Jeez Lue Weez man, last night I was talking to one of
my best friends and he mentioned Magic! and so I checked them out and they're
awesome! haha. I really like them, and their music video Rude is pretty solid... check it:
...The main idea is that there's this guy that has a crush on a girl and so he asks her dad for his blessing to marry her, but all the dad says is "tough luck my friend," and that he's never going to get his blessing till the day he dies...Like never... Ever... never, ever, EVER!... Like never ever ever EVER!!! and so it's just like... whoa! jeez lue weez, that is soooooo... RUDE!!! Why you gotta be so ruuuude? haha.
Can you imagine that?
You can't live without this certain girl... the one and only girl that you love and care about more than anybody or anything else in the whole world, and so you try to be nice, you try to be cordial, but all the dad does is say no and throw it right back in your face.
He completely denies you the opportunity to marry her, and so you're like, what?!? Like really? I mean like man alive... why you gotta be so rude like that? That's just so ruuuude!!!
So what do you do?
Well, you marry her anyway. You marry her no matter what he says... You run away with her and become your own family. That's what you do... It's what you do fair and square. End of story. That's all there is to it.
Do you see how that could raise a little tension?
...Now imagine that tension multiplied a million times over in a tiney little country surrounded by multiple Arab states 650 times your size that really don't like you very much at all, and you just might start to get an idea of what it's like for Israel....
Israel is the guy wanting the girl. The girl is the land they're living on, especially Jerusalem. But Palestine, or multiple people from the various Arab nations surrounding Israel, are the "dads" who don't want to give that land away.
...And so the problem is that the land has technically already been given away to Israel, and it was given to them back in 1948 by like the official land and country marriage organization called the United Nations.
And so this marriage to Israel and their land… well, not only is it officially recognized by most of the world – there’s also a little rumble that occurs there between the brand new Israeli state and the Arab states a few days later... A little rumble that Israel miraculously wins!
Now these rumbles go on and on and on for decades (and the turmoil is highlighted in 1967 with the Six Days War), until about in 1987 when a rather small political organization of Arabs called Hamas is formed out of a previous organization called Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Movement. This group gains momentum, and in the 1990's and early 2000's starts really getting after it on every opportunity they’ve got to destroy the notion of Israel as it's own sovereign state... And Israel, on the other hand, with a surprisingly powerful Air Force and Defence Force - defends themselves from the oncoming attacks while also managing to perpetually retaliate in a semi-offensive way.
And so what does Hamas do? Well they don’t really care too much about all their losses as long as that gets them more sympathy from the public, and so they keep debilitating Israel... They keep attacking – they throw rockets to Tel-Aviv and send suicide bombers into Jerusalem and build secret tunnels especially into the Israeli side of perhaps the most coveted realty zone in the whole world; namely the Gaza Strip.
In other words, to get a better understanding of this whole messy disaster, check out this video that explains the history of this dilemma in a little more detail...
And as a side note, just keep in mind that Israel as a nation with its strategic connection to the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia right along the Eastern border of the Mediterranean Sea is the epicenter of the whole world. And Jerusalem; the great city of King David – is the epicenter of Israel. And Temple Mount; the specific place where the Jews want to build the temple that you can read about in the Bible - that's in the epicenter of this city… and well, just to top it off and make matters even worse – let’s just say that Temple Mount is inconveniently already taken up by a huge Islamic Mosque…
Now if you’ve ever heard of a gnarly situation, I think that this one would definitely constitute itself as being the biggest.
And so who’s to blame for it all?
…Maybe we could go back and blame it on Abraham, the ancestral father of both Israel and Palestine, or perhaps we could just stick with SIN as being the ultimate source of it all… The same kind of sin that you and I have; just as much as the Arabs and Jews, and which can only be remedied with the blood of the most controversial Jew who ever lived in those parts… The most controversial Jew who some acknowledge as the promised and long awaited Messiah… the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s, the Everlasting Son of God.
He’s the ultimate Savior that can bring true shalom to the world (John 14:27), and in the midst of all these tears and wars and bloodshed, I think that one of the only things that we can really cling to are the promises in the Bible concerning the final victory of Jesus when all of this will turn around…
Seriously man. And while you're at it, please click play on Matisyahu's song: One Day to hear a spectacular interpretation a Jewish reggae artists's hope for change:
Yeah for Matisyahu! (best song ever).
----------------------------------------------------------Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 13:34-35
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her broodunder her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
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Other Good Videos Explaining the Situation in Israel:
Pictures Cited:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398512.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/jul/24/the-conflict-in-gaza-in-pictures
http://www.islamic-architecture.info/WA-IS/WA-IS.htm
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/robert-spencer/hamas-genocidal-technocrats/
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/feb/15/bbc-supreme-court-middle-east-report
