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Friday, January 26, 2018

"WHY THE DEVIL CAME YOU BETWEEN US?" (Mercutio, Act 3 - Scene 1, ROMEO & JULIET)

PRESIDENT TRUMP MAY BRING THE ARABS BACK TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE BY DELAYING RELOCATION OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSY FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM, AND CONGRESS SHOULD ULTIMATELY REVOKE IT'S LEGISLATION OF 20-YEARS AGO THAT AUTHORIZED THE EMBASSY RELOCATION.


I hope and pray that the Trump Administration will yet walk back the promise to relocate the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and that Congress will ultimately revoke the legislation of twenty-years ago to relocate our Embassy to Jerusalem. I say this, even as I applaud President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol city of Jerusalem, and even as I believer that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so. As for the withholding of American funds to the "Palestinians", the US makes a symbolic statement, but, the majority of "Palestinian" funding comes from Muslim nations, most especially Iran and Saudi Arabia and even Egypt and Jordan, and from Europe and [indirectly] from Russia and China. Facts on the ground and a longer term view should preclude relocation of any and all Embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; but, all nations should recognize Israel's existential right, actual existence, and Jerusalem's undivided status as Israel's capitol city.


The way forward to Middle East peace and Arab-Israeli peace is really quite simple, and ought not include American or other intercession in Jerusalem; but, must inevitably involve either independence or semi-independence for the Kurds, and a simultaneous truncation of Erdogan's Neo-Ottoman push and of Mullah Iranian terrorism and imperialism.
The way forward with respect to Israel should be quite obvious, but, requires the cooperation of the three Great Powers, which demands greater effort than is needed to overcome the unified Muslim objectionto Israel that enables the Muslims to play off the Great Powers against each other.


To date Israel has been continuously kicked in the head, like a soccer ball (imagine a soccer field designed as a Chinese checkerboard) -- "fun" for everyone, except for Israel (if only humanity would imagine peace as a way to more genuine entertainment than war...). It should be obvious that Israeli security needs preclude the creation of a "State of Palestine" on the "West Bank" (Judea-Samaria). As well, occupation once again (as in the period from 1947-1967) of the "West Bank" and East Jerusalem by Jordan would not only also be too great a risk to the security of Israel; but, would again be a reimposition of the Jordanian yoke around the neck of the "Palestinians". However, Israeli security does not necessarily preclude the expansion of a "State of Gaza".


The "Palestinians" would be motivated to come back to the negotiating table, if two major ideas are put forth and acted upon publicly: (1) an offer to revoke American Embassy relocation to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, and (2) an offer to negotiate [a] expansion of Gaza, and [b] paid relocation from the "West Bank" to the new "Gaza State" of any and all "Palestinians" unwilling to live as "permanent residents" within Israeli hegemony (include among the "unwilling" those Arabs deserving of expulsion, be they militant Arab-Israelis or militant "West Bank" Arabs).


The "land for peace" idea may be exercised, if and only if that land comes from the Sinai territory as an Egyptian "gift" (no doubt at American expense in the form of foreign aid to Egypt). Egypt owes an unpaid, unspoken debt to Israel of the Sinai territory, even if officially the Egypt-Israel "peace" deal was based on Israel's absolute return of the entire Sinai territory to Egypt. That (forced by a former American President) deal set the precedent upon which the Arabs take it for granted, that they may wage wars of annihilation against Israel at no risk to territorial losses and with the implicit understanding that the existence of Israeli hegemony in any form represents "occupation" that Arabs may inevitably terminate with worldwide anticipation, approbation, and approval. The amount of land needed for a viable State of Gaza need not be the entire Sinai.

Meanwhile, we in the USA should keep two things in mind: (1) in his Sermon on the Mount, when asked about "His Return", Jesus said, "only The Father knows..."; therefore, as we are not "The Father", our American politics should not and must not be driven by evangelical opinion that we live in Messianic Times here and now; and, (2) we must remember that the British Occupation in the Holy Land only brought sorrow to the British, as well as to the various Peoples of the Holy Land. Mercutio's words, "Why the devil came you between us?" from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" ring loudly in my ears (it was not Romeo's intention to place Mercutio at risk of life and limb, however, death was the direct result of Romeo's intervention, leading inevitably to the immediate death of Tybalt and later of Juliet and Romeo himself (by this analogy I see Israel as Mercutio, the "Palestinians" as Tybalt, the Arabs as Juliet, and the US as Romeo).

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by William Shakespeare

ROMEO AND JULIET
(Act 3, Scene 1)


MERCUTIO
I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone and hath nothing?



BENVOLIO
     What, art thou hurt?


MERCUTIO
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.
Where is my page?—Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.


ROMEO
Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.


MERCUTIO

No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm!


ROMEO

I thought all for the best....

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