About 10 years ago I read an amazing book, PALESTINIAN TWILIGHT, that was a dramatized documentary about the murder of an American Lutheran pastor who was Professor of Archaeology at Bir Zeit University in Palestine. Ultimately his death was blamed on the Palestinians because he was rumoured to be having affair with his deputy, a beautiful young Palestinian woman.

It was and is an unlikely scenario given the man’s advanced age, and fundamental Christian values, and the Palestinian man convicted of the murder made his confession under torture. Shortly afterwards he was assassinated himself, so he was never interviewed by anybody other than the Israeli authorities. And there was strong evidence to suggest that it was the Israelis who assassinated the professor because his archaeological digs were undermining the Israeli narrative that they had first claim on The Holy Land. And since the Israelis control all archaeological findings the professor’s results were never published.

Whatever! These sorts of brutal shenanigans have become irrelevant. With the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, supported by the Americans, it seems certain that the Israelis will soon annex the West Bank, with the support of the Americans. If that happens all dreams of Palestinian statehood will be snuffed out.

And Arab support for the Palestinians is falling victim to the theological and geopolitical battle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran in The Arabian/Persian Gulf. For obvious reasons Saudi Arabia is supporting America’s determination to destabilize Iran. Unfortunately HEZBOLLAH, funded and backed by Iran, was and is the most effective opponent of Israeli expansion. They fought the Israelis to a standstill on their last attempt to invade South Lebanon. If Iran falls then so does Hezbollah, and so do the Palestinians.

It seems that God the Father of Christian Palestinians and their Western supporters has abandoned them, and Allah the God of Muslim Palestinians has too. As the Lutheran pastor himself noted “I always end up on the losing side.” It is like the Norse epic Ragnarök – the Twilight of the Gods.

I used the story line of the Professor’s murder to begin and end my book of short stories, THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”. But I changed the characters to an elderly and childless English couple who ran a Church of England orphanage in Ramallah. The feeble and diabetic man was murdered either because of his close relationship with his young female Palestinian assistant, or because the orphanage was seen by the Israelis as a breeding ground for a generation of confident and independent and well educated Palestinian youths. This was symbolic to me of the ruthless way the Israelis’ have taken control of every aspect of Palestinian life.

All the other stories in my book are also dramatized documentaries. They are based on events I myself witnessed, or were reported to me by reliable sources during my 40 years working in and around The Arabian/Persian Gulf.

You can review and buy my book, THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” and its fictionalizations of real events in the Middle East in Kindle format at:

amazon.com

Or in paperback edition on my publisher’s website:

feedaread.com