|
The Birth Date of Fratricide: May 14, 1948
by William A. Cook
May 14th, 2008, marks the anniversary of two momentous events, the “Declaration of Independence” of the new born state of Israel and the calamitous day of infamy, the al Nakba, that marks both the massacre in their homes of Palestinian people or their mournful march into exile.
Ironically, like the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, this date carries the mark of the Almighty, brothers in blood, enemies in intent.
Listen to Cain as he walks beside his brother along the path of death:
- “There is no judgment and no judge and no world to come! No reward will be given to the righteous nor any account given of the wicked.”
“The voice of your brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”
Such is the belief of those who would declare their independence
of any responsibility for their brother, accept any blame for their
deception as they accompany him to his death, or bear any guilt for the
wickedness they inflict. Without judgment for behavior determined as
good or bad, without reward for acts of love or compassion, without
retribution for evil and wickedness against his brother, Cain is free
to do what he wills to do. Ultimate freedom, a declaration indeed of
independence.
Abel responds to his brother in the only terms left
to him as he walks to his death, a plea to conscience that binds all in
mutual existence, a belief that “There is indeed a judgment and a Judge
and a world to come … and the wicked will be called to account.”
Without that understanding, those who will can, with impunity, plunder
the poor, oppress the defenseless, act to pervert justice, and wreck
violence and bloodshed on the world.
This May 14th, as the State
of Israel basks in the congratulatory speeches of Australian, Canadian,
and American legislators, as our talking heads wax poetic on the screen
about turning an empty land into a land flowing with milk and honey, as
the myth of a people returned to their ancestral homeland engulfs the
airwaves obliterating the very existence of the indigenous people who
live there, as we are told again and again that this new Israel is
threatened by the Islamo fascists and Hamas terrorists who intend to
erase it from the map, the people of Palestine are left alone in an
ever more constricted prison left to the mercilessness of their
oppressors who plunder their land and wreck violence and bloodshed on
the defenseless.
As scenes of joy and lavish festivities glow on the
television screen, would the people of the world, could the people of
the world imagine the misery that engulfs the harried families
encircled by the Jewish forces that have locked down their every
movement?
These people, once locked behind walls themselves, once the
victims of might imposed by brute power, once the abject objects of
humiliating abuse, once the forgotten of the world crying in the wind
for solace and comfort, now clothe themselves in the uniforms of the
occupying forces that drove their fathers and mothers to the railroad
cars and the chambers of death, isolated and alone, now resurrected as
a new nation replete with all the heinous accouterments that have given
license to the most depraved peoples on the earth to inflict their
avarice, plunder, deceit, and instinctive debauchery on the
defenseless.
The Israelis have now revealed themselves to be animals of
prey that corral their victims into corners where rapine and love of
bloodshed rule the heart, driven by passions to obliterate from their
fellow man any shred of happiness so long as subtlety, malice and force
triumph over weakness or even the semblance of justice. On this the
sixtieth birthday of the “new” Jewish State, should we not welcome
Israel to the ranks of nations that have inflicted their devastating
power on the indigenous people they invaded, the people they massacred
at Deir Yassin and its brother towns that were destroyed in the
merciless rampage that marked the months before the May 14 birth, and
those now caught behind the Wall of Hate that pens them in like cattle
subjecting them to a slow ethnic cleansing and calculated genocide,
should we not welcome Israel to the ranks of the very nations that
extol them for establishing their nation on the graves of those they’ve
slaughtered – Australia, Canada and the United States?
What
power resides in the indifference that accepts no responsibility; what
amorality accompanies the arrogance of racism that denies a brothers’
equality; what savagery exists when impunity rules. Beneath the elegant
and glistening glass of the ballroom chandeliers, the toastmaster lifts
his crystal goblet of blood red wine for the fourth time, oblivious to
the irony he holds in his hand, and calls to all assembled to
congratulate all who made possible the new birth of Israel, especially
the comatose former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who did so much to
design and implement the creation of this state that stands atop the
towns and villages of its former inhabitants.
Beyond that ballroom,
beyond the pearl necklaces draped around elegant ladies standing
demurely beside their husbands imperially dressed in pin striped suits,
beyond the blue glass façade of this modern skyscraper, beyond the
beaches and umbrellas that line the Mediterranean, beyond the clean and
tidy streets where shoppers roam through rich goods from all over the
world that fill jewelry cases and store fronts, beyond the annoying
gray wall that slides in the shadows behind hedges, unseen, unheard,
ignored, live in squalor and want the people who resided in Palestine
for centuries upon centuries reduced now to beggars dependent for their
food on people from nations they do not know, homes reduced to rubble
in a landscape of rubble, thousands upon thousands homeless, living in
Gaza without electricity, without running water, without sanitation –
the living detritus of indifference, arrogance and appalling
inhumanity. And for pointing this out, for giving voice to the reality
they do not want their own people to see nor let the world see, the
Zionist government and its lackeys will cry foul, declaim such words as
hate speech, anti-Semitism, when in fact it is the state of Israel that
is anti-Semitic, that is filled with hate speech splattered on the very
wall of fear they have erected, hate against the Palestinians, and the
destroyer of the soul of Judaism.
Let us learn from this ancient
Biblical story of blood brothers that appears in Genesis 4:1-16 and the
Qur’an 5:26-32, as well as in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q242, that we see
metaphorically a depiction of the first innocent victim of the power of
evil. Ironically, it is that victim, according to the Book of Enoch
(22:7) and the Testament of Abraham (A:13/B:11), that is raised to the
position of “judge of souls.” God proclaims that each man shall be
judged by men, and ultimately by the 12 tribes of Israel and the last
judgment by the Lord Himself shall be perfect and unchangeable.
“The
voice of your brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground,” cries
the Lord, and so the act must be judged and justice done. All humankind
will don the robes of justice to condemn the fratricide; all 12 tribes
of Israel will sit in judgment on their own; and God Almighty will cast
the ultimate curse -- the very ground Cain tilled, the land he stole
from his brother, will no longer yield fruit and, as a consequence, he
will be a fugitive once more and a wanderer on the earth. Thus will
Cain’s intent -- satiating his selfishness, appeasing his jealousy,
releasing his aggression – reveal the disconnect between his inherent
evil and his higher nature.
In time these are the birth
gifts Israel will inherit from a world that is witness to its wanton
killing of its brother, the Semitic people of Palestine, who die daily
one by one in the scorching heat of the noon day sun, forgotten and
alone. No candles light the darkness now, no songs are sung, no ribbons
adorn the gifts, no laughter greets the guests, for the Nakba is not a
day of celebration, it is a mark of catastrophic wickedness that tolls
the death knell of the Jewish soul even as it blares to the world the
power of indifference to one’s brother, the ultimate birthright that
severs the very blood of the family. And so will the words of Isiah
ring on this day: “Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forgotten
the Lord.” May all of us who hear that cry not forget, that evil may
be purged from the earth.
 |
Writings 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Yadayadayada.
At least get some facts straight, Komrade. The Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank are negotiating,
but the Hamas goons in Gaza strip, which the Israelis left several years ago are still attacking on a daily basis with rockets and other attacks.And to hell with developing their own economy. They're content to be puppets of Iran. Gaza is bristling with weapons. And They're so screwed up and lawless that even the Egyptians close their border to them.