A Present World Problem: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Ananda Tara Shan, 10 April, 2002

The Israeli-Palestinian problem is an ancient problem that stems from the time of Abraham.  The story of Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, is a story about a house divided by pettiness, bitterness, jealousy and sisterly hatred between Abraham's wife Sarah, and Hagar, his mistress.  Brotherly-sisterly racial hatred is as old as time itself.  And no different from ancient times and civilisations, the fight for supremacy, land, food and religious beliefs is still to be found at the core of the many conflicts we see around the world today.

            Let us look at the present situation in Israel.  The biggest piece of land owned by the Jews in Palestine was bought legally from Arabian Sheiks around the beginning of the last century at the time of the Ottoman Empire, and later, additional land was bought under the British Mandate.  Supported by the UN, Israel became a state in 1948, as Jews began to arrive from devastated Europe after World War II - victims of the Holocaust, because the world did not lift a finger to help them when the Germans tried to exterminate them in the concentration camps.
 
            Israel's first war with its Arabian neighbours occurred in 1948, one day after its establishment.  Other wars followed.  Israel has tried to live in peace with its neighbouring countries since then, because most of its inhabitants are not given to aggression and religious warfare with any human beings.  But Muslim terrorist factions in certain countries, who have never wanted to live in peace with any of their neighbours, began their own private war with Israel, and later also, the USA, England, Australia and other countries representing freedom and democracy, calling it a 'holy war,' as if such a name somehow magically should whitewash the low and cowardly attacks upon non-military men and women, as well as children.  All those who are not called to worship Allah and live by harsh inhuman Islamic laws, which restrict many from a free life, are now their enemies.  With promises of great rewards in heaven, young men and women, full of implanted rage towards the Israelis, and with support by family and friends, kiss the world goodbye in an intoxication of “holy martyrdom”, storm into Israel's streets, buses, cafés, etc., and kill innocent people not understanding the true issues at hand.  This has placed Israel with its back against the wall.  Like a threatened animal, fighting for its life, Israel is trying to root out the terrorists before the whole country is totally paralysed with fear of where the next bomb will be descending, taking away a loved one.

            The Palestinians and Israelis could have come to live in peace with each other, had it not been for the constant propaganda and the raging hatred, which have been indoctrinated into the Palestinians, who are being exploited by terrorists, armed to the teeth, not wishing to live in peace with either Israel or other countries due to their own hidden agenda for overpowering the world with their rigid view of life and religious practices.  If we truly look at the now nearly impossible situation, which may well be the open door to starting World War III, both parties in the armed conflict have made awful mistakes, which are, of course, not helping to hold together the delicate and narrow balance of the peace process.  Yet it is important to recognise that the Islamic fanatics and terrorists do not only want supremacy of Jerusalem and the state of Israel – they want to overpower the world.  The Muslim-Judaic conflict is a conflict threatening to spread to the entire Earth, involving the entire human family, and becoming a 'holy war,' enforced upon humanity by those Muslim terrorists who see themselves as slighted by the Western world. 

            Where does the seething hatred displayed by the Islamic fanatics come from, one might ask.  Could it be the usual belief so many orthodox people have that their religion is the 'only true religion' and that all other people who believe differently should be exterminated?  Why are Islamic fanatics so jealous and full of disdain towards Western cultures and not content to live life as they please and let others live their life as they wish?  Certainly, the rage is without reason, without end.  They even hate their own race, their own people too, and try to pressure them into living under inhumane living conditions, and rule all men with rules never given by God who loves all His-Her children on Earth equally.

True, many people on Earth show disdain towards their fellow human beings, but the Palestinian-Israel conflict is a burning point, which, if not stopped, will be used to bring about decay and destruction to all people on the planet.  For not only does the Middle-East conflict represent an age-old struggle between two brother-sister people - it has become a crucial trial for humanity to see whether they can, for the first time really, stand up for the Jewish race.  The way the Jewish race has been treated for more than 2000 years, culminating in the Holocaust in World War II, is still noticeable today in many people's feelings and thoughts towards them.

            Jews believe in God.  They believe in the Will of God and that belief gives them the strength that has upheld them throughout countless persecutions and traumas.  This belief makes the Jewish people a people who to others may seem indestructible, for it is this belief that has made them survive pogroms, concentration camps, and ludicrous accusations, based upon vile imaginations and harmful innuendoes.  The intolerance, narrow-minded and bigoted behaviour of many nations towards them has brought shame upon the human race.  The injustice towards the Jewish race is analogous with the injustice shown towards Afro-Americans, Native Americans, Australian aboriginals, and Maoris, whose maltreatment and abuse lie equally heavily on the human conscience.  The errors of people's actions towards minorities have created world-karma , which we now behold as karma being released on the physical level of Earth.  However, the karma may be eased and somewhat neutralised if the world community now really recognises its responsibility in the Middle-East crisis, and truly assists the peace process with actions instead of empty words.

            In order to create peace, Jerusalem must be made a neutral city, not owned or administered by any government, but by a council of people who have goodwill towards all.  People of various belief systems, Israelis and Palestinians, must learn to respect each other's varied background.  The children must be educated with understanding and not brainwashed with hatred, as is seen done to Palestinian children in schools.  The Israelis should leave the occupied territories.  The borders should disappear between Israel and its neighbouring countries.  Israel and Palestine should be one state, with a government that is shared by both Israeli and Palestinians.  The two people must fuse.  Otherwise, they will destroy each other.  And with their destruction, they will take much of humanity with them.  The change will take a whole generation, but should start now.

Israeli fanatics murdered Rabin the peacemaker, who may have aided a liveable solution to the conflict.  Rabin and President Clinton were people whose visions were of a peaceful humanity, sharing and caring for each other.  There are no perfect human beings, but there are those people whose hearts are black and whose tongues are blackened by malicious and foul words, which are uttered to enrage fellow human beings to genocide in the name of whatever God they think will promote such inhuman and bestial actions.  No matter the mistakes on both sides, we must realise that this geographically minute state of Israel, surrounded by an abundance of Arabian territory, is being held ransom by fundamental Muslims, who like the shadow of the world, yet again are using the Jewish race as a scapegoat to avoid looking at their own unredeemed aspects of the human psyche.

I pray that the healing process will take place, not only in the Middle-East but in the Earth and within the entire human family.

Ananda Tara Shan
(Rev Jeanne De Murashkin)
The Theosophical Fellowship
Daylesford, Victoria, Australia

Compiled by Thomas William Nielsen

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