Israel - non-violence succeeds where violence sucks

Great story here in the NYT about a Palestinian community who succeeded in diverting an Israeli security barrier by non-violent resistance.

There is a film about it - Budrus.

Violence is a self-perpetuating vicious circle. Non-violence is the antidote to violence.
It is a pity that there is no reference in Green  Party Israel/Palestine policy (afaik) to the advantage of non violence, and no clear reference to the eminently green policy of cross community cooperation in water management projects. 

And another thing. We have a problem in that ultra-orthodox religionists believe that the Creator promised the whole Land, from Dan even unto Beer-Sheba, to His Chosen People. Against this kind of certainty, rational negotiations shine as a candle on the surface of the sun.

Depressing. But there is a ray of light. As well as promising the whole land, the Torah also specifies many other items.

For instance Deuteronomy 20:19 forbids the destruction of an enemy's trees, something that the Israeli bulldozers do on a regular basis. There are many other laws that could rebound on Israel's actions, which would be sufficient to inhibit most of what the Israeli Government and its agents, especially the settler movement, is doing.

If learned and right-thinking Israeli jurists would take on this challenge, taking settlers to court for breaking the laws in their own Torah, we might be able to sideline the obsessives, and get some rationality in the situation.

I stress the "might". It's worth a try. Anything is worth a try.