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24 A New Dimension May 15, 2002 The division of politics into left and right is an extremely shallow concept. Actually, there is nothing linear about political, social and economic convictions. As an example, one of the largest peace demonstrations in Israeli history took place this week. The commercial media referred to Israeli “leftists” demonstrating in Tel Aviv. But to understand what occurred in Israel we must look to a third dimension . . . not a simple line. The third dimension includes the moral and ethical, indeed, it includes the spiritual. Both so-called left and right can be violent and unethical. But the third dimension includes reconciliation, non-violence and repentance. Ethical praxis evolves into a spiritual reality where reconciliation and peace are possible. Useless and counter-productive militarism simply expands the path of vengeance and hatred. Indeed ethics must be the compass for economic and political decisions. Rather than using the word “leftist,” the media could have made reference to people of conscience, ethics and spirit who led that Israeli march. These blessed souls actually held back an attack on the nearly defenseless people of Gaza. So it is that words like leftist and terrorist have been misused for political purposes. People of conscience and spirit know that the war is the crime. They have had enough of the nonsense promoted by the last refuge of scoundrels. Both sides are mired in violence. Neither side is correct. Oh, yes, one side can be identified as the oppressed and one as the oppressor. That is true. But reconciliation must still be the goal, not vengeance. The marches of April 20 in the United States were the largest expression of empathy with the Palestinian cause in the history of the United States. Jews, Christians, Muslims and many other faiths expressed that empathy. Thousands of miles away, the massive expression of tens 25 of thousands of peace people of in Tel Aviv was equally historic and meaningful. These international marches are not conducted by naïve people. The marchers know that if existing International Law had been obeyed . . . there would have been no further bloodshed between Palestine and Israel. We are now ready for a deepening of that third dimension in the United States. We wish to propose marches of approximately 50% representing the people of Israel together with 50% representing the people of Palestine . Such marches could be led by two coffins, one draped with the Israeli flag and the other draped with the Palestinian flag. The marches will be for justice, peace, reconciliation and compliance with existing International Law. Elected officials of all kinds should be at the head of these marches. They should have no fear of leaning to either side. We need no further slogans than justice, peace, reconciliation and law. Would some knee-jerk media types call such a march “leftist?” I suppose they could. But I believe the rest of the community would get the idea. ...

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