Chapter 33 – GOD & THE FALKLANDS

I have been meaning to mention this, not just here in my chapters, but it is something I have needed to say now for a long, long time. This is a very personal issue inside me and it creates conflicts and could create peace if I could only square the circle within me.

In 1982, together with two very good friends, David Hassan as Treasurer and Moe Belilo as Secretary, we organised the Gibraltar Maccabi Football Team. The aim was to send a team of futsal to the European Maccabi Games.

In those days it was called five-a-side football. In our small community we could not find enough good football players to field an 11-a-side team plus substitutes etc.
So starting in 1980, we managed to put together a five-a-side football team and trained very hard to get it up to the standard required to be able to represent our home town.

I remember we had an allocations problem since the powers that be then would deny us the use of the Victoria Stadium (basketball) court because they felt indoor football would damage the court floor of the Hall. But anyway, between the three of us, and the energetic expertise of the team trainer, Joe Suissa, we started taking it very seriously. Not only did we have to train a team, that was really Joe's bag, we had to find the finances. This is where Moe and David came in.
Me? I was just the glue which kept the whole thing together.
I am as good at playing football as at painting the Sistine Chapel, but I trained alongside the youngsters and looked for ways to find sponsorship.

The Falklands War
came and we were all …. patriotic ‘suma-cum-laude’! Patriotism and Gibraltar is like horse and carriage, love and marriage.... you get the idea. Union Jacks were waving all over the place. The MV Uganda was refitted as a troop ship in Gibraltar, in our Dockyard, in the fastest time imaginable.

Various charity drives were being organised in Gibraltar to buy little extras for our brave troops who were going all the way down to the South Atlantic for Queen and country ...... and to help Mrs Thatcher get elected again, it must be said.

One Sunday, we took the team down to Catalan Bay, set up goal posts on the sand and for 50p a shot anyone could try a penalty against any of our players. It was great fun and we were amazed how much money was collected and donated for this good cause.

But was it such a good cause?

Religious services were held in churches, parishes and even in one of our synagogues, asking the Almighty to protect our troops in the coming War.

And this is the issue I wanted to mention.

I walked into the packed synagogue, took a Book of Psalms and as I was about to sit down with all the congregation, a thought came to me.

Surely in Argentina, churches, parishes and synagogues were also full of people praying for the Almighty to help protect their Argentinian troops?

I got up from my seat, replaced the psalm book and walked out.

We are a monotheistic people.  Argentina, also a predominantly Christian country and with a smattering of Jews, is also mainly monotheistic.

There was a slightly irreverent picture in my mind of the Almighty sitting at his celestial desk with two red telephones on it. One had a Union Jack and the other the Argentinian flag, blue and white and with the sun shining from its centre. How could He be expected pick up either of the ringing phones and answer the prayers of one …… or the other?

Are not British soldiers as precious to him as Argentinians?

This was not really a war of self-defence.
This was a war for territory.
This was a war of politics.
Politicians in both countries were using it to shore up their flagging popularity.

The ‘Flames of Patriotism’ in both countries were being fanned furiously to get everyone into the mad mental state where it is necessary to kill for a flag,  or politicians, or for 12,200 square km of stark storm-swept islands which somehow had become embroiled in the political machinations of two opposing countries.

In each of those countries people of good faith were asking their God to kill th eother people of good faith .....

No, no I could not do that.

I did not do that.

You may ask me how each side could be expected to have celestial blessing during World War I and World War II.

In WWI, as far as history (inevitable written by the victors) tells us, the Kaiser wanted to conquer all Europe and so, Europe defended itself.

In WWII, that is within living memory. Ask anyone who lived those years and they will tell you it was needed to defend against Hitler and his evil intentions throughout his is demonic political career.

You may ask why I do pray for Israel.... a fair question you may think.

That would get us involved in a huge argument that is different to either World Wars as well as to this one in the Falklands.

Israel was a Jewish homeland over 3000 years ago. Its Jewish population was forcibly dispersed through wars and hatred, yet after over 3 millennia they were coming back home. And in order to do so had to defend itself in a battle the death....

The Falklands was an imperialistic war; a war necessary only for political gain not for self-preservation.

What was the logic of asking the same God who created the Soldiers, Airmen and Navy on both sides, to help kill off the other side?

It is a bit as if I were to ask you: "Shall I take out your left eye or your right?"

Of all the memories I have of the Falklands War this is the one that still lives inside me.

How can we believe in God, with all which that means, and still ask him to help us kill our fellow human beings?

How can we even believe in God.......?

I think it fitting to add here a poem I wrote very dear to my heart. It depicts EXACTLY what happens in war, but from a common soldier’s perspective.

 SOLDIER,SOLDIER©

Soldier, Soldier,

With uniform and gun,

Died in battle,

Went up to meet the One.

 

“Soldier, Soldier,

How did you die?”

“The enemy fired,

I fell without a cry”

 

“Soldier, Soldier,

look at the enemies now.

They hug like old lovers

And your death they disavow”

 

“What then did I die for?

Was it all political?

Were our Leaders and theirs

So cruelly hypocritical?”

 

“Soldier, Soldier,

at last you are wise,

when all flags and all frontiers

you’ve learnt to despise.”

 

“What then shall we teach

our children of tomorrow?”

 

“Teach them faith in politicians

will only bring them sorrow!”