The US War for Southern Independence, a/k/a War of Northern Aggression or Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865.
Following the war, the prevailing US government tightly controlled governments of the rebellious states for another 12 years, to 1877.
I've lived in a neutral, "bipolar" state (Indiana) that sent troops to both Federal and Confederate armies and allowed both to ride the state's railroad as long as they could buy a ticket and kept the peace.
I've lived in the south - Alabama, Florida, and Texas.
And I've lived in the Intermountain West.
Believe me when I relate that there are some folks in the "real" south - rural Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, the Carolinas and Texas, and maybe a few in Kentucky and Tennessee, who firmly believe Damn Yankee is one word - damnyankee.
These are not necessarily Ku Kluxers and they are not necessarily racist, although probably many are the latter. Mostly they ae "states' righters," people who believe the less Federal interference in state-level issues the better.
The only time these folks gave rest to their ill-will toward the Federal powers was when the nation went to war - World Wars 1 and 2, Korea, Vietnam.
Only now, more than a century and a half after the end of hostilities and 133 years after the so-called reconstruction period ended are the hand-me-down hatreds of a defeated people beginning to be forgotten, let go.
A neighbor of mine who had been in World War 2 in the Pacific refused to buy a Japanese car for most of his adult life. I felt the same way about "Made in Germany" - regardless of the politically correct reparations paid to the few surviving Jews and others deemed unfit to live by the nazis. My neighbor and I both came to realize that the way cars are built today, parts come from all parts of the world, including Germany and Japan. As it happens, I drive a Korean made-from-Japanese-specifications car "assembled" in the U.S.
The point of all the above is to warn people not to expect "instant peace" no matter what transpires between Israel and the Moslem power-du-jour in Occupied Israel.
I am amazed, and grateful, that a relative peace exists on Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan; I consider Egypt's Muhammad Anwar El Sadat, whose plane I watched from my Holon balcony as it headed to Lod, a true hero. Jordan's King Hussein bin Talal was brave, but only followed Sadat's lead.
But even with the peace, there still is a great deal of mistrust. I hear - less and less in Israel - that "you don't trust an Arab even when he's in the ground." This from people who were born in Arab states, people who "know" the Arab/Moslem mentality.
However, when you see photos such as this one, where the slaughter of innocents is indoctrinated into very small children; where martyrdom is glorified before kindergarten boys and girls, you must realize that until this generation - the children of today - dies and the indoctrination stops, suicide murders, rocket attacks, and other outrages on Israeli citizens - Jews and non- Jews - will continue.
No "magic words" from world leaders will change the mindset of Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Quida, and the hundred other Islamic terror organizations that threaten both Israel and the rest of the world as well.
The politicians might shake hands and win "Peace" prizes that, based on recent past recipients have no real value, but the people, the children, will continue to learn not war but murder. It is not war to load a donkey with explosives and walk it into a crowd to blow up the animal and the people around it. It is not war to strap explosives on children and pregnant women and send them to blow themselves up "for Allah."
There are, of course, two sides to every coin. The people of Gaza will not welcome intercourse with Israelis with open arms, remembering not that they were used as shields by their brothers but that the Israelis had the gall, the chutzpah, to defend themselves by returning fire.
The Arabs in Occupied Israel also won't be happy with Israelis who built a fence that inconveniences them just because terrorists came into Israel from their territory.
The Lebanese will long remember Israel's incursion while forgetting why.
Eventually, most of the hatred will go away, but Hamas, Hezbollah, et al, are doing everything they can to assure it will linger long into the future.
I would like to think my grand-daughter will live in peace in Israel and that she can travel freely as her neighbors from the Arab states. I know it won't happen in my lifetime, but God willing, perhaps in hers.
Yohanon Glenn
Yohanon.Glenn at gmail dot com
