WE MUST STAND WITH THE ISRAELIS---AND WITH THE PALESTINIANS

War has broken out, yet again, in the Middle East. How many times have we seen this awful movie? What should we Americans do now, if anything?

First and foremost, we must defend Israel. Given the catastrophic events of the Twentieth Century, the world owes it to the Jewish people to defend their Biblical homeland. That is a given.

However, there are other people involved here who have a great stake in what is going on in Israel. Beyond this, there are numerous countries in the region that would love to destroy the Jewish state, not the least of which is Iran. Thus, the matter is highly complicated and multi-layered.

Over the weekend, some of the iconic monuments around the world lit up in support of Israel. An especially poignant one was the Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin. Note the large crowd assembled.

In my opinion, the bottom line is the issue of human rights. Everyone on every side has the same claim to human rights. No one has privilege to a higher level than the others. So, we Americans should hold that in mind. We stand for the equal rights of all people, the Jews and the Arabs. This is why I think a two-state solution is the right way to go.

Much of the problem in the seventy-five year war in the area is that too many people were looking for military solutions. This has not worked and will not work. Peace will be the result of understanding, acceptance and compromise, not of killing.

Next to the carnage of this new attack, the most shocking thing of the weekend was the abject failure of the supposedly expert Israeli intelligence service and the impenetrability of the "Iron Dome" over Israel. Both of these proved to be false walls. The Israelis should realize there is no absolute military protection. History is littered with cases of failed defenses. Two that come to mind right off are the Maginot Line and the walls of Constantinople. The French spent an incredible fortune and worked for years to construct the greatest system of fortifications imaginable, the Maginot Line. It was to defend the border with Germany and prevent a recurrence of the First World War. When the invasion came in 1940, the Line was completely useless. The Germans simply went around the end of it and easily captured it from the rear. Likewise, the walls of Constantinople were thought to be absolute, and they were for a thousand years. Then, in 1453, the Ottoman Turks hauled up huge cannons that blasted away at a weak point and the wall broke. The Turks streamed into the great city killing thousands and selling thousands more into slavery. Like the Maginot Line, the walls proved to be a catastrophic failure of imagination. Perhaps this is what has happened in Israel, a failure of imagination.

Anyway, the question is what we Americans should do now. In the first place, we must recognize that what goes on in all the world affects us too. All of our lives are interconnected on this fragile earth, our island home as the BCP says. This is why the people who want to cut off aid to Ukraine are dead wrong. If the Russians prevail there, we Americans will be worse off.

In my view, we must defend Israel and protect their right of self-determination. However, we should also defend the human rights of the Arabs in the region. The people who speak Arabic have the same claim to freedom, equality and justice as those who speak Hebrew. If we Americans stand for the equal rights of all people, and I maintain that we do, we must use whatever influence we have to press this point in the Middle East.