Thank you to the Observer for encouraging diverse perspectives to unify us for the “sake of heaven.”
Israel’s Declaration of Independence asks us in the diaspora to help Israel achieve a safe state and its goals, including “…freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel…”
We may be in a rare time in history to help Israel secure its safety and achieve its aspirational goals. From my lay perspective as a concerned Jew, I propose a two-pronged approach.
The first prong:
Not until recent history has Israel had the military power to protect itself and bring our enemies to the peace table. Hopefully, with this power, we will soon see a return of all the hostages and a sustainable ceasefire. Visualizing a new peaceful reality for the “day after” can inspire the second prong.
Many see a flaw in total reliance on the military prong: it results in temporary security and creates perpetual war with new generations of terrorists from Palestinian youth.
The second prong:
Envisioning and creating nonviolent paths that change the hearts and minds of Palestinians to break the cycle of violence.
Many are skeptical of the second prong as naive and unrealistic. But please hear me out. What if it were to work? Human history changed in the last century with the non-violent philosophy and practices of Ghandi and King.
The non-violent practice for Israel in the second prong would be as Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, a non-violent Civil Rights activist of the 1960’s, recently opined about the Gazan war: “You can’t just tell people to stop fighting and killing. You have to show them an alternative. And, you have to start with the children.”
With the creativity of the Jewish mind and aspiration of the Jewish soul for peace, we can help Israel and Palestinians imagine and create that non-violent path.
Living in the relative peace of the diaspora, we can build bridges with Christians and Muslims for this non-violent path. The sacred text of all three Abrahamic religions, from the Cain and Abel story, teaches: “To save a life is to save an entire world.” This relationship building will help American Jews be more secure.
This second prong can include an internationally funded “Marshall Plan” with preconditions to recipients of the funds. The preconditions can be many, but might include:
- Widespread therapeutic intervention to treat those traumatized and suffering from this war and previous wars (on both sides).
- Grassroots education on nonviolent practices, beginning with youth, for building the “beloved community” as envisioned by Dr. King and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his “Politics of Hope.”
- A new government in Gaza that recognizes Israel’s right to exist in secure borders and a government in Israel committed to a two-state solution.
It is our hope and challenge to create a reality, as we have in America, where Israelis and Palestinians do not have to “rise early to kill their enemy before they are killed.”
We have resources in Nashville to help envision a nonviolent path. Vanderbilt’s James Lawson Institute and John Lewis’ alma mater, American Baptist College.
The peaceful approach of the second prong will gather international support and put pressure on Iran and our other enemies. While Israel does not currently have a partner for peace, this visioning can create that partner.
Even though we have tried many times in the past, it would be a shame, given the horrors of war, for us not to try again with innovative methods. As with Northern Ireland, now may be the time.
We may finally see what Golda Meir longed for…a time where “Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
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