Every time I hear a news report coming out of the Middle East about disputes bewteen Israelis and Arabs, Jews and Muslims, I can not help but feel three things:
1. Grief that families are constantly destroyed needlessly. Brothers, Sisters, Fathers, Mothers, Uncles, Aunts, Friends, Families, communities, cities & Nations ripped apart stupidly.
2. Disappointment that neither side can be bothered to read their own scripture.
3. Utter contempt that all we seem to have is a case of two lots of muderous bastards who continue to hack each other up for no damn good reason.
Consider the following from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7952603.stm
"All the articles had one clear message," one soldier said. "We are the people of Israel, we arrived in the country almost by miracle, now we need to fight to uproot the gentiles who interfere with re-conquering the Holy Land. Many soldiers' feelings were that this was a war of religion."
Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that the findings would be examined seriously.
"I still say we have the most moral army in the world. Of course there may be exceptions but I have absolutely no doubt this will be inspected on a case-by-case basis,"
Most Moral Army in the world? No. NO, NO, NO! and NO!!!
You are not moral, you are a murderer pure and simple. About the only true statement in all of this is the following: Many soldiers' feelings were that this was a war of religion. Correct - this is a war of religion, or rather a failure of people to adhere to it.
The Arabic world holds that the Jews "stole" the land off of them in 1948 with the creation on the modern state of Israel. This in itself ignores the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which stated:
"His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people with the understanding that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
In other words, Arthur James Balfour after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire recognised two important things:
1. The Jews had a right to their homeland.
2. That all people living in the country should be afforded the same political and civil rights.
What should make this really quite sound according to both Jews and Muslims is recorded for us in the Pentateuch:
God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.
And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."
- Genesis 35:10-12
With this land eventually came social responsibility:
Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.
- Exodus 22:21
The two principles are that the Jews owned the land, and that aliens were not to be suppressed. I must admit that at this point I could be accused of being anti-Muslim, but if Islamic people were to look into the Qu'ran, they find that not only is Moses (who was the author of the Pentateuch) one of the Ulul Azmi and therefore of the five highest prophets in Islam, but that the teachings of the Ulul Azmi are binding on all Muslims; furthermore, of all the prophets actually mentioned in the Qu'ran, Moses and his life are mentioned more than any other prophet.
As for the Jews themselves, how can they justify racism in the name of a "moral" cause? This is the same thing that we saw in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it's the same thing at work when Paul rebuked Peter in Antioch (Acts 15 and later mentioned in Galatians 2), it's also probably the underlying cause as to why Jonah refused to go to Nineveh who was actually displeased when the people of that city repented.
God himself said to Moses in Exodus 32: I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. You can almost imagine God hissing in frustration.
It seems to me that when both sides want to hack each other to bits, then I can't find sympathy for either of them. I'll even go so far as to accuse the Semites themselves as being the most Anti-Semitic people on earth.
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