With its recent deadly attack on a peaceful vessel in international waters, the Israeli government has once again flaunted its disregard for international law and human life.
And yes, I do mean "Israeli government." As in all nations, I'm sure that the vast majority of the people of Israel just want to live in peace. Although, also in common with citizens of all nations, it is incumbent upon those citizens to prevail upon their government to behave humanely. And to their credit, many of them have: coming out in protest over the aforementioned act of terrorism.
Originally I was going to discuss the attack and all the offshoot events related to it. But the point of "House On Fire" is to really look at the Big Picture.
So I decided to use the Israeli government's crimes as a springboard to the big-picture issue of world peace.
Israel, with its power-hungry patron the United States, represents a perfect example of why the idea of world peace seems so daunting.
To achieve such a lofty -- though I do not believe impossible -- goal, we need democratic and effective institutions to make it happen. Well, we have them -- sort of.
If you go to the website of the United Nations (http://www.un.org/), the very first sentence of the overview reads: "The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights."
That's a pretty clear objective.
The U.N. nowadays has 192 member states -- or pretty much the whole world depending on whose country count you go by.
The problem is the U.N. is an emasculated body in many respects, bullied and defied by the United States, often in tandem with its sidekick Israel.
It is not really a democratic body because, for example, the United States is a permanent member of the Security Council: the part of the U.N. that makes the decisions about crises like the flotilla attack. But the U.S. (and Israel) has an abysmal voting/veto record when it comes to anything that affects its "interests." Not how democracy works, right?
The U.S. pours a fortune in aid and weapons into Israel because it regards it as a strategic ally. And it generally refuses to seriously censure Israel at the U.N., something it has failed to do once more with this latest attack on the aid-carrying vessels.
We also have the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. And yet there is so much individual -- and state-perpetrated -- international crime on the planet that it's almost a free for all.
All of these bodies have done some good. Sure. But they are shackled or owned or influenced. Ditto that for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), which generally do much more harm than good.
What is the answer?
It seems to me when we look at the truly overarching issues the answer is that such institutions must radically change or disappear and be replaced.
We the people must put as much pressure as we can on our governments and the U.N. to do what is right, to behave in the common interests of the world community, or get out of the way. Serious, prolonged pressure. If we care enough, we'll do it.
All the while we must rally ourselves, unite in peace, reach out, network and, over time, develop our own way of doing things and our own truly democratic institutions that make the old systems obsolete. Then we will take action into our own hands and deliver peace to Palestinians, Iraqis, Ugandans, Afghans... to all.
This isn't just a dream. All things are possible. If we really want them badly enough.
The only path to the future, if we are to have one at all, is through peace.
Take care,
Adrian Zupp
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