Jesus, a soldier at the checkpoint

Palestinian narrative and propoganda, as previously discussed, highjack Jewish history, rewrite it, colonialise it and after all the alterations and repackaging is sold to the west to garner sympathy for their deceitful narrative.

One of those that was made to appeal to Western crowd (and goes hand in hand with the modern Islamic-Christian dialogue that they exploit to advance their own agenda) is the story and identity of Jesus. The most basic claim is that Jesus (and Mary) is a Palestinian. Some will say he wasn't even a Jew, that if he lived today he would be mistreated by Israeli government and could not cross the border to his home in betlehem because of Israeli checkpoints. Than they talk about Jesus representation in Quran as Isa. Making Jesus the Palestinian who was killed by Jews, again. Again different types of narratives depends on the group or individual you might encounter and deal with, but the basic premise is Jesus was a Palestinian, Jews killed him. If he lived today he would be mistreated because he would have to stand in a checkpoint.

So in case you didn't know, the Christian bible a.k.a the New Testament that starts with the book of Matthew opens with Jesus genealogy from Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob (who was renamed Israel, by the way, not Palestine, and his descendants are known as Sons of Israel, and this land is named after him). Continues through generations to Kings David and Solomon and it even refers to the Jewish exile to Babylon. The first chapter of the first book of the Christian bible tries to make it as clear as possible the Jesus is literally a descendant of Israel, that he is one of the sons of Israel, not only that but part of Israels (and the tribe of Judah) royal lineage. Also refering to the first exile of the Jewish people to Babylon.

During that exile the sons of Israel were started to be referred to as Jews or Yehudim, because they came mostly from the part that is known till this day as Yehuda (Judea) were Jews or Israeli Christians who now live there are called “settleres” by Pro Palestinian propogandanists.

The book of Matthew that portrays Jesus story through his birth, familial exile to egypt to save him, and return to Israel, not Palestine, but instead of returning to Judea (again, not Palestine. Or West Bank) they go to Nazareth.

You can read more about Jesus story if you will open the Christian bible, and what better time would that be than Christmas, right? And interestingly enough Christmas and Hannukah will be celebrated this year on the same day! And you know who celebrated Hannukah also known as festival of dedication? Jesus! As mentioned in John 10:22-23. Hannukah is celebration of the Maccabeas/Hasmoneans against the greek empire and king Antiouchus anti-Jewish and anti-Torah laws. So the Hasmoneans revolted, won, purified from Idols the house of the Lord, the Temple, and restored the Jews their rights to observe the laws of God under Jewish rule, in Jewish kingdom in their land Israel.

So, today Bethlehem, the birthtown of Jesus, that resides in Judea, part of the land of Israel, part of the Jewish homeland, is now under full Palestinian Authority control. There's a shrinking community of Christians who live there. The Palestinians would like to blame Israel for that, except that if it's true than why the rest of Bethlehem residents only keep growing? Well, it's probably because the treatment they get by the Palestinian society in which they live in. you can start reading more about it in an article from August 2016 “The silent struggle of Bethlehem Christians” by Lela Gilbert.

So we have already established that Jesus, according to the Christian bible was a Jew, an observant Jew, that lived in Israel, spent atleast a part of his life in Judea, celebrated a holiday of decolonising his Ancestors homeland from Greek occupiers and re-establishing a Jewish kingdom and allowing Jews to follow their laws and God again.

We also know that today his town of birth, Bethlehem, is now controled by the Palestinian colonisers. And just like he and his family couldn't return to their home town because of fear of death by an occupying force, so today no Jew can actually live there and even might be executed, that Jesus modern disciples, Christians, who live there are being mistreated and haunted by the Palestinian Occupation.

So let's say Jesus was alive today. He would probably be an IDF reservist, probably an officer. If he was standing at a checkpoint, he would be the one there that keeps everyone safe from Palestinian terrorists. He would have to check ID's, make sure no one carries fire arms, explosives or try to go on a stabbing spree. Make sure no one tries to start a car-ramming attack. And then probably go back home to Nazareth Ilit.

But since Jesus is not around right now, its regular Israelis guarding Israel at the checkpoints. Sometimes those are Jewish soldiers, sometimes its Druze soldiers, sometimes its Israeli-Arab soldiers, sometimes its Christians soldiers. All of them need to make sure that no Palestinian occupier terrorist will not kill fellow Israelis. And this holidays (and everyday) we should pray for their safe return and success in their mission.

#DecolonizeNow

Let's talk decolonization!

One of the weirdest things I have encountered during my work with foreign journalists who came to cover Operation Pillar of Defense and later on is that they had zero clue about Israeli society nor Jewish identity or sometimes even basic history. So their ignorance was pretty clear. Not all the journalists were like this but still plenty.

So those journo's had to get some background for their work and that's one issue. But later on I heard from activists, and later on saw for myself how individuals and organizations, some of them affect journo's who come here, work to recolonize Israel and Colonize Jewish and Israeli identity.

Before I get into more details about the phenomenon and what we should do about it, we need to talk about post-colonization. Altough the western society started to listen to the nations and people they occupied, enslaved, exploited and started accepting their narrative and giving some of them their freedoms back (sorry, there are still nations oppressed by western nations), it seems that the West didn't have enough of messing with the Jewish people.

After the Romans invaded our land, exploited our resources, enslaved us and exiled us they renamed the name of the land to offend us and to cut our ties to it. Later on when Christianity separated further from Judaism and started to grow both in numbers and influence they developed a theology of replacement. The Christians were the “New [sons of] Israel” and thus all God’s promises to the Jewish people are now either revoked or will come to pass to the Christians only.

So most of the Jewish people were exiled and during almost 2000 years of exile they kept spreading because that's what happens when your people are a persecuted minority under hostile empires or kingdoms.

Now finally during the 20^th century more and more Jews returned to their ancestral land and even got to re-establish their own state in their own land. But hold on! Now this land has a few more residents. Arabs, who kept coming from neighbouring countries following the bloom of the Yeshuv Ivri, the Jewish communities that existed prior to Israel's re-establishment.

Later on, in the 1960's Arab terrorists developed a new narrative, claiming they are indigenous people of this land and calling themselves Palestinians. This narrative kept mutating over the years. Now some individuals and organizations claim that Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze were all Palestinians until the Zionists from Europe, who are considered “fake Jews” by them came. They also claimed there was peace and full coexistence between the groups while ignoring the bloodshed Muslims inflicted both Christians and Jews.

Of course many Arabs, and even more so today, prefer to see themselves as Israeli-Arabs, or similar definitions and reject completely the Palestinian identity and even more so the narrative. Most Jews reject this narrative as do most of the Druze that live in Israel.

Now we see the mutated narrative claiming that Israel is actually “Palestine”, that Arabs are indigenous to this land and have thousands of years long culture here, though its disproven by history, archaeology and common sense. They claim biblical Samson was actually Palestinian (funny, considering he was from Sons of Israel, a prophet for the Jewish God and fought the Philistines, those who the Palestinians are named after, who were actually invaders from Greece!) they also claim Jesus was Palestinian, which is funny because he was Jewish, the New Testament also mentions he celebrated Jewish holidays, that he came for the Jewish people first, visited the temple (that most of the Palestinians seem to deny its existence) and wasn’t a supporter of the Romans.

So, they claim they are Indigenous, they try gradually highjack Jewish legacy and history, they try to rewrite reallity but it isn't enough for them. One of the most interesting developments is trying to ruin the concept of Jewish Identity. They Claim that Jews that lived in Israel prior to the re-establishment are also “Palestinians”, they claim Jews who lived in Arab countries are Arab Jews (denying or forgeting how they mistreated them) but the Jews from western countries mostly Europe they try to portrait as White Colonialists. Trying to claim that Jews from Europe are mostly descended of people that were called Khazar. Trying to make an hirarchy in Jewishness and deciding who is Jew and who has a right to be a Jew. And I see some secular Jews in the US also started gradually accepting definitions that being Jewish is being “white” or something like that.

By colonizing Israel's history, Jewish identity and legacy they try to de-legitimize Israel's existence and Jewish right to have a country, especially in the Jewish homeland. And it's time that Jews and pro-Israel activist will recognize this is being done simultaneously, as a means of re-colonizing us.

So what to do? Decolonize! Study history! Fact-check! If someone challenges you with something than research it! Understand that Jewish identity isn't just plain religious or national identity, it's being part of a tribe who also share the same customs and faiths. Yes there are a few diffrences, 2000 years of being apart can do such a thing! And guess what! Even if someone has converted to Judaism he is part of the tribe now, and has the same rights and promises God gave to the people of Israel granted upon him.

So stand tall, sons of Israel, you are indigenous, you were colonized, occupied, exploited, exiled, enslaved and lost everything. Your nation was the first one to amaze the world by getting out of slavery and many attempts of genocide both physical and spiritual. Yet, you are still here! Embrace who you are!

#DecolonizeNow!