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War's peace
Mideast peace talks resume this week, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveling to Egypt and Israel for negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Is religion helping or hurting the attempt to forge peace between the Jewish state and the Palestinians?
Shortly after moving to South Carolina in 1976, I saw the 1915 American movie classic, Birth of a Nation. I was appalled by this horribly racist film, which portrayed Ku Klux Klan members as heroes. There was, however, a heartrending two-word caption in this silent movie that stayed with me. At the end of the Civil War, the camera panned thousands of graves. Then appeared these simple words, "War's Peace." What a poignant anti-war statement.
Middle East factions can forge peace through war or negotiation. We've seen "War's Peace" too many times in the world. So where does religion come in? At best, religion plays no role. Unfortunately, the best is yet to come.
A peaceful negotiation requires compromise. However, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian fundamentalists tend to espouse an uncompromising and absolute worldview. It's not surprising that there have been periodic Middle East wars for millennia, since a god allegedly promised this territory to three different monotheistic religions. Were I a believer, I would pray for God to finally get out of the real estate business.
Religion certainly isn't the only obstacle to Middle East peace, but it is a significant one. Each side has religious extremists who value land more than peace. We can't hope for a lasting peace until secular and moderate religious people on both sides agree to cooperate in marginalizing religious fanatics whose beliefs lead them to kill innocent human beings in the name of God. Passages in so-called holy books can be used to justify almost anything. We need religious leaders to focus less on interpretations for holy wars and more on interpretations that give peace a chance.
By
Herb Silverman
|
September 13, 2010; 4:53 PM ET
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Posted by: dangeroustalk | September 14, 2010 2:52 PM
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Herb, You can send an email to Scooter Barnette and ask her group to pray for God to get out of the real estate business! I'm sure that this will work as well as the political solutions that have been tried thus far.
Posted by: jonesm2 | September 14, 2010 10:59 AM
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Even before Israel was a state, Hebrews and Palestinians have been fighting over real estate. Surprisingly these two groups of people are not fighting over fertile fields, beautiful beach front property, or strategically useful territory. No, that would be far too reasonable. Only religion could inspire generations of people to fight uncompromisingly for the deed to worthless desert land.
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