Some pretty conflicting and sensational headlines in the news concerning Gaza and Israel. The most recent violence seems to revolve around the fact that the Americans moved their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the 70th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel. This insanity is so toxic I hesitate to comment yet the absurdity of it all compelss me.
First the obvious. If the Americans want to move their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Haifa or Tuktoyaktuk, who cares? No really, who cares where they put their embassy? It just doesn't matter. Logically they will also put the US embassy for the Palestinian authority in Jerusalem as well. Everyone is freaking out over the declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Who cares? No really. Who cares? Palestinians in Israel now have passports. They are residents of the Palestinian National Authority. This is progress.
The Old City of Jerusalem is divided into four quarters, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian. There is no reason the City of Jerusalem can't be the capital of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority as well. It actually makes sense since both parties consider the city holy.
I also want to be clear that Palestinians are not the original inhabitants of Gaza. The Philistines are. They were conquered by Egypt under Ramses. The current residents of Gaza are the most politically extreme and have the least hereditary claim to the land. Israel doens't want Gaza. They just want Gaza to leave them alone which has proven to be very problematic.
Yesterday Gaza hosted a violent protest and stormed the border with Israel. Israel fired on the mob that was storming their land. In Belfast they used to refer to Russia as Big Brother. As I have said before, Big Brother isn't always right but Big Brother isn't always wrong either. Likewise with Israel. Israel is not always right but they are not always wrong either. The Jews have a historical and hereditary claim on part of Palestine. They just don't have an exclusive right to it which makes peace in the city of peace very problematic indeed.
As Ramadan begins it is important for us to all respect religious and cultural diversity. God is not a respecter of persons. How we treat each other is more important that what he profess to believe. Actions always speak louder than words. Hypocrisy always smells bad.
Last week my neighbor's sister in law was sitting outside holding what looked like a rosary. I pointed to the beads and said what is that? She held it up for me to see and again I said what is that? She proceeded to take each bead one at a time and say something in Arabic and then said Allah and pointed up and said for my benefit "God". It was just like a rosy.
I was shocked and kept saying, this is Arabic? This is Muslim? She kept nodding and said yes. She said she got it at Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I was fascinated. I had no idea two very different cultures could possibly be so similar. As I've previously mentioned my neighbors are Muslims from Syria. They are wonderful. Their children are adorable. Diversity makes us strong.
Ramadan Mubarak.
The violence and predictable casualties at the border in the last 48-72 hrs can be laid almost exclusively at the feet of Hamas in their struggle to remain relevant. Hamas was telling Gaza'ns that the fence/wall had already been breached and that thousands of Palestinians were streaming into Israel proper. ("Y'all come on down, bring your bombs and stuff.") Surprise, not. Gunfire awaits, and rightly so.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, the Palestinians hear what they want to, and only the most naive here in the west believe any Palestinians who say they just want peace with Israel. As one I used to work with once said, "Arafat has taught us that we must say this, but someday we will kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea." Arafat himself said one thing in English and something diametrically different in speeches made in Arabic.
You are correct about the Palestinians and one of the few people that I've ever heard correctly point out that the Palestinians are not the original inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank. "Palestinians" is a made up term to try and imbue the issue with faux legitimacy, "Palestinians" are in fact ethnically Jordanian Arabs. The dirty little secret is that Jordan wants nothing to do with them. Proof? Jordan could have resettled all these folks in Jordan years ago. But that doesn't advance the political goal of eliminating Israel and the Jewish people. Plus the real Jordanians don't think much of the "Palestinians" and don't want hundred of thousands of people they view as "low class" (shocker I know, Arab unity a myth? LOL.) in their country, where the Jordanian monarchy has for decades been a target of "Arab revolutionaries".
I said Gaza not West Bank. West bank is definitely under dispute and Israel is guilty of committing atrocities against it's neighbors contrary to the commandments:
Deletehttps://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A33-34&version=KJV
You did indeed, it's just that when it comes to rockets of all types from factory built/smuggled to homemade being fired into Israel, both are equal in my eye....I think it makes little difference to a Jew killed by one which of the two locations it came from.
ReplyDeleteOn camera interviews of Palestinians at the fence in the last couple days ("why are you here, what would you do if you got through the border") put the lie to what a lot of the apologists say..."Invade Israel, attack Jews with knives and vehicles". Shocker I know....
The thing that that actually surprises me most about the last few days is how low the fatality rate from Israeli defensive gunfire among the "demonstrators".....(when you bring explosive devices, it's not a demonstration) it's almost like the Israeli's are actually shooting to wound rather than kill...lots of lower extremity hits as opposed to torso. That's got to be deliberate, and if so, would seem to show a certain degree of restraint. Just a guess on my part at this point though.