About Town ...
Weekly Crittenden Press column by Chris Evans
This week leaders from the
Middle East are meeting in
Annapolis, Md., near
Washington to discuss further
a roadmap for peace among
Arabs and Israelis. Namely,
the dispute is over some territories
in and around presentday
Israel which the Arabs
believe they own and want to
establish a Palestinian state
on.
While most of us have
heard the terms Gaza Strip,
West Bank, PLO and Arab-
Israeli Peace Process, the vast
majority of Americans have
only narrow understanding of
the whole situation despite it
being a major story almost
nightly on the television news.
An expert on Middle
Eastern affairs, I am not.
However, with this week's
peace talks going on in
America, I figured it would be
timely to discuss – in simple
terms – what all of this fuss is
about. In doing so, I will use
some familiar terms and landmarks
to draw a figurative
comparison to the Arab-
Israeli situation.
Let's say for instance that
Jerusalem is Tolu, the West
Bank is Hurricane Island, the
Gaza Strip is Sawmill Hollow
and Golon Heights is
Carrsville and its tall hillside
overlooking the Ohio River.
Okay, snicker if you will, but
using this imagery might
make the whole thing easier
to comprehend.
Tolu and the surrounding
area from Carrsville to
Hurricane Church, if you will,
were once ruled by the
British.
When the British Empire
pulled out, some of the
ancient tribes of the area
decided they would retake
Tolu for their own. Those were
the Israelis who during a war
in the late 1940s won back
the land that their religion
claims to be an inalienable
right from God (see Abraham,
Genesis and the Old
Testament). Now, when the
Israelis repatriated their
ancient lands they ticked off
their age-old rivals the
Palestinians (see Philistines,
Goliath and the Old
Testament).
Instead of wiping out the
residents of the whole area as
the Old Testament says God
demanded in Biblical times,
the modern Tribes of Israel
decided to try to live side by
side among their enemies –
granted their enemies were
subservient to the leaders of
new Israel, I mean Tolu.
After it was apparent that
the outlying areas were
becoming staging grounds for
their enemies, the Israelis
took by force in the late 1960s
all of the area surrounding
Tolu, including Hurricane
Island and Sawmill Hollow.
Slowly since then they've
started moving outward,
establishing Israeli communities
at E-town Landing,
Sheridan and even Carrsville
where a strategic hillside
overlooks the valley where the
capital city Tolu is located.
The new Tolu leaders couldn't
have the upset native river
people dropping bombs down
from Carrsville Heights, now
could they?
Understand, too, that the
old Tolu School, the Tolu Post
Office and former Tolu
Grocery Store buildings are
sacred locations among
ancestral tribes, including the
Israelis, the Palestinians and
other Arabs living in the
region (see Wailing Wall,
Temple Mount and Dome of
the Rock). In fact, those
sacred sites are among the
most beloved by all of the ethnic
groups living in and
around Tolu. Each group
wants to own, occupy and
control its ancestral sites.
However, the new rulers of
Tolu say the Arabs are too
dangerous to let roam the
streets. They are considered
low-life terrorists and an
almost sub-human class of
people. Because of that, the
Israelis are building walls like
in China around their cities
and communities out in
Sawmill Hollow and on
Hurricane Island. If any of the
non-Israeli people want fruit,
meat or vegetables grown in
the fertile Sawmill Hollow
lands, they have to buy it from
the Israelis who only allow a
certain amount to be sold to
the Palestinians. Likewise, if
the Arabs living around
Hurricane Island want gasoline
from the island refineries,
they have to stand in line and
can only have a small amount
to put in their cars.
The Palestinians are ticked
off about their treatment.
Some want to kill or eliminate
all of the Israelis from Tolu
and surrounding areas. Other
Palestinians, or Arabs, say
they can tolerate the Israelis,
but want Sawmill Hollow,
Hurricane Island and part of
Tolu proper for their own
state. Some are willing to concede
a great deal of land to
Israel, including part of the
town of Tolu and most of the
area from Hurricane Creek to
McKinley Island and from
Buck Creek below Carrsville
all the way out to Sheridan.
If the Palestinians would
quit throwing rocks at Israelis
in Tolu and bombing buses
near Sawmill Hollow, the
Israelis, also known as Jews,
say they are willing to talk
about giving up some of the
lands that the Arabs want.
The biggest problem is that
there is no one in Tolu who
can speak totally on behalf of
all of the people. Both sides of
the conflict have weak leaders
who are feeble in the eyes of a
number of their more radical
followers. Israel really wants
to keep all of Tolu and is
reluctant to consider giving
up a single acre of it. Israel
also wants to keep some of its
settlements near Sawmill
Hallow and a fraction of
Hurricane Island.
Folks in southern Illinois,
across the Jordan, I mean the
Ohio, would like for the two
sides to find an equitable
solution to the strife and to
quit fighting all of the time.
Folks as far away as
Smithland, Marion, Paducah
and even Frankfort are urging
the two factions to find a
peaceful solution to their
quarreling over land.
For me, the only solution I
can see is greater international
influence on the process.
Tolu should be made an independent
city-state such as the
Vatican. It could be ruled by
an international board so that
everyone with a stake in the
ancestral city could enjoy its
historic and religious values.
As for Sawmill Hollow,
Carrsville and Hurricane
Island, give up totally. Go
back to the 1960 border that
was established by the
Israelis. Then, if the
Palestinians can't get along
with the Israelis, let the rules
of engagement from the Old
Testament be the guide.
(Editor’s note: Chris Evans
is the editor and publisher of
The Crittenden Press. His column
appears periodically.)
Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.
