Hashem remember Zion & Babylon

David Here,

Whilst I am winding down for my holiday next week, I wanted to make a brief post about this one. 

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion".
Psalm Chapter 137

I have posted a little about Iraq and ISIS on this blog  & what they are doing to the  people there, specifically the minorities of Iraq; as regulars will know my mother was born an Iraqi Jew, just before we were sent packing out of that country . 

As I've noted before, there are no longer any Jews for ISIS to kill in Iraq, so they are instead focusing on Christians & now a religion called Yazidis. Christians are having their homes marked to signify  that they are Christians, others are being forced to convert or die : the Yazidis are being driven to mountains and left to starve to death. This is genocide. Yet the 'world' is silent, the UN is deafeningly so, the media hardly makes a whimper. They are too consumed with attacking Israel for 'war crimes', whilst the real war criminals, who have an identical agenda to Hamas- that is a global fundamentalist Caliphate- leave human beings to die like wild animals. This is appalling. I think we have reached one of the low ebbs of hypocrisy here .

But the west won't intervene or the UN won't go on about war crimes. There is simply isn't the will to spend time, money, effort and soldier's lives on the people of Iraq. People are sick to death of wars in foreign lands (there is a famous quote from Neville Chamberlain about that when he agreed to Munich, if someone could find it for me?).  Furthermore there is no identification with Christians or any other religion in the secular west, people simply don't identify with anyone who claims a religious label, let alone Christianity, but then the people of the west don't even seem to identify with Israel anymore, which is in effect a secular republic (the reason is of course because Israel specifically calls itself the Jewish state, which to secular ears is 'racist' and not multicultural enough). There is also, I believe,  a fear among elites of provoking another Islamic 'street' backlash against intervention in a Muslim land,whatever the nobility of the cause of intervention in Iraq. 

Final thought is that military planners will advise anyone who wishes to send a gun boat to Iraq, they could be faced with a UN or ICC war crimes trial. Why?Because what Hamas have done in Gaza, ISIS will do in Iraq. The 10,000 or so of them are basically plain clothes thugs with guns. They will simply encamp to the nearest city, fire at anything than comes into their way. In this scenario it would be difficult to target ISIS and not kill civilians. The media, the UN and anyone else you care to mention would shift the war from a humanitarian one, to 'western imperialism', 'war crimes against civilians', 'a grab for the oil', etc etc. That is why the US/UK/Europe will do SFA. It is terrible. I do not like it. 

I ask myself  What will it take for the west to take notice of  the spread of militant Islamic organisations like ISIS and tackle them ? When we have a couple of thousand armed gangs in our own streets, bullying their own community into their particular fanatical version of their religion and persecuting/killing everyone else? When  it is in Paris? London? New York? (and at least the US citizens can protect themselves, because they have the right to bear arms).  What will the west do then? 

I do not want to conclude on this note, though, for there are many practical things that people can do, such as supporting various charities involved here (I don't have a list, but if some one can up this up on the comments thread , I'd grateful). Above all, we can Daven (pray) and say Psalms in this situation, as we have done and continue to do for our own Jewish community, the IDF and Israel and see the time when : 

'Out of Zion shall go forth Torah,

and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.'

(Isaiah Chapter 2) 

What to do with Iraq?

I've been asked to provide a post or commentary on what is happening in Iraq [one snarky arsehole complained that I cared more about 3 Jews, than I do about half a million Christians & the rest of the Iraqi population -utter bollocks!- because I have been praying & fasting  earnestly for both situations, since Saturday, going through the Psalms ]. Whilst I want to steer this blog toward matters more spiritual, than political, I agree it an important event which needs an airing.

So here goes....

OK, so after thinking this through overnight,as I see things -

1. The Sunni and Shia hate each others guts and are going through a bloody civil war across the middle east, worse possibly than anything Europe ever saw during the height of the Reformation wars.

2. One camp is being led by Iran, the other Saudi Arabia.

3. The Christians of the region are caught between these two fires and are suffering terribly as a result.

4.Both sides are united in loathing for Israel and wanting to wipe her off the map.

5. No-one knows what to do about any of this.

So what does the west do? Is doing what Obama/Kerry & some GOP Senators are now saying- Carl can correct here, but I believe Lindsay Graham has said this as well- that there is a need to cooperate with Iran over the situation in Iraq. Isn't the danger there that the country will either fall under Iranian control or that the country will be divided along ethnic lines... which would upset NATO partner Turkey (re Kurds)...

What a bloody shambolic mess. What to do?

Having thought some more, we have several options -

1. Retake Iraq by force, occupy it and govern it as in the old mandate days, because we are responsible for this mess, after overthrowing Saddam.

2. Do nothing and possibly let Iran control Iraq as a puppet state.

3. Do nothing, watch the region go up in flames and quote Kissinger 'It is a pity they can't both loose' & deal with whoever comes up on top.

3. Co-operate with Iran and formally split Iraq into various states along ethnic and tribal lines

4. Do the same with Syria.

5. As part of 3 and 4, create a new Christian state for the regions Christians

6. Send in a gunboat   Nimitz Class Super Carrier battle group, with the Brits in toe and bomb and few tents to make it look like we are doing something.


None of these are good options or satisfactory, depending on where you are sitting. I haven't come to a conclusion about any of these options. It is clear some of them simply won't be considered by western policy makers, but that doesn't in itself make them invalid. Are there any others? What do readers think?

Also- we must NOT forget to submit this situation to G-d in our prayers.