A Region Broken

The Israeli-Palestinean conflict has been raging for... Well, let's face it---ages. Eventually Israel uprooted its citizens from the Gaza Strip to appease the Palestinean people. But then there was sniping, and retaliation. And now a kidnapping. The terms that the soldier's captors have put forward involve the release of prisoners from Israeli jails. The Israeli government has flatly refused to comply, but threatens an invasion of the Strip if Cpl. Gilad Shalit is not returned alive and in one piece. The 19-year-old Corporal's kidnappers have said that he is in a "secure place" where Israel "cannot find him." The captors have been linked to the Hamas government.

This whole situation disgusts me. I have Jewish blood on my mother's side, true blue from Vienna. Having grown up in a Jewish household (before winding up atheist), I learned about the millennia of rejection and persecution that the Jewish culture has endured. James Joyce puts it very aptly in his novel Ulysses. "Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the Jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why? . . . . Because she never let them in." If Israel is destroyed, those who follow the religion and the culture of Judaism will have absolutely nowhere to go. The Palestineans say that there is nowhere for them. But looking at a map, the enire area is surrounded by Muslim countries with thousands of kilometers of empty land. Israel holds a special meaning for those with Jewish blood. We know that as long as Israel exists, we have somewhere to run to. If the world goes insane, Israel will be there. Now, that security is threatened by those who are prejudiced. During the pullout, Palestinean settlers insisted that even Israeli graves be dug up and removed, to take the "contamination" away. This kind of hatred makes me sick. Leave Israel alone. Leave everyone alone.