Thinking of my Grandfather(s)

I don't know why but I have been thinking about my Grandfathers recently. Both were amazing men in their own right, but for now I have been most recently thinking of my Grandfather on my Dad's side. Sadly I don't know a lot about his life. I know I should, but he was much older than my Grandmother and other Grandparents so he passed away when I was a young man.

What I do remember is a very stern man who was also very loving in his own way. Grandpa Habiby was very much of the "old world". Indeed he lived in the British Mandate of Palestine and then Israel and the occupied territories all his life. My family has been Christian (Anglican) for generations. My understanding is that he was a high court judge in the British Mandate and was a friend of Christians, Jews and Moslems alike.

Apparently after he retired from the bench he kept his law practice helping the poor on a pro bono basis regardless of their religion. Indeed my understanding is that he was such a friend of all peoples that during one of the Arab Israeli wars, the Military had a warrant out for him. Apparently spent that entire conflict hiding in a friend's basement. The respect of his fellow Jerusalem residents was so high that the sign advertising his law practice still hung on the building many years after his death.

I think by now you can probably understand why I have been thinking of him recently. What, I wonder would he think about the horrifying developments in his native country since his death? I think he would be appalled of course, but appalled at all the players in this deadly struggle: his fellow Palestinians, the Israeli government as well as the Americans ( to whom he sent ALL of his children when they attained the age to go to college).

Appalled as to what incredible bullies the Israeli Government has become. Would he wonder if they even remember the horrible ways that the Jews had been treated over the years of pogroms and the Holocaust? Would he wonder if any lessons had been learned?

I know he would be appalled by the behavior of Muslims in their violent perversion of the Koran. Anyone who has read the Koran comes away with two overwhelming things: one that it is very difficult to understand. But in that understanding the second thing is that it is a non-violent relic. How would he feel knowing that in the desperation of these people, children are blowing themselves up in the name of religion? I think it would have broken his heart. But he would never show it.

So how do I think that a man of his caliber would have suggested solutions to this intractable problem?

Beats me. But I know that he would have had some very good ideas.

Pity there are not more men and women with good ideas in that theatre of conflict and less men who seem hell bent on the destruction of two cultures.

Out.