A Higher Ground In The Israeli-Hamas And Other Conflicts

Nobeyama Plateau, as seen from Mt.Iodake in the Southern Yatsugatake Volcanic Group, Nagano Pref., Honshu, Japan, available through Wikimedia, licensed through Creative Commons

When conflicts such as that in Israel and Gaza threaten survival and existence, they almost force each of us into a world where we think our only action is to take sides. Some even feel tempted to attack others, whether verbally or physically, to fully engage in the conflict. I would like to provide examples of individuals who responded to past violence through options centered on the reconciliation ultimately required among peoples.

After terrorists flew my wife into the Pentagon on 9-11-2001, my two daughters, Kristin Steuerle and Lynne Schofield, and I thought long and hard about what we might do. The money taxpayers gave us from the 9/11 fund allowed us to try to sponsor two charitable efforts—creating both a local community foundation and a national organization that would provide overarching support to families and friends of victims. Specifically, we wanted to support and unite those victims who responded with positive outreach and had a voice they didn’t seek but that would be heard. We called that second organization, Our Voices Together (OVT). I thought it would succeed easily, the community foundation with great difficulty. It turned out to be the reverse, and the difference rested mainly on resources.

When it came to the community foundation, now called ACT for Alexandria, the citizens of Alexandria, VA simply came together and, devoting significant time, talent, and money, made it happen. OVT, on the other hand, was no match for the two groups most successful in gathering people together: the government and the legal community pursuing clients for lawsuits. The State Department for a while expressed interest, but we faced the dilemma that we didn’t want OVT’s voice simply to be that of the government.

Along the way, a range of extraordinary people graced our lives. Some of these got involved at different levels with OVT, and some came from an engagement with the Fetzer Institute when it brought together models of what it called “love and forgiveness.” Among those I got to know personally were:

·      Sakena Yacoobi, who has spent her life helping educate Afghan women during the Russian occupation, the first Taliban takeover, the American presence, and still today.

·      Robi Damelin of the Parents Circle Families Forum  that unites for peace hundreds of Israeli & Palestinian families who lost children from the continual conflict. See the recent discussion by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times.

·      Hafsat Abiola-Costello of Nigeria, who founded the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy to promote women as initiators of change after her president-elect father died in detention and her mother was murdered during a demonstration seeking his release.

·      Akbar Ahmed, whose many activities for peace included tours with Judea Pearl of the  Daniel Pearl Foundation.

·      Steven and Liz Alderman, who devoted much of their lives after 9-11 to the Peter C. Alderman Foundation (and successor organizations) to confront traumatic depression among those experiencing terrorism or mass violence in such places as Cambodia, Uganda, and Peru.

·      Susan Retik, who, along with Patti Quigley, created Beyond the 11^th to support raising funds for widows in Afghanistan.

·      Eric Gardner of Georgetown University, who worked with his family to build up the Jeffry Brian Gardner Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of his brother who died on 9-11.

·      Sarah (Sally) and Don Goodrich, who helped found the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation in honor of their son, who was killed on 9-11.

·      Wilhelm Verwoerd, whose lifelong activities have been to foster understanding among communities that suffered from violent conflict, partly as a way to reconcile his past as the grandson of the South African prime minister known as the “architect of apartheid.”

·      Azim Khamisa, who came to recognize “victims on both ends of the gun” and whose many activities included lectures promoting peace with the grandfather of a 14-year-old gang member who killed his son.

·      David Stapleton and Joyce Manchester, who, along with the staff at Global Giving, have helped continue the work at OVT through the Safer World Fund, promoting education and healthcare for women in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

·      Many other individuals who served as staff, board members, and advisors to OVT. I give them inadequate credit here in my effort to focus on the activities of reconciliation that different people supported or created.

I am not naïve. Terrorism must be fought, and military responses should follow the principle of proportionality. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hatred and violence are horrible. Everyone has a right to justice and full citizenship. I also know that individuals and non-governmental organizations cannot compete economically with government in taking big, immediate actions, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a powerful voice, nor that their voice over time is not greater and more important than the voices of hate. Nor is my family anti-military. My daughter, grandfather, brother-in-law, nephew, and I all volunteered to serve.

But if the long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice—a hope I think all of us share—it depends on the combined efforts for good that people undertake. In particular, we as individuals can help foster long-term solutions that move beyond violence and express goodwill in ways not possible through government action. Those efforts extend far beyond immediate crises; they are also severely underfunded. Individuals can engage with the types of organizations and people noted above, while nonprofit organizations can, as the Fetzer Institute once did, do much more to promote and empower extraordinary examples of healing in response to conflict and crisis.

In sum, there are many ways beyond rancor, however justified, that each of us can amplify our voices in response to these conflicts.