Friday, January 21, 2005

Letters to the Scribbler

"is the war/ongoing skirmishes between Israel and Palestine a result of Ishmael and Isaac from the Bible? cuz if it is, i thought it was prophecied to never ever be resolved or something. and if that's right. . .is there any reasonable hope that peace can be made, or is it "fated" to go on forever? (i.e. can we change, not history, but um the future or whatever) just some questions that popped up. -Sanguine"

This is a very good question by my good friend Sanguine. I must confess I am not an expert on Abraham's kids and related prophecies. I do know that all Jews are descendants of Isaac, and I believe all Arabs are descendants of Ishmael. At the very least, I haven't even heard claims to the contrary, and I seem to recall reading or hearing that even Muslims believe they are descendants of Abraham and Ishmael.

Gen 16:12 says, regarding Ishmael, that "he shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him." This doesn't necessarily or specifically claim that he shall be at war with Isaac, or that it will last forever, or that it even applies to his descendants at all. However, that's just one verse I found, and there could be more. Quite frankly, I don't know.

Whether or not there are prophecies regarding Israel and Palestine's enduring conflict, I do know that there are far too many Muslims/Arabs who absolutely hate all Jews and want to kill them all. Abbas is trying to work out a deal with the radical Hamas group, but I'm skeptical as to it actually happening. Pragmatically, I don't expect fighting to end until the Antichrist comes and finds a devilish way to appease all the Jew-haters.

But even if peace will never come, we can still try to get peace to come, or at least try to minimize the loss of life and make things as good as they can get, however good that is. Even if it's "fated" to go on forever, that doesn't mean we should give up on them.

Hope that helps. Any insight from a Jewish or Christian scholar who randomly finds and reads this blog would be most welcome.

Edmond the Hun

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ok that answered a few things. just wondering ~ thanks for taking the time to post about them. :) i suppose trying for peace is the best thing to do, it just seems rather daunting if it's "fated" to go on forever or something. i guess that's what heroes do right? keep trying in the face of adversity and doom. . .so yay, america is full of heroes!! :D
-Sanguine