Nissim Dahan
Admin
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08.18.2007 13:41
Hi Eric, thanks for joining our Forum.
You ask: Why do people fight in the Middle East, and Who?s is at fault?
It?s a hard question, but my answer would be that after a while, no one really knows what the fighting is all about, and that in the final analysis, we?re all at fault.
Whenever you see a long and protracted fight between people, there is usually something that occurred way back when, that people point to as the cause. For example, the Shiite Muslims have been at odds with the Sunni Muslims because they disagree as to who should have succeeded Muhammad when he died in 632 AD. Shiites believe that Ali, the younger cousin of Muhammad, should have gone on to lead the Muslim world, and Sunnis believe that the first three caliphs were the legitimate rulers. In recent years, this enmity is manifesting itself in Iraq, where Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds are vying for power, in the wake of Saddam?s fall from power.
Another example is the clash between Israelis and Palestinians. For many centuries, Jews and Muslims got along relatively well. However, when Jews came to the conclusion that they must have a homeland if they are to survive as a people, and when the state of Israel came into being, a prolonged fight ensued between Jews and Palestinians as to who are the rightful heirs to this small piece of land.
So there are always historical facts that people can point to in explaining the origins of conflict. And often, there are equities on both sides of the argument. The problem is that certain types of enmities do not stop with history. These types of protracted conflicts seem to take on a life of their own, and pretty soon, the hatred and distrust between people grow out of proportion to the original dispute. The negative feelings and disputes between people can often fester beyond any rational relationship to the original cause, and therefore, beyond the ability of reasonable people to resolve.
So if you ask me: Who?s at fault, I say we all are. If we can?t let go of our archaic and outdated modes of thinking, then we?re all to blame, and doomed to suffer the apocalyptic consequences of endless warfare and strife. Many of us believe what we want to believe, and the truth is tossed aside as just a side issue. Many of us look to Holy Scripture to justify why we are duty bound to take the life of another. We think to ourselves, God wrote this Holy Book, and therefore it must be true.
To my mind, God did not write scripture. God wrote the universe, and gave us the Common Sense to decipher its meaning. For me, God is the sum total of all the creative energy in the universe. He is a part of us and we are a part of Him. And in His wisdom, He put into place certain immutable laws, certain principles which are here to stay, and endowed us with the Common Sense to figure it all out. Will we succeed in bringing order to our world? As far as I can tell, it remains an open question, and everything we know and love hangs in the balance.
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