Hard questions.
I have just come home from guiding a group of tourists. Every time I go to the air port to pick up a new group I am wondering what it is going to be like. Most of the touring will be similar to what other groups have on their itinerary but it is amazing to see how different every tour turns out to be. The itinerary deals with the sites, stones and dust but the people in the group are what the Bible refers to as the “living stones”. When the two of them comes together only God knows what can happen……and something does happen.
I always learn something new being with a group and when they are gone that is what stays with me. This time is was a message from one of the tour leaders. She shared with us about the Queen of Sheba who came from a country far away in order to seek answers to her many questions.
Rumors had informed her about this Jewish king and his wisdom. Back in those days a trip like the one she did was tiresome, long lasting and dangerous. The Bible tells us that she came to the king to “test him with hard questions”.
Many people have questions which they cannot seem to find answers to and which are nagging from within. These are existential questions and when answers are sought but not found the person is left with a kind of sadness which often turns into a defensive and often also aggressive attitude towards people who claim to have the answers. The Queen came with this kind of attitude ready to push this king into a corner of no escape.
Her attitude changed, however, and she soon found herself having a conversation with Solomon where “she spoke to him about all that was on her heart.”
The gospel of Luke refers to this meeting between the Queen from the South and the King in Jerusalem an states that Jesus’ wisdom goes much further than the one of Solomon.
I am in the “question producer business”. We go through things in life and see things happening to others that leaves us with lots of question marks. I don’t know what my life would have been like if I had not had someone to turn to with my hard questions……and even better; I can speak to Him with all that is on my heart.
Elin Elkouby.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Counting the dead.
The director of a Norwegian peace research center criticizes the Norwegian Army for not being capable of giving numbers concerning how many Afghanistan’s have been killed by Norwegian soldiers. He claims that the soldiers should keep statistics over every person being killed, how it happened and to what extent the Norwegian soldiers were involved.
The Norwegian Army answers by saying that dead people a carried away quickly by the Taliban and that they do not want to enter into any competition concerning numbers with them. It also states that no civilians have been killed but continues saying that it is hard to know who is a civilian. Sometimes a civilian all of a sudden picks up a weapon and starts shooting.
Really….!!!!!
How come that it is so hard to understand that this is exactly what is happening in this part of the world.
I am amazed to see how this “ugly game of war” is being “played” by different rules depending on location. I have been following the news reports from Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan lately and see that thousands have been killed, many of them civilians. It is always described as the “good” fighting “the bad” and if the fighters are considered to be extreme Moslems the picture is clear.
What is not clear to me has to do with why extreme Moslems who’s aim is to conquer the entire world and to make sure that people live according to shariah laws are not seen as such if they happen to be Palestinians.
To believe that Hamas is fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people is a sour misunderstanding. Their aim is to convert every Palestinian to become a devoted Moslem practicing shariah and through that to join forces against Israel and to wipe out “the infidels” of the land.
If they should succeed in doing so the women will be the first to suffer. The ones who have started to enjoy the taste of the right to make up their own opinions and to express them are the next in line. This is what is going on in Gaza right now and what Hamas groups are trying to enforce on the people living in PA controlled areas in the so called West Bank.
Who will demonstrate in the cities of Europe and be a voice to those who are not allowed to speak up?
Who decided that one person’s life is more valuable than another?
Why does lives in Africa, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other places count less than the lives of Palestinians?
Elin Elkouby
The director of a Norwegian peace research center criticizes the Norwegian Army for not being capable of giving numbers concerning how many Afghanistan’s have been killed by Norwegian soldiers. He claims that the soldiers should keep statistics over every person being killed, how it happened and to what extent the Norwegian soldiers were involved.
The Norwegian Army answers by saying that dead people a carried away quickly by the Taliban and that they do not want to enter into any competition concerning numbers with them. It also states that no civilians have been killed but continues saying that it is hard to know who is a civilian. Sometimes a civilian all of a sudden picks up a weapon and starts shooting.
Really….!!!!!
How come that it is so hard to understand that this is exactly what is happening in this part of the world.
I am amazed to see how this “ugly game of war” is being “played” by different rules depending on location. I have been following the news reports from Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan lately and see that thousands have been killed, many of them civilians. It is always described as the “good” fighting “the bad” and if the fighters are considered to be extreme Moslems the picture is clear.
What is not clear to me has to do with why extreme Moslems who’s aim is to conquer the entire world and to make sure that people live according to shariah laws are not seen as such if they happen to be Palestinians.
To believe that Hamas is fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people is a sour misunderstanding. Their aim is to convert every Palestinian to become a devoted Moslem practicing shariah and through that to join forces against Israel and to wipe out “the infidels” of the land.
If they should succeed in doing so the women will be the first to suffer. The ones who have started to enjoy the taste of the right to make up their own opinions and to express them are the next in line. This is what is going on in Gaza right now and what Hamas groups are trying to enforce on the people living in PA controlled areas in the so called West Bank.
Who will demonstrate in the cities of Europe and be a voice to those who are not allowed to speak up?
Who decided that one person’s life is more valuable than another?
Why does lives in Africa, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other places count less than the lives of Palestinians?
Elin Elkouby
Thursday, June 4, 2009
A dangerous place to live.
I enjoyed watching a list of supposedly secure and dangerous countries on earth. Norway was number 3 after Denmark and New Zealand. America landed on number 83 and Israel was listed as the fourth most unsecure place to live being all the way down to 141 and having only Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq being considered as even worse.
……and I say to myself, “What a wonderful world!”
What scares me the most in Israel is the bureaucracy.
Elin Elkouby
I enjoyed watching a list of supposedly secure and dangerous countries on earth. Norway was number 3 after Denmark and New Zealand. America landed on number 83 and Israel was listed as the fourth most unsecure place to live being all the way down to 141 and having only Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq being considered as even worse.
……and I say to myself, “What a wonderful world!”
What scares me the most in Israel is the bureaucracy.
Elin Elkouby
Choosing what to hear, what to see and what to say.
The Norwegian doctor Erik Fosse was back in Gaza almost a week ago. His college Mads Gilbert was not allowed to cross the border by Israeli authorities.
The two were the first foreign doctors to enter Gaza during the war last December and January and as such became spokesmen to the world concerning the situation in Gaza. Their description of what was going on was heavily colored by their personal political standpoint which is far (and further than far ) to the left and “signal red” by dye.
The base of their understanding concerning the conflict between the Moslem and the Western world is that “Israel is to blame” and that “America is the source of most evil”.
Whoever listens to them should at least know that before they uncritically accept their reports.
Magdi Allam used to belong to the same side in politics. He was born into a Moslem family and raised in Egypt but left for Italy in 1972 where he studied and ended up as one of Italy’s most famous journalists. He used to work for the communist newspaper “Il Manifesto” and continued to the center-left leaning paper “La Repubblica.” He was outspoken as a supporter of the Palestinian issue, an admirer of Yassir Arafat, supported Moslem immigration as well as the building of Mosques in Europe and used every opportunity to speak and write against Israel.
But, this has changed. From 2002 on he went through a major change of mind concerning the issues which had been his main focus for more than 25 years. He all of a sudden got an understanding of what the leading Moslems are after and it has caused him to pull the breaks. He is now the deputy director of one of Italy’s oldest newspapers called “Corriere della Sera” and has written a book called “Viva Israele” or “Long live Israel.
He accused Italy and the West of ignoring the dangers of an imminent "Islamization" of the society, and a possible Jihad (Islamic holy war) in Europe.
He’s criticizing Hamas and is saying that "the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel”
"I thought it was a big mistake to allow a terror organization to participate in elections. Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair deluded themselves in believing that Hamas' very participation in the government would turn the group into a pragmatic political power. Instead, it turned out that Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist, will not relinquish terror and will not honor international agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas wants absolute rule in order to impose sharia and to revive the international Islamic caliphate. As it pushes for absolute rule, it does not hesitate to massacre its Palestinian brothers in Gaza. It will try to do the same thing in the West Bank."
It is interesting that he sees what others refuse to see. Most people die with the opinions they had and the conclusions they made at a young age. Very few are brave enough to dare admit that what they used to believe is actually wrong. It takes courage to do so; especially when it causes danger to ones life. Magdi Allam never needed police protection before he changed opinion. Now he is surrounded by security guards around the clock.
What he said about Hamas is right. Last Saturday 6 people were killed as Abu Mazen’s security force came to arrest a couple of Hamas terrorists in the town of Qalqilyah. Three of the killed were policemen and the other three were the two terrorists and the house keeper where they were hiding. The case is considered the bloodiest intra-Palestinian incident in the West Bank in years and there is fear that the conflict within the Palestinian society will spread to other towns in the area. Hamas, of course, has promised revenge although it was the two terrorists who opened fire and shot policemen first.
How come that I cannot find this to have been reported in any media abroad ????
Elin Elkouby
The Norwegian doctor Erik Fosse was back in Gaza almost a week ago. His college Mads Gilbert was not allowed to cross the border by Israeli authorities.
The two were the first foreign doctors to enter Gaza during the war last December and January and as such became spokesmen to the world concerning the situation in Gaza. Their description of what was going on was heavily colored by their personal political standpoint which is far (and further than far ) to the left and “signal red” by dye.
The base of their understanding concerning the conflict between the Moslem and the Western world is that “Israel is to blame” and that “America is the source of most evil”.
Whoever listens to them should at least know that before they uncritically accept their reports.
Magdi Allam used to belong to the same side in politics. He was born into a Moslem family and raised in Egypt but left for Italy in 1972 where he studied and ended up as one of Italy’s most famous journalists. He used to work for the communist newspaper “Il Manifesto” and continued to the center-left leaning paper “La Repubblica.” He was outspoken as a supporter of the Palestinian issue, an admirer of Yassir Arafat, supported Moslem immigration as well as the building of Mosques in Europe and used every opportunity to speak and write against Israel.
But, this has changed. From 2002 on he went through a major change of mind concerning the issues which had been his main focus for more than 25 years. He all of a sudden got an understanding of what the leading Moslems are after and it has caused him to pull the breaks. He is now the deputy director of one of Italy’s oldest newspapers called “Corriere della Sera” and has written a book called “Viva Israele” or “Long live Israel.
He accused Italy and the West of ignoring the dangers of an imminent "Islamization" of the society, and a possible Jihad (Islamic holy war) in Europe.
He’s criticizing Hamas and is saying that "the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel”
"I thought it was a big mistake to allow a terror organization to participate in elections. Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair deluded themselves in believing that Hamas' very participation in the government would turn the group into a pragmatic political power. Instead, it turned out that Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist, will not relinquish terror and will not honor international agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas wants absolute rule in order to impose sharia and to revive the international Islamic caliphate. As it pushes for absolute rule, it does not hesitate to massacre its Palestinian brothers in Gaza. It will try to do the same thing in the West Bank."
It is interesting that he sees what others refuse to see. Most people die with the opinions they had and the conclusions they made at a young age. Very few are brave enough to dare admit that what they used to believe is actually wrong. It takes courage to do so; especially when it causes danger to ones life. Magdi Allam never needed police protection before he changed opinion. Now he is surrounded by security guards around the clock.
What he said about Hamas is right. Last Saturday 6 people were killed as Abu Mazen’s security force came to arrest a couple of Hamas terrorists in the town of Qalqilyah. Three of the killed were policemen and the other three were the two terrorists and the house keeper where they were hiding. The case is considered the bloodiest intra-Palestinian incident in the West Bank in years and there is fear that the conflict within the Palestinian society will spread to other towns in the area. Hamas, of course, has promised revenge although it was the two terrorists who opened fire and shot policemen first.
How come that I cannot find this to have been reported in any media abroad ????
Elin Elkouby
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