Today marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel. It also marks for the Palestinian people living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip the continuation of the event they refer to it as “the catastrophe” because of the disruption of the quality of life of the people living there. In the Gaza Strip, the tap water is undrinkable electricity is on for 2 hours a day, unemployment is near 50%. Very few can leave because of a blockade by both Israel and Egypt that make their home a virtual prison. No one can enter Israel and Egypt allows passage 3 days a month. Over 100 Palestinians have died protesting the president’s order to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Approximately 60 were killed yesterday and over 2000 injured by gunfire from the military across the border fence.

The Palestinian people have suffered greatly because of the existence of Israel and for the most part, the world has ignored their plight even their Arab brothers who are well aware of the situation that only brings anger and despair to those who are refugees in their own land and refuse to get involved in trying to fix a problem that is guaranteed to get worse moving forward. Moving our embassy will set off a chain of events in the Middle East that could be viewed as Biblical in scope. The Arab world will be watching with much concern about these new developments on the world stage as well they should.