Global Public Forums On The Middle East Conflict?

I have uploaded a report and pasted the link below.  The report was produced to explore and share the issues and ideas of Terrorism and The Middle East Conflict.  The survey was undertaken with academics, NGO’s, lay people attending a public forum on Terrorism held at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.  The comments from this report are still relevant today and could provide insights and answers to solve this problem.  The purpose of making public this report is to encourage others to start talking, creating dialogue constructively and find solutions to help those who seem unable to resolve this problem.  Why not create global public forums in each country to work on Solutions for the Middle East.  Then talk to politicians and make the change happen through the powerful vehicle of public opinion.  Feel free to copy my questions and make your own forum where you are and start solving this problem as a member of the human family. 

William Gladstone says it best “We look forward to the time when the power of love overcomes love of power then our world will know the blessings peace.”  There is nothing truer than that. 

This report below was created from an intention for love. May the ideas in it help to start conversations and a willingness to stop the fighting and create outcomes that are a win/win for both sides.   Just click on the little right hand side icon to open it up and read or save as a pdf.  We can create the change when we CHOOSE it.  Disempowerment and apathy are the real issues underlying why nothing happens.  When you believe it you will see it.

In my view, the conflict in the Middle East has to stop now.  There are no reasons it cannot be resolved, any problem can resolve when there is a willingness, it is important to understand the needs and concerns of both sides and help them to find pathways that will help both find peace.  To have peace one must become peace.  You cannot fight for it, you can only create an intention for it to happen. Visualise peace then feel that reality as the future.  It will happen.

I do believe that public opinion worldwide has shifted and all people want to see an end to this.  It is not hard to work out the facts of the conflict and determine that injustice has taken place on both sides and that innocent people are baring the brunt of the failure of politicians on many sides (domestic, international) to desire to resolve it given the vested interests.   Perhaps the figures below will help develop that resolve around the world.

Below is some information from http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stat/deaths.htm

Deaths of Israelis and Palestians in the current violence 1,182 Israelis (12%) and 8,795 (88%) Palestians killed since September 29 2000.  

American news reports repeatedly describe Israeli military attacks against the Palestinian population as “retaliation.” However, when one looks into the chronology of death in this conflict, the reality turns out to be quite different.

The numbers in this chart http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stat/deaths.htm include civilians and combatants killed by members of the opposing nationality (and therefore, do not include Palestinians killed by an explosive device that they set or was on their person, Israelis killed in ‘friendly fire’ incidents, etc.). The numbers also do not include the sizable number of Palestinians who died as a result of inability to reach medical care due to Israeli road closures, curfews, the Israeli closure of border crossing from Gaza, etc. 

The figure for Palestinian deaths is extremely conservative, since it is difficult for B’Tselem to report on deaths in the Palestinian territories. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, internationally respected for its statistical rigor, reports significantly higher numbers of Palestinian deaths. We do not doubt the reliability of their data, and only use B’Tselem’s more conservative numbers because they collect data on both populations.

In the past we used the statistics provided by Israel’s military for the number of Israelis killed, but they have not updated their statistics page since early in 2006. In addition, there is reason to believe that their numbers may have been somewhat inflated.

 * The Palestinian people do not have a military, so the usual classification of civilian is not being used. Instead B’Tselem provides data on the number of Palestinians who did not participate in hostilities, a significantly more stringent qualification than the one used to identify Israeli civilians. We do not know how many of the Israelis listed as civilians participated in the hostilities. Many settlers who illegally have taken over parts of the West Bank (and used to live in parts of the Gaza Strip) are heavily armed and there have been numerous reports of their brutal attacks on their Palestinian neighbors.

Causes of Deaths of Israeli Soldiers 2005

Source: Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Oct. 10, 2005, p. 6.
Note: The paper also reported that since 1992, 459 Israeli soldiers have committed suicide.

The choice in my view comes down to whether we whether we want a Hobbesian (Thomas Hobbes philosopher) worldview of ‘tooth and claw’ (law of the jungle, strongest rather than fairest) where national, strategic and self interests (control, violence, power) is preferred to the Lockean (John Locke philosopher) worldview of justice, international law, human rights and democracy (humanitarian).  I clearly am voting for the latter. 

It is astounding to me that so many wars now are targeting innocent civilians and calling them collatoral damage with inpunity.  To those responsible for these military and political decisions I would ask – if it was your family being murdered, being tormented, jailed, tortured and living in constant states of fear, how would you feel? Would that matter to you.  Stop for a moment and contemplate this deeply in tight of a philosophical wisdom – what you do to another comes back to self (karma).  How you feel when you reflect is the love in you deciding what you value, what is important, now stand in the other’s shoes and decide how they may feel.  Would you want to feel it?  A truthful answer changes the world.  The feeling of empathy is how humanitarianism works it is how we can’t bomb or kill others.  We begin to feel the pain of the other and identify them as if it is our own family.  That is why many more people are getting involved they can see the injustice and they feel compassion.  Those who have become very hard, closed their hearts and made decisions based on the story of the good of the country, holding onto wealth, myths that believe fear is social control, or hatred that the other is evil in some way, then we are finding stories that justifies violence.  We all hurt when someone we love is killed.  That is the reality and that is what escalates the violence. Violence underneath all the masks of bravery and bravado is a cry for help in truth.  People strike out as fear is what they are covering.  Those committing the violence are deeply fearful and insecure.  Extreme insecurity enables a person to commit a violent act, not bravery or honour.  There is no honour in taking life when you never gave it.  Women know this well as they give birth, they can feel the sacredness of all life. They tend to have a deeper sense of empathy as they feel their emotions more freely, men have been trained to suppress, contain and not show their feelings as they were trained it was weak, that was the lie taught to men.  The most beautiful part of masculinity is compassion and kindness.  There is nothing more masculine than that in my view. Gender attitudes and beliefs are one of the dimensions that has to change around the world if we are to become committed to peace.  We have to learn peace is not soft but powerful.

The violence in the Middle East does not work as over 60 years of conflict in the Middle East has shown.  It simply destroys lives, increases division and prevents people from living from their highest potential and creating safe, healthy spaces for their children to grow up. 

It is a sign of a primitive society to not be able to work out differences and conflicts.  It is also clear that previous strategies have not worked, if peace is the goal.  If peace is not the goal then violence has been used to terrorise for political, national and economic reasons.  This then becomes a war crime or crime against humanity when killing has an agenda behind it that is not peaceful.  In my mind no killing has peace in mind, hence a peaceful mind.

Just imagine when we find the wisdom to understand that it doesn’t have to be this way anymore.  That when we open the mind both can win.  Most find this inconceivable, but I can assure you it is true.  When we start to share and care the pie expands, it does not shrink.  Whilst we stay in states of fear and denial then both lose.  This has been very clear in the Middle East.  Security is always an issue not thriving as humans should.  When minds are open we can indeed find solutions, we can educate people in peace education and conflict resolution, we can teach community acceptance (tolerance) of difference, we can embody the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Democracy can be demonstrated by living and creating communities that value diversity, equality and citizenship where each have equal opportunity rather than creating underclasses or stateless people.  The latter is a recipe for conflict that never ends.  We can create community forums to give people a say and collectively resolve matters for the highest good of all. What I found in my experience as a community researcher is that the common sense is in every community, unfortunately some politicians and business leaders decide that their opinions are worth more than citizens, they forget they represent and respond to special interests, this is where democracy breaks-down and becomes a facade whereby citizens who vote are simply a justification for elected officials to legitimise power. I am looking forward to a future when representation is real and citizens are valued as family and we can really start to expand our potential on this planet.  I think of the billions spent on military arms and campaigns to fight, it is such a waste of energy.  I remember sitting in Parliament years ago listening to the arguing and amazed that they were not aware of the bullying, the wasted time spent arguing and grandstanding.  They had no idea that everyone in the public gallery looked upon them with disgust and contempt.  I do believe politicians around the world are uniformly blamed for the state of the world.  I look forward to a new breed of optimistic and powerful leaders who understand the real meaning of service, honesty, responsibility and compassion.  It will be so inspiring to be able to turn the TV on and feel uplifted rather than the boring rhetoric we all have heard many times before.  There are definitely choices all can make for a better world.  The times we are in much truth telling is happening and light is being shone on long unresolved problems worldwide, people today want change and the situation in the Middle East is one that all want to see stopped.

My final thought, what has become of us when we watch the violence and turn off emotionally.  Why have we allowed ourselves to become desensitised?  When I became interested in peace and created my journey to know what it truly means I felt at first I needed a fire in my belly to really get motivated. Today I have come to the real understanding that love is the driver of my motivation.  I work on peace in myself and the world every day, it is a joy not a burden.  I am not angry I am inspired to do this work.  I know in my heart peace is here, I know the challenge is to make it visible and something that is the very foundation to happiness.  I don’t watch TV which reinforces the myths creating ‘good guys/bad guys’ I am not interested.  I am seeking truth and it has taken me home to myself.  Real peace is love for yourself, that is then turned outward to the world and you see everyone as family.  As a peace clown I found I interacted with every nationality, gender, age and occupation.  It developed in me a real sense of the world as my family.  I loved all the same when my intention was love.  I absolutely know World Peace is natural to us, yet many of us have believed in false gods and beliefs that have made us afraid and distrustful which is how violence happens.  When we learn conflict resolution, questioning our thoughts (see www.thework.com) when we start to realise that all anger is a cry for help that a person who is angry is in pain, then we see differently.  We no longer see the frightening perpetrator, we see a powerless person seeking power and deeply afraid but looking scary.  As we start to realise that when we soften they soften, when we listen they listen, when we hand out the olive branch it comes back (in time), but we must live as the example if peace is to flourish.  We must make amends if we have hurt someone and say sorry.  That is why Truth and Reconciliation happened in Africa, so many people suffered from the carnage, they then chose to speak the truth, face the pain and make amends.  I remember here in Australia when the Australian PM said sorry to the Aboriginal people, I heard them crying and I felt the tears and knew they suffered, yet the media never portrayed that.  So I ask the media to start reporting truth over sensationalism or agenda, the people need sources they can rely on or they turn off and go on-line (test for media today).  When peace journalism is the modus operandi then we hear both sides, we look at the underlying conflict and then we can solve it together with peace in mind. This is what the new world will look like when we understand that we are indeed each others keepers on this planet and the other is me.  Love is the answer no matter your belief, I saw that clearly as a clown.  I send peace to our troubled world in the knoweledge we will choose for peace, soon.