What I Wish I Could Tell My Mom Right Now

This isn’t about “private family secrets,” so if you’re here looking for spilt tea, well, move along. This is about the Israel – Gaza war (the most recent one), and the ever increasing divide between her and myself over it.

It started with a phone call on Oct. 8, here on the side of the world that gets all the Mid-East news hours too late, because of the International date line and, you know, sleeping at (our) night. There wasn’t much to say, just shock and sadness, about both the 1200 deaths and the 200 hostages, along with “Pray for Israel.” I’m more or less an Atheist, along with a few other things (both spiritual and philosophical), but my parents are ardent Messianic-Jews with overtones of other Christian ideologies (which I was raised with, but have my own ideas about). We didn’t pray on the phone, but I try to at least let my parents feel honored and respected in their religious ideas, so I vaguely agreed, we hung up, and life went on.

I had posted an Israeli flag to a Star Trek group I Admin, and while it got some positive responses, one from a dear, long-time friend of mine really caused me to stop and re-think that. He told me about the history of Israel’s occupation of that area, their attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past, and how, really, the Palestinian people, the civilians, had nothing of their own; how they were “strangers in a strange land,” and were very dependent on Israel for things like electricity and access to other basic necessities. I did what checking I could, to find out if any of that was true, and found that it was, based on the resources I found at the time – and the Israeli flag came down, but was not replaced with any other flag, either. Many of those resources are still available, and yes, are credible.

Within a few days, after debating their options, Israel began massacring innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, under the guise of “trying to destroy Hamas.” There are several reasons not to believe this excuse.

First, Hamas has existed in the Gaza Strip for over 2 decades (and Israel has done a lot of attacking of the Gaza Strip during that time and in the previous decades as well). There had been relative peace between Israel and the Palestinian civilians for most of that time, even with Israeli citizens marrying and having children with Palestinian civilians! There were border crossings… Israel had many years during which they could have infiltrated the Gaza Strip with under-cover IDF agents of their own, found out where the Hamas leaders were hiding out, and done as they pleased with them at that time. They simply didn’t bother – so now why all the sudden they’re “going after Hamas?” I don’t buy it.

Second, Netanyahu claims that a huge percent of the Palestinian civilians are really Hamas militants. Netanyahu claims. A right wing extremist dictator claims something. Here in the US, more than half of our civilians know better than to believe a right-wing-anybody. In my book, right there, that ends the discussion: nothing that Netanyahu says can be taken at face value. The politics he subscribes to are predecated on lies, disinformation, smoke and mirrors… Those who subscribe to those politics also can not be trusted for anything, because they always have some private agenda that it can take multiple decades to uncover, long after it’s too late. By the way, that’s why Hillary Clinton lost her bids for the Presidency: her shit got uncovered, and only those bamboozled by her refused to give any of that the credence and value it deserved. We needed Bernie Sanders, and we still do.

Anyway, I don’t believe that Hamas is really more than about 200 to perhaps 300 actual militants, though I’m sure they have a lot of Palestinian supporters (that’s not the same thing as a militant) who believe that Hamas is their only hope for survival. That actually makes sense, because Hamas has been the only group that’s even been capable of providing the civilians in the Gaza Strip with things like food, medical supplies, and so forth, for decades. Capable of, not necessarily bothering to do. When people are desperate, they’ll turn wherever they believe they can, even if it’s only in hopes of receiving help, when that help isn’t even actually arriving, because they hope that someday it will — and they’ll do anything asked of them in order to maybe get that help someday. We’ve seen that over and over again throughout this world’s history, and it’s heartbreaking. Anyway, I think the civilians in the Gaza Strip view Hamas as their only hope for survival; as a conduit to all those supplies coming from various Arab nations, who believe that Hamas is a “governing body, just fighting for their people.” That is, after all, how they’ve literally branded themselves.

I look at Hamas as being a lot like the average Texan, just with a different religion. A Quran under one arm and a military-grade long-gun under the other. Sound familiar, anyone? All it takes is a militant perspective, a religion, and a so-called “love” for one’s “country” and there you go: you have a crazy-assed, toxic, totally death-and-destruction oriented soul who’s drunk on their own ideologies and their fake power (“fake” because it comes from a weapon, not from their own hard work or their own independent thought). Yes, there are better-than-that Texans; just as there are better-than-that Palestinian and Israeli civilians. We seriously all need to remember that.

Third: Israel has basically been the “big brother bully” of the civilians in the Gaza Strip for decades. If you peruse the history of their attacks on the Gaza Strip over the last many decades, that started various wars between these two groups vs. the comparatively few attacks of any “governing body” in the Gaza Strip that started various wars between these same two groups, it’s undeniable. Add to that the constant US-to-Israel pipeline of major military machinery/weaponry, along with food, medical supplies, and literally anything else Israel ever asks of the US, and then add to that anything given to Israel by other nations, and you’ll see what I mean. Yes, Hamas has their own pipeline for all these things from Arab nations, but the goals of both groups are wildly different:

Israel’s goal has been to continue occupying the land granted them by Great Brittain, which the Palestinians, as Arabs, view as their own. Technically, historically, without religious prejudice, this is correct. If you add in religious prejudice, it’s incorrect. The difference is as simple as either taking the word of people who co-opted someone else’s land after murdering a lot of their people, thousands of years ago, or taking the word of those whose ancestors were slaughtered or otherwise displaced. Typically, histories are written by the victors, so the question really should be, then, “Do we take the word of whoever won a war, or do we take the word of the original inhabitants of a land?” As a (very small) part Native American, it’s pretty easy for me to vote for those who have indigenous claims on a territory. Just having the upper hand in a military conflict does not a truth-teller make.

Hamas’ goal seems to be to overtake the land they view as theirs and use it to provide for themselves first and then the rest of the Palestinians, whoever is left alive after the end of this conflict. They have the lower-hand, as it were: their weapons aren’t as good, and the only thing they really have as a hold over Netanyahu are the hostages, some of whom have been released, others who have died/been murdered, and others who are presumed alive, but no one knows that for sure. (It’s important to note that Israel has also been holding Palestinian hostages – something the media doesn’t talk about as much, but that even Israelis have been advocating for the release of, in order to get their loved ones back.)

Obviously, if Hamas were allowed to succeed in their goal, this would mean the deaths, tortures, and displacement of a huge swath of Israeli and Palestinian citizens (those remaining alive at that time). That brings us back around to the old debate of who should have what land, should it be a two-state solution, etc. The UN is currently grappling with this (again, and again, and again…), and many, many nations are choosing to grant the olive branch of recognizing Palestine as an independent nation (even though the UN has not granted them this, as of at least yesterday; it’s just after noon today, as I write this, and I haven’t gotten the latest news about this yet; I’m just a blogger, not a Journalist, Jim).

In any event, I don’t believe that Netanyahu’s attacks (via the IDF) on the Gazan civilians are to “route out Hamas” alone. I believe that in his right-wing hatred, he wants to wipe out all Arabs from the Gaza Strip (probably also from Jordan), either through death or through displacement, and that the easiest answer in his mind is: death. My Mom believes that Hamas and Egypt are conspiring to keep the gate at Rafa closed (I don’t know if that’s true; I’ve seen nothing online that indicates this), and, because Hamas attacked Israel 8 months ago, she blames Hamas solely for the destruction of the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. She doesn’t blame Netanyahu for using the IDF to take advantage of the “kettling” of the Palestinian civilians to commit mass-murder against them, while claiming that many of them are “plain clothed Hamas militants.” She does, however, claim that she believes that any nation who supports Palestinian efforts to be a free nation, with their own Declaration of Independence, also supports Hamas, and thus is being used by Hamas to overtake the United Nations, located here in the United States of America.

My Mom is a Messianic-Jew who sympathizes with Jews around the world, largely because of the Holocaust and because of previous atrocities committed against the Jewish people throughout history (and yes, there have been many, and they were truly horrific). I was raised to do the same – even to the point of nearly winding up with corporal punishment in a school I went to out in the mid-west, as a child, because I dared to correct my teacher who had claimed that there was no Holocaust. And I was right to insist that the truth be told! He was obviously a Nazi, and a bigot, and I hope life has shat all over him for it. I do have a Jewish ancestor (from hundreds of years ago) that we know a small amount about (this is on my Dad’s side though), so I’m sort of Jewish and sort of not (mostly European, and the Jewishness is not maternal).

It’s very easy for me, being raised in a Christian home, to be reminiscent about “Let my people go” and “the Land of Milk and Honey” and “the oil lamps that didn’t go out” and “Unto you, this day, is born a child in Bethlehem” and “Golgotha” and “I am with you always, even unto the ends of the Earth.” I’m also reminded that “The kingdom of Heaven is not of this Earth” (that it’s in the hearts of Believers) and “I will come again” [to take my people home to a literal Heaven].” In other words, this whole conflict isn’t about God setting aside land for a small group of people anymore; it’s about mundane politics. As for the “Kingdom of Heaven” I believe the answer here is “What the world needs now is love, sweet love!”

Perhaps what’s best is that no one be allowed to live in the territory still currently designated on our maps as belonging to Israel (including the Gaza Strip, maybe also including Jordan, I really don’t know). Perhaps it should be designated as a sort of Vatican-like (but not Catholic) place, and the current civilians in that entire area should be told “Find some other country to live in,” and then given whatever it is they need to accomplish this. Sort of a “no-state-solution.”

The Arabs could live in various Arabic nations, and the Israelis could just all come and live here in the US or in various parts of Europe. Everyone would have free, all-expense-paid passports and vacations to *visit* this designated area anytime they wish, so long as they can remain peaceful towards their counterparts when there. The Temple Mount would remain a religious icon for all three major world religions, and all this fighting nonsense would stop, by default. There could be a memorial museum at the former Israel-Gaza border decrying not only decades, but really, thousands of years, of in-fighting between Abraham’s descendants, all of whom are “Shem-ites” (Semites); “Sons of Shem, Son of Noah, descendant of Adam, created by God.”

Obviously, that’s not the greatest answer either, but really, I don’t know what is. These are militaries, on both sides of this war, who are hell-bent on each others’ destruction over a territorial conflict that neither side is mature enough to settle peacefully. These are also civilians in desperate need of safety, food, water, medical care, decent housing, jobs, educations, and other basic necessities. They would more easily be provided these things if they matriculated into various nations who would have them and would treat them with respect. They would still be able to visit the newly designated area that no one can move into to live in full time (I suppose exceptions would have to be made for those who maintain the Temple Mount or other sites to be visited, but only for them), and that would be at the cost of the UN or some other International body, so that the costs associated with those vacations would not be burdensome to those who are poor.

In one sense, they would have lost their homes, but in another sense, they would have all gained their Home. They can’t live with each other, but perhaps they could visit with each other; shouldn’t Abraham’s children all be able to do at least that?! As for those of us calling ourselves “Christians” or “Catholics” or “Protestants,” really, by comparison, most of us are filthy stinking rich, we’ve already treated the Temple Mount as if it was our religious version of a Hilton, and I don’t believe we would need subsidizing to go visit in that region of the world, any more than we did before. We also should be very, very careful to not, in our own arrogance, attempt to take that place over. Remember, “the Kingdom of Heaven is in the hearts of men.” It’s not our place to over-run a religious territory that’s a “no man’s land.” We should find our Beliefs, when we have those, to be sufficient.

That’s all what I wish I could tell my Mom. I can’t decide for the UN what they should do, and I have no way to know what goes on behind closed doors over there. What I do know is that they have a massive problem on their hands, they have lost a lot of credibility prior to all of this, thanks to the Russia/Ukraine war, and if they don’t get their acts together soon, everyone currently (barely) living in the Gaza Strip is going to die, regardless of who’s to blame for that. That problem is essential to solve first. The rest can come later.

Maybe, instead of delivering supplies to the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by boat and peer, those same boats and peers should be used to start transporting Palestinians (especially those who are most vulnerable) out of that area and to floating “field hospitals” out at sea. From there, they could be taken to various nations who would be willing to take them. Those left behind would have to fend for themselves as they’re already doing in the Gaza Strip, but at least something of that civilization could be saved in this way.