God Is Not a Real Estate Agent

When belligerent, unevenly matched parties have been at each other’s throats for a long period of time, perhaps it is time to try to address the underlying concerns of the weaker player—the Palestinians, in this case. Israel has succeeded in marginalizing Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories and Gaza in every way. The Palestinians are unable to prosper economically or socially. Commerce is regulated and limited by the Israeli government. Since they are unable to prosper, many Palestinians have no meaningful work other than harassing the Israelis. Young men especially are humiliated at the hands of vastly superior Israeli military oppression in the form of constant scrutiny of identification papers at Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks in the occupied territories, and restrictions on the flow of food, medicine, water, and electric power.

I do not condone violence as a way of addressing differences, but I think I understand why young men can become so humiliated, so marginalized, and so helpless that they resort to violence in order to achieve some modicum of recognition of their plight. Rather than Israel addressing violence with violence, maybe it should try to address the underlying causes of the humiliation. after all, pursuing the same policies over and over again while expecting a different result each time is the definition of insanity.