, regardless of our individual understanding of who or what God is. I’ve said this in the past; you can call God Yahua, Allah, or Jesus that doesn’t change the fact that we are all His children.
We need to educate our children on the basics of humanity. Be good, love, listen, respect, and help others. Be good; be good for goodness’s sake don’t be good because of an ulterior motive. Be good because you truly want to be good, if we can achieve that level of kindness: an unselfish, deep well of kindness we can achieve the next step of love. Love; if we can teach our children to truly love one another then we have eliminated hate. If we can eliminate hate, or at least relieve the strangle hold that it has on us, then we can promote understanding. Once we have understanding we can then teach respect. Respecting others’ right to live, to exist in a world in which one does not have to fear for their child’s life every day, or when the next rocket attack will come, or when the next air raid will be. Once we have a grasp of how to respect we will then understand that we must respect each individual’s opinions as just that, an individual opinion. Once we achieve the ability to respect each other’s opinions we have learned to listen. Once we learn how to respect each other’s opinions we have learned to speak softly. We will no longer feel the need to raise our voices to get the point across. Respect and you will be respected. Love and you will be met with love. Listen to others and they will listen to you. Be good for the sake of being good, and goodness will find it’s way back to you. If we as a people can do this, then we can begin to help each other move forward.
We need to educate our youth and get them out of their current situation. We need to promote equality. We need to promote virtues that will make us better human beings if we hope to have a positive, peaceful future. Violence will never be met with peace; the olive branch will only grow if the environment is right for it.
Current logic seems to be that if I fire 150 rockets in one day, the enemy will tell me they want to live side-by-side. This is not the proper environment for peace. From the on-set this logic tells you that we don’t want peace. We want complete control, we want the demolition of the other state. This is wrong! We cannot exist in a world where we feel violence is the solution to our problems. We cannot flourish as a people if we don’t exercise self-restraint. What is happening in Gaza is not resistance, it’s not even self-defense, it’s pure selfishness. It is a group of people who refuse to accept that there is a stronger military force lurking right behind the wall. If we truly wanted peace we would stop the shelling. We would put our arms down and head to the round table for discussions. Look at are our demands. Look at what we are asking for. Land. It’s time we change our demands. Instead of asking for land, we should be negotiating for, demanding, a better standard of living. Our concern should be ensuring a proper education for our youth, building better schools, providing better health care, and setting the foundation for future generations to build on. Instead, we waste our time and money on the physical battle with a people who have inherited a war in which they cannot back out of. The other side of this war is not only fighting for land, they are fighting for their existence. The only way to stop this war is to eliminate that concern, offer the chance to peacefully co-exist and they have no more opportunity to fight.
Teach our youth to love and we will have love, teach them to hate and we will have hate. The children are our marble slate and education is our chisel. We can shape them any way we choose, let us not misuse this power and create more destruction. Let the light within us shine and guide our children through the darkness. Let the map to the future be drawn with olive branches and white doves.
“We must either learn to live together as brothers, or we are all going to perish together as fools”. Martin Luther King Jr.
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