Seems that good fences do make good neighbors - this is likely the result of the reduction in terrorist violence in Israel since Israel started to fence out the suicide bombers:

Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of Jerusalem told L’Osservatore Romano this week that there has been a marked increase in the number of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, thus allowing for the Church in Israel and peace in the Middle East to be promoted.

Father Gianfranco Pinto Ostuni, director of the Office of Pilgrimages of the Delegations from Rome to the Holy Land, told the Vatican daily that from June 2008 to January 2009, there are 27 pilgrimages scheduled. “We have doubled the trips since 2007. It’s enough just point out that last Easter 45,000 Italian pilgrims visited Jerusalem.”

In 2006, 58,000 Italian pilgrims visited the Holy Land and in 2007, 82,000. According to tourism promoter Maurizio Baiocchi, “at least 100,000” are expected to visit in 2009.

The Christian presence throughout the middle east is in jeopardy - and one should remember that all of that area - from Morroco to Iraq - was once Christian. Caught between two fires, Christians are usually forced to leave - including one good friend of mine here, a Palestinian Catholic who left because there was just nothing for him in Palestine...and, indeed, there is still nothing in those areas where the Palestinian Authority holds sway; good government is just a distant dream, as various groups of thugs and theives battle over who shall be in charge.

Wise Israelis knew even before the 1967 war that Israel had no business taking over the West Bank and Gaza, because the large non-Jewish population was a threat to Israel's identity as a Jewish State - but the thing was done, and Israel has paid a high price for a foolhardy desire to reconstruct the Kingdom of David and Solomon. But now Israel is out of the West Bank and Gaza - and what do we do from here?

The insoluable riddle must be solved - but it likely cannot be solved as long as outside actors are fueling the fires of terrorism. In this, Iran and Syria are the two prime movers, and it is to them we must apply ourselves in order to set up a situation where the Palestinians who wish to live and build (who, like their compatriots in Iraq are probably the overwhelming majority) are able to get the upper hand on those who will to kill and destroy. Key to the Iran/Syria question is Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons - a nuclear Iran will be nearly impossible to deter from terrorist action, so the whole thing flows together: Peace in Israel/Palestine requires an end to terrorism (and do keep in mind that the terrorism to be stopped in not just Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, but actually more importantly Palestinian terrorism against Palestinians); an end to terrorism requires an end to outside sponsorship of terrorism; an and to outside sponsorship requires bringing Iran and Syria to heel; bringing Iran and Syria to heel will require the prevention of an Iranian nuclear force.

The next year or so will be decisive as to whether or not peace can be made with the basic status quo, or whether an eventual general war will have to be fought in the middle east, ending in the wholesale transfer of populations and the redrawing of the map of the middle east. If we can remain firm on Iran and prevent them from going nuclear, then we can - using the democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan as leverage - force Iran's governmen to give ground on sponsorship of terrorism, which will allow a real government and peace to emerge in Palestine, which will then set off the chain reaction of peace...not brotherly love, but at least a peace where fists are shaken, but bombs aren't detonated.

An American policy of strength and determination will carry the day - an American policy of withdrawal and accomodation will merely put off the day of reckoning. We have a choice to make this November, and I pray we choose wisely.

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