Sunday, December 24, 2023

Return to Zion Redux

The Menorah on the Arch of Titus, Rome

Exiled from their ancestral lands by a mighty empire 

of conquest and occupation, an ancient people of a 

vanishingly small demographic on a globe holding

diverse ethnic, cultural, religious and societal 

populations is distinct from all others by virtue of 

its lightning-rod capricious attraction of hate. Its 

decades, centuries, millennia of scattered pockets

in all regions of the world created a diaspora

forever a target of suspicion, hatred and violence.

These ancient people, descended from the Judaeans

that peopled the Middle East have found no certain

haven wherever they settled for centuries or for

thousand-year spans. When finally the appeal of

return to Zion re-established its heritage presence

welcoming persecuted Jews displaced from points

east and west on the globe, its presence provoked

surrounding tribes to gather in militaristic threat and

invasion time and again; each event repulsed as the

modern State of Israel asserted its right to exist.



No comments: