A Controversial Topic

I try to avoid massively controversial topics, but today I cannot hold back. After conversations with friends, people on forums, and things I've seen around my campus, I have to say my piece and this is what this blog is for. For me to state some facts and then my opinion.

What is this controversial topic you wonder? *sighs* I'm talking about the issue of Israel and Palestine.

First, a short history lesson.
Lets go back, and I mean WAY back. Before the Middle East was the middle east, even before it was the Near East, or the Holy Land, before the Roman Empire, or the Greeks or the Persians, it was Mesopotamia. The Cradle of Civilization. People have lived in this area since around 3000BCE. That is over 5,000 years! Great empires grew out of this region. Including the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Later the Israelites would arrive in the area and build up a kingdom after, as the story goes, an exodus from Egypt and wondering around for a while. The Assyrians made a habit of relocating the Israelis to new parts of the Assyrian Empire. But it was the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 597BCE and took a massive chunk of the population back to Babylon, this would be known later as the Babylonian Captivity. Some 70 years later, the Persian Empire would defeat the Babylonians and send the Jews home. However, when the Israelis arrive at where they used to live, it was inhabited by new people! The Arabs.

Now to back up just a little. I need to take a moment to say something of religion here. At this point, we are talking about almost 500 years before the birth of Christ. These Arabs are not Muslims. Also, after running into several people in a recent class that did not know this. Christianity developed out of Judaism (and for those of you who don't know, this is the religion of the Jews) around 33CE. Then in about 622 CE, Islam was developed out of Christianity. Islam was, in essence, considered to be a continuation of the Abrahamic Tradition. It is one of the beliefs of the Arab Muslims, that the illegitimate son of Abraham and one of his servants, Ishmael, is the forbearer of the Arab race.

So back to the story. The Arabs had moved into what the Jews had considered to be their homeland during the time that the Jews were away. This is the beginnings of the issues that we see today. The Jews thought that land was their homeland and did not like that there were other people there. And on the other hand, when the Arabs moved in, there was no one there to tell them they couldn't. So by the time the Jews returned, the Arabs had made the land their own. This has led to one conflict after another between the two groups. But Jews have consistently been the minority through the centuries.

Now we reach the 19th and 20th centuries. A time of globalization. Of Imperialism. Exploration, and Colonialism. Britain had colonized the area in the late 18th century. Then World War II happened. No one can legitimately denied the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Jews (and many other groups) by the Nazi regime. A certain amount of guilt over a feeling of not doing enough to save those Jews, the World Powers decided to give the Jews their own state.

Now this seems like a great idea! Lets give this minority  group who has traditionally been persecuted, particularly by Christians, and were extremely persecuted during the war, their own space. It would be like a sanctuary. This sounds like a great idea. Except for the fact that there were already people there. There was already a country there. People who did not take lightly to all but being displaced themselves. These people are the same Arabs that were there over 2000 years ago! But now the Jews are excitedly moving into the area. To the land that they feel has been given back to them.

So that is the background of the conflict in Israel. I don't think many people know that. They just fall on one side of the debate or the other. People are either for Israel while others are supporting Palestine. I saw stickers around campus proclaiming the Israelis as invaders and call for the freedom of Palestine. While others claim that the Israelis were there first and deserve the land because of the persecution they have suffered over the centuries.

No matter what side you fall on, it is near impossible to solve this problem. There is no easy solution to fix this situation. No matter what, someone is unhappy. No matter what either the Israelis or the Muslim Arabs are going to feel like they are not receiving the fairest deal. No matter what, the conflict is unresolved.

April Fools Day

I have never liked April Fool's Day. I'm not someone who likes to be tricked or humiliated, which seems to be the norm for the people who like to celebrate the day. I remember one April 1st where a husband of a friend called her telling her that the draft had been instituted and former military were going to be the first to be called. She nearly had a heart attack in the middle of the mall and I thought she was going to kill him when he called back to tell her 'April Fools!' But I digress...

Today, after looking at some of the other holidays this year, I thought I would see what I could find about the history of April Fools Day. I admit to having been a little disappointed. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information on the internet about April 1st other than the next great prank that you can play on your friends. And what I did find has some uncertainty in its validity.

The popular story tells of the shift of the calender from the Julian Calender to the Gregorian Calendar. Many people did not automatically accept the Gregorian Calender so some people had shifted their dates, while others did not. So a person traveling from one area of Europe would leave on one date and arrive at his destination a week before the date he left. There was a lot of confusion at the time. That much we know to be true.
The story of April Fools says that the original New Years Day was celebrated on April 1st. However, the Gregorian calender changed this date to January 1st. Either the new did not spread very quickly or people refused to accept the change. Supposedly, the people who continued to celebrate New Years Day on April 1st were considered 'April Fools.'

However, there is some fault in this idea, because the Gregorian calender did not reach some areas until much later but the tradition of April Fools Day was already well established.

The other explanation for the holiday looks to the tradition of spring festivals in Europe. Spring was a popular time to have festivals dating back far before Christian dominance in Europe. April Fools Day could just be a product of the evolution of these fun spring festivals.

Whatever the history of this holiday, no one can deny its popularity of the holiday.