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Is There an Alternative for Palestinians?

 What does nonviolence, the heritage of HillelHillel, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Chavez, offer Palestinians seeking peace?

The first intifada was inspired by the legendary Rav Hillel.  Occupied by Rome and suffering under a corrupt priesthood controlled by Rome, Hillel taught non violence .. resistance by sticking to Jewish laws rather than futile resistance by even the rock throwing of today’s Palestinians.  His words are the words Christians attribute to their God, Jesus .. “give unto Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is God’s.”

Hillel was not trying to overturn Rome, merely to out wait the occupation. .  Of course, Hillel’s words failed to end the occupation. The Roman world created its own religion to supercede Hielle’s judaismj .. Christianity.  In the year sixty Rome destroyed  Jerusalem and the land suffered under Rome, finally as an antisemitic Christian state, until Jerusalem was liberated under Caliph Umar who permitted Jews to return. .

Since Hillel’s time, non violence has succeeded.  Gandhi used it to drive the Brits out of India, King brought civil rights to America, Chavez got the right for Unions to organize farm workers. Perhaps the bravest of all are the Tibetan Buddhists who use non violo

Non violence has so far not been a tactic for the Palestinians.  Read this remarkable account of Khader Adnan,  a Palestinian who is using hunger strikes to promote a Palestinian State. 


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