One of the nice things about Saturday morning is listening to the National Public Radio. Scott Simon is the Saturday host and I like him a lot. He touches on the news but cuts away to special interest stories that nobody has time for during the week. But for the last few weeks those stories all seem to have roots in the war between Israel and Hamas. I am not an expert on that squabble but it has been brewing since long before Islam was hatched. Then, that chunk of the Mediterranean coastline was peopled by both Hebrews and by Gentiles (everybody else, not a Jew). They all ushered from the same gene pool. Abraham was the prototype Jew, who all Jews (I would think) consider their patriarch. We need a timeline here. Hebrews (Jews) trace back thousands of years to Abraham. At the time, if you compare him to modern day leaders he was likely a prototype tyrant too, like Saddam Hussein. From his loins (Abraham’s) rose the Hebrew nation, Israel.
Jesus came along after that in the 1st century CE and Christianity was adopted as the official Roman religion roughly 400 years later. Some 200 years after Rome went Christian, Mohammed, a well healed, widely traveled camel jockey paid particular attention to how Jews and Christians went about their business and determined, there has to be a better way. He came up with the Quran to clarify, correct and update both the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible and voila! Islam!
Understand, Abraham’s wife (Sarah) was the mother of Jewish backstory long before either Christianity or Islam existed. She and Abraham’s offspring were the seeds for modern day Israel. But she had an Egyptian (Gentile) slave girl named Hagar who couldn’t very well tell Abraham (Not tonight!) when he crawled into bed with her. She bore him a son, Ishmael who was generally dismissed as an unauthorized dead end. It sets up the dichotomy of two competing heirs for the one blessing. Half brothers, Isaac and Ishmael; think Arnold Schwarzenegger and his unauthorized progeny with their Latina house keeper. All of this while Arnold was married to and had authorized children with Maria Shriver (a royal princess of the Kennedy dynasty). Arnold took responsibility and protected his half Latino hatchling but that child will never, ever eat at the same table with a Kennedy. Within Abraham’s gene pool the fact that Ishmael existed at all provoked bad blood, animosity and violence. Before Mohammed ever climbed up on a camel's back, Jews and their neighbors were in conflict. Today’s Israel - Hamas killing spree is the current round of a protracted hostility that began with Isaac’s people at odds with Ishmael’s descendants. Like Saddam Hussein, I don’t think Abraham really cared about anything but himself.
I’m sure a legitimate scholar would knit pick my argument to pieces but I think it meets my intention. It adequately sets the scene. Who is the rightful heir to that arid strip of Mediterranean coastline? As a young man my dad dismissed their rivalry. “It’s in their blood.” He said. “ They’ve been killing each over a contested birth right since before the wheel was invented and they can’t help themselves.” The rise of Islam created a platform from which the sons of Ishmael would organize and strike back.” That’s what my dad said in the 1940’s and so far he’s been spot on the money.
Israel (Jews) across the board were already scattered around the world without a homeland when they were suffered the holocaust. Hitler and his 3rd Reich disposed of nearly 7 million Jews killed outright or disappeared without a trace under Adolph’s reign. It wasn’t bad enough they had been banished, a race of people robbed of their lands and displaced to foreign soil where they were generally resented and persecuted. Hitler wanted them dead, all of them. Hitler is gone but now other Muslim nations support Palestinians who were likewise disenfranchised when the United Nations propped restored Israel. Palestinians were to keep some of the adjacent lands but the restored Jewish nation has been unabashedly reclaiming and resettling areas that were not in the agreement. Palestinians have been squeezed into smaller and smaller plots of less and less desirable land on the premiss that not only is it it God’s will but also it is payback time.
Hamas is the military arm of a people who, as I see it, are allowed to live there with no rights and no credible representation, subordinated to powerful muslim warlords who defend as well as exploit a captive population. It is reminiscent of the ghettos and slums Jews occupied during the holocaust. Hamas proudly asserts their purpose is to destroy Israel. Israel calls Hamas a terrorist organization and calls on free nations to help them destroy Hamas. Someone, lots of someones with guns and rockets believe that revenge is a righteous cause and an eye for an eye is the only solution.
There are many, many, millions more good people caught up in that greedy boil of ego and deceit; and I trust, if they (the good people) had authority this evil vendetta would be resolved in a just, peaceful solution. But they don’t. MLK Jr. told us; “Injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.” How can I presume to weight in on Jewish hegemony or Palestinian resistance? American bigots murdered Dr. King and are still killing people of color because white authorities can’t tell telephones from handguns or when blacks run when told to stop. We have our own slums and ghettos where poverty and crime feed on a smug, pious, condescending culture. But it sounds like I am starting to preach and I never want to do that. My dad would say, “It’s in their blood.” I remember writing recently; There are no good guys, there are no bad guys, only ambitious, blood thirsty, sanctimonious bedfellows. I hate it when I do this but venting helps get it out of my system.
Jesus came along after that in the 1st century CE and Christianity was adopted as the official Roman religion roughly 400 years later. Some 200 years after Rome went Christian, Mohammed, a well healed, widely traveled camel jockey paid particular attention to how Jews and Christians went about their business and determined, there has to be a better way. He came up with the Quran to clarify, correct and update both the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible and voila! Islam!
Understand, Abraham’s wife (Sarah) was the mother of Jewish backstory long before either Christianity or Islam existed. She and Abraham’s offspring were the seeds for modern day Israel. But she had an Egyptian (Gentile) slave girl named Hagar who couldn’t very well tell Abraham (Not tonight!) when he crawled into bed with her. She bore him a son, Ishmael who was generally dismissed as an unauthorized dead end. It sets up the dichotomy of two competing heirs for the one blessing. Half brothers, Isaac and Ishmael; think Arnold Schwarzenegger and his unauthorized progeny with their Latina house keeper. All of this while Arnold was married to and had authorized children with Maria Shriver (a royal princess of the Kennedy dynasty). Arnold took responsibility and protected his half Latino hatchling but that child will never, ever eat at the same table with a Kennedy. Within Abraham’s gene pool the fact that Ishmael existed at all provoked bad blood, animosity and violence. Before Mohammed ever climbed up on a camel's back, Jews and their neighbors were in conflict. Today’s Israel - Hamas killing spree is the current round of a protracted hostility that began with Isaac’s people at odds with Ishmael’s descendants. Like Saddam Hussein, I don’t think Abraham really cared about anything but himself.
I’m sure a legitimate scholar would knit pick my argument to pieces but I think it meets my intention. It adequately sets the scene. Who is the rightful heir to that arid strip of Mediterranean coastline? As a young man my dad dismissed their rivalry. “It’s in their blood.” He said. “ They’ve been killing each over a contested birth right since before the wheel was invented and they can’t help themselves.” The rise of Islam created a platform from which the sons of Ishmael would organize and strike back.” That’s what my dad said in the 1940’s and so far he’s been spot on the money.
Israel (Jews) across the board were already scattered around the world without a homeland when they were suffered the holocaust. Hitler and his 3rd Reich disposed of nearly 7 million Jews killed outright or disappeared without a trace under Adolph’s reign. It wasn’t bad enough they had been banished, a race of people robbed of their lands and displaced to foreign soil where they were generally resented and persecuted. Hitler wanted them dead, all of them. Hitler is gone but now other Muslim nations support Palestinians who were likewise disenfranchised when the United Nations propped restored Israel. Palestinians were to keep some of the adjacent lands but the restored Jewish nation has been unabashedly reclaiming and resettling areas that were not in the agreement. Palestinians have been squeezed into smaller and smaller plots of less and less desirable land on the premiss that not only is it it God’s will but also it is payback time.
Hamas is the military arm of a people who, as I see it, are allowed to live there with no rights and no credible representation, subordinated to powerful muslim warlords who defend as well as exploit a captive population. It is reminiscent of the ghettos and slums Jews occupied during the holocaust. Hamas proudly asserts their purpose is to destroy Israel. Israel calls Hamas a terrorist organization and calls on free nations to help them destroy Hamas. Someone, lots of someones with guns and rockets believe that revenge is a righteous cause and an eye for an eye is the only solution.
There are many, many, millions more good people caught up in that greedy boil of ego and deceit; and I trust, if they (the good people) had authority this evil vendetta would be resolved in a just, peaceful solution. But they don’t. MLK Jr. told us; “Injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.” How can I presume to weight in on Jewish hegemony or Palestinian resistance? American bigots murdered Dr. King and are still killing people of color because white authorities can’t tell telephones from handguns or when blacks run when told to stop. We have our own slums and ghettos where poverty and crime feed on a smug, pious, condescending culture. But it sounds like I am starting to preach and I never want to do that. My dad would say, “It’s in their blood.” I remember writing recently; There are no good guys, there are no bad guys, only ambitious, blood thirsty, sanctimonious bedfellows. I hate it when I do this but venting helps get it out of my system.
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