Even before Israel was a state, Hebrews and Palestinians have been fighting over real estate. Surprisingly these two groups of people are not fighting over fertile fields, beautiful beach front property, or strategically useful territory. No, that would be far too reasonable. Only religion could inspire generations of people to fight uncompromisingly for the deed to worthless desert land. This week the Washington Post’s “On Faith” topic is: Peace talks -- Does religion help or hurt?
“Mideast peace talks resume this week, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveling to Egypt and Israel for negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Is religion helping or hurting the attempt to forge peace between the Jewish state and the Palestinians?”
If we take religion out of the equation, this conflict becomes merely about land. We can take this worthless desert land and we can find a compromise which will satisfy all sides. But as long as both sides insist that God gave them this land, neither side will be willing to compromise one inch of Holy Land to unholy infidels.
The fact is that we live in a small world and we are going to have to learn how to get along with each other. The current “Two-State Solution” will just make things worse. Separating out these two groups of religious fanatics will only cause them to become more fanatical. Instead we should force the Israelis and the Palestinians to form one state in which they must work together and share power equally. This diversity will hopefully get them to realize that both of their religions are equally as ridiculous. Hopefully reason will prevail and science will irrigate the land and turn the worthless desert into fertile fields.
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Comments
I know there is a religious component but there is a large cultural component as well. There are Christian Israelis and Palestinians. 16% of Israelis are Muslim. If the Israelis want a separate state from the Palestinians and the Palestinians want their own state, why should they be forced by outside powers to be one state?
The cultural component is distantly secondary.
If both sides could work out their differences peacefully, then I would certainly agree that if they both mutually decided to create two separate states no outside force should force them to form one state. But that isn't the situation. These two groups refuse to compromise because each side claims to have the divine deed to the land and they will fight to the death for exclusive possession of it. Not only that, but their conflict has spilled over onto the entire globe. So yes, outsiders are now involved and we should put pressure on them to create a single state which will force them to get along. It is like when your parents lock you and your brother in the same room until you work out your differences.
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