GUEST BLOG—ALIFA SAADYA

Alifa Saadya (Ven. Huatou) is an American-born Israeli and student of Buddhism with the Hongako Jodo Association of America. She has spent many years engaged in interfaith dialogue, especially between Christians and Jews, and works as an editor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Alifa lives in a small community in central Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

PART II

For each individual "peace must begin with me", yet this concept and training are, in my opinion, not enough. I wrote previously about how difficult it was for me to maintain my sense of equanimity in the face of continuing attacks against Israelis during the second intifada. The problem is not only the sense of pain and outrage or actual hatred that may develop; there are also problems of losing the exactitude of one’s moral compass—and of watching that process occur on a national level. Peace may "begin with me", but I am also a member of various family and social circles, and I myself hold both American and Israeli citizenship. In addition, we are all, so to speak, citizens of a particular time in history, brought here by a particular combination of karmic inheritance.

There is a debate among Buddhists about being engaged in affairs of this temporary world. Some of the points made center on the idea that realistically, we can only re-train ourselves to be more compassionate, more clear-thinking, more at peace as individuals; changing the world is beyond us. There is the danger of becoming an enraged Buddhist rather than an engaged Buddhist. There is also the sense of frustration engendered by viewing the larger picture of world or even national or local events, and feeling that one’s own efforts are just too small to matter.

As a Buddhist lay nun (i.e., I don’t live in monastic community but independently), I have taken the precept to abstain from taking life. At the same time, as a nurse I am part of my small community’s Rapid Response Team in case of a terrorist attack. My task on this team is to set up the first aid station, but in addition, it means that I am sometimes called upon to do routine guard duty patrols at night, armed with an M-1. Because it is clearly defensive in a known situation of threat, I don’t have a problem with that.

Going back to the idea that "peace begins with me " I will only say that I have worked hard to reshape my thinking about my ostensible enemies. I don’t hate Palestinians in general, particularly as I know several individuals personally through working with them in factories or agriculture, at the university, or having met them at academic and
interfaith conferences. Yet I am appalled when I see news reports or read transcripts of speeches or excerpts from textbooks emanating from the Palestinian Authority or other Arab and Islamic sources that depict Jews (like me!!) as cosmic demons, fit only for destruction. The image of the Jew as deceiver is so deeply embedded in Islamic culture that I doubt it could ever be reexamined or set aside. Except in the extreme political right wing of Israel there is no similar demonizing of Muslims or Arabs. In addition, I know that the Arab stereotype of the Zionist world conspirator stems in part from propaganda disseminated in a profoundly poisonous form by the former Soviet Union in the aftermath of the 1967 war, in which Russian equipment and advisors, as much as the Arab armies, were defeated by Israel.

What this means, of course, is that often the murderers are acting out of complete ignorance of what "real Jews/Israelis" are like. Few Palestinians seem to be aware that a majority of Israelis accept the idea of having a Palestinian state—just not as a jumping off point for the destruction of Israel; not a terror state, but a state that would prosper.

How do I, in my attempt to walk the Buddha’s path to enlightenment, arouse compassion in such a difficult situation, especially in the aftermath of the murder of my friend?

First of all, let me say at the outset that there is no way I can condone premeditated murder. And I absolutely hold the religious leaders who foster it to be just as culpable (indeed, more so) as those who carry out the acts.

In the aftermath of my friend’s murder, there was the awareness that the murderer acted in profound ignorance, in its classic Buddhist sense. The murderer may have been primarily politically motivated with an added Islamic element (the Al-Aqsa brigade is a branch of Arafat’s Fatah party, not an Islamist movement per se). The man may have been a young guy setting out to prove his manhood. He was certainly viewed by his compatriots as a hero striking a blow for Palestinian independence. Perhaps he believed that he was acting for Allah as much as for the Palestinian people.

Yet he himself will never be truly free again. His crime meant that his name will be on a list of murderers wanted by the police. No matter how glorious his act in the minds of his fellows, he may have to spend his days cautiously, off the streets and out of the public eye.

Stay tuned for PART III