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By Abdulillah

During the last few weeks traveling for business, invariably I get asked “why is it that your part of the world is embroiled in war, and why is it that it never seems that peace will arrive in your neck of the woods”. It is further asked; “is it because there is too much hatred between you all, or do you all just like to war with each other”. I am sure many of you have been asked these type of questions, and many of you have also felt that that any quick response given typically as insufficient.

My first response when I was younger was to quickly move the subject to some other topic if I could, or to be smart ask the questioner if he knows what countries encompass the middle-east and what country borders the other, always finding humor in the fact that many cannot tell Iraq from Iran, Palestine from Pakistan and Bahrain from the Maldives. However in doing so; I have found no real satisfaction, more-over it was just pure patronization on my part, and to be frank just rude, as many really were asking to learn and not put down.

I cannot answer for all of you but I can answer for myself. I will try to make this quick and I will use some quotes and words of others to tell you why I feel we feel the way we do about peace in the middle-east, in the hopes that you will understand and in knowing that it does not speak for each and every one of us:

The quotes below can be attributed to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict.
From Theodore Roosevelt:

“If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness”.

“Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character. Neither quality shall by itself avail. Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace.”

“Back of the force must come fair dealing, if the peace is to be permanent. But without force fair dealing usually amounts to nothing.”


From John F. Kennedy:

“No one should be under the illusion that negotiations for the sake of negotiations always advance the cause of peace. If for lack of preparation they break up in bitterness, the prospects of peace have been endangered. If they are made a forum for propaganda or a cover for aggression, the processes of peace have been abused.”
…”Peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement”.

From Martin Luther King:

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”

From Thomas Jefferson:
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever”.

The quotes below can be attributed to the Syrian Conflict:
From Thomas Jefferson:
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.”

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.

From George Washington:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”

The quotes below can be attributed to the Egyptian Issue:

From Thomas Jefferson:
“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual”.

I hope you all have gotten the idea. Please do not make the mistake that we in the middle-east do not want peace, for we love it more than we love water, but we do not love an ignoble peace or peace for the sake of peace, peace without justice is only cowardice and capitulation.
God Bless Jordan and Its People.