From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 19. RELIGION IS REBELLION
problem. Israel had not existed for centuries; it was a Mohammedan country, Palestine, surrounded
by Mohammedan countries.
Now just because you won the second world war and you happened to be in control of the land of
Palestine, you forced the creation of a nation. It is arbitrary. The people are Mohammedans, it is
their country. Israel may have been, thousands of years before, the country of the Jews. But for
thousands of years it has been a country of the Mohammedans, and suddenly you simply change
the map... and surrounded by the whole Mohammedan world. In the Middle East all the countries
are Mohammedan.
This small country, Israel, is going to continuously suffer; and how long can America help it? And
how long are American Jews going to pour their money into Israel? Sooner or later the truth of
history will have to be accepted. If America had been really compassionate towards Jews, they
should have given them an Israel in America. Oregon would have been perfectly good! I propose it:
Let Oregon be the Israel. But what kind of compassion is this? – putting Jews there. They will never
be able to live at ease, never.
So when I saw in this film the rejection of Israel by the Hassids... of course their reason is different.
I have always been against the creation of Israel. I was a child when it was created but even then
my first reaction was that this was absolutely idiotic.
The country is populated by Mohammedans – all around there are Mohammedan countries, they
are all together – and you put the poor Jews amongst this vast ocean of enemies. Previously they
had somehow escaped from that Israel – history was more compassionate to them. And there was
no need for a nation; they were living all over the world. The whole world had become their nation.
When you lose your nation, the whole world becomes your nation – why bother about a nation?
My reasons were different: that this was a political strategy to keep a military base – because Israel
will always need the help of America, so America will always keep its military base in Israel, which
is very close to Russia. And the Jews are not going in any way to be against America because they
are protected by America; they are almost slaves of America.
Without America Israel would be immediately finished, they would be slaughtered; so they depend
on America, and their dependence is a guarantee that America has a base in the Middle East.
Other Mohammedan countries will not give you a base – you are Christians, and Mohammedans
and Christians have been fighting for fifteen hundred years, crusades upon crusades.
My reason is different, but the Hassidic reason is worth consideration. They say the scriptures are
clear that the messiah will come and reestablish the kingdom of Israel. Where is the messiah?
Franklin Roosevelt? Winston Churchill? Who is the messiah? Then this Israel is bogus!
I like the idea. But for me it is bogus for different reasons, but it is bogus; on that I agree with the
Hassids. Without God you cannot have a messiah. I would not have argued with Jesus that ”You
are not the messiah,” because that is a secondary question. The primary question is that ”You have
to prove God exists.”
But because Jews accepted God, they never argued on the basic point. And on the secondary point
you cannot argue because Jesus says, ”God has sent me.” And the Jews had been accepting other
From Ignorance to Innocence 264 Osho