PARALLELS – IS HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF?

This is an attempt to explore the definite parallels which exist between the events which led to the shameful murder of our Messiah Isa (Jesus) two thousands years ago and the shocking crimes being perpetrated by nearly twenty centuries. The specific crimes differ in some respects. Nevertheless, contemptuous attitudes by Israeli leaders in both time periods appear to have inspired a similar pattern of indifference to the sacredness of human life and an insensibility to civilized standards of justice.

In both the attempt to murder Isa which he was only an infant, and in the repression and persecution of Palestinians, the lives of many innocent children have been callously sacrificed. It is not well known that the Scriptures teach that even when Isa was yet an infant living in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, a vicious attempt was made to murder him which brought horror and heartbreak to the people living there. King Herod forced that day’s Israeli Defense Force to mercilessly slaughter every male child less than two years of age. This was the puppet king’s unsuccessful attempt to destroy the infant Messiah’s life. The ruler’s insane rage drove him to try to murder the person he taught would be a future threat to his own hold on power. Miraculously, ALLAH intervened to rescue Isa from this massacre of innocent children. Before the killing began, His earthly guardian Joseph was warned through a dream to escape to Egypt with Mary and the child Jesus.

Today, in the same occupied West Bank; the elected leaders of Israel have instituted policies which are ruthlessly snuffing out the lives of the youth of Palestine. Since the Intifada (uprising) began, more and more of the adult male Palestinians have either been killed, maimed, or imprisoned. Simultaneously, Israeli leaders have decided that their cruel repression of Palestinians on Palestinian land has been too lenient. The more than six hundred and sixty Palestinians who have died so far are not enough. The thousands who have been seriously injured and permanently maimed are not enough. The uncounted babies who have been killed with tear gas while still in their mother’s wombs are not enough. Since so many adults are no longer available to continue to struggle to live in freedom in their own land, the Israeli Defense Force has been ordered to ruthlessly brutalize and sometimes murder more and more children and young teen-agers. Frustrated and exhausted I.D.F. soldiers have permission to shoot in the back any excited Palestinian youth who is running from the soldiers if that youth is thought to have recently thrown a stone.

Just as the deranged King Herod considered the young Isa a threat to his hold on power and attempt to kill him, the leaders of Israel are afraid of the power of Palestinian youth and are maiming and killing them. Ironically, though many Israeli leaders appear to consider themselves superior in character to Egyptians, they mimic the worst in Egyptian history. It was a terrified pharaoh who ordered the murder of male Hebrew babies in Egypt in Moses’ time so that that nation would avoid a future “demographic problem” with he Hebrew population. As the Hebrew mothers wept in Egypt when their babies were slaughtered, the mothers in Palestine weep today. As the Hebrew mothers wept in Bethlehem when King Herod massacred their babies, so weep the mothers of Palestine today.

When Jesus visited Jerusalem, he was appalled at how the purpose of GOD’S temple was corrupted by the commercial and religious leaders of his time. The Gospel writer Mark records that Jesus’ feelings against the exploitive commercial activities occurring in the temple courtyard were so strong that he personally drove out those who were buying and selling there. He even overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves.

He attempted to help the people to once again realize the true meaning of GOD’S temple. He wanted them to understand that the religious leaders had encouraged practices which had turned its courtyard into a public market. Therefore, he even stopped anyone from carrying merchandise through the temple courts. Jesus defended his actions and explained GOD’S purpose for the temple by quoting from the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah.

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Economic exploitation, the commercialization of religion, and nationalistic exclusiveness were activities which in Jesus’ mind unworthy to be associated with the Holy GOD. The chief priests and teachers of the law were shocked and enraged by Jesus’ actions and his teaching. They themselves were deeply involved in receiving a high percentage of the profits which came from charging the religious pilgrims inflated prices to purchase their temple sacrifices. They also received a high percentage of the profits from the unfair money exchange which occurred when the pilgrims were required to change their own money into a temple currency so that they could make their religious offerings. The leaders were so concerned that Jesus’ influence on the people might undermine their own economic exploitation of them that they immediately began plans for his murder.

Most certainly no other person possesses the purity of motive of the Messiah. Nevertheless, the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza are struggling against similar attitudes and practices to what Jesus encountered in Jerusalem almost twenty centuries ago. As both the Prophet Isaiah and the Messiah Isa emphasized when they used the inclusive term “all nations,” GOD is not exclusive in whose prayers he chooses to hear. Neither GOD’S temple nor His land is to be held captive by greed, social bigotry or nationalistic exclusiveness. These attitudes have led to numerous types of severe economic exploitation of Palestinians by Israelis such as paying them very low wages while they endure terrible working conditions, illegally expropriating their land and unjustly bulldozing their homes. But even worse, these attitudes have led to an Israeli commitment to maim, imprisonment, banishment from the land and sometimes murder to those who do not complacently cooperate with the selfish and nationalistic interests of the Jewish leaders of the nation.

Leaders in Israel in Isa’s time relentlessly harassed and finally crucified the one whom the people knew as the “Son of David.” While resisting their oppressors, today’s stone throwing Palestinian youth have received inspiration from the same “David.” When David was still a teen-ager, with five smooth stones and a seemingly insignificant slingshot, he risked his life to challenge a giant who was threatening his people. The huge Goliath and his monstrous sword were defeated by the young David and his slingshot. Similarly, today’s Palestinian youth are sacrificing their lives in challenging the Israeli war machine with stones. It must be acknowledged that some desperate Palestinians have unwisely resorted to throwing homemade gas bombs and have burned and killed some Israelis. Nevertheless, these cases up to this time have been in the minority. It is the stone and the driving desire for human dignity which have been the Palestinian’s main weapons against the might of Israel.

The leaders in Israel two thousand years ago were obsessed with their desire to end the life of the “Son of David.” The main Israeli leaders of today are obsessed with their desire to totally defeat the symbolic inheritors of David’s triumph. They use the bullet and resources of the state in their attempt to conquer the hearts of the young David’s.

Israel’s leaders manipulated their Roman conquerors to use their power to condemn and crucify Isa. Similarly, the present Israeli government manipulates its chief benefactor, the United States, to supply it with weapons and diplomatic support so that it can continue to pursue its policy of cruel repression of Palestinians. In this example, the negative reality of today far exceeds the evil parallel of the past. Though the Romans were a ruthless nation, their political representative, Governor Pontias Pilate, strongly resisted Israeli leaders’ attempts to manipulate Roman power and resources. When these leaders tried to enlist his support in the condemnation of Isa, Pilate desperately attempted to persuade them to release the Messiah. When he could no longer resist their determination to murder Isa, the Roman governor washed his hands in front of the entire accusing mob.

Symbolically, Pilate demonstrated that he and Rome were innocent of the blood of the just man, Isa. The Governor wanted history to understand that all of the responsibility for Isa’s murder should be borne by Israeli leaders. In contrast, though the United Stated claims to have Judeo-Christian values, our nation publicly assists in the brutalization of Palestinians. This support occurs when we back Israel Psychologically, economically, diplomatically, and military in its barbaric acts against our fellow human beings in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Both the decision to crucify Isa and the decision to brutalize, repress, imprison and murder Palestinians were made by the supreme governing bodies of Israel. In Isa’s time, it was the governing religious body, the Sanherdin. Now it is the Jewish Knessett that has approved the inhumane policies which the Israeli Defense Force and the Israeli police carry out against the human beings of Palestine.

In both Isa’s time and today brave Jewish individuals of integrity speak out against the inhumane decisions of the highest governing bodies of the land. The Pharisee, Nicodemus, as well as a few other leaders spoke up against the way Isa was condemned without a fair trial. Today there are just Jewish leaders who speak out against the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis. Even individuals and groups within the Israeli Defense Force have strongly protested against the harsh repression their superior order them to use time of Jesus and now, the selfishness and hysteria of the majority of Israeli leaders has guaranteed that injustice prevails. The cries of protest of the righteous minorities are not enough to change the inhumane policies and ruthless activities of the merciless majority leadership.

Leaders in Israel attempted to silence Jesus. His words and actions constantly exposed the hypocrisy of the political, religious and economic interests of his time. Their harassment of him and their threats against him did not slow him. Consequently, the Israel leaders decided to manipulate the Romans to crucify him. Today, the persecuted and exploited Palestinians expose the moral depravity of influential leaders in these same three institutions by refusing to submit to the injustices being perpetrated against them. Since the Israeli tactics of extreme repression have failed, these institutions appear to be moving toward a consensus that death or permanent banishment of all Palestinians who are unwilling accept injustice, must be the solution.

When the leaders in Jesus’ time became convinced that they would execute him, they needed help to accomplish their evil purpose. They found Judas Iscariot, a man who was wiling to betray his friend Jesus for the payment of thirty pieces of silver.

There are several payments of silver that U.S. is receiving from Israel for our role as Judas as we betray the Palestinians. Our nation is still attempting to receive the forgiveness of Jews for our unwillingness over four decades ago to come to their aid during the holocaust. For our own mysterious reasons, we did not even attempt to bomb the railroad tracks on which hundreds of thousands of human beings were being transported to Nazi gas chambers. Our nation clearly becomes a Judas Iscariot when we deliver up both Palestinian land and Palestinian lives in our attempt to remove our guilt regarding our past avoidance of actions that morality demanded.

The second payment of silver for which leaders of our nation lust, is that of Jewish votes. The influence of the Jewish political lobby in the United States may be over estimated by some, but every successful politician in America is aware that powerful Jewish pressure groups can change the outcome of an America election. Since there are more Jewish votes than Arab ones, most U.S. politicians are anxious to benefit Israeli interests even when it involves injustice for Palestinians.

Additional pieces of silver are paid to our mass media in order for them to portray the Israeli in a more favorable light than they portray the Palestinians. Perhaps the media remains convinced that their coverage is always unbiased, balanced, fair and objective. Nevertheless, the editors of the major U.S. newspapers and heads of television networks are well aware that there are few Arab advertises. In contrast, a multitude of Jewish businesses pay millions of dollars for advertising. Consequently, media executives are simply unwilling to lose the vast revenues which would be the result if they allowed Israeli interests to be portrayed in too negative a light.

There exist a vivid 1988 example of the hypocrisy of the West as it relates to its failure to criticize Israel. A majority of the civilized world was outraged when the Ayatollah Khomeini led the call for the assassination of the author of Satanic Verses, because that author’s writings offended Muslims. So upset were the heads of some European nations that they called home their ambassadors from Iran.

There is no doubt that freedom of speech was being held captive by the Ayatollah’s call for murder. But a similar outrage was strangely missing only a few days earlier when one of the top officials of Israel subtly but most definitely called for the murder of the Palestinian head of state. When Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Minister of Defense and later Industry Minister, announced to the world that, “there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as Yasser Arafat is running around alive, “there was no outcry. Not only were there no foreign ambassadors withdrawn from Israel, there were no public criticisms of Israeli’s leaders for encouraging shameful behavior by a public official. The painful question which must be faced, is: why is an Israeli official’s attempt to excite the assassination of a head of state accepted by the civilized world without a murmur?

There is one main reason why we accept outrages behavior by Israeli leaders with little protest. None of us wish to be considered anti-Semitic. To criticize or condemn action by a people who endured a ruthless assault against their very existence is extremely distasteful at its best. In contrast to this commendable motive, there exist a sinister attitude that makes it acceptable for Israeli officials to treat with contempt the life of any Palestinian. The attitude of viewing the Palestinian as less than human is more prevalent in Israel and in the West than it is comfortable for us to admit. Israeli apologists and propagandists have succeeded in convincing the West that to even murder a Palestinian head of state is legitimate strategy. The attitude of Israeli Defense Force soldiers as revealed in a 1989 murder trial is the attitude toward Palestinians of too many in the so-called “civilized world.”

A Palestinian father who had tried to block a doorway inside his home with his body was murdered when armed IDF soldiers chased his son into their house. The murder was not just a quick impulsive killing, but took place over a period of agonizing hours for the victim, who begged to die in order to stop his suffering. Even more horrible, the murder had many Israeli participants. But perhaps the most barbaric part of the slow motion murder was that it had numerous witnesses who could have stopped it when its final stages were carried out at an official Israeli command post.

According to newspaper accounts, in the victims own home, soldiers repeatedly jumped from a bed onto his chest and beat him with rifle butts until blood spurted from his mouth. The severely brutalized father was then mercilessly taken to an Israeli command post where the beating relentlessly continued. For hours, numerous soldiers both watched and took part in the torture, though Israeli law prohibits the beating of prisoners. But as it happened at the arrest of the Messiah Jesus, what was written in Israeli law made no difference to the torturers or witnesses. Jesus was mercilessly beaten for hours, though everything that happened to him at his interrogation, trial and crucifixion was strictly against the laws of Israel.

At the trial of those who together murdered the Palestinian father, one soldier was asked why he watched the beating for hours without stopping it or without reporting it to a superior. He summed up the prevailing attitude of an apparent majority in Israeli when he replied. After making reference to the Palestinians throwing rocks, he stated, “I did not consider them (Arabs) to be human.”

As reported in the Seattle Times, a military policeman investigating the case testified, “the whole chain of command in the IDF told me that if you don’t beat a person to the point where he can’t walk, you haven’t done a thing.”

Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peace-makers….” Abbie Nathan, an Israeli peace activist, talked with Yasser Arafat in order to promote peace between Palestinians and Jews. For his efforts, he was sentenced in October of 1989 to six months in prison. The leaders of Israel decided to punish him for his association with a man who is labeled by these self-righteous leaders as a terrorist. The same leaders who have allowed a military establishment to grow under their watchful eye to the place where the brutal terrorizing of prisoners is not only condoned but encouraged, have the hypocrisy to condemn to prison one of their most fervent peacemakers for talking peace with a man they label as terrorist.

This act of blatant hypocrisy causes us to recall the hypocrisy of the leaders of Israel at Jesus’ trial. While Jesus was falsely accused and unmercifully beaten in the Roman Hall of Judgment, the Jewish leaders would not set their feet inside the building. They wanted to avoid becoming defiled by this Gentile building so that they would remain clean to eat their religious Passover. It did not bother them that the innocent one whom the Passover symbolized was being brutalized and condemned to death because of their own cruel injustice.

Another payment of silver we receive is the willingness of Israel to be our military outpost in the Middle East. The United States formerly had both Iran and Israel to look after our

Middle Eastern interests. Now we have only Israel, and to a lesser extent, Egypt. The Soviet Union has extended its own influence in the Western Hemisphere by using Cuba to represent Soviet interest. Similarly, the United States considers itself dependent military and economically our interests in the Middle East.

It is shameful that there are so many ways our nation has betrayed the Palestinians for a few pieces of silver. This silver may indeed seem to glitter to us now. Nevertheless, in the light of history what we are now proud of will turn out to be worthless.

In order to condemn Isa to death, Israel’s leaders brought to his trial a variety of false witnesses with their lies and misinformation. Similarly, the current government of Israel has consistently resorted to misinformation and deception in their attempt to manipulate local and international public opinion so that they can continue to pursue their territorial conquest. For instance, the Israeli government has publicly insisted that there are no moderate Palestinian leaders with whom to negotiate. The reality is that the Israeli government does everything possible to undermine and even sabotage any emerging moderate leadership so that new leaders who attempt to negotiate with Israeli leaders lose credibility with the people they are supposed to represent. The Israeli government does this in order to insure that there are no serious peace negotiations which would become major obstacles to Israel’s creeping annexation of the occupied territories. Prime Minister Shamir, in January of 1989, is reported to have already stated publicly that he considered the occupied West Bank part of Israel even though this position is in direct violation of International law.

In January 1989, The Financial Times of London reported that Israelis have already bought or seized more than half the area of the West Bank. Rather than Israeli leaders openly admitting their expansionist intent and acknowledging that they are flagrantly breaking international law, they find it more convenient to point their fingers at the Palestinians. They blame the absence of a settlement on the Palestinians who they say are not only terrorists, but are also stubborn and unreasonable.

The Israeli government has consistently attacked the character of PLO chairman and the integrity of anyone who has sympathy for the Palestinian cause or who has credibility with the Palestinian people. Similarly, the leadership in Israel at the time of Isa carried on a consistent propaganda campaign to portray him as a criminal who was totally against the best interests of the people. Yet, the Bible and the Qur’an are definite in their teaching that Isa is faultless.

Admittedly, it is obvious to all that Yasser Arafat, like the rest of us, has definite faults. Nevertheless, it is significant that just as Isa was accused by leaders in Israeli of receiving his inspiration from the devil and demons, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has publicly labeled Arafat’s peace offensive as a “Satanic plot.” The hypocrisy of the Israeli Prime Minister’s severe criticism of Arafat and his past association with terrorism is doubly hypocritical. The Los Angles Times reports that during Israel’s war of independence it was Shamir who led the “Stern Gang” whose primary mode of action was assassination. As history demonstrates to us that it was not Isa who was inspired by Satan, but rather it was his persecutors, we will again wait for history to reveal which of today’s leaders have demonic motivation and which do not. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the Los Angles Times also reports that at the time of Israel’s independence, the Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion celled Shamir and his group, “mad dogs.”

When attempts to ruin Isa’s reputation totally failed, it was decided by Israel’s leaders that assassination was the only way to halt his influence. Apparently that is also the conclusion reached by current Israeli leaders regarding Yasser Arafat. It certainly was not a surprise to most of them when Ariel Sharon made the aforementioned call for Chairman Arafat’s assassination. This was obviously Ariel Sharon’s intention when reportedly stated publicly “there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as Yasser Arafat is running around alive.”

Once again, the statement of an Israeli leader reeks with hypocrisy. For Ariel Sharon to imply that he is more than Yasser Arafat, when there is so much innocent blood dripping from Sharon’s own hands should shock the civilized world.

In Noam Chomsky’s book, The Fateful Triangle, it is reported that in October 1953, an Israeli military unit commanded by Sharon “attacked the Jordanian village of Qibya in alleged reprisal for the killing of a mother and her two children in an Israeli village.” The respected Jewish intellectual, Chomsky, quotes United Nations observes who arrived on the scene two hours after Sharon’s men had completed their work.

“Bullet riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside while their homes were blown up over them. Witnesses were uniform in describing their experience as a night of horror, during which Israeli soldiers moved about in their village, blowing up buildings, firing into doorways and windows with automatic Weapons and throwing hand grenades.”

If such an example of murder is not enough to demonstrate the callousness to human life of Ariel Sharon, it must be remembered that as Defense Minister, he was in charge of the ruthless 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. There, even hospitals and orphanages were reportedly bombed. Not only was their shocking disregard for human life during this invasion, but also the Israeli military under Sharon’s command openly allowed Lebanese Phalangists who could be considered Israeli mercenaries, to massacre an estimated two thousand human beings in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The majority of those massacred were non-combatants, many of whom were women and children. Is it any wonder that the man in charge of such carnage would try to inspire someone to murder Yasser Arafat while Arafat pursues peace?

Another tragic parallel between the Israeli treatment of Isa centuries ago and the victimization of Palestinians today is the twisted way in which religion has been used as an excuse in both time periods. At Jesus’ trial, GOD was called upon by Israeli’s leaders to be a witness against Jesus if he would admit that he considered himself GOD’S anointed Messiaih. When Jesus acknowledged that he was ALLAH’S anointed, the Jewish leaders were certain that it was GOD’S will that he be crucified. Even though the miracles of healing accomplished by Isa clearly demonstrated that he possessed a special anointing by GOD, the nation’s leadership refused to recognize him as GOD’S Messiah. Instead, the leaders agreed that he should be murdered, even though he faithfully told them the truth.

Today it must be acknowledged that many leaders of Israel do not use GOD or the Bible as an excuse for anything. Many of these leaders would not even claim to believe in GOD. Nevertheless, there is a drive by influential leaders in Israel for constant expansion of its borders. They will pursue this expansion until the people whom the leadership decides are Jews; regain all the land the Israeli nation once occupied in the days of its biblical glory. What is especially tragic about this concept is that it convinces many Israelis that whatever suffering comes to Palestinians during the Israeli land reclamation project is the will of GOD. Therefore, since they reason that they are carrying out GOD’S purposes by constantly expanding their borders, they rationalize that they are relieved of any obligation to govern themselves by civilized standards of morality.

Tragically, there are numerous Christians who consider themselves Christian Zionists, who consistently encourage Israelis to continue in this misguided attitude. They, too, mistakenly believe that GOD encourages Israelis to use immorality in order to accomplish what they think are His purposes. This immorality may take many forms. It may be stealing land by extortion, manipulation or murder. Or it may even be manipulating archaeological findings and ancestral lineage in order to distort and control which persons will be considered descendents of Abraham and which will not. This immoral maneuvering defies all standards of justice.

Additionally, it must be constantly kept in perspective that Ishmael was not only the first-born son of Abraham, but he was also the first son to be brought into the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision. Though the Bible does distinguish between the promises made to the second son of Abraham, Isaac, and his first born, Ishmael, it is very clear that it is not GOD’S will that the descendents of the one whom He twice rescued from imminent death, whom He personally named “GOD Hears,” who was the first son of the patriarch Abraham, and who was the first member of the covenant of circumcision, be ruthlessly excluded from the land in which they have lived for centuries. It is not GOD’S will that they be treated like insects in that land. Even though Israel’s leaders have proclaimed that they are insects.

Today in the West Bank and Gaza, history is repeating itself. Isa is again being crucified. Israel, when under Roman rule, could not face the exposure of its policies that Isa forced it to face, so Israeli leaders attempted to permanently end his life. Now the modern state of Israel cannot face the exposure of its corrupt and hypocritical policies that the Palestinians are forcing them to face. Consequently, Israeli leaders are manipulating the Jewish people to attempt to rid themselves of the Palestinians forever.

This tragic historical defect of Israeli leaders attempting to destroy those who would ask them to live by their own ethical foundations, brings us to our final parallel between the cruel victimization of Palestinians today, and the brutal crucifixion of Isa two-thousand years ago. Yet, this final parallel is what gives the other parallels their ultimate meaning. This meaning, instead of being negative, will be glorious. This meaning may begin to repay the terrible cost of the sacrifices of blood paid by Palestinians. The lives of innocent Palestinians who have been crushed by the ruthless Israeli military machine, will not be restored to life after three days of death, as the Messiah Isa was. But, these martyrs will not have died in vain.

Just as the attitudes and actions of Israeli leaders could not prevent Isa from defeating death, no Israeli leader will ultimately defeat the Palestinians. Isa’s glorious resurrection totally over shadowed the injustice and horror of his crucifixion. Even so, the present struggle will end in new life for Palestinians. Truth and justice will triumph. Death and bondage will finally be replaced by life, liberty and dignity.

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