Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

On the weekends I like to bury myself away from the news and reports of what is going on in the world. I don't read the web, except for an occasional blog and DSD usually has control of the remote and is watching football, so even the local news is a miss some weekends.

But news of what is happening in Gaza would have been impossible to miss without disconnecting electricity to my home and locking myself inside (not very bright, because it would have been uncomfortably warm).

So, I broke down and read numerous articles in Time and on various news pages.

And I don't get it.

Of course I've never understood the Middle East issues. Many, many, many people obviously don't or maybe they could have solved them by now.

I understand disliking, or even hating, your neighbors. The house next door to mine is a rental and there have been plenty of nasty people living there through the years I have owned the house. The worse was the ones with several dogs, several cats and an eight foot albino boa. We're pretty sure they were selling drugs out of the house, but the police wouldn't do anything about it unless I did all the work for them, i.e., keep a log of vehicles, time in, time out and tag numbers. Impossible unless I sat on my front porch all day and night. My employers would have loved that. And I do love to sleep.

I really hated those people. And I did call the police on them as often as I could.

But it never occurred to me to shoot them.

Or firebomb them.

Because they were human beings, even if they didn't always act like it.

So I understand that I may be simple, or even slightly stupid, but why can't the Israelis and the Palestinians just stop the damn fighting? Can't they just ignore each other?

I've researched the history of the region. Both sides have legitimate complaints. But both sides are wrong when they decide to settle their complaints with their (metaphorical) fists.

Why CAN'T we all just get along?