I’m tired. I’m just ready to give in. It’s been a week of high anxiety and low blows. It started with the shocking finality of a brother’s death—in reality a blessed release to eternal comfort for Tony, yet a gut wrenchingly sad void for us. Beyond this personal tumult rages the object of my non-professional political pointer—the war in Lebanon, of which I’d previously written from opposing viewpoints.
There is a string of meaning in Tony’s life, death and the events in the Middle East that exposes a higher truth. First, in Tony’s eulogy I stated the two themes of my life with him that jumped out. One, that love is truly a choice…and one we MUST make if we desire the happiest most fulfilled life for all. See, Tony had some innate characteristics that defied convention. Through these traits I learned to forego judgment, empathize more and love no matter what. This also enabled me to FEEL outside of the box, and thus, feel outside of my own perspective and comfort zone, which is the pre-requisite for empathy.
The second theme is the importance of humor no matter how dark the circumstances. The pre-requisite for enabling this humor to enter our lives is humility, the same ingredient that allows us to see our selves and our situation objectively. It allows us to literally laugh at ourselves when that scenario is called for.
His funeral brought together many people from a variety of backgrounds. There were Jewish, Christian, Muslim and I’m sure agnostic and atheist all present—and all united in the shared spirit of love and compassion. By sheer coincidence I had learned from my Jewish friend about a mother-in-law whose parents were killed during the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps. She was a teen and escaped only by her cunning and suffering of various humilities.
He proved—graphically and emphatically—that the holocaust is NOT a distant memory. It is recent and real. He also proffered another slant on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. First, he truly believes the Arabs, through Hamas and Hezbollah, really DO want to wipe out Israel. He also pointed to news reports and analysis that say this whole thing is really a power play for Iran to try and take control of the region, that there is struggle between Shiite (Iran, Syria) and Sunni Islam (Saudi, Egypt, Jordan), and by having Hezbollah successfully withstand Israel, leave them (Shiite) able to brag that they are the real protector and voice of Islam. Beyond that, such fundamentalists want to impose their religion by force on the rest of the world.
Apparently there is AGAIN virulent anti-Semitism in France, which is indication of a similar sentiment throughout Europe. This makes the recent memory of the Holocaust a very relevant reminder of the absolute necessity of a JEWISH homeland. Thus, the right of return for Palestinians admittedly done wrong by their expulsion in 1947-48, is not acceptable, for eventually they would outnumber the Jewish citizens and possibly vote to deny any more Jewish people in. WHERE WOULD THE NEWLY PERSECUTED JEWISH EVACUEES BE THEN?! It is a legitimate concern, friends, a legitimate concern.
At our mercy meal I spoke to a Palestinian immigrant friend, who was one of those thrown off their land. He came in 1951; his father was killed over there. The method of eviction was similar to the Lebanese situation now, except there were more men on the ground with weapons ruthlessly used against the defenseless native population with the certain intent to kill or create fear enough to make them flee. The ironic thing is that he said the vast majority back then were Christian Palestinians, most of whom have left leaving it predominantly Muslim.
Back to my Jewish friend who perceptively noted that the Palestinians are the new Jews. He then asks, “Why are they living in tents with all the surrounding Arab territory that could easily accommodate them?” He answers: because the Arab nations WANT IT THAT WAY! They want that festering sore in order to help bring about their real goal of destroying Israel. He truly, truly admits that there were injustices done early on, and even now, the killing of innocents is atrocious. But their very survival depends on rooting out the Hezbollah who hide amongst those innocents.
Even he admits that the deaths are too much and too damaging for Israel to continue and that they must have a ground invasion to truly control the Hezbollah, or negotiate some ending. He sees the bombing as I do: inappropriate and counter-productive.
Whew. I’m back to the beginning. The lessons of Tony Vision clear the path to peace. ONE, should all concerned choose to Love, practice EMPATHY, they would see that everybody is right in this conflict. TWO, using humor or in this case, HUMILITY, would have them conclude that the blood won’t dry until each of them says, “we’re sorry, we’re wrong.”
Richard F. Dawahare 7/30/06
No comments:
Post a Comment