‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ not so applicable to Palestinians

January 7, 9:54 AMSpiritual Life ExaminerRabbi Ben Kamin

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The Arab world, proud and complex, has given the world numerology, exotic literature and poetry, rhythmic music, savory cuisine, and a pioneering relationship with the desert.  While about 9% of Arabs are Christians, and the belief system is hardly monolithic, the Arab culture is certainly synonymous with Islam, even as we westerners began a crash course in Islamic philosophy on September 11, 2001.

While Cain’s infamous rejoinder to God after he slew his brother Abel, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is found in the Old Testament, something with its motif must surely exist in the Koran.  Here is the original plea for social justice—particularly as it applies to one’s own family, tribe, or creed.

Being from and for Israel should not qualify one’s bewilderment at the general abandonment of the Palestinians by the international community—beyond the rhetoric, the cynical use of refugee children (publicly confessed as early as 1961 by King Hussein of Jordan) for political advantage, the outright co-opting of a people’s predicament to sell oil and accumulate power for decades now.  Just listen to NPR daily or read serious publications and you will hear and see these sad charges made by desperately scorned folks who live in Gaza, Jenin, Ramallah, and elsewhere.

Being from and for Israel should not qualify one’s bewilderment at the general abandonment of the Palestinians

They, the Palestinians themselves, are tired of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s manipulation of the situation, the crocodile tears of Syrians and Saudis, the completely disingenuous use of “our Palestinian brothers” by the Al Qaeda syndicate.  They are openly disgusted with the corruption, economic and social, of the late Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority—an impotent, corpulent band of hypocrites that sit by in the West Bank, having been brutally removed from Gaza by the terrorist agency Hamas (shown above) and yet claim to represent Palestinian interests. 

When the United Nations partitioned Great Britain’s Palestine mandate in 1947 into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, the Jewish Agency and the fledgling state of Israel began the first of several sweeping rescue efforts.  Jewish refugees, stateless, emaciated, were brought home to Israel from Europe’s death camps, from Yemen, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, the Soviet Union, and a myriad of other places.  The Arab world, by contrast, immediately destroyed any hopes for the indigenous Arabs of Palestine by summarily invading the new Israel—and being trumped.

This morning, the only “humanitarian aid corridor” open to the people of Gaza has been established—by Israel.  Like every other morning for over 60 years, life goes on in Jordan, Kuwait, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.  Shiite and Sunni bloodbaths continue.  Illiteracy reeks.  Women remain largely veiled and subjugated.  Oh yeah—the Palestinians; we fight in their name.  And drive the Jews into the sea.

Am I my brother’s keeper?