GALILEE FLOWERS
amigocabal
Japan, the astonished sailors could not believe their eyes: on a warm spring
day, the tropical island ahoy was buried under snow. They were witness to one
of the real Seven Wonders of the World, the flowers of sakura, the wild cherry
of Japan. As soon as the benevolent heaven bestows this seasonal gift to earth,
the Japanese forget their wives and kids, their duties, employers and bills;
they just sit under the trees, drink sake wine and write poems, short and sharp
as swords.
That is why, these days, leaving behind our man-made troubles, I sit under the
white cloud of a tree and watch the beautiful white and pink blossoms of almond
trees covering the hills of Galilee. These lovely blossoms are our version of
the Japanese sakura, and a chance to indulge in the custom of flower viewing. A
honey aroma wafts through the air; the skies are crystal blue. Yellow daisies
dance on the lush green grass at the base of these almond wonders, interspersed
by violet cyclamen and red anemones. The glorious backdrop is provided by the
huge snow mass of Jebel al Sheikh (Mt Hermon). Palestine is a sister to Japan.
These two hilly lands are home to stubborn mountain folk, devoted to their
customs and ways.
For all the similarities in the landscape, there are differences. The hill we
sit on, all white like Jaffa sea surf, is the ruin of a village. If we were in
Japan, it would be alive and humming. The village of Birim has been dead for
fifty years. It is beautiful even in death, like Ophelia floating down the
stream in the pre-Raphaelite painting of Millais.
It was not ruined by war. Its Christian inhabitants were expelled from their
houses well after the 1948 war. They were told to leave for a week or two, for
"security" reasons. They had no option but to believe the Israeli officers and
move out. Their village was dynamited, their church surrounded by barbed wire.
They went to Israeli court, they went to the government, commissions were
appointed and petitions signed. Nothing helped. Ever since, for 50 years, they
have lived in the nearby villages and on Sundays they continue to visit their
church. Their lands were seized by their Jewish neighbors, but they still bring
their dead to be buried in the church graveyard, under the sign of the cross.
Until the arrival of the Israeli army, this ruined village with its orphaned
church was the home of the rural Christians of Birim who, for centuries of
Moslem rule, lived in peace with their Moslem neighbors of Nebi Yosha and with
the old Sephardi Jewish community of nearby Safed. This little Guernica in the
Galillee can single-handedly undermine the myth of a "Judeo-Christian"
civilization opposing a "monstrous" Islam. This myth lays at the foundation of
the Christian Zionist movement; among its fervent supporters, one can find a
friend of Mark Rich and a newly minted New York citizen, William J. Clinton.
The problems of the Middle East are ugly enough without the current
Moslem-bashing. The pro-Israeli pundits of the New York Times quote the
blood-curling verses on Jihad, retell the old traditions of religious wars and
persecutions, to "prove" Islam's cruelty and intolerance. They are repeated by
a pleasant upper-class Jewish lady from London, Barbra Amiel.
In a sotto voce, she writes about "exclusivist" Islam and Jewish "moderation".
In order to incite hatred, the Israeli lobby works all the ropes. Before the
rise of Israel, Arab sheiks were depicted as romantic heroes in movies acted by
Rudolf Valentino. Nowadays, the pro-Israel producers of Hollywood turn out
propaganda films on ill-shaven Moslem terrorists with the subtlety of Edward D.
Wood, Jr. This new prejudice is amplified a hundredfold by the Christian
Zionist Congress, claiming "protection for Christians of Palestine from the
Moslem persecution" (?!).
These people obviously have not walked among the ruins of Birim.
Another email comes into my laptop, this time from Gaza. An American girl,
Alison Weir from San Francisco evades Israeli bullets, comforts the scared
Palestinian kids, and writes: "The problem is when you know the truth, it is
far too cruel, far too diametrically opposite what we used to think and what
everyone still thinks to express. The lie is too big, the repression too
complete, the Palestinians' lives too horrible to write about reasonably."
Well, Alison is right. We face a huge lie, an anti-Moslem blood libel, and it
is time to stop it. I do not think that the problems of Middle East have
anything to do with religion. But if the supporters of Israel want to wake up
the sleeping ghost of religious intolerance, to incite Christians against
Moslems, let us audit their balance.
If these Christian Zionists care for Christ, not only for Zion, let them learn
what Jews and Moslems feel towards Christ. Rami Rozen expressed the Jewish
tradition in a long feature in a major Israeli newspaper Haaretz[i]: "Jews feel
towards Jesus today what they felt in 4 th century or in the Middle Ages:
..."For centuries, Jews concealed from Christians their hate to(ward) Jesus,
and this tradition continues even now."
"He (Jesus) is revolting and repulsive", said an important modern religious
Jewish thinker. Rozen writes that this "repulsion passed from the observant
Jews to the general Israeli public".
On Christmas Eve, according to a report in the Jerusalem local paper, Kol
Ha-Ir, Hasidic Jews customarily do not read holy books, as it could save Jesus
from eternal punishment [the Talmud teaches that Jesus boils in hell]). This
custom was dying out, but Hasids of Chabad (Lubavitch), the fervent
nationalists, brought it back to life. I still remember old Jews spitting while
passing by a church, and cursing the dead, while passing by a Christian
cemetery. Last year in Jerusalem, a Jew decided to refresh the tradition. He
spat at the Holy Cross, carried in the procession along the city. Police saved
him from further trouble, but the court fined him $50, despite his claim that
he just fulfilled his religious duty.
Last year, the biggest Israeli tabloid Yedioth Aharonoth reprinted in its
library the Jewish anti-Gospel, Toledoth Eshu, compiled in the Middle Ages. It
is the third recent reprint, including one in a newspaper. If the Gospel is the
book of love, Toledoth is the book of hate for Christ. The hero of the book is
Judas. He captures Jesus by polluting his purity. According to Toledoth, the
conception of Christ was in sin, the miracles of Jesus were witchcraft, his
resurrection but a trick.
Joseph Dan, a Professor of Jewish mysticism in Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
writing on the death of Jesus stated: "The modern Jewish apologists, hesitantly
adopted by the church, preferred to put the blame on Romans. But the medieval
Jew did not wish to pass the buck. He tried to prove that Jesus had to be
killed, and he was proud of killing Him. The Jews hated and despised Christ and
Christians."
Actually, adds Prof. Dan, there is little place to doubt that the Jewish
enemies of Jesus caused his execution.
Even today, Jews in Israel refer to Jesus by the demeaning word Yeshu (instead
of Yeshua), meaning "Perish his name". There is an ongoing argument, whether
His name was turned into a swear word, or the other way around. In a similar
pun, the New Testament Gospel is called "Avon Gilaion", the booklet of Sin.
These are the endearing feelings of the friends of Christian Zionists towards
Christ.
What about Moslems? The Moslems venerate Christ. He is called "The Word of
God", "Logos", Messiah, the Prophet and is considered "a Messenger of God",
along with Abraham, Moses and Muhammad. Many chapters of the Kor'an tell the
story of Christ, his virgin birth and his persecution by Jews. His saintly
mother is admired, and the Immaculate Conception is one of the tenets of Islam.
The name of Christ glorifies the golden edifice of Haram al-Sharif. According
to the Moslem faith, it was there that the founder of Islam met Jesus, and they
prayed together. The Hadith, the Moslem tradition, says in the name of the
prophet, "We do not forbid you to believe in Christ, we order you to."
Moslems identify their prophet with Paracletes, the Helper (Jn 14:16) whose
coming was predicted by Jesus. They venerate places associated with the life of
Jesus: the place of Ascension, the Tomb of Lazarus, the Holy Sepulchre are
adjacent to a mosque and perfectly accessible by Christians.
While Moslems do not consider Jesus God, they proclaim him as the Messiah, the
Anointed one, the Paradise Dweller. This religious idea, familiar to Nestorians
and other early churches, but rejected by mainstream Christianity, opened the
gates for those Jews, who could not part with the notion of strict monotheism.
That is why many Palestinian Jews and Christians of the 7th century accepted
Islam and became Palestinian Moslems. They remained in their villages, they did
not depart for Poland or England, they did not learn Yiddish, they did not
study the Talmud, but they continued to shepherd their flocks and plant almond
trees, they remained faithful to their land and to the great idea of the
fraternity of men.
In the south of Hebron, in the ruins of Susiah, one can see how in the course
of two centuries a synagogue slowly evolved into a mosque, as the population of
nearby caves abandoned the exclusionary faith of Babylonian wizards and adopted
Islam. These shepherds still live there, in the same caves. In the last year,
the Israeli army has twice tried to expel them to provide more room for new
Jewish settlers from Brooklyn.
Why, in this season of blossoming almond trees, do I brood on the sensitive
subject of Jewish and Moslem attitudes towards Christ? Because one has to stop
the mills of hatred operated by Israel's supporters. Because the
"Judeo-Christian" code language is being used to justify the barbed wire around
Birim's Church and the tanks around Bethlehem. Because there is a duty to
remove an obstacle from the path of the blind.
The majority of the Christian Zionists are simple misled souls, people of good
intentions but little knowledge. They think they "support Jews," but they
promote the Christ-hating spirit among the Jews. It was not in vain that a hero
of the Zionist book, "Exodus" by Leon Uris, kept a poster in his room saying
"We crucified Christ". It was not in vain that an Israeli soldier on the
roadblock of Bethlehem told me yesterday, "We starve the beasts", referring to
the native Christians of the city of Nativity.
It was not in vain that the Gospel was burned on a stake in Israel, while
anti-Gospel literature is widely spread; that new immigrant Jews embracing
Christianity are persecuted and deported; that every preacher of the Christian
faith in Israel can be sent to jail according to new anti-Christian laws; that
Israeli archaeologists erase the Christian holy sites and memories off the face
of the Holy Land.
To the leaders of the Christian Zionists, who surely know these facts, but lead
their innocent flock on the path of the Anti-Christ, I say, "Whoever causes one
of these little ones who believe in Christ to sin, it would be better for him
to have a large millstone tied round his neck and be drowned in the deep sea"
(Mt 18:6).
To my Jewish brothers I say: the opinions of medieval Jews do not bind us.
Every Jew can decide for himself, whether to pray for the destruction of the
Gentiles or to share the blessing of the Holy Land with the villagers of Birim
and Bethlehem. Within the Jewish people, there were always spiritual
descendants of the prophets who wished to bring peace and blessing to all the
children of Adam. As true as this almond blossom, in you the prophecy will be
fulfilled: "All the nations of the earth will bless you" (Deut. 7).
Israel Shamir | GALILEE FLOWERS | February 25, 2001
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via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
arch...@erols.com
One thing lI found absolutely horrifying after the bombing of the WTC was pictures
on TV of Palestinian villagers cheering the explosions. And yet, unknown to them,
the majority of Americans actually support Palestinian rights over Israeli . It
all seems to be perceptions skewed by the press, by one politician or another, by a
hardline terrorist. But then, I always imagined that by the new millenium at last,
that Palestinians would have their own land .
Templar
Rabid Islamic wild pigs are on rampage.
Deadly virus of Islam is spreading all over the world.
India, Kosovo, West Timor, Philippines, Bosnia, Chechnya,
Israel, Russia, Macedonia and now United States.
Human race cannot waste time anymore!
Stop Islam now!
" amigocabal" <par...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:46bfe02760065b946e3...@mygate.mailgate.org...
Alex Seredin
perspective;
United States has done a very poor job in communicating its position on the
MidEast
issues to the Palestinian population. In fact in the past several months US was
mum.
Also there is a problem of the one sided information available to Palestinians
and other
mid Eastern citizens. There are very few radio stations. One or two TV
stations, and
printed matter is one sided. Education has suffered tremendously in the past
thirty years
and has been hijacked by the elements of unsavoury character, poor knowledge,
and
biased attitude.
Similar problems have existed in Serbia during the Balkan tragedy, and the
perception Serbs
have about the West in general are due to the West's failure to address the
issues of
information disemination. The war in the Balkans could have been won simply by
installing
several dozen powerful TV stations around the country. Even today Serbian
people do not have
the true information about their own country.
The most hated war criminal in the world Adolf Hitler saw the importance of
information disemination
and used it to his advantage, in order to portray his genocidal government as
benevolent!
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Posted from host-209-214-91-178.bct.bellsouth.net [209.214.91.178]
Red Herring
<par...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>The "rejoicing" of some Palestinians after the WTC tragedy, must be put into
>perspective;
Putting things in prospective, your hatred of Jews is greater than your love
for your country.
Alex Seredin
for fascists, apatheid, communist garbage and Zionist fill the bill.
I have many Jewish friends who are not Zionists and are opposed to
the Zionist apartheid just as much as I am.
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Posted from host-209-214-90-20.bct.bellsouth.net [209.214.90.20]
MK
"Alex Seredin" <par...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:aa08155cb7c938b95d9...@mygate.mailgate.org...
Ha! Zionists... This word is not even used much outside Islamic world
nowadays. Most Jews today see Intifada more as a technical problem than some
sort of a "clash of ideologies".
You could be walking the streets of Tel Aviv for days without encoutering a
single Zionist. It would take you even longer to meet a considerable group
of people who sympathise with the Palestinian cause.
The problem with you, Djihad fans is that you failed to notice that unlike
1000 years ago, when you were up against the same type of maniacs as
yourself (Crusaders, Christian fanatics and like) the situation today is
much worse for you. The world today is not impressed with your fanatism and
religious demogogy - you only piss us off. You have been reduced to a
technical problem - and that is how you will be treated.