Palestine - Time for local religious leaders to show some leadership

I have found the pictures coming out of Gaza ever more disturbing. I don't believe that any decent person cannot be moved by pictures of injured and dead children and babies. Any parent must surely feel some pang of sympathy for the parents of those who we see the pictures of. It seems that many are seeking to play a blame game, but the truth is that for such terrible scenes to occur, we are all in some ways damaged and in some ways to blame for it. Those who don't care for those hurt, maybe the damage is just too great. The vast majority of those involved in this struggle are Jews, Muslims or Christians. All of these religions believe in the same God and most of the customs, laws and practices are similar and have common roots. All largely recognise the same list of prophets and the teachings. None of these great Religions recognises slaughter of the innocent people as acceptable ways to wage war. We watch the images and feel impotent. We feel as if it is all a long way away from us.

When we feel like this, we are failing ourselves. We are all part of the human family and when we stand by and watch any member of our family suffer, we are primarily failing ourselves. The Leadership of both Israel and the Palestinian people are failing their people, but they are also failing the whole human family by letting the situation continue. When they say "We've tried but it is pointless", they are in effect saying "I am not up to the job of leading my people". They portray themselves as tough leaders, but in fact they are the weakest of all types of leaders, because they lack the moral courage to reach out and lead their people though difficult decisions which some of their citizens will object to. One day, it may be today, it may be tomorrow or it may be in a thousand years time, we will finally get decent leaders of both the Palestinian people and the Isreali people. These leaders will broker a compromise, which will allow these peoples to live in peace, side by side. Both sides will have to agree to some things which their hard line supporters will call a betrayal. Once these compromises have been accepted, only then will both peoples be able to move forward.

It's not for a blogger in Mill Hill to even start to tell people at war what compromises they should make and what sins they should forgive, but short of one side annihalating the other (something which sadly some hardliners on both sides seem to think is a solution) any sane person will accept that there will have to be compromise.

In the London Borough of Barnet, we have very good community relationships. I do however believe that on the issue of Palestine and Gaza we need to do more. We need a proper inter faith engagement and I would like to see some joint prayer services where people from all religious communities come together to pray for peace. I'd even urge local athiests to participate, as they are part of our human family. Whether or not you believe in the power of prayer, it is important to recognise the power of communities coming together in respect for each others community and traditions. There really should be far more that unites people of good will than divides us. The more cynical will say "What can a few people getting together in Barnet possibly do to change the situation in Gaza?". Well I happen to believe that every journey starts with one small step. Recognising that we are all brothers and sisters is the first step of that journey. So I call on our local Imams, Rabbi's and Priests to get together and see if here in Barnet we can so a seed that will be that first step on the road to change.

I don't believe that anyone who has read scriptures, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim can believe that what we are seeing in Gaza is Gods will. I once discussed the Jewish philosophy of an Eye for an Eye with a local rabbi. He explained that this was not a call for revenge. It was a call for a moderation of revenge. At the time, there were huge feuds and clans were wiping each other out with ever more bloodthirsty revenges. The teaching was one that any revenge must be equitable. If someone kills our brother or sister, we should not seek to wipe their whole family out as revenge. I spoke to a local Imam who explained to me that historically Muslims were the one people who did not persecute the Jewish people and how until recently the communities in the Middle East lived in peace and harmony. Muslims are required to treat people of "The Book" with respect. 

The time has come for the local leaders of all our respective religions to come together and remind their congregations of the teachings of peace which are central to their beliefs. If people of faith and goodwill on  both sides reminded themselves of the fundamental teachings they follow, I cannot believe that they would support the seemingly endless situation where both sides want to indiscriminately kill each other.

The arguments that "We are only doing this because the other side are doing that" are not the arguments that people of goodwill should ever accept. We mistakenly see militaristic ruthless leaders as "Strong men". They are nothing of the sort. People like Gandhi and Martin Luther King are real examples of strong leaders. Both knew where their path was likely to end, but both addvocated peaceful resolution of problems. These are the people we should be looking to as an example. Lets end the blame game, stop the fnger pointing and start working together to make the lives of the ordinary people on the ground better.

So my plea to our local religious leaders is to come together and start to unite our communities. This blog will support you as best we can in any efforts you can make to spread peace and reconciliation. It isn't much but it is all I can do.

Israel, Hamas, Death & Destruction &Gaza,

Anyone who's followed my blogs will know the one thing I despise most is moral cowardice. Mike Freer's latest leader listens blog brought home to me the fact that the effects of events in Gaza have implications here in Barnet, so I feel I have to let the readers of my blog know my views. I suspect a fair few of you won't like what I have to say.

Firstly I'd just like to pass comment on the stance of many of our local politicians. Barnet has a large and rather infuential Jewish population. One of the largest outside of Israel. As such the local politicians, whether of Jewish extraction or not have to take account of the sensibilities. I suspect that many of our professed Christian councillors spend more time in Synogogues than the average semi-secular Jew does. I've received a few emails over the life of my blog alleging all sorts of rubbish about this pratice, but to me it's just politicians grubbing for votes and not disturbing or overly worrying. I don't believe that too many of them really have a deep rooted commitment to Zionism and if they moved to Romford or somewhere with a different demographic make up would probably find a different group to suck up to.

Which brings us to the situation in Gaza. My father was working in Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel. He was present when the "Zionists" were viewed by the British establishment as terrorists and when Menachim Begin was a member of the Stern Gang. Friends of his were killed in the terror campaign. As he had major business interests in the region at the time, when Israel was created he departed. As Arab countries would not allow people with an Israeli stamp to enter, he didn't return until 1966, when he went on a Pilgrimage with the Metropolitan Police to the Holy Land. On returning he was impressed by the progress. Areas of desert had been transformed and Soceity had been modernised. He contrasted this with what happened in Libya when the British evicted the Italians in 1943 and how that had developed, despite huge oil wealth. A year after his visit, there was a war between the Arabs and Israeli's. This was followed by a further war in 1973. Both of these wars were brought about by the stated Arab intention of destroying the state of Israel, created by a United Nations Mandate. By the time of his 1976 visit, many holy places had bullet and shrapnel marks. As a result of these two wars, the Arab nations realised that they couldn't achieve their aims through conventional war.

It is also worth remembering that one of the notorious Palestinian terror groups, Black September took their name from the Jordanian purge of Palestinians, not from any Israeli atrocity. The sad truth is that whilst many Arab nations pay lip service to the Palestinian cause, they've never welcomed the Palestinians or given them any real support other than in the armed struggle. States like Saudi Arabia have huge wealth, but what have they done to help Palestinians in refugee camps?

After the 1973 war, Israel was seen as too powerful a foe for the Arabs to fight head to head. In truth the Israeli army started to get complacent. This reached a head when they invaded southern Lebanon and fought Hizbollah. Hizbollah is a Shia faction backed by Iran. They were ready and waiting for Israel and Israel suffered it's first major military setback.

With the creation of the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, various Arab and Iranian groups saw an opportunity to repeat this success. Hamas was built up with Arab and Iranian support and became the predominant power in Gaza. This densely populated strip of land houses an urban and impoverished population. Billions of dollars has been poured into it, but rather than raising the living standards of the residents, it's funded a campaign against Israel. Rockets are fired on a daily basis into Israel, not at military targets, but randomly at civilian areas. The aim is to provoke the Israeli military into a response. As Gaza is so tightly packed, any military action will result in civilian deaths. Israel eventually fell for the ploy and we have the current offensive. Huge numbers of civilians are being killed in Gaza and many capitals around the world are seeing anti Israeli protests. The Israeli line is "what would you do if you were under daily attack".

Which brings me to my point. There are not two parties involved in this - Hamas and Israel. There is a third darker aspect. The backers of Hamas who supply rockets and are sitting back, safe in their distant palaces, letting the poor and the dispossessed fight their battles. Israel cannot defeat Hamas, Hamas cannot defeat Israel. All that can happen is the two parties will make each other's lives hell. Every death spawns a new batch of Martyr's. Every Rocket spawns a new batch of reprisals. Whilst all this goes on, the backers of Hamas sit back and happily watch the death toll rise and use their influence and oil wealth to ferment trouble at the UN.

The unpalatable truth is that Hamas and Israel will have to talk to each other and reach an accomodation. Just as Menachim Begin went from terrorist to statesman, so will the leaders of hamas eventually. The Israeli policy of killing the leaders is counter productive as new, unknown and even more hardline leaders emerge. Someone has to break the cycle. It won't be Hamas, so it has to be Israel. The US has a vital role to play as it can not only influence Israel, but to some degree it can also influence the wealty, fat cat backers of Hamas. I'm a pacifist, I don't agree or believe in war as a solution, in all but the most extreme cases. I don't think war will solve the problems of Gaza or Israel. Israel has to cease it's campaign and the UN has to apply pressure to the backers of Hamas. The thing that saddens me most is that every Martyr has been a futile waste of life. Every rocket has been paid for with money that could have improved Gaza. Every Israeli soldier watching his back in Gaza today, could be building a better world.

Violence is not the answer and violence will not work in Gaza. For anyone