Someone Must Stand Up and Say "The Cycle of Bloodshed Stops with Us"
"Forgiveness liberates the soul; it removes fear. That's why it's such a powerful weapon." — Nelson Mandela
A post I published on Facebook just days after Hamas's attack on Israeli communities and before Israel went to war in Gaza
October 14, 2023
Ohad Pele
Someone must stand up and say, "The cycle of bloodshed stops with us."
The leader who rises and says this will be a hero of historical proportions.
Violence begets counter-violence. Revenge begets counter-revenge. This is a cycle of blood that will never end until someone decides to stop the wheel and not take revenge, despite having the power to do so.
In such a time of mourning, pain and rage as we are experiencing now after Hamas's murderous attack, it is very tempting to want to annihilate the other side — to "trample them to dust," to "crush them," to make them "suffer like we suffered" and hope they disappear from the world "like the Nazis disappeared."
Israelis want to do this to Gazans, and Gazans want to do this to Israelis. This is natural. It's primitive in the sense that it comes from our ancient tribal genes as hominids. But it's not wise, because the other side doesn't really disappear. Even the Nazis didn't disappear. They keep returning and raising their heads under different hats. Moreover, everyone who is killed has relatives who will seek to avenge their blood, if and when they can. The "victorious" side will then live by its sword, fearing an unexpected uprising.
Like small children trading blows in the neighborhood, each side hopes the other side will absorb "such a blow" that will cause them to give up the desire to behave violently from now until forever. That they'll learn a lesson. Each side hopes the other side will be the one to stop out of fear. But no one is willing to stop out of transcendence and strength, rather than from weakness and fear.
Each side believes that if it decides to stop the cycle of blood and not take revenge, it will be perceived as weak and vulnerable in the eyes of the other, and this will only invite more violence, "because violence is the only language they understand."
However, stopping the karma cycle of violence can only happen from tremendous strength, not from weakness.
No one doubts that Israel can completely erase the Gaza Strip from the earth if it only unleashes all restraints. But precisely from this strength, Israel can also transcend itself and stop the cycle of bloodshed. This can be done in a way that won't be mere "restraint" – because truly, about the horrors of October 7, 2023, one cannot simply show restraint. About those horrors that Hamas perpetrated, we must respond with the best weapon available to us, the only weapon that has the power to stop cycles of bloodshed. The weapon of soul transcendence.
We have the ability to stop the war now, from our free choice, while the world public opinion still supports Israel and is watching eagerly to see how the Jewish state will respond.
Many of us know clearly that if we had a worthy leader, she would have stood at the podium and not repeated worn-out slogans of old generals. She wouldn't have deluded the people that what's missing is more of the same thing. She wouldn't have said "We'll strike them, blah blah!"
What she would have said is something like:
"I want to announce to all the people of the world that the cycle of violence in the Middle East stops now! Simply because we choose to stop it!
Despite what is expected of us, we will not embark on a mad revenge campaign in the Gaza Strip. Such a campaign would drag the entire Middle East into a long and bloody war, which Hamas and those behind them aspire to, as a direct continuation of Al-Qaeda and ISIS ideology. We will not give them what they want. Although we obviously could, we will not erase Gaza from the face of the earth and will not kill thousands of Palestinians. We will not offer the blood of our children and theirs as a sacrifice on the altar of death where they worship.
From the position of strength we hold, we demand massive immediate intervention by all world powers and Gulf states to immediately release all Israeli hostages. The Palestinians themselves must also be liberated from the rule of terrorist organizations that control them in a dictatorship of fear and coercion. We could do this by massively killing thousands of civilians, but a general political mobilization by European countries, the US, Egypt, together with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Gulf states, could do this through diplomatic and economic means, with minimal use of force.
We have no desire to cause additional suffering beyond the terrible suffering we have endured. The suffering of other people will not sweeten the suffering of the bereaved families and the entire civilized world. The dead will never return, even if we kill thousands on the other side, but their deaths will not be in vain if they bring peace and protect the next generation from repetition of the revenge cycle.
From the position of power we have, when all human morality is shocked by what happened to us, and the world's powers are by our side, we demand a real solution for Palestinians living in Gaza, and their complete liberation from Hamas rule.
We ask Egypt to grant territories in northern Sinai bordering the Gaza Strip for creating decent living space for the Palestinian people. We call for international financial investments, an equivalent sum to what a war would cost, to create the new and expanded Gaza as the Singapore of the Middle East, built on solar electricity and abundant desalinated water from the Mediterranean Sea.
After liberating the Palestinian people from Hamas rule, we must ensure that messages of violence, war, murder and racism do not penetrate the minds of the future generation. Such messages will be illegal and will not enter Palestinian and Israeli education systems alike. Media in both countries will not be allowed to broadcast messages encouraging war. Such broadcasts will be considered invalid and reprehensible.
In times of rage and unbearable pain, it is very easy to be tempted by cheap revenge solutions, which are not solutions at all. The only solution that can protect our children is if we succeed in turning our enemies into our friends. It's difficult. It's challenging. It's the opposite of the emotional feeling surging within us, but the sacred path was never the easiest one.
"Forgiveness," said Nelson Mandela, "liberates the soul. It removes fears. That's why it constitutes the most effective weapon."
