ONE MAN'S OPINION ON ACHIEVING A LASTING PEACE IN THE MIDDLE-EAST



First, let me start this in what I consider to be a self-critical, but most favorable manner.  I'm ignorant.  I am ignorant in that I do not know ALL of the facts involved in this issue.  However, there is a difference between stupidity and ignorance.  I'm endeavoring to lower my ignorance level by participating in this dialogue and educating myself on the issues involved in the Middle-East.  Time is a constraint for me, as I'm sure it is for many of you.  I cannot focus solely on this effort.  However, I will do what I can.  I will learn what I can.  I will lend my words and my voice where I can.  I think those of us that endeavor to think critically would do well to follow the example of those wise ones out there that constantly seek to educate themselves.  This must be our mandate.  To learn, grow, and get involved.  With that being said ... let's move forward.

What are my thoughts?  What do I believe must be done?  What's this one common man's opinion?

Let me say that I believe all things are possible.  I truly do believe this.  There is much we can't accomplish at present given certain circumstances.  However, peace is not one of them.  WE CAN HAVE PEACE.  However, in order to achieve peace, I think an incredibly large effort will have to be undertaken by both sides in this conflict.  I think they will both have to accept peace as a real possibility, not a fanciful thing a world away from reality.  They must agree to work towards tolerance and understanding, to work towards a steady and stable sense of security.  From tolerance and understanding, with security, will come eventual acceptance.  Believe this, with acceptance comes true friendship, and love across the line.  This love will grow and flourish, so long as peace is maintained, which is the province of the entire world.  We must all aid in the endeavor. 

As I have done on Facebook and YouTube, I implore anyone who reads this and decides to take up the cause to approach this dialogue with positive intent and critical cognition.  I have watched venom spewed back and forth between Muslim, Jew, Christian, Agnostic, and even Atheist thrown in for good measure.  Venom is counter-productive.  Utilizing religious dogma as facts in the critical argument is counter-productive.  A negative attitude is counter-productive.  Negativity should be considered psychological dead weight.  It does more than serve as a wall against progress.  Even if one can see the path to positivity, a negative attitude allows them to recognize it, but they cannot move towards it.  They are held fast in place, unable to drop the weight, and take even one step forward to the realization and full understanding of truth.  This is what we are up against in this conflict.



This image shows Israeli soldiers poised to enter Gaza.  They are heavily armed and ready for the fight.  They are seen to be on a mission of justice, a mission of right, indeed ... one could even consider it a mission of vengeance, for some do harbor this in their hearts, the need to avenge their Jewish fallen.  They are the men who will make things right, or so the Israeli government believes.

Can one disagree with this rationale? 

The truth is these soldiers will enter the battlefield with a single purpose, just as all soldiers do, to make it back alive.  They will watch the backs of their fellow warriors, achieve the objective mandated by their superiors, and then achieve the objective set before them by their bond of warrior brotherhood, to protect one another and make it out in one piece.  They will do this, because they were ordered to do this, without regard for the political ramifications.  This picture was the past.  These soldiers are right now doing their job with military precision, professionalism, and limited lost of life.  Consider this last sentence.  In this, I take into account perspective.  They are waging war.  Yet, it is a war that few want to see.  The phrase, limited loss of life, is unacceptable.  And as the world protests, and more people internalize the anger the man in the first image exudes, the mantle of the righteous slowly falls away from the Israeli soldier.  The professional, the consummate warrior, the just man willing to lay down his life to stop evil and protect home and hearth begins to take on the visage of something all together different.  In fact, with the recent bombing of UN Schools, many have called them something a noble soldier considers anathema ... terrorist.    

Israeli officials speak of how they are a modern nation and fight using a modern military.  They go about the business of achieving their objectives as a modern military fighting force.  They are not terrorists or guerrillas.  They truly are not, unless you view the tactical action from the perspective of a civilian who happens to be living in the same neighborhood as the target.  In this instance you're classed as collateral.  This is modern warfare, constrained and controlled.  Know this ... nothing was ever said that is more darkly amusing than the previous sentence.  War is not a thing to be constrained; there is only the attempt.  It should not be entered into lightly.  Its ramifications are never fully, accurately gauged.  Results can be and often are unpredictable.  Yet, we human beings continue to try. 



There has been a rise in anti-semitism worldwide.  Israel in particular and Jews in general should pay close attention to this phenomenon.  History can repeat itself.  We, as humans, continue to be capable of horrifying things, given the proper justification.  We commit evil in the name of God.  We call it something else, but it's evil just the same.  It's even more horrifying to encounter those who commit atrocities and watch as they try to rationalize their actions.  I implore Jews to think critically about the actions they take.  Right now there are those that are rationalizing, explaining why, urging people to understand their perspective.  Then, there are some who no longer care.  They dismiss world opinion, explaining that others do not live in Israel, do not suffer rockets landing on their homes, or suicide bombers blowing up buses and cafes.  

My sincere concern is this opinion is dangerous.  It can dredge up old feelings and incite people in other parts of the world to action that is counter-productive to Jewish interest outside of Israel.  In the extreme, it can lead to human disaster.  

Among the anti-semites there is increased talk about the efforts of the Zionist movement to control the world's financial markets.  I'm not sure what would be the Jews eventual goal by controlling all the world's money.  Honestly, if you question the supposition, what would be the objective?  So, they've got all the money, they lend it out, we pay it back at rates that aren't considered usury.  I don't like it, but what if they did?  So, they live rich.  What's after that?  What are the anti-semites trying to say?  Do they think the Jews would demand that we all turn to Judaism or die?  My friends, that's stupid.  I would normally toss spoonish notions such as this aside, if not for the fact that it's gaining traction with people who are educated.  This is not a good thing, my friends.  In fact, it's quite scary. 

Recently I saw a video of a man recording his own brother's death.  He was involved in creating an account of the effects of the Israeli attack, the destruction, the injuries, the loss of life.  He was creating raw footage to show the world the results of war.  Many of you have already seen this on CNN and YouTube.  He was in the field when he got a call from his family.  A missile fired from an Israeli drone had struck his family home.  His brother was critically injured and taken to the hospital.  What this man decided to do is EXACTLY what I propose they do.  You will see this in my plan below.  The camera continued to record as the doctors worked to save his brother's life, to no avail.  He was still recording as he watched his brother die.  Events such as this sway world opinion, and casts Israel in a disparaging light.  It makes no sense to sit on principle and claim he was just a casualty of war.  The world no longer views war as it once did.  Israel must consider this, as it considers its future prosperity, and the prosperity of Jews worldwide. 

Please look at the image below.  As I've said before it is my opinion that moving troops into Gaza was a strategic error on Israel's part.  It does not bode well for long-term peace.  Why do I say this? 



What was this man?  Was he a doctor?  Was he a teacher?  Was he a store owner?  Was he a day laborer?  What was he?  I do not know.  Nor does it matter in regard to the point I am making.  What matters is that all I see around the image is sand, a latex hand and an arm, and two other individuals who appear to feel this man's suffering.  I don't think anyone around him has a desire to talk about peace.  I don't think they have the desire to discuss the long-term options that they might choose in order to build a nation.  I don't think they care about talking to this man, consoling him, and helping him forgive his enemies.  And I will be honest with you.  If I were this man I would not at all be open to forgiveness.  In fact, I might be inclined to take my own life in an action that might possible result in the death of many of my enemies.  I might indeed spend years dwelling on doing such a thing, on seeking vengeance, on death and destruction, and pushing the enemy into the sea.  It is this, so-called collateral damage that adds soldiers to the Hamas and Hezbollah cause.  Every action creates a reaction, and so the cycle continues.  Was this man a man of peace?  Now, his two-year-old son lies bloodied and broken.  His feet are cold.  His bare body is cold.  He is lifeless.  He has no spirit in this shell.  His father will forever remember his smile, the light in his eyes, the steps he first took, and the joy he felt when his boy leapt into his arms.  All this brightness is gone.  Was this man a man of peace?  Is he still?  What do you think?

The question, in terms of long-term strategy, asks Israel to play out the objective of crippling Hamas, destroying its leadership, effectively cutting off its ability to conduct launches, and make the people of Gaza understand that if ever they take such action against the sovereign state of Israel again this catastrophic death and destruction will be the result.  This objective must be balanced against another, the creation of soldiers for the continued war against Israel.  The extremist objective?  Push the Jews into the sea.  Now, look at the man above.  Even though this objective of Israeli destruction is infantile and ignorant, it is a proud and worthwhile objective to the man whose son has been dashed against the stone by the concussive force of Israeli directed munitions.  He has lost his ability to rationalize and think clearly.  He can't reach for critical thinking, because his mind is clouded by hate and images of death and destruction.  He was created in this moment of anarchy for a tactical goal, and is now committed to the extremist objective, by whatever means necessary, even if the objective is completely and totally moronic in nature. 



Critical questions:  Is unrestricted warfare equal to terror?  Is it shock and awe, and terror?  At what level might we consider it terror?  As we advance and evolve it becomes painfully clear that we have moved beyond simple conquest by any means.  We now define rules of engagement.  War takes place at levels.  Even unrestricted war requires rules to a certain degree.  We use phrases like proportional response, tactical objective, collateral damage, non-combatant, and directed weapons.  We do all this to try and make war civilized.  The plain fact is that war is not a civilized activity, nor will it be.  To think otherwise is spoonish in the extreme.  We must understand war.  We must accept war as a by-product of human evolution.  We must have faith in the belief that war between humans will one day be a thing of the past.  We must believe in something even beyond our religions.  The rule must be:

HUMAN DOES NOT KILL HUMAN

However, the day for such an evolved human axiom is not today.  Humans kill humans and will continue to kill humans for the foreseeable future.  There may be a time in our future for unrestricted warfare in the name of freedom and what's right, to defend against global tyranny.  However, we have not seen such horrific naked aggression, such blatant and open acts meant to establish a global hegemony since World War II.  We do not live in an era of unrestricted warfare.  The world seems to agree on this point.  Israel must step back.  A cease-fire must be put in place.  It is of paramount importance, if we want to hold on to any hope of a long-term peace treaty, and the Two-State goal.  

And what of the terrorists?  Unfortunately, we know the fate of most.  They are too far gone.  Their eyes are overshadowed by the feathers of the hawk, and cannot see the dove in the distance.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the leaders and sad cannon fodder that retain some modicum of rationality.  I'm talking about the ones that watch, listen, consider, and in the back of their minds ... question. 



What does a quick critical study of rebellion in the 20th and 21st centuries tell us?  Ireland, South Africa, the Balkans, Central Africa, Central America, South East Asia.  Hotspots all over the world are boiling with rebellion, to no avail.  People band together, work with illegal arms dealers, secure tons of weapons, and then hurl themselves mightily at military industrial complexes that were birthed centuries ago, grew, and by the time Word War II was won, had matured into interlocking behemoths of restrained power.  The world is far different from when America fought and won her independence.  No spot on planet Earth is far away from the might of modern war machines.  Terrorists hide, but to what purpose?  While hiding they cannot achieve their objective.  They utilize guerrilla tactics, and have fanciful dreams of bringing down mighty nations with surgical strikes using plans and processes developed in caves.  If they step too far into the light of day they risk detection from space, or the well trained eyes, ears, and mouth of practiced snitches handled by trained intelligence operatives.  If they go for it all, and attempt a massive strike, what does the mighty machine do next? 



It hurls F-15 Strike Eagles, F-117A Stealth Fighters, FA-18 Hornets, F-16 Fighting Falcons, and AC130H Spectre Gunships (favorite of Special Forces) at the terrorist.  It turns them to boiling mounds of flesh.  If the terrorist try to retreat, and the mighty machine is choosing conquest of land, then ground troops are deployed using the latest in assault weaponry, riding in Bradley Fighting vehicles, and driving M-1 Abrams tanks that fire Depleted Uranium Core shells, making things white hot for any terrorist thinking they can hide in some kind of armored vehicle.  I can't even begin to tell how horrible these weapons are.  Just look them up for yourself.   In this I'm speaking to the terrorist with a modicum of rationality.  Is your band of fighters equipped to win against this machine?  Can you hurt parts of it?  Certainly.  Can you win?  More importantly, does this struggle help you attain your objective?  Of course, is your objective reasonable? 

Those who know me know that I live my life as a positive person.  My father-in-law referred to me as a dreamer.  On my website I call myself an Imagineer.  These things are true.  However, even as I write my fictional stories, I base them on some facet of fact.  When I think about ideas that involve human interaction, they are based on some fact that I've been made aware of regarding the evolution of humankind, and my personal belief on what we can and should be.  That being said, most will consider my ideas to be naive.  That's fair.  I accept this categorization.  Still, I will posit my ideas.  Perhaps someone will agree.  Perhaps someone will help take up the cause.  Perhaps the idea will spread.  Perhaps the dreamer can bring something into the world that even though at first glance appears beyond the pale, most certainly naive, it's not without merit, and with aid can be made real.  Read my dream below.  It is based on critical cognition and acknowledgment of the possibility of human behavior.  Tell me if you can't see this as a reality.  If not, tell me how can we make it reality.  I intend to remain positive in this.  If you say can't, I ask why not?  The answers are always critical, and can point the path towards a real and effective solution.  Consider it.

USE 3FE: FIND, FOCUS, establish the Fundamentals, EXECUTE

As we walk our minds mentally through the Find phase, what are our objectives?  To try and gather data, information about a few pertinent details.  We want to operate at a macro level, and honestly attempt to breakdown the complex.  For us common people we really want to simply stretch our minds, and offer options. 

Who are we studying?  The Israelis and Palestinians.
What do we seek in this effort?  To find a way to achieve peace between the two parties, and end the generational conflict.
Where is this conflict taking place?  In small but infinitely significant part of the world, what is considered Holy Land, but for our critical objective, simply the Middle East.
Why is resolving this conflict so challenging?  This is far too complex a question to answer in any detail here.  Suffice it to say there was land given, land taken, land claimed, and far too many people have died for this very same land.
How can we even begin to attempt to resolve this conflict?  The application of critical thinking skills, the consideration of the facts as they are, how both sides are living, what is being permitted, what is being denied, clearly seeing a path to a true objective, and building a concrete road to its realization.
What do we hear?  We hear Palestinians dying, from Israeli bombs ... and suicide bombs, from which we then hear Israelis dying.  We hear the claims of righteousness.  We hear the deadly action.  We hear the celebration of murder, but not called murder because it is an act of war.  We hear children dying, and it breaks the heart of the world. 
What do we see? Chaos.  No more need be said. 
What do we know to be true?  That intractable foes can still be brought to the table to forge a real cease-fire, and attain peace.

As I Focused on this information what came to light?  I re-read the above questions and answers and the following rose to the top of my mind.

Can Israel agree to a vibrant stable Palestinian nation?  Can they believe in this goal and still feel secure?  My opinion, they must.  It is the human imperative that must drive them to accept this condition.  A glimmer of hope in this, as I have come to understand it, is that the majority of Palestinians and Israelis realize that there is a solution, and it is the only solution that is truly attainable.  The Two-State solution is the only objective that allows for tolerance, which is the indisputable pathway towards full-acceptance, security, and lasting peace.

However, Hamas must cease to exist as an organization in its current form.  On NPR a Jew explained how it is virtually impossible for Palestinians to throw off the yoke of the terrorists.  They live in thrall to the wishes of the charismatic anachronistic leaders of these death-dealing organizations that lay claim to legitimacy; these vile leaders that tell others it is acceptable to die in the name of the cause, even if it is not the cause of their heart.  This is truly a difficult thing to consider.  There are thousands of civilians living among armed death-dealers.  They fear for their lives.  Communicating with a Jew could mean death.  Their environment is incredibly stressful.  Death is a constant.  The charismatic anachronisms know this.  They see their own people ... as cannon fodder.  The people that will come to populate a new and glorious Palestine cannot and should not see themselves as fodder, shields, human weapons to thrust into the heart of the Jews.  If they can't throw off the yoke of evil then Israel, and the rest of the world must help them do it.  Still, they must first act.  They must choose their direction.  If Hamas, Hezbollah, or any other terrorist organization does not comply, these new people of Palestine must act decisively to bring them in line.  

Why do this?  Why turn against their so-called own?  Simple, just because you may be of the same ethnicity that does not mean you are of the same mind.  Those who follow the leaders and purveyors of pain know no limit to the amount suffering they can and will bring to any civilian who stands against them.  Still, it is the civilians who must dare first.  The world must see it.  Then, the world must come to their aid.  Why do it?  Because when the world comes, we won't step back, we won't run away.  Make the effort worthwhile. Show promise.  And the world will stay.   

If they do this, the world must, can, and will come to help the Palestinians build a strong, peaceful nation, if this is what they truly desire.  Can this be done?  Yes, Gaza is a land with natural resources.  Instead of focusing on spreading terror, time any energy should be focused on developing Gaza into what it can truly be, a Middle-Eastern paradise to rival Dubai.  Can you see it.  No?  Try again!  We need new ideas, new approaches that capture the hearts and minds of powers worldwide! 


Here are a few Fundamental plans to Execute from a common man with a common mind:

1) The Palestinians of one mind for peace should join together and march.  Yes, march!  Walk as one northward from Gaza and westward from the Westbank.  They should walk weaponless towards Israel with hands together, and faces wide with wonder and the promise of peace.  Yes, there will be wonder, if you can imagine such a thing as this being real.  Palestinians all over Palestine should frequently engage in the Palestinian MARCH TOWARDS THE WALL.  They should show Israel their intent, their sincere desire for peace.  They should march towards it even as they fear reprisals, taunts of betrayal, and possible death by the hands of their lost brothers.  They should march towards it even as they fear being cut down by the Israeli military.  Know that in an effort such as this, they would be joined by thousands of Jews who share the same vision. 

Regarding this wall, I once supported Sharon's idea of security.  I was wrong.  The Wall is a travesty.  People of the world who know the words ghetto and apartheid must protest the completion of this wall.  I am truly talking about the Jews first, who knew the forced imprisonment in the ghettos of World War II Poland.  The rest of us who know the pain of decaying urbanization and forced relegation should readily follow.  Still, the Palestinians should lead the way.  I promise you with all my heart and soul this could be true, and would come to pass, if only the Palestinians would take the first step, and begin the long march. 
 

2) Enact the World Watch Initiative.  This plan calls for those with means to help those of us that want to engage get equipment to those people in the parts of the world suffering by humanity's easy descent into evil.  They should have camcorders.  They should have cheap laptops.  They should have Internet access and cell phones.  Why should they have these things?  So that they can enact the World Watch, and tell their stories first-hand.  This should not be used for propaganda.  These tools should be used to promote a sense of openness from one human being to another.  If death is the result, then the story should be told without high production values, but rather in the raw, as it happens, so the rest of us can know the atrocity in all its ugliness, can speak out against it, and quickly, aggressively, decisively, effectively, act against it as that part of the free world of humanity that stands against evil ready to defend at a moments notice. 
 
3) Establish the Palestinian National Development Organization.  A national organization with authority to partner with Israel and other International entities in order to fully develop the Palestinian nation.  
    Objectives:
    - Grow crops and farmland by creating business and cooperatives in order to make Palestine self-sufficient at some level
       with regard to food.
    - Build a national school program.  No Madrassas.  These schools will be dedicated to teaching critical thinking skills, and making
      children and adults literate, and industrious.  Once a person graduates then she or he can go get involved with religion.  The
      school's objective will be to elevate the population to the academic level of the 1st world nations.  
    - The PNDO should also be responsible for working with the UN and other aligned countries in order to facilitate building
     infrastructure, and thereby bring businesses to Gaza and the West Bank. 
    - Make Gaza and the West Bank environments that attract International entities that see opportunity in the new Palestine.
    - Make the new Palestine a tax free place to conduct business
    - Enact the PALESTINE  2015 Initiative.  Make Gaza and the West Bank peaceful Paradises by 2015.  Turn Gaza and the West
       Banks into words that are synonymous with dignity, peace, ethics, and prosperity
    -  Allow Israeli security forces to temporarily partner with Palestinian forces at borders and checkpoints operating under the
       auspices of International Peace Keeping forces (not traditional UN forces that have proven ineffective).  This effort will be 
       enacted in order to prevent the New Palestine from becoming a haven for terrorist.

These are my thoughts.  Again, I'm a dreamer.  I have so many dreams.  Still, one of my heroes had a dream.  He marched for that dream.  He stood up, and walked to the wall, in peace.  He moved first a nation, and then the entire world.  He was so revered by the international community that they bestowed upon him their highest honor, the Nobel Peace Prize.  He died for that dream, struck down by one who represented the establishment, but was actually the rebel.  He was a rebel against change, however he hastened a movement forward.  Modern terrorists may say they fit the mold of my hero by way of sacrifice.  They do not.  Such a statement shows sincere ignorance.  My hero died without a gun in his hand.  He was a man of peace.  And by his actions, I am here to tell you my dream, without fear of persecution in the country I love, and call my home.