20090106

Dear darlingest Miyang Marie,

My darlingest - all the world seem focused on the situation in Gaza where modern Israel and Hamas is fighting each other - and where so many civilians are everyday suffering tears and death. I have some of my own Filipino compatriots, civilians reported to be in the midst of all this fighting as well.

My darlingest, peace - a sustainable peace must be found in that part of our world: This IS the will of heaven. But peace seem something not very much understood in our world today. So much of war in the past 2000 years - and more - has made the spirit of humankind numb to war's senselessness; has made our nations weary to any other kind of tension other than the military one that seem to dominate their relationships, one with another. But hope is also a tension, isn't it, my love, a tension that is more worthwhile and accepting of life than the military. Now, I am not saying that the military is not something good, my love - but where the military is useful is where the military is intended and the military is never intended to win the peace but to drive back the violence that prevent peace from taking place. What wins the peace - ultimately and decisively - is the hearts and minds of the people who have come to believe in peace over war; and who have come to understand that peace holds to no side but is by itself - a one, whole, indivisible truth - a one paradigm whole. Neither does peace oppose war for war has utterly no place in the reality of the one peace - in action, it is a turning away from war and not a confrontation with it.

The hallmark of a true peacemaker is the understanding that peace is a one and indivisible paradigm whole.

I know how much you love Israel, my darlingest - and God knows I love the nation of Israel as well - but we both know that lies and appeasement shall never serve the better interests of Israel or of any nation on earth. And so if we love Israel, we must be forthright with her and love her in the context of the one family of nations where she absolutely belongs with and belongs to - and in God, forever. To love one nation, my darlingest, in this day and age - is to love all of them. To love just one is to love none at all. For all of our nations have claim to be the greatest undertaking of Country (Country, like we said before, being a verb) in the universe and all of these claims hold true merit - and it shall soon be clear that this is an inevitable and undeniable hallmark of this age.

If we shall excuse the evil that happens to one segment of our humanity - no matter who or where or how different or how the same they are to each and any of us - we would have effectively abandoned the one whole of our shared humanity - for such is the way evil works. But to embrace all good things with courage and tenacity is the way of good: What war does to one, war does to all.

Now, since my last commentary, Israel has gone with ground troops into Gaza. Gaza, my love, is a tiny stretch of land with a high population density. I feel for the people of Gaza - their suffering above all should be reason enough for the fighting to stop. I know that you pray for them and I do also pray for them along with the nameless innocents of Israel who have a right to feel secure after 2000 years of insecurity that led up to the Holocaust, my love - the Shoah, which is because of you, something very personal to me. I have a burning hatred for all things of a similar spirit - all things that stink of the beast of war.

You know, the use of ground troops directly equates to a complete commitment to be decisive. This commitment is complete because entailed with it is an implicit surrender to death and the toll that death shall take into account not only from among the troops but also from among the enemy troops (who we must always respect) as well as, quite unfortunately, to the civilian population - for all of these to the noble commander's heart are not numbers but human persons. The higher the toll, the more the need to be decisive. Therefore, it takes a willingness to sacrifice to commit land forces to the fight. This is not lost to me - it will never be lost to me - on both sides, as well. I know Hamas' will to fight is also as indisputable - it is just as fierce.

But this will to fight must not be one-tracked lest it reap only death. Soldiers' fall not so that our nations may also fall but so that entire civilizations may rise. And this rise may only be facilitated under a reign of peace and never under the oppressive slavery of war.

Therefore, this need to be decisive - if we shall take it right up to the grand strategic view - this equates to a need for not only a cease-fire but for an entire process to be put into place; a quest for sustainable peace in that troubled region. And we will look for this peace.

Something that you and I pray, the leaders of that region - and of our poor world - may come to understand - and soon. For war is not the only matter that is pressing, but war IS the main siege that prevents our poor world - our one family of nations - from addressing and effectively dealing with other more vital, planetary concerns.

I love you.

Always to always,

Pusing