Today I saw and talked with a man that I greatly respect; Nazih. I’ve known him since I was born and have loved my times of talking with him ever since. He’s in his early 60′s and his opinions on things have always left me wondering about my own. This 60 year old man who I greatly respect is from Jordan. If I remember right, 3 years ago he told me that he came to America to study to be a doctor when he was in his 20′s or 30′s. By the way… Nazih is my doctor.
He walked in the room that my Mom and I were in. As soon as he walked in after we had said “hi” to eachother and realized it had been over 3years since we’ve seen eachother and he had checked me and went over all of my syptoms … I quickly asked him something that I was trying to figure out while in the waiting room a few moments earlier. I asked “Where is Jordan? Isn’t it in the Middle East?” He looked up from his medical papers and looked at me like he expected that kind of question from me, and said, “Yes Teresa. It’s in the Middle East. Jordan is near Israel, and Israel is close to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. But yes… Jordan isn’t too far from Israel though.” Nazih said a few other things that his extremely heavy accent left me unable to understand even after asking him to repeat it a few times. He looked at me awhile and I smiled and said okay; he had answered my question. He went back to the table full of tissue boxes, tongue depressers (don’t you hate those sticks that they put in your mouth!? – thankfully I didn’t have to this time!) and his medical papers that he had been looking at.
After he had been reading over his papers I suddenly said “I want to go to Israel, India and Africa on mission trips.” Now, first of all, if you know me at all you know that I have a love for India; I have for the past year and a half. Africa has never really been a place I’ve been interested in until this year; and Israel has only been an interest of mine during the past few months, those interests made me want to go there on a mission trip as well. After I said those words Nazih put his pen down and said “Don’t go to Israel! They are thieves and liars! All they do is steal and they don’t deserve what they have! The Israelites should have never been on the earth!” I literally just sat there taken aback! When he looked at me I probably looked a bit shocked and scared at the same time. He looked at me blankly for a few moments and then over at my Mom and back to his medical sheets.
For moments I just sat there in the silence trying to allow everything he just said to somehow be clearer in my mind… yeah, that didn’t work. “What makes you think that?” is what I asked him. In the back of my mind I kept thinking “But the Israeli’s are God’s chosen people, right? And he’s talking like he means all of the Israelites.” (I’m sure he did not mean ALL of the Israelites by the way.) He put down his pen and walked towards me. I was a bit intimidated, I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just giving me his opinion on this… but either way, I wanted his answers. I figured he wasn’t angry since I allowed my questions and feelings to be bias. He said to me, “Teresa, the Israeli’s are thieves, they’ve stolen land and homes from the Palestinians. The Palestinians are left being refugees and poorer than what they once were. They are thieves and liars, horrible people. I cannot stand the Israeli’s.”
The one thought swirmming through my mind was that he really didn’t like the Israelites. (you’re thinking, “duh!”) But seriously, to me it seemed more than just anger after hearing about these things on the News or reading them in a book – I questioned if he personally had experienced things with the Israelites when he lived in Jordan.
I looked at him and said confusingly to him… “Isn’t Israel and Palestine… hmm, well the Gaza Strip?” And he said, “The Israeli’s and the Palestinians have been fighting over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” Somehow he went from there and said that between Israel and Jordan was the Jordan River. Bagdad was brought into the picture… some of you are shaking in your boots right now, eh? *grin* Not only was our conversation filled with the war of Israel and Palestine but the Middle East in general. I know some people don’t like those topics … but, apparently, I guess I do. I don’t think it’s the Middle East that exactly interests me, but people.
Honestly, for the past year I’ve always been a bit aware of the issues with Israel and Palestine; I do not know how – I was never directly taught about it. I’ve considered myself a fairly aware person overall. But obviously I knew less than I thought when I had to wonder what continent Jordan, Israel and Palestine were on. The fact that I kept the thought “But the Israelites are God’s chosen people” should give you a glimpse into my ignorance; I was allowing that fact to determain what I thought about the whole thing. I don’t think I need to take sides – but I think I need to allow other things to determain what I think of this – especially after this conversation. Most of the time while sitting in his office I kept the thought “Well the Isrealites are God’s chosen people; they are right. They should have the land. They are God’s people, they can’t be wrong.” Why did I think that? Probably because I was acting as a simple minded person who thought that because God’s name is mentioned then they are right (not saying they are right or wrong – I actually don’t think either of them are fully right or fully wrong.) The sad fact is, is that some people would agree with me on that about themselves. Rarely do people take both sides into consideration. Yes, the Israeli’s are God’s chosen people; I won’t argue with that. The Bible is God-breathed and it’s Truth, and that very thing is written in the Old Testament about the Israelites. Don’t think that I’m doubting that.
Before I left Nazih looked at me and he said, “Teresa, if you want to go to Israel, go to to Israel. But be careful, please, be careful! Learn as much as you can about the Middle East before ever deciding to go there; read a lot, learn a lot. Teresa, if you go there unknowing about things the Israeli’s will want your head. Seriously Teresa, I plead with you; be careful when going to Israel. Just be careful Teresa, please be careful.”
After we walked out of the room and into the main area, he was filling out my prescription and I walked up to him and said “I hope you don’t think I was being rude; I only wanted your opinions.” And he said, “No, you weren’t being rude at all, not all Teresa. I hope you didn’t think I was being rude either, I wasn’t trying to be, I was only giving you my opinions.”
To be honest with you, I think my heart goes out to the Palestinians. I mean, I’m not taking sides though. I don’t know all of the history; but from what I do know most of their land has been taken from them and whatnot – they only have 8% left. I will not argue that the Israeli’s are God’s chosen people; but that does not mean that all of the Israli’s actions will be Godly; that isn’t a promised thing, we’re all sinners. A part of me wonders if some (not all) of the Israeli’s think they deserve the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because that label is attached to them in the Old Testament… “Israelites: God’s chosen people??” I’m not saying that all of them do, I’m just wondering. I wonder if the Israelites (those who have an influence on the war), those who love God, if they truly would listen to the words “Give without expecting in return” or if they would allow the fact that they are God’s chosen people in the Old Testement to humble them (yes, I think pride is an issue here – I could be wrong), just how differently the issues could be solved. And if the Palestinians (those who have an influence on the war), those who love God, focused on the fact that they are called to love their neighbor and love their enimies; just how different this would be now. Both of these people (the ones joined in on the war – not all people) seem to be focusing on the fact that “I’m an Isralite” or “I’m a Palestinian; I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing for them to love their countries; but what I’m saying is that the longer some of them focus on their differences and not the fact that something needs to be solved, the messier things are going to get. Just some thoughts…
Okay. So, that was longer than I expected. Please do leave your thoughts. I’m not asking you to resist or side with me – because honestly, I’m not bias over this – I don’t know enough and I don’t have to take a side; I just want your opinions.
“What keeps us apart from one another? Some would say an ocean. Others would say cultural differences. What must we change about ourselves to break down the wall that seperates us? I think it begins by abandoning the pointed finger of blame. It begins by coming with humble spirits and a sincere desire to know one another. Otherwise it becomes an us/them mentality and the wall simply becomes thicker.” -Jena Lee
Teresa
