PEACE & TRUTH

I'm sitting here in the lobby of the HaGoshrim Hotel in Northern Galilee, just south of Tel Dan. The morning sun, singing birds, children climbing stone sculptures, chasing each other or enjoying the ride in a stroller, men lounging at a table reading the paper, father and daughter walking by hand in hand; life lived in peace is wonderful.

On the other hand, Boko Haram kidnaps young girls to sell as sex slaves, for profit of course. They say that sex-slavery is quite in keeping with their holy text. I'm not clear on how their holy text characterizes the pain and suffering of the fathers and mothers of these girls; or of their classmates back home.   

From at least one perspective, that does not really sound like the promotion of peace.

On the grounds here in HaGoshrim, the wonderful stone sculptures include a family group that the artist named "Peace Statue".

Instruments of war are now agricultural tools, their son can look forward to a life of prosperity, and they are crowned in royal fashion.

Interesting to contrast this with the results of artists' work in another area of Israel, PA controlled Bethlehem in ancient Judea.

I'm wondering: artists, I think it is fair to assume, work out of their inner sense of reality, world view, state of mind and attitude toward the world in their work.

Let's take a closer look.

The first piece was created, probably, by the offspring of a holocaust survivor who, through tremendous hardship, including attacks by a 5 nation coalition of surrounding states in '48, and attacks that were miraculously repelled in a short 6 days of defensive fighting in '67, and attacks that were planned for Yom Kippur, the holy day in which everyone is fasting, in '73, and the throat slitting of neighbours, and the bombing deaths of friends peacefully eating their pizza, and friends surviving an intentionally exploded wedding hall; and the list of violence aimed at him or her could go on.

The second one was created, probably by the offspring of someone who was strongly opposed to Jews, the people group to which the first artist belongs, having the right to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. (These artists, incidentally live only about 2-3 hours from each other). This second artist seems not to have believed that living peacefully side by side was a good option. Granted, this artist is living in a perpetual state of victimhood, perhaps imposed by his leadership, but certainly absorbed as his own and loudly proclaimed whenever the occasion presents itself, and is painting on his side of the security barrier; which was, unfortunately, created to protect people on the other side from the constant violence and terrorism that was the lifestyle of his parents. He has grown up in an environment in which his heroes are "martyred" or imprisoned terrorists.

 It seems to me that the first artist may even have experienced greater and more intense suffering than the second, but certainly both have lived their lives with suffering as an essential component.

So, my question is: why are the heart attitudes expressed in these paintings so essentially different?

Of course, it might simply be the result of better or worse counselling, right?

Or economic opportunities?

Or foreign aid? Oh, no; I guess not that, since the foreign aid went to the second artist and did not seem to have any positive effect on attitude.

What about their respective Spiritual experiences and Holy Books? Is there perhaps an explanation here?

Help!

The truth must be dug up and revealed to the many people who think that all the world's problems would disappear if only Israel would give more of her historic, ancient even, land away to those who want them exterminated.

The conflict created in Israel, of course, is not the only conflict that needs an explanation. Why does Boko Haram, generally speaking of the same religious group as the PA, think it is proper to kidnap young Christian girls and sell them as sex-slaves?

Raymond Ibrahim is attempting to address this same question in his piece, titled "Nigerian 'sex-slaves' Disrupt Obama Narrative on Islam'" published in the Middle East Forum issue of May 15, 2014:

"Islamic law permits the possession of concubines, or sex slaves. This has been demonstrated countless times, including through Islamic clerics quoting Islamic scriptures, and through ordinary Muslims, past and present, acting on it.

That said, Islamic sanctioned sex-slavery does not perturb the Western world simply because the powers-that-be-specifically academia, media, and government- ignore it, and all other unsavory phenomena associated with Islam, out of existence.

Interesting, therefore, are the responses from the authorities-comical one might even say-when one of these everyday anecdotes actually does surface to the general public."

The article is not very kind to Mr. Obama, but well worth reading in any case.

The rest is available at:

http://www.meforum.org/3822/nigerian-sex-slaves-disrupt-obama-narrative-on

But even more worthwhile reading are the Divine Utterances in the Holy Books of the two artists we are considering here. Lets try to find the truth underneath all of this.

Shalom