Who Will Speak for the Mothers? The Case for a World Union

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine wrote these words in response to the American Revolution. They apply today to Gaza and Ukraine, as well as less conspicuous conflicts in Sudan, Sahel, Ethiopia, Yemen, Myanmar, Armenia, Haiti, and elsewhere. Men create wars, fight them, and, then, eventually, try their souls to settle them. They’re currently trying their souls to settle the war in Gaza. Eventually, they’ll decide who will rule and by what means, and they’ll decide the other matters that men know to decide, and, in this way, pave the path to the next war in Gaza. It’s a testosterone thing. That’s why men do it. They can’t imagine life without war. And, then, of course, there is also the profit. Bombs are made, exploded, and, then, made again. You can’t beat that for making money.

What of the mothers who provide the soldiers and victims, and silently bear the burdens of their deaths and dismemberments? What of the Palestinian mothers who watch their children suffer and die? What of the Israeli mothers who watch their children march into harm’s way?  What of all those mothers in Ukraine and Sudan, etc.? All are the times that try mothers’ souls, for there is no end to the threat that men will take their children to war. I’d say it’s time for a change. Mothers on opposites sides of almost every war have more in common with each other than they do with the men on their own side. How about a World Union of Mothers (WUM, pronounced “womb”)?

You’re thinking women are powerless. Since Eve listened to that snake, making women powerless has been a goal of all three Abrahamic religions (Gen. 3:16). In 2023, 146 countries were ranked according to gender equality (worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gender-equality-by-country). Israel and Islamic countries ranked in the lower half of all countries studied: United Arab Emirates ranked 71, Israel 83, Jordan 126, Saudi Arabia 131, Lebanon 132, Qatar 133, Egypt 134, Morocco 136, Oman 139, Pakistan 142, Iran 143, Algeria 144, and Afghanistan last at 146. So, what would it matter if mothers made decisions? Men of the Middle East wouldn’t care. But here’s a secret: Men need women more than women need men. So, WUM could make decisions and, then, declare a global boycott on sex with men until the decisions were implemented. If even a small fraction of women worldwide would support such a boycott, WUM decisions would be implemented within minutes of being made. Even if men in Israel and Palestine imposed sex on women, the global boycott would empower WUM as the worldwide California grape boycott empowered Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.

It is not enough to put women in power, for women can think like men, and most women must think like men in order to attain power. Hillary, Golda, Indira, Margaret Thatcher, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, et al. out-maned their male rivals. We need ordinary mothers in power, women who care nothing for self-glorification and everything for helping children, women who can see past national boundaries to the need to end hunger, poverty, illiteracy, exploitation, and unfair discrimination everywhere now. We need mothers in power who care more for protecting the global ecosystems for all children than growing the economy of their own country. We need mothers who will teach men to take less, give more, and leave more alone.

What decisions should WUM make? That, of course, would be for WUM to say, but Rosenbloom Cohen is fond of observing that the root of the Hebrew word for compassion, i.e., “rakhum,” has the same root as the Hebrew word for uterus, i.e.,” rekhem.” That’s not by coincidence. The ancients who invented Hebrew saw what we are bind to, that compassion is made of estrogen.

Let me share some discoveries I’ve made over my 80 years of admiringly studying women: Our future is more important than our past, and it’s made of children. Between the two genders, women care more for children than men do. Our commonalities are more important than our differences. Collaboration beats competition, equality beats excellence, forgiveness beats resentment, generosity beats greed, humility beats pride, sacrifice beats comfort, compassion beats cruelty, and love beats every alternative. The family that matters is the ONE we all belong to. To continue to survive on earth, we’ll need to build this family, and women hold the blueprint. Perhaps WUM will start the build by inviting all nations to collaborate in achieving all UN Sustainable Development Goals in the new permanent City of Gaza. See the “People’s Plan for Permanent Peace in Palestine (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-peoples-plan-for-permanent-peace-in-palestine/).