In 1918, following W.W.1. borders were drawn dividing the Middle East into various Arab countries, one of which was Palestine. At that time the Jewish people were also in search of a national home for themselves.

In 1939, W.W.2. broke out and during that period all hell was visited on the Jewish people, Gypsies, homosexuals and others. Following the war thousands of refugees wandered aimlessly throughout Europe seeking to establish themselves once again and looking for lost family. Many of these people were Jews saved from the death camps. Sympathy and concern was universal as what they had endured and survived became known.

What was to be done to resolve this problem? In 1948 the United Nations made a decision which today confounds the world. Without consultation with the Palestinian people it declared a substantial part of Palestine to be the new Jewish State, Israel.

Subsequently thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed of the land on which they had lived for more than one thousand years, and no compensation was provided. Thousands of people commenced to immigrate into this newly created country and as their numbers increased so incursion into the other Palestinian lands occurred and more human misery ensued as homes and property were expropriated.

Now, today, there are more than a million Palestinian people living in difficult circumstance as refugees in other lands. This clearly poorly reasoned and savage attempt by the U.N. to resolve the "Jewish Problem" and exacerbated by American arming and funding this created nation has resulted in the continuing hostilities between Palestine and Israel and to the bloodletting currently in progress. This situation was predictable from the outset. The U.N. has rarely served the world well as was its original purpose, and in this instance it failed miserably.

Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel in the mistaken belief that Israel will eventually reinstate the refugees, compensate them return their citizenships. Had compensation and relocation been adopted by Israel at the outset, much of the blood letting taking place today might have been avoided and the blind hatred driving the present fighting might never have been.

One is driven to ask how people who have experienced the horrors of the concentration camps do not insist on a more civilized resolution to this ongoing problem. It should be relatively easy but it means understanding the issues that are driving the hatred and giving peaceful existence with each a chance.

Together a peaceful and prosperous Middle East could emerge.
Ken Hayward
Mono