The above picture accompanied a column by Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times on November 16, 2023. In the hard copy version of the paper that showed up at my house on that Thursday morning, Kristof's column was titled, "Three Myths of the Middle East." Click the link I have provided if you would like to see the entire column (The Times' paywall permitting, of course). Be advised, if you do click that link, that you will find another version of the title applied to the online version of what Kristof has to tell us.
Here are the "Three Myths" that Kristoff suggests are driving the Israel-Palestine conflict:
MYTH #1: There is right on one side and wrong on the other.
MYTH #2: Palestinians can be put off indefinitely.
MYTH #3: People on both sides understand only violence.
I thought that all of the myths Kristof listed were "on target," but I particularly appreciated Kristof's "Myth #1," which put me immediately in mind of the culminating lines in one of Bob Dylan's early songs, "Talking World War III Blues." Just in case you haven't noticed (a lot of time having past since 1963, when Dylan wrote that song), we are definitely edging ourselves into World War III territory once again.
I gather that the photograph on Kristof's column (and reprised at the top of this blog posting) is supposed to remind us what we'll have left after such a World War III, if we continue to indulge ourselves in those myths that are listed above. We might think about it this way: Look, Ma, no people!
Dylan, and you may remember these lines from long ago, ended up his song with the following statement (if you want to watch him sing the song, I'm providing an opportunity at the bottom of this blog post):
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that.
I have a dream, too. And how about you? How about everybody?
I'll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours!
Let's all say that!
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