Ben Gurion's Mistake

Now that the Palestinians are planning to announce their state in September this year I thought you'd like to hear my new thoughts on Ben Gurion's declaration of the Jewish state in 1948.

Ben Gurion's state accepted the same borders as those set out by the United Nations in it's decision of the 29th November 1947, the Partition Plan.

These borders encompassed the part of the Partition Plan offered to the the Jews, not the part of the partition offered to the Arabs.

Ben Gurion's mistake was his acceptance of only half of of Palestine. The Arabs, rightly, did not accept their half of Palestine, because they rightly maintained that their homeland, Palestine couldn't be divided.

They claimed the Jewish half and were prepared to go to war to conquer what they felt was their by historic right.

They went to war to conquer the part of Palestine which they considered should have belonged to them, namely the part of Palestine which the UN decided should be Jewish, the same part as Ben Gurion accepted as Jewish.

The first of these wars in 1948, known as the war of Independence, ended with Jordan in control of the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Basically this is the same as the part the UN allotted to the Arabs, namely the pre-67 territory, known as such because Israel conquered it in the 6 day war of 1967, another war launched by the Arabs to conquer the territory which they considered rightfully theirs.

Now the Palestinians, consistent to their belief that all of Palestine should belong to them, plan to declare a Palestinian State in that pre 67 territory.

For the first time in the history of the Middle East conflict the Palestinian aren't going to war to conquer the territory they consider rightfully theirs. Instead, by declaring a Palestinian State in the Pre 67 territory they are relinquishing their claim to the other half of Palestine occupied by the Jewish State in terms of Ben Gurions declaration of Independence.

This is truly amazing after 6 wars they are relinquishing their demands of 1948. We should be jumping for joy.

In declaring a Palestinian State the Palestinians are, for the first time, recognizing Jewish sovereignty over the part of Palestine allotted by the UN to the Jews and which the Jews, as stated by Ben Gurion, accepted as the Jewish State.

Now if we, through the mistake of Ben Gurion, relinquished part of Palestine in 1948 what basis do we have for rejecting the Palestinian claim on that pre 67 Jordanian territory, the West Bank.

Ben Gurion's mistake caused the forfeiting of any claim on the pre 67 territory.

The only excuse I can offer for Ben Gurion's stupidity, sorry I don't have a better word is that he and the Jews were ridden with fear of a war with Arabs. He thought he'd avoid war.

I am very sorry that he and unfortunately till now the Jews are motivated by fear. This is a recipe for catastrophe. Catastrophe is the only word to describe the incidents of war in the last 63 years. Now it must come to an end. Unfortunately there is still too much fear amongst Jews themselves to agree to this plan. It's tragedy upon tragedy and catastrophe upon catastrophe. How do we escape from grip of catastrophe.

It is now too late to undo Ben Gurion's mistake. He has made it illegal for the Jewish People to hold on to pre 67 territories He gave them up in 48, that's why we have to give them back. 

The Fruit that Adam ate

Considering that Adam gave up immortality in return for the fruit which he ate it’s not reasonable to consider the fruit was a simple apple.

No matter how tasty apples are and I love apples, I refuse to believe that Adam gave up eternity just to eat an apple.

I believe that he must have eaten a fruit far more precious than an apple. It must have been such a precious fruit that that it outweighed even the preciousness of immortality.

The only fruit that is more precious, in my opinion, and more tasty than immortality is the fruit of the woman, namely her reproductive organs.

To die in the arms of a beautiful woman has been the wish of many a full blooded male. Sad to say some men have caused terrible pain to woman on whom they cruelly forced their ardor when the woman they loved didn't love them in return.

This was not the case with Adam and Eve. The Bible makes it clear that they loved each other dearly and that should be a comfort to us, the descendents of that marriage. We were born out of a relationship of love not one of violence and cruelty. This is why we should learn to live up to our loving ancestry and love one another.

Eve's temptation of Adam wasn't a bad thing. She didn't tempt him out of lust guided by the desire to achieve pure physical pleasure. She tempted Adam because they were alone and needed to stick together, to comfort each other.

Sure the snake represented evil; it's obvious that he did something bad to Eve. This is why she needed Adam to show her love, kindness and affection. Adam's love saved Eve from being forever in the arms of the evil snake.

Adam is the great hero of the world. He gives up immortality to save Eve. He does this by giving her love and shows her that there can be goodness in the mortal world.

Sure he sinned in the eyes of God and God punished him and Eve but he had saved Eve, the woman of his dreams, who he loved and who procreated the world together with him.

The Holy Place

The great question facing religion today as always is: "  Where is God's holy place?"

The question appears in the book of Psalms in a very clear way and virtually screams out of every word  of the Bible. I would go so far as to say that the purpose  of the Bible is to reveal the holy place of God.

A person who doesn't seek the answer to this question will be quite disappointed and will wonder why the Bible is such a popular book.

It's popular because there are obviously many people at all times in history, primitive times and modern, who want to know where is God's holy place.

Of course the Bible doesn't tarry with the answer and gives it straight away; God's holy place is the Garden of Eden.

There's no beating around the bush. Plane and simple, the holy place of God is The Garden of Eden and Man was in it and as long as he was perfectly good he was entitled to be there and like everything else over there he was immortal.

The Bible encourages man to search of immortality by searching for God's Holy Place.

I think that one can safely say that, in the physical world, the world of the 5 senses, man has resigned himself to the fact of death. Modern science may lengthen the span of life but I don't think any scientist thinks that immortality is attainable in the physical world.

All religions, however, promise immortality – of the soul. According to them man has a soul and if he is religious it is immortal. If he isn't religious – well, either he doesn't have a soul or, anyhow it doesn't  matter because a soul that isn't immortal isn't worth having.

This is the basis for the religious justification of the death penalty and in fact for all punishment. Because by committing a crime a person damages his soul and it needs to be repaired by punishment or, sadly, if the crime is so bad that the soul can't be repaired then the person must die physically.

Having chosen to eat the fruit of Eve man is expelled from The Garden of Eden. In other words the eating of the fruit of Eve has made him imperfect and not entitled to be immortal.

Religion, however, comes to his rescue, to save his soul, as it were. It offers him an alternative holy place and a myriad of tools for repairing his damaged soul; sacrifices, ceremonies, prohibitions of certain types of behavior, foods, cloths etc.

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Bibi's speech

I've heard that Bibi gave a good speech in congress.

It appears that he stated Israel's case clearly and in so doing became the first Israeli leader in the brief history of modern Israel to call a spade a  spade.

Israel has never been prepared to concede to Arab demands. That isn't news. It's also not news that Israel is prepared to give up territory.

But Israel has always been nervous about stating her case. Even now, after Bibi's speech, journalists in Israel are writing articles that express the nervousness of the Israelis. While at the same time journalists in the US are praising Bibi for his courage.

But Bibi did say a new thing, which everyone feels in their hearts but never shouts it aloud, untill Bibi said it.

It is his statement that we would be the first state to recognize the new Palestinian state if it came about through discussions and if it fulfilled Israel's conditions.

This in fact has always been my answer to tourist's questions about the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

I've always said that we want a Palestinian state, even more than the Palestinians want a Palestinian state.

We aren't only willing to give them territory. We desperately want to give them territory.

But these two wants are subject to conditions which in fact are quite easily fulfilled.

The Arab world must acknowledge Israel's right to exist and must open their hearts and borders to cooperation with Israel.

The best thing that can happen is for Israel - Arab cooperation to thrive.

This is what is lacking. It wasn't achieved in the peace agreements between us and Egypt and us and Jordan.

There needs to be determined willingness, on the part of the Arab world to allow Israeli culture, science and technology to enter their countries.

Only an enthusiastic exchange of culture can bring about peace. Exchange of territory will come about after there is peace and cooperation. It is the result of peace not the cause of peace.



The 63rd Independence day

Sitting under the shady pines, next to the wheat field, near Modiin, I meditated about the contrasting colors of white, green, yellow and blackish dark brown. I sat on the white chairs, which were as out of place in all this natural scene as sitting was out of place. I really wanted to run and saw myself, in my imagination running into the yellow wheat waving gently in the hot sun calling me to gather handfull on handfull, to winnow and thresh and make bread, into which I would dig my old teeth, ripping soft, warm chunks of delicious, whole wheat bread to nourish my starving body.

The cars fled wildly past the wheat field and we tranquilly barbecued our meat and played volleyball shouting happily that this or that one missed a strike and lost a point. Our stomachs were full and so were our minds but we sat tranquilly under the pines by gentle wheat barbecuing and barbecuing until the chocolate cake came, then the coffee and finally the watermelon.

It was a day of independence, the 63rd.