yes kath that was lovely well I wrote once an article titled: born to love and I would share it soon cause love is the answer indeeed

My misatake for wandering from the subject of war in the generic sense to a specific war. I agree with Judaye Street that we should teach our children how to live in peace. That teachinng is central to my faith, and I shared it with my children as they were growing up. Desmond Tutu summed it all up in his book about South Africa -- No Future Without Forgiveness. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission took on thr formidable task of trying to get the truth from both side of a deeply poisonous conflict with the goal of achieving forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation. Needless to say, people are imperfect, the process was imperfect, and the outcome was not universally achieved. Nevertheless, that process provides a model for the kind of work that would need to be done to bring an end to war.
Forgiveness is the most essential requirement for peace. As long as people cling to the pain and the poison, there can be no peace. It starts with love for people and a commitment to name the truth of all the ugliness between them. Forgiveness is not sweeping the truth under a rug; it is naming the ugly truth and pulling the venom out of it. After forgiveness, healing and reconciliation is possible, and peace between former enemies comes after that. We must not make our children into dishrags or doormats by teaching them that mushy words equal peace. It takes strength, courage and sometimes even combat to bring enemies to a place where they can begin to speak truth to each other and start the process of forgiveness. We first teach our children how much God loves everybody, and then we teach them to love people the way God does. In that context we teach them to speak and live truth. Peace is not the simple absence of violence. Peace can only truly exist in a reconciled relationship between either people or nations. There isn't much of that in the world around us, and that is the root cause of conflict, whether between neighbors or nations, I think.

thanks all for your great comments heart touching contributions,katherine they took their Palestinian ID,s and killed them and told those who stayed to have only israli ID so u think the land owners should be refuggees in Arab countries ? rather than all the refuggeees should go back to their home country and instead the emigrants return back their countries? this's the logic fair human solution u think should be done? well Kath I totally disagree Arabs refuse to take Palestinians as refugees cause they've a country that is being stolen and if they'd be accepted as refugees and given substitute ID then it's like giving away Palestine wrapped in a gift to israelis !!!!!!!!!!

Hello, Yassmin. I think if every human being was required to go to Dachau in Munich, Germany, and see the huge structure made of human bones that fronts the entrance of the main building, the idea of fighting each other would be put out of our vocabulary. I stood looking at it with tears streaming down my face. I walked the grounds and could hear the ghostly wails of desperate people. I entered one of the buildings that housed women, and saw where they bathed (Water Closet) while standing around a big steel water wheel; I saw toilets that lined the wall; all privacy a thing of the past. I went to the Crematorium and wept again as my mind went back into that time, seeing the condemned walking the walk to one's death; even with starvation, torture, I am sure most wanted to live; even if no loved ones were still alive, I'm sure most wanted to breathe their loved ones' scent, again; even if their bodies looked skeletal and covered with sores, I'm sure most wanted to live.... The tree leaves quivered with a nice breeze that day, but I thought the air seemed heavy...how could it not? this was a graveyard of monumental proportions. I saw the guard houses at each corner of the massive enclosure, and could feel those eyes of long ago on me as I walked about. Our group climbed back on the bus. I noticed each of us kept our eyes to ourselves, there was no sound from anyone. An extra politeness was given to the person in front of you and in back of you. I think it very possible that we shared a horror of how human beings could commit such acts upon other human beings...May God Forgive Us All....Elizabeth

Well, I have thought about some of the things you write about too, particularly the wasteful destruction and the suffering of children. It seems that it is human nature to try to get as much as we can, or is it? I don't know.

I get so angry when I think about the Israeli and Palestinian problem I want to close down that part of the earth and allow no one to live there. When I read about what happened in Rwanda I get sick and start crying. or our troops who have served so selflessly in Iraq and Afghanistan. They and their families hardly get any press. It's as if they don't matter.

I cannot believe we (humans) are the way we are. Maybe we should intentionally teach our children peace just as we teach math and science, reading and writing. Maybe then over time humans will began to change.

The writer Alice Walker is a pacifist and I cannot say I agree with all her opinions. I know at a certain point I will fight and kill to defend myself, family and friends. Here is one of her essays from her blog:

Thanks for bringing up this difficult and very important subject. I wish I had some clear answers.

The UN created a homeland for the Israelis, whether it was a good idea or not, and that is why the Israelis are there. The Palestinians were under no ohligation to leave. The Israelis even told them not to leave, but they left anyway. Their Arab brothers who had lied about the Israeli intention to kill every Arab inside the borders were not kind enough to welcome the refugees they had instigated. I agree that the conflict ought to end. The Arab countries that have Palestinian regugee camps should absorb their fellow Arabs and make them welcome. It is time to put a stake in the ground and say "Enough, already. We can't undo the past, but we can reshape the future. Everybody sit still wherever he is and stop quarreling. Now. Here. The past is the past, so be done with it." Do you think this would be a good plan?

welcome Katherine,I believe all countries borders are human made I do not get the idea of war or occupation in fact the continous israeli attacks on Palestinians seem brutal,redicilous to me history says Palestinians were always there while israelies came and go so why don't they just settle in a piece of land equivlant to their number and stop killing the real Palestinian owners? why do they want all the country? what I mean is it's all GOD's land why do we keep killing each other over it? why don't we settle things peacefully and stop the occupation,attacks? if a country is attacked then there would not be any other way of defense indeed but the question of why still stand why do we fight each other and kill innocent?

History documents a number of reasons for starting wars. All the documentation chooses a starting point, such as Germany's invasion of Poland that is usually recognized as the beginning of World War II. That invasion fits your model. The Germans wanted Poland's land. However, the land was only a physical fulfillment of a much bigger motive that went back to the treaty that ended World War I.

You could continue to chase that motive back through European history for generations. If you slogged down that path, you would uncover some issues that are much harder to nail down than the theft of Poland's land.

The same thing would happen if you were to dig into the beginning of the Crusades. Or if you left the continent of Europe and studied the feudal wars in ancient Japan. What about Egypt and Nubia? You can usually find that some theft occurred in the context of a war, but the wars I know anything about are much more complex than that.
I would like to know how you think a country ought to respond when someone attacks. I think I detect that you hate war, and so do I. I just want to understand your view of an appropriate response to invasion.