Once more into the breech in the never-ending war between Palestinians and Israelis: More death and destruction.
President Joe Biden called for a cease-fire (reluctantly, I might add) and told prime minister Netanyahu that he expected one soon. Netanyahu was even more reluctant to grant the request. There is an unwritten policy that, for every Israeli who dies in these pitched battles, at least 10 Palestinians must pay the price. Nevertheless, the Knesset granted the cease-fire and began negotiations.
President Biden stated, just as has every U.S. president since 1948, that Israel has a “right to self-defense,” that the conflict will end “sooner than later,” and that there has been no “over-reaction” on Israel’s part. He is wrong on all three counts; and, in point of fact, he is on the wrong side of history. So have most Americans and Europeans, and perhaps a few Africans and Asians.
After destroying Solomon’s Temple in 70 CE, the Romans undertook a massive exile of all Hebrews in Judea. During the forced exile, known as the “Diaspora”, the Jews scattered to the four winds. Some removed to other parts of Asia (I have heard of one community in China!), some to North Africa, and some to Europe. (Shylock, the Jewish merchant in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, exemplifies these latter immigrants.) Even though they longed to return home, they adjusted to life in other lands. Their numbers are dwindling, however, due to low birth rates.
Meanwhile, the ancestors of the present-day Palestinians took advantage of the newly-vacant lands and emigrated by the thousands. They believed, just like so many other peoples, that their new homes would remain theirs in perpetuity. They forgot one universal truth: Nothing is forever, for good or for ill. Even mountains crumble to dust and stars burn out. The Universe is cyclic in nature, birth and death, world without end.
And so it goes with human affairs.
The Khazars, a pagan people, lived in ignorant bliss in southwestern Russia, west of the Caspian Sea. In the 8th Century CE, bliss was interrupted by Christian and Muslim “missionaries” who sought to convert the pagans to their respective religions. The Khazars had no desire to convert to any foreign religion, especially any which converted by the sword. Yet, to protect themselves from forced conversion, they chose one religion which tended to mind its own business, Judaism. In time, the Khazars became as Jewish as the ancient Hebrews.
Too Jewish, which we shall see.
Fast forward to the 12th Century CE. Genghis Khan of Mongolia desired to conquer the world. He already had put most of East Asia and Central Asia under his thumb. He pushed westward and crossed the Ural Mountains into eastern Europe. The Khazars fled before him and formed isolated communities throughout the continent. Some found safe havens in liberal Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands; elsewhere, they found persecution because of their Jewishness (Shylock said, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?”).
In the 19th Century CE, the doctrine known as Zionism arose. Its main message was that the “Holy Land,” i.e. Palestine, was the rightful home of the Jewish people and that they should emigrate there ASAP. Thousands obeyed this commandment. The Palestinians were nonplused and welcomed their new neighbors. But Zionism went a step further by decreeing that the Jews should create a Jewish state. With the connivance of the Western powers which had not lifted a finger to prevent Hitler’s persecution, i.e. the Holocaust, and which hoped to soothe their collective consciences by giving the Jews what they wanted, the State of Israel was created.
The Palestinians were never consulted about this turn of events. Their neighbors were now their overlords, and the new rulers wanted as much land as they could get their hands on for the benefit of future emigrants. Warfare broke out, and has continued sporadically ever since with the unapologetic support of the Western powers; thousands were forced off their lands and into exile. The land grabs have continued to this day, and one such was the cause of the present contretemps.
It seems to this historian that the only lesson the Jews learned from the Holocaust was that, in order to survive, they must emulate the Nazis. Palestinians are second-class citizens in their own country and live under onerous laws concerning their livelihoods, their movements, their housing, and their redress of grievances. They cannot even worship where they would. Although violence is never a solution, desperate peoples take desperate measures.
The charge of “anti-Semitism” has been bandied about since 1948. If there were Semites involved in all of this situation, the charge would hold water. But The Chas wants you to look closely at the next Jewish person you may happen to meet. Often you will see a European face, not the Asian face of the ancient Hebrews. Jews inside and outside of Israel are Ashkenazim, the converted ones; not one of them sprang from the seed of Father Abraham. They are only religious Jews, not ethnic Jews. The charge of “anti-Semitism” is baseless.
In this (and in other) affairs, The Chas is always on the right side of history. Won’t you join him, dear reader?
Just a thought.