TWO DIFFERENT LIFE PERSPECTIVES

Although various ethnic groups live in the most disputed land today, formerly called Palestine as we saw in another article, the entire conflict there boils down to two main groups: Jews and nationalist Arabs. Among the former, we find practitioners of religious Judaism or not, as well as total support from other ethnic groups, including Muslim or non-Muslim Arabs; while the latter is limited to Islamist Arabs who increasingly become Jihadists.

And although in another series we will address the history and differences between Muslims and Islamists, here we will only say that the former seeks to submit to Allah for protection in everything, while the latter seeks to protect everything related to Allah themselves. Meanwhile, Jihadists are those who aim for a union of all Muslims for a “holy war” (where terrorism is their main weapon) in the name of Allah, against the rest of the world to subject them to their religion.

From this context, we will take a look at the Jewish perspective mainly to establish the necessary differences that will allow us to more easily understand the two perspectives of life (Jewish and Islamist), and in turn understand many of the things that happen in that region, thereby better classifying and not allowing ourselves to be manipulated by the complex news arsenal of these times in which we live, where there is not only a lot of authentic or false information, but in most cases, an added and also biased interpretation from the same source.

For example, when we analyze the festival of Purim, we see that it is celebrated on the 14th of Adar. However, the text tells us that it was on the 13th of Adar that the Jews’ victory over all those who wanted to kill them in the times of Queen Esther occurred. Why is it celebrated on the 14th and not the 13th? Simple, because death and wars are not worthy of celebration. The 13th of Adar is a fast, because it is the highest expression of love for one’s neighbor, where the right thing to do is to forgo personal food, the most basic human need, to give it to the needy, as well as lamenting to the extreme the fact of having had to kill to survive. So, what is celebrated on the 14th? The return to peaceful life, the joy when there are no longer any dangers. Unfortunately, one had to go through the 13th to reach the 14th, but that 13th is not celebrated because it is rather mourning for the enemies, a desire to do the opposite by serving one’s neighbor.

Something similar happens with the festival of Hanukkah, the days before which were the war against the army and occupation of Antiochus IV, requiring the killing of thousands of his soldiers. However, those military victories, which were produced by God, are not celebrated, but the miracle of the temple Menorah that remained lit for the eight days needed to prepare more oil is celebrated.

Any other culture would have taken advantage of any of those dates to at least hold a military parade, the world is full of examples, but the people of Israel learned through the biblical text itself that the unpleasant act of having to kill, even when it was completely necessary to save lives and subsequently brought very good things, should not be celebrated in itself. It should be learned from but not celebrated.

If you look at Scripture, God never exalts or details the bad things, neither about someone nor about a specific event. For example, why did the flood come? The text says: “The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Gen 6:11). He does not give details to explain, He just says “it was corrupt” and “filled with violence.” And even when He gives details about someone specific or a community that is sentenced, and later we access more information through parallel historians or archaeological finds, we realize that the text given by God tells us perhaps the least negative value about that person or community. It is as if the Lord said: “You just need to know that My judgment is true, but I will not give you more details because so much unpleasant information can corrupt your behavior, and even I Myself do not find it pleasant or delightful to describe the details.” Neither for God nor His people is it pleasant to have to kill anyone, much less to recount the details of how it was done in a way that enjoys the act itself. And even when God gives some detail, you can be sure that much, much more happened, and He is only telling what is necessary to tell, whether to teach or to warn.

God taught the people of Israel through Scripture to enjoy positive things that truly contribute because they enrich life, fill it with virtue, hope, and good challenges. Having to kill someone is a situation that some must go through, but to desire it, enjoy it, or recount its details with pride is something to be avoided always, because it can make us cross the fine line that separates killing from murder, which God explicitly condemns in His Word, and also corrupt the future of those around us, transforming them into what we might most reject.

Something similar happens with vengeance. Everyone thinks of revenge, and some even expect God to take revenge for them and spend their whole lives waiting for that vengeance. And some, when the slightest bad thing happens to the other person, immediately start to assume that it is the wrath of God on them for doing wrong, and in a very subtle and sometimes shameless way, they even celebrate or make their opinion public as if they knew the mind of God. However, the Lord taught the people of Israel that He is the one who takes vengeance because only He, being the eternal and perfect God, can assume the effects that act has. He is the only one who can do something like that without suffering anything negative from such a disastrous situation. But how will that terrible vengeance of the Lord be? Scripture says: “YHVH, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, show yourself.” (Ps 94:1). That is, the mere divine presence is enough to produce vengeance. The person upon whom the divine sentence falls has fought against Him and in their eagerness has even faced His children, but when the Lord shows Himself in His Light, that will be enough to cast them down like Saul on the way to Damascus. Only God, in His omniscience, will know whether to show Himself for salvation or for eternal sentence. Then God’s people have learned that one does not kill for revenge, one does not kill out of anger, one does not kill for enjoyment; all of that falls into the range of murder. Instead, when killing is necessary, it is to eliminate an enemy who has shown that their very existence is conditioned and focused on destroying them. There is no way to save lives and keep walking if this act is not done. Therefore, even in prayer and cry to God when going through such a situation, it is to ask for His vengeance, for Him to show Himself to them, and for what only God in His omniscience knows to be best to happen.

So, when you watch the news about what is happening and see a group that does completely the opposite of the above, whether because it is what their leaders say or because it is the best they know how to do, who are capable of massacring with all the hatred possible, including newborn children who are dismembered and left to die slowly, who are capable of killing parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents, and of doing every incredible thing there is, which, as I have explained above, I should not recount further. They record and publish videos of everything for people to see what they do. When you see a son calling his father to tell him how many people he has managed to kill and the father, proud of his son, encourages him to do more. When they take the victim’s mobile phone and go live so that their relatives can see what they are doing to their family members. And in addition to this, thousands doing the same thing at that very moment. Then you realize that something at the root of them is wrong. It is not the degenerate behavior of someone who has reached their climax, it is something ingrained in that group in the essence of their worldview and life paradigms, something different and completely misguided that has made them believe that this is the right thing, and they articulate their whole being in that function.

So, when you see a group that celebrates life, tries to focus more on it and its repercussions. And you see the other group more focused on the importance of dying to enjoy heavenly pleasures, which in the end are not even different from what many of them enjoy here on earth. Then it is not very difficult to understand that the perspectives on life are very different and even antagonistic. One of the groups is interested in life before death being an expression of the abundance that will be in eternity, while the other wants to die quickly and have a merit of revenge or struggle that allows them to enjoy in eternity what they could not enjoy temporarily before death.

I think the facts do not merit much analysis. If the person who has this evidence before them is not able to differentiate between one group and the other, perhaps their worldview and perspective on life do not differ much from the group that is wrong, even if they disguise it with a humanistic costume, even if they disguise it with apparently just words. The reality of their heart and actions has nothing to do with what their mouth expresses.

Final

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

THE CITY OF GAZA

The city of Gaza, located in the coastal region southeast of present-day Israel, is a place of great historical significance that dates back to antiquity and the beginning of civilizations. It has been mentioned in the Bible as a witness to multiple stages throughout millennia; therefore, through biblical texts, as well as archaeological evidence and extra-biblical references, we can trace its history. In this article, we explore its early mentions in the Bible up to the period of British domination.

One of the earliest accounts where it is mentioned is in the book of Genesis 10:19, as one of the cities of the plain, along with Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, primarily inhabited by the Canaanites. Later, in Genesis 26:1, a famine in the land is referenced, during which Isaac moved to Gerar, which was near Gaza. However, it is in the historical books of the Bible, such as Joshua and Judges, where Gaza gains greater relevance. In Joshua 10:41, it is mentioned that Joshua took Gaza as part of the campaign to conquer the Promised Land. Then, in Judges 16, the conflicts between the Israelites and the Philistines, a people who settled in that region, are recounted. One of the most famous episodes is the story of Samson and Delilah, which takes place there in Gaza.

Who were these Canaanites? Recent studies indicate that the Canaanites were polytheistic and idolatrous people, who in some cases went so far as to perform human sacrifices. And although it seems they disappeared in history, their genes are mainly found among the Lebanese today. The Bible identifies the Canaanites throughout the western coastal zone of the Mediterranean, coinciding with the land promised by God to Abraham.

Where did the Philistines come from? This people grew through the occupation of Aegean civilizations, which were seafaring peoples from the Mediterranean who settled there through trade and colonization in those years when Israel was also conquering the area after their return from Egypt. As they were sailors and Israel came from forced labor slavery unrelated to these trades, it was very easy for the Philistines to settle in the coastal strip. Their main cities were Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. Once Israel grew and developed, they became antagonistic, unlike other peoples in the region who always maintained relations with Israel. However, the Philistines in Gaza came to their end not by the hand of Israel but by the expansion of the Assyrian Empire in the region in the 8th century BC. The Assyrian conquest and the deportation of entire populations marked the decline of Philistine culture. Although some elements of Philistine culture may have survived in the region, it no longer existed as an independent political entity. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Gaza came under Persian rule during the Achaemenid period and then under the Hellenistic Empire of Alexander the Great, wiping out what little remained of its culture.

Precisely because of this historical antagonism with Israel and also because they no longer existed, Emperor Hadrian chose in 135 AD, after three years of Jewish rebellion, to change the name of Judea to Palestine for the entire region.

In the late 4th century, the Roman Empire divided into East and West, and Palestinian Gaza came under the dominion of the Byzantine Empire, becoming an important Christian center. Three centuries later, Gnostic Christianity gave birth to Islam, a new religion that spread very quickly throughout the region through the forced conversion of every place they reached, using the same methods that we classify as the bloodiest terrorists today. Of course, this was not exclusive to them, as the Crusaders did the same. And without wanting it, the city of Gaza passed from Muslims to Crusaders and back again, suffering for centuries from this transfer in the midst of a bloody culture always in the name of a God.

It is worth clarifying once again in the midst of this series of articles on the current Palestinian situation that the region never ceased to have Christians and Jews, as according to the Quran both are people of the book and should not be forced to convert to Islam. However, when seen as unjust, they can and should be eliminated. If the ruling Muslim government considers them peaceful and docile, they can tolerate them with total limitations, but if they cannot accept those limitations, they should be eliminated in the most exemplary and deplorable way possible.

Subsequently, Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century to the early 20th century, which has entirely defined the worldview and almost totalitarian religion of its inhabitants to this day. After World War I, Gaza came under the British Mandate of Palestine, as mentioned in previous articles, until 1948. After World War II and the founding of the State of Israel, Gaza came under Egyptian control, but after the Six-Day War in 1967, it came under Israeli occupation. In 2005, due to terrorist attacks, Israel withdrew its forces from the city and established a blockade on Gaza. In 2007, the United States promoted democratic elections there, and incredibly the terrorist group Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, and since then has used all the power coming from the city (international donations and foreign investments) to develop an army that could return to the fight against Israel.

The city of Gaza has witnessed countless changes over the centuries, from its mention in the Bible to its evolution through different empires and civilizations. Its history is a testament to the complexity and importance of the region in which it is located.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

FROM 66 AD TO THE 4TH CENTURY

When we reach the end of the Book of Acts, we find much tranquility and even an incredible opportunity for Paul to preach the gospel. However, history tells us that it was at that very moment that the revolt of the Judeans began against the arbitrariness of the different representatives of Rome, both in the province of Judea and in Syria, which also incited many Gentile-Judeans to carry out several massacres against the Jewish-Judeans. This revolt was of such magnitude that the governor of Syria sent the Fulminata legion, but since the local Judean army, which was also part of the revolt, defeated this legion that had already arrived to besiege Jerusalem directly, the emperor had no other option but to declare the entire province of Judea as rebellious and send one of his best generals (Vespasian) at the head of four legions, to whom his son Titus also joined.

Both marched to Judea and in less than two years ended the entire revolt and reduced the entire Judean army to zero. The regions of Judea were left in total crisis and, in addition, without an army to control it in all its corners, so soon thieves and looters began to prosper. After two years, the thieves had already managed to enter Jerusalem and create two groups large enough to control the entire city. And as greed is the distinctive point of any thief, the desire to dominate the entire city also made them fight among themselves and kill anyone who did not join them. The high priest Anan was one of the citizens who bravely confronted them, preventing them from entering the temple because they had to repent first if they wanted God to receive their sacrifices, but in the end, he ended up dead along with more than 6,000 priests outside the very building.

Around that time, Emperor Nero committed suicide, which brought disturbances in the city of Rome, so the senate asked Vespasian to go and take the throne. Faced with this situation, the general, before leaving, asked his son Titus to finish off the thieves who had seized Jerusalem. In five months, Titus not only captured alive the leaders of each group along with all their surviving followers but also left the temple and the entire city without a stone upon another.

In those four years, since the sedition began throughout Judea and Syria, the church of Jesus Christ in Judea (mostly Jewish and minority Gentile) had managed to survive, thanks to the fact that from the moment the first Fulminata legion appeared in front of Jerusalem (the one that had been defeated) and in obedience to the mandate and prophecy of Jesus 40 years earlier (Mt 24; Lk 21), they left Jerusalem and the surrounding areas of Judea, mainly to the region of Perea east of the Jordan River. When the war ended, since the Romans knew that not everyone had joined the revolt, and especially it is said that those from Perea did not confront the Roman legions, the followers of Jesus and all the inhabitants of the region were allowed to remain in the area or return to Judea.

Despite this experience of the Judeans with Rome, 45 years later, there was another revolt known as the Kitos War. On this occasion, the Jews living in the diaspora throughout the empire, as a consequence of great repression by Emperor Trajan in his eagerness to conquer India, faced the Parthians. Because of this, the Jews living in Babylon and Susa joined the Parthians to face Trajan, and this again defined them with the category of “rebels.” And like any community that fell into this category under the empire, they would simply suffer continuous persecutions and massacres until they were subdued.

To fully understand what was happening at that moment, we must know that for the Romans, there was no difference between Christians or Jews. For them, the mere fact of believing in the God of the Bible was to be a Jew. So the only thing that could serve as protection for a Christian, unlike a Judaist, was to go unnoticed through another citizenship, whether Roman or any other Gentile nation. Thus, many Jews who believed in Jesus preferred to opt for that citizenship and avoid the danger of being Jewish. Although this meant little to the empire. In this way, a church with a Gentile numerical appearance begins to appear, although there was really a Jewish majority that simply did not find it convenient to be seen as such.

I am sure that when many hear this, it will clash with what they thought until now. Therefore, it is also good to clarify that the story about great persecutions “exclusively” against Christianity in those years is rather a story created later by Catholicism and imperial Orthodoxy, with the aim of achieving a more “authentic” connection between their religion and the early Christians. But that story, which sadly is the most common, is in stark bankruptcy today among top scholars on this subject. The reality, which is increasingly clearer as a result of document findings and the most accurate archaeology we have today from those moments, is that it was the Jews who truly suffered persecution from the time of Nero until the time of Diocletian (54-305 AD), and Christians simply also experienced those persecutions for being considered by the empire part of the Jews. In fact, what we call today “Evangelism” was understood at that time by the empire as “Judaizing,” although after understanding the concepts we discussed in the previous article, we know that it was not technically so, but for the empire, it was.

With that clearer reality in mind, where the Jewish followers of Jesus had to opt more to distance themselves from Jewish revolts, we find a church trying to live in peace once again and although they were bearing much fruit among the Gentiles due to their testimonies in the face of death, the same did not happen among the Jews. The cause was simple, but also very unknown to most people today. At that time, a gigantic group of false Christians began to rise, known years later as the Gnostics. They had a large variety of doctrines and managed to be more seen as Christians than those who truly were. They believed, for example, that the God who created heaven and earth was a kind of demon or devil who made a corrupted creation and also adopted a rebellious people, the Jews. For them, Jesus was the true God separate from the other who came to save that corrupted creation. They also had mystical initiations that were nothing more than the same pagan religions adapted to Christianity. When a Jew saw that, they simply rejected it, but since those Gnostics were the majority for those new Jewish generations, that was Christianity. And taking a small pause here, I can also say that the same has historically occurred until today. And although some Christian apologists tried to make the difference clear by showing that it was not the true gospel, as the Gnostics were so many and communication was not as global as it is today, that defense did not change their opinion much.

About 30 years later, there was a third and final revolt, the Bar Kokhba revolt. This leader was proclaimed Messiah by one of the most influential rabbis of that time (Akiva), which immediately made the Jewish followers of Jesus not fully support him. Not because he was a thief like those who seized Jerusalem in the first revolt, but because of the blasphemy of proclaiming him Messiah. It is good to clarify here that there is no record that he directly proclaimed himself Messiah, but the fact that such an influential rabbi of the time with more than 25,000 disciples did so, left no option for the Messianics. As this revolt was the most successful of all and achieved independence for three years, during that time Bar Kokhba did not forgive the “betrayal” of the followers of Jesus and expelled many from the region and killed others. This also affected the number of Messianic Jews, although they later managed to survive in Jewish-Christian synagogues until the 4th century. Like the one in Susya, which still preserves the name Yeshua (Jesus) in one of its mosaics. In fact, we also have the testimony of Jerome, who made the first translation of the Bible into Latin (Vulgate), and moved to Bethlehem in that same 4th century to perfect his Hebrew among the Messianics of the region.

However, another challenge was coming upon them. On one hand, the division of the empire and, on the other, a new religion that emerged from that Gnosticism that had caused so much damage.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

THE NATIONALIST PALESTINIANS

Sadly, when we approach this topic, we will always encounter some myths that have become paradigms, evident in certain common expressions, even among famous intellectuals and spokespersons of international organizations. For example, Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, said a few days ago: “If we have to suspend relations with Israel, we will suspend them (and he did), we do not support genocide…”. But has Israel really committed or is committing genocide? Or, for example, the UN when it condemns or warns Israel about the “excessive use” of force as an “occupying” power, but is Israel really an occupying power and uses excessive force? Or when they say there are millions of “displaced” people suffering from Israel’s attacks on “terrorist” groups. If we add to this all the other myths that collapse just by recounting the history we have seen in the previous articles, we realize that ignorance about the subject not only makes us unaware of a reality, but we might be fueling the fire just by giving our opinion or favoring some lie. Since this reality is known by those who have no scruples about lying, they then create an entire fantastical cloud around the topic to direct it where they want and use it as a storm against their enemies.

First, we must understand that although there are many lies in all of this, they are also intertwined with manipulated truths, making it easier to believe the lie and at the same time harder to unmask it. For example, when it is said that Israel desires to occupy all the territory that belonged to the 12 tribes and that we know God gave them through Abraham, we are stating a truth, but we add the lie that this is the desire of the State of Israel today. As we saw in our first article, Zionism never had this desire, only intended to build communities and perhaps a state anywhere in the world that could shelter a nation that for 2000 years was well defined in its diaspora, but was discriminated against and massacred frequently, so they could live and develop in peace.

Trying to address the topic that concerns us in these articles, under the challenge of the complexity that the matter brings due to the number of facets it implies, let’s see what happened after World War II.

Under the British mandate, it was proposed to divide the region to form two states: One Arab, which was supposed to be 44% of the territory with 725,000 Arabs and 7,000 Jews, and another Israeli with 55% of the territory and a population of 500,000 Jews and 400,000 Arabs. And although it seemed fair, the Arabs did not accept it, and thus the first Arab intifadas erupted, massacring entire Jewish communities, and of course, the Jewish response was the same, not so much as revenge as it is often portrayed, but in self-defense trying to provoke a reaction in their enemies; similar to the one assumed by Japan after the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forced them to immediately abandon the war and even become one of the main partners of the USA today.

On May 14, 1948, after a series of legal procedures, Israel declared its independence, but the Arab countries of the entire region (not those from the land of Palestine), who had nothing to do with the conflict with the Palestinian Arabs, declared war on Israel. Finally, everyone went against Israel in a large-scale invasion when Israel didn’t even have an army yet, but they managed to defend and organize themselves and defeated that coalition of Arab countries (and we know thanks to whom that miracle happened). That war ended with many Arab soldiers imprisoned and quite a few territories occupied by the new Israeli army. The government of the State of Israel then took the opportunity to exchange soldiers and territories for the Gaza area, which until then belonged to Egypt. And although some might find this exchange unfathomable, it was done precisely to give more territory to the Palestinian Arabs and for them to see it more convenient to become independent, with the initial amount of territories that had been offered by the British. And what happened? Nothing, an Arab leader born in Egypt appeared and created the new Nationalist Palestinian Arab identity with an organization representing them, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), his name was Yasser Arafat.

With this rejection of the new offer, Israel refused to accept the return of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arab refugees as a result of the war, and some were “refugeed” to those same countries that incited them against Israel, while others remained in the West Bank area. As the PLO had no choice but to go to political, not military, negotiations to finally settle in those territories and establish their state, more radical groups than them began to emerge, whose only dream was and still is to defeat Israel completely, not only in their land but also worldwide. And so groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad appear, capable of massacring their own people to achieve their goals.

It should be remembered that in Muslim doctrine, death is an end to achieve living as they are not capable of living in the flesh, with properties and women that allow them to live their mental orgies. And if that is taken to the extreme, they almost want to seek their death and that of their children more than anything else. So for them, there is no problem in dying, not even lying, because for them, the end justifies the means.

In 2007, Israel decided to completely leave the Gaza region, just as they were not in the West Bank region, so those Palestinians could begin to build their state. Previously in the West Bank region, the PLO had won the elections and still governs there today, without giving up Arafat’s dream of one day removing Israel from the region, but through less harsh methods than those of the other radicals. The problem is that teaching that becomes a machine for producing terrorists, even if they officially reject that attitude. In the Gaza region, there were also elections, but since the PLO was not so popular in the area, the terrorist group Hamas won with 53% of the votes.

Although there is some tranquility in the West Bank today, in the Gaza area, the Hamas government has allocated all its resources, including international aid given to them, also all the aid from Israel, for example, paying 60% of their electricity, in function of attacking Israel. Just as an additional fact, since the massacres on October 7 of this year until today, missile attacks from Gaza over all of Israel have not ceased. Where does the budget for this come from? Simple, from the backs of the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the area.

So we have a group among all the Palestinians that officially divides into terrorists and peaceful negotiators. For the wise, a few words are enough.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

FROM JEWS OF JUDEA TO PALESTINIAN JEWS

To understand more about the State of Israel, it is also essential to distinguish between the different groups that comprise Israel. This multiplicity of groups will also help us understand Judaism in the diaspora (outside of Israel). As this is a complex topic, making it difficult to explain everything in detail, we will look at the most important and general elements of this complexity.

In the 1st century, when God incarnated in the Messiah (Jesus), there were Jews within the Roman province of Judea and Jews dispersed throughout the empire. The latter had synagogues to study and pray but could not participate in the temple service unless they could visit Jerusalem, which was not easy. They were known as the “separated” or the “apostates,” not only due to their distance but also because they could not go to the temple whenever they wanted. Thanks to the service of Pharisaic teachers and apostles who constantly visited these communities, they could stay connected with the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem and with traditional teaching, but despite this connection, all in the diaspora were highly influenced by Greek philosophy, what we call today Gnosticism.

The Jews of Judea, on the other hand, were divided into three main groups, although most citizens did not belong to any specific group: The Sadducees, who were very similar to those in the diaspora, only recognized the five books of Moses as Scripture, and did not believe in the resurrection. The Essenes, a kind of desert monks very traditional who considered themselves the authentic priests. The Pharisees were the most accepted by all the people and led all the religious teaching of the nation. This group, when we read the New Testament, seems to be a unified group, but they were actually divided into different schools: Hillel’s and Shammai’s. When Jesus was born, Hillel was alive, and his school was in the region of Nazareth, so Jesus had to relate to that school to some extent. Gamaliel, mentioned in the book of Acts, was his grandson. Shammai, on the other hand, who differed from Hillel by being more extreme, was the leader of the Sanhedrin when Jesus was sentenced. His school was considered the Zealots’, so Paul, although a disciple of Gamaliel, often presented himself as a Zealot (zealous), which explains why he led the mob that killed Stephen and intended to kill the Christians of Damascus as well.

After the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, the group of those who accepted the Messiah Jesus also grew to the point of becoming a fourth group. Sadly, the first and second Jewish-Roman wars quickly followed, and with the elimination of the territory of Judea, the Jewish followers of the Messiah found it easier to take refuge within the Gentile believers than to continue as a community that did not belong and had no rights to anything.

However, at the end of these wars, neither the Sadducees nor the Essenes were equally fortunate and simply disappeared, while the Pharisaic teachers mainly took refuge in Babylon. There they developed the Talmud, which is nothing more than their oral tradition or, as Jesus said, the tradition of the elders put into books to prevent it from being lost.

One of the things these Pharisaic teachers understood was that the temple no longer existed and there was no near future hope for its reconstruction. So that moment warranted an update and unification of their Pharisaism if they wanted to survive as the religion of Israel. This adjustment they undertook had several key points: A new calendar that would allow them to fix those celebrations that depended on them so that the people could observe them wherever they were, instead of calling themselves Pharisees, they started using a more universal name like Judaism, they adopted the liturgy of the diaspora and enriched it to not depend on the temple in worshiping God, they began to use the name rabbi which until then was an honorary title for teachers of the Bible and the Talmud, and they sent missionaries to teach this to the different communities around the world. This strategy was very successful and achieved its goal.

However, over the centuries and with the little communication of the time, each community adapted this teaching to their own experiences, and thus different groups emerged depending on each area. For example: in the region of Spain were the Sephardim, in Eastern Europe the Ashkenazim, in Mesopotamia the Mizrahi, in Yemen the Yemenites, and others. And although each group continued moving to other regions whenever a kingdom arose that wanted to eliminate them, they maintained their own identity wherever they went.

It was in the modern era that a phenomenon occurred that had not happened since the times of the temple, within one of those groups, the Ashkenazim. Among them appeared a fraction called the Masorti (conservatives), who began to see traditions as useful but, depending on the country where they lived, not so important to fulfill, but it was more important to implement the country’s laws to avoid disharmony. Then two groups appeared: the Masorti and those who had always been called orthodox (those we usually see dressed in black and white). Because of these Masorti, another group appeared within the orthodox, who, out of fear of being liberal, went to the opposite side and became ultra-orthodox (those who obligatorily dress in black and white). And after that, like an explosive bomb, more groups began to appear, some leaning more towards radicalism and others more towards liberalism. It is good to clarify that this only happened within the Ashkenazim, the other groups like the Sephardim or the Mizrahi are simply considered orthodox.

This Ashkenazi group was always a minority, but with the massacres carried out by Nazism, 90% of the crimes were against the Sephardim, which is why today this group is the most visible.

Parallel to this, and as we explained in a previous article, in the 19th century, the Zionist movement arose within the Masorti, although it quickly began to gain adherents within the rest of the orthodox Ashkenazim as well. That is why when the State of Israel was founded, it was within them that the largest number of incorporations into the government and its management began to occur. However, they never received such support from the ultra-orthodox, because for them the Messiah should be the one to form and lead the nation and any other management would bring judgment upon them for usurping the leadership of the nation that belongs only to the tribe of Judah and the direct descendants of David.

Today, most Jews in Israel are on the most liberal end, feeling free to observe the traditions they have always had without even thinking about God. Now do not be alarmed by this, although it makes you want to cry, because something similar happens in the Western world in this post-Christian era where someone says to you: God bless you, and it turns out the person is a witch; or you find a Christmas celebration with lots of drunkenness and even orgies, while the same majority does not think the least about God, just the enjoyment of another celebration.

So when analyzing the State of Israel, we must consider all its complexity, because many times we will analyze the State of Israel for what it is not, although we know that God will make them what He has planned. Sadly, we see many evangelists and preachers today talking about the State of Israel as if they were already the nation that God has planned and promised to the patriarchs and prophets. We know that for some reason God has allowed the Zionists to achieve their dream, but it is God who will take them where He wants just as it will happen with His Gentile people.

In another series, we will see what has happened to those who did accept the Messiah in the nation of Israel throughout history.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

THE PALESTINIANS

As mentioned in previous articles, the identity of a specific group identified as Palestinians is something from the 20th century. So, to be clear, when someone says this is a historical problem, they simply do not know what they are talking about and are showing their ignorance on the subject.

Firstly, no one will ever be able to demonstrate that this group existed previously, although the land was called Palestine for centuries, because it simply never existed. And secondly, even when someone insists on identifying the Palestinians with the generality of Arabs, it should be made clear that there were never problems between Israel and the Arabs beyond those experienced by all who lived in territories conquered by Muslims. In support of this, it is good to remember that whenever Israel faced persecution and suffered expulsion from countries, it was the Arab caliphs and sultans who sheltered them in their lands (for example: Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century or Sultan Bayezid II in the 15th century). Therefore, historically, there were always Jews in that land of Palestine and in most Arab countries. Additionally, the Talmud was completed in Babylon, and its main compiler or organizer (Rabbi Maimonides) was the personal physician of Sultan Saladin in the 12th century. This is also proof that Israel’s enemies have never managed to form a total Arab alliance (Jihad) to fight against them. On the contrary, looking a bit at the present, Israel increasingly manages to form new alliances with some of those who have been manipulated by others to go against them, such as Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, etc. Really, being more fair with history, it is Christianity that has historically, after its official establishment as the church of the Roman Empire and then each time it assumed the direction of a country, written the bloodiest and most unjust pages against Israel, but that would be an entire series of articles to write later.

So, without deviating from the topic and to better understand it, we must ask a question: Who were the peoples living in the area called Palestine before the founding of the State of Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan? According to the 1922 census, the vast majority of the 757,182 inhabitants of this multiethnic region were Muslim Arabs (590,390 Sunnis and 156 Shiites), as well as a Bedouin population (73,000), Jews (83,694), Druze (7,028), Bahá’ís (265), Samaritans (163), in addition to other groups such as Sikhs who later emigrated to India, Armenians, Caucasians, Egyptians, Greeks, Sudanese, and Arabs from Hejaz. Let’s look at some general characteristics of the main groups in the area.

Palestinian Bedouins: They are nomadic desert Arabs, although currently, they have various settlements within Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. They are predominantly Sunni Muslims and are very collaborative with the State of Israel.

Palestinian Druze: They are an ethno-religious group mainly Gnostic, descended from Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. After the creation of the State of Israel, they are very popular among Jews, as they have defended the State of Israel as one of their own. Some of them have been public figures in the government and generals in the army.

Palestinian Christian Arabs: These Arabs, who have remained Christians for many centuries and have also evangelized others of their ethnicity, are native to this region. Historically, they have been pro-Jewish, and with the establishment of the State of Israel, they not only nationalized but also participate in everything the State promotes.

Bahá’ís: This is not an ethnic group but a religious sect founded in 1844, whose headquarters are in the city of Haifa. They believe in one God who used various religions to bring spiritual development, with the most recent pinnacle being the Bahá’í faith, with a single prophet, the Persian Bahá’u’lláh.

Jews: Since this is a large group with many subdivisions, we will dedicate another article to this.

Palestinian Muslim Arabs: These are Arabs who profess the Muslim religion. When the State of Israel was created, many remained living within its borders, facing a reality that was the division of their group into two: Israeli Muslim Arabs and nationalist Muslim Arabs. The former try to participate in all normal life in Israel as any other citizen, even joining the army and being represented in elections under their own party. Meanwhile, the nationalist Muslim Arabs never accepted the State of Israel and always consider that the State of Israel should be reduced to zero.

We can summarize this by saying that there is no specific group called Palestinians, although there is a Palestinian Muslim Arab group that hijacked that name for themselves.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

PALESTINE

After reviewing the previous information and reaching the birth of the State of Israel, which some might have preferred to call the Zionist State of Israel, but it was not named that way because it did not suit them to exclude the rest of the Jews, nor did they conceive that opportunity for themselves alone. So, let’s go back in time to understand the name of the region: Palestine.

Approximately 36 years after the death of Christ, the governor appointed by Rome in the province of Judea did things that were not conducive to peace in the area. Although the emperor quickly removed him from the region, this led to confrontations between the Gentiles of the area and the Jews. These events could not be controlled by Rome. This resulted in the official Jewish army, which was officially permitted by the empire, organizing and defeating an entire Roman legion in the area. This uprising of the Jewish army led Rome to declare the entire province of Judea in rebellion and sent one of its best generals (Vespasian) and his son (Titus) with four legions to quell the revolt. They achieved this in a little over a year, and after establishing their command in Caesarea Maritima (about 70 km from Jerusalem) for two years, they kept the area calm.

But during this time, two figures (John of Giscala and Simon bar Giora), who lived in other cities, came to the city of Jerusalem, stealing and killing with a gang of thieves. They took the city, imposed a curfew, and forced everyone to fight against Rome again. Among the things they did was kill the high priest (Anan), who bravely opposed them to obey God and prophesied what would become of them. More than 6,000 priests and residents died with him in the temple itself.

During this same period, the emperor (Nero) died, and after many problems in the city of Rome itself, the senate called Vespasian to take the throne, and he entrusted his son Titus to end the revolt in Jerusalem and the entire province, and to save as many as possible from the city, for these rebels, in their desire to fight against Rome, were capable of killing their own brothers. This is exactly what Titus did, but without being able to prevent it, as Jesus had announced, not one stone was left upon another there. After destroying the temple and the entire city of Jerusalem because of these thieves, he took the rebels who did not die captive and left the remaining survivors in the area. Among those who remained in the area were the Jewish Christians, who mostly took refuge in a desert city called Perea.

The area remained relatively calm for 60 years until another revolt led by another Simon, who was proclaimed by some rabbis as the messiah, and for three years he achieved total independence of the region from Rome until Emperor Trajan himself led the army and defeated him. Then, not only did he kill all who rebelled against Rome, but he also prohibited anyone practicing Judaism or wanting to remain in Judaism from living in the area and changed the name of the province of Judea to Philistia. But as he knew this name from Hebrew, and the letter “f” is the same as the letter “p”, they confused the pronunciation and its official name in Latin became Palestine.

For centuries, the region was called this and its inhabitants Palestinians, whether they were Arabs, Christians, Jews, or of any other origin. Jumping forward in time to the period previously discussed when the Zionists began buying lands from the British, we find that everyone there was a Palestinian. When Israel began the legal procedures to achieve an independent state, they also helped the Palestinian nomads living in the desert (the Bedouins) to do the same. However, some inhabitants of Palestine did not want to do this. So when the Zionists and the Bedouins managed to legalize themselves, three countries appeared in some areas of the region: Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. After this, there was no reason for these three countries to continue being called Palestinians (just as Cubans or Jamaicans are Caribbean, but they are not called that).

Therefore, some of those who were left without securing land for themselves, and with total hatred against the Jews, realized they could use that name: Palestinian, to manipulate the world against Israel. Because notice that those who call themselves Palestinians do not fight, protest, or demand anything against the West Bank and Jordan. However, other Arabs like them in the region did join the State of Israel, even having a political party that goes to elections. More than that, the police minister in Jerusalem is an Arab.

So we have a group within the territory called Palestine, who hijacked the name Palestinians for themselves and made it a national identity that, through deceit, tries to proclaim themselves the true owners of the region and those who want the State of Israel to literally disappear. And this last part, not only legally but also through extermination.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

ZIONISM

Without delving into many details, but making the history of the situation in Palestine as enjoyable as possible, we must start from the late 19th century.

It was during this time, after centuries of discrimination, humiliation, massacres, looting, and expulsions from places where they had lived for centuries, that a Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl understood that something needed to be done. Not to stop this, because history showed it was impossible, but to enable his entire community to minimize or end this historical reality that pursued them. To this end, he began raising awareness among different Jewish communities he interacted with and the governments of the countries he visited about the increasingly anti-Jewish situation throughout Europe. This gave rise to a movement among all Jews who joined this dream, called Zionism. The most significant solution they began to pursue, by pooling efforts, was to buy various parcels of land in one place, consolidate them, and then seek legal independence to establish a state where they could live without interference and have a chance to survive and thrive.

Of course, we are talking about an insignificant group within millions of Jews scattered across the planet, in a time when there was no internet or even telephones, making it challenging to coordinate with all Jewish groups. They considered several possible locations for this endeavor, including places that were of no interest or considered unsuitable, such as Patagonia or southern Africa. However, analyzing the administrative distribution of the planet, they also realized that the land where Israel had last been was not part of any country.

Why was this territory called Palestine not part of any country? Simply because the last empire in the region, the Ottomans, had recently lost that territory in World War I, and the British had taken charge of the entire area under a mandate (1919).

As the British also faced post-war crises, the Zionists saw the perfect opportunity to begin buying land from them in this region known as Palestine. Although they first had to convince the Jews who had always lived in the area, and many did not join them, they managed to start establishing families there who not only thought of themselves but also of the Zionist dream for as many people as possible. These settlements were called Kibbutzim, a kind of cooperative focused on development, living in peace, maintaining their customs, and educating their children with their own pedagogical methods and values.

Everything was progressing well, albeit slowly, towards advancing the Zionist dream. Until what Theodor had foreseen occurred: Anti-Jewish sentiment grew so much that it triggered the Holocaust throughout Europe, and more than six million Jews were murdered.

After the war ended and the concentration camps were discovered, Europe faced a major crisis: What to do and where to accommodate all these refugees in cities and homes that were now completely destroyed? This, coupled with the British withdrawal from the area a few years earlier, facilitated the Zionists taking advantage of the situation and developing the legal petition to create the State of Israel. This would provide refuge not only to Holocaust survivors but to anyone who wanted to come. In November 1947, the new State of Israel was approved by the UN.

Although not all Jews agreed with this new state, nor did some Arabs in the region, the birth of the state was celebrated.

To be continued…

Author: Liber Aguiar