Want to hear something new? Israel and Palestine are at war. The hot tickets for this annual bout between these two opposing nations are sold out, but don’t worry. The like the ’bout’ more than they do the ‘annual’, so chances are they’ll be at again before ’09 is over with. After all, it’s only January. It’s not unreasonable to think a summer rematch would be in order.

Seriously, though. Israelis and Arabs have been fighting for how many thousands of years? You would think that they would have reached some sort of compromise by now. Thousands of years? Some would say all this began when the Palestinians were removed from Israel in the 1967 exodus following Israel’s victory in the Six Day War. This is partially true; but that’s only how long the Nation of Israel and the PLO have been at odds.

But the struggle between Jews and Arabs have much deeper roots that reach back to the days of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, whose sons, Israel (Jacob) and Ishmael, are the ancestral heads of the Israeli and Arabic nations respectively.

Abraham’s generation lived approximately 3,500-4,000 years ago. Fast forward to the year 2009 A.D.

Today, in the midst of conflict that has been growing over the past ten days, Israel seized control of several high-rise buildings and attacked smuggling tunnels and mosques. What caught my attention out of all these were the mosques.

You know matters are grave when religious effaces are being bombarded. You attack one, and the attack two. The question doesn’t become will they be attacked, but rather how many and for how long?

What will come out of all this? It will be interesting to see how President-elect Barack Obama will address this issue. The U.S. has been Israel’s ally for many years. We’ve sided with Israel, but we’ve also been the ones who have convinced Israel to hold their ground. Interesting indeed.

Of course, the real bugger about this conflict is its location. The Middle East. If this was taking place anywhere else in the world, it would be on page 7 of the major newspapers, not the front pages.

The cradle of civilization. For some reason, this small section of the world has always been a major hub for trade and cause for war. In ancient times, the Middle East was an intersection for the Egyptian and Babylonian empires, etc. Now, oil is the hottest commodity our planet has ever seen, perhaps.

Once oil is replaced by more efficient sources of energy, will the Middle East be able maintain it’s position in global matters. Logic would say it’s questionable; history would say it’s inevitable. However, the best way to describe the Middle East is unpredictable.

In the meanwhile, while the world is trying to sort things out economically and politically, can Israel and the PLO just hang up their gloves for a little while and let the world resolve things.

After several thousand years, you may need the rest.