The continued hostilities in the Palestinian-occupied territory known as the Gaza Strip in the Middle East is yet another telling demonstration of how difficult it is to achieve peace. To put the matter in perspective, it may be recalled that this troubled land was held by the victorious Israelis following the defeat of the Arab world (composed of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) in the “Six-Day War” of June, 1967. From then, the nation of Israel governed Gaza until 2005 when the Palestinian National Authority (“PNA”) under its president, Mahmoud Abbas, took over the territory, pursuant to the “Oslo Accord” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in a significant step towards establishing peace in the area.

In 2007, the militant anti-Israel Hamas faction of the PNA gained control of Gaza by election. It appears that Hamas is hell-bent in pursuing its avowed intention to wipe-out the Jewish nation from the face of the earth, and to regain dominion over its “ancestral” land which would include what is now known as the State of Israel that was established in 1948, and recognized as such internationally. In the latter part of 2008, Hamas stepped-up its rocket and mortar attacks bringing death and destruction mostly toward the southern part of Israel, indiscriminately killing and injuring civilians and children. A few days before Christmas, Israel resumed enhanced retaliatory measures with air strikes and which now include ground and sea warfare.

What is happening in Gaza mirrors to some degree the pestering problem in Mindanao and elsewhere in the non-Islamic countries of the world where there is a significant Muslim presence. The Muslims in Mindanao, calling themselves “Bangsamoro”, generally view themselves as a separate and distinct nation entitled to its own territory, self-government and sovereign rights. This separatist mindset has, since time immemorial, led to a never-ending armed conflict that has claimed countless innocent lives over the years and effectively thwarted efforts towards sustained economic growth and development in the “land of promise”. There is a lingering belief among many Moros that they are not part of the Filipino nationhood, and that the current Philippine government is but a mere extension of foreign domination, first by Spain and later by the Americans.

Apart from ancestral claims to territory, both the conflicts in Mindanao between the MILF and the Philippine government, on one hand, and in the Middle East between the Hamas and Israel, on the other, have religion as a common denominator. Religious intolerance to the point of denying opposing faiths the right to survive is impervious to the idea of peaceful and mutually beneficial co-existence. This is a dilemma that is as old as humanity, with no hope of ever achieving a solution. Meanwhile, more death, suffering and destruction – all in the name of religion.

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