Gaza: Buildings Down – People Out

Israel is aiming to move the population of Gaza to other countries. The more I hear about the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, the more it seems that their endgame is to say to the Gazans ‘There’s nothing for you here now. Go and live elsewhere.’ I can’t see anyone hindering the Israeli aim.

Last Wednesday, Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, spoke to a Webinar organised by the Balfour Project. The Balfour Project is a UK secular organisation, influenced by former UK diplomats to Israel, seeking to redress the damage done by the UK in issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The British Government then Declared support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which would not be against the interests of the existing inhabitants. A fairy tale Declaration of British ability to do the impossible – create a new ‘homeland’ in the historical homeland of other people. The Jewish homeland, now State of Israel, has had to occupy the land, the home, of other people, whether the other people like it or not. This is probably why, in the 1947 UN vote to create the State of Israel, Britain abstained.

Andrea spoke of his visits over many years, and recently, to Gaza. He knows North Gaza, Gaza City, home to 1.2 million people, well. Or knew. Describing his last visit, he repeated his shock that nothing of significant parts of the city he knew remains. No rubble, no indication where the streets used to be. Bare land. ‘A moonscape,’ which Andrea could hardly believe.

No photos are available of the moonscape. Many photos are available of the rubble.

Andrea went on to describe the ‘systematic’ destruction of civil infrastructure in Gaza. 73% of all schools have been destroyed. Both Universities have been destroyed. Most hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Andrea repeated that the destruction has been ‘systematic.’

Andrea lamented the disregard for proportionality in warfare, but did not consider whether the destruction is deliberate policy under a smokescreen of war. His focus, rightly, is on the people rather than the buildings. He, and others, know and feel the immediate needs of people homeless, hungry, injured, bereaved. Concerned observers across the world share the same focus. The urgent need is for aid. Wider, longer-term, considerations are pushed to one side for now.

Andrea did say that the World Bank has estimated that rebuilding Gaza will cost at least $US 20 billion. He said that previous rebuilding in Gaza after previous Israeli assaults has been paid for by the international community. He wondered what would happen this time, though indicated that Israel will probably, again, not have to pay.

In contrast to Andrea and many concerned observers, Israel’s immediate focus is not the needs of Palestinians, but the plight of Israeli hostages. The assault will continue until as many hostages as possible have been freed. By then even more of Gaza will have been systematically destroyed.

What follows? Israel is unlikely to support any rebuilding. They have expended huge effort to destroy, systematically, therefore with intent, with purpose. The Israeli Government will say to the Gazans. ‘There is nothing here for you now. No homes, no schools, no hospitals, no businesses. Go elsewhere.’

In Will Israel allow rebuilding in Gaza? | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com) I explained a common Israeli view I have heard that the Palestinians should have gone elsewhere in 1948 and that their emigration now remains The Solution.

US and Western support for Israel has been strong. It is highly unlikely that this will change. US and Western Governments see the systematic destruction and are more able than I to put two and two together. They say nothing. Support will continue. Israel, and Israel’s endgame, will prevail. Biden’s jetty will be used to embark Palestinians leaving Gaza. If each Palestinian family receives a resettlement grant of $200,000 it will be cheaper than rebuilding. Appallingly sad.

Along with the UK’s fairy tale Declaration, there was a common, Jewish Zionist, 1930s and 1940s fairy tale Call ‘A land without a people for a people without a land.’ Palestine, including Gaza, was always a land with people, as everyone knew. Now the Israeli Government is creating, through the deliberate destruction of buildings in Gaza, a land without a people.

Jesus weeps. For the homeless victims and for the hard-hearted aggressors who will reap what they have sown.

Israel Escalates

A swaggering loud-mouthed PE teacher at my boarding school threw a broken fence post into a wasps’ nest next to the path we took to return from the playing fields. We had to run through a fire storm of wasp stings.

The Israeli Government provoked the Iranian Government by attacking their Consulate in Syria, killing 16 people. Diplomatic buildings are recognised as outposts of that country’s territory. Not only did Israel carry out an attack within the territory of another sovereign nation, (which the US considers their right too), they effectively attacked Iranian territory. All at a time when they need the support of other nations.

The Israeli Government have now called the Iranian response, attacking Israeli territory, without killing anyone, an escalation. Iran knew that their rockets and drones would be shot down. This was severe sabre-rattling. The Iranian Government has declared that they will attack Israel no more – unless Israel retaliates, escalates further. The Israeli Government now vows to retaliate, escalate further, inviting more fire storms against Israel.

And the BBC make headlines about the Iranian ‘escalation’ hiding the original, provocative and unjustified escalation by Israel.

Why Israel’s attack on Iranian consulate in Syria was a gamechanger | Israel | The Guardian

Jesus weeps.

Will Israel allow rebuilding in Gaza?

The Israeli Government is very unlikely to allow substantial rebuilding in Gaza. Why would they destroy all those buildings, only to have them rebuilt? I fear that their thinking is, ‘The people of Gaza now have to find houses, homes, elsewhere, as they should have done long ago.’

As I wrote The Origins and Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com), it occurred to me that ‘It looks that the Israeli Government is systematically making the whole of Gaza uninhabitable so all the people have to move elsewhere. I hope this is an exaggerated interpretation.’ This understanding no longer seems so exaggerated because I have remembered what Israeli relatives have said to me of their view of the origin and solution to the ‘Palestinian Problem.’

‘The Palestinians were created by the Arab States’ say at least some Israelis. ‘Before the State of Israel, the people were not Palestinians, they were Arabs. When the State of Israel was created, Arab countries should have given their fellow Arabs homes in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, just as Israel gave Jews from North Africa homes in Israel. Instead, Arab countries condemned their fellow Arabs to refugee camps. For years, Arab leaders have refused to welcome their own people, incarcerating them in poverty as ‘refugees’, in order to make Israel look bad. Many Christian Arabs have seen sense and gone to live in other, Christian, countries. Moslem Arabs need to do the same. Go and live in Moslem Arab countries.

I guess that those with this view now say:
Hamas, through its attack on Israel and its obstinate holding onto hostages, has forfeited the homes of the people of Gaza. Hamas knew what they were doing; they knew that their fire would be met by far greater fire. They didn’t care enough about their own people to ensure they had homes. Releasing all hostages would have retained the homes of Gazans, as Hamas well knew. Hamas don’t care about their own people.

The people of Gaza, made homeless by their own leaders, now simply need to go to homes elsewhere. They are not refugees, they are outcasts from the Arab nations and it is time for the Arab nations to give them proper permanent homes. UNRWA is not needed. Rather UNRWA obscures the reality that these people are denied homes by their fellow Arabs.

The Hindus and Moslems who had to leave their homes on the creation of the State of Pakistan, are not condemned to ‘refugee camps’ near the border of Pakistan. Long ago they were given new homes, either in India or in Pakistan. To keep them homeless would have been playing with people’s lives to make political points which ignore the new reality. The Pakistanis and Indians didn’t do this, and nor should the Arab nations.

The inhabitants of Gaza, and of the camps in Lebanon and Jordan, now need to move elsewhere, as they should have done on 1947/8.

I do not agree with this Israeli view. I do not think the parallel with Pakistan is valid. I think Israel drove Palestinians from their homes and Israel should provide for those they made homeless. Jewish Scriptures contain a clear call to welcome and care for the stranger in the land. If Israelis see Palestinians as strangers in the land they have lived in for generations, so be it. Israelis should still apply the call of Jewish faith and care for them. Israel has welcomed many Jews, they could welcome a good number of Palestinians too.

We see the systematic destruction of the buildings of Gaza. The Israeli Government told the people of North Gaza to leave so that they homes could be wrecked. The buildings, not the people, were the target, although there was little concern about casualties among the people. We can tie this in with what we know of Israeli thinking. The question needs to be asked. ‘What intentions and plans does the Israeli Government have for the rebuilding of Gaza?’

The Origins and Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Israel is making an all-out attack against Hamas in Gaza after Hamas made a shocking attack against Israeli citizens near the border. Where did all this start?

This week I read Josef Ben Eliezar’s book My Search. (Plough Publishing 2004.) I needed something to read over lunch and this book happened to be on the shelves of the small prison library. The title intrigued me. I knew nothing of the contents.

Josef was a child in Frankfurt when Hitler came to power. His family feared the worst and went to live in Poland. After the Nazis invaded Poland, the family were abused, starved, deprived of valuables, forced to march away from their home in a long line of others, under threat of being shot by soldiers. Eventually Josef was taken, on his own, through Tehran to Israel. Safe passage through a Moslem country.

Josef found it hard to fit into Israeli life, partly because his mother had died of starvation and exhaustion in Poland and he did not know where the rest of his family were. He was also firmly committed to the Jewish community in Palestine, as it was then, and to the State of Israel when it was founded in 1947 by the United Nations. In the war between Jews and Arabs that followed, Josef was an enthusiastic soldier, deserting from his regular army role to join the fiercer Palmach military.

I wanted to fight for the right to live in this land. I was more than ready to fight against the armies of Egypt, Jordan and other countries. I was prepared to give my life to secure the existence of the State of Israel. p67

He knew that fighting for the right to live in the land meant fighting against the people who were already living in the land. Room needed to be made for him to live in the land, room to live in. (The Nazis saw their invasion of Poland and displacement of the people living there as securing their, German, room to live in, ‘lebensraum.’)

Josef was fighting for the right not only to live in the land but to control the land. He refused to be a minority in the land, or have the land controlled by someone else.

My Jewish grandfather, though, thought it better for there to be no Jewish State. My grandmother spoke to a local US newspaper in 1947 saying that they thought the British should continue to control the land. Jewish people could live there if they could buy somewhere to live. My grandfather did not support Jews evicting others nor controlling the land. He had had experience of the aggression of Jewish fighters even against their own people. One of his sons had been targeted because he worked in administration for the British Port of Haifa.

Any illusions Josef had about being able to live in the land in peace were dispelled by Sammy, a man a little older than himself to whom he looked up. He convinced me that the Palestinians would always hate us as part of the Zionist enterprise…. It wasn’t our individual deeds or misdeeds that upset the Palestinians, it was the system, the very existence of the nation of Israel that displaced them. p78

Brutal aspects of the war in which he was fighting also troubled Josef, both at the time and later.

… we were in action trying to take the village of Tantura…. There were rumours that some men from the village were killed in revenge for the massacre at Kefar Sava. I never saw any killing, but even the rumour had an effect on me. p67

Our unit was heavily involved in the capture of Lod near Tel Aviv… After the town was conquered, there was some fighting in the streets, but then basically the entire Arab population was ordered to leave. I still remember those long lines of refugees – men, women and children – fleeing towards an uncertain future. At one point, my unit was searching those who left the town for weapons and valuables. The atmosphere was tense and some of my comrades treated the Arabs spitefully. In that moment, my mind flashed back to my own experiences as a ten-year-old boy fleeing our home in Poland. But here the roles were reversed. One of my comrades struck a Palestinian with his bayonet and I was stung by the memory of my father being struck in the same way by a German soldier…

I saw two of our soldiers – actually just boys – take some Arabs and ask them to dig a grave. They ordered them to go in and took aim at them with their rifles. Several of us shouted at them and they let the men go, but I was shocked that we seemed quite capable of the same things that we had heard from other nations. p68f

Josef’s mentor Sammy could not see peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The renowned Israeli General and Defence Minister, Moshe Dayan, expressed the same view.

Other Israelis have believed in peace with Palestinians and worked for it. Uri Avnery, who also fought in the Israeli War of Independence, called eloquently for peace and founded the Gush Shalom movement for peace. This, and other similar Israeli movements, now have less support in Israel than before. Yitzhak (Isaac) Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister, negotiated seriously with Palestinians. While still Prime Minister, in 1995, Rabin was assassinated. Most Israelis expressed no outrage. Instead, a cold, collective, unspoken ‘I was never comfortable with him. We’re better off without him.’

Since then, Israelis have voted not for peace but for dominance. Now they have a Government intent only on military dominance at any cost. It looks that the Israeli Government is systematically making the whole of Gaza uninhabitable so all the people have to move elsewhere. I hope this is an exaggerated interpretation.

I wonder how long Israel will be able to last like this. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

In the Bible we read of the sons of Jacob, who’s name was changed by God to Israel, returning to Palestine. Their daughter is raped by a local Prince. They respond by massacring all the men of that tribe and taking the women, children, animals as their slaves. Then God summons Jacob, Israel, to a meeting. God says he will continue to look after the family, and says nothing about them living in the land of Palestine. ‘And God went up from Jacob.’ He was now on his own. Disaster upon disaster follows until Jacob and the whole family have to leave Palestine to live in Egypt where they become slaves for many years. Has Israeli bloodshed now also removed their right to live in the land? We will see what God does.

Open the Sea to Gaza

Gaza needs humanitarian aid. The plans are to bring it in by land. Aid also needs to come to Gaza by sea.

Israel has no right to control the sea off Gaza. All willing nations should ensure that aid ships are not hindered by Israel. The UK has sent warship to the Eastern Mediterranean. They should be used to ensure aid reaches Gaza by sea.

If you who view people in Gaza, those who support Hamas and those who are appalled by Hamas, as victims, you will support opening the sea corridor for aid. If you view who view people in Gaza, Hamas, as enemies, you should support this initiative too. A more humanitarian Israel will attract wider support.

Anyone who respects the Jewish Scriptures should support sea-borne aid. In the book of Proverbs we read:

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
    if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
    and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21,22)

But what if weapons are smuggled in along with the aid?

This is a risk we have to take. The Harbour Master of New York in the 1970s said that, if he had the whole US Navy at his disposal, he would still not stop drugs coming in through his harbour. Cutting out smuggling is impossible. Cutting down smuggling is achievable. If, despite controls, a few weapons come through, the Palestinians will still have a tiny fraction of the weapons held by Israel.

What if Israel refuses to allow sea-borne aid?

The International Community, the UN, should declare that we will go ahead anyway. If Israel then chooses to attack aid ships and attack anyone defending aid ships, everyone will know that they are determined to go it alone, not interested in what anyone outside Israel thinks. They would be very stupid to take this step, contradicting the Jewish Scriptures.

And I hope a Hospital Ship from Mercy Ships will provide medical care for Gaza.

What is Jacob The Son about?

Favouritism and rivalry in the original Biblical family?

The power of women in a patriarchal society?

Tensions between immigrants and the long-settled community?

The guidance and promises of God to fallible people?

The great dream of the father who gave Joseph his technicolor dreamcoat?

Jacob The Son is about all of these, and more.

Hard to sum up. Hard to categorise.

Expanding the familiar. Breaking fresh ground.

https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/jacob-the-son

Some readers have said the Introduction explains well:

Many people know that Jacob dreamed of a ladder to heaven. Most do not know the message of that dream and whether Jacob heeded it. Many people know that Jacob cheated his twin brother, Esau, out of his blessing. Most do not know whether or how they were ever reconciled. Many people know that Jacob wrestled with God. Most do not know why God was determined to pin Jacob to the ground. Many people know that Jacob had his name changed to Israel. Most do not know how Jacob connived in the first genocide. Many people know that Jacob gave his son Joseph an amazing coat. Most do not know how Jacob angered Joseph in blessing his sons. Many people know that Jacob was promised blessing in the land we know as Israel / Palestine. Most do not know how he came to die an alien in Egypt.

As well as recounting and explaining the lesser-known times in Jacob’s life, the three parts of Jacob The Full Story portray his thoughts and feelings, his conversations with others, and the background to the Bible account.

Jews have long filled out their Bible stories in a tradition called midrash. Myjewishlearning.com explains: ‘Midrash is commonly defined as the process of interpretation by which the rabbis filled in “gaps” found in the Torah. It is a literature that seeks to ask the questions that lie on the tips of our tongues, and to answer them even before we have posed them.’

Jacob The Full Story carries on and extends the Jewish midrash tradition in a fresh way. Some of the filling out comes from drawing on other parts of the Bible story, for instance the impact of Jacob’s twin brother Esau choosing to marry two foreign wives compared to their father Isaac holding steadfastly to one wife, recounted earlier in Genesis. What would Jacob, and others, have thought about this double marriage? Imagination supplies the answers, creating dialogues of different points of view.

One filling-in, which you will read, is that, when Jacob had to leave his parents’ home, he took servants with him. Jacob’s father, Isaac, is called a very wealthy man. Would his son travel entirely on his own? Jacob’s companions each provide a fresh, prophetic, perspective on his journey.

The words of the companions help to explain the story. Genesis is a ‘show, don’t tell’ book. Genesis shows blessing coming to Jacob after he received the promise of blessing. The writer does not also specifically tell us that each blessing was the fulfilment of the promise. Genesis shows blessing being withdrawn from Jacob. The writer indicates reasons for the withdrawal of blessing within the story, but does not specifically tell us these reasons. In Jacob The Full Story Jacob’s companions comment on the story from within the story. There is more telling as well as more showing, the telling expressing different points of view.

Among the voices we hear more than in Genesis is that of Rebecca, Jacob’s mother. She is one of the great Jewish matriarchs, founding mothers. A long-standing Jewish tradition sees all the matriarchs as prophets, people who could hear God speaking and pass on what they heard to the people. At the beginning of Jacob’s life, before he was born, Genesis tells us that Rebecca was able to go to God, question him, and hear an answer. Jacob – The Son brings out more of Rebecca’s prophetic wisdom.

One question has been how to refer to the God of Jacob. Genesis mostly writes God’s name as YHWH, unpronounceable letters which have long been replaced with the euphemism ‘The LORD.’ (Like saying ‘Her Majesty’ rather than the Queen’s name.) But we are also told that this ‘name’ was first given to Moses, generations after Jacob. ‘The LORD’ is also now a characteristically Christian rendering of YWYH. Many Jews use ‘Ha Shem’ ‘The Name.’ The modern French Bible uses ‘L’Eternel’ ‘The Eternal One.’ I have chosen to focus on the distinctive belief in a single God held by Abraham’s family, including his grandson, Jacob. Instead of ‘the LORD’ or ‘Ha Shem,’ you will read ‘The One.’ In a world where people believed in many gods, each behind one of the many powers in nature, Jacob and his family dared to believe that behind the manifold, sometimes competing, powers of nature, was One God.

In the Bible this God is known as ‘the God of Jacob’, more than ‘the God of Abraham,’ much more than ‘the God of Moses.’ This God has chosen to make himself known through the life of this man. Jacob had his name changed to Israel. ‘The God of Israel’ is the God of the same man.

As Jacob and Israel are the same person, how much is the story of the nation Israel the story of the man Jacob? Is the life of Jacob echoed in the life of ancient Israel, in the life of modern Israel?Read Jacob – The Full Story and decide for yourself.

The God of Jacob is the God of Christians as well as Jews. How are people of all cultures to relate to Him? The Full Story shines light on these questions for all people.

Available at https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/jacob-the-son and on Amazon UK

Roger Harper

Jacob The Son – Reactions

Warning! Jacob the Son could endanger your privacy:

‘I was reading Jacob The Son on the Tube to work and enjoying it. Then I laughed out loud, and people turned to look at me.’

If you don’t mind strangers noticing you a little, why not take Jacob The Son with you for the train, the plane, the pool?

https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/jacob-the-son

AF enjoyed the book:

‘A pacey and entertaining account of Jacob’s early life, struggles and relationships with his parents and his brother Esau. I loved the intriguing idea of “Midrash” or filling in explained in the book’s introduction; the author cleverly and convincingly “fills in” and builds on the biblical story, raising thought provoking questions about faith and perseverance, loyalty and trust.

Jacob’s mother Rebecca is especially appealing as a character and is brought to life via entertaining dialogue with her husband Isaac and sons. What will happen next? The author promises a trilogy which will complete the re imagining of Jacob’s story. I will definitely want to read the next books in the series.’

Marshall enjoyed the book:

‘A Bible story brought to life. This book is an easy read with some lovely touches of humour. It is fun to see the relationships between the characters grow and develop. At the same time it caused me to pause and question. What was life like back then? Have family dynamics and relationships changed over the centuries? Deception! What about faith? Can we hear God today? I’m looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. It is rare to find a book that is both entertaining and thought provoking. Highly recommended.’

Rebecca enjoyed the book:

‘I really enjoyed reading this retelling of the story of Jacob. It was light but true to the story in the bible. It explored personalities and relationship dynamics that made the reading experience richer. I highly recommend.’

Available here: https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/jacob-the-son

And on Amazon.co.uk

Why Jacob The Son?

Jacob The Son has stimulated interest and questions. See my previous post for book details and the opening pages.:

How long did Jacob The Son take to write?

I have explored and retold the story of Jacob for years. For a whole church weekend in 1999. In an evening of story-telling in a tent in the Gobi desert in 2002. To prisoners since 2014. This novel form began in earnest in September 2016.

Why 2016?

At the Edinburgh Festival that year, Philip Pope was in a reprise of the show Radio Active. Philip is a great musician and composer of TV music. Philip was also a schoolmate of mine, a friendly rival – for French, certainly not music. I wanted to say hello. I also wanted to sound Philip out about a musical about Jacob. The prequel to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has, for some years, been a dream of mine.

Following advice, I left a note in Philip’s pigeon hole, suggesting we meet at the Prosecco Bar after his show. We met by the bar. Philip remembered me and invited me to join him and his colleagues for a drink. He suggested I write to him about Jacob. As we bad farewell, Philip said he hadn’t looked in his pigeon hole.

Philip was bemused by my proposal. I realised that I know the details of Jacob’s story and how it will make a great musical, but others don’t. Better to begin by writing out Jacob’s life.

Why Jacob?

Jacob is flawed. Jacob is buffeted by life and makes mistakes. Jacob has ups and downs and twists, poverty and prosperity, violence threatened and inflicted, rivalry and love. Jacob’s life is much like any fallible human life, like my life. Genesis tells us more about Jacob than any other character. Genesis gives us a detailed skeleton of Jacob’s life and his family onto which vivid flesh and blood can be added.

Jacob is supported and encouraged by God. In the Bible God is known as the God of Jacob more often than the God of anyone else.

Jacob had his name changed to Israel. The Biblical people of God, the people of Israel are the people of Jacob. The God of Israel is first and foremost the God of Jacob.

Why a trilogy?

Jacob The Full Story was going to be one book. I had written beyond his ladder-to-heaven dream, enough for a book. Much more of his life was still to come. Partly to save space, I had summarised  much of his young adult life, living with his parents, including as an economic migrant among the Philistines.

Tracy Chevalier read the draft and said my summary was terrible. I needed to tell the early story fully, with detail.

The rewriting was long. But I enjoyed all the looking in the Bible and in my imagination. I then definitely had enough for one book. The Full Story would be too long.

Jacob’s life has three sections: Life at home until he ran for his life and dreamed of the ladder. Life with Rachel, the love of his life, with her father and her sister, with his 12 sons, until he returned to the land promised to his grandfather Abraham. On the threshold, God wrestles with him. Life back in the familiar hills, until multiple disaster forces exile in Egypt. A trilogy fits Jacob’s story.

The final, least known, section is likely to be controversial. The first 2 sections are great stories on their own, better not initially overshadowed by controversy.

How did Tracy Chevalier come to advise you?

Tracy offered 2 sessions of book editing to an auction for the charity Freedom From Torture. I happened to be at the auction with money a cousin had given me for that charity. The winning bid was the same amount as my cousin’s donation.

What hopes do you have for Jacob The Son?

Of course, I hope many people will buy, read, enjoy, be stimulated by Jacob The Son. Positive comments about my 2 other books have greatly cheered me. I would like more! And, if the musical follows one day, that would be delightful.

https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/jacob-the-son

Roger Harper

Jacob The Son Launched

Jacob The Son is now out!

My novel of the early life of the Biblical Jacob, is available at Jacob The Son (laddermedia.co.uk) (£8.95 including UK postage) and on Amazon UK (£9.75 including UK postage) World postage also available.

The back cover:

Jacob, father of Joseph, gave his son the amazing coat. Jacob also dreamed dreams. Running for his life, he saw a great ladder to and from heaven and heard a great voice.

Jacob’s life is a tale of family, favouritism, fear, fury. A tale of wrestling between men and women, between men, between people and God. A tale of the strange and subtle workings of God. A tale of what it means to be human.

Jacob The Son, the first part of the trilogy Jacob The Full Story, retells and fills out the Bible story from Jacob’s birth to his dream.

Jacob The Son is fresh and distinctive, faithful and enlightening.

‘Fun and interesting and fully compatible with the text of Genesis.’

John Goldingay, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary, California

‘Roger has a beautiful way with prose. My imagination was spurred to view this story with new insights.’

Jeff Lucas, Author, Conference Speaker and Teaching Pastor at Timberline Church, Colorado.

Inside the front cover:

There is an ancient practice among Jews of imagining what might have been going on “behind the scenes” of the biblical story as a means of deepening people’s understanding and appreciation of it. This way of retelling Bible stories is known as Midrash, and Jacob the Son is an outstanding contemporary example of it.  Roger Harper masterfully helps readers get on the inside of what biblical characters were thinking, feeling, and experiencing, and in so doing, he helps readers to not merely read the biblical story, but to experience its transforming power!’

Greg Boyd Founder and Leader of Woodland Hills Church, Minnesota, Professor of Theology and Author.

Questions?

An upcoming blog post will answer questions about Jacob The Son. How long did it take to write? And others. Please add your question to the comments below.

The first pages:

Chapter One

Two Boys

(Genesis 25:19-34)

‘Yes, yes, yes! How many times does my son need to hear? Is there something wrong with your ears, already? You don’t have a grey hair on your head and you’re having memory problems?’

Rebecca turned to Jacob from kneading the dough and smiled. She brushed back her hair, leaving white flour streaks above her right eye and onto her blue scarf. Upright sinuous. alert. Her large eyes, crowned with elegant eyebrows, settled on Jacob, no longer darting around. No wonder the singers called her a gazelle.

Jacob enjoyed the smile, the banter. ‘Mum you look so good and you tell the story so well. Please!’

‘My son needs stories, memories. Well, you can’t eat them,’ Rebecca beamed at Jacob, ‘but if that’s what you need, who am I to disagree?’

She attacked the dough, her muscles bulging. ‘You have no idea! No idea of the thumping in my belly, the swishing sick feeling that made me stumble, the weight. No rest, no sleep. But I would do it all again tomorrow to have my boys. How can you be so different when you were made at the same time in the same body?

‘I knew there were two of you, at least! Or a monster with seven arms and ten legs. Oh, the bruising! And God, bless him, told me there were two. That helped. No accident! But even The One won’t ever have to go through what I went through. The old women weren’t so sure. “This is your first pregnancy, young lady. We’ve all had a difficult time, you know.” Hah! I would have liked to see them carry such a battle inside them.

‘When the pains came, it was a relief. The end drawing nigh. Oh God did I want you out in the world! Breathe, scream, scream, breathe. It’s only women that can possibly do this kind of labour. You so much want your body to open up, but it’s never done that before and you never thought it would feel like you had to be split so far and you want it and you think it’s impossible and you can’t carry on. Can we just have a day’s rest in the middle? That would be good, God! But oh no, no rest from this labour. You have to do it. Breathe, scream, scream, breathe. It’s only afterwards that your throat feels raw.

‘At last, the promised words. “It’s got a good hairy head.” “It can’t be long now!” “Push!” they say, four voices at once. That should be so easy! Well, you push, yourselves, as you’ve all done it before! Don’t you know how drained I am?

‘From somewhere came the urge to push.’ Rebecca squeezed a large lump of dough and exhaled deeply, an animal straining, almost manly. ‘“It’s a big one!” “Must be a boy, Rebecca!” “Push, just push, he’s nearly there.” Didn’t they know how hard I was pushing? But he didn’t seem to go further. He was squirming, he wanted to be in the great outdoors. You know when you grab a sheep between your legs to shear it? Just try to imagine that inside you, butting away at your bones. Oh my goodness! They talked of going to fetch the puller. You know, the wooden pincer things they use on the ewes. They tried to whisper but I knew. Where are you, God, when I need you? What have I ever done to deserve this? Treat me like a stupid sheep? If only my mother was here, she’d have known what to do.

‘Another push came, with a belly war cry.’ Rebecca made a sound like a roar and a groan and a shout of defiance to all the universe. Jacob’s head recoiled, startled. ‘You think that’s loud? You should have heard the real thing. All the children in the camp went running to their mothers, believe me. They wouldn’t come near me for weeks.

‘It did the trick, it cracked the nut, it got the monster out. He surged forward with my war cry ringing in his ears. “Ooh! Hairy shoulders.” “His skin’s red.” “No, it’s not the blood, it’s the skin.” “Hairy chest.” “We don’t have to look to see if this one’s a boy.” The women’s words were tumbling over themselves.

‘I could relax a moment, maybe a few minutes, before the next one came. But no. Another body was there already. This one seemed to fit. Snug and gentle, even soothing, as it came out. Like a ripe banana. Or a baked loaf coming clean out of a tin.’ Rebecca made a sound of a deep satisfied trembling, a long vibrating exhalation of ease and pleasure.

‘And there you were, holding your brother’s heel, while I just purred. No wonder I hardly had to do anything. You turned him into the puller. Clever man.’ Rebecca smiled at Jacob.

‘Esau screamed short and loud. He looked around him. He shook his leg and you let go. Esau lay still, looking up, waiting and ready for whatever came to him. You squirmed, you rubbed your face, you whimpered. You were so cute!

Roger Harper

Israel Nullifies God’s Promises

‘I have chosen Abraham that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’ Genesis 18:19

This verse was part of my Bible reading for today. As Abraham and his people do righteousness and justice, God will be pleased to fulfil His promises to them. As Abraham and his people do oppression and injustice, God will be saddened by not being able to fulfil His promises to them.

These Bible words come in the context of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. A stark warning for those who see the connection. See also Isaiah 1:10-17 where the rulers of Judah are addressed as the rulers of Sodom.

A well-known part of Jewish righteousness and justice is The Law of Equivalent Retribution, expressed pithily as ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ For Jews, and through them for all people, retribution has to inflict damage exactly the same as the damage inflicted by the original offence. A robust response, but no escalation.

Israel, currently, has abandoned The Law of Equivalent Retribution. Israel is intent on escalation of violence. I have written about this before: Israel and Gaza – Outlaws: 2 August | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com)

When Arab residents of Jerusalem protest against Israeli barriers to their night-time Ramadan congregating at the Damascus Gate, the Israeli authorities try to disperse them by force. Escalation. Eventually the Israelis agree to remove the barriers. In so doing they admit that the barriers were unjust. But the injury they caused in their escalation means that the conflict continues.

When Arab residents of Jerusalem protest against Israeli evictions of Arab families, and against a planned march through Arab Jerusalem by Israelis intent on evicting them all, the Israeli authorities try to disperse them by force, including rubber bullets fired at faces which blind a few for life. Escalation. Though the march was eventually banned, showing the justice of the Arab protest, the injury caused by Israeli escalation means that the conflict continues and grows. See The Storm Which Netanyahu Unleashed | Tikkun A Jewish Israeli writing for a Jewish American organisation.

When the blinding response of force takes place on ground highly sacred to Moslems, it is felt as an attack on Islam and Islam needs to be defended. Islam knows no Law of Equivalent Retribution. The Koran teaches that retaliation is good and Moslems are to fight until oppression against them is no more. No specified limits to retribution and no end to the fight short of deliverance. (See eg Surah 2:179, 2:191-194)

Israeli escalation is causing Arab protest more widespread than previously. As Robert Cohen points out (yes he too is Jewish), Arab citizens of Israel have joined in the protest as not before. Just as we need it most, the UK cracks down on BDS | Robert A. H. Cohen (patheos.com)  As Arabs in Occupied Jerusalem are evicted and Jewish Israelis call and plan for more evictions, Arab Israelis envisage that they will be next. Moslem holy ground was desecrated by Israeli Jews so Jewish holy ground, synagogues, have been desecrated by Israeli Moslem Arabs. The previous strained but workable relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs may never return.

(My Jewish cousin in Jerusalem likes to go to Arab shops on the Sabbath for fresh bread and the best houmus and tahini. When I joined him a couple of years ago, I enjoyed fresh mulberries too. Now?)

How more widespread will the Arab protest become? At the moment Israel has to contend with rockets from Gaza. How long before rockets come from other surrounding nations? Does the Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket defence system have an inexhaustible supply?

Some Jewish Israelis are committed to fight for their ground and, if necessary, die. They honour the Jewish resistors to the Romans who died at Massada. Many Jewish Israelis are prepared to leave their resident country if necessary, as Jewish people have done for centuries. Israeli cousins of mine have dual nationality with Germany and France. The top choice now for emigrating Jewish Israelis is Berlin.

Israeli escalation causes Arab Moslem retaliation. Israelis know this cause and effect very well for they have experienced it for years. The Israeli authorities continue to escalate and threaten escalation. They seem to be following the teaching of the Koran more than of the Torah. Very sad. They are annulling God’s promises to the descendants of Abraham. With a heavy heart, God will remove blessing from Israel. God has said this clearly in the Torah and He cannot change what He has said.

Roger Harper