Moses on the March

Moses freed his people from the Egyptian Pharaoh by unleashing 10 Plagues. The last plague killed the first-born son of every family without lamb’s blood on their doorway. A murderous god Yahweh and spiteful. The Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years until they reached the Promised Land. Their path to Canaan was sodden with the blood of anyone in the path of the lord. It all seemed much more holy in the movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Moses was denied entrance, because he had not circumcised his son.

This summer I rode my bike through Williamsburg. The Hassidim had built temporary shelters outside on the streets and patios as a remainder of those 40 years in the desert. One humorist joked about this lengthy meandering.

Why was Moses wandering through the desert for 40 years?

Because men refuse to ask for directions!

The Jews were exiled from Israel twice. The first time by the Babylonians and secondly after the Romans defeated the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD. The Chosen People covered the globe seeking solace from persecution. The Nazis massacres convinced the Jews to regain their biblical homeland citing the Old Testament as their claim to Palestine. The Western allies backed their struggle and the UN mandate created Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians were forced into the desert of Moses.

Wars and uprising and negotiations have failed to secure a stable state for the Palestinians, the ancestors of Abraham’s second wife. Hagar and her son Ishmael were forced into the desert by Abraham’s spiteful first wife. Life imitating the Bible.

But even the desert is not safe.

The moratorium against Israeli settlements in the west Bank has lapsed after a ten-month building freeze. Zionist radicals intent on colonizing the West Bank have vowed to build on the ancient lands without any regard to Palestinian property rights.

Trouble in the making.

But the settlers have Yahweh on their side and he is a vengeful god.

There are no jokes in the Bible.

Only in real life.

A Palestinian suspect was being grilled by Israeli police. “Honest, I’m not a suicide bomber,” he said. “I didn’t say I wanted to blow myself up so I could sleep with 72 virgins. All I said was I’m dying to get laid!”