Loose Ends,..

I'm going to go ahead and bottom line a situation which has hanging over my head for the last little while.  As a blogger, you really never run out of material to write about, Catholicism, politics, MMA, Transformers,..all the way to diet and nutrition.  Then a few months back I attempted an exercise in futility,..trying to comment on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and how the Church views this.  Well, needless to say, I still have some unpublished posts, but will publish them when the demand gets a little higher.  This issue is so complex, that basically both sides are wrong, both need reconciliation, the Palestinians need pacify themselves, stop there aggression because they should have had their state back in when Israel was being established, they just didn't want Jews in 'Palestine.' They also need to seperate mosque and state and realize that Israel has a right to exist and is not going anywhere, while the Israelis need to understand that the Palestinians are human beings who should be treated with dignity and respect.  When a bomb goes off, one guy in a market,..and your response is scrambling an Apache helicopter strike in a crowded city street, while bulldozing people's houses down, will cause the international community to scratch their heads.

So, how does the Church view this?  Well, the Church distinguishes between Israel and the Jews.  In Catholic theology, we (The Church) in accepting Christ as Messiah are the living Israel.  This position has been held by both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches as well as mainstream protestant denominations.  So what then is with all the money being funded to Israel by Christian groups in the States?  Christian Zionism.  What is this?  Simply put, a belief (recent one..) that the return of the Jews to the land of Israel puts into motion the return of Christ.  They claim Biblical prophesy,as being fulfilled, thus the jews become pawns in their little apocalyptic funky theology, and at the end of time convert to Christianity or are doomed...This type of thought is usually associated with evangelicals and fundamentalists.  The sticking point as evidenced by a 'Sixty Minutes' expose is that there do exist Palestinian Christians too.  Sadly, the Israelis don't discriminate and will collectively punish the Palestinian people, and the Christian Zionists really don't view or care for the indegineous Palestinian people, muslim, christian or otherwise.  The money coming from Christian Zionists in the US usuallly goes to finance settlements, illegal settlements in the occupied territories, therefore constantly annexing land.   Israel has the right to live in peace, considering that they are bordered by the ocean and every Arab State wanting to destroy them  The Palestinians are entitled to running water and human rights...

So this begs the question, what would you do?  Well,..as I mentioned in the first paragraph, reconciliation and education need to be the focal point, instead of propoganda and fear mongering.  While historically the 'Palestinians' dropped the ball politically, (the fact that they cannot separate from their islamic theology, which is incredibly anti Jewish) Israel needs to undertstand that human rights are human rights, no matter who you are or what you believe in. 

Our Lady of Akita,...............ora pro nobis!

Israel, Palestine and the Vatican Part 6

Back again with another snippet of our favorite Middle East political quagmire!!!! Woohooo!!!  Hopefully I can get through this series without any distractions as well as other 'important' events circulating throughout the Catholic world and my little diocese.  Soooo, let's put the theology aside,.well our theology anyway and resume our political breakdown with the declaration of Israeli independance!

The year of 1948, was to put in a few words, disturbing.  Violent clashes abounded whereby setting the present day 'tit' for 'tat' scenerio.  The Ben Yahuda street bombing,..whereby the Arabs arrange three cars to blow up,. Then the Jews countered with Nachslon and broke the siege of Jerusalem.  Next up,..the Deir Yassin Massacre whereby the Jews killed up in the offensive between 100-300 Palestinians, among them civilians, women and children.  Sadly, war doesn't discriminate.  As retribution for this, the Arabs counter with the Hassasah medical convoy massacre, killing mostly unarmed doctors carrying patients.  Finally the last majour attack before the expiration of the British mandate came from the Arab forces after a surrender of a Jewish village.  The Kfar-Etzion massacre, saw an entire village wiped out.  The bodies were left unburied until 1949.

The day arrived.  May 14th 1948.  Before midnight came, Israel declared independance and immediately was invaded by Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, Egypt and Syria.  The Arab goal was simple, to wipe Israel, and the Jews off the map of the Middle East.  (See Islamic theology earlier within this series..)  Time to tell the truth.  According to Islam, this land was considered Islamic territory and to be subject to Jewish laws,.where the Dome of the Rock was, was considered an afronterie.  This is why people need to understand Islamic theology which plays a vital role in this particular problem.  The newly formed IDF, or Israeli Defense Force managed to defeat the Arab armies in just over one year.  Israel was born and survived. 

Despite their victory, in 1949, the British mandate was divided and saw the land of Israel carved up into two states.  One was the now Kingdom of Jordan (formerly transjordan) and was intended as a home for the Palestinian people.  After the original war for Israeli independance, over 1 million Palestinian Arabs had become refugees.  Still, individual raids continued in 1951-52 and Palestinian infiltrators, killed nearly 300 Jews.  This led to Israel's unit 101, led by Ariel Sharon, who in most recent times was Israeli Prime Minister to carry out a massacre in Qibya (located in the West Bank).  In this massacre, 69 Arabs were killed, two thirds of them women and children... They destroyed houses, a school and a mosque.


Until next time

Our Lady of Ville Marie,............ora pro nobis!