Baby Slaughters and Genocide, From Moses to Bibi

    Moses was forementioned as a great leader, from the God Yahweh since the time of Abraham or maybe before. That had been for hundreds of years. The great pharaoh of Egypt, once powerful empire, feared a rebel leader in the time of this Hebrew Levite's birth, and somehow knowing the time of this baby's birth ordered the slaughter of thousands, perhaps, newborns.

    Moses' family put him in a basket of reeds to be adopted by the Pharaonic family himself. And it worked! Some eighty years later Moses led his people to the Promised Land, the lands of Canaan. Where the pagan Canaanites stood in the way.

    As chronicled in the Holy Bible, like the tale of Moses and the Levites and the other 11 tribes escaping the land of the Nile, Canaan was decimated by Aaron and Joshua, the twelve tribes. Moses died at age 120 without setting foot inside it. Yet, his people conquered and settled it.

    This was genocide. 

    Yet, us Abrahamic traditions accept these tales of woe and slaughter: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. Moses' time of birth brought the killing of babies, which led to more slaughter and genocide of others a few generations later. How many Canaanites were killed for the Israelites to assume control of what would become Palestine? Five thousand? Ten thousand? More than twenty thousand? The Bible may or may not say. 

    2023 finds us in a sad place. Sad places.

    But first, as I discuss this on Christmas Day, we shall recount the slaughtering of the innocents during the Roman time of the year of Jesus's birth. Like Pharoah some 1500 years before, Herod knew of the prophecies of the new Messiah or leader, and had many babies killed. Emmanuel born in Bethlehem and fled to Egypt escaped the killing, the slaughter of newborns and young ones, and eventually made it to the City of David, to leave his final mark there.

    Two thousand years of Christianity have ensued.

    But in 2023, since October 7 of this year, there has been slaughters and a type of genocide among the Jews and the Muslims. Us Christians are largely left out, but I did read of a mother and daughter who are among the thousand remnant Christians in Gaza, who were slain by Israeli snipers a couple weeks ago. Now in December. Perhaps the Israeli side will blame Muslim militants for the death of these two Arab Christians. Lies, hate, subterfuge, and innuendo, and of course killing, is par for the course right now.

    Not so merry a Christmas.

    There is a slaughtering of innocents in 2023. I see that both sides have much of the blame.

    If I am a Gazan, in support or in league with Hamas or no, I would set the graves of the minors along the border of Gaza and Israel. I would line up the tombstones of the children killed since October 8th and since along the border for miles, modestly spaced to show the massive amounts of innocent youth. I would run long stringed balloons from their respective graves. This would be visible from afar, and be a stark and sobering reminder of what has been happening these last few months, and to memorialize these poor lost souls. Just children, like the Pharoah's or Herod's slaughters.

    Hamas is part of the equation, of course. They bear a large brunt of the blame.

    Killing innocent men, women, and children in a surprise attack and in cruel and barbaric ways has no place in the Quran, ancient or modern Islam, and Jewish, Christian, and secular people, as well as fellow Muslims, should not stand for it.

    Killing innocents has no place in our modern society.

    We have to allow people to live in peace, and permit prosperity.

    Do not settle land that does not belong to you. Do not cut down and destroy trees and properties and crops of those that have little already.

    What are the answers?

    Questions: what percentage of Gazan Arabs claim land from pre-1948 Israel and the West Bank? Five percent? Ten? More?

    What does Prime Minister Netanyahu believe about Israeli settlements in the West Bank?

    Does this continued action and presence have justification?

    Military sweeping of Hamas and the Gaza Strip have their reasons, albeit not acceptable by most of the world. Too many have died and suffered unnecessarily. Perhaps like past times recorded in the Bible?

    Perhaps these things were meant to be, and will continue to occur.

    But in that case, religion, prophecy, and actions based on those beliefs have a lot to account for.

    We can do better. We must do better.

    Peace can be achieved, I believe, but we cannot bring ourselves to it.

    We must not kill more babies. Can we start with that?