Samuel Mahaffy insists that despite what the Prime Minister says, not all men will resort to violence.
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Not in my name, Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do not justify aggression in the name of my gender. To be a man, does not mean to be an aggressor. Not in my name may violence be perpetrated or justified, even if it is a response to violence.
In justification of aggressive military action that has killed countless innocent civilians in Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu states that “a man needs to do what a man needs to do.” He asks the rhetorical question: “What would you do?”
I respond here to that question and not to the politics of the very long-standing conflict between parties in Israel and Palestine. I honor the right of Israeli families to live without the cloud of fear of rocket attacks. I honor the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist, to control their own destiny and to live in peace and prosperity. But I am infuriated by the presumptive statement of Prime Minister Netanyahu that a response to violence with violence is what “any man would do.”
I honor the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist, to control their own destiny and to live in peace and prosperity. But I am infuriated by the presumptive statement of Prime Minister Netanyahu that a response to violence with violence is what “any man would do.
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It is a lie that must be called out that men are naturally aggressors and must, by their nature respond to violence with more violence. It is a truth that must be told that men of real strength are those that are finding a better way. It is not the role of men — indigent to their gender — to be aggressors and responders to aggression and violence with more aggression and violence.
Not in my name, Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do not justify aggression in the name of my gender. To be a man, does not mean to be an aggressor. Not in my name may violence be perpetrated or justified, even if it is a response to violence. The great men warriors who I look up to and respect are peacemakers. They take the risks and have the courage to seek solutions that de-escalate violent conflict. They are the men with the wisdom to know that “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”
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These men of peace take the long-term view and not the short-sighted response of instant retaliation. These men plant shade trees under which they know they will never sit. They ask about the consequences of their actions on their children and their children’s children. They touch the earth with the gentle steps that speak peace. They run barefoot in the woods hand-in-hand with the children they love and nurture. They commit to the ideal of leaving every place they go better than the way they found it.
Gratefully, these men of peace are all around. They are the ones protecting the environment and those who are most vulnerable. They are mentoring young men in inner cities to find a way that is better than violence. They are fathering boys to mature with the skills and wisdom to find a pathway that does not include violence against other humans or the environment. They are Boy Scout leaders, teachers, carpenters, craftsmen and community leaders.
These are the men who are changing the world for the better. They are my brothers, my heroes, and my mentors. I look up to them with great respect. Stronger men I have not known than these.
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These men of peace are your neighbors and my neighbors. My grown son stands in their company — a man who will never be a person of violence and who wept as a child when I ran over a caterpillar that fell from a tree onto the windshield of the car.
These are the men who are part of making the world a safer place that I can trust more as my beautiful twin daughters leave home and go away to explore colleges far away from home. Yes, my daughters are Black Belts in Taekwondo. They are quite capable of defending themselves. They are much less likely to need to use their martial arts skills to defend themselves, because they are entering circles of men of peace and nonviolence. They will enter into relationships with men who are loving and kind as the men they came to know and love as they were growing up.
These are the men who are changing the world for the better. They are my brothers, my heroes, and my mentors. I look up to them with great respect. Stronger men I have not known than these.
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In answer to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rhetorical question” What would you do in the face of violence?” I would stand with and join arms with the countless men who are committing themselves to being peacemakers. This includes men of all faiths and spiritual traditions. It includes men of all colors, cultures and political persuasions. It includes Israeli and Palestinian men.
It includes men who have the capacity to be warriors and aggressors, but have chosen the path of peacemaking instead. We are choosing this path in our personal relationships, our workplace and in international affairs. We are speaking peace to the world, we are living peace, we are practicing peace. We are committing to being in personal relationships where violence against women, against other men, against children is never an acceptable option.
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The pattern of retribution and rocket-for-rocket retaliation must end. It does not serve peace or justice and, in fact, is unjustifiable. It must and will end, when men of real strength and character stand up and say “enough.”
Now, more than ever, the world needs men who are peacemakers. That is leadership in the truest meaning of the word. The truth must be spoken that the path of peacemaking is the only journey that serves the people of Israel and the people of Palestine.
Israel and its security are served by a prosperous and peaceful Palestine. The pathway to peacemaking may not be the shortest one. In the end, it is the only one. From every part of the world, peacemakers are calling for an end to both rocket attacks on Israel and the horrible retribution being executed on the Palestinian people. The cycle of violence must end.
“A man needs to do what a man needs to do.” As men, what we need to do is to stand up to violence and aggression in every shape and form. Our survival as a planet depends on it. The Holy Land of the Middle East is as good as any place to start with this sacred task of peacemaking. Let us stand together on this sacred ground.
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Photo credit: Vijay Bandari/flickr