Disarmament on Armistice Day

On Armistice Day, or what the United States has turned into Veterans Day, it’s good to pause for a moment to consider armistice and disarmament.

Armistice Day celebrates the end of World War I. But perhaps it’s aptly named, because armistice according to Merriam-Webster means “temporary stopping of open acts of warfare by agreement between the opponents”, or a truce.

As I wrote a few years ago in “On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”

The agreement between the armies to stop fighting – the armistice – lasted long enough to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

It sounds like a great excuse to have a three day weekend, but in reality what happened was A Peace to End All Peace.

Israel has been bombing Gaza daily for the last thirty-five days, attacking a defenseless civilian population in refugee camps, hospitals, mosques, and other densely packed places.

Over the last month there has increasing call worldwide for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. A ceasefire everyone is calling for might might be an armistice – a temporary stopping of attacks. Only 18 members of Congress signed on to a resolution calling for a ceasefire, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Israel’s attack on Gaza is being done with full moral, financial, and military support from the United States, using weapons made in the United States.

Israel has met with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Palestinian Authority several times not just for armistice, but to come up with durable, sustainable, solution to one of the word’s most noticeable conflicts. Unfortunately, the general consensus is that under a two state solution, the Israelis want to maintain a military, and ensure that the Palestinians remained disarmed. This is like allowing the tough kid on the playground to keep his rocks and a sledgehammer, but tell the other kids they can’t have rocks.

True peace requires that both sides lay down their weapons, not just for a ceasefire, but permanently. It’s time to reform Armistice Day into Permanent Disarmament Day.