John Roughan
What’s the matter with Israel? Why, when you live in the heart of the Islamic world, would you encourage America’s irresponsible idiot to move its embassy to Jerusalem? Why risk the utterly predictable response and then have your guards open fire on protesters at the Gaza border?
What a way to mark your 70th anniversary. It served only to remind the rest of the world how long we have lived with this festering sore.
Seventy years ago Stalin was running the Soviet Union, the Cold War was just beginning, other long running troubles of the 20th century, apartheid and Northern Ireland, had yet to appear. All those problems seemed intractable until suddenly, they were not. As the century drew to a close, good leadership settled them. Only the Arab-Israeli conflict has persisted into the 21st century with no end in sight.
In fact, this century it has got worse. On one side, Israel has built walls and checkpoints against the Palestinians it has driven from their homes in the occupied territories. On the other, Islam has been infected by a fundamentalist revival that has forced women back into headscarves and at its extremes, generated the terrorism that haunts the world in the new century.
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