The Left Bank

I was watching Sixty Minutes the other week and they did a story on the Middle East. What a mess it is. And how can it possibly resolve?

I was surprised when one "expert," said that the current state of Israel was basically a state of apartheid. Apartheid?

I looked up "apartheid" in an online dictionary - racial segregation; specifically: a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa.

Well the dictionary mentioned South Africa specifically, not Israel.

I thought about it. There is certainly segregation in Israel. But it is based on religious differences not racial. There is certainly political and economic discrimination against non-Jewish groups in Israel. I don't think you could hold office or own property in Israel unless you were Jewish.

I do know that the state of Israel was created in 1948 after the United Nations divided Palestine in 1947 into one Arab and one Jewish state. I do know that there hasn't been peace in the region since.

Each side believes that it has a God-given right to the region. Some, on each side, believe that God has called them to settle the region.

What a quandry.

Our country was founded in the search of religious freedom. So the whole concept of countries based upon a specific religion goes against the basic essence of what we hold dear.

Imagine if Pennsylvania passed a law that did not allow, oh let's say Lutherans, to vote or own property or to start a business. That wouldn't be real swell. But that's the normal course in many countries across the Middle East, including Israel.

But if everyone in the Middle East was allowed to be involved in Israel specifically Arabs so greatly outnumber Jews that Israel would in essence cease to exist.

So we end up with a situation that many say will never resolve.

We seem to have little choice but to support two independent countries, Israel and Palestine, who are both built and operated on the basis of religion, an ideology we don't embrace.

Just to make things even more difficult, both groups have plenty of radicals who believe that they are called by God to remove the other from the region.

I didn't know that God was a realtor.

Actually, I'm pretty sure He isn't.

I'm amazed of course that people can't see themselves as brothers and sisters under one God. C'mon, we're obviously all related somehow. We are all one.

I'm amazed that people throughout the Middle East can't see how they all want the same things, health, education, comfort for themselves and their families - just the simple, basic stuff.

Well, I'm a positive guy - maybe someday.