The Three Influences

After spending some time reflecting on the readings for today,there were a couple main themes that stood out to me. The first one was that there is no one group whether it be Muslims, Jews, or Christians that is without fault for the current status of Jerusalem. It truly seems to me that all of them tell a similar story of how although they once cherished and controlled the city peacefully, each group lost that control and often by bloodshed. The next theme for me was similar to that of my previous post and that is each group here must be willing to concede in certain areas for peace to ever happen in Jerusalem.

I am also amazed by the reading Jerusalem Then and Now because the importance of the city really struck me. It has no obvious military importance, but so many bloody conflicts have arisen over it. It has no major natural resources or food supplies, but its siege almost brought the Jews to their breaking point in 1948. The city is a symbol of religious diversity, but no religious coexistence.

Those facts are what have amazed me thus far throughout this class. I think it is easy to be tempted to think that the issues facing the Israelis and Palestinians have to do with statehood. The issues in how to handle Jerusalem alone are enough to divide the people, but there are many more on top of that. Issues such as water allocation, border security, trade routs, and political structure are just as important as anything else before the Palestinian/Israeli issue will ever be resolved.

To end, I will comment on another quote from the reading "The History of Jerusalem".

"Thus, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs, which have repeatedly proven themselves to have a profound influence on Jerusalem's history, must be considered with the utmost gravity."

This sums up all of the readings we had to read and also the point of this post. Each group involved in the conflict in Jerusalem has had a profound influence on the city's history. Until each of their respective part in that history is acknowledged by each group, this conflict has little chances of ever coming to a peaceful end.