An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
- Mahatma Gandhi
We are destined to live together, on the same soil in the same land. We, the soldiers who have returned from battle stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, we who have attended their funerals and cannot look into the eyes of their parents, we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians We say to you today in a loud and clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough.
We have no desire for revenge. We harbor no hatred towards you. We, like you, are people who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, live side by side with you in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men. We are today giving peace a chance and again saying to you in a clear voice: Enough.
In the wake of the attacks in Paris, it’s easy to feel as if Something Must Be Done, that a response must be mounted to make it loud and clear that terrorism cannot and will not triumph over freedom and self-determination. I’ve heard and read so many examples of people arguing that ISIS/ISIL must be dealt with firmly, that the West must not allow this atrocity to go unanswered. I understand the frustration and anger behind this viewpoint, but I can’t help but wonder how more violence and bloodshed will move the world closer to peace. How will yet more killing lead to a world in which fewer innocents are killed?
The answer to violence is never more violence. Responding in kind can only create an endless cycle of carnage, recrimination, and suffering; it’s not a precursor to a peaceful resolution. Turning the Middle East in to (in the words of one friend) “a glass parking lot” will only create more radicalized fighters with nothing to live for…but plenty to die for. An eye for an eye will eventually succeed in making the whole world blind.
Instead of determining who to destroy, perhaps a better choice might be to figure our why so many feel it perfectly appropriate to kill innocents whose only “crime” lies in not sharing a bastardized, rigid, judgmental, and brutally oppressive religious faith that’s neither religious nor faithful. How is it that one can presume their religious beliefs to be the ONLY acceptable faith and that the lives of all who don’t fall into theological lockstep should be rights be forfeit? What sort of arrogance allows someone to convince themselves that ONLY their flavor of Imaginary Friend?
I’m profoundly saddened that the forces of darkness and evil are so firmly entrenched in the Middle East that they’re able to use religion as providing license to destroy innocent lives. Radical religion- whether Islam or Christianity- has nothing to do with the teachings of either faith; they’re merely poor justification for sowing bloodshed and destruction in the name of an intensely disturbing and intolerant worldview. The “Islam” of ISIS/ISIL and other groups is as much about the teachings of Mohammed as the “Christianity” of Eric Rudolph, Scott Roeder, Rev. Paul Hill, and others like them are about the teachings of Jesus Christ.
In no way am I going to hold forth about claiming to know what the solution to the seemingly intractable problem of terrorism is. I honestly don’t have a pat and/or easy answer, in part because I know there simply isn’t one available. What I do know is that meeting violence and bloodshed with yet more of the same is a recipe for an endless cycle of attack and response- a plethora of anger, recrimination, blood, and tears that will continue until someone with the courage and foresight to say “ENOUGH!” with authority. Innocent people will continue to die for no other reason than being unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time, and those responsible will treat splashy, very public acts of murder as a great “triumph” for their “cause.”
Must we respond to bloodshed and destruction in kind? Is there another way? I wish I had an answer. All I do know is that meeting violence with violence isn’t a solution, though I suspect it will at least in the short term feel righteous and justified. In the end, though, we must find a way to come to grips with our shared humanity and recognize that differences in religious faith, lifestyle, or whatever aspect of life one happens to fixate on do not mark one as apostates and worthy only of death.
If we can’t co-exist together, we surely will perish separately as humanity kills itself off for reasons ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. It’s time we found a way to end this cycle of blood and tears before there’s no one left to bleed and cry.
