Peace in the Middle East Arises as ‘Public Interest’ Realises Love is Truly Y/OUR Answer
This is an article from the Elders a group of peacemakers. Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General talks about the need for peace in Israel and Palestine. I am writing this noticing I wrote “in” not between. There is a deeper truth. We cannot facilitate peace unless there is a recognition of its value and a desire for its actualisation. Kofi Annan referred to the political problem but in truth it is a spiritual problem. Moreover, it is a wound that the people must heal as the politicians have to many interests in maintaining warfare as an extension of power. Moreover, the conflict spawns more surveillance technology, arms deals and fortified positions that use the conflict to agitate for violence, one way or the other. It is for those who feel the peace, who can see the children crying and the families in constant fear of attack, who will sit with real peace and how it can be manifest. I actually dreamed I went to Israel. I couldn’t recall what happened but there was a strong feeling of a desire for peace to descend on this fertile crescent where the desert flowers and renewable sermons on the mount replace old scripture. These new sermons will be about unity, seeing oneself in the other, reaching out in compassion, seeking the truth for a win/win for when we move out of the victim status we will find our power to co-create another way. I feel this intent within my spirit intensely. Yet with this awareness I can step back and observe whether the Palestinian and Israeli people will find that feather of truth to liberate them from fear. Only love can do that, only forgiveness opens that door, only enlightenment shines the light on a renewable path as one stands higher to gain a greater perspective. Peace starts with each person and it is a decision. It is not to allow criticism, anger, hate to darken the vision to remember we are ONE family. Many families are in discord but it takes real strength to see beyond the conflict to a promised land. This promised land is not a place it is an inner state that is not political but holds an unshakeable vision of a possible future that can arrive when we focus not only with faith but conviction that peace is real. Indeed only love is real. Beyond the drama it awaits our welcome. I welcome peace in the Middle East as every act of kindness. I watch it expand as unconditional love becomes the concentric waves that lead by example refusing to weaken to hate. This is the spiritual solution that spins and does not get nowhere but re-members to be here-now.
May those teachers they follow remember random acts of kindness which is a kind act without thinking. The right to exist and human rights are a given, we all not only have the right to be human, it is not possible to not have this. Clearly Israel does exist, it is not possible to say what is so is not so. No-one can take anything unless we believe on some level we are less, that is never true. Powerlessness is the pointer, the clue for both sides. Yes it can seem one side is stronger than the other or more dangerous than the other but love transcends all power structures as it brings sanity to insanity that believes the ‘other’ can be destroyed, when clearly they can’t. One can expand the war but ultimately what you put out comes back as a universal law.
I know this helplessness for I too saw myself as losing my dignity through the power of others, I too felt humiliated and abused to discover they when I believed that was possible I suffered. So I hold out the olive branch to those who have deeply suffered and say you are dearly loved and life is a journey of self discovery. I ask what have you learned? What have you realised in yourself? No-one can take anything that you do not give, no-one can give anything you do not take. Remember the power and strength resides in hospitality, mercy, kindness, peace, truth and forgiveness. This is the real power where the universe is on your side. The question is – do you believe this? Or do you believe you are a victim? One thought empowers the other imprisons.
An interesting quote:
“Peace and security cannot be achieved in isolation from human rights,” she said. “Desperate people subject to humiliation and abuse will inevitably resort to violence. People who are robbed of their humanity and dignity will inevitably want revenge.” One need only look at the history of the Palestinian people over the last 70 years to see how much truth is in her words.
You cannot end conflict it will always exist, the issue is repeated abuse (bullying). There is no final solution to remove a problem there is only the hard work of conflict resolution that rests within each group to face their pain with understanding. The word final solution was used recently by an Australian politician in relation to Muslims and white Australia. I heard another one refer to the holocaust. These statements do not reflect the Australian people who are multicultural. They reflect interests. Conflict transformation can only occur when people look into their own prejudices, their own violence, their own stories and face that there war can never succeed as negativity is self destructive as a universal law. That is why fascism fell, it planted the seeds of its own demise. Gandhi stated
“Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”
Resolution can never happen at the end of a gun, or using wars to punish (clean) the “other” or internment, detention, concentration camps demonising a group on the basis of their religion or colour. It can only resolve in the hearts of those with the deepest anger and pain who are in denial or blind to their part. These are the ones who live in a state of righteousness or ‘rightness’ or locked into ideologies where they will fight to the end. I feel their pain as they seek to find the enemy and pay back to feel better. Guilt replaces revenge and the cycle of violence deepens and is transferred to children expected to keep the fight alive. Yet no-one realises it is the negativity that feeds on more of it, only love can break this shared darkness. Only love is real. Darkness is the absence of light, all ultimately can reconnect with true purpose as breakthroughs will bring enormous joy to all people.
I send love to all sides in the recognition that all are my people and I feel deeply for both sides who I am seeking to help through my blogs and speaking what feels to be a pathway. What we do to another we do to ourselves as we are all connected far beyond what is understood. Each mirrors the other, for you cannot see what is termed ‘bad’ without knowing it within. You have to have a reference. I’ll give you an example. Christopher Columbus comes to the Americas. The indigenous are on the beach can only see ripples but not the ships, why? They have never seen ships therefore they have no inner reference. The medicine man sees the ripples and suddenly the ships materialise for him. Why? He is used to seeing the unseen and is expecting a solution. It is our negative projections we see not the other, what we see is unquestioned as we do not know ourselves. We are not open to being wrong as this is weakness, in truth it opens to possibilities where solutions can arise as the mind is open. Only when the heart is open can the mind open. This is open mindedness. This is a critical awareness. To break free of the illusion/self deception one has to develop an inner love, an inner desire for truth, a space for forgiveness (know not what they do, ignorance) and stillness to really sit with the problem and ask for solutions as life is intelligent.
What do YOU see in the mirror is always your own reflection?
Do you seek to see the beauty in yourself or what is ugly?
There is an answer awaiting your discovery when you feel for the truth that sets you free. The gold nugget is not in arms sales or walls, it is the fool’s gold that holds what is priceless. Until that is found conflict will continue as what we resist persists what we look at disappears. Can you look deeply enough to see through the problem? Can you find the gold? When you do you will free yourself.
Donald Trump is not a peace envoy as he is in inner conflict and he is unable to mediate when he is favouring one side over another. The people are the envoys when they choose to reach out to mothers, fathers and children to share what is held in common. The peace will then arise in the silence of one’s own heart. This is the true rainbow bridge. REAL HOPES is my work and this is offered to those in the Middle East. I once offered it to a school in Bethlehem, but they were not ready. I am offering my work as an olive branch again and I ask – do you want peace? If you say yes, the war is over. Happiness replaces confusion. The answer was always there it is a question of seeing it. Understand?
Visit my website:
http://schools.worldpeacefull.com/(click on anti-bullying)
http://www.worldpeacefull.com/ (my vision and workshops to transform conflict)
A poem for you if you recite it it will help you connect to love opening you to another way: https://wpas.worldpeacefull.com/2011/12/i-am-love-this-is-the-way/
The Truth of Peace: https://wpas.worldpeacefull.com/2011/08/realising-the-truth-of-peace/
The Work of Byron Katie is designed for you to question what is unquestioned (stuck) to find the way home to real freedom http://thework.com/en
https://theelders.org/article/donald-trumps-deal-must-put-palestinian-rights-centre-stage?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter-September%202018%20GHB%20Kofi%20Annan%20passing%20and%20India%20UHC&utm_content=Newsletter-September%202018%20GHB%20Kofi%20Annan%20passing%20and%20India%20UHC+Version+A+CID_7f3d0887e476e143eca490ea570bc82d&utm_source=Campaign%20monitor
The bold below is mine intuitively selected.
Donald Trump’s deal must put Palestinian rights centre stage
Writing in the Financial Times, Kofi Annan welcomes fresh approaches to peacemaking but warns that any deal that does not address the root causes of the conflict will be doomed to failure.
“The only way to achieve this is a two-state solution delivering security for Israelis and justice and prosperity for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.” –Kofi Annan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with President Donald Trump at Ben Gurion Airport in 2017 (Credit: Amos Ben Gershom GPO)
After more than a century of struggle between Jewish Zionist and Palestinian Arab movements in the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the river Jordan, a fresh approach is urgently needed to deliver peace and justice to all who today call it their home.
Ever since the state of Israel was created in 1948, the US has been the indispensable actor in the region. Israel’s security has been strengthened by previous US-sponsored peace deals, most significantly the Camp David agreement with Egypt brokered by US president Jimmy Carter in 1978.
Today, the US is arguably the one country with decisive influence on both the Israelis and Palestinians. So there is intense global interest in the self-styled “ deal of the century” that President Donald Trump is expected to announce in the coming weeks. In this context, it is worth reconsidering remarks made last year by the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC.
“Peace and security cannot be achieved in isolation from human rights,” she said. “Desperate people subject to humiliation and abuse will inevitably resort to violence. People who are robbed of their humanity and dignity will inevitably want revenge.” One need only look at the history of the Palestinian people over the last 70 years to see how much truth is in her words.
As Americans know from their own history, a people deprived of liberty and dignity will never be pacified. Nor will they meekly accept a settlement imposed by outsiders that redraws borders and redefines sovereignty without popular consent. Any fresh approach to peacemaking must be welcome in principle. The international community needs to be candid: despite decades of dedicated attempts by external mediators, including previous US administrations and the Arab Peace Initiative, the problem is as intractable as ever.
Child in Rafah collect water from one of the working public taps (Credit: Mohammed Al Baba/Oxfam)
A bold new US plan could break the deadlock and encourage Israeli and Palestinian politicians to be equally audacious in their approach to peacemaking. Yet, if it does not address the root causes of the conflict, including historic dispossession, illegal settlement expansion, the status of Jerusalem as a shared capital and the rights of Palestinian refugees, the deal will be doomed to failure.
Economic aid and financial incentives to boost the Palestinian economy via infrastructure projects are welcome, but past attempts to bring about peace through trade and development without political progress have not succeeded. Both James Wolfensohn and Tony Blair, as former envoys, tried to stimulate growth, yet without freedom of movement for Palestinian goods and workers progress remains miserly.
Today there is scant evidence in the Knesset, the Palestinian Authority or the Hamas leadership of the courage needed to grasp the political nettle and work for the common good. The wider geopolitical and security environment in the Middle East is also unprecedentedly volatile, as bloody conflicts persist in Syria and Yemen; traditional alliances in the Gulf are in flux; and sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims reach dangerously high peaks.
If the forthcoming plan is to succeed, it needs to pass three tests:
- Is it a plan that can bring a definitive end to the conflict?
- Will it be acceptable to the Palestinian people as a whole — not only their leadership?
- Will a viable, united and contiguous Palestinian state that has sovereignty over the key ingredients of statehood — domestic security, borders, and control of population — be allowed to develop and prosper? The plan must also be firmly rooted in international law and UN resolutions.
I am a firm supporter of the state of Israel’s right to exist. I’m equally firm in my support of the right of Palestinians to a state of their own. The only way to achieve this is a two-state solution delivering security for Israelis and justice and prosperity for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
To achieve this solution, all parties must act urgently and in good faith. Nearly 30 years ago, the world witnessed another deal of the century — the agreement between Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk to end apartheid in South Africa. Mandela’s approach to peacemaking was driven by an unswerving commitment to justice, but also infused with his humane values of tolerance, respect and magnanimity even towards his former jailers.
As people come together to celebrate the centenary year of Madiba’s birth, I hope his spirit guides those in Washington, Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Gaza so that lasting peace can be enjoyed by the people of Israel and Palestine.