Stalemate toward the next fighting - or toward a new peace?




For now, no more missiles fly from Gaza to Israel - nor from Israel to Gaza.

The last several days of mutual-retaliation is now at its end.

I will not re-post here what can be read widely in the news:

  • Both sides are announcing victories.  
  • Both sides are proclaiming their military superiority in offensive & defensive measures.  
  • Both sides are celebrating in some way.

Egypt - in the past few years has itself been reshaped politically - played a key role in working toward brokering the current situation of cease fire.  But, the text of the brokered agreement does nothing more than stop current acts of violence.  (Read it here.)

I fear no sustaining peace has been won!

  • Both sides agreeing to cease current hostilities in active campaigns of violence, brings no peace - only the cessation of current conflict.
  • Both sides are burying the dead in their midst, with the high probability that the loss of life will only fuel future fighters and future hostility.
NOW!

  • NOW is the time for new conversations to emerge.
  • NOW is the time for abiding hostilities from combatants and enemies to seek out the possibilities of abundant hospitality from communities seeking equity.
  • NOW is the time for nations and powers - not just on both sides - but from every region of the world - to use their means to provide support for vibrant life toward thriving cities - not toward escalating armaments for the next conflict.

As an American, my sense is that this current contest will quickly fade into the background - as just "one more time" when "those people" "over there" didn't get along.

It is Thanksgiving as I write.  Americans are concerned about Football, Turkey and Shopping.  The next weeks will focus on the trivial issues of the latest technology "needed" under the Christmas tree and whether or not we've stock-piled enough Hostess Twinkies before their bankruptcy.

It's too bad.

It's tragic.

People emboldened now by the current ceasefire could invest differently - in the world now - and in politics and peacemaking - and in efforts at genuine conversation such that - the ideologies of war could be reshaped from Jerusalem in the near future.  This could include Egypt, America, the Arab League and nations the world over!

  • If only people would find a way to talk genuinely and realize practically - the need to turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning-hooks!  If we could stop building weapons and instead increase our fruitfulness!
  • If only people would find ways to build cities where old women and aged men could sit near the streets and watch as young girls & young boys play together in city parks.
  • If only we had the possibility the announcement, that today, in the region of Gaza-Israel - a message of good news for all people has come - to those currently wrapped in the cloth of war in some hospital room.
  • If only we believed that vibrant life is possible for all people in a world that could be saved.

Now is not the time to stalemate toward the next, inevitable future conflict.

Now is the time to strategize toward and implement a vibrant, life-giving, fruitful peace.


Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.



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