Dwijlen met de kraan open: mopping with an open faucet (a Dutch saying.) In Arabic, we say بنفخ بقربة مقطوعة blowing through a broken pipe. In English, there’s barking up the wrong tree. Putting a plaster on a (gun)wound is another one. All to say that it’s useless or misplaced, not addressing the real problem, won’t get us anywhere.
I wonder…
Can’t we close the faucet, fix the pipe, find the right tree and bark at it (or sing.)
Can we look under the bandage and feel the wounds.
Might we wonder, who has inflicted them?
Who is writing this scenario?
Who’s benefiting from this war1?
We are not addressing the true culprit- the real enemy that devises temporary solutions that will inevitably re-erupt. We buy the fear and deny the suffering. We fight the wrong war.
Every war is wrong.
‘Mirror-mirror on the wall, what’s the most lucrative of them all?’
In a paradigm of war, we can never have peace. It’s not profitable. Just do a bit of research, begin with the stock market, follow the trail to the manufactures, the biggest users/consumers, the best markets , and trace the wars (watch Warmongers)
As of today, more than 40,000 Tonnes of high explosives have been dropped on Gaza (some sources quote as little as 25,000 and others as much as 58,000 - equivalent to two nuclear bombs.) Big money. Cheering shareholders. Happy new year.
The USA and great Britain lead the brigade. We should not be surprised. Aside from valuable US peaceful interventions across the world, it is the British we have to thank for planting the seed of conflict in the holy land of war. Shukran, Toda, Merci.
** There’s a lot to thank Britain for actually. My country’s establishment to begin with. Herself not free from faults. One of the biggest military and weapon expos takes place there, to my dismay. Big players, big toys, big problems-
‘Off with her head,’ commands the queen.
Run Alice, run.
But there’s no place to run. Only into the sea.
Out of the Sinai once. Back to the Sinai today. (Will the red sea open up to let them through… will they roam for forty years? Subhumans or not, we are blood-brothers.)
The Set-up
In 1917, Britain issued the Balfour declaration supporting the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.’ How generous and kind!
(Palestine was then under the Ottoman rule, and a minority of Jews lived there already.)
So, you take a people who you have oppressed and traumatised, you promise them a land that’s not yours to begin with, placing them in the middle of a region that’s connected by land, language – and to a large degree religion. What do you expect will happen?
One motivation for the tactical move was to weaken the Arabs – a potential super power - and to divide them. Logical and achieved. Bravo! As for the Jews, forget ghettos and concentration camps, just concentrate them in a country with hostile nations as barbwire. It’s a set up. An extension of white supremacy colonisation and a a quick fix for the problem of semites in Europe. Several birds killed with one stone. It took a while to get the ball rolling; however, after Hitler’s interventions, migration to the land of promise picked up.
A land without a people for a people without a land.
A good slogan (though not true). Not knowing any better. I’d buy it. Hell, I’d be the first to jump on that boat. Take me to the land of milk and honey- tears and blood is more like it. For once I’d arrive and see remains of expelled families, my heart would break. I am sure there were some who felt that way. But what to do then, return to where my family was burned? Or stay and try to forget. The next generations will forget. And they must – for our survival is at stake. I might even put my faith in a government that promises to protect me. I might send my children to the army for indoctrination – though I’d hate to send them to learn killing. It’s the will of God.
No, it is not a religious conflict. But it’s a card that’s been used. Sacrilege – if one may use such language. Many rabbis speak against zionism and the state of Israel – many Jews agree. [If I were Jewish, I would be heartbroken that my faith has been used to commit crimes, just as my heart aches when ‘Allah Akbar’ heralds bombs and my people are coupled with terrorism.]
It is known that the holy land was home to Jews, Christians, Muslims and pagans for a long time. They never had a problem amongst each other till the colonizers came- and they kept coming. Strife is easy to plant. Just find the little differences and make them larger. Enlist people in two (or more) camps. Favor one and bestow on them your support. Brain wash the youth with lies. Give one camp guns to play with and allow weapons to be smuggled in to the other. Add a dose of religious texts to further justify it all. Strike a match in a temple, church or mosque, point the finger. And you’ve got a story! Design a poster and sell tickets.
Staging war
Any basic writing course teaches you that conflict is the key to a gripping plot. But in the myths and in books that sell, the heroes find their way out, they transform and the world is made better by it. But there are no heroes here. We’re stuck, allowing ourselves to be pawns – to be pawned.
“If Israel stops fighting, there would be no war. If Palestinians stop fighting, there would be no Palestinians,” an Arab friend posts on social media. An Israeli friend says: without the IDF, there would be no Israel and we’d all be kicked out or dead.
Neither claim is entirely false; neither is entirely correct. I can’t see how the Palestinians are fighting. At this point, they are hungry, shoeless and just trying to survive. They have no army- never have; they have no state. Alternatively, without an army, Israel would likely not exist, for the state itself was established on another man’s catastrophe. But that does not have to mean getting rid of the Israeli people.
If we let go of the idea of an Israeli state (and even a Palestinian state) and give everyone the same rights as citizens of this yet-to-be-named country, might there be a chance for peaceful co-existence? Would either camp accept?
As it stands now, neither Palestinians nor Israelis are benefiting.
No winners possible
The fact that the Palestinians are oppressed is blatantly obvious. They are at the receiving end of settler colonialism and apartheid. However, the fact that the Israelis are also oppressed is more subtle and hardly talked about. They might have the weapons and the infrastructure, access to homes, food and medicine, but their hearts are beating with fear. Generation upon generation, an eternal existential crisis. Only they can break the cycle of violence.
I’m not saying we - everywhere in the world - should stop putting pressure on our governments to demand (and achieve) cease fire and protect the innocent. But the only people who can end the recurring carnage, are the Israelis themselves (with support of the international Jewish population and yes, the Arabs.) The people, not the politicians, and if I dare to take it a step further, the women in specific.
It’s very simply really. Stop participating. Step out of that tank. Throw down the weapons. Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot back. Don’t press that button. Stop your children from going to war. Disobey. Orders coming from above are not in your benefit. The puppeteers are satisfied with the status quo and will do everything to perpetuate and maintain it. All of us are ammunition.
Wake up. Get up. That’s not a pea under the mattress, it’s a ticking bomb.2
I pray … for every soldier at the forefront and at home. May light enter your hearts. May you see that you are also being used as weapons of war. You are born to live and love, not to fight. Lay down your arms. Will it cost you your life? Maybe, but your life is already sold to the war machine: A nightmare passed on to your children and your children’s children - and ours. Only once the killing ends, can we begin to build the holy land of peace - together, not apart. There will be lots of work to be done, lots of traumas to heal, lots of forgiving… the Arabs will have to do their part (more on that - and the role of the women - another time.)
{More new posts - between newsletters - to read on the site.}
Resources & links:
Weapons to Israel and Profits to Warmongers:
Palestine 1920: The other Side of the Palestinian Story:
Read:
Man behind iconic ‘Visit Palestine’ Poster.
Blood Brothers: Palestinians and Jews Share Genetic Roots (Haaretz)
On Belfour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
Jewish migration to the holy land: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah
WAR…or: You want to call it genocide or not, a massacre or ethnic cleansing or deny it as self-defence or use euphemisms … it does not matter what we call it. It is apparent. Fear is installed. People are being starved to death. People are made to indiscriminately kill. More than 20,000 Gazans have been killed since October 7th, and counting- about a third of whom are children. Call that what you may.
And your were starting to wonder if that was a typo in the title, hé.