Blessed are the peacemakers ...

Taken from comments written in response to "The Photos That Damn Hezbollah", in Ear to the Ground,, August 1, on www.truthdig.com:

Comment #16496 by ed_tru_lib on 8/03 at 2:55 pm

Ah Hilding-I didn’t say Israel. I said Jews. Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob) predate Saul by more than a millenium. I had to assume you meant bully, since you were obviously comparing the other kid to hezbollah.
We’re in complete agreement though about how they should have learned from the old testament. Being ready AND ABLE to defend themselves just a few years sooner could have prevented the holocaust.

And it was to Abraham that Jehovah promised the Land of Israel ... which was then taken by force by Joshua because the God of the Children of Israel had given it to them so they "owned" it.

The seeds of this violence go back millenia ... and it all seems to rest on the concept that my God is stronger than your God ... of people with tribal mindsets, each tribe believing it was chosen by their God. (And strangely in this case, all by the same God.)

As little boys behind the barn we used to call it a pissing contest. What do you call it?

Regarding the playground: You see, the mother realized there might be more to the story (See A playground story) ... the father did what most of us do, assume the fault of the other party. The story is a little bit of a Rorschach test or maybe a gestalt is a better description, because the "isolated in the neighborhood" concept sort of gives a certain outline.

I personally believe that much violence (however started) is in the instance of the specific act of violence, unjustified ... which is not to say that a strenuous defense is unjustified ... but too often it is in the iconic form of the husband who after hitting his wife, says, "She had it coming." or "She made me do it."

As a supposedly Christian nation with the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of our authentic heroes ... for us to be the sole vote on the UN Security Council blocking a call for an immediate ceasefire is morally indefensible ... in my judgement.

Regarding the holocaust: I am sorry that millions of innocent Jewish people lost their lives in the death camps of Germany located in Europe.

As the offspring of Swedish immigrants to the United States, and having learned the history of the Western Hemisphere, I am also sorry that millions of innocent native people lost there lives at the hands of Europeans.

Is their moral equivalence between those two events of genocide? I don't know. I have never examined them with making that determination in mind.

What I do know, is that I respect Ghandi more and more every day. Because he knew ... as I believe ... that tit for tat violence never ends, it ... escalates ... and with nukes already in the Middle East and more on the way ... we have to figure out some way to stop the cycle of violence ... "It stops here!" ... which -- according to what is attributed to a man named Jesus -- is the responsibilty of the strong. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."

Who can be stronger here on earth than God's children?