20110520

Reviving the Middle East Peace Process

I was able to tune in last night to CNN in time to see President Obama's speech on the Arab Spring and the Middle East Peace Process.

I am no longer going to mince words about my convictions on the Middle East Peace Process.

There is a necessary shape that our family of nations must take in order for us to enter into the right door that will lead to the right future.

If our nations are presently conflicted, if America herself is presently conflicted, it is because this necessary shape is being presented to our hearts.

We know our common hope - we desire a better, brighter, kinder world for all men, women and children of all the nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We desire peace, equality, freedom, justice, and prosperity enough to (at the very least) reach our own particular UN MDG's which are markers set in real terms to measure the growth of these ideals.

And now that the path that leads up to this hope is being presently revealed to our nations, we are becoming conflicted.

We are conflicted

and understandably so

because it is a path of peace - a road less traveled, as it were.

It is a heretofore unknown path - an ascendant, mountain way.

Because the necessary shape that must now permeate the prevailing order of the times (which is required as an adaptation to the new age) is simply

the shape of peace and peace as a paradigm whole.

We are now coming to the realization that our world must completely break away from the momentum of the last 2000 years and formally forsake the familiar but deadly gravity of

the last great age of War.

Lest we should not only get more of the same, it shall be dealt to us in magnitudes previously unknown to our remembrances.

My beloved friends, peace is the necessary shape. It is the one key that shall unlock the hidden promises of the new age before us.

If we are hesitating here today, this is good. B

ecause in this quest for a new age of peace, w

e are all pioneers.

This is why we are conflicted.

Now, I am of the conviction that the Middle East Peace Process is vital and must be concluded on paper under President Obama's watch.

Because a large part of this necessary shape depends on the Middle East Peace.

Indeed, the path that a mature America needs to take goes right through the Middle East Peace Process.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, this

too is our path.

As you know, our own Philippine Peace Process is part and parcel of a larger global movement which though complex, I have endeavored to present to you through this blog.

The whole world is shifting, not just us, and things are speeding up toward 2012.

(I have been trying to discern these things for years and have both Scriptural as well as empirical basis for most everything I am presenting here. Why I should do this is no longer a question I ask myself - it simply must be done.)

Our particularity as a nation distinct is entirely worth defending. But so too are our alliances with our friends just as equally worth fighting for.

We are to walk the way of peace and not only because we are allied to America (by irrevocable ties of blood and fire) but because we must remain true to the nation in ourselves: This we do by honoring our citizenships with each other as well as our covenant bonds with all the other nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind (represented in and by the United Nations institution).

And we must work out an understanding of this in ourselves: We must work out a conviction in our hearts that seeks to embrace all things in unity and in peace whether between ourselves as a community of citizens or between our nations as a a global community of wholes.

We live in a divided nation in a divided world but this external reality does not have to reflect the aspirations we should now maintain in our selves.

We are no longer part of the last great age of war.

This is why I have stressed the importance of keeping our mind and heart both on the goal of achieving the peace here locally as well as contributing to the larger peace processes specifically the one in the Middle East.

Because this particular perspective introduces us to our own potential as a nation distinct as well as to our own place as a contributing partner to the peace of other nations and breaks us out of our insular thinking within as well as without.

For we can no longer afford to be insular or xenophobic in a world of interdependent national communities.

We must be equally and openly committed to our nation as well as to our friends.

Or we should at least have informed opinions about the matter.

---<--@

My Concept on the Middle East Peace

I am naturally aligned with America on the Middle East Peace Process.

The only difference is that I am predisposed to deal more fairly with the Palestinian Cause.

I regard the Palestinians, by the sheer nobility and valor of their own adherence to their belongings to each other, as a nation endowed by God with all the inherent rights of nationhood.

I am putting my trust in the right things being motivated only by the good things I recognize and remember in both the nation of Israel and in the nation of Palestine.

I refuse to be by evil inspired.

I reject terrorism and the use of wasteful, needless violence on innocent civilians from any side, in any nation, at any time.

I reject illegal forms of waging war. I realize the evil of the spirit of war should be securely bound by laws national as well as international.

I am also naturally committed to the security of modern Israel as an undertaking of Country as well as to the nation of elder Israel as a whole.

I have sought to understand both their hopes. I have also sought to frame these hopes in the context of the times and in light of the prevailing climate of peace.

I regard the will of division itself as the enemy of both a secure Israel which I shall define here as an Israel at peace within and without herself and a young and resurgent Palestine, reintroduced anew to her own potentiality and promise as a Country entire.

I regard the relationship between Israel and Palestine as completely and utterly unique with no precedent in history and therefore am not bound by the limitations of the past in terms of finding solutions that contribute to a meaningful, sustainable, durable peace.

I will adhere to the 2009 Limit of the Times based on Daniel 12 and consider the entire time preceding 2009 as a one whole argument in favor of peace and peace as a paradigm whole.

I support -

1. A contiguous Palestinian National Territory built from 1967 borders w/ negotiated land swaps.
2. The Special Status of Jerusalem and the Concept of Secondary Capitals.
3. The Protection of the Jewish Majority status of Israel and the Recognition of the Rights of Minorities in both Israel and Palestine.
4. Provisions for the Care and Special Status of Palestinian Refugees.

And after the conclusion of the formal peace process on paper, I support -

1. A Two States, One Destiny Concept that works to preserve the uniqueness of the relationship between these two Countries on a Nation-First basis that puts their politics squarely in the service of each their respective nations.
2. The establishment of bilateral Nations-First agreements between Israel and Palestine on security, trade and knowledge exchanges.

---<--@

On the Arab Spring

It is the desire of the common people that have wrought for the region this moment.

The hopes of the least, so prone to become lost in the chase must be all the more perseveringly brought to both mind and heart at this time that it may remain present when the newness of things become established into the prevailing order of things.

My own Country is not new to mass movements of human hope.

May peace prevail in the region.

---<--@

Let us each continue to pray for peace according to the freedom of our faiths. And let us each continue to work for peace according to the freedom of our gifts.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all our nations.

Support Sanity in the Middle East.

20100912

Eid'l Fitr

Belated Eid greetings to all our Muslim compatriots - mabuhay po kayong lahat! Peace be upon all Muslims at the end of this season of Ramadan: May God bless and prosper us all!

Eid'l Fitr fell on September 10 of this year and was declared a public holiday by PNoy.

We should seriously consider what the President said about raising our national awareness about this holiday, my fellow Filipino compatriots. Everything that brings us together as one nation has a special import in these times.

Because unity is an aspect of the liberty of nations: A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

September 11

September 11 was yesterday. I've never forgotten: It's not a time for hatred.

Lest we lose sight of the significance of it all. We are one family of nations after all - what affects one will affect all. Such is the climate of the times.

The world was changed 9 years ago yesterday - but toward what end?

Shall the ignorance, prejudices and hatred that have ruled and divided the nations of Mankind for so long be allowed to linger still?

Shall the war that was so emphatically excluded in heaven still find a place on this earth?

No, not in my heart of hearts. I have worked hard to clear myself of all of this as much as I could by the grace of Almighty God and so must you, O my nation!

For we can not have any claim to the prospering peace of these times ruled by the same spirit of war.

Therefore, from whom and from what must we guard against on this day of days by our timeless remembrance?

From war and from hate.

So be it! Let us then remember September 11 as one in this way with America and with all our other kindred nations. Let us thus be motivated by good things together.

There will always be battles, this is true. But time has come under heaven for us to fight these battles together this time. Such is the climate of the times.

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Anthony Nicholas

Of the four faithful causes, O my nation, the fourth cause is the cause of benignity - this is the cause of minorities.

A few days ago, the local papers reported that a Briton, a long time resident of our Country, was murdered in Sipalay in Negros Occidental in what was reported to be an isolated incident.

As with the victims of the Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis last August 23, our sense of justice must ever be cognizant to the fact that Mr. Nicholas (and others like him) is a stranger (in the Biblical sense) and a minority living in our nation and therefore, deserving of the special care and protection of our laws and customs.

The apprehension of those responsible for this crime must be further inspired by the above fact.

My personal condolences go out to all his loved ones.

May justice for him be swift and true.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Xenophobia has never been part of our culture as Dr. Rizal himself and many of those of his great generation is able to attest.