The Exiled State - Shaping the Narrative!

Praying at Joseph's Tomb - Shechem - Nablus

Christianity adjusts solar dating for Easter to permanently coincide with the lunar dating of Passover. This holiday lasts 7 days, but outside of Israel an additional day is celebrated, which emphasizes the present state of exile and the future redemption of Jewish people. Israel’s national and mystical history associated with this day is as deep as heaven’s spiritual oceans, but a study of the Biblical texts reveals the extent of the nation’s ancient connection to its land.

No other nation is privileged to have retained such a well preserved written record and language as that of the Jewish people. Its Torah (Bible) records its story, as transcribed by Moses some 3400 years ago documenting the historical and legal whilst retaining the mystical construct that predated its authorship. At a minimum it records the continual practices by at least the ancestral Levite priests who to this very day carry forward rituals through their family lineage. During Passover and each of the past 3400 years these direct ancestors of Moses and his brother Aharon, Israel's first high priest, have participated in annual religious services to bestow blessing upon the world.

In the period that followed ancient Israel's exodus and those that fled Egypt, the self described chosen people undertook the difficult task building their national commitment to a closer, unified, monotheistic state through common customs, practices and religious belief. Their initiation lasted 40 years until all males who were over 20 years at the exodus had passed on. Other than leaders Joshua and Caleb no other male remnants were permitted to enter the permanent land of Israel.

The fledgling nation crossed over the Jordan River first making their way to the city of Shechem (modern Nablus), in the land that was once occupied by Kanaan a nephew of Egypt’s founder Ham. This was Israel’s northern entry point where some 300 years prior, Jacob (who adopted his name Israel) had once settled. At that time his sons led by Levi and Shimeon, in almost premeditated preparation for their future nations arrival, massacred the Prince of Shechem and his kingdoms 24000 male adult inhabitants, a revenge act for his rape of their sister. It was also the location Joseph was sold by his brothers before being transported as a slave on a caravan to Egypt. On arrival from Egypt the new nation Israel buried Joseph’s bones that they had carried on their journey.

One would expect such well documented history to sufficiently establish an indigenous entitlement of a people to its land, however the the modern narrative of Nablus is arguably the world’s greatest imperial fraud and ongoing denial. Notwithstanding, the depth of Israel’s connection to Shechem, its enemies hate every undeniable historical fact for fear that exposure will overturn their ambit Nablus claim. Whilst most cannot reconcile detailed matters already past, the dynamic digital era assists. But, writers and editors who painstakingly recall the past, re-write it to suit their insurgent desires and no more so than @Wikipedia.

In Wikipedia’s world, rules of editorial engagement are defined in an effort to promote accurate representation, but the abuse and misuse by the commons is common. The editorial prize in a popular or politically charged subject like Nablus ensures attention by editors who manipulate the truth to meet the ideological demands of their peers and benefits come quickly to those who succeed. Editorial support aggregates to the ideological victor who receives commendation for their targeted editorial contribution and participation. The ideologically charged Nablus narrative is evident in its Wikipedia page, supported by its primary editor Al Ameer son. This editor has been awarded no less than 20 awards from his fellow contributors, he is a member of the ‘Early Muslim Military History Task Force’ and helped promote Yasser Arafat to Featured Article status.

Like Emperor Hadrian's Roman name Syria-Palestina that replaced Judea, editorial defenders of Wikipedia’s Nablus narrative open their article with this disclaimer; “This article is about the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and its predecessor, the Roman city of Flavia Neapolis. For the biblical city of Shechem, at the same location, see Shechem.” From here on the authors deny Shechem a place in their Nablus narrative, suppressing its Biblical and archaeological importance, in order to deliver the indoctrination of Roman origin. The Wikipedia narrative denies the city its Israelite origin and promotes the perpetual suffering their denial imposes.

Joseph’s Tomb and its Torah inscribed twin mountain backdrop are fundamental to Israel’s connection to its land. Wikipedia’s Shechem entry describes the 2000 year history preceding its Roman occupation, connecting it to the Egyptian archaeological record when events catalyzed the unification of Israel’s tribes out of which the modern Israeli nation grew. Shechem, after whom the city was named, raped Joseph’s same age sister Dinah to whom daughter Asenath was born and who, many years later, with permission from Egypt’s Pharaoh married Joseph. The marriage of Joseph (by mother Rachel) and Asenath (by Rachel’s sister Leah's daughter Dinah), unified Israel’s matriarch’s, and made Shechem Joseph’s father-in-law, another aboriginal fact the Nablus editors ignore.

Whilst displacement of a city’s narrative denies its history, it also serves those affected to strengthen their ancient tribal connection against the growing weight of public opinion. This is the common trait of natives displaced in South Africa, North America and Australia and is not uncharacteristic of the rights of Israelis to their origin city in the land they first occupied. The Israelite people are so deeply rooted in their land, there is no place some ambit historical claim can deny them. Therefore, its enemies defer to deceit and denial in order to defend their occupation of Israel’s land and to continue the exile of its people.

Its time Jews the world over realize their rights, the same rights those that exile them afford to themselves and others. The time for applying double standards to Israel has finally passed over, exiled, banished forever and modern technology is playing its part!

Beit El of Binyamin on which border - Yehuda or Ephraim?

Three cryptic chapters written by the Prophet Shmuel (Samuel) at the end of The Book of Judges relate to the earliest period after Yehoshua (Joshua) led Israel in the conquest of their land and the establishment of the temporary mishkan (sanctuary) at Shilo. After Yehoshua and the elders of that generation, only the rear-guard tribe of Dan had not conquered and settled their allotment. It was then that these most gruesome chapters occurred. Strikingly the inter-relationships of each chapter emphasizes the competitive warring culture especially among the tribe of Yehuda (Judah), Binyamin (Benjamin) and Ephraim, with particular emphasis to the location of Beit El.

Simply, Beit El means House of God, but it was more than 400 years after the events of these chapters that they were compiled into a book at around the time the tribes of Israel finally agreed to a single site for their temple in Jerusalem. These chapters capture the preceding political, economic and social upheaval to define the temple's penultimate location on Binyamin’s southern border with Yehuda or its northern border with Ephraim.

The chapters begin with Micayhu (Micah) a man who lived with his mother in the Mountain of Ephraim close to Ephraim's southern boundary with Binyamin (18:2). There Micah developed a unique religion devoted to a significant silver idol. It was not a copy of nation gods rather it incorporated the name of God written by Moses and once used to recover the coffin of Joseph from the water of the Nile river in Egypt. He recruited a Levite boy, from the tribe of Yehuda who had lived in Beit Lechem (in the territory of Yehuda) to serve as his priest. The Levite boy Jonathan ben Gershom ben Menashe [Bava Basra (109b)] was the disenfranchised grandson of Moses and was well known to all the tribes. The superscript ‘n’ in Menashe was written by Prophet Shmuel to emphasize the evil actions of the Levite, expecting that with repentance the ‘n’ would be removed to revert the (Hebrew) letters to the name of his paternal grandfather Moshe (Moses).

The second chapter explains how the tribal leaders of Dan were unable to conquer their difficult allotment in the south along the coastal route occupied by Philistine Egyptian allies. Absent support from the other tribes they were embittered, so they traveled through Israel from Ashkelon (south) to conquer and declare Laish in the north (near the Golan) their land. Along the way, they stopped at Micah’s Beit el - house of god where they recognized the Levite. They took him and the idol and located it’s religious center further north close to the temporary sanctuary of Moses at Shilo (also referred to as Beit El). Most tribes, busy settling and defending their land, had abandoned their prescribed tri-annual religious pilgrimage to Shilo as such they were losing touch with the religion prescribed by Moses.

The chapters conclude when a Levite from the mountain of Ephraim (Shilo) went to Beit Lechem (Yehuda) to reconcile and recover his unfaithful concubine. On their return toward sunset, they passed Yevus (Jerusalem also known as Beit El - previously Luz)  because it was occupied by the heathen. They continued north through Binyamin to Gibeah where they sought overnight accommodation with an old resident. That night some Binyamite residents demanded the concubine, the Levite capitulated, they gang raped her and left her on the doorstep of the old residents home, where she died during the cold night. The incensed Levite took her back to Mountain of Ephraim where he dissected her body in 12 pieces and despatched a piece to each tribal leader demanding they support his request to force the leaders of Binyamin to hand over the perpetrators. When the Binyamite leaders refused, Israel’s eleven other tribes united in a civil war that killed more than 25,000 male members of the tribe of Binyamin, which was almost eradicated.

The juxtaposition of these three locations, Beit El at Shilo, Beit el of Micah and Beit El at Yevus provide further evidence of the cryptic message left by Prophet Shmuel. These tumultuous events underlie the vicious competition for the economic and spiritual benefits that would come by locating the nation's one and only temple on the southern (tribe Yehuda) or northern (tribe Ephraim) border of the land of Binyamin that separated them. The ultimate socio-dominant tribe would prevail in its conquest and Binyamin, wedged between the shoulders of Yehuda to its south and Ephraim to its north, would play a vital role and pay a hefty price. Competition and lobbying amongst the tribes to establish the site of a permanent temple plagued Israel, so much so that it took more than 400 years before King David was able to declare its location, after that King Solomon built it. The immediate response following King Solomon was upheaval. Yerovam ben Nabat divided the nation, re-established Beit el in the Mountains of Ephraim and directed almost half the nation to worship alien gods under his rule. At that time Yerovam ben Nabat led the 10 northern tribes to secede and plunged Israel into its protracted state of exile. To this day, thousands of years later the tribes are yet to be reunified.

Impressive and enormously complex, is the connection made by Prophet Shmuel, at the time of King David through Jonathan the Levite boy from Beit Lechem of Yehuda. This was none other than Moses grandchild and in a nation where bloodline counts, he was construed by the Prophet with the evil root in the soul of Ephraim's brother Menashe. Later, he or his reincarnate was named Shebu’el who repented and was appointed King David’s treasurer. However, under King Solomon the treasury was immediately headed by none other than Yerovam ben Nabat. Through Jonathan, Shmuel intricately connected Judges to Kings, to deliver the key that Jonathan who served David also became the false prophet in Shomron (after King Solomon) at the time of King Yerovam ben Nabat. Shmuel brilliantly emphasizes the economic woe these treasurers brought on the nation in pursuit of their false temples.

In an article I wrote after Pesach 2012 I deconstructed the cryptic Jonathan element of Shmuel’s message. Together these time separated 'Jonathans' spanning Judges and Kings, the period in which the Mishkan stood, make it abundantly clear that Shmuel intentionally wrote them as the key to decode his message and reveal the importance of the ultimate location of the permanent Beit El. The repetitive theme of these distinct time periods and the events that relate to Beit El and Beit el amplify the nation's great need to decipher the ultimate location in order to once again be unified.

Israels Forthcoming Miracle!

My friend Eliyahu recalled his experience during the early 90’s when he miraculously escaped a posting to a military unit of the Russian Army destined to train Syrian ground troops in Damascus. The Assad Alawite military regime had become the extended arm of Russian resistance to rebels in Chechnya. Locking down Sunni radicals in Syria would prevent their recruitment by Chechens intent on striking hard against Russian interests. The Russians were delaying them down - in Syria. President Obama’s policies changed the character of the Syrian lock-down, now Russia struggles openly to keep the Assad regime alive and Chechen allies at bay. 

Having failed to shake Russian economic ties to Iran, President Obama’s Russian opposition moved to Ukraine where Americas developing options were limited by entrenched Russian political support juxtaposed against a weak EU consensus. As Putin reads Obama’s every move, his dispatch of Russian troops to Ukraine raised, to a crescendo Obama’s convergence toward an Obama / Kerry peace in the Middle East. Such a prospect would strike disaster for Russian dominance of Chechen rebels, who may rapidly obtain support from Syrian rebels that would otherwise be victorious against Assad.

The elevated risk provides an economic boom to US and Russian defense industries, while Israel and its Palestinian Authority nemesis provide the reactionary sparks necessary to keep gargantuan diplomatic maneuvers generating much needed heat. A little while back I wrote an article that the late Ariel Sharon, preemptively stopped these potential machinations spilling over into complexities that could have led to World War III, in Israel’s back yard. He built a separation barrier, a land demarcation preventing the amassing of Arab refugees spilling over into Israel. Instead Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey received hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of refugees from Syria. 

Israel’s relatively simple ‘Palestinian’ problem is no longer the focal point of this wider conflict. Prime Minister Netanyahu has influenced Obama to prioritize and engage the Iranian / Russian issue, elevating it as the most volatile and vile relationship. Now, its too late for Obama to turn back. Although risks are significant and could quite easily spill over to serious regional conflict, the theater is likely be on Russian soil. As US - Russian brinkmanship approaches the red zone and Israel turns on its massive new supply of natural gas to Europe, the time for an Obama sponsored peace is premature. Frustrations will become increasingly evident as Israel’s political divide dig their heels, insisting on the core, fundamental issue - Israel is the one and only Jewish State, something their so called peace partners cannot accept! 

Now is the time for the world to recognize and make way for the perpetual Israel/Jewish State, not racial inequality as its detractors promote, but equality under a sovereign democracy. As Israel powers on economically and Jewish immigrants return from Ukraine, France and other volatile regions, the major world powers may be readying themselves for a serious military escalation that could shake financial markets and destabilize governments. However, Israel the global anomaly, will be the brightest light and warring nations will scratch their heads wondering how these global affairs were organised to enable Israels’ miraculously favorable outcome.