Charity Begins at Home

 

Bravo Mr. Biden:  You really made a wonderful speech at the University of Lithuania during the NATO summit and in the presence of the Ukraine president Zelensky.  He might have been a little disappointed as the decision for Ukraine to join NATO was deferred until after the end of the conflict with Russia.  But you were very clear about your unwavering support of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.    You used words like “Never and Ever” should one forget the right of people to stand up against such an aggression, and you spoke about common values and the defense of Freedom.

All the rhetoric that you used was excellent and in accordance with human rights values.  Yet the hypocrisy and the double standards were so glaring that it was pathetic especially that it was  only a few days earlier  that you had justified the Israeli  invasion  with   the most sophisticated armament, on the Palestinian  refugee camp  and the city of Jenin as well as other towns like Huwara and Turmus Aya, as being “the right of Israel to defend itself”.  Really Mr. Biden.  Is this a joke?  Or do you think the whole world is that  dumb to believe that justification.  Maybe they are ,  after all,  when one of the most powerful countries in the world can get away with such a statement.

I wish you would address your own people Mr. Biden, assuring them that you would never ever allow an American citizen to be homeless and without medical care, while you continue to provide both Israel,  an occupying power, and Ukraine, an occupied country,  with the most sophisticated armament.  Mr. Biden, charity starts at home!!!

Samia Khoury

A Palestinian Grandmother

Reflecting once again. Until when dear Lord, until when?

Yesterday  morning after breakfast.  I stretched out on my reclining chair to relax a short while before getting ready for my shower,  when a pigeon appeared on my window sill.  What a beautiful starter for the day.  Could it be carrying a message of peace after those crows that have been hovering all over our trees recently.  I remember ever since I was a child a crow has been  a bad omen.  Even in Shakespeare’s  Macbeth which we  studied in high school,  Lady Macbeth alludes to the raven as a bad omen.  Well we saw enough brutality at the hands of the Israeli settlers, with the protection of the army  in so many places, like    Huwara, Jenin and Turmus Aya to confirm this bad omen.  Will it ever stop?   

And this morning we woke up again to another brutal raid on Jenin.  I could not help but wonder, how many pigeons would we need to bring about peace to this devastated country?  Will the Western world which had brought havoc to the Middle East ever take responsibility and atone for what it has done.  They claim to be Christians, and they accuse Muslims of being terrorists.  How ironic indeed. When we look back at the history of the Crusaders and the colonizers, and the   role they played not only in tearing up the country, but in dividing its Christians into different denominations.

 

I had just finished reading a book “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan sent to me recently by  an Irish friend.   Towards the end of the book the hero in the story is shown accompanying a destitute girl to his home for Christmas and posing the following question: “Was there any point in being alive without helping one another?  Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without one being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?” How sad that those so-called Christian countries cannot think of one good deed, Let alone have the  guts to atone for all their crimes that have caused so much suffering and devastation in our region and other places as well.  Over and above, the Bible continues to be used and abused to justify all the injustice that prevails in this so-called Holy Land. Until when, dear Lord?  Until when?