Dissident Veteran For Peace: HAMAS Leader: Americans, Free Yourselves, Love Yourselves

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Sunday, September 09, 2012

HAMAS Leader: Americans, Free Yourselves, Love Yourselves

Below are two short excerpts from a longer interview in Bethlehem with a HAMAS leader, pseudonymously named Mohammed. The interview begins on page 204 of a fascinating and courageous book, Tea with Hezbollah: Sitting at the Enemies Table, Our Journey Through the Middle East by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis (Doubleday Religion, 2010).

Mohammed: We know that people are different from their government. The [US government] is made up from about fifty thousand people, but the other 250 million are victims of that government. So we believe that America should free itself before freeing any other country. ...

Ted: Is there any one last thing you would like to say to Americans?

Mohammed: I say love yourselves and you will love others. Live in peace with yourself and you will live in peace with others.

Labels: Hamas, Palestine, quotations, United States