The Land Of Two Gods

As the news reports come in from the Middle East it is apparent that the fighting will escalate. Where it will take the world at large is any man's guess.

From Lebanon the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is denying any government endorsement or prior knowledge to the retaliatory attacks made by the terrorist organization Hezbollah upon Israel in support of the Palestine terrorist organization who have held an Israeli soldier captive since June 25. For Siniora and others within the Lebanese government the denial falls very short of the mark.

For years Hezbollah has been active within Lebanon despite being recognized as a terrorist organization. So active, that Hezbollah has been

holding seats in the Lebanese parliament and providing social services such as schools, hospitals and other charity programs. Hezbollah fighters operate with almost total autonomy in southern Lebanon, and the government has no control over their actions, according to The Associated Press. But Lebanon has long resisted international pressure to disarm the group.

That is where any denial of involvement by the Lebanonese government falls short.

Israel has bombed with efficiency the airport in Beirut and many other infrastructure resources to create a vacuum from which the Hezbollah can not run unless it is by land through the Syrian border. The warning to Syria comes not from Israel at this point but from President Bush, who said,

Israel has the right to defend itself and declared that Syria "needs to be held to account" for supporting and harboring Hezbollah.

"If you really want the situation to settle down, the soldiers need to be returned," the president said. "My attitude is this: there are a group of terrorists who want to stop the advance of peace. Those of us who are peace-loving must work together to help the agents of peace."

I am afraid the peace-loving agents within the Middle East are few and far between. Especially when the source of almost all conflict is based upon extremist religion. Hezbollah is a Shiite based terrorist organization that actively receives support from Iran and Syria, and who has sympathizers and supporters covertly supporting them from all regions of the Middle East.

There are no "peace-lovers" in extremist religion. Call it terrorism if you will, but the bottom line is that in the land of two Gods you are judged by your religion, not your nationality. For the Muslim extremist, the Jew has been the enemy for centuries and any infidel in support of the Jew marked for the same treatment. This is a war of religion, a war over land steeply embedded in religious history and claimed as "holy land" by opposing religious sides. Regardless of the political posturing, in the end choices will be made by religious orientation. This conflict will not end soon, it has had too many centuries of practice.

Regardless of how you pray to God, it is time for the true "peace-lovers" of the world to place humanity and the price of human life over a fight based on whose God is the right God. What fools men of the world are to believe that two religions that purportedly have the same God could have created such different doctrine for his followers. God did not start this war, mankind did. Mankind created religions and religious practices and doctrines. By doing so, mankind created conflict. It is up to mankind to stop it.

Unfortunately, we do not have the wisdom of God to know exactly how to do that.

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