Breakthrough Story #4

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="057285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>TurnTheTide</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>  <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough 1 Crash Course"><U>Breakthrough #1 Crash Course</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 2"><U>Breakthrough Story #2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 3"><U>Breakthrough Story #3</U></A>   |   <B>Breakthrough Story #4</B>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 5 "><U>Breakthrough Story #5 </U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="056d2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index_site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>LINK TO SITE MAP</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B><U><IMG SRC="0d29ec50.jpg" border=0 width="158" height="197" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></div> <div> <B><U>Elias Chacour</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"America leads when its light emanates from its spiritual center... America blinds when its light emanates from its military center." </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U><IMG SRC="0d49ec50.jpg" border=0 width="158" height="197" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></div> <div> <B>GANDHI</B></div> <div> <I><B>"Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by fear of punishment, and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment."</B></I></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Breakthrough Story #4</I></div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="breakthrough__3_god_s_path_for_jews"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <I><B>BREAKTHROUGH #4: </B></I></div> <div> <B><U>"God's Path" for Jews, Muslims, and Christians: a Choice must be made. </U></B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>LOVE OR HATE?</B></div> <div> <B>COMPASSION OR REVENGE? </B></div> <div> <B>Which Holds the Solution to Terrorism? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>HAIFA, ISRAEL, Christmas, 1951:</B> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Elias Chacour was 13 and living as a Palestinian refugee in the Catholic Bishop's orphanage in Haifa when he wrote in his diary a prayer to Jesus: </FONT></div> <div> “Mother says you have a purpose in everything. But I don't understand what you want from us. Is it your plan that mother and father suffer as you suffered? Father will not fight to get his land back as others are willing to do. Is this the kind of `peace' you want to show the world? Will anyone hear our cry and help us?”</div> <div> Five years earlier, when Chacour was eight, the “path” followed for generations by Palestinians living in the Christian village of Biram in Galilee, and by Jewish friends in neighboring villages, came to an abrupt end. All Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, experienced a bifurcation when the state of Israel came into existence by a mandate of the United Nations. The mandate specified the new Israeli government must respect the property rights and human rights of the indigenous Palestinian population. </div> <div> But the “government” was no match for the Zionist military force that swept across the new nation. In 1948 Zionist troops occupied Chacour's ancient village of Biram. He and his family and all his neighbors were forced to flee for their lives. The interior world of the residents of Biram no longer matched the exterior world they experienced. All were deeply shaken and unsure how to react or what to do next.</div> <div> Chacour's father convinced the village men that armed resistance would only increase the cycle of violence and hate. Instead of fighting back, they would appeal to the Israeli high court to give them back their homes and the farms and orchards cultivated by their ancestors for centuries. Palestinian Christians from Biram and Jewish neighbors from nearby villages had suffered together under many different conquerors as far back as the Roman Empire. They had even endured the Crusades together.</div> <div> Elias's one hope for the future was that the court would allow his family and the other villagers to return to Biram. That hope was demolished, along with the village itself, Christmas morning 1951. </div> <div> Elias's older brother brought him the news. The court had ruled in favor of the villagers. It ordered the commanding officer to evacuate all troops from Biram and allow the villagers to return. The commander agreed to give the village back on the morning of December 25th. Christmas morning Elias parents and the villagers happily climbed the hill overlooking Biram. They planned to celebrate the great gift of returning home. A cannon blast greeted them. Below, they saw tanks and bulldozers surrounding their village. </div> <div> The commander had warned Elias's father he would never allow “dirty Palestinian terrorists” in the village again. He overruled the court by ordering his soldiers to begin firing. As the villagers watched, tank shells exploded. Houses flew apart like paper. Fire spread through the fallen timbers. The thick stonewall of the ancient church caved in. The roof was blown off. In only five minutes all was quiet again - except for the weeping of women and the terrified screams of babies and children. </div> <div> When Elias' brother described the scene to him, he said that their father's only words were, “Forgive them.”  That night after hearing the news, Elias wrote this in his journal:</div> <div> “How can we ever find again the peace we used to share with our Jewish neighbors? How can I help my parents - my Palestinian people?” (From Chacour's book <I>Blood Brothers:</I> ISBN 0-8007-9096-0.) </div> <div> <B>HOW? </B></div> <div> <B>The third breakthrough is to realize the old path we traveled for centuries no longer exists, just as Father Chacour's village of Biram no longer exists.  The momentum of our march has carried us out into the "tall grass and weeds." We can never return to “business as usual.” The old authorities we depended on no longer function as they once did.</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>TOKYO, JAPAN, May 10, 2001:</B></FONT><B> </B>Father Elias Chacour, a 61-year-old Palestinian Malachite Catholic priest, was awarded today the coveted Buddhist's Niwano Peace Prize, which includes a certificate, a medal, and 20 million yen (almost $200,000),</div> <div> Chacour was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. In 1999 the President of France awarded him the Legion d'Honneur. He received the Methodist World Council Peace Award, and many other peace prizes.</div> <div> The chairman of the Niwano awards ceremony introduced Chacour as a "man who has known persecution all of his life. A man who created seven educational institutions dedicated to peace where Jews, Palestinian, Muslims, Christians, Druze teach and study together. A man who speaks eleven languages. A man who built libraries, community centers, and summer camps for Palestinian youth…" The chairman concluded: </div> <div> "People who have experienced persecution can become embittered and often resign themselves to a course of violent revenge. But that was not the path that Chacour chose. The Jews themselves had been the victims of terrible persecution by Nazi Germany. Instead of meeting violence with violence, he chose the course of action to break the cycle of violence, suspicion and brutal hatred. </div> <div> “He dedicated himself totally over the last 30-plus years to efforts for reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in Israel…. He is a person who is able to shine a guiding light on the difficult problem of Israel's relations with the Palestinians." </div> <div> Through seven schools founded by Chacour in the Israeli town of Ibillin (kindergarten, elementary, high school, technical college, teacher resource center, gifted children school, and university), some 4,000 young people (Muslim, Christian, Jew, and Druze) from 70 towns and villages throughout the Holy Land receive “learning that advances real hope, and consequently, the possibility of peace.” His schools, which are evaluated by the Israeli government, recently received an “excellent 98.4%” rating. </div> <div> <B>The third breakthrough is that education for peace and reconciliation works; just as education for war and revenge works.  We have to choose which of these two options we will support. Hilda Bernstein Silverman chose to “stand with Israel” by supporting peace, instead of supporting war. Raima Larter chose to let go of control rather than continue her efforts, as a trained scientist, to control the “uncontrollable.” Elias Chacour chose to act to “break the cycle of violence, suspicion and brutal hatred.” What will we choose?  </B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. September 11, 2002</B></FONT><B>:</B>  Father Elias Chacour came from his village in Israel to our village in North Carolina to lead a commemorative service on the first anniversary of "9/11."  With him, we relived, and rethought, the tragic terrorist attack on America one year before. </div> <div> We were more than 100 Christians, representing different denominations from across America, attending a four-day Lay Ministry workshop at the Lake Junaluska United Methodist Conference Center. </div> <div> <B>The title of the workshop was  “Loves' Response to Violence.”</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> Dr. Evelyn Laycock, director of the Lay Ministry Center, began planning the conference a year prior to the events which produced the “bifurcation” on 9/11/01. The events that brought our nation, and the world, to a fork in the path we were following. And brought human beings face to face with a choice we are only beginning to perceive. </div> <div> A year after “9/11,” many Jews, Muslims, and Christians would ask if love was a choice anymore? Specifically, how practical was it be to love “terrorists?” </div> <div> Chacour addressed the practicality issue directly. And in doing so, he provided the third breakthrough for peacemakers. As coordinator for this web site project, I would have to deal with the path that was ending, and the choice we must make, on a personal level. </div> <div> Father Chacour used the language of religion. </div> <div> Dr. Larter used the language of science. </div> <div> Hilda Bernstein Silverman used the language of empathy. </div> <div> But the path each saw as ending was the same path. The choice each made was the same choice. The path each choose was the path of love: reconciliation, transformation, and growth. The path each rejected was the path of war: violence, control, and whatever "means" it takes to maintain the status quo.   </div> <div> For Chacour, the practicality of loving terrorists was never in question. He had witnessed the impracticality of not loving terrorists almost every day of his life. </div> <div> You may oppose those you perceive as terrorists, but it is totally impractical not to love them. A “war on terrorism” is not like a war with another nation. The more you hate your terrorist enemy, the more terrorist you create. The more you love your terrorist enemy, the harder it is for your enemy to hate you. And terrorism will disappear only when hate disappears. </div> <bR> <div> <B>To a Zionist military commander full of hate, eight-year-old Elias Chacour was a “dirty Palestinian terrorist.” For decades, adults have been turning Israeli and Palestinian children into terrorists by such hate. </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> After a lengthy introduction at our workshop, Chacour took his place at the podium. He unbuttoned and held open his black cleric's coat. He announced: “See, I do not carry bombs, no matter what your news media tells you. I am a proud Palestinian. I am not a dirty terrorist.” </div> <div> His black coat was new. He had purchased two new ones, an uncharacteristic extravagance, from a tailor in Jenin whose place of business was destroyed by the Israeli invasion. The tailor wrote and asked if Chacour could give him work to do. His family was hungry. Chacour immediately ordered two suits. </div> <div> “Loving your enemies," he explained, "does not mean you do not speak out against violence used against you and others. </div> <div> <B>"It is their spiritual sickness you are up against. </B></div> <div> “It is as though some demon of violence has been loosed and whispers cunningly, 'might is right; achieve your own ends by whatever means necessary --- all in the name of God.' It is an unholy alliance between nations that talk about God, while their true motives are purely military, that you are up against.” </div> <div> Chacour's says the work of reconciliation is first and foremost to “change hearts, not simply institutions.” </div> <div> Only when hearts are changed can peace breakthrough. That requires breaking barriers of fear. Institutions instill fear. To get beyond institutional barriers, Chacour encourages Palestinian students to visit <I>kibbutzim,</I> Jewish students to live short periods in a Palestinian village, and Jewish and Palestinian teachers to face each other for head-to-head dialogue. </div> <div> <B>The third breakthrough is that only “changed hearts” can overcome the “demon of violence.”</B></div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Chacour illustrated how “changed hearts” can overcome the “demon of violence” by telling two stories. </FONT></div> <div> <B>A changed heart #1:</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >A Jewish teacher in one of Chacour's schools told him about a phone conversation she had with her son. He was serving a tour of duty with the Israeli army stationed in the occupied territory of Palestine. His job, he believed, as the occupier was to keep “dirty Palestinian terrorists” in their place. </FONT></div> <div> (Chacour is sensitive to how such labels become engrained in a culture. He asks American audiences: “What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear `Palestinian?'”)</div> <div> When the teacher's son called on his cell phone his voice was very agitated. He told his mother that a young Palestinian woman had stabbed him from behind. The wound was not serious. He whirled around intent on killing whoever had attacked him. The occupiers had orders to shoot even children if they threw stones at soldiers. As far as he was concerned, his attacker was as good as dead. </div> <div> He told his mother he aimed his rifle at the girl's heart. His voice trailed off and the phone was silent.</div> <div> “Son, what did you do?” she asked anxiously.</div> <div> “Mother, I couldn't pull the trigger,” her son said, “the Palestinian girl looked like you.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>A changed heart #2:</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Father Chacour was driving on a narrow road on a rainy day when he saw another car skid and slid into a ditch. As he neared the accident five Palestinian men walked down the slippery slope to where the car was stuck. When Chacour climbed down to help, the men were knocking on the closed windows asking the occupant to unlock the car door. Inside a young Jewish woman sat frozen with fear. </FONT></div> <div> Chacour persuaded her to come sit in his car while the men struggled to get her small car back on the road. She was from a Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory. Chacour told her the Palestinian men did not mean to harm her. They had come to help. Nervously, she shook her head in disbelief. </div> <div> Chacour and the woman watched silently as the five men struggled to lift the small car out of the mud and push it up the bank. Just as the men reached the road, an army vehicle filled with Israeli soldiers roared up. The soldiers held the Palestinians at gunpoint. Both Chacour and the woman knew that shooting could begin at any moment.</div> <div> Suddenly, without a word, the woman leaped from his car. She ran and placed herself between the soldiers and the Palestinians. The soldiers ordered her out of the way. She would get hurt they told her. She shouted, “No, these men only wanted to help me. If you shoot them, you have to shoot me, too.”</div> <div> The soldiers saw she was serious and gave up. They returned to a nearby roadblock they had been guarding. The Palestinian men walked off in the opposite direction. The woman got in her car and drove away. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Chacour picked up our story. The story of “9/11.”</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> We Americans were, after “9/11,” like everybody else in the world. After the terrible tragedy in New York and Washington, Chacour and many Palestinians lined up to give blood if Americans needed it. Jews did the same. Most of the world's people were stunned and sickened by the senseless tragedy. Prayers were said in every language and by members of every religion for American victims of terrorism. Prayers were also said for the terrorists who died.</div> <div> In the workshop, “Love's Response to Violence,” we grappled with Chacour's belief that, especially after “9/11,” nothing could be more relevant than "love." When you see in the face of your “enemy” a loved one, your heart is changed. Only changed hearts can reconcile enemies. When your “enemy” comes to help you, rather than harm you, you are reconciled. Only love and reconciliation can win a “war on terrorism.” </div> <div> Chacour helped us understand that the “war on terrorism” did not begin September 11, 2001. </div> <div> The declaration of war by the President of the United States only made the war seem official. A “war of terror” had existed in Israel and Palestine for half a century. All nations and all people have been possessed by the "demon of violence" at one time or another. </div> <div> The events of “9/11” were like a match struck to a fuse that now circles the Earth. The fuse burns fastest in the Holy Land. Without love and reconciliation, the fuse almost certainly will lead to nuclear Holocaust. And if Israel remains on its present path, it may become the first victim. No amount of weaponry or technological armor can shield Israel, or the United States, from the "unparallel catastrophe" Einstein said waits at the end of that fuse. </div> <div> It was good for the President of the United States to make the war “official.” It was good for Americans to recognize its reality. That recognition could bring about a breakthrough that people everywhere in the world have hoped for. </div> <div> <B>In the past, America has been a light of hope for all people. The breakthrough people everywhere hope for is for America to lead the world to peace. But, Chacour warned us, America's “light” can blind as well as lead.</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <U>America leads when its light emanates from its spiritual center.</U> From the trust its founders put in a “greater power” - a “strange attractor,” a force in the universe powerful enough to overcome chaos, disorder, and evil. That force is personified in God's commandment to love one another; love, even, your enemies.  </div> <div> <U>America blinds when its light emanates from its military center</U>. From the trust its leaders, and its people, put in the “greater power” of weapons of mass destruction, and in the belief that the only force that can change the world for the better is the lure of material possessions and “success.” </div> <div>   <U>The crisis of terrorism is a spiritual crisis.</U> It can't be ended by wielding more military power. The balance of power eventually will turn. Each new cycle of violence will be more destructive than the last. With nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, each new escalation could be the one Einstein said would lead to "unparallel catastrophe." </div> <div> “Good violence” no longer can be counted on as a solution for “bad violence.” “Sacred violence,” “authorized violence,” the violence of our “good” against their “evil,” our hatred against their hatred, has become a formula for mutual self-annihilation.    </div> <div> <B>The path humans have followed for most of history is ending in chaos and disorder. We cannot control what is happening, or make it stop. We cannot go back to “business as usual.” But, as Dr. Raima Larter tells us, there are clues that urge us forward…clues that may be very personal, and there are clues that tell us what we as members of society should be doing now. </B></div> <div> The clues are bringing people from different backgrounds and religions together. The extraordinary threat to all the planet's people can be seen clearly in the prolonged “war of terror” between Israel and Palestine. In January 2002, more than 200 leaders of the world's major religions gathered in Assisi, Italy. Represented were Pope John Paul II; Bartholomew I, leader of all Orthodox Christians; Muslim Imams, Jewish Rabbis, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and others including many native religions. All signed a ten-commitment statement called the Assisi Decalogue for Peace, which was sent by the Pope to all the world's heads of state.   </div> <div> The first commitment was: “We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion, and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or of religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism.” </div> <div> Other commitments included: “to bring about a peaceful and fraternal coexistence between people of different ethnic groups, cultures, and religions…to refuse to consider our differences as an insurmountable barrier, but to recognize instead that to encounter the diversity of others can become an opportunity for greater reciprocal understanding…to forgive one another for past and present errors and prejudices…and to learn from the past that peace without justice is not true peace…” </div> <div> To read a report on the Assisi Decalogue and the complete documents<A HREF="id40_1_the_assisi_decalogue_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="World Religion Statements"><U> click here.</U></A> </div> <div> Since September 11, 2001, many other religious gatherings have committed to the process of reciprocal understanding. Manifestos and proclamations have been sent to leaders of Israel and the U.S. calling for peace with justice for Israelis and Palestinians. </div> <div> If you missed them in your news media, you can read samples in the "World Religions" Link page. </div> <bR> <div> What is the “authentic spirit of religion” that is being committed to? Chacour gave us a clue:</div> <div> “I was not born a Christian," he said. " I was born a baby. I was born a baby with an identity, born in the image and the likeness of God, like every one of my Jewish brothers, my Muslim brothers, Americans, Brazilians, all others. </div> <div> “Have you remembered that God is not Christian? Don't belittle and impoverish God, to make of him a Christian. Try to enrich yourself, to enrich the church, to enrich Christianity to become God-like. This is our vocation…our responsibility.</div> <div> “God is neither a tribal God nor a regional God.”</div> <div> To illustrate, Chacour told the biblical story of Naman. Naman was a wealthy Syrian, who was healed from leprosy by the prophet Elias. After he was healed, he asked permission to take two mule loads of dirt from Israel to Damascus. </div> <div> Chacour explained: “Naman wanted to spread the dirt on one of the corners of his palace. Whenever he wanted to worship the God of Israel he would jump on that dirt, worship the God of Israel and then jump back to Syria. </div> <div> “Nonsense…the message from God is that `from now on the true worshipers will no more need to go to Jerusalem or to go up to Mount Garazen in Samaria…they will worship God in spirit and in truth…'</div> <div> “We are all called to become adopted children of God, even you Methodists. Let us take that seriously, even with a kind of humor. Yes, this is a kind of atomic bomb to destroy the old conception that divided humanity into the race of lords, the Romans, and the race of slaves, the Arabs, and the Jew and the Gentile…”    </div> <bR> <div> <B>The third breakthrough is the worldwide awakening to an “authentic spirit of religion”…it is an ending of the reign of tribal Gods in history, the Gods who played favorites…the man-like, vengeful, sacrificial God whose “sacred violence” was used to rationalize countless crimes against humanity. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The path that is ending is the path of violence, the path on which the means justifies the ends. “Might make's right.” </B></div> <div> <B>The decision we must make is how we will invest our resources and our “selves” in a future in which the only “atomic bomb” used by humans will be Father Chacour's figurative “bomb” that destroys “the old conception of God that divided humanity” into winners and losers.</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>NOTE:  </B></FONT><B>Resources used for Progress Report #4 included the workshop “Love's Response to Violence,” Elias Chacour's book, </B><I><B>Blood Brothers; </B></I><B>and a paper delivered by Chacour titled “Hungry for Justice and Thirsty for Peace: Palestinian Education Towards Pluralism in the Galilee Region” presented at the Seventeenth World Methodist Conference, Rio de Janeiro in 1996. </B></div> <div> <B>To read an except from "Blood Brothers" about the destruction of Chacour's village of Biram, and other related Archives Links, you can</B><A HREF="id84.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthru 4 Documents"><U><B> click here.</B></U></A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>****************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>