The Jewish People In History

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:  
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PALESTINIANS_NO_BUILDING?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT  
Israel curbs Palestinian building on disputed land  
By DALIA NAMMARI Associated Press Writer AQABEH, West Bank (AP)

 -- The elders of this West Bank village hold their meetings under a carob tree, sitting on boulders arranged in a circle. It looks idyllic, but is born of necessity - the council doesn't have a meeting hall. Aqabeh, home to 299 people, has never received Israeli construction permits despite many requests, its mayor says. After losing a battle in Israel's Supreme Court in April, the village now lives with the threat of seeing 37 of its 47 structures demolished, according to a U.N. count. That includes 27 homes, a clinic, a mosque and a kindergarten that was co-financed by a U.S. charity, the Building Alliance. All were built illegally, Israel says...  

I shall take this moment to describe my point of view of the Jewish people and their place in History.
Hitherto, it has been fashionable for people, hearing the expression "the chosen people", to understand this as meaning correctly that the Jews are set apart, but incorrectly as that somehow the Jews were more important and dearer to God than the nations. My own opinion is that the Jewish people are the Beta testers of God. Israel is thus far a 60 year test.

From our point of view the results are decidedly mixed, but from the boss's point of view, who knows?

After the Holocaust, one would think that the return to Israel was a blessing and a sabbatical for the Jews. Instead they are now facing one of the hardest tests ever: can they establish peace and justice in the land where there are Israelis and Palestinians?
It may seem counterintuitive that brute physical and spiritual survival against the Tyrrany was less difficult than Peace and Harmony, but so much for intuition: throughout history, we have always seen tyrrany, but bloody little Peace and Harmony. Hence, P and H are pretty slim pickings.

The test as to whether Israel can actually have two ethnic groups seems to have failed, even though there are Palestinians living in Israel and, indeed, serving in the Knesset. However, I think even the founders, though they spoke of such an ideal, were not deluded and knew that it was next to impossible. This Beta test indicates a failure. Notice that while this Beta test of ethnic groups living together has been run in Israel, it has also been run in numerous other locations on the globe. Bosnia, Kosovo, and Ruanda come to mind immediately.

The tests that the Jews are in are tests of all men. Given their unique position as "testers" or "test takers", if the Jews fail, it is highly probable that no other group will succeed, at least at the present stage of human development. Now the other test is whether the Palestinian State may be established and the just claims of Palestinians be met. May Jew and Palestinian meet as "I" and "Thou", or are they condemned forever to be "Us" versus "Them", the Jews versus the Nations, the Dar al Islam versus the Dar al Harb? When I walk outside my group, am I become Gershom, a stranger in a strange land? Am I become Ghasheem, transformed into an alien in the midst of day? This is still in Beta testing. God willing, we shall know the results soon and shall share them with you.

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