Every so often, I like to put up a comic as a Rorschach (inkblot) test. Think of the Israeli / Palestinian conflict that has been ongoing for several decades. Now read the comic above. Now quick, before you can think it through, who is the elephant, who is the zebra, and who are the crocs? The identification that first comes into your head will tend to tell you which side in the conflict you tend to favor.
If you favor the Israelis, then the identification that flashed into your mind is probably that the zebra is the Israelis, the elephant is the United Nations, and the crocs are the Palestinians.
If you favor the Palestinians, then the identification that flashed into your mind is probably that the zebra is the Palestinians, the elephant is the United States of America, and the crocs are the Israelis.
I have Arab friends whose parents were forced to leave their houses by Israelis. I have had Jewish friends who wept back in 1968 when Jerusalem was taken by Israeli forces because the dream of centuries was fulfilled. Actually, each side can point to atrocities by the other side, and each side has some historically legitimate arguments to back them up. The problem is that they are caught up in a tit for tat standoff in which each side sees a response by the other side as aggression while seeing their response as a legitimate fight against oppressors.
No, I do not agree with suicide bombers. A horrible line was crossed there by the Palestinians. But, before you completely and utterly condemn them, please read the history of the Irgun (Etzel), the Stern Gang, the Lehi, etc., in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 11 years prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948. When you research it, you will find that these Zionist groups pushed for the establishment of an independent Israel by conducting terror bombings, assassinations of British and UN officers, etc. Over 5,000 people died in a campaign of over 51 bombings. Innocents are hard to find in the Middle East.
So, what is the solution? I have no idea. I wish I did. But, I do know that we need to check ourselves every so often and make sure that what we assume is accurate. Israel has a right to exist. We cannot go back to pre-1948 and redo the history. That is the position of both the United States and the United Nations. But, I do fervently wish that those early Zionists had handled themselves differently back then. I suspect that some of what is being reaped is the whirlwind that was sowed by those groups back then. Finally, Palestine, as an independent nation, also has the right to exist. Both the United States and the United Nations agree on that. Yet, another type of whirlwind is being sowed by those who first “bred” radicalism into those displaced children who are now the adult Palestinian leaders. Yes, the saying is true, “sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.”
Actually I was thinking that I could not in good conscious tell who was a croc, an elephant or a zebra. As you note, there is plenty of blame to go around. Sometimes, I feel like it is a giant kindergarten class and the teacher needs to stand in the middle of the room and announce the rules. We will all get along. We will all share our toys. We will not harm each other. We will all use our good manners and our inside voices. We will not tell lies. We will pick up our toys when we are through and put them in our cubbies. We will respect each other’s privacy. We will not hit, kick, spit or say bad things to each other. We will respect each other differences and learn about each other.
Alix
But wait: there’s more!
Hamas is itself largely a creation of the Israelis. Back in the sixties, during the Cold War, the PLO was the only Palestinian game around and it, of course, was pretty much in bed with the Soviets. Therefore, in order to split the loyalties of Palestinians along secular vs. Islamic lines, Israel facilitated the creation of Hamas. Talk about blow-back!
Lest you think that Fr. Greg is speaking conspiracy theories, let me give you a link to an article by the United Press International that says the same thing.
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2002/06/18/Analysis-Hamas-history-tied-to-Israel/UPI-82721024445587/
Thanks, Fr. Ernesto. I should have dug that up myself.
“sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.”
That should be a bible verse. 😉
Fr, yours in one of most enjoyable and interesting blogs I read.
I first saw your comments on IMonk’s blog, and I particularly like the comments you made there recently about the necessity of considering Latino and African-American Christians.