I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m sure as heck gonna try.

I know people will critique my opinion. But I believe it is a moral obligation for each person to wrestle with these questions and come up with our own beliefs and ideas. To outsource our thinking to other people is irresponsible. With that said, our limited knowledge being all the way across the planet must not be forgotten.

It seems foolish to assume each of us could have an opinion about matters people far more educated than us are discussing. However, I like to remember that every adult, no matter how prestigious, is just a grown-up child. The policymaker and representative in another country? He was also just little Timmy on the playground back in the day. Again, I consider it a moral obligation for each of us to do our own wrestling and processing and contribute ideas to make the world a better place. This is my attempt to do that.

Israel and Palestine.

After reading, I do think the general consensus of most international organizations would be that the only solution is a two-state solution: Israel, and Palestine. As I have wrestled with these thoughts, this does seem to be the only solution.

But Israel won’t have it.

I grew up conservative Christian. I remember when I first looked at the modern map of Israel and gasped – the Israelites still didn’t have complete possession of the “promised land?”

There will be conflict as long as Israel does not have the complete borders outlined in the Old Testament. The culture and religion runs deep. That won’t change. The ancient texts will never change. There will always be conflict as long as Israel does not have that land.

I don’t hear the two-state solution discussing this reality often enough. Modern solutions are underestimating how important the possession of the entire “promised land” is to Israel.

As frustrating as this is, human rights do include the right to religion. The Jews have a right to their religion, and their religion is based on one of the most historically robust texts of all time.

But what if this genuinely brings about evil in the world? What about Palestine? What about another people group who does not have a home either? Who does not have a land?

If they will forcibly never experience rest in their homeland, what now?

I’m curious what Israel’s solution is for this? What do Jewish people believe should happen for the Palestinian people?

Where the heck are Palestinians supposed to go? It sounds bad, but I would guess that Israelis truly would like the Palestinians to just… disappear.

Would another state take Palestinian people? That’s a tough sell, nor a proper solution because why did they have to be displaced from their own home in the first place?

3,000 Palestinian children have died recently. (Source: Here)

People are calling this the genocide of the Palestininian people. 

Globally, again, we need to come up with new solutions, specifically for the Palestinian people. Israel will never welcome them, and there will never be peace as long as Palestinian people are within the borders Jews believe are destined to be theirs.

What do we do?

Well, we don’t kill Palestinian people. And we don’t kill Israeli people.

At the end of the day, the conflict shows we need to dig deeper. We have not reached the proper conclusions yet. I don’t pretend to have those conclusions, but by continuing to wrestle is the only way we will get there.

When people make blanket statements and scream about one side over the other, and have this sense of “If you don’t immediately agree with us, you’re wrong,” I think we have stopped listening to each other. 

There is evil on both sides. 

Now what are we going to do about it?

I think Palestinians need their own nation, but it’s not going to be within Israel’s borders. I’m going to keep digging.

I think screaming on both sides is not helpful. My heart is with the Israeli people. My heart is with the Palestinian people. This idea of “if you don’t blindly agree with us, you are the problem” is very dangerous in my opinion. Jewish people are screaming this is the next holocaust. Arguably, the Palestinian people are experiencing their own holocaust.