
In the days following the UN vote to grant the Palestinian Authority (PA), non-member observer status, one couldn’t help but wonder what Israel hoped to accomplish with it’s punitive-angry response.
In the days following the massacre of children and teachers in Newton, MA most Americans grieved and wondered how we got to this point and what had to change to prevent similar calamities in the future. The NRA and many gun owners are quite sure that the answer to gun violence is more guns.
The two most widely held explanations on the origins the cosmos, both offer similar constructs for human reasoning: The Big Bang theory and the Genesis Biblical narrative are ultimately all about creating order out of chaos. Likewise, is it not a natural human instinct to want to learn from mistakes so they are not repeated in the future?
So if the Earth and the animal world have been around for millions, if not billions of years, why is it that most of the major religions date the world to be approximately 6,000 years old? Because that’s when people started figuring out how to live together in communities of people and rejected the animal world’s primary modus-operandi: might makes right. Human history is in many ways a chronicle of our struggle to use our minds as effectively if not more effectively than choosing to employ violence to achieve desired ends.
That tension is even evident in the sacred texts of many major religions. The same Torah I study daily, tells us to treat the stranger among us as our equal, not to put a stumbling block before the blind and to remember the widow and the orphan. The same Torah speaks of the obligation to execute the sinner and entire communities of pagans. On one page of Torah, the human spirit is elevated beyond the primitive with the injunction, “Justice, justice, justice shall you pursue;” on still other pages of Torah, we are instructed to stone to death the rebellious child and Sabbath violator.
I’d like to think that civilization is getting more civilized with each passing generation. Regrettably, progress too often comes at high price. For example, in 1919 the U.S. Senate wasn’t quite ready for America to partner in the League of Nations a world body crearted to promote peaceful dialogue. World War II changed that, well, on a very limited basis. Republicans in the US Senate recently voted down an international treaty on the rights of people with disabilities because they didn’t want America to have to play by anybody else’s rules, even if it was the U.S. who wrote those rules. No, change and progress doesn’t come easily to some.
Just a few decades ago, local law enforcement would have told a criminal holding hostages to “come out with his hands up or we’ll come in shooting.” Today, specially trained hostage negotiators in most major urban centers and in the FBI employ highly sophisticated strategies in an effort to negotiate a peaceful resolution. Hostage negotiations is a good example of how our society has learned to employ ideas and strategies in lieu of being totally dependent on the use of force.
The experienced hostage negotiator upon arriving on the scene will quickly try to calm and win the trust of an angry, desperate perpetrator. Thanks to common sense and tried and true strategies taught in police academies across the nation, hundreds of hostage-taking incidents are now peacefully resolved each year. Humanity is slowly learning that our brains are the most potent tool in the human arsenal.
Fact check: Anger cannot resolve a confrontation, it can only exacerbate a situation. Just ask anyone in law enforcement, diplomatic corps and for that matter, seasoned school teachers.
And how did Israel react to the PA’s successful bid win observer status at the UN? With anger and punitive measures that have done more damage than good to Israel-PA relations and Israel’s standing the community of nations. How might the world have viewed Israel’s desire to achieve a just peace with the Palestinians had the Jewish State come out in support of the PA’s UN bid? Is Israel any less secure today because of the PA’s new status at the UN? Is Israel viewed as more or less committed to a peace settlement?
Could any of the following punitive measures taken by Israel really build trust, open communication and move the peace process forward?
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Punishment #1: Israel will begin construction 3,000 new housing units for Israelis in predominately Arab East Jerusalem.
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Punishment #2: Israel will not transfer to the cash poor Palestinian Authority taxes it has collected on their behalf.
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Punishment #3. Israel will begin making plans for building a Jewish settlement on a tract of land known as “E1.” Such a new settlement, would ostensibly deny the inevitable State of Palestine a contiguous corridor between their major cities.
I could not have said it better,Mitch. Thank you for taking the time to say it.
What bilge.
Proper little leftist, so: Israel bad, bad, bad. It shouldn’t upset its enemies! It should give them money to spend on more rockets (to attack Israel, of course.)
Gun control good, good, good. Doesn’t matter how many innocents are murdered by governments (e.g. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc.) who all instituted gun control agendas before they murdered their own people. No, wave the magic wand around and make those killing fields actually “Gun Free Zones”… oh, sorry, that’s what they are already. Sure works well, doesn’t it. Gee, I wonder why there aren’t more shootings at NRA conventions, or gun shows?
Pay no attention to contrary evidence! Shouting “La, La, La!” works wonders, I understand, and I’ve recently watched Piers Morgan doing exactly that. Just made him look like an asshole, but then he’s had lots of experience.
And don’t ever change the channel! CNN will continue to hide anything that doesn’t fit the agenda… your agenda too, isn’t it?
Sorry little cockroach, I know you gotta scurry and find the dark places, but I sure get sick of your type.
Denis Wauchope
Carlsbad, CA
I want to personally thank Denis Wauchope for his comments. His referring to me as a “cockroach” is classic example of level of maturity we are to expect from people still operating on “DOS.” Kind regards.
His insulting you doesn’t change the fact that he’s correct. Why introduce an assault rifle ban when one wasn’t used at Sandy Hook? It’s misinformation spread around to propagate an anti-gun agenda.
Most politicians and reporters can’t differentiate between an assault rifle and a semi-automatic rifle, often saying that the AR-15 can fire multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger. Is this misinformation on purpose, or just the ignorance of those spouting it showing through?
Perfect example of false premises leading to false conclusions. What’s it like to live where the sky is pink, and there are no evil people, where every problem can be solved by locking elbows and singing “We are the world?” Until you accept the fact that there are people out there (like those who flew the planes into the World Trade Centers) with whom there is no possible chance of negotiating a peaceful solution, you will be unable to understand the reasons why your article is just so much mental speculation.