The Silent Treatment

This topic is a little old but I see this pattern reoccurring. There was a big fuss recently when Jimmy Carter decided to meet with leaders of Hamas. The fuss was because leaders of Israel and other nations refuse to recognize Hamas because they are considered a terrorist organization and these leaders will not recognize their political power nor validity.

What I find troubling is that the hatred and distrust commonly comes from misunderstanding and miscommunication and refusing to speak to one another only fuels this distrust. When there is no interaction between any individuals of a group, there is no one to explain or discuss conflicts. One's enemies become the picture of evil that one imagines them to be.

It feels to me that the only way to solve an ongoing conflict, especially one as major as the one between the Israelis and Palestinians, is to increase communication and to ensure that each side sees one another as humans, as individuals. It is easy to hate and wish violence upon a faceless group but more difficult to do so with an individual with whom you have interacted.

This same lack of interaction happens with extremists around the world. They are isolated and told terrible things about their enemies. These extremists have only these terrible things to believe and only know individuals who have been told these same things.

It seems as though simply interacting with individuals who come from different backgrounds and cultures adds that human aspect to a problem. The more I interact with individuals of different cultures, faiths, socioeconomic statuses, etc., the more I feel like I can relate to different points of view, even if I don't agree.

When there is so much hatred in the world, I hope that young people will take advantage of opportunities available to them and go to other countries, meet people unlike them, and consider the possibility there may be other ways to do things. These personal connections are the way to encourage peace and understanding around the world.