Achieving Permanent Peace in the Middle East

The New Jersey Herald, April 8, 2002
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

THE HORRIBLE CARNAGE in Israel has continued steadily for what seems like an eternity. Suicidal murderers have walked into crowded market places, restaurants and a Passover Seder. In the name of religion, they have succeeded in blowing themselves up along with innocent men, women and children.

Negotiating with terrorists is a waste of time. We realized this as a nation on September 11. Bin Laden tried to destroy the United States in the attacks against the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon and whatever the intended target of United Airlines Flight 93 was.

About a month later in Afghanistan, the world watched in awe as we responded. It was a different and far more effective approach than negotiating to make a point to those who hate us and have no respect for life.

In this light, it is incredible that we expect the Jews to negotiate with terrorists bent on the destruction of Israel.

It takes reasonable people to negotiate. Terrorists are not reasonable people. The only thing they understand is annihilation. Until this problem is addressed, and reasonable people are found with whom to negotiate, there can be no end to the conflict in the Mid East. It will continue its periodic oscillations, smoldering for several months, then heating up suddenly into a blazing inferno only to die down again but never to be extinguished. Like an episode of The Twilight Zone, all are caught in a macabre time warp, doomed to repeat a cycle of carnage and death, which only gets a little worse each time. 

I visited the Mid East in 1986, traveling through Jordan, Israel and then back again to Jordan. I also made stops in several West Bank cities like Nablus and Hebron. I discovered that both Arabs and Jews were warm and friendly.

They loved Americans—they just hated each other.

As we went through security at Jordan’s airport on the way home, a guard searched through one of my companion’s bags. Discovering a number of carved wooden figures carefully rolled up in the pages of a Jewish newspaper, the guard realized we had been to Jerusalem. Flying into a rage at the site of Hebrew, he tore the newspaper pages off the souvenirs, grinding his foot into them as they fell to the floor.

Smoldering hatred—that’s the problem in the Middle East.

The struggle between the Jews and the Arabs is millennia old, dating back to the age of the Patriarchs in the Old Testament book of Genesis.

It is there that we read of the friction between Abraham’s two sons; Isaac and Ishmael, who later became the respective fathers of the Nation of Israel and the Arab World.

God clearly said that his favor and his blessing would be with Isaac: “I will establish my covenant with [Isaac] for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”

 Nevertheless, God did not forget Ishmael. Despite characterizing him as “a wild man; [whose] hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him,” God did bless him and promised him that he would “make him fruitful,” that he would “multiply him exceedingly,” and that he would “make him a great nation.”

How we got to where we are today has been a journey over a very long and arduous road of politics, religion and culture. President Bush characterized it as “decades of bitter experience” in a speech he gave on April 4 from the Rose Garden.

The details will be debated ad infinitum but they really don’t matter. What matters is addressing the root cause—the smoldering hatred. Until this root cause is addressed, any peace in the Mid East will be at best only temporary.

What then is the permanent solution to the ongoing violence?

Both Jews and Arabs—moderate Arabs, not terrorists—must be willing to lay aside their present differences and re-examine their common heritage. Each must be willing to recognize that the One True God made promises to both Isaac and Ishmael who were brothers. They must be willing to embrace each other in that same spirit of brotherhood. Until that happens, there is no hope for any real and lasting peace. 

To hope for such an outcome may seem so outrageous, so idealistic, that it would literally call for a miracle. The author of Psalm 122 recognized this when he wrote, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.” n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  GregoryJRummo@aol.com