The Five Steps Of Martyrdom

The first step towards martyrdom is to place one foot in the grave. The second step is to place the other foot in the grave. The third step is to lie down, close the eyes, stop breathing and die. The fourth step is to open the eyes in paradise. The fifth step is to enjoy the rewards of martyrdom in paradise. Sometimes a little outside help is needed in completing the third step, help that is not always appreciated by those who come to pay their respects at the martyr's grave, especially when too much outside help is given without consent.

Was Christianity The Key To Peace In The Middle East?

 I'm beginning to realize what it was that's central to Jewish-Arab animosity since the beginning of the first millennium onwards. 

Religion. 

The Jews have Judaism, non-negotiable, the Arabs have Islam, non-negotiable, and never shall the twain meet. 

Arab Christians and Israeli Christians, however, are bonded in love for each other just as Jesus commanded them, to 'love one another as I have loved you'.

Christianity, therefore, may be the key to peaceful co-existence between both Arabs and Jews, or Israelis, in the Middle East, not Judaism or Islam, both proven to be religions not of peace or love or tolerance but of violence, hatred and holy war in the case of one and vengeance and retribution in the case of the other.

Observations # 40

Double-standard politics or political viewpoints are like a man with blurred vision reading the news.

When the news concerns what appears to be an illegal act committed by a non-Jewish nation, the man reads it without his reading glasses. Everything's blurred but he doesn't care. Let them do what they want. Who cares?

However, when the news singles out a Jewish nation as being the perpetrator of what appears to be an illegal act deemed to be in the interests of national security on the Jewish nation's part, that's when he puts on his reading glasses.

That's his purpose in life, what he was created for. Wish him well. Even the dead generate income for funeral home businesses and related industries. What more the living.

Observations # 38

The war in Gaza is fought on two levels. Level One is fought on the ground in Gaza. Level Two is fought online in cyberspace. 

Psychoanalysts and sociological experts have hypothesized that the online war in cyberspace has come to symbolize or has come about as a result of a war that cannot be won on the ground.

Observations # 37

It is good the world was in so much darkness, for the greater the darkness caused by all the lies and false teachings and hatred for all that's good and righteous, the brighter will the beacons of truth shine.

Why Oct 7 Was A Victory For The Palestinians - Title Of Thesis

Israel has exhausted all possible means of locating and rescuing the remaining hostages and was on the verge of agreeing to a prisoner exchange deal in which the Palestinians get to say which Israeli hostages are released, which Palestinian prisoners are released and how many of each are released, among other conditions.

What Zechariah, Acknowledged By Muhammad As One Of The Prophets, Said About Israel's Enemies

Zechariah 12:1-9

 12 A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.

The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.

3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’

6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.

9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Conflict Resolution For Pre-Schoolers

   There once were two farmers, Farmer Jacob and Farmer Ismail, whose farms were separated by a large swathe of land known as the grazing field that was right in the middle of both farms.

  They and their families had lived on their farms for generations and generations for thousands of years. 

   Both the Jacob and Ismail families lived in peace with each other, except for one item of contention: whom the grazing field between both farms belonged to.

   The Jacob family claimed it belonged to their ancestors. The Ismail family claimed it belonged to their forefathers. 

   But they were not violent people who believed in settling their differences by violence. They were decent human beings who believed in the goodness of their neighbors, which was what people liked to believe about themselves in those days.

   It was also believed that the main reason for such a peaceful outcome was possibly linked to the presence of Police Constable Keepum D'Peace Um, who was always poking his nose into other people's business' while on his peacekeeping rounds, as he liked to call them, whose own family had also been around for thousands of years, keeping the peace from generation to generation.

   And this was how the Keepum D'Peace Um family of police constables managed to do that, keep the peace between both farming families from generation to generation.

   The head of the Police Constable Keepum D'Peace Um family would summon both the heads of the Farmer Jacob and Farmer Ismail farming families to what was known as a table talk, whereupon he would seat them down and say, 'In the interests of peace on this portion of earth, here's what I shall propose.'

'Option One. Both families draw a straight line down the middle and split the land into two equal halves, one for each family.'

'Option Two. Both families share the land, allowing their livestock-their sheep, their goats, their cattle-to wander throughout the length and breadth of the land and graze wherever they like, returning home after the grazing was done, each to its own home.'

   And it was always the second option both neighbors opted for, always, from generation to generation, mainly because it involved no extra work, no unnecessary border demarcation work, no unnecessary barbed-wire fencing work and no unnecessary barricaded border crossing gate construction work on their part, it was believed.

   And yes, from then onwards they all lived happily ever after, from generation to generation, for thousands of years, even until this very day, it was believed.

   The End.

Why Saying 'F*%k Israel' Can Be Hazardous To One's Heath & Well-Being

 The word 'Israel' contains the suffix, 'El', which in Hebrew means 'God'.

According to biblical folklore - a nice secular way of putting it, no? - Israel was the name given to Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, patriarchs of the tribe of modern-day Israel, all of them, as a result of having wrestled with presumably an angel sent by God all night until daybreak, literally, physically, man-to-man, for angels in those days walked the earth like ordinary people did, a name meaning 'He who struggles with God'.

What? F*% he who struggles with me, as God would say in response to someone saying 'F*%k Israel for reasons of his/her own, since he, God, identified by name in the suffix 'El', was uttered in the same breath when he was cursed by whoever it was that cursed Israel?

Well, well, well, let's see about that, shall we, who f*%ks whom, as the imagined reply would be, although God, holy as he was as declared by himself to be, again, according to biblical folklore, wouldn't be expected to stoop to such low levels of vulgarity no matter what. His imagined response, in line with his good name, high office and holy reputation, would probably be something along the lines of 'okay, foul-mouthed mortal, let's see who curses whom' and so on.

So, do be careful the next time you're tempted to say 'F*%k Israel', as God, as identified by name in the suffix 'El' in 'Israel', might not take it too kindly as his name was mentioned in the same breath when you cursed Israel with such an expression of your hatred.

Incidentally, you might also want to be careful when the temptation to curse people with names other than 'Israel' arises for whatever the reason as many names, be they Jewish, Italian, Spanish and so on contain the word or suffix 'God' in them, names such as Gabriel, Jewish, which contains the suffix 'El', or 'God' in Hebrew, Giovani, Italian for 'God has shown favor', Juanito, Spanish for 'The Lord is gracious' and so on.

What a minefield this booby-trapped world of ours was, wasn't it?

This Is Not Genocide, THIS Is.

This is not genocide.

Gaza, pop. 2 million, unguided, random, pilot error airstrikes.

Rafah, pop. 171,899, boom!, one bomb, 20+ Palestinians dead.

Khan Yunis, pop. 205,125, boom!, one bomb, 20+ Palestinians dead.

Jabalia, pop. 172, 704, boom!, one bomb, 20+ Palestinians dead.

THIS is.

West Bank, pop. 3 million, precision, targeted airstrikes.

Bethlehem, pop. 40,983, boom!, one bomb, (?)+ presumed dead.

Hebron, pop. 308,750, boom!, one bomb, (?)+ presumed dead.

Jenin, pop. 115,305, boom!, one bomb, (?)+ presumed dead.

Get your facts right, Amnesty International & Equally Blind Associates.