WORKS ON DIGITAL PAPER

The Jewish Question, The American Question, The Palestinian Question

At one point I fancied myself an informed thinker on the topic of Middle East Peace. I had spent time in Jerusalem, camped out just inside the Jaffa Gate, and the experience endowed me with a special consideration of the matter. Or so I was sure. In fact, in some ways, it did. There are few non-Jews I know who have had the chance to travel in Israel, much less at the epoch of the most peaceful era in memory. It was enough to interest me for some time after my graduation from college. I read a handful of books on the subject and became, as I said, something of a self-proclaimed know-it-all. This faded in time, of course, as such certitude inevitably wanes in favor of reality. Still, I maintain a certain morbid fascination with it, as many do, whether they'll admit the terminology or not. It is a train wreck of emotion, history and the dubious dealings of late nineteenth century imperialist hubris with twentieth century idealistic ignorance. It is sad and unstoppable and, after all this time, to me at least, starting to become wholly uninteresting. These two people, one dominating the other, the other terrorizing the the one, are so far down a path of peptically shared history, hatred and social break down, it is almost too much to think about the morality of that question, lost as it is in a maze of context and smoke. The only thing I can take away from it is a gratitude that I can pursue my eccentricities in relative freedom, a stance which could only but infuriate proponents of either side and an admission that, to my own ears, sounds trite and ugly in its semi self-congratulation.