tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77273870209276834072024-03-12T20:54:48.525-07:00A Quaker Activist's BlogThis blog contains a Quaker activist's writings on such topics as the Iraq war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the spiritual basis for peace work.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-70128626888795556732009-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:002009-09-25T17:28:04.355-07:00A Quaker Perspective on the Politics of AngerWhat is happening to America? Why are we screaming at each other in town hall meetings? Why are some people saying that their state should secede from the United States of America? Why are some people accusing the President of plotting to kill their grandmothers? Why are those on the right accused of being fascists while those on the left are accused of being socialists? Have we gone insane? <br />There is a poison flowing through the body politic of America and it will kill our democracy unless each of us acts as an antidote. Those on the left accuse the right of being ignorant Neanderthals while those on the right accuse the left of being heathen communists. This kind of juvenile stereotyping threatens to tear the fabric of America apart.<br />Actually, the left and right have more in common then they would want to admit. Both sides are absolutist in their ideology and uncompromising in their politics. Each side believes that they possess absolute truth and each side refuses to compromise on its beliefs.<br />But the fact is that America is built upon compromise. Our great experiment in democracy is founded upon the belief that each issue has many sides and that the most workable solution comes from a compromise that blends together many disparate views. Compromise is the glue that holds America together. <br />But compromise is viewed as an evil by both the left and the right. Neither side is willing to give an inch on their absolutist beliefs. For them government is either good or evil. The rest of us just want a government that works for us.<br />What is particularly troubling in today’s political environment is the level of anger and even outright hatred that is being displayed. I have been trying to figure out the source of this anger and hatred for some time now. Some of this anger can be traced to old-fashioned racism but I think for many people it goes deeper than that. I would suggest that this anger is really a response to the fear of change. Fear is an emotion we don’t like in ourselves and anger is a way of covering up our fears with an emotion that makes us feel more powerful. <br />We live in a world where society, technology, the economy and demographics are rapidly changing and this change is deeply threatening to many people. This internal fear of change produces an anger response that is directed toward some outward target such as the President, health care reform or immigrants. We repress our fear by directing our anger toward something outside of ourselves.<br />If we want American democracy to survive, we need to grow up. We need to recognize and talk about our fears. We need to stop yelling at each other and learn to start listening to each other. We need to accept the reality of change and begin working together to find productive ways of dealing with change.<br />Change is inevitable. It’s the way God created the universe. God created change when He created time. If God did not want change, He would have created a static world where nothing ever changes. The more we resist change, the more we resist God’s unfolding plan for us. Rather than fear and reject change, we need to embrace it and make it work for our benefit. If the American experiment is going to grow and mature, we the people have to grow and mature. We have to put childish anger behind us and start working together as mature adults in order to deal successfully with the challenges that change presents to us.<br />For those of us who are Christians, we know that fear, anger and hatred are the opposites of our faith. As Christians, we know that labeling people as our enemies because they don’t agree with our politics is against everything Jesus taught us. <br />It’s time to stop the name-calling and to start having rational discussions about the issues before us. It’s time to turn away from those in the media who feed our anger and to start respecting each other as fellow human beings and fellow Americans.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-8555860319655043482009-05-22T09:02:00.000-07:002009-05-22T09:04:38.768-07:00Afghanistan: Make Jobs Not WarAs we begin the process of ending the Iraq war, we must not get bogged down in a perpetual war in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there are those who profit from keeping America in a permanent state of war, but we the people must say no to endless war that drains the U.S. treasury and puts enormous stress on our troops who have to endure repeated deployments. History teaches us that those nations that rely solely on military force eventually fail. <br />Instead of spending hundreds of billions more on war, we need to support the Afghan people through the funding of a Jobs for Afghans program. These are poor people who are tired of war, and the ordinary Afghan is not our enemy. We need to bring hope to the Afghan people, not more war. As General Petraeus, General Karl Eikenberry, Vice President Joe Biden, and even Time Magazine have all indicated, seventy percent of the Taliban are men who fight only because the Taliban pays and they need the money to feed their families, since there are no other jobs. Give them jobs, and they will stop fighting.<br /> General Petraeus has said that ”those who are simply fighting to support their families should be given an economic alternative.” <br />General Karl Eikenberry, former Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan has testified that: "Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their families." <br />We must urge Congress to work toward the creation of a Jobs for Afghans program. The basic elements of the program would include:<br />-- The passage of funding, which is the equivalent of a mere two months of military operations, for widespread cash-for-work projects which puts money directly into the hands of poor Afghans for day labor. These kinds of projects have already been successful and just need to be expanded. USAID launched a $3 million pilot project in January that points the way. More than 10,000 cash-strapped Afghans in the northern province of Balkh are taking spades in hand instead of rifles. Three main types of projects are underway, including the clearing of springs, the dredging and removal of silt from irrigation canals, and reforestation projects. Afghans will happily work for $10 a day at the hardest labor, as the country has 50 percent unemployment. The Taliban pays $8 per day, and is all too often the only job in town.<br />-- Giving priority to small, village-level projects like clearing canals and springs, clearing and digging new irrigation ditches, and improvement of basic dirt roads. These kinds of projects address critical problems in Afghanistan. Three quarters of the country has no access to safe drinking water, and the roads are in terrible condition.<br />-- Cash-for-work programs in Afghanistan are tried and proven. The opportunities for corruption are minimized, as it is easy to count heads at a worksite to see that money is being properly spent. They require little equipment besides hand-tools. Most importantly, it gives Afghans an alternative to joining the Taliban in order to feed their families, as General Petraeus and other military commanders have noted.<br /> Congress should immediately fund the Jobs for Afghans program, which would create at least 500,000, cash-for-work, day labor jobs paying $10 per day, which is a good wage in Afghanistan. We need to fund this program for at least $4 billion this year, which is a fraction of what we spend on the military there in a year. Ask Congress to move this program forward as quickly as possible. We want the war in Afghanistan to wind down soon, for our troops to come home, and for peace and friendship to exist between the Afghan and the American people. We need an exit strategy from Afghanistan and this jobs program is a key component of that strategy.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-82868359208897453372009-03-06T14:48:00.000-08:002009-03-06T14:50:08.005-08:00Did God create Jesus as another god?Did God create Jesus as another god, equal but separate from the Creator? Do I follow him because he is a god? No, I follow him because he showed us the way out of the darkness into the Light. Jesus, the man who was fully human, showed us the way to God.<br />His life and his death demonstrate what God wants from us—a willingness to surrender ourselves to the Light. The message of Jesus is not about how to get into heaven. It’s about how to live our lives in accordance with the Spirit. It’s about giving up (dying) to our egoistic selves and letting ourselves be used in the service of the Light. This is the real meaning of being born again. It’s not about a ticket to heaven. It’s about how to experience life at its fullest. It’s about giving up all the reasons that you can’t do what the Spirit is leading you to do. Jesus voluntarily let himself be used to manifest the triumph of the Spirit over a life lived in doubt and fear. This is the essence of true Christianity expressed by Quakerism: Let yourself be used by the Light regardless of the consequences. I follow Jesus, not because he is a god, but because his Light shows us the Way.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-72895507233043396012009-02-03T11:21:00.000-08:002009-02-03T11:22:21.416-08:00The True Source of RealitySeparating illusion from reality doesn’t usually happen all at once. What we experience as reality changes in different stages of consciousness. For those who decide to renounce the world completely, it’s possible to leap directly toward the goal. But even then there is no guarantee that perception has actually shifted.<br />A person may enter a monastery but if old perceptions get dragged through the door, the monastery holds the same traps as the material world: Ego.<br />Jesus wanted his disciples to come into union with God. Any other life was steeped in illusion. Ego keeps that illusion strong because “I, me, and mine” is so rooted in worldly affairs. The most worthwhile life is spent discovering your spiritual core and building your existence on it. If you do that, you will be first in the eyes of God even if you are last in the eyes of the world.<br />If you can perceive the light within, you will gain its fullness. But if you are blind to it, you will have none. The reality you find yourself in depends on you. The light is God’s reality, the dark is the absence of God. <br />Jesus wanted to share the unity he experienced with God, and therefore he often used the phrase abide in me. The parable of the grapevine elaborates on the point. Jesus declares that being cut off from God is sterile and fruitless. The sap that nourishes the vine and causes it to bear fruit is God, the source of life. By implication, the only life that escapes death is one that connects back to its ultimate source.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-24843711550058620422008-11-21T08:16:00.001-08:002008-11-21T08:16:44.777-08:00Thoughts on the Message of JesusI have been increasingly troubled by the fact that some Christians are such ardent supporters of war. I fear that too many Christians are stuck in the pre-Christian Old Testament era when an eye-for-an-eye was the prevailing morality. Jesus came to put that time behind us. His message is that the Kingdom is already here. He tells us that we can have the Kingdom right now if we truly love one another—if we could just trust Him and give up the idea of enemies. If we truly accept Jesus’ message, we can find peace within ourselves and amongst ourselves upon the earth today. The Kingdom is right before us, waiting for us to claim it. We must only take the leap of faith and love our enemies without demanding that they love us first. Of course, this is contrary to all human logic and this is what makes Jesus so profoundly radical. Human logic tells us that we must destroy our enemies before they can destroy us. But this path leads only to an endless cycle of violence. Instead, Jesus tells us to accept suffering without causing more suffering. He asks us to follow Him to the cross without striking back at those who would harm us. His message is that we do not have to wait to have peace on earth. He tells us that the Kingdom is already present amongst us. All we have to do is abandon our belief in enemies and trust in Him and the power of love and forgiveness. And this is why His message is so difficult to accept. The more we crush our enemies, the more we crush His presence in our lives.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-47691148941138488862008-10-23T08:53:00.000-07:002008-10-23T08:55:04.640-07:00Join with the Spirit and Act!As a progressive and a peace activist, I often find it difficult to speak of the true source of my hope and what I believe to be the only true basis for lasting, peaceful, compassionate change in our society and the world. That source is divine spirituality. Call it what you will—God, Spirit, the Light, Christ, Allah, Brahman. I believe that we exist in a spiritual force field that guides us and works with our individual and collective consciousness to co-create the world in which we live. Spirit makes immanent our deepest and truest desires, when backed by co-creative action on our part. When we are grounded in love and compassion, our work will bear loving and compassionate results.<br /><br />This is what I believe in a nutshell-- Good will ultimately prevail over evil in the long run. In fact, in a true spiritual sense, evil does not exist because evil is simply the absence of love. I firmly believe that love and compassion will prevail in the end.<br /><br />But if we want to see the results of love and compassion in our lives and those of our children, we have to get working now. The forces arrayed against us are busy promoting war, conflict, greed and selfishness. But if we get working soon enough and in sufficient quantity for the good, our efforts will prevail. It may be a long time coming in human years, but very positive and lasting results are possible even in the short term if we pool our spiritual resources. The simple fact is that our common fate depends upon our collective spirit-led actions. <br /><br />Since 9/11 we have been bombarded with constant messages of fear and hated, not love and compassion. Meister Echkart, the great mystic, said this; "It is a lie, any talk of God that does not comfort you." How much does war and hatred comfort you? The extreme fundamentalists of the world (both Christian and Muslim) have turned the God of Love into a God of War.<br /><br />Now here is the problem today. The old energy based on fear and violence is fighting back with a vengeance. We are caught now in a huge clash for the energy and consciousness of humanity. The old guard senses that it is losing its hold on people. That is why its actions and pronouncements are so dramatic and hysterical. It fears its end is imminent without a frontal assault against the growing power of spirit-led action.<br /><br />Here in America, in some ways, it appears the resurgence of old energy has been winning. But our people largely support compassionate societal arrangements and policies that support the common good. Large majorities support some form of universal health care; better environmental protection; a dependable, compassionate safety net for the less fortunate; effective regulation of business to protect the people; and the preservation and protection of our civil rights and liberties. A majority opposes the Iraq war and a hostile and aggressive foreign policy.<br /><br />We don’t always see these Spirit-led policies being pursued because the old energy is strong and has a huge store of old energy power (money) behind it. We don’t have the old energy’s money, but we do have ourselves, our greater number and the ultimate power of Spirit behind us. Political organizers say the way to beat organized money is with organized people. Spirit says the same.<br /><br />So we are facing the old energy making a determined last stand. It will not go quietly. It is desperate and terrified. It actually believes the loss of its power will lead to the end of the world, because for it, the old world based on fear, selfishness and violence will, in fact, end. <br /><br />What we need to prevail is for enough of us who seek the good to get off the fence and get working. We all know the Edmond Burke quote: "The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."<br /><br />The opposite, of course, and the hope for our age is: all that is needed for good to triumph is for good people to do something.<br /><br />When enough of us begin to work consistently, diligently and with compassionate hearts to seek the greatest good for the most people, we will prevail. Love cannot be stopped, for love is the ultimate power. But we have to work, we have to get involved. And, yes, that means getting involved in politics and in social activism. NOW!<br /><br />The emergence of a better world can only be delayed by apathy and cynicism. We must join with the Spirit and act with the Spirit to create the emerging world of love and compassion that waits for us to claim it. This is what I believe and this is what I act upon.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-75961898304327228552008-10-21T07:17:00.000-07:002008-10-29T08:59:33.395-07:00The Real Cause of the Financial CrisisMuch has been written and said about our current financial crisis but there has been little discussion of the real cause of the crisis, which is our massive debt. The sub-prime mortgage mess was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. Massive borrowing by the U.S. government to sustain its huge military empire has sucked the liquidity out of the credit markets and fear of a collapsing dollar is sending shock waves throughout the world markets. There are three broad aspects to our debt crisis.<br /><br /> First, in the current fiscal year, in addition to spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are spending massive amounts of money on “defense” projects that bear no relationship to the national security of the United States. It is virtually impossible to overstate the profligacy of what our government spends on the military. The Department of Defense’s expenditures for 2008 are larger than all the other nations’ military budgets combined. Our military spending for fiscal 2008 will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history. Such expenditures are not only morally obscene, they are fiscally unsustainable. We are financing these huge military expenditures through massive borrowing from China and other nations. If you begin in 1789, at the moment the Constitution became the supreme law of the land, the debt accumulated by the federal government did not top $1 trillion until 1981. When George Bush became president in January 2001, it stood at $5.7 trillion. Since then, it has doubled to over $11 trillion!<br /><br /> Second, we continue to believe that we can compensate for the accelerating erosion of our manufacturing base and our loss of jobs to foreign countries through massive military spending. This is based on the mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true. It is often believed that wars and military spending increases are good for the economy. In fact, most economic models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment. Military spending is, in fact, a wasteful economic activity. America can no longer afford to operate on the flawed economic assumption that we can maintain a permanent war economy and treat military output as an ordinary economic product, even though it makes no contribution to either production or consumption.<br /><br /> Third, in our devotion to militarism (despite our limited resources), we are failing to invest in our social infrastructure and other requirements for the long-term health of our country. These are what economists call “opportunity costs,” things not done because we spent our money on something else. Our public education system is falling apart. We have failed to provide health care to all our citizens and neglected our aging infrastructure, which is rapidly deteriorating. Most important, we have lost our competitiveness as a manufacturer of civilian goods – an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing. <br /><br /> <br /><br />History has demonstrated that it has always been the world’s leading lending country that has been the premier country in terms of political, diplomatic and cultural influence. Today we are no longer the world’s leading lending country. In fact, we are now the world’s biggest debtor country, and we are desperately trying to wield influence on the basis of military power alone. Continuing on this path of taking on more and more debt to finance our huge military machine will ultimately mean financial ruin for our nation.<br /><br /> Some of the damage done can never be rectified. There are, however, some steps that our country needs to take. These include quickly ending the war in Iraq, closing many of our over 800 military bases around the world that no longer play a role in our national security, cutting from the defense budget all projects that bear no relationship to the real national security needs of the United States, and ceasing to use the defense budget as a jobs program. If we do these things we have a chance of squeaking by. If we don’t, we face national insolvency and a long depression.<br /><br /> This economic crisis is teaching us a hard truth: in order to strengthen our country we must cut our military spending We must stop building smart bombs and start educating smart people. We must stop building hydrogen bombs and start building hydrogen-fueled cars. America will prosper again when we stop spending less on the military and more on the needs of our people.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-15337136253133868292008-08-13T11:21:00.000-07:002008-08-13T11:22:30.047-07:00The Light and the DarknessI have been deeply troubled by how so many people who call themselves Christians seem so warlike. The Christian right has provided Bush with his most dependable base of support for the war on Iraq. I have come to believe that they support war because<br />they see the world as a stage for the war between good and evil. They see God in a<br />perpetual battle with the power of evil, a war between the light and the<br />darkness. They give great power to the darkness and essentially worship a God<br />of War that they believe can destroy the darkness. Their worship of a God of War<br />leads them to support violence and the use of military force. They see everything in terms of battle and personify their enemies as the agents of darkness. They believe that their enemies must be completely destroyed.<br /> However, as a Quaker, I believe in the God of Love, not the God of War. Evil is not the presence of some dark power outside of us. Evil is the absence of the light of God within us. The fundamental Quaker belief is that the light of God is present within each of us and is only revealed by love which is why we are commanded to love our enemies. Only the light of God can displace the darkness.<br /> It's hard to explain what I mean by saying that evil is the absence of the<br />light. The best I can do is the plant analogy. Plants are created to grow<br />and flourish in the light of the sun. They do nothing to receive that light.<br />Humans, however, are created with consciousness and free will that gives us<br />the power to control the amount of light from God that we receive. Every<br />act of hate, violence, greed, and selfishness closes the aperture of our spirit that<br />receives the light. As the light fails, we, like the plants, struggle, <br />wither, and die spiritually. God created us to grow and flourish in the<br />light of the spirit. God did not create the darkness. That is our own doing.<br /> Violence is useless because it shuts out the light and serves only to<br />produce more darkness. The fundamental reason why force does not work is because there is nothing to be destroyed. Evil is an empty state, the absence of God’s light. Shine a light on the darkness and it disappears! No amount of force can destroy that which does not exist. The reality is that there is nothing behind Darth Vader’s mask. Our calling is not to kill our enemies because we see them as servants of darkness. Our calling is to help bring more light into the world through the power of love, understanding and forgiveness. We are called to increase the light that will ultimately fill the darkness. Violence blocks the light that is in each of us. Non-violence allows the light of God to shine through conflict and to illuminate the path to peace and reconciliation.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-81984224171513321092008-07-12T07:08:00.000-07:002008-07-13T11:13:12.320-07:00My Thoughts on the Quaker Peace Testimony(I am often asked about our peace testimony by non-Quakers. I wrote this piece to share my personal thoughts with those who have questions.)<br /><br />The Quaker peace testimony was first proclaimed by the early Quakers in England when they declared that:<br />“We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatsoever; this is our testimony to the whole world . . . .<br />. . . The Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing of evil and again to move us into it; and we certainly know and testify to the world that the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdoms of this world...therefore we cannot learn war anymore.”<br />[excerpts from a “Statement by the Quakers to King Charles II” (1660)]<br /><br />These early Quakers believed, as we believe today, that war is not the answer. They believed, as we believe today, that living in the Spirit takes away the need for war.<br /><br />A key to understanding Quakerism is knowing that everything flows from our<br />personal experience of the spiritual dimension in our lives. Quakers experience <br />God’s presence in varying ways. Some of us experience this Power as the presence of the Christ within while others may describe it as the Light or as a universal Spirit but however we describe it, every Quaker believes in the private and personal dimension of this inward journey. Quakerism isn’t based on belief. It is based on experience--a personal encounter with the Power within. <br /><br />The Quaker peace testimony is a "testimony," in that we are "testifying" to <br />a larger truth. We are acknowledging something-- that there is a Power that <br />takes away the need for war. Quakers believe that there is that of God in everyone<br /> and that it is the Spirit of God within us all that makes peace possible. We believe that this Spirit has already acted and continues to act in us and our world. We believe that non-violence is the only Spirit-led response to violence.<br /><br />Obviously war isn't over. People must still want it. And they do. War is <br />rooted in lusts, James 4:1-3 tells us. Modern American greed for material <br />things with ever more rapacity and blindness leads us to war. We drive our <br />S.U.V.s and then fight for oil supplies in the Persian Gulf. We worry that<br /> we won't be popular or “with it” if we don't wear the latest fashions or <br />don't have the latest technological gadget. When this happens, we stop living<br /> in the Power and the worldly powers convince us that having more<br /> is the way to happiness and that war is the way to peace.<br /><br />But the Power is always there. We can live in that Power and it will take away more <br />than the occasions for war, for it will take away the lusts and insecurities <br />that lead to war. When you've acknowledged the Power, what does faith become? <br />It becomes a testimony to the world that the Spirit is among us and that we can have peace when we accept and truly trust the Spirit.<br /><br /> There are some Christians who readily agree that there's a Power but conclude that their job is just to wait for the Second Coming in order to bring peace to the world. That's not our way. I believe that the First Coming has given us the way to peace. Our way of working for peace is to turn to the Spirit within, wait for its guidance and then follow its direction through whatever struggle awaits us. When we're doing it right, we become instruments of God in the service of the Spirit. <br /><br /> The Power within gives us the strength to avoid burn-out and it gives us the direction for our work. The biggest marches and the most dramatic actions often achieve less than the simple, humble, behind-the-scenes, year-in, year-out work with those around us. I suspect we're most often used by the Spirit in ways we barely perceive.<br /><br />Quaker peace-making is not a passive waiting. We listen to the Spirit, we test, we work hard and we use those gifts our Creator has given us. There are problems in the <br />world, huge ones that need addressing, and we address them as the Spirit moves us.<br /> But we do so out of a joy. And through our work, we ask others to join us in our joy in witnessing to the presence of the Spirit within and following the way of peace.<br /><br />When you work with the Spirit, you don't get attached to results. Often we'll do things and have no idea how they've affected others. It's not our job to know, for it's not our job to be successful as defined by the world. We strive to be gracious and grounded even when the world rejects our testimony. We will be known to the world by how we witness to our trust in the Spirit. <br /><br />The Quaker peace testimony is based on a radical, unequivocal trust in the <br />Power within. We do not differentiate between "just" and "unjust" wars.<br />We believe that all wars are fundamentally wrong. People sometimes criticize us as being utopian and not recognizing that there are those who would attack us.<br />We do recognize this but we trust in God and refuse to attack in return. We do not believe that we can kill our way to peace. <br />We believe that God is present in both our friends and our enemies <br />We believe that the Spirit tells us without question that war is not the way to peace.Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-1949004318232649642008-07-05T08:49:00.000-07:002008-07-05T08:53:02.171-07:00Understanding the Reality in Palestine<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Joe/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning:0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;} h2 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Secti
<br /></style><p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">There is a natural affinity among Americans for Israel due to historic and religious connections. However, most Americans have little or no understanding of the plight of the Palestinian people as they struggle to claim the state that was promised to them when the United Nations partitioned Palestine in 1947.<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">As the Quaker representative on a fact-finding delegation to Israel and Palestine in 2005, I wanted to see the situation there for myself. I talked with both Jews and Palestinians who were working to end the Israeli military occupation and to bring peace to this troubled land. I learned that there are many inside Israel who believe that their government is pursuing the wrong path. <o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">I visited with Rabbis for Human Rights who believe that Israel’s occupation is a violation of the principles of justice in the Torah. These Jewish rabbis work with Palestinian farmers to harvest their olives from groves that have been cut off from the farmers’ villages by the Separation Wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land. <o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">I talked with the Jewish leaders of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, who told me that Israel’s security will best be served by a negotiated peace with Palestine.<span style=""> </span>Jewish members of Gush Shalom regularly go into the West Bank and join with Palestinians in protests over the building of the wall which they call the Apartheid Wall. I met with representatives of B’t Selem, the leading Israeli Human Rights agency that monitors conditions in Palestine. These Jewish human rights workers shared documentation of thousands of human rights violations by the Israeli military in Palestine</b>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style=""> </span>I saw for myself the 28 foot-high Israeli-built concrete wall cutting through Palestinian land that is separating Palestinian farmers from their olive groves making it impossible for them to earn a living. I visited a Palestinian farmer named Atta Jabar whose home has been demolished three times by the Israeli military because he has had the temerity to object to the fact that 80% of his land had been seized by Israel to build another illegal Jewish settlement on the West Bank. I spent a day in the village of At-Tuwani in the south Hebron hills where ultra-religious Jewish settlers are trying to drive the Palestinian shepherds from the village they have lived in for centuries because they claim that God gave them this land. There are now more than 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers living on Palestinian land on the West Bank. These settlers travel on a highway system throughout the West Bank that only Jews can use.<o:p></o:p></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style=""> </span>I talked with a young woman member of the Christian Peacemakers Team who has been working to try to stop violence between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinian shepherds. She told me that their team escorts Palestinian children to school to protect them from attacks from the settlers and that she had been attacked six months earlier by chain-wielding settlers who came out of the woods and broke her arm as she tried to shield the children from harm. Since I have returned, I have learned that these same Israeli settlers have been spreading poison on the fields in order to kill the Palestinian shepherds’ sheep.<o:p></o:p></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style=""> </span>I talked with a young Palestinian woman at Birzeit University near Ramallah. She told me about her humiliation at the Israeli military checkpoint that students must go through to get to their classes. She said that the Israeli soldiers told her that she would have to bare her breast in order to get through the checkpoint. I talked with other students who were told that they had to do a dance or to get down on their knees to beg permission in order to cross the checkpoint. There are over 600 Israeli military checkpoints like this one throughout the West Bank and Palestinians routinely must endure this kind of humiliation.<o:p></o:p></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong>What is happening in Palestine is a complete denial of human rights.<span style=""> </span></strong><b style="">Since the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian people have been living under a harsh military rule. Israeli forces regularly confiscate private land, imprison individuals without due process and abuse them, demolish family homes, bulldoze orchards and crops, and shoot and kill civilians—and Palestinians are without power to stop one of the world’s best armed militaries. Many more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets than have Israelis who have been killed by the minute fraction of Palestinians who strap explosives to their own bodies in order to drive out the invaders of their land.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><b style=""><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p><span style=""> </span>It is time for Israel to end its four decades of military occupation of Palestine and accept the Palestinian state as its neighbor. Peace will come to Israel when justice finally comes for the Palestinian people.</strong><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style=""> <o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><i style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></i></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></strong></p> Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727387020927683407.post-21715047429490383362008-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:002008-06-28T07:58:39.868-07:00Stop A New War On Iran<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Joe/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129023 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129023 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <p>The Bush administration, in rhetoric that is eerily similar to that used to build the case for a war against Iraq, asserts that the Iranian Quds Force is arming anti-American groups in Iraq and providing them with high-tech roadside bombs and sophisticated rockets. It dismisses the National Intelligence Estimate conclusion that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program. The White House has not provided evidence to back up its claims. I suspect it never will. And when Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz tells the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth an attack on Iran is “unavoidable” if Tehran does not halt its alleged nuclear weapons program, what he is really telling us is we should prepare for war. </p> <p><span style=""> </span>An attack on Iran by either the U.S. or Israel and the ensuring regional war will propel us into the Armageddon-type scenario in the Middle East relished by the lunatic fringes of the radical Christian right. And so, we barrel mindlessly toward a Dr. Strangelove self-immolation. No one will be able to say we did not go out with a spectacular show of firepower, gore and death. Our European and Middle Eastern allies, who are numb with consternation over our death spiral, are frantically trying to reach out to Tehran diplomatically. </p> <p>The instant we attack Iran, oil prices will double, perhaps triple. This price increase will devastate the American economy. The ensuing retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel, as well as on American military installations in Iraq, will leave hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead. The Shiites in the region, from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, will see an attack on Iran as a war against Shiism. They will turn with rage and violence on us and our allies. Hezbollah will renew attacks on northern Israel while Hamas increases its attacks in southern Israel. And the localized war in Iraq will become a long, messy and protracted regional war that, by the time it is done, will most likely end the American empire and leave in its wake mounds of corpses and smoldering ruins. </p> <p>The Israeli leadership, like the Bush White House, is increasingly bellicose and threatening. The Israeli prime minister, after a recent 90-minute meeting with Bush in the White House , said the two leaders were of one mind. “We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat,” Ehud Olmert said. “I left with a lot less questions marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it and intends to act on the matter before the end of his term in the White House.” </p> <p>This time around, unlike about the war with Iraq, the Washington bureaucracy, loathed by the Bush White House, did not remain silent and complicit. The National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program released last Dec. 3 distinguished Iran’s enrichment of uranium at Natanz and Arak from its formal nuclear weapons program, which it said had halted in 2003 after the American invasion of Iraq. Adm. Fallon, who put his country and his integrity before his career, spoke out against a war with Iran, tried to stop it and lost his job as the head of CENTCOM. He has been replaced with Gen. David H. Petraeus, whose devotion to his career admits no such moral impediments. </p> <p>The American people must act to stop this madness. We must raise our voices in protest. We must demand that Congress exercise its constitutional authority and block a war on Iran.<span style=""> </span>We cannot allow the Bush neocons to act out their final bloody fantasy and destroy all hopes for peace in the Middle East.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> Joe Parkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378475060779898161noreply@blogger.com1