Netanyahu May Have Been Punked By the African Trickster

It's really too bad that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on enclosing himself in such a white-bread universe.  There is so much he could learn if he mingled among the folk ever so often..

Netanyahu may live in a Jewish world with a Hebrew Yahweh, but
Eshu-Elegba, the African trickster of Yoruba religio-philosophy, also walks the Earth (or inhabits whatever dimension of space such  spiritual beings exist within).  And he is a being of sublime wisdom, who possesses great expertise in teaching people how to get along together.  But one must be careful.  This is not the cutesy kids' fairytale character that parents read bedtime stories to their children about.  He can at times be mean and ruthless.  He is even known to kill.  But Eshu is not the devil, even though Christian missionaries invariably confused him with the Biblical Satan, when they first confronted West African religious traditions.   Simply stated, the Trickster puts us in situations that have the potential to teach us lessons, particularly those involving acceptance of "the other."   But it's always our choice and we can choose not to learn a darned thing.  In such cases, the consequences will be dire and he will blindfold us to our mistakes.  So, all that we will be left with when our world falls apart is vitriolic hatred of that "other" and excuses, excuses, excuses.  

I'll give you a hypothetical example of how Eshu-Elegba works.  Maybe he might give  a country, say the modern state of Israel to the Jews. But he would append to it one simple stipulation.  Learn to make peace with your Arab neighbors.   While difficult, it oughtn't to be impossible.  After all, Arabs and Jews have lived in the Middle East together, in the same countries, in the same neighborhoods from the 8th century.   Maybe one problem was the insistence of Zionists that the country was empty.  No matter.  Whatever the Arabs transgressions, whatever the Jew's trangressions, Israel would be given 70 years or so to learn that one lesson.  

So, if Eshu were observing matters in the Middle East, how would he evaluate the ways in which those years have been spent?   Are all Israelis bilingual by now, that is fluent in both Arabic and Hebrew? Do they honor and respect the heritage of those among whom they live?  Do they recognize the sacrifices of those who gave up land to form Israel? Do those of European origin see themselves as racially or culturally superior to Middle East and African Jews?  This final question on the quiz might in fact determine 98% of the grade.     

What lesson might Eshu-Elegba teach that Netanyahu clearly has not yet mastered?  When you move into someone else's neighborhood, you're the one who has to learn how to live with them in peace.  If you insist on seeing "the other" as subhuman then you really need to move somewhere else. 

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