End the Slaughter in Israel, Lebanon and Gaza

[IndianaGreen]

READ THE AD THAT APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES on 7/31. Thanks to your help, the ad will next appear in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday 8/6. We hope to print the ad in newspapers in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, but that will only happen if you donate now.

We Affirm the Sacredness of All Human Beings.

This may well be the last chance we in the advanced industrial societies have to avoid international catastrophe (either environmental or nuclear) by modeling something else besides brute power, military might and indifference to the well-being of others. If not now, when?

It is time to overcome national chauvinism and arrogance—but also our own personal sense of powerlessness. We need to build ethical and spiritual solidarity among the people of the world—the necessary foundation for effective political and economic cooperation. Our well being depends on the well being of everyone else on the planet. We need to strengthen international institutions that can foster this sense of solidarity, but we also need to support political and spiritual movements that encourage a transformation of the heart away from the excessive focus on our own individual egos, paths to success and “making it” in terms of fame, glory, sexual attractiveness, accumulation of “things” and money, so that we and all the peoples of the world can put our joint attention to building global peace, social and economic justice, ecological sanity, and a new spirit of mutual caring, genuine and lasting love and generosity. It’s too self-indulgent to let depression about the state of the world render you powerless—your participation is indispensable for changing the world.

Unrealistic? Nope. What has proved unrealistic time and again—whether we are talking about U.S. policy in Vietnam and Iraq or Israeli and Arab policies in the Middle East—is the fantasy that one more war will put an end to wars. The path to peace must be a path of peace.

We are joining with The National Council of Churches of Christ and many other religious groups in the call for days of prayer and fasting toward the aim of peace, reconciliation and affirming the message in this ad. Use this ad as a way to start discussions with people in your life. And please sign the ad and donate (www.tikkun.org/PeaceAd) so we can reprint it elsewhere. When you do so, include your email address, and we will alert you to other actions that we can take together.

This ad sponsored by:
Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), and
The Shalom Center (www.shalomctr.org)

http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/news_item.2006-07-25.1817694454

[bronxiteforever]

1. Peace Now!

How can anyone think this unending violence is going to help the US. Violence radicalizes people and because there has been so much violence, there will be so many radicals.