Nothing says peace like 60 dead Palestinians.
The reason that peace has been so difficult to maintain in the Middle East is that the land known as Palestine has a VERY long history.
For starters, the region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization. The Palestine region or parts of it have been controlled by numerous different peoples and regional powers, including the Canaanites, Amorites, Ancient Egyptians, Israelites, Moabites, Ammonites, Tjeker, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, different dynasties of the Early Muslim period (Umayads, Abbasids, Seljuqs, Fatimids), Crusaders, Late Muslim dynasties, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottoman Turks), the British, Jordanians (1948–1967, on the "West Bank") and Egyptians (in Gaza), and modern Israelis and Palestinians. Other terms for approximate geographic area include Canaan, Zion, the Land of Israel, Southern Syria, Outremer and the Holy Land.
During World War I the British government issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating that the British Government favors the establishment of national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The British captured Jerusalem a month later. The League of Nations formally awarded Britain a mandate over Palestine in 1922
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine was a nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs against British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration. After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1947, the British Government announced its intention to terminate the Mandate it had been awarded in 1922. The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition British Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, with a special international regime for Jerusalem. The Arabs rejected the partition of Palestine and civil war erupted in the immediate aftermath.
If you have the patience to read the entire article posted in the link below, you’ll acknowledge that things have been “very messy” ever since the creation of the state of Israel on May 15,1948. That date is when the U.N. said “urination (you're a nation)”, and relationships between the Jews and the Arabs has been piss poor ever since.
The irony of the creation of Israel is that it was intended to provide a permanent home for the millions of Jews who were forced from their homes by the Nazis. To create that home, the new state of Israel forced nearly a million Arabs from THEIR homes.
http://https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine
The original idea of the United Nations for independent Arab and Jewish states came to fruition in 1998, when the Palestinian territories were created, and it was renamed the state of Palestine by the UN Secretariat in 2012. As of today, though, the UN Security council continues to treat Palestine as a non-sovereign entity, which prevents its admission to UN general membership.
Israel and the U.S blame the most recent problems on Hamas, who they claim is supported by Iran, and the Palestinians blame the Israelis, who used lethal force instead of less violent means of suppression.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nothing-says-peace-like-58-dead-palestinians/2018/05/14/5e89fa9c-57bc-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html?utm_term=.e5b5714d731b
Trump poured gasoline on the fire by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, but made the situation even worse by inviting Robert Jeffress, John Hagee, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, and David Friedman (the U.S ambassador to Israel) to the event.
Jeffress has said that both Islam and Mormonism are “heresy from the pit of hell” — and that Jews are bound for that same destination.
Hagee said that God allowed the Holocaust to happen because His top priority was to get the Jewish people back to Israel.
The rabbi made waves recently for comparing black people to monkeys and proposed blessing only “a person with a white father and mother
During the ceremony, Friedman praised "the vision, the courage, and the moral clarity of .. President Donald J.Trump."
(Really? In my opinion, anyone who thinks Trump has moral clarity is not exactly playing with a full deck.)
Friedman supports Trump’s December statement that recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel for the first time since Israel was created in 1948, which he said would remove the Palestinians “right to veto” on the move.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/14/610920629/ambassador-recognizing-jerusalem-as-capital-removes-right-of-veto-in-talks
Friedman has exactly ZERO experience in diplomacy, but has known Donald Trump since 1994, when he advised and represented Trump as his bankruptcy lawyer involving his Atlantic City casinos. Due to the fact that his father was a rabbi, he gave Trump advice on Israeli and Jewish issues, and he donated $50,000 to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Friedman heads American Friends of Bet El Institutions - an organization that advocates against a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and provides around $2 million per year to the Israeli settlement Bet El.
The organization also received donations from the family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Despite the fact that he does not have a security clearance, and was not elected to office, White House Senior Advisor Kushner made comments during the dedication ceremony.
The road to peace in the Middle East has never been easy, and there is still a LOT of disagreement on how to get there. For that reason, the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland make more sense than ever.
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
