On a Christmas Eve, David, an American citizen was visiting the Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the site of Israel’s national cemetery of Jewish faith. Flowering trees shadowing the graves of past heroes were in full bloom. A gentle breeze was blowing to add to the serenity of the place. During the tour, David noticed several groups of young men and women in military uniform spread out throughout the complex. Carrying their weapons on their shoulders, they were listening to their leaders at various memorial sites.
David learned that they were recent high school graduates who just joined the armed forces under the country’s mandatory draft system. They were brought in there to pay respect to the past heroes as well as to motivate them for their future sacrifices, if demanded. After a few hours of visiting notable graves, David went to the place’s café to get a bottle of water. While in line, he observed that a female graduate in uniform and in front of him was struggling to untangle her pink side pocketbook that got wrapped around her carry on machine-gun. He also noticed that the color of her pocketbook not only matched her thinly applied pink lipstick, but also to a pink gemstone attached to a gold ring she was wearing on one of her fingers. David wondered “What a unique coexistence of disparate objects on a human being!” The moment lingered on his mind.
David paid for the water bottle and grabbed a seat at a corner table. He took out his smart-phone to check the day’s global news. And that’s when he came across to a “Breaking News”. The US, his own country, without any consultation with the UN, the international organization, declared unilaterally the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (even though, the embassies of all countries reside in the port city of Tel Aviv). Jerusalem itself exists in the middle of a regional political volcano, being claimed by both faiths of Judaism and Islam. For last seventy years, the UN has been attempting to create two neighboring nations with the city being shared by both countries due to its historic religious importance to both faiths. But no success has been achieved yet. Now the political commentators were forecasting about renewed violent protests in the region shattering last few years’ dormant peace.
However, David was already beginning to feel more optimistic about the future of this region. It had been true that since Israel’s creation, this entire region has been mired in religious and political conflicts. But he was already living in that fleeting moment he had just experienced: a peaceful co-existence of a lethal machine-gun, a pink pocketbook, pink lipstick, and a matching pink gem-stone on a gold ring.
“May be the lasting peace will come to this region with peaceful coexistence of its citizens from various religious faiths, after all,” he murmured.
David learned that they were recent high school graduates who just joined the armed forces under the country’s mandatory draft system. They were brought in there to pay respect to the past heroes as well as to motivate them for their future sacrifices, if demanded. After a few hours of visiting notable graves, David went to the place’s café to get a bottle of water. While in line, he observed that a female graduate in uniform and in front of him was struggling to untangle her pink side pocketbook that got wrapped around her carry on machine-gun. He also noticed that the color of her pocketbook not only matched her thinly applied pink lipstick, but also to a pink gemstone attached to a gold ring she was wearing on one of her fingers. David wondered “What a unique coexistence of disparate objects on a human being!” The moment lingered on his mind.
David paid for the water bottle and grabbed a seat at a corner table. He took out his smart-phone to check the day’s global news. And that’s when he came across to a “Breaking News”. The US, his own country, without any consultation with the UN, the international organization, declared unilaterally the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (even though, the embassies of all countries reside in the port city of Tel Aviv). Jerusalem itself exists in the middle of a regional political volcano, being claimed by both faiths of Judaism and Islam. For last seventy years, the UN has been attempting to create two neighboring nations with the city being shared by both countries due to its historic religious importance to both faiths. But no success has been achieved yet. Now the political commentators were forecasting about renewed violent protests in the region shattering last few years’ dormant peace.
However, David was already beginning to feel more optimistic about the future of this region. It had been true that since Israel’s creation, this entire region has been mired in religious and political conflicts. But he was already living in that fleeting moment he had just experienced: a peaceful co-existence of a lethal machine-gun, a pink pocketbook, pink lipstick, and a matching pink gem-stone on a gold ring.
“May be the lasting peace will come to this region with peaceful coexistence of its citizens from various religious faiths, after all,” he murmured.
