<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">To My Israeli and Palestinian Cousins<b class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></b></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Love seems inadequate. <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Even Love with a capital L <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">seems too small and frail to break <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">centuries of revenge.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Yet even more woefully flawed;<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">flak jackets, tanks, rifles, rocks<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">missiles after missiles <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">weeping after wailing.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Here at the junction of three continents<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Eurasian Hoopoe birds, with their cinnamon<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">crowns, rest peacefully on ancient <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Jerusalem stone, to return year after year. <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Like the Bedouins and unlike conquering<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">civilizations that stayed for centuries, <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">their attempts to annihilate the cousins <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">as unsuccessful as turning lead to gold.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Now both peoples shout, Never Again!<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Do they hear the cost of that mantra?<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Never<i class=""> peace</i> again? <o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Love is wholly and holy, inadequate.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">But, my dear cousins<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class="">Love is all we have.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""> </div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Sally Churgel</div></div></body></html>