Arab / Israil Conflict

My friend, Karen, asked how I would explain the Arab / Israeli conflict to children. Since the conflict has been going on for so long, I've had lots of opportunities to talk about it with my children at different ages. Here's a general idea of what I say:

When Zaydie was just a baby a lot of presidents and Kings all went together and said that the Jewish people should have their own land and their own country. They worried about the Jewish people because a lot of times Jewish people were getting attacked in wars.

So, they found some land next to Europe and they all voted and gave that land to the Jewish people and a lot of Jewish people moved there and built homes and got jobs and they made a government and schools and everything, just like here. They called their new country Israel. Everyone thought things were great, but then they had a big surprise.

The Arab people started calling out and yelling and saying, "That land belongs to us. We live here!" Then everyone realized, the land was already being used. It was really hard to know what was the right thing to do. The Arab people had been using that land, but now the Jewish people had moved in and built everything they needed. The Jewish people needed some land and their own country. If the Jewish people got kicked out, where could they go? If the Arab people weren't allowed back in, where could they go? A lot of people thought the Arab people and the Israeli people should share the land, but the country was small and they each wanted all of the space.

Before long, the Arab people started a war with the Israeli people. They fought and fought and a lot of people died. Everyone was really sad and really angry. And then the same thing happened again and a lot more people died.

The really bad part is that they are still fighting and having wars even now! Everyone says that they have to find a way to share the land, but now so many people have died and been angry that no one wants to share. Each group thinks that the land should be only their own.

A lot of different presidents and Kings have tried to help them find a way to live next to each other and to share the land, but each time they get close to a solution, another war starts and everyone gets mad all over again. It's very sad that so many people have died.

(At this point, I think most kids will ask, "Why can't they just share?")

Well, it's much harder to share land than it is to share toys. When you share a toy, you take turns using it and everyone gets an equal amount of time and fun. Sharing land is harder because you can't take turns; you have to divide it up. It's more like sharing cake.

When you share a cake you cut it into pieces and everyone gets some. But one person might say that they want the piece with the big pink frosting flower. And another person might want that piece too. You end up carving the cake into all these little bits and trying to make it all equal, but no one is happy because the cake gets messy and they still might not get what they want.

Sharing land is like that. There are some special parts of Jerusalem that the Arab and Israeli people both want. And some space called the West Bank that they both want. And the other thing that is complicated about sharing land is that it sort of has to connect. If you have your school and hospital on one part and all your houses on another part, they have to be close together and be connected; otherwise, how will your people get from their homes to the school and hospital?

And, in this case, the Israeli government has a lot of good schools and hospitals and stores and things like that all set up for their people. The Arab government doesn't have as much. So, some Arab people have to use the Israeli stuff. And then the Israeli people say, "Why should we give you more land? We already take care of your people and you should just be glad we help you." And the Arab people say, "It's not fair because you took our land away. If you let us have what we want, we could take care of things ourselves." And the Israeli people say, "Well, you should have thought of that before you started so many wars with us. You started almost all the fighting and we don't want to agree and cooperate with people who are always fighting and starting wars! We can't trust you."

It would be nice if everyone could agree and share the land in a way where everyone was happy. But, they didn't figure out how to do all that yet. So, they still just fight and people are still getting killed and it's all really, really sad.