Once upon an era, Babylon claimed a land that once had belonged to all the tribes of the land. 

They created borders and claimed the resources of the land for themselves.

The other tribes inhabiting the land were regarded as foreigners, the inferior tribes.

Now an inferior class, the inferior tribes were enslaved; they were made to work the land that was once theirs without being able to reap the fruit of it, for it no longer belonged to them.

The women and girls were auctioned off to merchants who then sold them off into the night to wealthy kings and priestesses.

And lo, if you were too weak and your nails were too brittle, you were left to die of hunger and thirst in the arid, dry desert by exile.

You see, the Babylonians had declared, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may create our own legacy; otherwise we’ll be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Except, there was never a divine decree that allowed this to happen. The Almighty One decreed this land should be for all to reap and enjoy the fruit of it, that no one should be inferior to the other, and that no one should be deprived of the gifts He has given to us.

So, the Almighty One scattered them over the face of the earth until they were ready to come back.

Twice upon an era, Babylon claimed a land that, once again, that had once belonged to all the tribes of the land.

They created new borders and reclaimed the resources of the land for themselves.

The other tribes inhabiting the land were regarded as foreigners, the inferior tribes.

Now an inferior class, the inferior tribes were pushed into ghettos where they were made to work the land that was once theirs without being able to reap the fruit of it, for it no longer belonged to them.

The resources were quickly being plucked out of the land; the demand from other wealthy and powerful kingdoms was just too high.

So high that the inferior tribes that were native to the land had their water, electricity, vegetation, and shelter cut off from them and their children.

The women spent all day looking for something as simple as food, water, and money.

The eldest children were tasked with caring for the younger children whose parents never made it back.

And lo, if you were too weak and your nails were too brittle, or you didn’t have the right passport to get past the checkpoints, you were left to die in the midst of the phosphorus smoke left by the Babylonian legionnaires while on campaign.

This campaign was something the Babylonians did quite often–they called it “Sderot Cinema”, a kind of cinema that gave the Babylonian citizens the pleasure of watching the inferior tribes get bombed or shot at.

You see, the Babylonians had declared, “Come, let us rebuild our beloved Babylon The Great, with the help of the other mighty and powerful kingdoms of the west, so that we may create our own legacy once more; otherwise we’ll be scattered over the face of the whole earth again.”

Except The Almighty One had exiled them from the land as punishment for their forefathers' transgressions against Him and the land, that they should never settle or rebuild their own sovereignty there without His decree, especially one that was upheld by discrimination, stealing, murdering. Those were the same transgressions of their forefathers. There’s a twist, though. This second Babylon isn’t actually called “Babylon”. It is called “Medinat Yisrael”, the modern state of Israel, the land that was once a light of salvation, grace, kindness, and courage to all the other nations as a testimony of the power of the Almighty One. What a shame that what was once the land of olives, palm trees, figs, tulips, and the pink-orange sunset just above the light blue coast of the west is now occupied by greed, violence, racism, misogyny, and apartheid. How much longer can the Almighty One watch this suffering while these wicked people go unpunished?