Would a father, moreso a father who was the staunchest adherent to the Father Most High, ever have denied any of his children a home? For those who are fostering hatred and perpetuating conflict among the children of Abraham, they will certainly face the dire wrath of other fathers.
The stark images of starving, wounded, dead and dying babies should tear at the heartstrings of any humane, merciful person; but even if this happens, policies that dictate programmes and actions create irrelevancies of the doctrines of mercy, tolerance and compassion.
When the Jews were hounded out of their homes in Europe and denied a piece of earth to call home, they purchased, with whatever wealth remained to them after the depredations of the world (the upliftment of which they had contributed to immensely in a myriad ways over the centuries), lands that they believed were promised to them in the book of their faith by the Lord of their faith.
This dispossessed people did not wage war to acquire these lands, mainly swamp and desert lands; they purchased parcels of vast acreages from Arab landowners, and issued an open invitation to oppressed members of their community the world over, then ran the British blockades in patched-up vessels that traversed the oceans to bring members of their community to the land that they named Israel.
This movement rivalled the Exodus of Biblical fame. Leon Uris’ moving book of the same name depicts the story of the Jewish people’s Herculean struggles to reconstruct their Biblical homeland from the Negev Desert and barren lands.
They piped water into the Negev, and through clever architectural landscaping, they created thriving farms out of the swamp and desert lands that no-one really wanted, and established communes, where everyone worked as a collective for the common good, using their immense expertise and brilliance to rise above their circumstances.
And they co-existed peacefully with neighbouring Arab villages, sharing their water and development procedures to restructure the lives and lifestyles of a people who had long been neglected and exploited by their own leaders. But this harmonious co-existence was not acceptable to the warmongers, who instigated members of Palestinian villages to initiate murderous sorties into the Israeli communes, which led to the Six-Day War, and the consequential dislocation of Palestinians from their own homes, and which was the genesis of the present-day hatred and distrust between Palestinians and Israelis, and the homelessness of Palestinians.
Palestinians who live within Israel’s borders are said to enjoy the same quality of life as the Israelis; but this is not acceptable to the warmongers, so they continue to foster hatred and distrust between Israelis and Palestinians.
Oil-rich Arabian Heads-of-State live in absolute splendour, while most of their people live in squalor. The development dimensions of nation states the world over could be immeasurable if assets and resources are levelled off in equitable distribution to enable citizens to meet their basic needs, which is what the Israelis were doing with their communes. This has led Israel to become a world-power and a force to reckon with in the fiscal dynamics of the world; but what have the Arab leaders, with all their oil wealth, provided to their people?
There have been instances of genocide, even against their own people, who they should have protected instead. Witness Saddam Hussein and his murderous rampages against the citizens over whom he ruled and other rulers of his ilk.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan propounded the concept of the human family living in a global village. Life is a journey from birth to death. Within the timeframe and parameters of that journey, where is the satisfaction of oppressing another member of this human family, instead of contributing to its welfare and development?
An angry nation of Israel, the citizens of which live in constant fear of being targeted by Arab extremists, has retaliated with a vengeance that is witnessing the destruction of property and innocent lives. But within that nation resides many in whom the qualities of mercy, compassion, and charity supersede the vengefulness of their leaders, who have convinced themselves that they have no recourse to protect their citizens than to resort to this war, which is causing so much suffering on the innocent more than the guilty. And it is up to the ordinary people of Israel; the mothers and fathers, to say ‘Stop the carnage! Enough is enough!’
Some other strategy is needed, whereby the ordinary Palestinian people, and the ordinary Israeli people can force their leaders to some kind of armistice; where some strategy is devised for each to have a homeland of their own; and where they can negotiate terms for peaceful co-existence.
Peaceful resolution of this unceasing conflict is an imperative; and it is up to the peoples within both communities to force their leaders to accept the reality that each nation needs a homeland, otherwise these Children of Abraham could very well precipitate Armageddon.