Post #129 "Deeper into Violence"

Probing deeper into violence, the roots of division, to loss of identity, become clearer. Focusing on the Israel/Palestine conflict, it is noticeable that this conflict expresses best the conflicts of all-time and all-place. The conflict reaches back at least 4000 years and is best expressed in the ancient biblical account of the story of the Patriarch, Abraham. This rather historical account has many sources of division resulting in loss of identity that Post #128 began to reveal.

Bringing us up to date....the Egyptian, slave, Hagar was sent in to Abraham to conceive and bear a son that would inherit, according to tribal laws, the governance of the tribes that were on a quest to establish themselves in a new land promised to them and their descendants by their tribal God, Yahweh. Hagar did indeed conceive and did provide a son to Abraham. As the first-born son, according to tribal law, Ishmael became Abraham's heir. He became the crown-prince, so to speak. You would think that this would end all problems but they were really only beginning. First of all, there was the subjection of women to less than human status; to child bearing for wives and cattle status for slaves and the unmarried. How did these women, in reality, feel and consequently act and view themselves? What of identity? To whom did they belong? If people are treated like animals do they lose their self-value? Do they lose their identity? They sure do! So much so that to this day women are unaware of how little human identity they have, and still in so many ways view themselves as owned and possessed by men in their lives. Today's world is very much a patriarchal society. Women do not realize how their existence is that of a possession, unable to think and cope in and with a male dominated world. How does it feel to be possessed? How did Sarah, Abraham's legal wife feel because she did not produce a son? She must have felt that she had no value. How did she feel to send her slave into Abraham, her husband to perform a very intimate act through which Sarah would only be a proxy mother to any children born to her slave? How would women feel about this? What if Sarah thought that Hagar was in Abe's tent a little to often and a little too long? Now these are real women's concerns that are never addressed here in the biblical account but are at the bottom of today's Middle East conflict. Soon things came to a head....After some time......guess what??.....Sarah conceived in her old age and gave birth to a healthy son and named him Isaac. What joy she had in her baby son and of course wanted the best for him. The best for him, of course, was the inheritance of the tribes. After all, she felt herself to be Abraham's Real wife! Can one imagine her feelings of triumph and her returned assumed identity of being Abraham's wife--a 'real' woman? But something stood in the way....Hagar's son, Ismael. Ismael was being brought up as a prince. Now what?????

By now according to the story, Hagar was also Abraham's wife and her son was the first born son of Abraham. Sarah is said to have had it 'in' for Hagar and the whole thing becomes an ugly mess. How did Ishmael feel about being demoted to a slave of Baby Isaac? Hagar was scorned by Sarah and the other women. It turns out that Hagar and Ishmael are finally banished into the wilderness. In a sense, left to die. Hagar was Egyptian and somehow managed.... maybe she was picked up by a caravan headed back to Egypt. It seems, according to the story, that she and Ishmael survived.

What feelings and emotions resulted and magnified to this day? Ishmael is said to have become the Father of the Muslim people as Isaac is said to be the Father of the nation of Israel. Looking at the ancient story, who is the true heir of Abraham? Who has the true identity? Did the same God promise the same thing to two nations? And all the centuries of division, loss of identity and violence!!!!!!