Israel vs. the world

Well over 4,000 years ago, our Bible tells us that the Jewish people entered the Promised Land, present-day Israel.

Chapter 13 of the book of Numbers states that Moses sent 12 spies into the land to check it out; report on the crops grown, the people already living there and what it would take to conquer the land. Of the 12 spies that reported back to Moses, 10 were naysayers and two, Caleb and Joshua, encouraged Moses to proceed. Well, the majority won the day and the Lord's people elected to turn back, wander the wilderness, and train up a new generation of warriors. Only then, 40 years later, did the new generation gain the courage to follow Joshua, cross the Jordan River and capture the land that had been promised to them by their Lord.

A similar sequence of events happened in 1948 following the disruption and redefining of countries borders by politicians at the close of World War II. Germany's National Socialist Dictator Adolph Hitler had taught the Jewish people that there was no safety in depending on the good feelings and largess of some dictator for their future well-being as citizens of a country ruled by non-Jews.

It was then that the Jews again developed a backbone and,overthrew their colonial administrators to establish a democratic republic, a country of their own. Their chosen land was exactly where their Lord had promised Moses so many years earlier.

It is interesting to note that when the new Israelis pursued their war of liberation, the non-Jews, some 300,000 in number and calling themselves Palestinians, deserted the territory of the new Israel and became refugees in surrounding lands. When they came to realize that they had no right of return to their homes in the New Israel they forced the Jews living in their new Palestine territory, also about 300,000 people, out of their homes to become refugees in Israel.

Israel welcomed the Jewish refugees with open arms, along with thousands upon thousands of Jews from all over the world who had become dissatisfied with life in their adopted countries and immigrated to Israel. The result is modern-day Israel, though small, which has become an ethnically diverse dynamic economic powerhouse in the world economy.

The non-Jew Palestine residents of the now predominately Jewish Israel were welcome to stay in their new country and have become the most prosperous and free Muslims in the world today. Several even serve in the Knesset at the moment. The story of the Palestinian refugees that left Israel is completely different and sad. Their neighboring Arab countries refused to take them in, and so they live in squalid refugee camps, even today. These are the people who at the moment are clamoring to form a new state on a par with their close neighbor Israel. Yet they refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist and have fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately into Israel to kill as many Jews as possible. Some neighbors!

Unfortunately modern-day Israel is surrounded by neighbors who, like Hitler, seem to have an inborn hatred of the Jews. Possibly that hatred is taught to their children at a young age but nevertheless, that hatred is palpable and most of those neighbors would like nothing more than to see all Jews exterminated and Israel banished from the earth.

The whole situation in the Middle East reminds me of one of my old neighbors and good friend. Wayne Boyer kept a pack of coyote hunting dogs. They numbered from three or four up to as many as a dozen when Olive would put her foot down and declare NO MORE. Wayne's coyote hounds were a non-descript pack of greyhounds, mostly hot-bloods that he had picked up from a dog track somewhere or traded with other coyote hunting buddies. A keen observer of animal behavior, Wayne could call most by name and tell you which was a foot or throat coyote killer, which could run the fastest and which would fight the quarry or stand back until another grabbed the coyote.

Wayne also kept a German shepherd, a typical farm dog. The shepherd didn't hunt with the coyote hounds but they tolerated him in their midst around the place. Now the shepherd could whip any one of the greyhounds one-on-one, but whenever he tried, the whole pack piled into the melee and Wayne said they would have killed him just like they killed a coyote when they caught one. Wayne stated that he had to step in to separate the combatants whenever he heard a fight in progress. Then, the shepherd would lick his wounds, slowly heal and peace would prevail for awhile. However the Shepherd's memory was poor and after awhile he would slip up and snap at a greyhound, probably over a scrap of food, and it would be fight-on again.

It seems to me that what happens with the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East is similar to Wayne's shepherd-and-greyhound squabbles. The Arabs, like the shepherd, seem to forget that the fight will be bloody and they can only hope that the United States will step in and stop the war when they decide to take on Israel once again. In the three major conflicts of the past it was always the aggressor against Israel that lost and lost badly. The Israelis would conquer the foreign invaders land and occupy it until the United Nations would step in and force Israel to negotiate and make all sorts of concessions to their angry neighbors all in the false promise of world peace.

And, yes, the Israelis have always had a friend in the United States. An ally to side with them by supplying arms and other aid as needed. However, they seem to have some doubt that our present president will continue to be a reliable friend. It is interesting to watch and I can't help but wish them well. Their situation at the moment looks dire but I have faith that Israel will win the epic struggle in the end.

That is the way I see it.

Dick Trail