After reading for many days about the conflict in the Mid East, I am just in shock and disbelief. Maybe I am fairly naïve to think that it is so straightforward. I have seen many, many documents showing Israel’s land and borders of 1967, which of course have been disputed for many years. However, what I do not understand, is that since Israel and the majority of the Western world agree to the 1967 borders, which give back the West Bank and Gaza very clearly and succinctly to the Palestinians, why it is that there is even so much as one single Israeli inside those areas. Let’s not even get into the pre 1967-border issue here. For the moment, let us only concentrate on those borders to which Israel has agreed.

I mean if you think about it, they have basically annexed all the other lands, and have agreed to the West Bank and Gaza not belonging to them. And yet somehow if you look at a current map, http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0404/csmimg/0404p9b.jpg, there is so little Palestinian rule and control especially in the West Bank. Somehow I thought that if a land belongs to you, you would actually be able to control it, you would not have invaders present who would then negotiate the terms under which they would leave. If I go into my local bank right now, though it belongs to the bank, and I settle myself there and say I will not leave, until this, that or the other, they call the SWAT team on me. If I then harm someone in that bank, or take someone inside that bank as my prisoner, I think they call that a hostage situation.

Am I the only one who can see this? Sometimes, I think perhaps the entire world has lost their minds. How can something so clearly defined (again for this purpose lets not even address the fact that the Palestinians have more right to land then the 1967 borders), be so confusing to most of the world? If the Israelis have agreed to this 1967 border, then WHY ARE THEY IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA?

Maybe I am loosing my mind; I just cannot figure this one out.

Then I read comments by leaders saying that Arafat has gotten himself into this mess by missing opportunities, and I just do not understand that. Are we going to do that in Afghanistan as well? If so, I must say, I am completely ashamed to be an American citizen. Prior to World War II, border disputes, wars, and changing of the country’s lines were pretty much an everyday occurrence. I mean just look how many times Alsace Lorraine went back and forth between Germany and France. I still know of many bitter feelings towards the French from the Germans due to the eventual turn over of this area to the French, due in part to Hitler’s atrocities. But this is 2002; our borders do not change by the day.

I guess I cannot expect America, who seems to be the big brother of this whole mess, to force Israel to get out of the West Bank and Gaza, seeing as how we have dealt with our native citizens by giving them a stipend and a small strip of land. But somehow, I think that is exactly why we should know better. I would think that we would have learned our lesson and know when a crime is being committed and therefore want to prevent others from taking similar actions. Similar to how a parent would have made many mistakes while they themselves were children, therefore, when they see their child doing the same thing, they would try their best to stop the child. I suppose that maybe we are just easing our guilt by saying "Hey they are doing it too, so we cannot be so bad." Or perhaps we are all just blind. I know what I see when I look at the map of the 1967 borders. When will the rest of the world see it as well?