Violence Begat Violence

The following post is courtesy of my friend Said.

Violence begat violence…

I raised my children in total isolation of the 50 year old struggle in the region, believing that peace is inevitable; believing that even the “state” of Israel will eventually seek peace.

I hear you ask: what is with the “state” of Israel? I also hear myself rushing to answer: Israel can never be but a “state” and by that I am referring to a transient state of being. I subscribe to the notion that every nation has the right to exist, but I underline that no Nation is sustainable when build upon the misery of humans. The policy makers of that “state”, and those who control them and those who are controlled by them are scripting their own demise and the demise of their followers by being so violent and hateful. You see… violence begat violence!

The last of the times I helped refugees deal with their imposed misfortune was during the notorious operation that the “state” of Israel hoped would guarantee peace for the inhabitants of the northern territories. They launched and bombed and killed and slaughtered, human beings in cars and homes and streets and UN compounds (YES UN COMPOUNDS). (Operation Grapes of Wrath). For the record: it did not work.

In July 2006, they decided to go on another killing spree. So far, we have lost more than 300 civilian lives and not more than two dozen resistance fighters… Lebanon has lost more than 1 BILLION US Dollars and the losses continue to rise with every sunrise. I will not get into the humanitarian crisis that has been imposed upon us, I am sure that the days and weeks ahead will bring you in contact with images of burned children and destroyed villages. Destroyed villages with villagers under the rubble of their own homes, and if you really want to see what our villages and cities look like today I suggest you lookup images of ground zero, it should be very easy for your to find (Try to Google “9/11 terrorist innocent civilians ground zero”).

Let me just point out the following:

• This operation has cost more lives and destroyed or impaired more livelihoods than the terra-forming earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Banda-Ache, that is of course after taking land and population ratios into consideration. Banda-Ache was an act of God (or nature if you prefer), this is an act of man… MAN WHO THINKS HE IS GOD !
• More rockets have been fired into Israel over the past few days than the many year of war that the “state” has lived through. (HINT HINT?). Your policy of choice is backfiring everyday you continue to stick to it
• Israelis: HOW can I justify to hundreds of thousands of children who underwent this ordeal that they need to stop hating and look for peace!?! Your planes are planting seeds of hate for the next 100 years (At four generations). Do you honestly think that these victims will EVER forget what the IDF is doing to them? Even long after I am dead (and I cannot forget), my children will remember. You want peace? Live it…

I want my children to have a childhood, a regular over-the-counter “kosher” childhood. Where they live and play and get sunburns because they spent the day out in the sun and not phosphorous burn from a shell that someone, I never knew, decided to fire into my back yard. I want the same for the other children and their children…. Don’t you ?

Stop killing, stop mutilating, stop raping… just STOP. And then maybe, just maybe there will be peace between all the sons of Sam

Said

Update: Check Violence Begat Violence II.