if one puts the size and or might makes right issues into their perspective scales of population, power, history, etc. one will come to the natural conclusion that there is no difference in any of these global genocidal acts, killing is killing and killing of the masses and that which supports them and keeps them healthy and alive, is plain and simple terror tactics and mass death by proxy of ones previous actions is genocide, such neat and clean labels as terrorists or innocent civilians makes the job of denial that much more palatable.

therefore i place my*self not in the right, wrong, middle or left,

i*am truth.

and so as one prays, hopes, wishes, speaks or acts for peacemaking to grow, it*shall, for this is the way of truth.

BL*M

I'm not in any position to decide who is right or wrong, justified or not justified, good or evil,... All I know is that I feel more sympathy for the Lebanese because I feel more guilt as an American because we are the ones who have armed Israel.

Editor, propeace.net

As a peacemaker, I must be able to name those actions I find reprehensible and to recognize that among any group of humans there will be some who are capable of perpetrating them. Not every group will have the power to do so, but all share the capability. That just goes to show how human we all are.

For the sake of emphasis, and because the Holocaust is entrenched in our historical frame of reference, Rainbow Brain's comparisons are particularly powerful. But what if we venture to Africa and look at some of the truly genocidal conflicts there? IMHO the Israeli bombardment and seige of Lebanon, while reprehensible, pales in comparison to the true genocide in Rwanda, the DR Congo, or Darfur.

At the same time, the infrequent instances of Hezbollah terrorists causing harm to innocent Israeli civilians pales in comparison to the momentous harm that has been visited upon the innocent Lebanese. Yet what if the tables were turned? What if Hezbollah was the second most powerful military force on Earth, with a mighty air force and a hidden arsenal of nukes, and Israel was the irregular militia hiding amongst the civilian population? Perhaps Hezbollah would long since have marched Israel into the sea.

Are they really any better than the Israelis, just because they are weaker?

We are all fortunate that the war has subsided, a cease-fire has held, tenuously perhaps. I pray that peacemaking may grow from there.

Steve

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Our lives begin to end the moment that we become silent about things that matter. (Martin Luther King Jr.)

There is nothing one may forgive or place blame upon, which one is not complicit in creating and therefore also responsible in its condemnation.

Thus the needs of one are the needs of all, and must be met by each.

BL*M

The violence carried out by all parties is barbaric, brutal, lacking in compassion, ignorant of truth and most likely completely useless in resolving the conflict. If we are to promote non-violent conflict resolution, then we must not single out one side or the other as being "more wrong", but help to illuminate a path forward for both. We can begin to do this by recognizing the unmet needs of everyone involved and identifying ways of getting those needs met.