A way of looking at the problem of The Middle East….
Shortly before the October 7th Massacre by Hamas of innocent Israelis, Turner Classic Movies aired the film “Exodus.” It’s a great film that was also a reminder of the long struggle that erupted after the end of World War II to recognize and found the state of Israel.
It tells a tale of a somewhat romanticized founding of Israel. Yet the founders are portrayed as real people. They are not seen as angelic martyrs. Many of them had real differences concerning the idea of terrorism and violence that would somehow bring about the creation of the state of Israel. They fought and argued for their freedoms; but the film also depicted the very genuine conflict among Arabs to try and accept Jews as their neighbors. Even those who had been friends were now separated by a Civil War that bubbled up in their homeland!
The beautiful and haunting hit song that played throughout the film had lyrics that said in part: “This Land is Mine…God gave this land to me.” It was a short addendum added to each point made in this Hollywood story that tried to explain why the land of Israel was needed and how it struggled to survive.
It’s important to remember that we had just finished a horrific war throughout Europe where 6 Million Jewish souls were slaughtered by an evil regime. And the silence that was also deafening belonged to the non-existent voices of those that allowed this genocide to occur. The mantra arose from the Jews: “Never Again.” And so it was that the United States fought and argued and demanded to allow the creation of the state of Israel to occur. Without the help of the United States, there would be no Jewish state in the Middle East.
And now we can fast-forward to the present day. And we have a long history of conflict from the past 70 years that has led us to this day. One question that arises is this: Where were the protestors that are so passionately defending the poor Palestinian people on US College campuses BEFORE this horrific attack occurred? In other words, do we need to see bodies that are lying dead before we realize that this has been a festering problem for at least two decades?
What happened to the talk of the Two-State Solution? And why is it only now that there is a revival of this message? In other words, where have these protesters been in the long history of this struggle for survival in this small corner of the Middle East?
The Israelis struggled and were massacred during the second World War. And now, we see the Gazan people who have been persecuted and separated in apartheid-like conditions for almost two decades. When will the world ever learn to step back and look at the situation before it deteriorates into conflicts where people are dead and dying?!
One of the most startling facts I have heard recently, apart from the staggering numbers of human beings crammed into the small section of Gaza, is the number of Jewish people that exist on this planet. There are approximately 15 million Jews in the world today.
Half of them live in the United States, which is not surprising. The surprising fact for me was that, but for the Holocaust, there would be 250 million Jews alive today. Such is the fate of a people when one evil man and one evil regime of terror can create such devastating and long-lasting effects. Let us not turn away from the lessons that history has provided for us.
God gave us life and allows us to flourish upon this Earth. It is up to us to determine how we will continue to survive and thrive as a species upon this planet. God grant us the wisdom to know how to learn to love our neighbors.
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