If the crowds gathered outside the state Capitol on Friday really intended to promote peace in the Middle East, they would have chanted in unity instead of forming two polar groups positioned on opposite sides of the sidewalk.
The rally was held because of concerns over the escalating violence in the struggle between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
But it seems the participants in Friday’s rally couldn’t even find a middle ground. If that is the case, how are we to expect opposed leaders on the other side of the globe to see eye-to-eye?
Championing signs that equate the Star of David with a swastika like Palestinian supporters did Friday are not the ideal peace-promoting tools.
Nor is wearing T-shirts that read “U.S. and Israel vs. Terrorism” and subscribing to the notion that Israel can do no wrong, as Friday’s pro-Israel supports were.
The biggest problem standing in the way of peace in the Middle East is nobody seems willing to meet on middle ground. Nobody seems willing to compromise.
On one side, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supports the practice of blowing up anything supporting Palestine. On the other, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat likely is the chief supporting force behind terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
Though it seems easy to sympathize with Palestinians when one sees news footage of Israeli tanks blockading streets and soldiers imposing curfews and restrictions that go as far as to limit people’s abilities to take wounded loved one to the hospital, it is hard to allow those feelings to continue when one hears about a Palestinian suicide bomber blowing up a bus or a church an hour later.
The extremists on both sides are doing enough in the Middle East to massacre innocent human beings. American citizens should take a higher ground in promoting peace than engaging in petty and ignorant bickering.
The United States should change its foreign policy away from the notion that Israel is in the right no matter what.
While President Bush has come out in support of an independent Palestinian state, his administration has done little to be a leading promoter of the possibility.
Both Israeli and Palestinian sympathizers should replace rallies like Friday’s with ones that truly promote peace instead of continued division.
The American people and U.S. leaders should assert themselves as a driving force for compromise in the Middle East through both peaceful demonstration and foreign policy.
