Dealing with an enemy to peace in the Middle East

Through compassionate prayer we can overcome the belief that either party can be a loser.

By Lizabeth H. Furst

Three years ago, after agonizing about continual conflict in the Middle East, I decided to set aside at least ten minutes daily to pray for peace. No more mental scolding of or frustration with one side or the other. Instead, I would make a sincere attempt to see beyond the region's hates and fears—which God never made—to what He did make and know, namely good. I didn't think this would necessarily be easy, but I wanted to do it, as much for myself as for the people in that part of the world.

My prayers acknowledged, then and now, that the right answer to the snarled situation already existed in God, divine Mind, just as does the right answer to any problem. Why? Because there are no unresolved problems in God. Since He is all-wise and perfect intelligence, how could there be?

While Jews and Arabs disagree on much, they both accept the patriarch Abraham as their forefather. A penetrating Christian thinker, Mary Baker Eddy, saw Abraham as much more than a legendary or historical figure. She discerned the spiritual essence of his life, interpreting it as "fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being." And she points out, "This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding" (Science and Health, p. 579). Aren't those the very concepts needed by both sides to bring lasting peace? It became clear to me, as I prayed, that diplomacy, reprisals, and terrorism have not changed hearts. I found myself praying to know that a higher sense of God's law was operating in the Middle East. Instead of the desire for revenge on one another, all sides could begin to perceive the love of God expressed in brotherhood and mercy.

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