October 17, 2007 Eli E. HertzPart 3
Palestinian Arabs have concentrated many of their terrorist attacks on Jews in Jerusalem, hoping to win the city by an onslaught of suicide bombers who will make life in the City of Peace unbearable. But this is not a new tactic. Arab strategy to turn Jerusalem into a battleground began in 1920.
Unfortunately, Arab leaders often turn to violence to gain what they were unable to achieve at the negotiating table. When talks broke down at Camp David in 2000, Palestinian Arab leaders unleashed the al-Aqsa Intifada, which has amounted to a full-blown guerrilla war against Israel.
It began the day before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when Arab mobs hurled rocks from the Temple Mount onto Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall below. That rock attack turned into a steady campaign of terrorist attacks. As the priming powder for the Intifada, Palestinian leaders incited Palestinians and Muslims throughout the world with fables that falsely suggested that Jews began an assault on al-Aqsa when Ariel Sharon made a half-hour visit to the Temple Mount during tourist hours. The truth is that Palestinians' plans for warfare had begun immediately after Arafat walked out of the Camp David talks.
Why do Palestinians focus terrorist attacks on the City of Peace? Because Palestinians despite their rhetoric fully understand Jerusalem's symbolic and spiritual significance to the Jewish people.
Suicide attacks on public buses, cafes, malls, and other crowded sites in the heart of the city since the 1993 Oslo Accords, are designed to make life hell for Jewish Jerusalemites. Atrocities like the February and March 1996 bombings of two #18 buses that killed 26 people and the August 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria that killed 15 (including five members of one family), are part of an ongoing 120-year-old battle for Jerusalem that Arabs have waged in opposition to Zionism.
In April 1920, a three-day rampage by religiously incited anti-Zionist Arab mobs left six dead and 200 injured in the Jewish Quarter. The attackers gutted synagogues and yeshivot and ransacked homes. Arabs planted time bombs in public places as far back as February 1947, when they blasted Ben-Yehuda Street, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, leaving 50 dead. This was all done before the establishment of the State of Israel. In the 1950s, Jordanians periodically shot at Jewish neighborhoods from the walls of the Old City. After the city was united in 1967, Arabs renewed their battle for the city by planting bombs in cinemas and supermarkets. The first terrorist attack in that renewed battle came with the 1968 bombing of Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda, the open market, that left 12 dead. The plain facts about Palestinians' behavior clearly demonstrates that they have forfeited any claims - historical, religious or political - to the City of Peace.
Click here to read the entire chapter and notes about Jerusalem
Copyright 2007 Myths and Facts, Inc. and Eli E. Hertz
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Why I love Israel
reprinted from ArabsforIsrael.com
Why I love Israel
By an Arab Egyptian, with a Muslim background and an ex-member of one of the most fanatical Islamic groups in the history of Islam (JI).T. Abdelhamid
I am a typical Arab- Egyptian- with a Muslim background.As any Arab, I was brought up on hating Israel and the Jews. When I was four years old, the dehumanisation of the Jews everywhere around me led me to imagine them as green ugly people full of evil.
In the age of six or seven my father who was secular and open minded was reading in a history book and he showed me a photo.This photo will never be erased from my memory as it was for a whole family without clothes and the father was opening of his eyes in a combination of fear, shock and inability to believe what is happening to him and his family.My dad said to me in this moment “ these people are called Jews and some one is called Hitler put them in ovens to burn them alive”. My dad was telling this from pure historical point of view. I went to my room and wept over this man and these people.Since then, every thing changed in my mind regarding the Jews and despite the extreme hatred toward them in the media, in the schools, and everywhere around me, I could not hate them and, in fact I sympathised with them.This creates a feeling in me that I should meet these people, talk to them, and try to understand them.As I grew up the hatred in my community was increasing but my feelings did not change.One day, in my school in Egypt, the teacher asked us to draw something called Bahr Albaquar. They told all the students that Israel attacked a kindergarten and killed the Egyptian kids intentionally. They portrayed Israel and the Jews as bloodsuckers who enjoy killing young Arab kids.I used to draw this on sheet of paper as I was a young student and I had to obey the teacher, but my feelings toward the Jews remained the same and my desire to see them and talk to them had not changed.
Later in my life, and when I was 15 years old, I met in a family occasion with some doctor who used to work in the area of Bahr Albaquar and he told me the shocking truth. The man was telling that this area was a pure military area and the commander of it decided to open a kindergarten for the kids of those who work in the military unite just 48 hours before the Israeli attack and consequently when Israel attacked it they were attacking it on military basis and they never knew of the sudden unpredicted decision of the commander of this military unit.When I heard this I felt that my whole government was betraying all of us just to make us hate Israel and to portray the Jews as blood suckers. The moment I heard this story was the moment when I really felt I was betrayed all my life. I decided not to believe my government any more when they talk about Israel and my desire to talk to the Jews and hear their views from their point of view was even increased.
After this stage I started to join the Islamic movements in the late 1970’s and I actually joined one of the most fundamental Islamic groups back then (Jamaha Islamia). This was the group that produced Alzawahire, the top organiser of Alquaida.After relatively very short period of time I started to feel that my personality that was open to others, that accepted difference, and that loved peace is changing gradually into a real evil personality.
I felt I will become a real satanic beast if I continued with this group and I started to withdraw from the group “JI” and I developed a new small peaceful sect within the Islamic religion itself. This sect was not only peaceful, but also tolerates difference, and promotes love, care, and compassion to all humans irrespective of their deeds.According to this sect which follow only the Quran rather than Hadith (written traditions about Mohamed or Sunna) I had totally different view about Israel and the Jews as you will see next.Based on my interpretation of the Quranic verses which was based on literal pure language interpretation rather than a historical one, I used to love the word, love the meaning, and love the concept of Israel.
Let me now explain this to you in more details.
The word Israel for me was the name of one of the greatest profits that as described in the Quran among those who shed tears when they listen to the words of G-d. Just read the following verse to understand my feeling toward the word Israel:( Quran 19:58 Those were some of the prophets on whom God did bestow His Grace,- of the posterity of Adam, and of those who We carried (in the Ark) with Noah, and of the posterity of Abraham and Israel of those whom We guided and chose. Whenever the Signs of ((God)) Most Gracious were rehearsed to them, they would fall down in prostrate adoration and in tears.)
As the reader can see, the verse just made me love the word Israel.Sadly, most Muslims correlate the word Israel to the word “Azraeil” that sound near to Israel but has a totally different meaning as the latter is the name of the ‘Angel of death” that takes the life of people. This created a link in the mind of most Muslims’ children that made them hate the word Israel as it was linked to death so that the first thing they are brought up with is to hate the word “Israel”.
I loved the meaning, because the word Jews in Arabic language is “Yahood”. Even though most Arabs hate this word but for me the case was the opposite for the following reason.The word ‘Yahood” in pure literal Arabic language is derived from the word “Hado and Hudna” which mean “returned back”. This word , according to the Quran, was given as a gift from G-d to the Israelites when they “returned back” to him. The following Quranic verse describes this moment when the Israelites were called “Yahood” because they “Hado or Hudna” or “returned back” to G-d: (7:156 the Israelites said: "And ordain for us that which is good, in this life and in the Hereafter: for we have turned unto Thee ‘Hudna Ilaik’.").According to this literal Arabic interpretation, I loved the word ‘Jews” even more and more.I used to ask people around me why do you hate the Jews while this beautiful word represents those who “returned back” to G-d. Sadly, I had no answer as the hatred for the Jews among Arabs and Muslims made them blind to any logic.
In addition, to the word Israel and the meaning the word Jews, I also loved the concept of gathering such wonderful nation from everywhere around the earth into their homeland again. For me, according to the Quran, this represented the power of G-d who saved the Jews from the evil of pharaoh (28:4 Truly Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them (children of Israel): their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females to rape them: for he was indeed a maker of mischief 28:5 And We wished to be Gracious to those who were being depressed in the land, to make them guiding lights and leaders (in Faith) and make them heirs). Furthermore, and again according to the Quran itself, G-d gave the Israelites the land as their promised land (17:104 And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land of promise":
The Quran went even further to consider the Promised Land as the permanent inheritance for the Israelites (26:59 Thus it was, but We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things (the promised land)In addition, the Quran considered that G-d wrote the Promised Land to the Israelites as a final contract (5:21 "O my people (the Jews)! Enter the holy land which God hath assigned unto you).
For me, I loved the G-d that saved his people, kept them alive while other and even more powerful nations disappeared, a G-d who kept his promise.
In addition to the above discussion and according to the some other unambiguous Quranic verses G-d will gather the Israelites again into their promised land before the end of the world (Quran [17:104] And we said to the Children of Israel afterwards, “scatter and live all over the world…and when the end of the world is near we will gather you again into the Promised Land”).
This last verse proves that the Quran is declaring that it is the will of G-d himself to gather the children of Israel again in their promised land before the end days. Accordingly, No Muslim has the right to interfere with gathering the Jews in Israel again as this is the will of G-d himself. The latter verse made me look at Israel as the ultimate representation of G-d’s power and the wonderful declaration of his existence.
My view was that if Muslims are unhappy with these Quranic verses they should not blame me as I am not the one who invented them and if they refused these great meanings about the Jews and Israel they should stand, look to the sky and said to “Allah” we are not happy with your Quran!.
I think the reader can now imagine what can happen to a man like me who preached these views in the midst of the Muslim world. I will not tell what happened to me as it is violent and will be very painful to many readers but I will tell you the end result which was that I left every thing behind me, my house, my car, my good Job in Saudi Arabia and immigrated to the West.
After this relatively religious stage in which I used to preach Islam in a totally different manner, I started to look at the Middle East from a logical point of view rather than a religious view.
This can be elucidated when an Egyptian secular person asked me one day “Why do you love Israel”. I said to him I want you to think in two countries, country A and country B rather than thinking in Israel and Arabs and just be honest to yourself. Then I said to him country A respects you as a human being who can stand against the government, respect your freedom to choose your religion or believe, and the son of its president can not even dare to touch your wife or rape her or otherwise he would punished with no mercy, while in country B your basic human rights are not respected, you have no choice for your religion, and the son of its president can rape your wife and no one will dare to say to him” this is wrong”. Obviously I was referring to Israel by country A and to the Arab world by country B in which human right activists are thrown into prison if they spoke against the government e.g. Saad Eldi Ibrahim, the Human Rights activist, in Egypt, people can not change their religion e.g. In Saudi Arabia and many Islamic countries the death penalty is applied to any one who dare to convert from Islam, and the son of the president can rape the wife of any one and no one can criticise this e.g. Uddai the sun of Saddam Hussein used to do this regularly without any punishment!.
I then asked my friend, which country do you think you should love more….is it country A or country B ?, which country you should respect more … country A or country B, and which country you should defend with your own blood…country A or country B.
The man just could not answer my questions and looked down!
As a man who just want to be honest, I will never forget when Israel Air Forces was above Cairo in 1967 in a war that, as usual, initiated by the Arabs, they could have destroyed the whole of Cairo but they did not do that. This for me represents the highest degree of civilisation ever as I know very well that if the opposite had happened and the Arabs were above Tel Aviv with their Air forces they would not have hesitated for even a second to destroy all of it.
I will never forget Israel the country, Israel the civilisation, Israel the great meaning that put its sons and daughters at risk to select the terrorists who hide in between the civilians instead of killing without discrimination , Israel the democracy that allows all different religions to exist on its land (compare this to Saudi Arabia that prevents any other people but Muslims from practicing their own religions, dose not allow any Non-Muslims to built their temples to pray, or even having their religious books with them).For these reason I will never forget Israel…….the “Flower” of the Middle East.
When I mentioned the word “Flower” an instant flashback happened in my mind to remember one of the poems I wrote about Israel.
I wrote this poem after I saw a movie called “the pianist” that materialised the suffering of such great Jewish nation. It was late at night when the movie was over but I could not stop my hands for writing some words to describe the story of Israel…..my hand were shaking and my neck pains were killing me but I continued the story and I wrote :
They want to kill the flower but the flower will never die
Thousands of years agoa flower was bornit was the most beautiful one among all the flowersthe flower was called Israel
the lord said….this is going to be my flower to witness my name and speak about my might and beautyI will give her a charming beauty and I will make all the earth smell its perfume
The spikes went jealous and they decided to kill the flowerThey injured her many timesAnd its perfume dropped like tears on its soft papers
The flower went sad and started to die…….then………and all of a sudden…. it awaked and cried… I will never ever die and I will not let the spikes kill me….I will fight with my perfume and resist their evil with my softness…..and the spikes surrounded her….and the flower was groaning in pain…. the lord listened to her groaning and his voice filled the earth and the skies……”I swear with my holiest name I will never leave you to die ….my most beautiful flower…..and I will make the whole earth smell your perfume and see your charm and beauty”.
The Lord promised her a gift….a new land to grow and blossomAnd what the Lord had said …happened…..and the new garden was called .. JerusalemAnd the beautiful flower went to its new land….and it grew and blossomed.(I refer here to saving the Jewish nation from the Pharoahs when they were in Egypt) The spikes went crazy……and they swore they will threw the flower out of its new land……and sadly….. it happened(I refer here to the destruction of the first temple)
The flower was in pain and it complained to its G-dAnd the Lord swore.……”I will return you smiling…my beloved flower…. to your land” …. the lord kept his promise…. and the beautiful flower returned back to its garden…..the holist of holies…..Jerusalem…..and it kept growing and it blossomed
Then………...all the spikes united and said….we will not have any mercy with her this time…..….and they started to injure her…..caused her to suffer pain……made her sad…..and finally………… the flower was bleeding her perfume….And the perfume was smelled everywhere …..(I refer here to the destruction of the second temple and the dispersion of Jews every where)
The spikes went even more angry…..then they decided to cut its green papers……and defame her…. to make her die and to end its perfume….they did not have mercy with her this time….her perfume dropped like tears…….no one felt for her…..they threw her lonely to suffer her pains….the flower did not find many to feel the pains with her……and its crying got louder and it was heard every where on the earth……and it started to die from the pains.and ….it surrendered to its fate……… in silence……………………………….(I refer here to the holocaust)
…and in an inevitable moment of death …….the flower remembered the promise of her G-d…..and it remembered the old spikes ………and its beautiful garden in Jerusalem….and the flower swore to return back to the land that G-d promised herand the flower tolerated the pains and continued fighting with its perfume……..and it returned back…..believe me it returned back……..after a long journey….to its most beautiful garden….to grow and blossom…and after the journey of pain and suffering was over… there was no pain any more and her perfume was smelled all over the earth….and the flower lived.(I refer to the declaration of Israel in 1948)
The spikes are still trying again to kill “the Flower”……but it will never die …….if we gave her our love……if we sacrificed our blood to protect it……..if we spoke loudly every were……….”you will never die our beloved flower….and you will blossom again in the most beautiful garden….on the mountains of Zion……..you will never shed tears any more….as G-d kept his promise”.
When I wrote the poem I sent it to a friend of mine at nearly mid night, it was full of English language mistakes as I translated it from Arabic (my native language), but I could not stop myself from sharing it with my best Jewish friend who is also a “Flower”.
To conclude, as an observer form within the Arab and Muslim world and as a man who just want to say the truth and nothing but the truth, I say it loudly that Israel is the ONLY light of the Middle East. Israel is the light of love, democracy, civilization, tolerance, and justice and I pray from the depth of my heart that the light of Israel radiates to cover the darkness around it.It is a dream…..but who knows it may happen.
Do you understand now why I love Israel!
T. Abdelhamid7/June/2004
Why I love Israel
By an Arab Egyptian, with a Muslim background and an ex-member of one of the most fanatical Islamic groups in the history of Islam (JI).T. Abdelhamid
I am a typical Arab- Egyptian- with a Muslim background.As any Arab, I was brought up on hating Israel and the Jews. When I was four years old, the dehumanisation of the Jews everywhere around me led me to imagine them as green ugly people full of evil.
In the age of six or seven my father who was secular and open minded was reading in a history book and he showed me a photo.This photo will never be erased from my memory as it was for a whole family without clothes and the father was opening of his eyes in a combination of fear, shock and inability to believe what is happening to him and his family.My dad said to me in this moment “ these people are called Jews and some one is called Hitler put them in ovens to burn them alive”. My dad was telling this from pure historical point of view. I went to my room and wept over this man and these people.Since then, every thing changed in my mind regarding the Jews and despite the extreme hatred toward them in the media, in the schools, and everywhere around me, I could not hate them and, in fact I sympathised with them.This creates a feeling in me that I should meet these people, talk to them, and try to understand them.As I grew up the hatred in my community was increasing but my feelings did not change.One day, in my school in Egypt, the teacher asked us to draw something called Bahr Albaquar. They told all the students that Israel attacked a kindergarten and killed the Egyptian kids intentionally. They portrayed Israel and the Jews as bloodsuckers who enjoy killing young Arab kids.I used to draw this on sheet of paper as I was a young student and I had to obey the teacher, but my feelings toward the Jews remained the same and my desire to see them and talk to them had not changed.
Later in my life, and when I was 15 years old, I met in a family occasion with some doctor who used to work in the area of Bahr Albaquar and he told me the shocking truth. The man was telling that this area was a pure military area and the commander of it decided to open a kindergarten for the kids of those who work in the military unite just 48 hours before the Israeli attack and consequently when Israel attacked it they were attacking it on military basis and they never knew of the sudden unpredicted decision of the commander of this military unit.When I heard this I felt that my whole government was betraying all of us just to make us hate Israel and to portray the Jews as blood suckers. The moment I heard this story was the moment when I really felt I was betrayed all my life. I decided not to believe my government any more when they talk about Israel and my desire to talk to the Jews and hear their views from their point of view was even increased.
After this stage I started to join the Islamic movements in the late 1970’s and I actually joined one of the most fundamental Islamic groups back then (Jamaha Islamia). This was the group that produced Alzawahire, the top organiser of Alquaida.After relatively very short period of time I started to feel that my personality that was open to others, that accepted difference, and that loved peace is changing gradually into a real evil personality.
I felt I will become a real satanic beast if I continued with this group and I started to withdraw from the group “JI” and I developed a new small peaceful sect within the Islamic religion itself. This sect was not only peaceful, but also tolerates difference, and promotes love, care, and compassion to all humans irrespective of their deeds.According to this sect which follow only the Quran rather than Hadith (written traditions about Mohamed or Sunna) I had totally different view about Israel and the Jews as you will see next.Based on my interpretation of the Quranic verses which was based on literal pure language interpretation rather than a historical one, I used to love the word, love the meaning, and love the concept of Israel.
Let me now explain this to you in more details.
The word Israel for me was the name of one of the greatest profits that as described in the Quran among those who shed tears when they listen to the words of G-d. Just read the following verse to understand my feeling toward the word Israel:( Quran 19:58 Those were some of the prophets on whom God did bestow His Grace,- of the posterity of Adam, and of those who We carried (in the Ark) with Noah, and of the posterity of Abraham and Israel of those whom We guided and chose. Whenever the Signs of ((God)) Most Gracious were rehearsed to them, they would fall down in prostrate adoration and in tears.)
As the reader can see, the verse just made me love the word Israel.Sadly, most Muslims correlate the word Israel to the word “Azraeil” that sound near to Israel but has a totally different meaning as the latter is the name of the ‘Angel of death” that takes the life of people. This created a link in the mind of most Muslims’ children that made them hate the word Israel as it was linked to death so that the first thing they are brought up with is to hate the word “Israel”.
I loved the meaning, because the word Jews in Arabic language is “Yahood”. Even though most Arabs hate this word but for me the case was the opposite for the following reason.The word ‘Yahood” in pure literal Arabic language is derived from the word “Hado and Hudna” which mean “returned back”. This word , according to the Quran, was given as a gift from G-d to the Israelites when they “returned back” to him. The following Quranic verse describes this moment when the Israelites were called “Yahood” because they “Hado or Hudna” or “returned back” to G-d: (7:156 the Israelites said: "And ordain for us that which is good, in this life and in the Hereafter: for we have turned unto Thee ‘Hudna Ilaik’.").According to this literal Arabic interpretation, I loved the word ‘Jews” even more and more.I used to ask people around me why do you hate the Jews while this beautiful word represents those who “returned back” to G-d. Sadly, I had no answer as the hatred for the Jews among Arabs and Muslims made them blind to any logic.
In addition, to the word Israel and the meaning the word Jews, I also loved the concept of gathering such wonderful nation from everywhere around the earth into their homeland again. For me, according to the Quran, this represented the power of G-d who saved the Jews from the evil of pharaoh (28:4 Truly Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them (children of Israel): their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females to rape them: for he was indeed a maker of mischief 28:5 And We wished to be Gracious to those who were being depressed in the land, to make them guiding lights and leaders (in Faith) and make them heirs). Furthermore, and again according to the Quran itself, G-d gave the Israelites the land as their promised land (17:104 And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land of promise":
The Quran went even further to consider the Promised Land as the permanent inheritance for the Israelites (26:59 Thus it was, but We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things (the promised land)In addition, the Quran considered that G-d wrote the Promised Land to the Israelites as a final contract (5:21 "O my people (the Jews)! Enter the holy land which God hath assigned unto you).
For me, I loved the G-d that saved his people, kept them alive while other and even more powerful nations disappeared, a G-d who kept his promise.
In addition to the above discussion and according to the some other unambiguous Quranic verses G-d will gather the Israelites again into their promised land before the end of the world (Quran [17:104] And we said to the Children of Israel afterwards, “scatter and live all over the world…and when the end of the world is near we will gather you again into the Promised Land”).
This last verse proves that the Quran is declaring that it is the will of G-d himself to gather the children of Israel again in their promised land before the end days. Accordingly, No Muslim has the right to interfere with gathering the Jews in Israel again as this is the will of G-d himself. The latter verse made me look at Israel as the ultimate representation of G-d’s power and the wonderful declaration of his existence.
My view was that if Muslims are unhappy with these Quranic verses they should not blame me as I am not the one who invented them and if they refused these great meanings about the Jews and Israel they should stand, look to the sky and said to “Allah” we are not happy with your Quran!.
I think the reader can now imagine what can happen to a man like me who preached these views in the midst of the Muslim world. I will not tell what happened to me as it is violent and will be very painful to many readers but I will tell you the end result which was that I left every thing behind me, my house, my car, my good Job in Saudi Arabia and immigrated to the West.
After this relatively religious stage in which I used to preach Islam in a totally different manner, I started to look at the Middle East from a logical point of view rather than a religious view.
This can be elucidated when an Egyptian secular person asked me one day “Why do you love Israel”. I said to him I want you to think in two countries, country A and country B rather than thinking in Israel and Arabs and just be honest to yourself. Then I said to him country A respects you as a human being who can stand against the government, respect your freedom to choose your religion or believe, and the son of its president can not even dare to touch your wife or rape her or otherwise he would punished with no mercy, while in country B your basic human rights are not respected, you have no choice for your religion, and the son of its president can rape your wife and no one will dare to say to him” this is wrong”. Obviously I was referring to Israel by country A and to the Arab world by country B in which human right activists are thrown into prison if they spoke against the government e.g. Saad Eldi Ibrahim, the Human Rights activist, in Egypt, people can not change their religion e.g. In Saudi Arabia and many Islamic countries the death penalty is applied to any one who dare to convert from Islam, and the son of the president can rape the wife of any one and no one can criticise this e.g. Uddai the sun of Saddam Hussein used to do this regularly without any punishment!.
I then asked my friend, which country do you think you should love more….is it country A or country B ?, which country you should respect more … country A or country B, and which country you should defend with your own blood…country A or country B.
The man just could not answer my questions and looked down!
As a man who just want to be honest, I will never forget when Israel Air Forces was above Cairo in 1967 in a war that, as usual, initiated by the Arabs, they could have destroyed the whole of Cairo but they did not do that. This for me represents the highest degree of civilisation ever as I know very well that if the opposite had happened and the Arabs were above Tel Aviv with their Air forces they would not have hesitated for even a second to destroy all of it.
I will never forget Israel the country, Israel the civilisation, Israel the great meaning that put its sons and daughters at risk to select the terrorists who hide in between the civilians instead of killing without discrimination , Israel the democracy that allows all different religions to exist on its land (compare this to Saudi Arabia that prevents any other people but Muslims from practicing their own religions, dose not allow any Non-Muslims to built their temples to pray, or even having their religious books with them).For these reason I will never forget Israel…….the “Flower” of the Middle East.
When I mentioned the word “Flower” an instant flashback happened in my mind to remember one of the poems I wrote about Israel.
I wrote this poem after I saw a movie called “the pianist” that materialised the suffering of such great Jewish nation. It was late at night when the movie was over but I could not stop my hands for writing some words to describe the story of Israel…..my hand were shaking and my neck pains were killing me but I continued the story and I wrote :
They want to kill the flower but the flower will never die
Thousands of years agoa flower was bornit was the most beautiful one among all the flowersthe flower was called Israel
the lord said….this is going to be my flower to witness my name and speak about my might and beautyI will give her a charming beauty and I will make all the earth smell its perfume
The spikes went jealous and they decided to kill the flowerThey injured her many timesAnd its perfume dropped like tears on its soft papers
The flower went sad and started to die…….then………and all of a sudden…. it awaked and cried… I will never ever die and I will not let the spikes kill me….I will fight with my perfume and resist their evil with my softness…..and the spikes surrounded her….and the flower was groaning in pain…. the lord listened to her groaning and his voice filled the earth and the skies……”I swear with my holiest name I will never leave you to die ….my most beautiful flower…..and I will make the whole earth smell your perfume and see your charm and beauty”.
The Lord promised her a gift….a new land to grow and blossomAnd what the Lord had said …happened…..and the new garden was called .. JerusalemAnd the beautiful flower went to its new land….and it grew and blossomed.(I refer here to saving the Jewish nation from the Pharoahs when they were in Egypt) The spikes went crazy……and they swore they will threw the flower out of its new land……and sadly….. it happened(I refer here to the destruction of the first temple)
The flower was in pain and it complained to its G-dAnd the Lord swore.……”I will return you smiling…my beloved flower…. to your land” …. the lord kept his promise…. and the beautiful flower returned back to its garden…..the holist of holies…..Jerusalem…..and it kept growing and it blossomed
Then………...all the spikes united and said….we will not have any mercy with her this time…..….and they started to injure her…..caused her to suffer pain……made her sad…..and finally………… the flower was bleeding her perfume….And the perfume was smelled everywhere …..(I refer here to the destruction of the second temple and the dispersion of Jews every where)
The spikes went even more angry…..then they decided to cut its green papers……and defame her…. to make her die and to end its perfume….they did not have mercy with her this time….her perfume dropped like tears…….no one felt for her…..they threw her lonely to suffer her pains….the flower did not find many to feel the pains with her……and its crying got louder and it was heard every where on the earth……and it started to die from the pains.and ….it surrendered to its fate……… in silence……………………………….(I refer here to the holocaust)
…and in an inevitable moment of death …….the flower remembered the promise of her G-d…..and it remembered the old spikes ………and its beautiful garden in Jerusalem….and the flower swore to return back to the land that G-d promised herand the flower tolerated the pains and continued fighting with its perfume……..and it returned back…..believe me it returned back……..after a long journey….to its most beautiful garden….to grow and blossom…and after the journey of pain and suffering was over… there was no pain any more and her perfume was smelled all over the earth….and the flower lived.(I refer to the declaration of Israel in 1948)
The spikes are still trying again to kill “the Flower”……but it will never die …….if we gave her our love……if we sacrificed our blood to protect it……..if we spoke loudly every were……….”you will never die our beloved flower….and you will blossom again in the most beautiful garden….on the mountains of Zion……..you will never shed tears any more….as G-d kept his promise”.
When I wrote the poem I sent it to a friend of mine at nearly mid night, it was full of English language mistakes as I translated it from Arabic (my native language), but I could not stop myself from sharing it with my best Jewish friend who is also a “Flower”.
To conclude, as an observer form within the Arab and Muslim world and as a man who just want to say the truth and nothing but the truth, I say it loudly that Israel is the ONLY light of the Middle East. Israel is the light of love, democracy, civilization, tolerance, and justice and I pray from the depth of my heart that the light of Israel radiates to cover the darkness around it.It is a dream…..but who knows it may happen.
Do you understand now why I love Israel!
T. Abdelhamid7/June/2004
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