“Peace is not the absence of war. It is the presence of justice.” Martin Luther King
In my lifetime, there have been two previous big “peace accords” – Camp David (1978), associated with Jimmy Carter, and the Oslo Accords (1993 and 1995), associated with Bill Clinton. Neither worked. As just one example, the Oslo Accords drew ugly lines in the map of the West Bank that are the shape of Israel apartheid there now. Euphoria has accompanied each of the others, as it surrounds the current one.
These earlier peace accords floated by me as headlines. The war was “over there.” When the pictures of rubble in Gaza began to appear in October 2023, and appear, and appear, I was carried beyond the headlines, into the horror. Later, hearing directly from other Quakers about what they and the national Quaker organizations were doing, I realized that I needed to do more than just feel horrified, even though that was a step forward.
I started reading history and quickly saw the entanglement of first the U.K and then the U.S. It soon became clear to me that the war I was watching was not “over there.” It was coming from here; it was my war. In my lifetime, the United States has sent $300 billion in military aid to Israel. 70% of the cost of the weapons used in Gaza was paid by our tax dollars. We cannot disown this war.
Earlier, I had often explained that I — that we as Quakers — were on the side of peace. In the spring of 2024, from my fellow Quakers, I learned the importance of being on the side of peace with justice. I have since then worked to be consistently, persistently on the side of human rights, for everyone — Jews, Palestinians, Christians, Bedouins – everyone.
I celebrate the ceasefire. I ache for the day when Israeli weapons do not kill anyone in Gaza; that day has not yet come. I celebrate the return home in a few hours of the twenty living hostages to Israel and thousands in Palestine. I celebrate the surge of humanitarian aid under U.N. auspices – the medicine, the fuel, everything that is needed to heal and rebuild. I celebrate the movement of Gazans back to where their homes once stood.
But I cannot forget that the distance to peace with justice is enormous. The militarization of Israeli society is deep, a monster fed by U.S. arms. Equally deep is the hatred generated by massacre, by invasion, by two years of bombardment, by over 67,000 people killed including more than 20,000 children, by starvation and trauma that the children who survive will live with throughout their lives. A second Nakba. None of what Israelis or Palestinians carry in their hearts today will be erased by signatures on paper.
I ask those who read this to keep the river of love flowing towards Israel/Palestine. It will need to flow for a long, long time. But only Love will heal the region in the end.
Finding My Place 