From the Desk of

Kevin Tracy

2010-06-08

I'm a supporter of Israel and think it has a right to exist. It's authoritarian style rule against Christians and Muslims (among others) leaves something to be desired since only Jews are allowed to own property or become citizens, but when compared to how North Korea treats Christians, Israeli citizenship and property laws are really kind of minor offenses against the liberal (lower case 'l') conscience.

However, when it comes to foreign policy and the treatment of the Christians and Muslims living in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel passes from being a soft authoritarian regime to an almost insufferable totalitarian regime that, if the truth were widely known, would result in the loss of blind popular support for Israel in the United States of America... not unlike the situation in Europe.

I would like you to take a moment and consider foreign policy as though it were an American inner-city school playground at recess. In this case, the Middle East is the inner-city school district. Like many schools of this sort, our students are going to be mostly black, with a few Hispanics and perhaps a few other minorities. Of course, this is a pretty tough school, too. Democrats, after all, are too busy lining their pockets to provide these students with the chances they need to succeed in life, and a lot of these kids are turning to violence, gangs, and other social vices.

Now, imagine that halfway through the school year, there's a new kid in the class. A white kid with no behavioral problems in his old, mostly white suburban school before his parents moved to the city. Maybe he was picked on and beat up a few times, but he never instigated the fights.

How would you expect this kid to act? Personally, if I were in his shoes, I'd have probably done my best to stay out of trouble, keep out of people's way, and make friends with whoever I could as quickly as possible to be accepted. Instead, after a few kids start to beat him up, he pulls out a knife and proceeds to defend himself by cutting a couple of students. When it happens again, the kid had brought a gun to school and shot a couple other students, including one that never picked a fight. As they lie bleeding on the playground, this kid refuses to let anyone help them.

Now, as the overpaid administrator of this school, what do you do with this situation? According to the Evangelical-Right and the US Government over the past few decades, this is all part of the kid's right to defend himself. I have a REALLY hard time accepting that. On the other hand, the parents of the other kids not only want this new kid thrown out of school, they want him locked away in prison. Of course, while the lazy administrators sit on their butts, more black kids are getting really angry that this one white kid is getting away with all of this in the name of "self-defense." The ones who's friends have been shot and cut might even resort to violence to get even and teach a lesson. As the old saying goes, violence begets violence; and the situation continues to deteriorate.

The initial beating of the new kid might have started this, but by responding with violence, the situation has only gotten worse for that new kid. Whereas only a few of his classmates hated him when he first came to their class, he now has the entire school wanting his head.