The Arab-Israeli Conflict by the Numbers

Okay, I'm still having serious Africa withdrawals everyday, but let's shift gears for a minute. Since the recent London bombings (which are especially disturbing to me since our team travelled to London the day of the bombings) I've heard all the usual tripe about how support for Israel (and now also the Iraq war) have brought this on the British. So, naturally, in my compassionate-conservative attempt to understand the underpinnings of why young Islamo-fascist goons turn violent, I have pondered the "Arab-Israeli conflict." Thanks to the genius of Dennis Prager, who offers up the following succinct by the numbers analysis, it all makes sense to me:

Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: over 700
Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0
Number of Arab leaders who visited Jerusalem when it was under Arab rule (1948 to 1967): 1

Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000
Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000

Number of U.N. agencies that deal only with Palestinian refugees: 1
Number of U.N. agencies that deal with all the other refugees in the world: 1

Number of Jewish states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 3
Number of Arab or Muslim states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 0

Number of terrorist attacks by Israelis or Jews since 1967: 1
Number of terrorist attacks by Arabs or Muslims since 1967: thousands

Percentage of Jews who have praised the Jewish terrorist: approximately .1
Percentage of Palestinians who have praised Islamic terrorists: approximately 90

Number of Jewish countries: 1
Number of Jewish democracies: 1

Number of Arab countries: 19
Number of Arab democracies: 0

Number of Arab women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": thousands
Number of Jewish women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": 0

Number of Christian or Jewish prayer services allowed in Saudi Arabia: 0
Number of Muslim prayer services allowed in Israel: unlimited

Number of Arabs Israel allows to live and vote in Israel: 1,250,000
Number of Jews Palestinian Authority allows to live in Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory: 0

Percentage of U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning an Arab country for human rights violations: 0
Percentage of U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations: 26

Number of U.N. Security Council resolutions on the Middle East between 1948 and 1991: 175
Number of these resolutions against Israel: 97
Number of these resolutions against an Arab state: 4
Number of Arab countries that have been members of the U.N. Security Council: 16
Number of times Israel has been a member of the U.N. Security Council: 0

Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel: 322
Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning an Arab country: 0

Percentage of U.N. votes in which Arab countries voted with the United States in 2002: 16.6
Percentage of U.N. votes in which Israel voted with the United States in 2002: 92.6

Percentage of Middle East Studies professors who defend Zionism and Israel: approximately 1.
Percentage of Middle East Studies professors who believe in diversity on college campuses: 100

Percentage of people who argue that the Jewish state has no right to exist who also believe some other country has no right to exist: 0
Percentage of people who argue that of all the countries in the world, only the Jewish state has no right to exist and yet deny they are anti-Jewish: approximately 100

Number of Muslims in the world: more than 1 billion
Number of Muslim demonstrations against Islamic terror: approximately 2

The Little Girl Who Made Me Cry

I'm finally home in good ole Abilene, Texas. The last four weeks have been a whirlwind. When I got into Dallas on Saturday afternoon I felt like I needed to wrap my head in duct tape to keep it from exploding. So many far away places, so many people, so many experiences and emotions, good food, bad food, no food, dust and dirt, at least one "near death" experience, a meeting with a traditional tribal chief, and almost every other experience you can fit into four short weeks. Sometimes I felt like an American visiting Africa, other times I felt like an African who lives in America. To recount all the experiences and emotions would take forever, so let me put the crux of the trip into this little nutshell.

Tuesday, June 28th: We drove to the Chadiza district on what may or may not have been a road to do 2 medical clinics - one in Chadiza, and one in a little village called Kabvuwa right on the Mozambique border. You cannot imagine a poorer or more remote place on earth. The crowd welcomed us with a song, and then we got to work. We dispensed pills, we cleaned sores and burns, and we pulled teeth. With my preaching duties done for the day I decided to help one of the nurses (Laurie Hanson) with wound care. A young girl, maybe 10 or 11 years old, wearing a bright blue shirt came to us with a severe infection in her eyes. They were swollen, and full of puss. With water and cotton swabs we cleaned out her eyes. The poor girl was clearly in severe pain. But when I looked her in the face, and we made eye contact she flashed me a beaming smile like I had never seen before. It was a look of relief and gratitude and true happiness. In the poorest, most remote spot I had ever been to a little girl showed me true happiness. The emotion of the moment flooded over me, and I couldn't hold back the tears. I had to sneak around the corner and sit in the vehicle for a few minutes so the rest of the team wouldn't see me not smiling.

I'll never know that little girl's name, but that's why we keep going back to Zambia. Despite the bad food and rough roads, that's why we go. God bless Africa.