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Hopes for peace fulfilled
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
It was astonishing: the same newscast reported on fighting between two Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, who at the time were in conflict not just with Israel but with each other. In Iraq the conflict between two Sunni factions was described as a civil war within a civil war. All this made me think of the factions in the United States and elsewhere who are debating what should be done in Iraq and by whom. And that doesn’t even count the Shiite factions in Iraq that also are fighting for dominance.
“Does humanity have to be broken up into factions within factions?” I asked myself. Up to this point, I had been hoping for peaceful solutions in both these troubled areas of the world. Now, although there has been progress in the conflict between Hamas and Fatah, it’s still not clear how long it will last.
And the factions in Iraq are still going strong. This has made me take a fresh look at my desires. Obviously, a military or political solution wouldn’t go deep enough to erase years of hatred and distrust. A more solid basis for enduring, peaceful, and trusting relationships between peoples and nations needs to be found.
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About the author
Bea Roegge is a teacher and practitioner of Christian Science in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
