PEACE with Penny SEASON 5 Penny S. Tee Interviews Phil Saunders, of Path of Hope and Peace, October 10, 2023

Well, a few days have passed since Israel was inhumanely attacked. Our second interview of SEASON 5 is with Phil Saunders of Path of Hope and Peace. We’ve added some commentary to the original interview reflecting what’s happening to Phil and his family over the last few days. We’ll hear what it’s been like spending hours in their safe room, without access to sufficient communications, they didn’t know what was happening and were wondering how both their Israeli and Palestinian friends were doing. As we watched the videos, we understood, that the Hamas terrorists acted with pure evil.

Now Israel is retaliating, and so the endless loop of terror and hatred continues. Israel has every right to defend it’s citizens and should. As part of the diaspora, I care deeply, and it’s not my decision, nor should it be. I’m merely a voice wanting to protect more people from being harmed. But in this complicated situation, it is inevitable that civilians will be hurt no matter how careful Israel is.

I understand these intentionally murderous villains didn’t care, but how others act is not my problem, how I act makes all the difference.

Defense is expected and understandable, but if Israel also harms civilians, that is not equity. In war, it’s a conundrum that continues to fail the test of time. Violence leads to more violence. Isn’t it past due to think of more effective solutions? Has an “eye for an eye, left everyone blind?”

Here’s a twist I didn’t expect. The height of conceit is that these sick assassins threaten to record the executions of the hostages, if Israel discontinues their practice of warning exactly when and where they will be bombing, so people will leave and they won’t get hurt. It has been Israel’s humane practice for years, and these depraved insurgents insist they continue.

Hamas has intentionally built tunnels where they shoot the missiles from below schools, hospitals, and mosques, making their people human shields and telling them to be a martyr and be rewarded in Paradise. The hostages no doubt will be brought there as well so Israel will be shown to be killing their own people and all the bloody mess will be captured on videos for the guerrillas to use for propaganda. Relentless depravity.

And, I’m the host of a Peace vodcast. Now what? I asked Phil, how he, his wife, and teenage daughter are doing as they spend their time in their bomb shelter safe room? I asked him what he wanted to do about the interview and what his Palestinian Peace partner had been hearing from his community. I was heartened by what I have been hearing from other Israeli and Palestinian Peace organizations that I have interviewed. On our show, we interview Israeli and Palestinian Peace organizations. We believe that Peace is possible in the Middle East, and we are committed to giving a platform to the organizations that are working to make it happen. Even now, while work has begun, the Peace organizations want to try even harder.

We’ve had over 75 interviews with incredible organizations, and we thank you for your interest.

Path of Hope and Peace began in 2014, as a connection between Peacemakers in the Israeli town of Tzur Hadassah and the Palestinian town of Husan. We’ll learn how they were able to transform hostilities into win-win coexistence, to become a flagship model of conflict transformation for the Challenge organization, and inspire a pioneering new paradigm for peaceful coexistence in the Holy Land. In 2021 their Coexistent Communities prototype was awarded the IIE Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East.

We hope you will enjoy listening to another amazing story of empathy and strength. Please share the link to the recording on our PEACE with Penny YouTube channel with family and friends. If you are a Peace organization, please share these hopeful messages with your supporters.

If you missed last week’s first episode of SEASON 5, Penny S.Tee interviews Brian Reeves of the Alliance for Middle East Peace https://youtu.be/2VhIMOJEUGs or any other episodes from previous seasons, you can also find them on our PEACE with Penny YouTube Channel or at www.PennySTee.com under Podcasts.

PEACE with Penny is your source for news about the people working to build Peace in the Middle East. We look forward to you joining us.

Thank you and May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.

#Israel War; #Israeli-Palestinian Conflict