Peace and Hatred Cannot Coexist

By EARL COX
There is nothing more emotionally devastating than to lose one’s child regardless of age. The heart break is palpable whether they are very young and dependent or in their 60’s and independent. The hurt is still the same.
The sorrow is similar even when a young child is not your own because all life is precious. In light of the recent tragic killing of a Palestinian baby, no one is happy – no one except the terrorists who perpetrated the crime. It is for this reason that the Israeli Prime Minister made it clear that there is “zero tolerance for terrorism” and that all terrorists will be punished equally under the law. Israel took care of it and, so far as it depends on them, will make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
It is equally unfortunate that for all the innocent Israeli children who are killed or maimed by Arab Palestinian terrorists, there is little to no outrage from the world. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that he is still waiting for the same world-wide media outrage for the innocent children of Israel who are victims of Palestinian terror as the media is giving to the relatively isolated case of the Palestinian baby. It’s the usual worldly double standard at work in which anti-Semitic attitudes are at work slanting and distorting the truth and always pointing to Israel as the problem and the aggressor.
I do not wish to add sorrow to the tragic story of the Palestinian baby. The parents remain seriously ill as is the 4 year old brother and they will all be emotionally scarred for life; just as all the Israeli’s who have been kidnapped, murdered, shot, stoned or had firebombs thrown at them for no other reason than they are Jewish and/or Israeli.
All of the aforementioned events represent very sad scenarios. The correct course of action is to learn from all of this in order to secure a better and more peaceful future for our children. We must all act responsibly and live peacefully with each other which most people do - minus the national and religionist extremists.
The peal of the ring of heartache is distinctly heard when we consider the warning issued by one of the female co-signatories of the Israel Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. The very next day Israel was attacked by her Arab neighbors without any provocation whatsoever. Golda Meir, herself a mother of two, saw the pain, horror and outrage in her countrymen’s eyes and though she was known to be tough on the outside, on the inside she had a mother’s love that could perceive the Arab pain as well. The newly-born Jewish state of Israel was forced to defend itself.  It was Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister who said, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children but we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.” It was not her desire to war with anyone but she stood her ground when provoked by aggressive forces.
Golda Meir’s legacy of desperately wanting peace continues to this day and her words are still as true today as they were decades ago when she stated, “We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” In her visionary statement, she realized that peace would never be possible so long as Israel’s neighbors taught and preached hatred of Israel and the Jews.
It’s no secret that Palestinian summer camps for children are being used by Hamas to train Palestinian children in military warfare tactics and terrorist assault practices. Maturing in a culture of hate will never cultivate a society of peace.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has no excuse. Because of the intense “cradle to grave” hatred of the Jews which has been deeply ingrained into Arab Palestinian society, it will take more than a generation to erase enough of the hate to make room for serious discussions of peace. The Palestinian Authority is incapable of peace. It has engorged its citizenry with hatred of Israel and the Jews for so long that this attitude of hate is now so deeply woven into the fabric of their culture and will take a very long time to unravel. It is for this reason there is no peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Just as water and oil do not mix, peace and hatred cannot coexist. A great pre-condition for talks of peace between Israel and the Palestinians would be for the Palestinians to agree that all children have the right to live free from the fear of terrorism and aggression.