If a small child hits a bigger child, most of us would understand if the big kid hits back. After all, the other one started it. If, on the other hand, the bigger child chooses to turn the other cheek rather than retaliate — well, we would honor this choice with the highest praise. We know that there is often a vast distance between what we have the right to do, and the right thing to do.

If the parties to the war in Israel, or Ukraine, or Sudan truly want peace, they will have to choose between exercising their rights and doing the right thing; between military strategy and the moral high ground. It won’t be easy, and may require the parties to face their own inner demons as well as each other. People may be killed in the process, but people are being killed anyway. And in the end, when the history is written, they will be remembered as the nations who had the right to fight this war, but chose instead to do the right thing and make peace.

Jasper Lapienski

Greenfield