New peace exhibit opens in Israel

Comments ⁷

1. Henry Clausner

   I’ll wait for it to come to the US….I’m on the fence with this one..

2. Mike Peterson

   You’re undecided on a project to persuade people to stop killing each other??

   I’m not sure why you have mixed feelings about it, but there are already a number of people working to end the violence in that part of the world, just as they tried — and eventually succeeded — in Northern Ireland.

   I’m not on the fence, or even the wall, on this. It’s just the kind of small puzzle piece that can become part of a solution.

3. Shane Davis

   Mike,
   No one wants to see bloody violence go on endlessly, but I think at least the Israelies would say that ‘peace at all costs’ is no peace at all, it’s just capitulation.

   I’m all for whatever helps end blowing up innocent children in buses and schools, but I seriously doubt a collection of cartoon strips is going to change anyone’s mind in this struggle.

   WHat Henry might be saying is these things very often take on a ‘Israel needs to compromise more!’ tone. I rarely see any artisitic opinion pieces that demand that the Palestineans actually are a huge part of the problem and THEY should cease and desist – Israel is usually the bad guy in these exhibits.

   Not sure if that’s what Henry meant, but that’s how I took it.

4. Mike Peterson

   Well, we could argue about the proper way to react to being forced off land you’ve lived on for multiple generations, and the proper way to enforce a promise made by your deity multiple millenia ago, but the ones with god on their side usually hold a trump card in that conversation.

   But what happened in Northern Ireland with these small efforts was two-fold: One, they were able to show that the majority of people, regardless of ideology, wanted the killing to stop, and, two, they were able to show the young people at the center of the violence that their “opponents” were not monsters, not inhuman and not, for the most part, bent on their extermination. A few soccer games or a field trip with someone from the other side may seem insignificant, but it can cause you to ask questions of the person who wants to send you out to kill.

   It didn’t work on its own — the world also insisted that Britain shut down their internment camps, and demanded that they begin to police the corrupt NI security forces that were in league with the Unionist murder squads. Neither a small matter, and both dependent to quite an extent on an ex-patriate population in the US and Britain that worked to spotlight abuses in the system. I will admit that this factor seems largely ineffective in the Israel/Palestine conflict, but there was a time it was largely ineffective in Ulster. (Thanks, Teddy, and RIP)

   But the groundwork must be laid for peace to take root in a divided society, and it’s this kind of small effort that helps accomplish that. The people who deride such efforts on the basis of “Yes, but our side is entirely right and they are complete villains” are the enemies of peace, whichever side they line up with.

5. Henry Clausner

   Actually, I am on the fence with even seeing the exhibit for the exact reasons that get you going Mike. And yes Shane is correct in his explanation, he says it very well. My apologies for not ellaborating on my “on the fence comment”.

6. Henry Clausner

   elaborating.

7. Shane Davis

   “Well, we could argue about the proper way to react to being forced off land youâ??ve lived on for multiple generations, and the proper way to enforce a promise made by your deity multiple millenia ago, but the ones with god on their side usually hold a trump card in that conversation.”

   That’s the problem. Who’s God?
   Argung the Iraelies took Arab land seems to be the basis for the side that demands that Israel conceed more and more.

   To those that hold that opinion, do you believe we owe the British and apology for stealing the eastern seaboard and starting a new country?
   Should we give Texas and New Mexico back to the Mexicans?

   Should Egypt pay restitition for enslaving the Jews for over 400 years?

   Are you going to demand an apology from a defunct League of Nations that gave Britian control over Palestine in 1922?

   Taking sides on this is pointless. I think if I were the PM Palestine, my attitude would be “Look, it is the way it is. History happens. The first, BEST course is to STOP blowing up discos or schools. Let’s drop the violent attacks and rearm with a diplomatic solution.”

   You don’t have to believe in any God or have a Phd in history to reach that conclusion. Just stop killing folks. From what I’ve seen, the Jews are not the initiators of violence, they are reactors. When the PLP quits giving 10 year olds AK-47’s and stop putting bombs in cars next to open air markets then maybe a reasonable solution can be reached.

   But until then Israel would be foolish to stop defending itself. It has that right and what I see is military strikes of defense, not aggressive attacks of opportunity.

   IMHO.