The headmaster of a Palestinian high school in the West Bank has been reprimanded by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

What was his offense? During a field trip to Israel, some of his 11th and 12th graders met some Israeli young people on the beach in Jaffa--and a spontaneous party broke out!

Yes, the Israeli young folks and the Palestinian young folks evidently hit it off immediately and before long, they were dancing together--to the beat of an Israeli DJ--right there on the beach. Horror of horrors!

Behaviors for Palestinian young people that are sanctioned by their elders:

• Throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers
• Blowing themselves up at Israeli checkpoints
• Idolizing suicide bombers like they were rock stars
• Believing that Jewish people are sub-human

But dancing with the Israelis? We can't have that, can we?

Someone in the Palestinian entourage didn't like what was happening that day on the beach so they sent a video and still-shots of the goings-on to the Palestinian authorities.

The young principal, Mohammad Abu Samra, was soon thereafter relieved of his duties at the school. His offense was allowing conduct that implied the "normalization of ties with Israel," and exposing young Palestinians to the "illicit" Israeli culture.

This goes to the point that anti-Israelism is so deeply engrained in Palestinian culture, it makes a civil and respectful coexistence virtually impossible. Even when a little sliver of the light of normalization breaks through, the Palestinian "powers that be" move quickly and forcefully to extinguish it.

It's just one more reason why (and forgive me here for sounding like a broken record) the so-called "two-state solution" won't work. "Palestine" and Israel will never be friendly neighbors. As long as the "powers that be" have their way, there will always be antagonism.

The upside to all of this, of course, is that a higher power is on the way. The Apostle John gives us this glimpse of Yeshua the Messiah when He returns to this world in power and glory:

And He has on [His] robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev. 19:16).

In the meantime, while we await the arrival of the Messiah, we continue our quest for Mideast peace, which we believe comes one heart and one life at a time. Pray for our personnel in Israel, several of whom minister at times in the Palestinian territories. It's exciting to read their reports describing the reconciliation that's taking place between Arab and Jewish believers in the Land!

This is the ingredient that the Quartet, and everyone else, has missed: peace can only come through the Prince of Peace, Yeshua, who has the power to change the hearts of the inhabitants of the Middle East.

Here's the story from the Feb. 6, 2013 edition of The Times of Israel (www.timesofisrael.com):

A Palestinian principal was punished over a spontaneous beach party that emerged during a field trip in Israel. The school head lost his job, and was reassigned to a different West Bank school.

Mohammad Abu Samra, 33, says he landed in hot water when video and images of his pupils dancing on a beach in Jaffa with bikini-clad women and Israeli beachgoers were sent to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

The incident took place at the close of the Qalqilya Al Salam Secondary School’s 11th- and 12th-grade field trip to Jaffa beach led by Abu Samra, reportedly the youngest principal in the history of the Palestinian Authority, according to the Dubai-based Al Nisr Gulf News.

According to Abu Samra, an Israeli DJ began setting up on the beach as he attempted to load the buses to leave before their day permits expired.

“My pupils started dancing, and I also joined them at the beginning to let them have fun,” Abu Samra told the news agency.

“Volunteers shot a video and took a couple of still photos and forwarded them to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, with a complaint that the incident would imply that there was normalization of ties with Israel and it exposed the young generation of Palestinians to Israel’s illicit code of conduct,” he added.

Abu Samra was reassigned to a school about 30 miles away. Students reportedly have protested the education ministry’s actions.