Friday, March 22, 2024

The Real history of the Middle East Conflict

We know that the truth is the first casualty of war and that both sides of any conflict try to rewrite history so let's look at the real history of the Middle East conflict. Let's start with Andrew Loyd Weber's Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat. Jacob had 12 sons so he did. Joseph was one of those sons. The musical talks about Joseph's coat of many colors.

Joseph was Jacob's favorite son and to show it he gave him a special bright coat of many colors. Now this famous biblical story is a prime example of bad parenting. No disrespect. Parents are supposed to love their children equally. As soon as you start playing favorites that creates problems as did this. Joseph's brothers became very jealous of Joseph and sold him to become a slave in Egypt. Then they lied to their father and said he had been killed by wild animals.

It's a fun and dramatic tale so it is but that's as far as I want to go with it at this time. Jacob had 12 sons. Joseph was one of those sons. Judah was another. Jacob gave each of his 12 sons a blessing. It said the scepter shall not depart from Judah. David was of the tribe of Judah. The descendants of Levi held the priesthood by birthright. Aaron was of the tribe of Levi as was John the Baptist. Joseph was to become a fruitful bow. His descendants would be many.

The Kingdom of Israel was eventually split in two. "The Kingdom of Israel was united during the reign of King Saul, King David and King Solomon and became divided at the death of King Solomon. It was split into Kingdom of Israel in the North and Kingdom of Judah in the South."

The Bible talks about the scattering and gathering of Israel based on their obedience and disobedience. Before Jerusalem was destroyed Israel was divided in two. The Kingdom of Judah was simply one tribe. The rest of the tribes became lost or hidden. As you can see Gaza wasn't owned by Israel. Hence the story of David and Goliath. The reason I tell this story is to illustrate the problematic nature of playing favorites. Israel in it's current form are mostly descendants of Judah. That's only one tribe out of 12. Judah wasn't Jacob's favorite son. Joseph was.

How does that make you feel? The Palestinians are also children of Abraham. Abraham had two sons, Issac and Ishmael. The Palestinians are descendants of Ishmael. Jacob was Isaac's son. When Joshua conquered Canaan, there were some parts he was commanded not to go.

Foreseeing this time, Moses commanded Israel to vex not the stranger nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Yeah we can see how they have broken that commandment. Perhaps it was cruel and unusual punishment for God not to give Israel all the land of Canaan or perhaps it was the wisdom of a father who loves all of his children. Including the children of Ishmael. After all, God is not a respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Actions speak louder than words. God can take of these stones and raise up children of Abraham. Our actions determine who we serve. If our actions are evil then we become a child of the Devil regardless of who our parents were.



Moses was very clear that God was not giving Israel the land because of their righteousness but because of the wickedness of the former inhabitants. "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people." In Exodus 9 Moses recounts Israel's disobedience.

Now the Palestinians also have a historic claim on that land. It's just that they don't have an exclusive claim on that land. Neither party does. It's like a custody dispute in a divorce only we're not talking about kids we're talking about land. God wants his children to share. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins that will destroy our souls. Yatsik Rabin understood this. Netanyahoo does not. Netanyahoo calls himself King of Israel. Oh really? Melchizedek was the King of Jerusalem. Netanyahoo is no Melchizedek. Netanyahoo is a cheap whore. History has recorded that.

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