...Spoiler Alert!

Some people believe that the only answer for violence is more violence.

'Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, has said "There is nothing so heart-breaking and terrible as an outburst of human savagery!" He continues, "I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.
Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.
Nothing is impossible to the Divine Benevolence of God.
If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men."

Finally, He tells us that peace and unity "will, in very truth, take place in this world, when every child of God realizes that they are leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden, drops in one ocean, and sons and daughters of one Father, whose name is love!"

As you no doubt are aware, I have been living in Haifa, Israel for almost 2 years. I'm also pretty sure that (unless you've been living in a cave - but then anything is possible) you know that, while it may at times seem to be the exception in Israel, Haifa is a city where Jews and Arabs live in relative peace and calm. In fact, when seeming differences between the 2 communities arise here - it is usually because Jews and Arabs from other parts of Israel come in to the Haifa area and try to incite violence and ill-will here.

This happened last night.

A car, reported to have been stolen in Jerusalem, was parked at a local mall - where I was watching a movie with some friends. Thank God (truly) that the bomb failed.

Some civilians noticed something off in a car parked near the mall, and heard a small explosion - part of the bomb had detonated prematurely, and the rest failed altogether. So, instead of exiting the movie to find that 100kg of explosives and metal ball bearings had killed untold people, I exited to find the mall a little less crowded than usual - and a calm and efficient evacuation in process. So calm and efficient, in fact, that no one really knew what was going on. Certainly not yours truly.

Stranger and more miraculous things have happened than everyone waking up one day and deciding to seek true fellowship and unity with their neighbor - bombs have failed, 3 friends out to enjoy a movie on the evening of Naw Ruz (Bahá'í New Year) have gotten home safely, and woken up the next day to continue in their service to humanity and give thanks to God.

Let's let tomorrow be that 'one day' where we wake up and decide that peace is our option. Our only option.