I returned The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs to the library today, after a few days of cramming it into the interstices of all my other holiday activities. This is a five-hour miniseries containing interviews with key figures, when alive, and actual footage from events as they happened.
I was fascinated by this documentary, and came away with an even greater impression that there is no good side/bad side dichotomy, no absolutes of good and evil. There are in fact some pretty nasty characters on both sides, but the average people on both sides are caught up in a cycle of violence and territoriality which seems to magnify the darker aspects of human nature.
Between this and what I've read so far, I don't really see any resolution to the conflicts in that region of the world during my lifetime. Sure, temporary solutions that seem to be the lasting peace, but nothing that will last several generations. Still, I suppose that's kind of a trite observation, considering how short a time ago the last battles in Europe were fought...
No comments:
Post a Comment