Shuck and Jive


Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Brian McLaren on the Middle East

This is from Brian McLaren's latest post, On Gaza: Wisdom for the Way Forward.

My guess is that the idea of continuing positive engagement with people on the other side is probably gaining ground within Muslim and Jewish organizations, although it's still very much a minority attitude (inertia is a powerful force).

And so we're looking at a very small step towards a potentially big win.

The win isn't just a rewriting of the respective playbooks that Muslim and Jewish organizations use when the Middle East conflict heats up. It's the recognition that, if we want to actually solve the conflict, Muslim and Jewish groups should be writing a new playbook together - because they're on the same side.

I think he makes some excellent points about how the two sides get stuck in their old narratives and rules of engagement that only serve to continue the conflict. He talks about the need and the hope and the beginning of new rules of engagement for the mutual goal of co-existence.

I hesitantly agree. If power relations were equal, I would totally agree. Unfortunately they are not. If it wasn't for the United States, there would not be this crisis. The U.S. is the source of support for Israel. We need to be honest with our motivations.

Plus, we have to have a cease fire first. Like now.


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