I am a futurist, by profession and by nature. We study the future by understanding the past and cultivating a highly analytical awareness of the presence. I am honored to be an educator. I am also blessed with a rich and full life in peace.
One of the greatest gifts has been my friends that are woven into the fabric of my life like threads from all across the earth. There are no more cherished or finer threads in my life than three women who extend from my youth to today. It is for these women that I write this diary with tears in my eyes and love in my heart.
We first came together at a football game, which would be an ironic picture if you knew us all. Huddled together against the cold under army surplus blankets were my two best friends from the fourth grade, Jewish sisters, with a girl from one of our area’s most prominent Lebanese families, and they were in a hot discussion on how to solve the problems in the Middle East. Brilliant and passionate political discussion in friendship among women so young created a magical moment in time that I wish so much that I could play back today.
How I wish I could play it back today. Today my friends are mothers who have been charged for the last decades with the passing down of their respective cultures to their beautiful children. One of my Jewish friends has invited me to join groups in defense of Israel to the thousands of rockets launched against them, and my Lebanese friend offers a group decrying the outrage in Gaza that uses Albert Einstein’s words to justify a belief that Israel should not exist.
Albert Einstein, 1932:
"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical consideration, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."
The guilt of the Christians for ignoring the atrocities against the Jews of Europe caused the commission of another atrocity against the people of Palestine.
My friends and sisters, I will not join any group who in anyway promotes the continued division of the people of the Book. It is time to stop punishing the children and grandchildren for the sins of the fathers and grandfathers, the sins of Israeli and Hamas politicians who today reject a cessation to the killing and maiming of children and those whom they love and need for their nurture. There is great injustice and terror in the past and present. This we cannot change.
We can change tomorrow. Palestinians and Israelis must have homelands, and they must share borders where Isaac, Ishmael and Christophe meet in peace and brotherhood as children of the Book, as humans deserving basic human rights and dignity. The horrors of today are unconscionable under G-d, and the Israeli government, Hamas and Christian arms dealers share in the bloody responsibility. This is not creating security, but making future martyrs. It is damaging and twisting the souls of future generations. It has to stop. Stop the hate. Stop the blame. Stop the injustice. Stop the killing.
This is the world we have inherited. This we cannot change, but we can change the inheritance we leave. We are all the children of Abraham, but we are drunk with a self righteousness that abuses all our children. It is time for the Children of Abraham to quit killing the innocent children of Abraham.
I think of the power of those young girls forty years ago, and I believe that we still have great power. Children are our responsibility to nurture, educate and value. It is time to come together with other women and say that children may no longer be collateral damage. Rockets may not fall. We will not allow our children to be crushed as their homes explode around them. Come together as women and say no more! No more Jewish children, no more Palestinian children, no more Christian children, no more Muslim children, no more Hindus or Rwandans or not one more child in Darfur-- no child will die for the sins of their fathers or grandfathers. It will not be tolerated. Never again!
We need to come together to build a free Palestine with healthy opportunities for healing and growth. If Israeli children are to have a safe future, Palestinian children must have opportunities for free and bright futures. Justice must not be defined by the past injustice, but as what is a just future. We must take the power from those who find power in the preservation of feeding the flames of hatred, mistrust and nationalistic chauvinism. Women must be responsible to the children. We must find a way to understand the past, analyze the present, and focus only on a future of peace.
Hypatia Rising