Peace In These Dangerous Times

Ali Jadallah photo, The Guardian newspaper,
after a second bombardment in Gaza City

The great Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn describes our world today so well in his lyric: “Lovers in a dangerous time…never a breath you can afford to waste.”

The world is, indeed, a dangerous place.

October 7 marked the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre of over 1000 Jews, many of them young people attending a music festival in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamen Netanyahu, under fire for the security lapse which allowed Hamas fighters into Israel in the first place, then launched a virulent military campaign in Gaza which has resulted over the last year in the death of more than 41,000 Palestinians.

That war has spread from Israel and Gaza., to Lebanon, Yemen, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and Iran.

Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Ukraine, continues to rage on, following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

Lastly, the progress of climate change continues largely unabated, with the warming of the Gulf of Mexico contributing to the massive hurricanes, Helene and Milton, battering Florida over the last two weeks.

With the world, as a whole, deeply troubled, this column today focuses on the Middle East.  As this Against the Flow blog has argues in the past: “It is completely understandable why Jews and Israelis are extremely nervous and frightened about their safety in the world right now.

“With the Holocaust, 6-million Jews were victims of the most horrendous and calculated crime against humanity in the history of the world…As a result of the Holocaust, the Jewish people have the absolute moral and political right to safety within Israel and around the world (including in Canada) and they have the right to defend themselves.”

Having said that, we must ask whether the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, is on a very dangerous course, and is using continuous war to ensure his own political survival.
 
Through its spy agency, Mossad, Israel has almost certainly used small explosives planted within hand-held devices, like pagers, to maim its enemies in Lebanon. Yes, these were mainly used against Hezbollah fighters, but this too, borders on a crime against humanity.  The relentless killing of innocents in Gaza by Israeli tank, bomb and rocket attacks also falls within this category.

In a curious way, the Hamas terrorist organization and the current Israeli government have similar aims.  Hamas wants to destroy Israel and desires one Palestinian state.

On the other hand, the Israeli government also wants one state in the lands of the Middle East claimed by both the Palestinian and Jewish peoples – a mega-Israeli state.

These two sides ignore the fact that the solution to the great Middle Eastern problem surely lies in a two-state solution.

This reality is emphasized by Gideon Levy, the controversial columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who asks the key question: after a year of fighting in Gaza: “Is Israel a safer place?”

He further asks, with Netanyahu at the helm, will Israel will be an “endless occupier” of land, such as in the West Bank – a key part of the Israeli mega-state?

In fact, says Levy, “Israel is turning into a pariah state.”

Saying that Palestinians are “human beings like us,” Levy notes that Adolf Hitler concluded that the Jews were somehow sub-humans, and in Hitler’s evil mind, that cleared the way for the Holocaust.

In his compelling analysis, Levy argues that the two-state path is the only answer.
“It’s neither us nor them, it’s both of us.”

The world is indeed a dangerous place right now. We don’t have time to waste a breath. It’s time we waged war on our common enemy, climate change, and worked harder on our common humanity.

Correction
My previous column on the Fall Fair, referring to Coleen Winchester's distinguished educational career should have said that her 15 years as a vice principal and principal were included in her 35 years in schooling.
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Against the Flow blog apologizes for the error. The column correctly noted Coleen's tremendous contribution to the successful 2024 Fall Fair.