Recently I traveled to Kabul with a small peace delegation because I wanted to experience for myself what is happening there and what the people say they want and need from my country. I have spent 40 years protesting war and working for peace in conflict areas and I assumed I would return from […]
Writings related to ‘Non-violence’
The Fate of the Jewish State
December 2nd, 2009
WEST BANK, PALESTINE I have just returned from my eighth trip to the Middle East in as many years. I had read news reports to the effect that conditions in the West Bank had improved since my last visit to Palestine – that the Israelis has reduced checkpoints and made travel easier in the West […]
Confessions of a Peace Activist
October 1st, 2009
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN Kabul: armed guards, machine guns and sand bags at every intersection and at the door to my guest house – open sewers and fecal dust – traffic jams of SUVs, military convoys, bicycles and pedestrians – six-story buildings amidst crumbling houses and filthy refugee encampments – men, lots of men everywhere, and street […]
Iran and the Feather of the Simorgh
June 1st, 2009
IRAN I would like to step back for a moment from the compelling drama occurring now in Iran to look at this drama with a long-view question in mind: what does it tell us about the evolution of human societies? What does the conflict in present-day Iran reveal about what is seeking to be born […]
To a Soldier in Iraq
March 19th, 2005
Last fall my nephew Danny was sent into combat in Iraq . He is there now. A tall and gentle young man in the reserves, he has been accompanying Iraqi foot patrols in Fallujah and Mosul . A couple of weeks ago a mortar round blew a hole in his foot. He is recuperating at […]
A Dream from the Holy Land
December 24th, 2003
ISRAEL-PALESTINE Consider the Holy Land, trampled and fought over for thousands of years, blood splashing on its stones, tears soaking into it, temples razed, Christ crucified, crusaders vicious and defeated, Turks, Egyptians, British, French, Arabs, Israelis – consider the lineage of enemies who have claimed this place and how their agony and antagonism lives in […]
Gaza
July 30th, 2003
GAZA “What reign is worse than that of militant virtue?” – Amin Maalouf The taxi drives south toward Gaza through the pleasant Israeli countryside. There are well-kept farms, villages, fields, and forested hillsides. After leaving the taxi at the heavily militarized border crossing into Gaza, my colleague (the Jerusalem Representative from the American Friends Service […]
