Last weekend, on the flight to and from Dallas I read the book "We can have peace in the Holy land" by Mr. Jimmy Carter. It was an excellent historical account written by the man who has been part of as well as witnessed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for many years. It was heart wrenching to read about the palestinian plight. I quote from the book, "The most emotional event of our entire trip was a meeting with young Palestinians, mostly of college age. The description of their lives and of family members was distressing, and their determination and hope for life brought tears to our eyes. Even though born and raised in Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem or Nablus, they and their families often had citizenship rights taken away just because they might have visited or studied elsewhere. Many relatives have been imprisoned for years because of some nonviolent political activity." The recent disproportionate deaths in and destruction of Gaza caused by Israel in retaliation to rocket fire from Gaza left me speechless. I have always been baffled why, even though Israel is said to be the holiest place for Jews and Christians and one of the holiest places for muslims, there has been unending death and destruction for 4 millennia, since Abraham claimed that God promised him the land of Palestine! ( I saw a map from 4000 BCE that showed Palestine but the word Israel did not come into existence until 2000 BCE.) How does it deserve the title "Holy land"? By giving 3 billion dollars of taxpayer money to Israel every year, part of which is the taxes I paid as an american citizen, I wonder, at times, if I have to consider myself to be an accomplice to the injustice committed towards the Palestinians.
That evening I was surprised to see President Obama's first interview to be on Al Arabiya. He said that the children of Palestine should have opportunities for a decent life, that the Israeli children should be able to live in peace and Israel will be the closest ally of America. Nothing new from what the previous US presidents have said before, but when he said "I have Muslims in my family", I was stunned. He already made history by being the first African American president, but to claim Muslims in the family as the president of the one of the most conservative Christian country with significant Jewish influence on it's foreign policy, was incredible.
Does this mean there may be a relatively balanced, rather than heavily favoring Israel, approach in the attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? I am neither Christian nor Muslim. Jew or Hindu, I am not. I am a humanist who believes, unless America is either neutral by taking the Judeo-christian or islamic religious interests off of the negotiating table or is equally sympathetic to the Israeli and Palestinian plight there will be no peace. Is
Mr. Obama's claim of Islamic familial connections with the middle name "Hussein", the counterbalance for Zionists, Jewish as well as Christian? If that is the case there may be light at the end of the tunnel of possibility of peace in the Holy land. I hope it is not just wishful thinking on my part.
It is about time for the Holy land to live up to it's name.
