Violence in the Middle East is centuries old. So too are its rationales, excuses, and provocations.
Now comes Israel’s overreaction and indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon. Innocents are dying, property is being destroyed. Why? It’s not going to eliminate Hezbollah; Hezbollah is an idea, a mind-set. Stamp it out in southern Lebanon and it will fade away, only to reappear elsewhere.
The carving out of a Jewish state from the heart of an Arab Middle East is history now. The Israelis aren’t going away; the Arabs aren’t going away. They can bomb each other into oblivion, but neither is going to give up or get out. Borders seem irrelevant. Everyone, and no one, is at fault. Nationalism, fundamentalism, terrorism. My dad’s bigger than yours! Gotcha last! He hit me first!
The whole situation is tragically absurd, absurdly tragic. Build a fence around the Middle East and let those who live there decide it however they will. The rest of the world should not get sucked into the insanity. It’s the 21st Century, and some of us have grown up.