Peace One Day...

Fatima Idrees
Comp 110
September 29, 2008
Peace One Day….
Yet another day of my miserable life! How many more days do I have to make the same vegetables and bread stretch for six people? It is so hot today, and no fans working. “Can I go out to play please mom?”
“Why love. Stay inside and watch some….get your sisters and your brother, get them under the bed!”
“But mom…”
“Now!”
Seriously, right now. Where are you? I told him not to go to work today, I knew something was going to happen and he had to go. Why don’t people let others live in this part of the world…no he will come home, pull yourself together for the kids. “Is everyone okay?” Everyone is okay, but for how long. Why us, oh God why us?
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This chaos is not something an average American is used to and something that an American politician has never perhaps dreamed of, but this chaos is the day to day reality for many Palestinians and Israelis. The displacement of the Palestinian people is thought of as the greatest displacement of refugees in history and yet their cries fall on deaf years. The conflict has become perhaps an old problem, one that does not require immediate attention, but some would beg to differ. Michael Freidman of The New York Times wrote in one of his articles that, "the outcome of the war now underway between the Israelis and the Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe to all of civilization" (Friedman, The New York Times)
So when does the world start paying attention to this "war"? This is a social problem of its time and one that is affecting many countries. Since the United States is the leader in diplomacy I believe that it is our job to get the voice of innocent Palestinians heard. As time has passed on, our Presidents have increasingly thought it necessary to take a closer look at the matter because not only does it make a social impact on the world but an economical one for the United States as well. From President Carter, to Clinton, to President Bush, each has tried to make the two sides negotiate, make the two sides talk, but nothing so far has come out of it.
The people of Palestine and Israel have been fighting for land, resources, and their holy city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the most important aspect of negotiations to both states, states which are heavily directed by their religious affiliations. For people that hold this city as one of their most sacred sites, you can not take it away without a fight. This problem would have been resolved had Israel accepted the original protocol of having Jerusalem become an international zone. This growing problem is now going to be put on the shoulders of the new president, Obama or McCain. But unlike the ambiguity of President Bush, Obama has said that he would want Jerusalem to remain an undivided capital of the Jewish nation. “Obama said the concept of a Jewish state is ‘fundamentally just,’ and his commitment to Israeli security is ‘non-negotiable’. If elected, Obama says he would ‘insist on fully funding military assistance to Israel’ (JPost) and continue to cooperate with Israel on the development of the Arrow missile defense system” (Council on Foreign Relations).
McCain is also said to be on the same platform only he wants to stay out of Israeli affairs as much as possible(Council on Foreign Relations). This seems like a violation of the justice that the Untied States stands for. It does not seem fair to have so much money put into a country’s defense while people a couple of miles down the street are starving. No nation is going to accept another if they are being oppressed, as is the case of the Palestinians.
Israel is a nation that is a lone star within a cloud of darkness, some might argue, and that it needs as much light as possible to help it sustain itself. Israel has to defend all of its borders against other states that have been around longer then them and are possible threats. Israel has to do everything in its power to try to fight off the “terrorists” in Palestine and protect its citizens. But what about the innocent civilians the Israeli army is killing every year? Are the attacks instigated by the Palestinian “terrorists” groups justified? “All men recognize the right to revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau). The men of Palestine are not blind or stupid, they know that they can’t endure the cruelties any longer. This is an international social problem that is going to be in the hands of the next president, and I believe that a lot more thought needs to be given to it. If analysts are correct our political moves in this part of the world can make or break out relationship with the rest of the world.
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Please let this night pass without any disturbances, oh God. Thank you for letting him come back home safely. Thank you for sparing the life of me and my children for another day my Lord. But how much longer do I have to do this. How much longer do I protect them, how much longer do I feed them the same food, and how much longer do I watch their future slip away from their fingers…
As she lay on the damp mattress, next to her husband, she stroked her daughter’s hair. I want them to become something, to get married, to see the world, to have dreams, to change the world, to bring peace to my world, bring peace to this sacred land, peace to these people, peace one day…


Work Cited

"The Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 19 Sept. 2008. Council on Foreign Relations. 29 Sept. 2008
Barack Obama. Speech. March 2007.

Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. England: Penguin Classics, 1981.