Dove's Eye View

Christians in Jerusalem Call for Peace and Justice

The Episcopal Diocese website posted this, but it's signed by the leaders of several of the major denominations, including Evangelical Lutherans: The Episcopal Diocese Of Jerusalem - Diocesan News.

"THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM" - Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem

First there's a ringing condemnation of Christian Zionism. Then these affirmations:

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honor the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.

We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.

We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.

We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.

We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.

With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building.

God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.

"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God.

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:19)

His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad,
Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal,
Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Bishop Munib Younan,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

Hat tip Haitham Sabbah.

Maher Y. Bousaba

Ya Ibn 'Ammi, rest in peace: The State | 08/27/2006 | Maher Y. Bousaba.

God bless you and keep you, and comfort your family in our loss.

Note to the non-Arabs. The spelling Bousaba is a variation of our last name. My cousin who wrote the obituary chose to use it for my father's name, for instance. Lebanese would recognize it as the same name. Maher is the son of my father's brother. We are crushed by his suffering and untimely death.

Lebanese Volunteers Clean Up

Young people from Beirut and points north are flooding the South of Lebanon with brooms and shovels to help clean up what they can: The Daily Star - Lebanon News - Volunteers head South to 'sweep up' debris left by Israeli onslaught.

These are ad hoc efforts. I am so glad to see Lebanese giving service to their country this way.

Solar power in California

Go, California! Schwarzenegger signs solar power bill - from Yahoo! News.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday signed into law a bill that aims to make the state one of the world's biggest producers of solar energy.

The bill, which cleared the state Senate last week, calls for the installation of 1 million rooftop solar panels on homes, businesses, farms, schools and public buildings by 2018.

The solar systems would generate 3,000 megawatts of power and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 3 million tons, equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the state's highways and making California the third biggest solar producer after Japan and Germany.

Glad we're doing something for energy independence. Hubby and I are still waiting around to see if the price of solar systems goes down...

Occupation Corrupts

Joshua Micah Marshall in Talking Points Memo: "The occupation has become Israel's weakness, not its strength."

Occupation degrades a fighting force -- a reality the Israelis need to confront right now and we Americans need to come to grips with as well. The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is something Israel really cannot afford now as it becomes more clear that she is in renewed need of a very potent fighting army.

The idea is that Israel lost badly in Lebanon because it has been weakened by occupying Palestine.

Marshall applies the lesson to the US in Iraq as well.

Terror Bombing By Aircraft Is Still Terror

Finally got the famous New Yorker with the Seymour Hersh article in the mail today - three days later than I usually do. It's linked here: The New Yorker: Fact. This is the article about the USA's role in Israel's attack on Lebanon, 2006.

One quote jumped out at me toward the end. Who said this?

“Strategic bombing has been a failed military concept for ninety years, and yet air forces all over the world keep on doing it.”

Did a weak, treacly voiced pacifist say this for the record?

Or perhaps an Islamonazi and Hizbullah mouthpiece?

How about a defense analyst for the Naval Postgraduate School of the United States who analyzes how to fight terrorism?

Let's let the military historian who wrote the Defense Department's manual on fighting fourth generation warfare have the last word:

Terror bombing by aircraft is still terror.

Retired US generals, diplomats: Negotiate!

I missed this when it came out on Friday: Retired US generals, diplomats criticize Bush Middle East policy - Yahoo! News.

A group of former diplomats and retired generals called on President George W. Bush to open negotiations with Iran, warning that the use of military force would have catastrophic consequences for the region.

The open letter signed by 21 former senior officials comes amid growing criticism of US refusal to deal directly with Iran and Syria despite crises in Iraq and Lebanon.

"As former military leaders and foreign policy officials, we call on the Bush administration to engage immediately in direct talks with the government of Iran without preconditions to help resolve the current crisis in the Middle East and settle differences over the Iranian nuclear program," the letter said.

"We strongly caution against any consideration of the use of military force against Iran. The current crises must be resolved through diplomacy, not military action," it said.

It warned that an attack on Iran would have disastrous consequences for the region and for US forces in Iraq, further inflaming Muslim hatred and violence.

These guys aren't Berkeley hippie peaceniks. God, hear our prayer...

Mideast Peace Begins in the heart

Two American doctors, one from Israel, one from South Lebanon, write this op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Forum: Mideast peace begins in the heart.

The two authors talked about the signs of hope for peace and prosperity in Lebanon and Israel before July 12, 2006. They spoke of their respective mothers, one in South Lebanon, one in Haifa, tending their gardens and preparing for visits from their American offspring. Where did it all go wrong? they ask. As doctors they are trained to be as optimistic as possible; so they give it their best shot.

...there is still one thing that we will not lose: hope.

On both sides of the borders, politicians use hopelessness as their most effective weapon: "There is no hope that Hezbollah will ever give up their weapons"; "there is no hope Israel will ever stop being an aggressive nation".

Still, having spent most of our lives in the region, we cannot ignore a basic reality that is always overshadowed by the news of violence and the voices of politicians: Our peoples want to live in peace, freedom and safety. Arab or Israeli, our people are happy when a child is born, suffer when a disease hits, laugh when they hear a good joke and love to see blooming flowers every morning. They do not deserve to be dispossessed, killed or hunted like animals. No human does.

When we spoke with each other, we expressed our concerns for each other's families who still live in the region, and shared our prayers for the immediate end of this futile criminal violence. That was a sign of hope.
...Instead of declaring victory for one side or the other, the United States should assume the role of an impartial mediator in the Middle East and, together with the international community, must call for an immediate peace conference to start rebuilding what was destroyed: rebuilding homes, lives, economies, but most importantly, rebuilding hope and trust.

While governments and leaders confer to negotiate the details, we the citizens have a critical role in creating the peace they negotiate for. For this purpose we call on Jews, Muslims and Christians, on people from all walks of life, here and in the Middle East, to reject the inevitability of war, to stand up and tell our leaders, "Enough is enough! War is not the way!"

If we build on hope and trust, on recognizing our shared humanity, we will be able to recover from the previous war. We will be able to prevent the next war.

Read the whole article - it will break your heart. Hope does live.

Sandor Straus alerted me to this by email, thank you.

Chas Freeman on "Why Do 'They' Hate Us?"

This distinguished gentleman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia among many other credits, commented on a blog I read. Further googling turned up a fascinating interview: Watchdogs, meet a gadfly.

Q. What is it that the enemies of the United States want?

Freeman’s view: The argument that they hate us for who we are is not credible. So why is it that they have a problem with us? What is their agenda? Is there any part of it that is comprehensible?

Only two people in the world actually believe that there’s any possibility of a new caliphate being established, stretching from Spain to Indonesia: Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush.

So while it depends somewhat on the particular extremist, the fundamental answer is that they want to be left alone. There are no Muslim armies occupying the United States; it is we who are there, not they who are here. The fundamental demand is a measure of respect and distance.

It’s not the case that they are objecting to modern technology or Pizza Hut or democracy. In fact, the extremists often argue for an Islamic democracy, an Islamic Republic. Their ideal is a democracy within the limits of the faith, much like the United States is a democracy within the limits of the Constitution. That’s why they are so fervently anti monarchist.

The majority of people in the Middle East are as opposed to the extremist agenda as we are. After all, they’re the target of it. They don’t want to see the West turn its back on them. But in their region, the starting point must be their reform agenda, not ours.

The notion that understanding means acceptance or that listening means agreeing is nonsense. It’s just an excuse for not making the effort to understand where others are coming from. If you can understand how others define the problems in their own region and what they think the causes are, you can begin to find antidotes to extremism that would otherwise not occur to you. You can certainly deal with things on a more realistic basis.

Here's what Ambassador Freeman said about our present administration in the wake of the Lebanon war 2006, in response to an article that appeared in the Israeli press:

These points, it seemed to me, amounted to a barely disguised, almost desperate call for the US to save Israel from its own quite obvious lack of credible grand strategy.

I am not, however, optimistic about either the reaction in Israel or our response. The mood in Israel is even more dysfunctional than usual and our Administration seems unable actually to hear anything that does not conform to its militarist ideology, which persuades it, like mainstream Israeli opinion, that if the use of force has proven counterproductive the answer is simply to apply greater force. Moreover, I have my my doubts about the degree of diplomatic credibility and clout we still have in the region after six years of diplomacy-free foreign policy. This is a very different moment than the end of the Gulf War, when we enjoyed a reputation for power, fair-mindedness, and sagacity that enabled us to gather all concerned at Madrid. It is kind of Mr. Kimche to hark back to that highpoint of American prestige, but how relevant is it to circumstances now?

Emphasis added.

Well at least somebody in the upper reaches of power (or used-to-be-in-power) has refused the Koolaid.

"If the use of force has proven counterproductive the answer is simply to apply greater force" reminds me of the old saw: "insanity means trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

God help us all. Really. This situation is like a terminal disease, where you sit in the doctor's office and after he outlines all the treatments he's going to try, he suggests that miracles are the best hope, and perhaps you might pray. I ask all of you out there, especially the non-believers, to pray for a miracle. It can't hurt and you don't know if it might help.

Beat!

William S. Lind, the conservative military historian who has written manuals on warfare for the US armed services, posts this pessimistic analysis of the Israeli war against Lebanon: Beat!.

(snipped long analysis of how badly Israel was beaten - I won't quote, you go read it)...Israel only has a long-term future if it can reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with its neighbors. So long as those neighbors are states, a policy of pursuing such an accommodation may have some chance of success. But as the rise of Fourth Generation elements such as Hezbollah and Hamas weaken and in time replace those states, the possibility will disappear. Unfortunately, Israeli politics appear to be moving away from such a course rather than toward it.

For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.

Lind, like many others, doesn't believe that Israel will look for a mutually acceptable accommodation with its neighbors. Hence the very pessimistic tone of his post. If you read Martin Von Creveld, you hear the same note.

But why not? It's not impossible. Peace is not impossible. A just peace is not impossible, even one that's acceptable to all parties. With enough talk and enough restraint, it could happen.

Yes, most people on either side are polarized, angry, wounded, frightened, resentful and unwilling to talk about peace or reconciliation.

But the fact is, the physical necessities for peace do exist. It's only the thinking, the fears and resentments and prejudices, of the warring parties that prevent peace. All we need for peace is to change our minds.

In the 1990s I saw the Lebanese put down their guns after 15 years of civil war and quit fighting. They didn't become instantly united. They didn't heal the old wounds, rather they swept them under the carpet. Their reconstruction was imperfect, riddled with corruption and callous indifference to the needs of the poor and lower middle classes. (Which helped Hizbullah, in my humble opinion). So the Lebanese post-war story is not perfect. But it shows how people can simply change their minds, change their way of life from car-bombs, armed militias and anarchy to order and relative calm, within a few years.

Here is a Gush Shalom ad which appeared on August 15, 2006:

The last victim Of this war Has not yet Been buried - and the chief of Army Intelligence Already announces That he expects Another war in Lebanon.

Could there be
A more striking
Confirmation of the fact
That there is
No military solution?

Negotiate with Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Hizuballah, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority. If we really wanted to see peaceful borders we could make it so. Another world is possible.