Monday, February 03, 2020

God’s Will When God Leaves the Real Estate Business


Back in 2006 I wrote an article for Arab News entitled “Criticism of Israeli Foreign Policy does not equate to Anti-Semitism.” I had taken issue with the fact that the Kadima Government in Israel had decided that it was appropriate to, in the words of the former Chief of Staff of the IDF to “Bomb Lebanon back to the Stone Age.” My TV screen was filled with images of daily artillery and aerial bombardment of Southern Lebanon and the Israelis and the USA were hailing this as “birth pangs of a New Middle East.” The Israeli justification for this slaughter was simple – Hezbollah, the Shiite Militia that dominates much Lebanese politics, had the audacity to dig into Israel and kidnap three members of the IDF. While nobody was justifying Hezbollah’s actions, no right-thinking person thought that Israel’s response was proportional to what they had lost. The sane part of the world argued that the only winners of that conflict were – Hezbollah.

My issue in this article was not so much with the Israeli’s but with the Americans who had chosen to applaud Israel for its clearly disproportionate response. I remember writing that “The nation that saved us from the Master Race has allowed God’s Chosen to commit an atrocity.” My reward for this line was to receive a deluge of emails – some calling me an “anti-Semite” spreading lies about the Israeli state to those encouraging me to carry on. The most interesting responses were from the USA. There were those who sent me literature on prophecies relating to the land and there were those who spoke in fear of a “domineering cabal.”

I’m brining up this topic again because the Donald and Bibi, also known as the President being Impeached and the Prime Minister being indicted in a corruption trial, managed to pull off the “Deal of the Century” between themselves to declare the Israeli settlements in the West Bank to the magically legal (which not even the Israeli Supreme Court accepts). As expected, the Palestinians rejected the deal as did the 22-members of the Arab League. Peace will definitely not be achieved and if anything, the “Deal of the Century” will only intensify the conflict. So, what do we need to do?

I’m old enough to remember a time when there were politicians who were willing to state the obvious – both sides need to be led through their anxieties. In the 2001 in the Sharm El Sheikh Fact Finding Committee chaired by Senator George Mitchel (the man who brought the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland together), it was found that there was a direct correlation between “terrorist activity” and settlement building. There was an obvious vicious cycle. The more the Israelis built settlements in the occupied West Bank, the more the Palestinians resorted to “terrorist tactics,” to try to claim back their land, which in turn lead the Israeli military to crack down harder. It was clear to anyone who had more than a brain cell that the problem was obvious. The settlements had to be removed, which in turn would reduce the desire of the Palestinians to hit back, which would in turn negate the need for Israeli crackdown.  

The most interesting part to this whole situation was the fact that the Israelis and Palestinians were trying this out. In 1994, the Israeli Prime Minister of the day, Yitzhak Rabin took the bold step of swopping land in return for peace. Rabin, a general who had dedicated his life fighting for the State of Israel, understood that there would only be real peace if land was swopped or as the Old Rogue used to say – returned. The move was something that everybody could agree with.

Unfortunately, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish Settler and he was succeeded by a populist called Bibi Nethanyahu, who made very clear that he was against everything Rabin wanted. His view of things was simple – land for peace was OK as long as the Palestinians understood they were supposed to sit in the shit.

How did so much great hope die with one man? The answer is very simple – there is an idea floating around that says “God” (Yahweh to the Jews and Allah to the Muslims) is a real estate broker who has given that slice of the desert to one group of people. While this might sound simplistic in the modern age, it has been proven to be an idea that is as powerful as is toxic. This idea has enabled extremist to flourish and international laws be damned.

I think of the time Ariel Sharon fell into a coma. In his vegetative state, the man who made his name butchering Arabs (read brown people), was condemned not for his butchery but for his one vaguely decent act, which was to get the IDF to remove settlements from Gaza (needless to say, he still ensured the IDF controlled all the vital areas for survival (airspace etc). He was condemned for …. wait for it…. giving away God’s land by Pat Robertson, a televangelist who also doubles up as a media mogul.

The solution is simple. God needs to announce that he is handing over real estate brokerage in the desert to humanity so that humanity can do something Godly for a change. Christ was very clear that he did not approve of starving anyone nor was he a proponent of “apartheid.”
I’m not saying that the Palestinians have been saintly but they are clearly the weaker party and they have been on the wrong end of a very powerful military force that’s backed up by the world’s most powerful military force. Every time the more powerful party does something to them, the world falls into the trap of the likes of Mr. Robertson, and everyone scolds the Palestinians for not accepting their fate – they are scolded for having the audacity to fight back. It’s a case of the world tells them to stop using the gun and negotiate with the tongue, while the other side continues to build settlements on Palestinian land.

Once God informs the world that he is not interested in being a real estate broker, it then becomes easier for people to do the Gods work by living in peace. With God in the business, you’ll have people of European decent claiming that it’s a violation of God’s will if any of that land is given to people of Semitic decent and doing everything in their power to help other people of European decent to keep the land away from people of Semitic decent.
Once we allow God to exit the real estate business, we can encourage cooler heads on both sides to come to the negotiating table. You had people like the late Saudi King Abdullah, who was willing to push the Arab league into recognizing Israel in return for withdrawal to its 1967 borders. You had people like Yitzak Rabin, who could shake hands with old enemies like Yasser Arafat and the late King Hussein of Jordan.   

We’ve had great men like these who were willing to do God’s work by going against what they were conditioned to believe. Once God explains that he, unlike the Trump is not in the real estate business, will we then achieve a Godly peace.

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Maira Gall