The Forum > Article Comments > Origins of conflict: present and future > Comments
Origins of conflict: present and future : Comments
By Stephen Keim, published 15/1/2009Hamas, democratically elected by Palestinians, has been left with no alternative but to use some form of violence against Israel.
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The article implicitly assumes that the only way to resist oppression is through violence. Governments rarely eschew violence. They have the tools at hand. However, as the examples of Gandhi and King show nonviolent resistance can work. It doesn't always work, and there are casualties. However, violent resistance doesn't always work either and is almost always accompanied with casualties.
Nonviolent resistance may have its effects years later. Henry Thoreau went to jail for refusing to pay a tax which was going to support the Mexican War. It did nothing to stop the Mexican War, but his "Essay on Civil Disobedience" which he wrote as a result of that experience influenced King and Gandhi over a hundred years later.
Are there any Gandhis, Martin Luther Kings or Thoreaus in the Middle East?