PALESTINE CELEBRATES 4TH BIRTHDAY
There was no I Pad or smart phone back in 1952; only the current edition of My Weekly Reader, a slim newspaper passed out in second grade, geared to introduce us seven year olds to the gigantic world around us; a world of which we knew virtually nothing.
The title of the one such edition that May, 1952 day, intrigued me: "Israel celebrates 4th birthday". I was stunned. How could a country be three years younger than me? I assumed every country was a natural geographic entity that existed since the beginning of time. The article began to answer that question and fostered an endless interest in politics and history. I learned how countries are relatively recent human creations arising from numerous causes often including war and the endless struggle for survival, national identity and economic prosperity. They are constantly changing; sometimes growing through empire building and sometimes vanishing as the victim of that dreadful human drive.
Next week another chapter in this age old quest unfolds in the United Nations when Palestinian leaders make their case to the UN Security Council for statehood. Palestinians have been seeking statehood for decades but the don't have the power or the friends or the lobby often required to achieve the elusive goal of a homeland to call their own. Virtually the entire world supports the Palestinian cause, but alas, two of the most powerful, Israel and the United States, not only oppose it; they are working feverishly in concert to prevent it.
The irony should not be lost on any of us fair minded followers of this struggle, that both opponents were created out of the same yearning of a people to escape an oppressor and form a state of their own.
I'd like to imagine a day in September, 2015, when a seven year old, maybe not much unlike me, can click on his digital device and stare at the pixels which proclaim: "Palestine celebrates 4th birthday".
The title of the one such edition that May, 1952 day, intrigued me: "Israel celebrates 4th birthday". I was stunned. How could a country be three years younger than me? I assumed every country was a natural geographic entity that existed since the beginning of time. The article began to answer that question and fostered an endless interest in politics and history. I learned how countries are relatively recent human creations arising from numerous causes often including war and the endless struggle for survival, national identity and economic prosperity. They are constantly changing; sometimes growing through empire building and sometimes vanishing as the victim of that dreadful human drive.
Next week another chapter in this age old quest unfolds in the United Nations when Palestinian leaders make their case to the UN Security Council for statehood. Palestinians have been seeking statehood for decades but the don't have the power or the friends or the lobby often required to achieve the elusive goal of a homeland to call their own. Virtually the entire world supports the Palestinian cause, but alas, two of the most powerful, Israel and the United States, not only oppose it; they are working feverishly in concert to prevent it.
The irony should not be lost on any of us fair minded followers of this struggle, that both opponents were created out of the same yearning of a people to escape an oppressor and form a state of their own.
I'd like to imagine a day in September, 2015, when a seven year old, maybe not much unlike me, can click on his digital device and stare at the pixels which proclaim: "Palestine celebrates 4th birthday".
posted by Walt Zlotow at 7:06 AM
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