Conflicts

 The Israelis and Palestinians are on the verge of war again, the Palestinians with stones and rockets, the Israelis with tanks and missiles. The war goes from the skies to the streets and from the army to the local citizenry.

The news coverage will be extensive, detailing all that is going down. But all they really need to say is “Here we go again.”

This may seem cynical, but this conflict has flared up over and over again over decades. What really changes? Who persists with arguments for peace and with realistic assessments of the sacrifices to get there? Who has the courage to take real steps toward peace? After the billions and of billions of dollars poured into the Middle East (much of it for weapons) is anything really different?

In truth “Here we go again” could be the mantra for racial conflicts, Protestant/Catholic conflicts, Christian/Moslem conflicts, Shia/Sunni conflicts or any of the other battles that stain the human community.

We like to find heroes and villains in these conflicts when these conflicts are measures of our failure as human beings.