I apologize in advance if this type of question is not allowed her but I knew no better place to ask. To be transparent, I do come from a Middle Eastern background. Arab Muslim father, Syriac Christian mother. I don’t think it matters much but I want to be as open as possible…
I have been looking a lot into the current conflict, from the roots and how it started to why it is happening.
There is obviously a lot of layers when it comes to a complex problem like the conflict, but one thing I seem to have encountered is a certain type of fatalism with a lot of religious people. Some Muslims and Christians believe this conflict was inevitable because of what their holy texts say and how their eschatology must play out…
Now, to my question. I have encountered this type of thinking while speaking to some Jewish people as well. Again, i want to reiterate, SOME Jewish people, not all. I understand that no beliefs are help by an entire group.
Among the Jewish people I have spoken to, some seem to believe that Ishmael and Isaac will always be at war until the mashiach comes. They believe that Ishmael will always be at his brother’s throat and will give Isaac no peace.
Now, some were kind of vague about what they meant by “Ishmael”. One rabbi from Chabad I spoke to interpreted Ishmael as Islam and Muslims. I asked him about Arab Christians, Druze, and other religions Arabs may follow and he did not really have an answer…
Other people I have spoken with had a more direct answer. That All Arabs and all Muslims represented Ishmael. They seemed to suggest the issue with Ishmael was both genealogical as well as spiritual. That non-Arab Muslims also inherit the characteristics of Ishmael based on them following Islam.
I did some research on my own and it seems like this thinking is fairly orthodox within Judaism. I found quotes like this from the Chofetz Chaim:
“The Chofetz Chaim was once asked about the future of the relationship between the Jews of Eretz Yisrael and Bnei Yishmael, and this is what he answered: ‘Our Torah is eternal – when it says ‘והוא יהיה פרא אדם’ – it means that Yishmael will always remain פרא אדם. Even if the civilized nations of the world will try to educate them, it will not succeed -because they are [inherently] uncivilized.”
“Even if he [a Yishmaeli] receives an education and becomes an attorney – he’ll be a פרא אדם attorney. And if he’s educated to become a professor, then he’ll be a פרא אדם professor.”
“Because his savagery will never be removed from him. The Torah said ‘והוא יהיה פרא אדם’ and ‘יהיה’ means forever.”
The Chofetz Chaim concluded by sighing and saying: “Oiy, who knows what this פרא אדם will do to Am Yisrael at the end of days!”
I guess the gist of my question is, how can there be peace when people from these 3 Abrahamic faiths hold to these types of ideas? I thought that maybe among Jews, the issue would be more political and less religious. I expect Salafist Muslims and Evangelical Christians to hold wacky views, but it seems some Jewish people hold them as well. Are these views common?
Thank you in advance for any replies and I hope we can all have some peace one day.
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