A MIDDLE EAST SOLUTION
A recent political cartoon in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat showed moving the Palestinians to Wyoming and Montana. Although it was a joke it got me thinking. What about and alternative approach like the Roman Catholic model. There is no Catholic country. They have the Vatican in Rome which serves as their sovereign cultural and religious center but the Catholic faithful are spread out all over the world just as Jews are.
What if the U.S. were to give the Jews a Jewish “Vatican” somewhere in the U.S., say in up-state New York. Then we move the five million Israelis to the U.S. where they would create businesses, jobs and buy up a lot of the foreclosed homes throughout the country. In exchange for this the Palestinians would have to agree to guarantee to all Catholics, Jews and Muslims access to each religion’s holy sites in Jerusalem. If this could happen, the U.S. would experience a huge economic boost – call it the “Jew Boom.” In addition, the U.S. would be protecting a culture that has been under attack for about three thousand years and at a cost that would be far less than what we are paying right now to defend Israel.
Because the Israelis and Muslims are like cousins who hate each other, neither wanting to give the other an inch, the chances of doing something like this are slim and none and slim just left town. But if it could happen it would stop all the fighting, finally bring peace to the region and get the U.S., and the world, out of this persistent economic slump without starting WWIII. Just a thought.