A truce will not stop the fighting in Lebanon

On behalf of the Avila Family... I would like to thank all our friends and relatives who consoled us in our time of bereavement with the sudden passing of our dear mother, Mrs. Ascension Segura Avila... especially my mother's friends from her various charitable organizations. We also thank the Cebu Archdiocese especially his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who said Mass in my mother's house early morning yesterday.

Thanks also to Msgr. Roberto "Boy" Alesna who gave my mother her last rites all the way to the cemetery. To Fr. Carmelo Diola who said Mass at 8:00 p.m. with the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) covenanted disciples and servant leaders and to Bishop Lito Cortes, Rev. Fr. Rafael Borromeo, Rev. Fr. Ramon Ofredo, Rev. Fr. Agustin Ancajas, Rev. Fr. Vicente Florido, Rev. Fr. Dave Villaceran, Rev. Fr. Miguelito Sarmago and Rev. Fr. Hugh Donohue for the concelebrated Mass yesterday at 3:00 p.m. at the Redemptorist Church.

To our dear friend Mr. Olie Dychango of the Cosmopolitan Funeral Home for the special attention his people gave to my mother. To our hundreds of friends who sent flowers and Mass cards and came for her wake. From the bottom of our heart... we thank God for the blessing of friends... who may not always be around everyday, but they are there in time of our need. We thank you all for easing the pain of our mother's sudden departure.

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As we've seen on satellite TV news on CNN and BBC, the battle between the Israelis against the Hezbollah is now a month old without any hope for a ceasefire... although the United Nations (UN) has prescribed...a truce, which of course no one follows. Frankly speaking... I don't think there will ever be any peace in the Middle East for as long as the Americans insist on pushing for democratic reforms in those Arab countries whose people do not understand the workings of a democracy because for centuries, they have lived as desert tribes ruled by a powerful chieftain or a mullah. These leaders or chiefs rule with an iron-fist... where there's really no room for democracy.

That the Arabs or Muslims always hated the Jews is the reality in the last two thousand years and I believe that it would take a thousand more years before peace could ever be achieved in that troubled land. First of all, the whole problem is about religion, where even the Muslims are divided between the Sunnis against the Shiites. This division in the Muslim world has not helped any peace process in the Middle East. Add the religious animosity between the Jews and the Muslims... then you have a very volatile situation.

If you want to understand what's the whole trouble in the Middle East, I suggest that you grab a copy of the book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" written by author and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman" which won the 1989 National Book Award for non-fiction. While this book was first published in 1989, you can read the roots of the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah... or in a larger picture between the Arabs and the Jews. Actually, I'm rereading this book right now in order to refresh my memory about this never-ending problem.

Remember the saying... when we are with friends whom we want them to stay as friends, we should never talk about two issues... religion and politics. Earlier we mentioned that religion was a chasm that divides the Jews and the Muslim world. Well, if you studied each nation closely, you'll soon discover that when the State of Israel was created in 1948, it was the first democratic nation in a sea of autocrats, dictators and other despots. There wasn't any democratic nation except Israel.

Today, Israel has had elections in the past 40 years and thanks to its patron, the United States, they have been a great example of a real working democracy in the Middle East, which isn't actually envied by Arab rules or mullahs, but rather... they find democracy as serious threat to their iron-fisted rule. How much more for these times when we are seeing a theocracy ruling what was once the great empire of Persia... now Iran... where there is no separation of state and religion. They are one and the same.

The United States finally attacked Iraq... and it is now bogged down fighting a vicious insurgency. The reason for the trouble in Iraq is... the moderates in Iran are being eased out by the Shiites... this is why they are on the verge of having a civil war in that country. If US troops leave Iraq, you better believe that it would fall down into a civil war with one side supplied by Iran and perhaps the other side supported by Turkey.

So the whole trouble in the Middle East really is that, religious extremist have gained so much support, they have become a "government within the government." We saw what happened how the Palestinian Authority lost its control of the Palestinian government to the terror group called "Hamas." We are seeing the same thing in Lebanon with the Hezbollah controlling much of Lebanon. So what do we see in the near future? The shooting may stop, but this will only bring a temporary peace.

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