Today is the telltale day on which we will see if all those supposed believers are absorbed into heaven or not as today is supposed to be the beginning of the end of the world. What won't be beginning to end however is the conflict in Israel. No matter how many times representatives from the Palestinian Authority or the prime minister of Israel visit the United States to try and reach agreements on how to proceed with peace talks or reconciliating borders between the two, nothing ever happens. There may be an agreement that is reached temporarily, but inevitably, one side or another renegs on their agreement and ticks off the other side which inevitably cause more turmoil in the region. This latest discussion between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu is no different. Obama is pushing for Israel to consider pre-1968 borders as a starting point for discussion with Palestine, but as usual, Israel gawks because they have since built settlements beyond their former border essentially expanding their country. To really gain an understanding of how this whole issue started in the first place, you need to go back hundreds of years. The furthest I will go back for the current situation is the 1890's and sum things up from there. But suffice it to say that the Israelites inhabited the region they currently call their country centuries ago before being dispersed in the Great Diaspora and becoming the lost tribes of Israel.
Jumping ahead centuries and bypassing centuries of persecution and racism against them, we get to the 1890's when a movement was started by the Zionists to create a homeland for the Jewish people in the Middle East, currently the area that Israel occupies. During that time, the area was under Ottoman rule and it wasn't until 1917 that the Ottoman's were conquered by the British and the area known as Palestine was taken under British control. At this time, Jerusalem was populated by a majority of Jewish inhabitiants yet in the whole region they accounted for less than 10% of the population, the rest being a mixture of Muslims, Christians, Greeks, Druze, Bedouins. In 1917, there was sympathy for the dispersed population of the Jews in the British government and the prime minister, Lord Balfour, sent a letter to Lord Rothschild which became known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This letter essentially stated that the British government favorably viewed the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. This essentially began the era of violence that we have come to be so acquainted with in this region. Essentially, this and subsequent letters and declarations by the British government who then controlled Palestine, allowed for the migration of Jews to the region to set up a national home for themselves. There was an immediate influx of Jews to the region, at first mostly from Russia and then more came from Europe as anti-semitism grew in the region. This influx obviously angered the Arabs and Muslims living in the region. Essentially, a distant foreign power took control of the region and without the consent of any of the people living there, allowed foreigners to migrate to the region, set up a home for themselves, and settle in. The way it was originally supposed to happen was supposed to be peaceful, with no intrusion into the way of life of people already living in the region, no military to be created by the Jews migrating, and a relatively slow migration of people.
However, this did not happen. The Arabs and Muslims in the region protested, rioted, and wanted to end British rule. This really ramped up in the late 1930's when illegal immigration due to World War 2 became a bigger issue. Arabs and Muslims increased their revolt and this caused Britain to propose the Peel Commission by which territories would be separated so that Jewish people would not have to live with Arabs. However, the terms were not agreeable as over 200,000 Arabs would have been relocated with only about 1250 Jewish people being relocated. Britain eventually became overly frustrated and by the end of World War 2 and the end of the British Mandate of Palestine which ended in 1947, they handed over the issue to the UN to decide what to do with. The UN with support from the United States, Britain and other countries, carved out the current nation of Israel from the lands in that region and that is officially when the state of Israel came into existence. The started a war between Israel and surrounding nations for the next couple of years as the nations protested the very existence of Israel. Pretty much since Israel was formed, there as been conflict of one from or another in existence as Israel tries to illegaly expand its borders through building new settlements and the Palestinians, currently without a country to call their own protest the intrusions. With no disrespect to the Jewish people, I am a fervent believer that the current state of Israel should not exist. Its very existence was begun by the British when they took control of Palestine and allowed the Jews to migrate to the area. The United Nations then decided to create the nation out of portions of land from surrounding nations. If the Jewish people wanted their own country, they should have figured out a way of banding together and fighting for their own nation or through discussions with countries in that region, bargained for a national home for themselves.
At this point, we can not take away the nation of Israel, it was created and it will now be in existence. Now, however, we should retract all of our support from them because they consistently violate any peace terms or agreements and essentially do what they want. By retracting all our support from both sides, both Israeli and Palestinian, we disavow ourselves from any involvement and save ourselves money. In addition, we improve our image in the region as a whole as most of the other Arab countries in that region want to see us remove ourselves from that equation. As I have mentioned time and time again, the United States needs to focus on ourselves and not fixing the problems of the world. The sooner we realize that the more money we invest in our own country and creating jobs through innovation and manufacturing, the sooner we can pull ourselves out of this recession and improve our economic standing in this world. As I mentioned again, I have Jewish friends and I do not want to offend them, but Israel needs to figure out their own problems without our support. They have the capabilities of doing so, and if they end up ticking off enough people, they will realize the effects of their actions. I personally don't see the conlflict between Israel and Palestine ending anytime soon. Both are thick headed and stubborn. Both have reasons to be ticked off at the other, yet I feel personally that the Palestinians have the better case here. Granted, the Israelites were kicked out centuries ago, but we can't hold current populations accountable. What happened in the past is the past. The only thing we can look for is how to create a better future. Until people can figure that out, let the past go, and move forward, there will always be conflict. Today, lets all forget about the past, live today for what it is, and forget the issues at hand and make peace, if we can.
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