And the temple fell down on the Philistines | Culture | EUROtoday
Before beginning this career of writing, throughout my adolescence I thought-about writers and artists to be beings of one other nature, touched by divinity. But over time I realized that there have all the time been poets, painters and musicians who, along with being able to create all types of magnificence, had been genuine criminals of their non-public lives, beginning with the beings that populate the Bible, a sacred guide, which incorporates crimes. most horrible, the bloodiest battles completed with the slaughter of ladies and youngsters, all probably the most sordid of the human spirit blended with the unfading verses of the Song of songs, that impressed the non secular tune to Saint John of the Cross. The most heinous crimes dedicated by kings and judges of Israel alternate with the recommendation of the Ecclesiastes, which represent a profound educating in regards to the fleeting nature of pleasures, in regards to the reward of effort, about injustices and the expiration of life. Someone very smart has written: “If one day you feel that your agnosticism is weakening, read the Bible and all your doubts will disappear.”
During Israel’s battle in opposition to the Ammonites, King David had stayed in Jerusalem and one spring afternoon he bought off the bed and, whereas strolling on the roof of the palace, he noticed an exquisite lady bathing in a backyard. “It is Bathsheba, the daughter of Elian and wife of Uriah the Hittite,” stated Joab, head of the royal guard. King David ordered her to be introduced earlier than him, slept along with her, and bought her pregnant. As quickly because the king came upon about this mishap, he invited Uriah, her husband, to a banquet till he bought him drunk after which ordered him to be despatched to probably the most harmful entrance of the battle, the place the battle was most arduous, to be killed. However, King David, an adulterer and assassin who in the present day would spend 30 years in our prisons, was a poet, musician and non secular chief of the Jewish folks. He wrote hymns, psalms, poems and prayers which were used to hope to the God of hosts.
On my journeys to Jerusalem I as soon as stayed on the King David Hotel, in whose plush carpeted lounges Jewish businessmen and high-profile pilgrims from North America used to provide one another very monetary hugs. To reside as much as that luxurious lodge you needed to be discreet, sit correctly within the seats within the foyer and name the waiter with an virtually invisible gesture with out snapping your fingers. In the bar and within the lounges there was all the time a rustling of {dollars} adopted by the tinkling of laughter that happens when closing a giant deal, particularly if it entails weapons, bombs and rockets. Who is aware of what number of missiles can have flown over that area earlier than destroying a whole neighborhood with all its inhabitants. However, strict orthodoxy was adopted there. At Saturday’s occasion the elevators all the time remained open, going up and down, stopping at every ground utilizing a photoelectric cell with out having to press any button, an act prohibited by legislation. Religious observance reached that excessive of rigor. Surely that elevator will proceed to function in the present day with that delicacy in order that you don’t elevate a finger whereas not distant a genocide is happening and indiscriminate bombs are falling on Lebanon and Gaza.
The constructing of this lodge had been a army barracks through the British mandate and was blown up by the group of Jews who had been attempting to determine the state of Israel. The assault occurred on July 22, 1946, prompted 92 deaths and was perpetrated by the terrorist group Ingún Tzví Leumí, during which those that would later develop into Israeli prime ministers Isaac Shamir and Menájem Beguín participated. The Nobel Peace Prize shared with Sadat was awarded to Menájem Begin, and it was additionally acquired by Kissinger, the North American Secretary of State, a behind-the-scenes participant within the nice crimes of historical past.
On one other journey to Jerusalem I found the American Colony lodge, positioned within the Arab a part of town, close to the Damascus Gate. The Bolivian journalist Carlos Gumucio, correspondent for EL PAÍS, got here to rescue me from King David and took me to the American Colony. “You can’t miss this experience. In this hotel all the most interesting things about the politics and war of this region have been cooked up,” he instructed me. With greater than 120 years of historical past, at the moment it boasted of bringing collectively Jews and Arabs like an oasis. He was the favourite of worldwide journalists and diplomats. John Le Carré, Graham Greene, Marc Chagall, the Empress of Ethiopia left their mark there. There Lawrence of Arabia raised one of many seven pillars of knowledge. Also the attractive verses of the Koran had been bloodied by the Arab terrorists who drank fruit drinks within the backyard. Samson’s battle in opposition to the Philistines is a perennial wrestle of three thousand years and even in the present day it could trigger the temple to break down on our heads. Israel’s genocide has imposed itself on all types of magnificence that makes us all responsible.
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https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-10-26/y-el-templo-se-derrumbo-sobre-los-filisteos.html