The seemingly endless Israeli-Arab conflict is the proverbial example of “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” - the infinite loop of avenging the revenged. It is an affront to all versions of the biblical commandments, and the epitome of the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
More confusing than Hamas pursuing a strategy of self-annihilation is Israel’s policy of building settlements on Palestinian lands. As reported by 60 Minutes, the retaliation of five hundred Arab children deaths (in the last conflict) for every one Israeli child murdered is unconscionable; albeit one is too many.
Have the Zionists morphed into their worst enemy? One cannot but compare the Israeli imperialism and brutal retaliations to the Nazi justification of Lebensraum (Living Room) and the heinous policy of lining up fifty innocents against the wall and machine gunning them in retaliation for the murder of a single Nazi soldier or sympathizer?
Perhaps the most unsettling reality is that hatred is inherited from generation to generation ad infinitum. Even if all conflicts ended today, it would take many more generations for meaningful forgiveness to be realized.
Being from a neighborhood on the Flushing-Jamaica border, not some, as the pajoric euphemism implies, but all of my friends were Jewish. Some shopkeepers had numbers tattooed on their arms, which I found quite curious until the book “Adolf Eichman,” whose back cover depicted a photo of a mountain of bones, edified its meaning. As such, this goyem was welcomed at every Jewish household I entered, albeit after being questioned about my heritage.
I was invited to the festivities at the Hillcrest Jewish Center but remarked it didn't seem Kosher partaking since I wasn’t Jewish. My friends insisted it didn't matter, and to appease my guilt-ridden conscience, renamed me from Tornambe to Tanamski.
I recounted this affection and enduring loyalty to American Jews as a prelude to an encounter I had in Germany with a Norwegian. I asked how he felt about the Germans. He said, “we don’t like them.” I asked “why?”, he replied,“because they occupied our country.” I retorted, “but that was forty years ago.” Torleif thought to himself for a moment and responded “It is going to take a long time.”It is my most sincere hope both sides recognize the futility of their repetitious, lethal actions and for the sake of their great grandchildren adopt a mutually fair, beneficial and lasting resolution to this self-debasing conflict.
Where is the Middle East incarnation of Gandhi or Martin Luther King when you need one?
