The Holy Land

Max Angst likes Italian food, so one evening we met at Mama Teresa’s restaurant for supper. I had linguini in white clam sauce Max had Lasagna. We started by sharing a plate of calamari and enjoyed a bottle of Chianti.
“So what do you think of the mess in the Middle-East?” I asked Max.
“It makes me sick. For millennia those people have been slaughtering one another. No one ever wins, no one ever comes out ahead,” He responded.
“Do you think they’re bloodier than people in other parts of the world?”
“Perhaps not, but they’re getting the publicity right now. So I have a proposal for them.”
“A lot of people have tried that Max.”
“Sure, but who knows maybe my ideas will be useful.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“As everyone knows the underlying problem is Palestine. But, if you go to the online World Atlas of Maps, there is no map for Palestine, The areas that some people call Palestine are part of Israel on the map. For close to sixty years , attempts have been made to separate the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem from Israel, but this has only led to death and suffering for everybody: Muslims Jews and Christians. So lets grow up and stop the bloody nonsense. Let’s not separate anything. Let’s come together and build a country where all can find a peaceful life.
“Max, that will never be accepted. One reason that I can think of is that the Palestinians wouldn’t accept Israel as the name for their country and the Jews wouldn’t accept Palestine. And in each country there are social power structures. The Palestinians have their leaders and the Israeli theirs. These leaders won’t agree to give up their influential situation.”
“To answer the second objection first, the alternative to the leaders giving up their positions of power is the continuation of the slaughter. It is the ordinary person who gets butchered; the powerful use their influence to stay alive. The ordinary people – Muslim, Jew, Christian and any other group—have to stand up and say enough, we don’t want our children, our spouses, our friends and our neighbors killed so you can keep your position. People should organize around this idea and using the peaceful methods of Ghandi and King work together to found a peaceful country where Israel is now. It will, quite fittingly, be called The Holy Land.”
“Wow! Do you really think it can be done, Max?”
“Art, it must be done. It must serve as a model for the rest of the world. All across our planet people have to learn to stop killing and to come together to build a peaceful environment. If they don’t, I don’t give humanity a hundred years,