Mideast Piece: The Return of King David

I first visited Israel in 1983. At the time, the West Bank was very much a part of Israel. In contrast, during my last visit in 1998, we passed a checkpoint very similar to a border when we entered the West Bank to visit Rachel's Tomb. I mention this because my own thinking has gone through a similar change. I used to believe that Israel should have just annexed territories seized in war. Now, I think the two state solution is a foregone conclusion.

Now back to the history. I don't know how exactly the British decided to divide territories under its control. I imagine most people would say, "poorly." As far as we're concerned here, the land east of the Jordan River became Jordan. For the land to the west of the river, they came up with a partition plan, with a nation called Palestine and a Jewish State.

The Jews decided not to call their state Judea- been there done that. The United Nations, established after World War II, approved of this plan. Now, being Jewish, I heard the story thusly, "The other Arab Nations in the region told the Palestinians to leave because they were going to attack." Palestinians say they were kicked out by the Israelis. After 45 years of life experience, there is no doubt in my mind that both stories have some truth to them.

Regardless of whether they left voluntarily or were forced out, the simple fact remains that Palestinians have been homeless since 1948. They are living in refugee camps in almost every nation in the middle east. This is a tragedy, and nobody mentions that these nations do not accept the Palestinians as being eligible for citizenship- 62 years and they keep them in refuee camps. Also unmentioned is that many of these nations had Jewish communities that they simply kicked out.

The Palestinians often talk about their 62 years of oppression, but what they do not mention is that for the first 19 years, the Israelis were not the oppressors. From 1948 until 1967, the West Bank was not considered occupied, it was Jordan. Likewise Gaza was part of Egypt. With the exception of the Palestinians, the Arab world had no problem with Palestine being occupied as long as it was occupied by other Arabs.

In Hebrew school, I learned that G-d promised Abraham that his children would become a "nation great and mighty." He had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Hence, two nations. In Islam, the Patriarch is called Ibrahim. He is the same person. The time has come for the children of brothers to come together and end this dispute.