I admit that I can never see the world through an Israeli eye, and more, not through the world that supports it. It is another naïve perspective of mine into how I see the world. Somehow we grow up within norms that feed us strongly with what is right what is wrong. What is just what is not? And somewhere, we never grow out of this.
I cannot but agree that we Palestinians, by all means, must be the most natural population on earth. What happened to us and continue to happen to us is just a continuous proof.
But then I try to see what the world sees in Israel vs. us. When Israel requests two billion dollars increase in annual military US aid, I think, what do these people see? I mean the Americans now. How do they succeed to convince their people that Israel needs all this to defend itself? Is there anyone in this world who is not seeing what is going on? All this money spent on equipping Israel against young children who are just carrying stones, and someone who is maybe hiding a kitchen knife. Is this sense of sense lost from the world? If Israel prepares fireworks against Palestinians, it can still be victories. If they only use Molotov, they will end this war against Palestinian youth in less time. This entire armory against unarmed children. How can the world not see it, and yet, blind them and enjoy being convinced that Israel is the victim?
With all this money invested in the war against Israel, Israel can provide Palestinians with better lives rather than building an infrastructure of humiliation and discrimination.
These funds can transform killing into a living, instead of this perpetual terror state of affair.
Palestinians are turning their lives into a final destination-killing machine to tell the world that oppression; discrimination and injustice cannot breed life… only death.
The calculation of the Palestinians against Israel is simple. It is a fight for some dignity that is still not stripped away.
Israel has created a collective sense within every single Palestinian that what he witnesses are coming to him next. The terror Israel is deliberately imposing on us is so close. It is there on the street. It can happen any moment at any time. No one is exempted.
Transforming a nation into slaves cannot persist. Cannot be implemented no matter how successful you may think you are. Building Nations on discrimination cannot be peaceful. It is true that Israel and the United States and the West, in general, may be an outcome of the same mentality of colonialism. I can understand why in the United States Israel is nothing but a reflection of their own. After all. The US has been built on the living and killed corpses of the Indians and their lands. The slavery of the Black people is still producing itself into classes of the good and the less good.
After decades of being naïve, and still am. I came to a full realization that the world is run by the brokers of wars who need to make sure that the arms industry remains in business. But somewhere, where are the people in all this. All those scenes of Israeli army not just brutally but seriously stupidly attack children less than five years old. What does the American think when his country is supplying a troop of soldiers fully armed with those collections of deadly weapons to catch a boy who is three? When a military jeep rams into a Palestinian who is less than fifteen because he is throwing a stone. When at least ten soldiers surround a Palestinian passerby and harass him with their weapons and strip him in public because being a Palestinian is an attempted threat.
The escalation of the current wave of Israeli terror against Palestinians is not coincidental. The way they harass people in the streets is only an intended organized tactic to provoke people into death. The scenes on the streets of Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestinian cities is so discriminative; it makes blood flush to the head of any sensible person.
And yet,
The whole world is applauding for the Israeli government and its psychopathic army that makes its fame on killing children and youth.
We do live in a sinful world under a mirage of a world peace that is orchestrated by the masters of war.
No, the whole world is NOT applauding Israel. It’s just that our voices, just as the Palestinians are not heard. I know this ongoing injustice and terror seems unending. But it will end. Look at black people in the USA. Although some have become part of the American dream, many millions are still the hidden, neglected, poor – continuing to be murdered and imprisoned by police and other authorities. It took over 400 years for the institution of slavery to end, but it did. It will probably take another 100 years for this cycle of racism and bigotry to be transformed. I do not think it will take 400 years for injustice to end in Palestine. When the rabbis and the imams decide to stand together and say, we are children and worshipers of the same creator. We should not allow ourselves to be the pawns of power hungry, bigoted, and fearful politicians and generals. Then, change will be accelerated.
you r right … it is still a long way i think. but rabbis and imams are part of this political power game. the solution is not in their hands. there is a problem with people’s awareness that is limited or even restricted. until that moment comes ,change is far .
We in the west know too little of the history of the Middle East. A large part of the Christian evangelical community see it as their duty to be a friend of Israel because they think they are commanded to do so in the Old Testament. It really wasn’t until after 1830 that Christian evangelicalism could be compatible with the rise of Zionism in the late 1800s. The rise of the Christian doctrine of dispensationalism was how some Christians came to see that God’s prophecies to the nation of Israel were going to come true and the nation of Israel was going to be restored. Throughout much of Christian history, however, Christians followed the words of Jesus and the writings of the New Testament. It is true that God called a special group of people Israel. The term means “people of God.” Yet, it is clear, in the OT, God called Abraham to be the father of many nations, not just one. The context was that God was going to bless all nations through the seed of Abraham. That seed was Jesus Christ. To make it clear that inheritance would not come through physical descendency, Abraham had a son, Ishmael, but it is clear that Ishmael wasn’t the son of the promise and wasn’t the son through whom God would bless all nations. Isaac was the promised heir. Isaac came through faith. He is the one born to a woman who apparently could bear no children without God’s intervention. Jesus himself put no emphasis on the rebuilding of a physical temple. He is the temple. He is prophet, priest, and king. He made it clear that the blood of bulls and goats is no longer a sufficient atonement for sin. Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice for sin. The NT book of Hebrews clearly teaches that Jesus is the better sacrifice. Further, because he is a better high priest, believers in Jesus Christ no longer need a high priest to intercede for them. Jesus is that intermediary. That has been the historical position of the Church. Who are God’s called out people? Jesus makes it clear. It is all of those who have been called out by God, from every tribe, tongue, and nation, to be God’s own special people. As the NT says, there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free. Those who have been called by God and who can agree with the scriptures as they have been distilled in the Nicene Creed are the people of God. Therefore, it makes no sense for Christians to hope in the restoration of a the Jewish religion, its temple, or any of its worship forms. Jesus Christ is our high priest and our intercessor. Zionism is a relatively recent invention in the history of mankind. It doesn’t not have long historical roots.
Unfortunately, Israel exists today because of a promise made to the Zionists in the early 20th century, before most of the people today were even born. Israel was turned over to the Zionists at the close of WWII. We were made to believe that the restoration of the nation of Israel was the fulfillment of OT prophecy. The church was led to believe that the restoration of the nation of Israel is part of end time prophecy. It was considered a homeland for the dispersed Jews around the world. Yet, if you will read the prophecy they rely upon in II Chronicles 7:14, you will not see that the people calling themselves Jews today have heeded that prophecy. Following the Babylonian captivity, God let a remnant of the Jews return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. However, many of those who were exiled to Babylon married foreign women and became part of the Bablylonian culture. They had Jewish blood but, they were not worthy to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The second temple was destroyed and a third temple was built, not by the true Jews, but by the Herodians. Herod was not of the line of David, although he was called King. Israel had departed from the law of God it claimed to follow. If you read all of II Chronicles 7, you will read where God told Israel that if it ever departed from following him, the temple would become a byword among the nations. Today, only vestiges of the temple remain. God fulfilled the promise. To make the exclamation point, he sent Jesus Christ. God himself took on the form of human flesh, losing none of his Deity. God did what sinful flesh could not do. By taking on flesh and being sacrificed, he condemned sin in the flesh. This is a message for all people, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist. It is a call to put aside your traditions and embrace the message of Jesus Christ. He is our Emmanuel (God with us). He is our Peace.