Holy Land

I like to think of myself as pretty open-minded when it comes to the many challenging situations in the Middle East. I recognize that there are no simple answers, that there are many sides to every story. Often, I go so far as to consider myself sympathetic, understanding why some people are do horrible things, even if I don't think that anything justifies what's going on.

Recently I took a step deeper and tried to look behind my assumptions.

1) That it's unacceptable to target civilians, especially women and children, in violent conflicts.

Why is that? What I mean is, what an odd sort of society we've developed, where it's more OK to kill certain people (soldiers, government officials) than others. It's a mark of "civilization," and yet, how barbaric an idea it really seems.

This chaplain? He's in the Army, so it's OK to kill him. This woman? She's not carrying a gun so it's unconscionable to kill her.

2) My hope for a peaceable solution with Israel.

This one seems increasingly difficult to imagine. I used to think that it was a matter of drawing borders acceptable to all, but when the two sides seem to boil down to: A) we have a right to exist, and B) You do not have a right to exist in this region, there's very little room for negotiation.

But this is the line of thinking that really brought my closed-mindedness into relief for me.

Jerusalem. I went there in 1994. I walked the stations of the cross, worshipped in a small Christian church on Easter morning, visited many holy places, saw the beautiful gold mosque . . . and watched many people praying at a wall they believe was once part of the holiest of their temples, long ago destroyed.

All sides in the current and past violent conflicts have had a heavy hand in destruction.

But it's very hard for me to consider Jerusalem in a state controlled by Hamas, or Hezbollah, or any other violent, extremist group. And since these groups have such a strong hold on the Middle East today, well . . .

Realizing that really startled me.

But the "international city" plan, floated many times before and most recently by Jon Stewart, sounds . . . so reasonable to me. To me, a person who doesn't live there and has no real personal stake. Perhaps that's the crux of the matter. So many of us, from all over the world, even those of us who have never been to the region, have personal attachments and opinions about their politics and policies and boundaries. I can only imagine how much stronger these attachments and opinions are for people who live there.