abraham & moses, israel & palestine

Abraham and Moses to blame for Gaza war
by Neal Cruz

The current war between Israeli and Palestinian forces in Gaza is but the latest flare-up in a conflict in that dates back to biblical days. In fact, it goes back to the patriarchs, to Abraham and Moses. It can be said that these two started all the trouble. Isn’t it ironic that the most troubled part of the world is the cradle of the world’s three great religions: Christianity, Islam, and the Jewish religion? Here is a tongue-in-cheek retelling of what happened:

If you remember Cecil B. de Mille’s opus (many people have seen the movie but have not read the Bible), Charlton Heston, or rather, Moses, led the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt, parted the sea and crossed it, wandered in the Sinai desert where he got sidetracked when God called him to the summit of Mt. Sinai and gave him the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. (That was the “Exodus.”)

Here, old Mr. Moses was probably already footsore from all the walking and preferred to stay behind. It was left to his lieutenant, Joshua, to lead the Israelites in search of the Promised Land. Even then promises were not being kept and the Israelites wandered for 400 years in the wilderness looking for that Promised Land.

Finally, the Jews got tired of wandering (hence, the term “wandering Jew”) and settled in Palestine. This would have been all right, except for one thing: the place was already settled by nomadic tribes now known as the Palestinians. If that were the Philippines, the Palestinians would be the originalsettlers, or owners, of the land, and the Israelites, the squatters. So there was constant warfare between the original settlers and the squatters, and this continues to this day. But then as now, the Israelites were better in warfare and soon subdued the scattered tribes.

They soon founded a kingdom, Israel, and had kings like Solomon who became legendary. Their vaunted savvy in war was no match for those of neighboring kingdoms, however. Worse, the Israelites could not get along with one another and soon the kingdom split into two. Thus weakened, they were soon easy prey for their neighbors. Israel was conquered and occupied by a succession of empires, and the Jews were dispersed all over the world, especially in Europe and New York in the United States where they call the shots in business and finance. All the time, the Jews longed to go back to their homeland, Israel.

In Europe, the Jews were so shrewd (remember Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice”?) that Hitler, in World War II, decided to eliminate their race by gathering them in concentration camps and making soaps, candles and lampshades of them. That was what is called “The Holocaust.”

After World War II, the clamor for the Jews to go back to their homeland became intense. The Jews resorted to terrorism to force Britain, which then occupied the Holy Land, to give back to them their homeland. Yes, the first terrorists were the Jews and among the first Israeli leaders were former terrorists. The present Palestinian terrorists learned the ropes from Israelis.

Finally, the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations, carved an area in Palestine as the homeland of the Jews. This is the present Israel.

Jews from all over the world immigrated to Israel. Naturally, the surrounding Islamic nations didn’t like this. As soon as Israel was inaugurated, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, etc. attacked the new nation but the Israelis proved once more that they were better in warfare and defeated the attackers in air and tank battles. That was the Six Day War.

There were other sporadic wars which the Israelis also won with their superior forces. The present war in Gaza is just the latest of these sporadic clashes.

So you see, Moses can be blamed for all the trouble now. If Moses and Joshua had not led the Israelites to Palestine and grabbed the land from the tribes already there (the Israelites were also the first land-grabbers and squatters), there would not have been any war now.

Let me go back farther to the first patriarch, Abraham, who is also to blame.

Abraham was married to Sarah, who could not beget him a child. So Sarah gave her maid, Hagar, to Abraham. Hagar bore him a son. But as usually happens, as soon as Abraham had a child by Hagar, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to her own son. And again as usually happens, the legal wife became jealous of Hagar and she demanded that Abraham cast Hagar and her son into the desert. Then as now, wives always had their way with their husbands, even if the husband happened to be a patriarch. So Abraham was forced to shoo Hagar and her son into the desert.

As mother and son wandered in the desert, dying of thirst, Hagar prayed to God to save the boy. God took pity on them. When the boy fell in exhaustion on the sand, a spring welled from under him. This saved mother and son from dying of thirst.

It is said that the Jews and the Muslims descended from the two sons of Abraham. The descendants of the two half-brothers have been fighting ever since.”

can obama?

president-elect barack obama’s promise of change-yes-we-can will be tested bigtime by the israel-palestine crisis the moment he steps into office.   will he, as pundits predict, go the way of bush and continue to support israel’s wars?  on matters where he agrees with bush, as on the economic stimulus package and the mumbai massacre, obama has spoken up.  but on israel’s invasion of the gaza strip he has pleaded one-president-at-a-time, no-comment, which could mean he disagrees with current policy.  silence is golden.   maybe.

obama’s deadly silence
brzezinski: obama must press agreement on israelis and palestinians
and there lie the bodies
the politics of the gaza massacre
gaza-gazing
in a nutshell: israeli palestinian conflict
light for nations: a short history of jews in the modern world
orthodox jews condemn zionist atrocities in gaza
top 5 lies about israel’s assault on gaza
trying to ‘teach hamas a lesson’ is fundamentally wrong
raising yousuf and noor: diary of a palestinian mother

trending 2009

here’s to a happy new year, even if things are likely to get worse before they get better.   and here’s good stuff i found on the web trending into 2009 by professional astrologer steven mcfadden. excerpts:

… the major planetary patterns that characterize the coming years: the recent entry of Pluto into the sign of Capricorn until the year 2024, and the ongoing, dynamic opposition of Saturn and Uranus for next two years…

The numbers of the year 2009 add up to an 11 – a Master Number year.  Master Numbers (11, 22, 33, etc.) are especially vibrant and intense.  When a Master Number characterizes a period of time, it’s understood that the general energy patterns of that period demand more of people, while also representing the potential to give more in return…

The numerological vibration of 2009 is a mirror, or equivalent, of…the basic vibrational signature symbolized by the Saturn-Uranus opposition (2008-2010).  As above, so below on our Earth: the opposition signals forceful encounters with reality and unavoidable demands;it also crackles with electric opportunities to go forward, creating new ways to live, to organize and to govern ourselves…

Big shift.  Big changes.  No road map.  But there are paths…

…a healthy goal to embrace for the year ahead is acceptance — acceptance of major changes and new situations.  We are well underway with an unavoidable process of re-defining our security, prosperity, consumption, power, and also corporate identity and function in the world.  That’s reality, and there is value in swiftly and gracefully accepting it.  Staying stuck in wishing that things would not change, being stubborn and resisting change, blaming others and refusing to forgive, will be problematic stances that function as obstacles to optimum adaptation.

…an effective way to work toward the goal of acceptance in the year ahead, is through observation.  While there may be no road map for the changes, a mode of observation would tend to restrainimpulsive or panicky behavior.  By observing what is happening, and then responding carefully and pragmatically to new conditions, what needs to be done gets done.

…a markedly emotional year, a human intensity that would be mirrored in substantial earth change and climate events, with a predominant theme of water (too much water as in the case of heavy rains and floods, too little water as in the case of shortages or drought, or ice shifts as in the case of Earth’s Poles).

…we haven’t seen anything yet.  Much more is to come.  [But] avoid latching on to that nugget of prophecy…for the year ahead also brings great opportunity.

…in 2009 we reach a tipping point for spiritual awakening and for dynamic, positive sustainable initiatives.  Critical mass approaching.

Saturn in opposition to Uranus unfolds five times, marking a span of time when the forces of change and revolution directly confront forces representing the status quo.  Uranus mandates change and innovation.  Saturn tends to resist it.  When these planetary Titans are in opposition, the clash is on…

In celestial collaboration with the long sojourn of Pluto through Capricorn (2008-2024), the Saturn-Uranus opposition symbolizes a foundational shift in consciousness over the globe, evolving most of us inexorably from ideological debates and risky, unsustainable economic behaviors, into a time characterized by an unavoidable need to respond to Earthly realities via pragmatism, restraint, and discipline.  The imminent questions revolve not around whose God, cosmology, or philosophy is right, but rather what works?  What puts shoes on your feet, a coat on your back, and a glass of clean water on your table?”

blog ‘n’ brawl

well, we are certainly getting a taste of blogger power.   for sure nayanig ang pangandamans, father and sons, by the virulence and volume of the blogging community’s outrage over the alleged mauling of the de la paz father and son, as witnessed and blogged by daughter bambee.

not surprisingly the brawl has spread out to the blogosphere where some commenters — admittedly few, but consistent and persistent — dare rain on the parade of the many who are on “people power” mode and screaming for the heads, so to speak, of the dar secretary and his mayor son.

blogger brianb, commenting on a post in filipino voices, calls it “unprincipled advocacy”, the way that blogger friends of, and friends of friends who sympathize with, the de la pazes are so quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Concerned citizens cannot keep doing this, running to the aid of persons who get victimized by politicians. There’s no progress in this sort of unprincipled advocacy. The blogosphere shouldn’t be used as an extension of your family connections and friendship networks… not that I forbid people but in my thinking this can be a more powerful medium, something that will actually change policies and attitudes.

When the politicos were going after the poor, their lands and their rights, what did themiddle class do? Nothing. When the politicos went after the press, what did the middle class do? Nothing. Now they are starting to come at you and your previous apathy has made you as weak as (a) puking baby.”

oo nga naman.   besides, as he suggests in another comment, we still have to hear the side of the pangandamans.   not that he condones, nor do i, the violence allegedly perpetrated on the de la paz father and son, but he does question, as do i, the rush to judgement (as usual) before we get the whole story.

… I think the case is based on a few omissions of facts and rallying behind this ON A PERSONAL level is a total waste of our time. I doubt if the politicos were totally unprovoked and GMA reports there were a couple of older sons who went to aid the family with baseball bats, which is why the guns were pulled out. Moreover, a few brave souls may be bullied to take this to the next level, but then what? Will these bloggers go public with it? After the first bluster, wala na. Maybe they finally realized who they’re dealing with. So I don’t think you can trust these people who are very vocal now to commit.

My take is very simple: public servants with armed bodyguards should not physically engage the public. This is the larger ethical arc, of which this case should’ve been a good example.”

interesting though how personal blog(ger)s turned political just like that.   too bad it’s not sustainable.   yet.