This is my article last Friday in the online magazine with the original title, "Tolerance, Co-existence and the Middle East Conflict", http://thelobbyist.biz/index.php/perspectives/less-government/item/125-tolerance-co-existence-and-the-middle-east-conflict
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The world is modernizing, people and goods are becoming
more mobile across countries and continents, and diversity and spontaneity
among people is expanding. This new situation calls for more tolerance, to
recognize such diversity among people without resorting to violence. Tolerance
of people diversity guided by existing rules and respect for the rights of
other people to co-exist will ensure peace in the planet.
This is not happening in the Middle East as shown by the
recent eight-days war between the Palestine in Gaza and Israel. A truce became
effective on November 22 brokered by the governments of Egypt and the US. But
this seems to be another temporary respite from another war.
The main problem in the Middle East conflict is the lack
of respect or recognition for peaceful co-existence between the Palestine and
Israel. While the latter recognizes the former’s right of existence, the
latter, especially the Hamas militants, does not show the same attitude.
After the six-days war in 1967 where many Arab nations
simultaneously attacked Israel but they were all defeated and they all
retreated, Israel could have abolished Gaza from the map and allowed only the
West Bank as the homeland for the Palestinians, but they did not. In contrast,
Hamas wants nothing but the total abolition of Israel from the map and the
whole of Israel will become a homeland for the Palestinians. Peaceful
co-existence is a strange or even a non-acceptable word for Hamas and other
Arab militants.
As long as Hamas and other Arab militants want the total
abolition of Israel, war in that area will be endless as Israel will defend
itself and its people. And since Israel has the economic and military superiority
over the Palestinians, then in any war between the two, damage and casualty
will always be larger on the Palestine side.
When Israel conducted those aerial attacks and bombings,
many Palestinian civilians, most likely family members and neighbors of Hamas
militants, were injured or killed. To avoid or minimize high civilian
casualties, Hamas militants should have their own military installations away
from houses and schools. They can fire rockets from there, not from houses,
schools or other civilian structures.
A quick look at the Middle East map would show that Syria
and Jordan, next to the West Bank, have huge lands. Can they donate a portion
of their lands for their brother Palestinians?
Egypt too has a huge land area, can they also donate some
land to their brother Palestinians in Gaza? Why insist on the abolition of
Israel from the map? Israel land area is actually very small compared to those
of Jordan, Saudi, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Iran.
Israel must also temper the fundamentalists among its
citizens like those who expand Jewish settlements in contested territories or
those considered neutral grounds with the West Bank.
A friend from Pakistan, Zubair Malik, argued that
“Victory has many fathers, defeat has none! I wish you should have seen the
plight of Palestinian before commenting. Houses destroyed, innocent women and
children killed. Have Fear of God and this applies to both Israel and Palestinians
. Every Human Life irrespective of color or creed has a right to peaceful
existence.”
I told Zubair that like him and many other people around
the world, I also wish to see PEACE anywhere in the world. No more rockets to
land anywhere, no more jet fighters dropping bombs, nor tanks and ground
fighting. I even wish that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) be
abolished someday along with the evaporation of armed revolution by the
communist New People’s Army (NPA). We need to have more tolerance, more respect
for human rights, more respect for the right to existence of other people other
than our color, religion, or cultural belief, and settle disputes in
non-violent means.
The old formula of "banish Israel from the planet" is formulation of deep intolerance, of deep hatred and non-recognition of diversity among people, So long as such intolerance and desire for physical annihilation of another group of people persists, the war in that region will be endless. And when there is war, there is high casualty of civilians, their houses, schools, other structures.
The old formula of "banish Israel from the planet" is formulation of deep intolerance, of deep hatred and non-recognition of diversity among people, So long as such intolerance and desire for physical annihilation of another group of people persists, the war in that region will be endless. And when there is war, there is high casualty of civilians, their houses, schools, other structures.
I stumbled upon this document, the Hamas Charter.
"The
time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the
Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew
hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" -- Article Seven, Hamas
Charter (1988) .
Why is there such explicit, categorical exhortation to
hatred and murder? Why this deep intolerance?
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank seems to be
more tolerant compared to Hamas in Gaza. From the Hamas Charter of 1988, there
was heavy reference to Allah, their literature can mislead non-Muslim readers
into believing that the explicit hatred and categorical violence that they
espouse is consistent with the Muslim faith, which is not true.
Now that a truce and ceasefire is in effect, we can sigh
with relief that the rockets and air attacks on both sides have stopped. Let us
hope that a lasting peace can prevail in that region, whether it will take a
thousand years or more. Respect for diversity among people is our key to
building a prosperous and peaceful planet.
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See also:
Israel-Hezbollah war, August 08, 2006
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 4: Libya succession, February 26, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 5: Gadhafi wealth, March 01, 2011Unrest in MidEast-Africa 6: Should US jets enter Libya?, March 08, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 7: Cry for freedom, March 11, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 8: Bahrain rebellion, March 16, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 9: Gaddafi falldown, August 24, 2011
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