The Serpent and the Red Line
William A. Cook
“Our only path to liberation is resistance, and saving Jerusalem…We need to take a clear stance, Jerusalem is a Red Line. Jerusalem is the soul of the cause” (Khaled Meshaal, Hamas political bureau chief).
The first warning we had concerning the nature of a Red Line came from the Serpent (read Satan) that leered enticingly from Yahweh’s Tree of Good and Evil as Eve sauntered near. He knew the nature of G-d’s creatures; he knew that if he were to conquer G-d he must open Eve’s and Adam’s eyes to their true nature, the depraved nature that rules by arrogance, treachery, hubris and power. He knew that Yahweh had opened the door to that depravity by decree:
The future depends on the choices we make going forwards now. We need to look forward to a positive vision of sustainability. There is no reverting or going back. (David Lockie)
“From every tree of the garden you may eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat; for the day you eat of it, you must die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
He knew a demand placed in the path of a righteous man raises caution in thought, perception and action; he knew as well a demand placed before a deceitful nature offers promise of conquest and reward, and Satan after all, is the master of Deceit and guides destiny to his end. A proclaimed Red line, an apple dripping with luscious juice, entices the deceitful to act that his ends will be engaged by those who rule lest their hubris be besmirched and ridiculed as weakness by non-action, and once engaged the juice flows with the blood of the vanquished.
Certainly Khaed Meshaal knows this story that has the wisdom that knows of human depravity and its consequences. Even more certain is the knowledge that it has been used by the most deceitful of all our ruthless rulers that govern in the mid-East, the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu.
A year ago this Arrogance stood before the nations of the world gathered in their citadel of deliberation in New York City and, with the care of an innocent child presenting a school project before his classmates, lifted a kindergarten poster of a bomb, a bomb drawn in the shape of a bowling ball topped with a circular hole out of which protruded a fuse, and proceeded to instruct the world on how to determine evil and how to eradicate it—and he drew a Red Line across the neck of that bowling ball and dared the world to deny him the right to destroy one of their member states should that line be crossed. That I put to you is arrogance, treachery, hubris and power, a power inherent in a tiny nation that uses its most trusted friend to serve as its power of ultimate destruction. And he knew his friends in the United States Congress and their lackey President would obey because he knew “a demand placed before a deceitful nature offers promise of conquest and reward.”
What he did not present was the truth resulting from his arrogance, the devastation to the people of Iran should that Red Line be crossed; what he did not say was the truth of his arrogance that he alone had the right to determine what is right and the rest of the world must abide by his demands; what he did not illustrate in his poster was the blood that would flow in the mid-East as the dogs of war wetted their appetites for the gold that would flow to their war chests as the bodies of the innocent gathered for the last judgment.
How sad that the world must be subjected to such hypocrisy, and how sad that Khaled would use such an image to represent the rights of the Palestinian people. Knowing it was Netanyahu should have been sufficient; one does not take instruction from an idiot; let him make his tirades before the dogs of war, leave the goodness of the earth to those who value it in peace and fulfillment.
The Red Line of justice already exists, not as a threat, not as a warning to enter battle, not as a strategy to force destruction of one’s enemy, but as rights determined in the charter and declarations of the United Nations. The glory of the United Nations is in its absolute respect for the rights and dignity of every human being in every country on the planet enunciated in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its detailed definition of genocide. All in the world know what should be and what must become the means to justice, the use of the International Courts to ensure the rights of the weak as well as the strong. The answer is not to pluck the apple of deceit and power, not to follow the enticement of the serpent, but to lure it in the ways of justice for all that it too might reside in a garden of delight surrounded by friends, sharing the wealth of the universe, the riches of the earth, the wisdom of those who care for each other with love and compassion not with deceitfulness and devastation. Would that it were so.
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About the Author
William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His most recent book is Decade of Deceit: 2002-2012 Reflections on Palestine. His other works include Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, and The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction all dealing with the crisis in Israel/Palestine. His fiction works include The Chronicles Of Nefaria, a morality tale, The Agony of Colin Powell, a one act play, and a co-authored tragedy written with his wife Darcy, The Unreasoning Mask. He also has a Book of Psalms published by Mellon Poetry Press, Psalms for the 21st Century. He can be reached at wcook@laverne.edu or through his web site:www.drwilliamacook.com.
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