Longing For Peace

Israeli and Palestinians have been fighting each other for the last 61 years. I no longer understand the conflict. I only know that innocent women and children continue to die on both sides of the conflict.

Would peace ever prevail in the Holy Land? I doubt it.

You can't expect peace when children grow up in fear of the other side.

You can't expect peace without having the will to accept the similarities between you and your so-called enemy. Peace starts with dialogue between ordinary people, especially children and women, from both sides.

When the latest conflict started, I watched filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg's documentary "Promises." When the two sides reached a cease-fire this weekend, I watched the movie "Arranged."

Promises is a must-see documentary to understand the conflict from a children point of view. Children are the future. If we fail to bring them together, there won't be peace in the region no matter how much we try.

Arranged is a wonderful movie of friendship, understanding and tolerance between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a conservative Muslim woman both living in New York. The story shows how much both women have in common in a good way.

I gave up on governments in the Middle East to achieve peace for their people. I wonder if the people of the Middle East can reach a middle ground for peace - A word that lost its meaning in this long conflict.

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Promises

Arranged

Priceless Pictures of The Iraqi Christians' History

Thank you so much to Iraqi Mojo, who shared these pictures with us. The complete collection can be found on Mideast Image Web site.

Read the cutlines to understand the diversity of the Iraqi Christian community. I now understand the meaning of the word "Priceless." These pictures are definitely priceless.



Source: Mideast Image

Photograph of the Celebration of the Christian Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in Baghdad in the 1920's. The Patriarch, Bishops, and Priests of the Chaldeans (the most numerous of Iraq's Catholics), the Syrian (Syriac) Catholic and Armenian Catholic Bishops are seen with their priests, deacons and students marching through the streets of Baghdad close to the old Christian Quarter of Aqd al-Nasara.



Source: Mideast Image

Post-card of celebration at the Syriac Orthodox Monastery in the Iraqi northern city of Mosul. The Syriac Christians ,known locally as Syriaan , belong to the Monophysite branch of Christianity,as do the Armenians and the Copts of Egypt ant Ethiopia.Their liturgy is Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, and their Patriarch resides now in Damascus. The seat of the Patriarch was at the Yellow, or Safron Monastery , known as Qasr al Za'faran,located few miles east of the ancient city of Madin,now in south-east Turkey and few miles north of the Syrian border.After centuries the Patriarch was forced to leave in the 1920's.Some Syriacs have acknowledged the Pope in Rome and became known as the Uniate [in union with Rome ]or Syrian Catholics.



Source: Mideast Image

Photograph, ca. 1905 of young students attending a school run by a Protestant mission, in the northern city of Mosul, in Iraq,during the Ottoman period. "There are few parts of the world so baffling to the ethnographic map-makers as the district which was once known as the Vilayet of Mosul.Not only do there dwell within its limits multitudinous sects,as little known, in many cases, as they are ancient; it is rare to find, as one ranges the great Mosul plain,two consecutive villages peopled by the same race ,speaking the same tongue,worshiping the same god ". Mosul and its minorities,Harry C. Luke,1924.



Source: Mideast Image

Some Armenian women and children who had escaped from the general massacre of their compatriots, took refuge in the British lines. The official efforts were admirably backed up by the local Armenian community, headed by Mr. M.H. Kouymdjian of Baghdad, and Mr. Dervichyan, O.B.E. ,Honorary Belgian Consul at Basra ". SIR ARNOLD WILSON, MESOPOTAMIA, A CLASH OF LOYALTIES 1917.



Source: Mideast Image

Baghdad's Jesuits House of Wisdom in the 1950.



Source: Mideast Image

Photograph by Bezaz Photo of the Latin Church in Baghdad. " The Catholic Church, the Latin Rite,better known as the Latin Chapel, was built in 1866 to replace a smaller one which has existed from 1721. It is a massive building with a large dome which can be seen from the roofs in any quarter of the city. The bell of the church rings daily at noon and at sunset. Permission to do this was granted about fifty years ago, previous to which time Christians were not allowed to employ bells." BAGHDAD THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS, Y.M.C.A 1918

Love Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”