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“Two Israels”
According to Middle East Monitor1, “Israel waged a three-week military offensive against the Gaza Strip, killing almost 1,400 Palestinians and wounding thousands more.”
That was in the 2008 war which followed a nearly year long siege against Gaza which was preceded by numerous incursions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and cross border rocket and artillery attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory by the Arab Palestinians over several years.
Yet the current war seems so fresh and awful as we are once more served up images of death and destruction that have a familiar almost reassuring nature to them. Like the inevitable disasters stemming from yearly outbreaks of tornados, hurricanes, or destructive episodes from the periodic volcanic explosion, Israel produces an endless parade of predictable carnage.
Rockets raining down on Israeli settlements on one TV network and IDF airpower delivering high explosives to Gaza City on another network. Media chow for the press while human blood slowly soaks into the rubble of smashed concrete and the dirt of the Holy Land.
This is an image of one Israel. Geographically there is the material land of ancient Israel and Judah and the allied Philistine and Canaanite cultures. For several thousand years mixed into this ethnic stew was a procession of conquering armies from Babylon, Assyria, merged with miraculous accounts of Alexander the Great and the influence of Egyptian Hellenism have produced a mythical history well suited for magical interludes.
The stories of the Promised Land, the Red Sea being parted, burning bushes, Laws burnt into stone, and various heroic tales of conquest and perseverance have combined to create another Israel. The eternal metaphysical Israel from which great power is generated to influence the thoughts of countless humans over the ages. Psychic power born from legends and handed down by agencies whose job it is to carry traditions from the clouds of imagination to the minds of the people.
It is the Fabled Israel that holds our attention over the years and creates the alternative to the dust and dirt of the Levant. It wields the mesmerizing power of symbol and metaphor with the capacity to grip men and women throughout the ages. The spiritual stories woven from the fabric of her history give the Fabled Israel the power to hold together the boundaries of the blood soaked earth which comprise the material Israel.
Today the clouds of rubble and the smell of explosives lingering in the air continue the legend of struggle and the gods of conflict and war attributed to Yahweh the patron of the Israelites. So a symmetry is achieved between fragile memories and the harsh present ensuring the survival of Israel and its spiritual doppelganger.
December 2018, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181227-remembering-israels-2008-war-on-gaza/
Heart felt. Thanks.