GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Nov. 4, 2003-- Terrorism puts on many disguises.   One of them is opinion polls.   And, the latest victim of public opinion is Israel.

      In a public opinion poll conducted by the European Commission in October, Israel ranked as the number one "greatest threat to world peace," above nations such as North Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq.
     The poll sampled 500 people in each of the European Union's 15 countries bound together in a similar fashion to the various 50 states in the United States to form a single economic and potential political block.
     Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed listed Israel as the leading threat to world peace, inciting the leaders of Israel to protest that Europe was expressing its anti-semiticism.  The Dutch, Austrians and Luxembourgers were most likely to shove Israel to the top of the list of "threats to world peace," while the French were the least to do so.  (For more information, go to the Christian Science Monitor story.     

       The issue was brought to public view because Israel is seeking a new definition of anti-semitism, based on harsh reporting of its critics on how the nation deals with Palestinians in the battle between Israel's hard-line against those who wage intifada against it.    The hardline tactics employed by the government of Ariel Sharon boil at the nucleus of the issue.    Such tactics include brutal treatment, retaliation and assassination of those who attack Israel.
         My concern is not about the politics of the issue, but rather the source of it.
         Terrorism is not a political cancer.
         It is a parental one.
         It begins with the attitude of a parent to a child.  When a parent teaches a child, or, worse, neglects to teach a child the Principles of Vigilance then the Beast of Terror worms his way into the sinew of the child's being, gnawing away at the child's outlook until hate, bigotry, anger, revenge and ultimately hostility boil to the surface.
         To indict a nation as the "greatest threat to world peace" is an indictment of its parenting, of its lack of preparing its children to stand up and be accountable for the rights of all children.
        My definition of Vigilance is the duty and responsibility of the Parent of Vigilance to teach a child how to overcome Fear with Courage, to banish Intimidation with Confidence, and to quash Complacency with Right Actions that benefit the Children's Children's Children.

        This last element, the Children's Children's Children, does not exclude any child.  Three generations out, the children include all children, a mixture rather than a singular group of innocent young ones who comprise all ethnicities, all cultures, all varied religious and political beliefs.
       Decisions made by Parents of Vigilance in raising their children are not easy ones when it comes to shaping attitudes and outlooks toward others.   There is a natural inclination among us all to promote the selfishness of our cultures, our religions, our politics, our prejudices, our bigotries.   When we are faced with questions from children, it is easy to fall back upon our own experiences, to spew out the often narrow views we learned from our parents, or to espouse the edicts of the present as though the narrow ruts of our thinking were the black of the white, and there were no other alternatives.

        Nothing is more false.
        Human evolution requires the flood and ebb of views.   The European Union is one small example.    Once a disenfranchised, separate set of nations, each with its own borders and jealous regard for not contaminating its sovereignty with "alien" influence, it changed.
       Tossing out thousands of years of separatism, the nations of the European Union found ways to bind themselves under one flag, to pool their resources, to unify their differences so that they could interact as one.
       A doctor who graduates from a medical school in Europe, for example, can practice in any of the EU states.   As in the United States, the rights of one citizen of an EU state extend throughout the various countries, as they do here in the United States.
      For nations in the EU, this meant giving up singularity for plurality.   It meant reducing national selfishness for the more appetizing benefit of selflessness.   And, the great benefactors of the decision were the children, the future generations of the EU.

     Older, hard-liners, the Parents and Grandparents of the EU, had to swallow hard when they voted to join the EU.  They had to shove aside their own personal prejudices and bigotries against neighbors and look at a bigger picture--one that would be most advantageous to the future despite the preferences they might clutch to that excluded giving another nation the same rights as they enjoyed, or, that might water down their individuality.
      Israel, according to the poll, stands out as a threat to the peace and serenity that the EU has struggled to achieve.
      The more Israel seeks to isolate itself as "different" the more threatening it becomes to the EU.   It means to the EU citizens that Israel expects to receive "special" consideration, to return to the "old ways" of separatism which, ultimately, allows it to have more selfish than selfless rights.
       I confess I am not schooled in all the details of the issues between Israel and the EU that caused the 7,500 polled people of the EU to make that nation the "number one threat to world peace."
       However, I am schooled as a Parent of Vigilance.  And, when one parent wants something special for his or her children, at the expense of other children's rights, then I question the threat that person poses to the community.

     I have friends from both the Israeli and Palestinian camps.   I hear and have heard both sides of their stories.    Both claim righteous indignation over the other.   Both have selfish views, based on the battle waging between them.  Both are blinded to the future of their children, although each claims he or she holds their views in bloody hands as treasures for their progeny.
       I find it hard to believe that killing one another is a lesson for the children.   Over centuries and centuries, we have justified the death of others as the price of "peace" and "security."  We justify the "right to wage war" on the precept that our "children will be safer" once the blood dries and the borders are clear and the guns and barbed wire separate us from the "evil ones."

       The EU, on the other hand, learned the hard way.  After centuries and centuries of bloodshed as one nation waged war against another, the only result was destruction of their future.   World War II and the Cold War forced the nations of Europe to reconsider their selfishness and to establish a union of differences blended into one melting pot.
       They stripped away their borders, stuffed their prejudices, buried their bigotries and welcomed each other to flow freely from one land to another, just as Americans have for more than 200 years.
        Now, the EU is casting stones at Israel.   It has singled out that nation as the "wolf" in sheep's clothing.  
        It makes Israel the Beast of Terror, the king of the Beasts of Terror, possessing more danger than North Korea, Iran or Afghanistan.

        I see the EU poll as a Parents of Vigilance poll.   I see the indictment not against the nation of Israel as much as I see it against the Parents of Israel. 
       At some point in time the differences between nations must be resolved, and not by politics.
       Politics means we have compromised our rights as individuals and turned them over to a few who lead us.  It means we have disenfranchised ourselves from our duty as Parents of Vigilance and turned ourselves over to a singular source--a government--to set the policies that affect our future and the future of our children.
       We become, in this process, victims of our own Complacency.
       Only when the people vote, when the people's Voices ring, when the people's opinions are sought, will the true future of nations be established.
       In 1776 the United States chose to cast away the idea of a leader ruling the land.   People chose to take upon themselves the "right to govern" and to place in leadership roles only guardians of that right.
      The California recall where Governor Gray Davis was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger is one example of the peoples' rights to govern, and proof that leadership does not truly rest in politics, but in the body of the Parents of Vigilance.

        The EU vote against Israel by the Parents of Vigilance was a message to the people of Israel.  It was a chorus sung to them to stand up for their children's future, to step up to the plate and stop trying to isolate and separate themselves from unification.
        It was a battering ram hitting the citizens of Israel in the guts, reminding them to stop following leadership and to become leaders.
      That leadership will occur when Israeli parents vow to become Parents of Vigilance, not just for Israel, but for all the Children's Children's Children.

Nov 3--Throwing The Rocks Of Terror At America's Children

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