War in Gaza Spotlights the Three Deadliest Forms of Human Conflict
The Gaza War Demands the Wisdom of Solomon and Saladin … and a Bit More
By James Terminiello
Let’s get this out of the way first. The hideous war in Gaza is not a question of Good vs. Evil. The miserable conditions in the Gaza Strip have been festering and bubbling for a long time and this is just the latest and ugliest eruption. Why? Because the Middle East is a focal point of the Three Deadliest Forms of Human Conflict.
They are:
Religious differences: Judaism vs Islam
Ethnic hatred: The various Arab tribes vs. Ashkenazim and Sephardim or thereabouts
Economic differences: Jewish wealth and organizational excellence vs. Palestinian poverty and social disorder
You could not ask for three more combustible problems and, to boot, they are all compacted in one dusty little, fiery, corner of the Middle East. And, to no thinking person’s surprise, they have combusted yet again! The all too familiar pattern of terrorism and reprisal … threat and counter threat … and slaughter of the innocents has followed. The pattern is so formulaic, it’s like a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a killer shark movie. It would be funny if it were not so hauntingly tragic.
Moreover, we all know how this is going to play out. Blood. Fire. Agony. Atrocity. Declared victory. Negotiations. Peace talks. Table setting for the next outbreak.
History, if you choose to study it, shows us the nauseatingly familiar pattern.
To break this pattern, any settlement must address all three of those deadly forms of human conflict. Leave one out and hate will find a way.
I haven’t a single molecule of the kind of wisdom needed to resolve this fundamental, seemingly immovable, blood-spattered, pre-biblical hatred. But I have seen this before and I know I will see it again... unless.
James Terminiello, author of the satire Junkyard, writes from Mount Laurel, NJ.
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