By Julia Norman
[Sarah L. Voisin for Fort Worth Report]
Yesterday, February 11, Washington witnessed two radically different claims to peace.
After fifteen weeks, the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace, led by a group of Theravada Buddhist monks, reached its conclusion at the National Mall. Meanwhile, just under two kilometers away at the White House, President Donald Trump met with internationally wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to discuss the prospect of military escalation in Iran and Gaza.
On Tuesday, on the eve of these historic events, both Netanyahu and the monk and spiritual leader Venerable Bhikkhu Panakkara spoke of peace as they prepared for their journeys to the capital. Before boarded Wing of Zion, Israel’s state aircraft, Netanyahu told press, “I will present Trump with principles for negotiations with Iran that are important not only to Israel but to everyone who wants peace and security,” adding, “In my opinion, these are important principles for everyone who wants peace and security in the Middle East.” At the same hour in Washington, Venerable Bhikkhu Panakkara addressed the thousands gathered outside the National Cathedral, offering a different vision: “We are not walking…to bring you any peace. Rather, we raise the awareness of peace so that you can unlock that box and free it, let peace bloom and flourish among all of us, throughout this nation and the world.”
Thousands gathered to witness and honor the end of the monks’ spiritual trek from the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
As the monks walked from Capitol hill down to the Lincoln Memorial, they were followed by largely quiet and content crowds. It was a continuation of the exchanges that had marked their journey: flowers passed, bows from grateful onlookers, clasped hands in prayer, and many smiles. They arrived after bearing unusually cold winter months, following an ascetic tradition of eating just one meal per day and sleeping in pitch tents beneath trees.
Nearby, Trump and Netanyahu met fortified away from protesters, protected by gates, barricades, drones, and agents, convening in richly adorned rooms and exercising a power over the future of the Middle East that is both absolute and unpredictable. Netanyahu reportedly insisted that securing Phase II of the so-called ceasefire would require escalating Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. He was also expected to lobby for terms, particularly regarding ballistic missile programs, that could undermine any potential U.S.–Iran agreement— a predictable objective of the Israeli government. Following the meeting, on Truth Social, Trump claimed that “nothing definitive was [reached]” regarding a war with Iran, and described the starvation and continued airstrikes in Gaza as “tremendous progress,” adding, “there is truly PEACE in the Middle East!”
Trump, who touts “peace through strength” as the guiding doctrine of his administration, has echoed much of Netanyahu’s framing. Almost notoriously, he has sought to brand himself with peace — relentlessly chasing the Nobel Peace Prize, styling himself the self-proclaimed “peace president” at rallies, staged photo ops, and self-aggrandizing speeches, and founding the so-called Board of Peace, which he will soon celebrate at the newly renamed Donald Trump Institute of Peace in DC (formerly the U.S. Institute of Peace). Peace has become a banner he claims, brands, and projects onto his political identity.
But while he may assert himself as the peace president, who has “ended eight wars,” he remains a president who, of course, has kidnapped another President, and escalated regime-change operations around the globe. He has celebrated patterned executions in the Caribbean, posting the footage online. He has embraced systematic kidnappings, family separations, and abusive ‘detention’ of immigrants and migrants, while unleashing violent federal agents to terrorize American cities. He has defunded healthcare and SNAP benefits for millions in favor of building out a military-grade ICE budget and a fantasy golden dome. He has wielded tariffs and economic coercion as erratic instruments of global power, and sought to colonize and ethnically cleanse Gaza to fulfill his son-in-law Rivera’s vision. More recently, he has manufactured an imminent humanitarian crisis in Cuba. He is threatening war with Iran. He is also the once-close friend, confidant, and facilitator of Jeffrey Epstein.
It is easy to point to the Orwellian nature of Trump and Netanyahu’s peace. But they claimed it, and while these men — two of the world’s most dangerous and criminal — convened with the fate of millions in their hands, scheming war and hidden behind a state apparatus that shielded them from accountability, not far away there was another peace, marked on a white flag and carried across the city to mark the end of a long and deliberate walk.
Trump and Netanyahu’s peace is loud, flashy, and enforced. It slaps itself on trophies and buildings. It holds ceremonies of the utmost excess. It is severed from justice and empathy. It requires death. It requires war. It is defined by sheer terror, unlawfulness, and chaos. It is ever-attached to “security.”
While the peace demonstrated by the monks was humble and steady, disciplined and tempered. Peace as practice, not strategy. Peace as ethic. People from across the country joined it, of every origin, faith, and language, observing in reverence and quiet joy. They honored the hope and tradition the monks had devoted themselves to — a practice rooted in mindfulness, compassion, and restraint. They heard again what Venerable Bhikkhu Panakkara repeated throughout the journey: “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” The monks offered a final collective invitation to anyone to share in this mass gathering of intentional presence.
For all that separated these events in character and intent, each carried a vision of humanity and America, reflections of alternate futures for the country and the world. Yesterday in the nation’s capital, history was made — among those who claim peace, and those who practice it.
Millions of hard-working Americans have lost access to essential resources, including Medicaid, SNAP, and other life-saving benefits. Sign the petition to the Trump Administration and Congress to cut the Pentagon budget!
Julia Norman is a member of the CODEPINK Community. You can find her writing here
