Reflections on Gaza
and the Ritual of Mutual Destruction
by Hozan Alan Senauke, The Buddhist Channel
San Francisco, CA (USA) –
Gaza is burning. The violence must end before anything else can happen. We can all think nice thoughts about right and wrong, who acted first, who acted worst. We can argue about politics — national, international, geopolitical, corporate. Whatever intellectual thread my mind pulls at quickly comes to a hopeless tangle.
There is, of course, something pointless to the algebra of comparative suffering. But Israel’s attack on Gaza is like shooting fish in a barrel. The body count and vast disproportion of weapons, technology, and killing make me ashamed to acknowledge that my government supplies so much of Israel’s weaponry and ashamed to be a Jew, even as I fear for the future of the people I was born to. Present day Israel seems to have forgotten the words God spoke through the old prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 12:19,20):
…and say unto the people of the land, thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; they shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land shall be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid to waste, and the land shall be desolate, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
I confess, this is not a God I am comfortable with. It seems to be the voice of primitive religion and warring tribes, hardly the standard I’d hope we would be raising today. But in the language of his time and place, Ezekiel speaks the compelling truth of cause and effect.
Lets return to Gaza and Israel today. If you have heard bombs falling and seen the flash and glare of destruction, then you understand the essence of fear. Never knowing where violent death may fall upon you. Anyone who has been to war knows exactly what this is like. If you have not felt it directly, please use your imagination.
Two reflections, 2500 years apart, come to mind.
As recorded in the Dhammapada, Shakyamuni Buddha said:
All fear death;
Comparing oneself with others
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 129
All tremble at violence,
Life is dear to all.
Comparing others with oneself
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
— Dhp. 130
Victory breeds hatred,
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
Giving up victory and defeat.
— Dhp. 201
Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to his congregation in Montgomery, Alabama said:
- I think the first reason that we should love our enemies…is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil… Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.
-** “Loving Your Enemies” 17 November 1957
The rest is commentary.
In Israel & Palestine, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Burma, and a dozen other killing fields, no resolution will come from spiraling violence. There will simply be more wounded and traumatized people who will wittingly or unwittingly pass their wounds to generation after generation. As Dr. King said, “Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off, and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.”
I don’t know precisely how to do this. But there must be a clear intention, a policy of non-retaliation, understanding that retaliation, however emotionally compelling, leads just to more retaliation. Generosity is always an option — offering food, medicine, shelter, and education — rather than death. Generosity is the basis of connection. This offering doesn’t come from the superiority of one or another side, but on the fact that we need each other if we are to survive. We owe each other life, simply on the ground of our shared humanity.
I’ve written before that a policy of generosity — which many will see as hopelessly naïve — can hardly be less effective (or more expensive) than the dance of death Israel and Palestine are presently locked into. I have to say that between Israel and Palestine, the vast preponderance of resources — wealth, technology, arms, food, and water — are controlled by the state of Israel. Palestinian militants seem to have one key resource, the will to say to Israel, we will not let you rest easily with all that you have and all you have stolen from us.
Each side must have the courage and vision first to let go of violence, and then to step very carefully into the very midst of their fears. Israel’s leaders have to let go of their stranglehold on land and resources. Palestine’s leaders have to let go of the belief that 1. Israel is an implacable enemy and 2. that somehow through their efforts Israel will disappear. (Some in Palestine clearly understand this. A friend received a card from Wi’am, The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem that reads: “We do not want to bring the Israelis to their knees; we want them to come to their senses.”)
It is incredibly hard to turn towards ones fears, whether they are personal, communal, or national. In fact, greedy people and power-hungry demagogues on all sides will happily play on those fears to serve themselves. But we can help Israelis and Palestinians set aside violence. We can raise our voices in support of peace. We can remind them that we wish their security and freedom from fear, as they wish for themselves.
Source The Buddhist Channel
