Netanyahu Ascends Mt sinai and Receives new set of Commandments

mountain of moses

Gebel Mousa – the ‘Mountain of Moses’ (Muhammed Moussa)

The Book of Exodus in the Bible tells us how Moses, 3,500 years ago, in 1446 B.C., ascended Mt. Sinai (Gebel Mousa) to meet with God and after forty days and forty nights spent between them communing, Moses received the Tables of the Law and its ten guidelines, issued as commandments, inscribed on two stone tablets, that instructed the Israelites how to live their lives in ways that were pleasing to God. Among these guidelines were those that declared, “You Shall not Murder! You Shall not Steal! You Shall not bear false witness against your neighbour! You Shall not covet your neighbour’s house, nor anything that is your neighbour’s!” This solemn covenant between the Israelites and God became widely know, by Hebrews and Islamic peoples alike, as “The Law” or “Law of Moses” that promised blessings upon all who agreed to follow the Law.

But now, 3,500 years later, there’s a new law and prophet in town. Apparantly, on July 19th last, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Likud Party and Israel’s Knesset ascended Mt. Sinai or some other holy mountain and, in obvious violation of international law regarding the rights of Palestinians to their traditional homelands, received, as it were, yet another set of stone tablets upon which are inscibed the new ‘commandments’ by which the Jews and Palestinians of Israel henceforth are called upon to follow. These new ‘Tables of the Law’, now referred to by some as the Law of the Prophet Netanyahu or the Nation State Law of Zionism, forever more fundamentally places the needs of the Jews above the wants of the Palestinians.

But several central unanswered questions now hang heavy in the air. Firstly has this ‘Law’ and its ‘Commandments’ been duly passed down after the requisite biblical forty days and forty nights spent in commiseration with God? Do its guidelines promise blessings upon all who agree to follow ‘the Law’ of the Nation-State? Will the ways of these laws, if followed by all the people, be found pleasing to God? And will this new Nation-State Law of Israel and all those Jews who abide by it, still follow the original precepts of ‘The Law of Moses’, as paraphrased by the realities of today, that state, “You shall not murder your innocent Palestinian men, women and children neighbours! You shall not steal what rightfully belongs to your Palestinian neighbours! You shall not bear false witness against your Palestinian neighbours who seek justice and what is rightfully their’s! You shall covet neither your Palestinian neighbour’s houses, lands nor anything else that is your neighbour’s!”

Perhaps the central-most unanswered questions of all asks how the Law of Moses now will be juggled with the Law of Netanyahu & Nation-State of Zionism when whatever future crimes committed against the Law of Moses by the legal State of the Jewish people, no longer can be considered crimes against humanity under the International Convention on the Suppression & Punishment of the Crimes of Apartheid? Or is this but another idolic ‘Golden Calf’ debacle of biblical proportions in the making?

Netanyahu and the Likud Party continue to enjoy the total support of those like U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress that recently approved a 38 Billion dollar military aid package that Israel can now continue to use against the Palestinian people as it so chooses; rather than spend all the monies to help the Palestinian peoples rebuild their economic, social, cultural lives with the goal in mind of creating a viable free and independent Palestinian state.

But now, if the Nation-State of Israel is considered to be unique to the Jewish people and the sole national home of the Jewish people that enables the Jewish state to fulfull its national, cultural, religious, historical right to self-determination, and enshrines into law the nation’s Jewish national and religious character, where is the same space to be made for the Palestinian people to do the same?

Otherwise the unequivocal message to Palestinian peoples now is, “Your equal rights cannot be allowed to gnaw away at the foundations of the Nation-State of Israel. We don’t want you here, period. Just get the hell out?” The National rights and status denied to Palestinians and all Arab peoples inside the 1948 borders of the State of Israel also excludes Jews of Middle Eastern origin who have been traditionally sidelined, not to mention those who may be homosexuals, as well. It’s a message that white Christian supremacists and segregationists in the U.S., South Africa and elsewhere have, for eons, only dreamt about doing with and to those distasteful, unwanted ones in their midst.

A real fear is that the declared new commandments of the Nation-State of Israel, that make it the only purely Jewish state in the world, not only ensure that it never will become another Muslim State in the Middle East but these new commandments clearly make the point that its existence as a state can never be threatened by the equal rights of the Palestinian people. The national rights to be denied Palestinians, which includes demoting Arabic, that for 70 years was an official language in Israel, to only a language now of so-called special status, making Hebrew the only state language of Israel, will also further enthrone Ultra-Orthodox Judaism at the overall expense of a pluralistic world Jewry.

The borders of “The Land of Israel” have never been fixed. Since 1948 the Nation-State of Israel has illegally expanded at the expense of the country of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Henceforth, the new Law of Netanyahu and its Nation-State Law recognizes the continued development of Jewish-only settlements as a National Value and God-given right and so Jewish people can create villages and settlements that will separate its resident-citizen’s on the basis of race, religion and nationality; which also means that the “expansionist wars of annexation” by the Nation-State of Israel can now legally extend into the “Balkanized” remnants of Palestine from the West Bank to Gaza to Jerusalem to Haifa and beyond, with Jerusalem now in clear reach of becoming the long-dreamt for capital of a complete and united state of Israel.

Clearly, apartheid is now the official policy of the Nation-State of Israel, with 1.8 million Arabs turned into “second-class citizens”. Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund decries the bill as “tribalism as its worst”. Jamal Zahalka, an Israeli Arab Knesset member representing the Balad Party, calls it a “Law of Jewish Supremacy”. Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism states, ‘the damage that this new Nation-State Law will do to the legitamacy of the Zionist vision and to the values of the state of Israel as a democratic – and Jewish – nation is enormous. Rabbi Mikie Goldstein of the United Synogogue of Conservative Judaism recently wrote in a blog that the legislation, “allows for discrimination against minorities in Israel. Israel cannot claim to be a light unto the nations if it officially discriminates against its own non-orthodox Jewish minorities to practice their Judaism according to their customs.” To which Binyamin Netanyahu, the new prophet, publically has declared, Today we have made a law in stone. This is our country. This is our language. This is our anthem and this is our flag. Long Live the State of Israel.”

Jerome Irwin is a freelance writer and author of “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a three volume account of his travels as a spiritual sojourner, during the 1960’s, 70’s & 80’s, among Native American & First Nation peoples in North America. It encompasses the Indigenous Spiritual Renaissance & Liberation Movements that emerged throughout North America during the civil rights era. Irwin has authored over the years a number of environmental, political, cultural, spiritual articles with a special focus on Native Americans, First Nations, Australian aboriginals, Israeli, Gazans, Palestinian and Syrian peoples. Irwin also is the publisher of The Wild Gentle Press.

 

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