In Moses' Footsteps

And God led Moses to Mount Nebo for his lush, new domain to survey, in the riches of the Promised Land among valleys of trees and olives. Where birds in the sky soared free and wild beasts roamed the land along the dales and rolling plains, Moses by his God was blessed. There he lived in that quiet place wider than mortal eyes could see, right in God's bountiful vineyard till the day death took him away. Yahweh was kind to Moses. Eons have passed since that time and here this pilgrim now stands where Moses once stood in awe to view what God to him bestowed. But what do I see? Barren earth of rocks and boulders, parched, lifeless, ugly to the eyes; craggy peaks and harsh wasteland, uninhabitable ravines and canyons. Yonder out to the north the Golan, once Syrian, now by the Jews own, just like the serene lake of Tiberias: grabbed, annexed and conquered. In the western haze is a mighty river whose waters once swiftly flowed, blocked by a concrete Israeli dam away from Jordan where it belongs. Far west is the ancient city of Jericho where the Lord warded off the devil, no more than a strip of old Palestine, fenced in the West Bank, entrapped. Lucky Moses and the chosen people for by God from their bondage freed! cry, Palestine, cry, a homeland lost, long overdue your awaited messiah!