Secular Representation

By Roy D. Follendore III

June 3, 2002

The root problem between Israel and the Arab State of Palestine is water, land and money. Israel is a country polarized by right wing religious zealots. Now it has been reported by Associated Press International that the Government of Israel is systematically taking more land. They are in the midst of creating a Palestinian Berlin wall. In doing so they are taking control of land that holds the Palestinian aquifers. It is inevitable that this will lead to more violence. This is good for Israeli or Arabs. It is not good for Americans.

The historical facts are simple. The United States is supporting a country that has been built upon aggression. The United States has been supporting a foreign religious government. The United States is supporting a foreign state that has not provided basic human freedoms to more than half of the population that they govern. The CIA is reported by NewsDay, to be pressuring the Palestinians to reform. The problem with this approach is not only the fact that the CIA is the wrong organization to be doing diplomacy in public, it is that the Palestinians have simply not been given the voice of representation. The State of Israel has also shown it has not been willing to change, and it is not willing to provide basic economic and share social representation.

Israel has become a region of ethnic bigotry. The boundaries of the societies of Israel and the West Bank are racially and religiously redrawn in the same ways as the racial boundaries of the Old South. How can Americans continue to support the principles of an Israeli Palestinian apartheid? The answer is that we shouldn't be able to.

The money that our Government spends belongs to the taxpayers of America. We are not supposed to be viewed as Jews or Christians or Buddhists or Muslims. Because of the Constitution, we do not allow the Government to directly endorse religions within this country. To support one religion is to deny rights to another. Why should our Government be allowed to do so elsewhere? The Federal Government may be violating Constitutional principles of the separation of Church and State by automatically dedicating billions of annual taxpayer dollars and weapon systems to a foreign religious state.

If we Americans truly want to contribute to peace in the middle east, then we need to support a stable process of constructive reasoning that is not based on preconceived religious ideals. Otherwise, if we are not willing to be part of a solution then we should not continue to be part of the problem. It should be obvious that the only stable solution in the region is a single constitutionally secular government where the freedom of Israeli and Palestinian are equally protected under the law. Land, water and economic reform can only take place with the existence and presence of decent secular representation by all involved.

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