Diary 1963 - Murshid Sam's Living Stream

Diaries 196358 Harriet St.,San Francisco 3, Calif.October 21, 1963American Friends of the Middle East323 Geary St.,San Francisco 3, Calif.In Re: Universal Versus Particular Zionism.Ever since a child I have been moved by the biblical passage. “My House shall be a house ofprayer for all people.” It seemed to me at an early age that some Jewish people were destined toreturn to Palestine. But the history of “Lawrence of Arabia,” the blind following of Ball Peor (Balfour)instead of Moses, the repudiation of all tradition, of all literature in behalf of a small group ofpolitical zealots showed that we are still in a world which confuses words with things and clingingto words, assumed the attainment of an ideal.It has been part of an uncertain career to have been employed by a lady who spent time andenergy translating Hebraic scriptures although she was not Jewish. Working for her it was necessaryto go into many literary by-paths concerned with materials now relegated either to restricted formsof “Orthodoxy” or else left to anthropologists and folk-lorists. It has also been my lot to meet tworeal Kabbalists both of whom were not persona grata with “respectable” synagogues. But the piecesof tradition regarding the return to Palestine, Messianism and related subjects fit together in a sortunwritten symphony.On the other side I have really studied Islamics and to a degree somewhat more than thosescholars who are hailed in America but who have no standing whatsoever in the actual Islamicworld. The truth need not lie between extremes based on ignorance, but rather in some harmonicintegrative pattern which analytical people simply cannot fathom. Their whole outlooks lead themto separativeness and dualism and “I and “you.”The history of Omar shows one sort of “solution” for Palestinian problems; one which wasaccepted in its time—but of course is no longer given much consideration either by the non-Islamicscholars who “teach” Islamics nor by the political Zionists, nor by politicians upholding some sortof policy or document which has been intruded into traditions of long standing.My first effort after 1945 was to have a meeting between the spiritual leaders of Israel and Islamand both groups accepted the offer but questioned whether the other “camp” had real spiritual personsin it. A revamp of this to men very close to General Burns has resulted in very strong favorablereactions.It is very difficult to establish any sort of “peace” on dualistic grounds, and it becomes wise, ifnot necessary, to look into some other direction.