With pessimism reigning both here and there, I bring your attention to this reflection from a Palestinian Christian who is a friend of CMEP. Bernard Sabella, who works in Jerusalem for the Middle East Council of Churches, ponders the challenge for individuals -- both ordinary Israelis and Palestinians and their leaders -- to make choices and commitments that are moral and humane.    

“Of Pilots, Suicide Bombings and Leadership”  

By Dr. Bernard Sabella, Executive Secretary

Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees, Middle East Council of Churches

Jerusalem – October 6^th, 2003

I usually try to detach myself from what goes on around me in this Holy Land in order to concentrate on my work and maybe also to keep my sanity. But there are events, developments, happenings and non-happenings that force themselves into one's space and one's life. Such events and developments highlight choices and commitments that people make. Of Israeli pilots who refuse on principle to carry out bombing raids that could kill innocent Palestinian civilians, I cannot but respect their courage. Whether the debate raging in Israel over their letter of refusal would widen the choices open to other Israelis, this remains to be seen. But the commitment and the choice made by these pilots are to be acknowledged in the quest towards a more humane relationship between Israelis and Palestinians.

The suicide bombing in Maxim Restaurant in Haifa is a very painful event. Not simply the human cost paid by everyone but especially the devastation that befell families of those working and dining in the restaurant make the heart ache. There is no excuse for anyone carrying out a suicide bombing. Justifications for suicide bombings could range from personal to political and ideological reasons but these justifications fail to see the human face of the other. If I argue that all Israelis are alike and they all carry the ugly face of military occupation, am I better than those Israelis who argue that all Palestinians are terrorists and hence without a human face? Suicide bombings, like indiscriminate air strikes, hurt all of us as they rob us of our humanity and narrow the possibilities for peace-making and eventual reconciliation.

Leaders, on both sides, have not yet made the needed choices and commitments for peace. Military retaliation, on the Israeli side, not only reflects the superiority of the military machine and air force but also the moral bankruptcy of Israeli politicians. They fail to understand that peace with their neighbors necessitates ending the occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands. It takes great leaders to initiate the process of ending a military occupation. Instead, the Israeli government decides to strike at Syria in retaliation for the Maxim Restaurant bombing. If Syria is to be impressed then it has to be gained to a peace process and not attacked. Desperate politicians, like those presently at the helm of the government in Israel, need to ask themselves why they feel so desperate, at present?

Palestinian leaders are also challenged to put their house in order. In the first Intifada (1988 – 1993) Palestinian children with stones in their hands gained world wide sympathy for the Palestinian cause. We have more arms and gun power today in the second Intifada but we do not have the vision and we definitely have lost the moral edge of the first Intifada. Our leaders, of all factions and groups, need to work on the vision for the society and its future. It is not a question of checking the Islamist groups and disarming their members, it is a question of whether we are all together onto working for the vision of Palestinian society? If we are, then our response to continued Israeli occupation should have a framework that would ensure the moral and humane dimensions of our struggle. Our cause is a clear one: occupation should end and a Palestinian state should rise! But not at any cost. It may take us longer time to achieve our goal if we adopt a clear framework with moral and humane dimensions of struggle. Such a framework would not only gain us the support of the world but more important it would reaffirm what is best in our Palestinian culture and heritage. In the final analysis, there is no other way.