Palestinian Issue Has God Shaking His Head

Former journalist I.F. Stone once said that if God is dead, He died trying to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The conflict is alive and kicking - this time in the limelight because of unprovoked attacks by Iraq against Israel.

Iraq's Saddam hussein says he is fighting a holy war, with God on his side. If God is dead, He's probably turning in His grave.

After being bombed two successive nights, Israel has acted most un-Israeli by not sending her air force to retaliate against Iraq.

And this amazes me, as it does most everyone I know. We all expected Israel to respond immediately; a few figured she woudl strike before Hussein did.

Hussein wanted nothing better than to bring Israel in, for two reasons: (1) to break up the allied coalition; and (2) to bring the Israeli-Palestinian issue to the front.

And wouldn't that make for interesting fodder in the fodder file?

Since 1948, when a territory called Palestine was divided between Palestinian Arabs and Jews, the Middle East has been one big discord: four ArabIsraeli wars and more battles, bombings, terrorist attacks, political upheavals, assassinations and military coups than the rest of the world combined.

God, what a mess.

The war that led to the breakup of Palestine uprooted more than 500,000 Arabs from their homes. These people - Palestinians - sought refuge in Jordan, Syria or Lebanon - all Arab nations.

Now, this isn't really as mild as, say, an eviction notice. The comparison is rather moderate, truth be known.

But logic would seem to dictate that if someone is evicted from their house, a sibling might be inclined to take that person in for a while, assist in some way.

However, logic does not always prevail in the Middle East. Incredibly, no Arab nation looked after the Palestinians, shunning them like they had the plague.

Not all the refugees set up camp in the bordering Arab countries; 150,000 remained in the new nation of Israel. And while life for them could be difficult, they were allowed some political rights - something unimaginable in an Arab monarchy or dictatorship (are you listening, Saddam?).

An eventual culmination of these tensions was the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which served as an umbrella organization for all clubs, societies, and parliamentary groups serving the Palestinians.

The PLO was created in 1964 and has been a wonderful school for anyone who ever dreamed of becoming a professional terrorist.

Another branch thrown on the Palestinian refugee fire was the Six-Day War of 1967, sparked by Egypt's blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba. Israel saw this as illegal and proceeded to raid Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi airfields.

When the sand had settled, Israel owned Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strep, Jordan's West Bank of the Jordan River (also known as Judea and Samaria), and the Golan Heights portion of Syria. The taking of the Occupied Territories brought almost one million Palestinians under Israeli rule, something nobody had anticipated.

It's almost 24 years later, and the problem is still there. Unrest is still an everyday occurrence in Israel, for the in-state Palestinians demand more freedoms, and tensions grow.

I don't know what will happen regarding the Palestinian issue after the war against Hussein ends. If God isn't dead, maybe He's been trying to figure out a solution.

Then again, maybe even God doesn't have that answer.

This article originally appeared in the Ogemaw County Herald.