My Brother's Keeper

IT’S NOT A STAR that had been shining brightly but the countless rocket-propelled grenades and mortars that had been blazing up in the sky that made the 12 days of Christmas celebration very remarkable this time. What had been offered were not gold, frankincense and myrrh but (a clear indication of) greed, hatred, and wrath, instead!

Who would have thought that Gaza, a place which is 72.42 kilometres southwest of Bethlehem, will be filled with cries of “Ceasefire!” nowadays; a word that is almost synonymous from what had been sung during that cold, starry night when the child Jesus was born! “Peace on earth...!” the angels that had come down from heaven said; and the same words are still being desperately uttered by the whole world 2,008 years later.

As of this writing, 512 Palestinians and 5 Israelis have died, plus the other 40 Israelis have been wounded since the start of the attack last December 27, 2008. But this count seems to be negligible or even nothing for each of the opposing groups to stop the battle—which is believed to have started since the time of Ishmael and Isaac in the Old Testament. I have the impression that the present day descendants of Ishmael and Isaac are completely ignoring or simply have forgotten the Biblical fact that they share the same ancestor with the birthday boy Jesus, which is Abraham. They also have different religious and/or political conviction thus, creating another great complication... I would still say, however, that this is a rivalry between the two families of the same ancestry.

Nobody can tell whether the current number of casualties in the Gaza Strip violence could or couldn't outnumber the count of those boys (2 years old and below) who were slaughtered under the orders of King Herod by the time he realized that the wise men had tricked him. Yet I can tell that the majority, if not all of the victims of both hostilities were undeniably innocent.

Honestly, I can neither formulate the best truce nor come up with an ultimate solution that would be very effective to end this ancient feud between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

I admit that the current situation in the south-eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea is a wake-up call for me, my younger brother and our youngest sister (this is another story, so just read between or even beyond the line). Definitely, the three of us cannot tell if father Abraham is also our great grand ancestor but, certainly, we can say that Adam is our great, great, great... grandfather. This genealogy is very simple yet it speaks of a very meaningful ‘message’ not only for me and my siblings but for the whole world, as well; a very beautiful ‘message’ of the lyrics of that song sang by the angels more than two millennia ago. To love one another, including my enemies, is easier said than done but this time I am again reminded that I am truly my brother’s or my sister’s keeper.