Monday, September 21, 2026

The Forever War

The Forever War

And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
- Isaiah 11:6-11:9

“And it was not you who killed them, but God killed them. And it was not you who threw when you threw, but it was God who threw." - Quran (Surah Al-Anfal 8:17), found on a detached Iranian missile booster

"This is my country. This is my land. God promised me it." - Settler shouting from the roof of the Abu Awwad home

"President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” -- U.S. Commander to his troops, reportedly

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behaviour.” - Mike Huckabee, United States ambassador to Israel

“In order for the Hidden Imam to reappear we must engage in widespread fighting with the West.” - Senior Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri

“Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it’s better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come.” - Giora Eiland, retired Major General and former head of the Israeli National Security Council

“The return of this holy land to the World of Islam is not a strange and unattainable matter.” - Supreme Iranian Leader Khamenei

“People ask me, ‘What will happen to the Arabs in Gaza?’ There will be no more Arabs in Gaza — period.” - Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss

“If someone comes to burn down the home of innocent Arabs with the people inside it, then of course that is Jewish terrorism. If it is done for nationalist reasons, that is the definition. I don’t understand how this serves the settlement movement." - Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

“Today, the enemy has had a political, military, intelligence, security and moral defeat inflicted upon it, and we shall crown it, with the grace of God, with a crushing defeat that will expel it from our lands, our holy city of Al-Quds, our Al-Aqsa mosque, and the release of our prisoners from the jails of the Zionist occupation. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched from Gaza, but it will extend to the West Bank, to Al-Quds and to our people within the territories occupied in 1948, as well as to the Resistance and the Palestinian people abroad." - Ismail Haniyeh's speech on Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas attack on Israel

"I think that targeted killings should be carried out in Gaza, removing 30, 40 people every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat; there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people." - Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir

""The footage [...] showed the street execution of eight men.
Chants of 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest in Arabic) can be heard from the crowd."

"It got me thinking about another miracle that I hope all of you don't see too far away, because 1917 was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle, 1967 was a miracle, 2017, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital was a miracle, and there's no reason why the miracle of the reeestablishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible. I don't know how it would happen, you don't know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen. That's all I know. And a step in that process, a step in every process is the recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter, and that's why going and visiting Judea and Samaria, understanding that sovereignty, the very sovereignty of Israeli soil and Israeli cities, locations is a critical next step to showing the world that this is the land for Jews and the land of Israel.
[...]
I would submit to you, in light of the support you have in Washington DC, the support you have amongst patriotic Americans, amongst Evangelical Christians, amongst believers, amongst Republicans, even amongst some Democrats who can barely say it anymore in Washington, buy the ticket, take your action, do what needs to be done here in Israel, because I truly believe this is a moment where America will have your back." - Pete Hegseth

"“The world will not come to an end,” said the Prophet Muhammad, “ until a man from my family (Ahlul Bayt) and of my name shall be master of the world, When you see a green ensign coming from the direction of Khorasan, then join them, for the Imam of God will be with the standards who will be called al-Mahdi.”
[...]
“The Mahdi will be descended from me, he will be a man with an open countenance and a face with a high nose. He will fill the earth with equity and with justice, just as it has been filled with tyranny and oppression.” (Biharul Anwar, Majlisi)" - The Prophet Muhammad

Israeli soldier destroying a status of Jesus in Lebanon

“לשנה הבאה בירושלים” - "Next year in Jerusalem," declared on Passover at the end of the Seder

In April, 2021 I took a Rohr Jewish Learning Institute course, "This Can Happen: A Credible Case for Feeling Good about the Future". The first chapter was about the relative peace and prosperity of the world, positive signs that the Messiah may appear soon. The Rabbi talked about Steven Pinker's work about humanity doing much better than what's in the news, which gravitates towards the sensational. He did not talk about the Chevlai Mashiach (birth pangs of Mashiach), a time of high inflation, irresponsibility, wars, and other bad things.

Orthodox Judaism believes in the divine origin of the Torah and Jewish law, and there will be a Messiah someday. By engaging in the "Torah and acts of loving-kindness" the birth pangs are not only avoided, he will arrive sooner.

Of all the differences in culture, language, religion, and history that separate us, religion should not makes us strangers. We share a desire to learn the ultimate truth and "know as we are known." The One who created the physical laws and fixed the constants from which space and time came into being may have any divine name. We should be free to argue about it without fear.

Recently I watched a cable television host and comedian declare that Israeli Jews are indigenous. I thought, are the Jews in Israel like the Ainu living in Japan, the Aborigines in Australia, or native Americans? Thinking of the movements of people into and out of the southen Levant beginning with Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals leaving Africa, No, their history is not the same as those prehistoric groups. But my motivation is not to disagree but find out.

Out of curiosity, I asked Google's AI, Gemini, two questions, "Are the Jews living in Israel today indigenous to Israel?" and "Are the Palestinians living today in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel indigenous?" Gemini's answer was, "both Palestinians and Jewish people—possess deep, ancient biological and historical connections to the same geographic land." The Genetic studies I found via Wikipedia confirmed this conclusion. Based on what I found, with the limited time I had to look, I agree with Israeli historian Benny Morris that both Israelis and Palestinians have a valid claim on the land.

If political and religious leaders, Rabbis, Imams, soldiers, settlers, herders and farmers could agree, that everyone living in Israel, Gaza, and the East Bank has the right to live and prosper, and if everyone could overcome language and cultural barriers and show kindness to strangers, peace and justice would be everywhere. There could be the peace that was predicted without Argmageddon. When will the centuries of violence and continual trauma end, when everyone agrees to forget history and prophesies and say, as human beings, what's done is done? Call the land Israel, keep the mosques, end the military occupation, and worship Allah, Jesus, or HaShem. This is all I have.

Notes

Creative Commons

The Forever War

Google's Gemini - https://www.gemini.google.com

Interaction with Google's Gemini AI September 17, 2026

Q: Are the Jews living in Israel today indigenous to Israel?

A: Yes, historical, archaeological, and genetic evidence generally supports the conclusion that Jewish people—including Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi communities—are historically and biologically connected to the land of Israel, tracing their lineage back to the ancient Israelites and other Bronze and Iron Age populations of the Levant.

How indigeneity is understood in this context involves several key dimensions:

### 1. Genetic Evidence

Extensive genome-wide and population genetics research over the last two decades has consistently shown that globally dispersed Jewish populations share a significant common ancestry rooted in the Middle East:

  • ** Levantine Roots: ** Despite centuries of living in various diaspora communities across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, modern Jewish groups (such as Ashkenazi Jews in Europe or Mizrahi Jews in the Middle East) display a core genetic signature that traces back to ancient populations of the Levant (the historical region encompassing modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria).

  • ** Shared Heritage: ** Studies comparing modern Jewish DNA to ancient remains (including Bronze Age Canaanite and Iron Age Israelite populations) show a deep biological continuity, demonstrating that Jews are not foreign interlopers or purely European converts, but share a common ancestral pool tied to the region.

### 2. Cultural and Historical Continuity

Indigeneity is also defined by continuous cultural, linguistic, and religious ties to a specific homeland:

  • ** Religion and Tradition: ** Judaism is the only surviving major cultural and religious tradition that originated in ancient Israel. Jewish prayer, holidays, and the religious calendar have remained intrinsically tied to the land, seasons, and agricultural cycles of ancient Israel for millennia (e.g., facing toward Jerusalem during prayer, celebrating festivals aligned with the Israeli harvest).

    ** Language: ** Hebrew remained the primary liturgical, literary, and cultural language of the Jewish people throughout their diaspora and was successfully revived as a spoken native tongue in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

    ** Historical Memory: ** The forced expulsions of Jews by empires such as Rome (notably in 70 CE and 135 CE) scattered the population, but the conceptual and physical yearning to return to Zion (Jerusalem/the Land of Israel) remained a central anchor of Jewish identity, liturgy, and law for nearly 2,000 years.

### Nuances in the Modern Debate

While the scientific and historical consensus affirms deep ancestral ties between modern Jews and the ancient Levant, the question of modern indigeneity is often heavily debated within geopolitical and post-colonial frameworks:

  • ** The Diaspora Experience: ** Critics often point out that generations of Jews born and raised in Europe, North America, or other parts of the world lack direct generational continuity *living* on the land, leading some to frame Zionism as a modern political movement or form of settler-colonialism rather than a purely indigenous return.

  • ** Competing Claims: ** Palestinians (both Muslim and Christian), who also inhabit the land and possess deep ancestral, cultural, and genetic ties to the ancient populations of the southern Levant, are likewise recognized as indigenous to the region.

Ultimately, from biological, historical, and cultural standpoints, mainstream anthropological and genetic research concludes that Jewish people retain a valid, indigenous ancestral connection to the land of Israel, even as the region remains home to multiple populations with overlapping historical roots.

Q: Are the Palestinians living today in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel indigenous?

A: Yes, archaeological, historical, and genetic evidence generally supports the conclusion that the Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel are indigenous to the region, sharing deep ancestral roots in the Levant that stretch back millennia.

How Palestinian indigeneity is understood involves several key dimensions:

### 1. Genetic Evidence

Population genetics studies examining modern Palestinians—including Muslims and Christians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and within Israel—consistently demonstrate strong biological ties to the historical populations of the Levant:

  • ** Levantine Roots: ** DNA research shows that modern Palestinians share a high degree of genetic continuity with other Levantine populations, as well as with ancient Bronze Age and Iron Age inhabitants of the region, including Canaanites and ancient Israelites.

  • ** Local Continuity:** Genetic data suggests that the Palestinian population largely represents the descendants of various groups who have inhabited the region for centuries and millennia, undergoing shifts in language, culture, and religion (from paganism to Christianity, and later predominantly to Islam) over successive historical eras.

### 2. Cultural, Linguistic, and Historical Continuity

Indigeneity is also defined by continuous presence, cultural attachment, and localized history:

  • ** Language and Culture: ** The native language of Palestinians is Levantine Arabic, and their distinct cultural traditions, folklore, architecture, music, and agricultural practices (such as olive cultivation) are deeply adapted to and rooted in the geography and climate of the land.

  • ** Generational Presence: ** Unlike immigrant populations arriving through modern colonization, Palestinian families have maintained unbroken generational ties of living, farming, and building communities in towns, villages, and cities across the West Bank, Gaza, and what is now Israel for centuries.

  • ** Historical Memory: ** Palestinian identity is intimately tied to the specific towns, villages, and landscapes of the region, carrying collective memory rooted in continuous habitation of the southern Levant.

### Intersecting Roots in the Region

Anthropological and historical consensus recognizes that multiple modern groups—both Palestinians and Jewish people—possess deep, ancient biological and historical connections to the same geographic land, drawing from overlapping ancient Levantine ancestor pools while possessing distinct cultures, religious traditions, and historical narratives.

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