A message of peace and understanding

 I find myself at a loss, struggling to understand why Israel and Palestine—two peoples who have lived alongside one another for centuries—are caught in a cycle of pain and violence. I don’t understand how the land can hold so much sorrow, how so many lives can be marked by hatred and suffering. It weighs heavily on my heart. Why is there so much fighting?

I love human beings. I love our potential to create, to build, to share, to connect, and to understand one another. Every person, regardless of where they are from or what they believe, carries within them a light, a beauty that is uniquely theirs. The violence, the bloodshed, the hatred—none of it feels like a reflection of our shared humanity. I don’t want to see people hurt each other anymore.

I know this conflict has deep roots. I know that it’s tangled in history, in pain, in fear, and in unmet needs. But I can’t believe that violence is the answer. I cannot fathom that it is what the Divine—the force that created life and breath—would want for us. God would never condone violence, it’s simply not the way of creation. The God of peace, of love, of creation, would never desire for us to hurt one another. Violence only begets more violence, and in its wake, all we are left with is more wounds, more grief, more division. This is not the path we are meant to walk.

I know that pain and suffering are often the result of fear—fear of losing something dear, fear of being misunderstood, fear of the future. But inflicting pain on others can’t ever heal our own wounds. It can’t lead to the peace that we all long for, even if it sometimes feels like the only way. We cannot heal by continuing to harm. There is no future in endless cycles of retribution and retaliation.

What is the answer? The answer is simple, though it may seem difficult in practice. The answer is love. The answer is understanding. It is compassion and forgiveness. It is listening to one another’s pain without judgment and realizing that we are all walking this difficult journey together. The answer is in recognizing that we are all human, each of us carrying our own burdens, and each of us deserving of respect, dignity, and peace. The answer is in finding the courage to be vulnerable, to open our hearts, and to heal the divisions between us—not through force, but through genuine dialogue and mutual respect.

The first step is always the hardest: to choose to see one another—not as enemies, not as “the other,” but as fellow humans, worthy of dignity, respect, and love. We cannot change the past, but we can choose to move forward in a way that honors the lives and hearts of those around us.

Please, I implore you—stop. Stop the violence. Stop the hatred. The world is too fragile, and we are all too precious to allow this to continue. If we could understand that we are more connected than we are separate, that the suffering of one affects us all, then perhaps we would realize that the answer to this conflict is not in more suffering, but in mutual understanding, in shared compassion, and in choosing peace.

It is vital to our future that we remember peace begins within, and it is our shared responsibility to create it. I’m asking you to engage in compassionate action and invite you to build a world where love and understanding are the foundation, rather than conflict and pain.  

All the best,

Penny Piper