For a long time, I have believed that achieving world peace is far less complicated than we think. People around the world could simply lay down their weapons and say, “Enough! We are sick of killing each other, and we are sick of grieving the killing of our sisters and brothers. We are tired of violence. We will study war no more.”

The alternative is to believe that violence will have the final say. In his book, “Engaging the Powers,” Walter Wink talks about the “myth of redemptive violence.” From the time we are little, the world teaches us violence can be redemptive; some people are too evil to be changed or “redeemed” through any means except violence. In children’s television shows, these people are monsters or “bad guys” forever bent on evil. In adults’ television shows (the news, for instance), these “monsters” take the form of “terrorists,” for example, or politicians from “enemy” countries.

It is all a lie. Violence is not redemptive. But we believe the lie, because we believe there is no alternative.

Is all this too simplistic? Perhaps. But I have never believed it more fervently than I do now. I have been thinking about the violence I have seen and heard in Hebron. Home invasions. Institutionalized racism in separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians. Teachers detained at checkpoints. Soldiers patrolling and settlers touring through Hebron’s Old City armed with their automatic weapons.

Does this create greater security for Israel?

Where is the redemption in this violence?

I am reminded of the wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it . . . Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars . . . Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

It all sounds so simple. Why not give it a try? It beats the alternative, and maybe we will see the day when the world says, “Enough! We are sick of killing each other, and we are sick of grieving the killing of our sisters and brothers. We are tired of violence. We will study war no more.”