Where Does Peace Find Itself

By Xlibris US

The story begins in the pre-marriage life of our couple in the story. Our husband to be was born and raised in Ohio. Our wife to be was born and raised in Cairo Egypt. Three chapters detail the unique experiences in their life. A Professor in Arab-American Social Affairs stated she had never met a couple like them. She met them at the University of Michigan where she was on a sabbatical. Please read, think about and enjoy their twenty years story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499053326

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Copyright © 2014 by Ernest Jacob.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014913635

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4990-5330-2

Softcover   978-1-4990-5331-9

eBook   978-1-4990-5332-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/08/2014

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

CHAPTER ONE

It is entirely possible to build an entire economy based on peace. One country has three teachers in each and every classroom in the whole country. Another country once used part of its military to be teachers in the classroom. Part of one country’s government sponsored a sports team and did quite well in their cash earnings.

We all need—and I mean all eight billion of us—peace and a stable economy. Grandparents, parents, children, and all thrive in peace.

In 2008, China hosted the Summer Olympics. Two hundred and five countries. To us, that means there are at least two hundred and five governments in the world and indeed many more words for peace. Yet peace is hard to find. Wars are easy to find. Very recently the second largest city in Iraq changed hands and returned to its old rulers. The USA spent billions of dollars and thousand of lives to remove the old government of a city, and now the old one is back in control. A gun pointed at someone’s head can bring about instant change but not heartfelt or spiritual change. Peace is a permanent part of everyone’s heart when a gun is not pointed at the heart.

In 2012, two hundred and four countries attended the Summer Olympics in London. Billions of dollars were spent on the preparation—the games and food and transportation. Millions of lives were touched by the Olympics including the athletes, sponsors, fans, medical personnel, coaches, writers, and people associated with the everyday lives of the participants. Just to give you one example, a young wrestler just finishing high school tried out for the USA Olympic team and finished second. Four years later and as a new college grad, he again tried out for the USA Olympic team; and even though he finished fourth in the world at one international tournament during college, he again finished second at the USA Olympic trials. Four years later, after a lifetime of training, eating proper meals, and incurring all the trials and tribulations of life anywhere, he for the third time finished second. Now came four more years of the daily grind that we all experience, less that one Olympic desire, and finally he won the USA Olympic trials. He became a United States Olympic team member in defeating a fellow who had beaten him four years earlier. Now it was on to Russia and the Summer Olympics. War. Boycott. Dreams were shattered due to war and politicians. The whole American team was not allowed to go to Russia for the Olympics. Other countries followed the USA example and did not send their teams due to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Years later, U.S. politicians sent the American military to invade Afghanistan. It is an irony of life that we tried to punish Russia for invading Afghanistan, but years later after the World Trade Center bombings, the USA too invaded Afghanistan. Even old soldiers will express the idea that they wish their children and grandchildren a peaceful life.

Think of all the lives touched during the sixteen years of the Olympic trials. Thousands of people who had an equal number of jobs all trying to help one young and determined wrestler in a peaceful Olympic pursuit. The Olympics and events like them help to build a peaceful and prosperous life. The story continues following a young couple that could live anywhere. However, the young couple’s story touches four continents.

Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America each have their own traditions, cultures, and family histories. Most of the billions of people on these continents share common goals. They have a peaceful life filled with health and prosperity. As unknown changes in the weather are hard to deal with, so are changes to traditions and culture. The key to weathering the changes is to discover their truthfulness and design.

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From sports we shift to an ever-present and an everywhere-present politics. Eight billion people are ruled by one form or another of politics. From kings to sheikhs, prime ministers, dictators, presidents, the list goes on and on, stopping at a little above two hundred. The variety of governments is shown by the different titles that leaders give themselves while ruling over their citizens, subjects, or others. For our purposes, we shall concentrate on peace, prosperity, and the traditions, cultures, and family lives around the world and in the two countries of our young couple affected by all of the above.

Sadly, most politicians only make peace after fighting war and sometimes many wars. Napoleon Bonaparte is an example of a government leader who fought many wars but never made peace with anyone at the end of his life. Instead, he was captured and put in a prison on an island far from France. So much for peace in his lifetime. He is forever despised in Egypt, the country of our female young couple member. During Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt, he ordered the Sphinx to be destroyed in order to spark fear and terror into the hearts of the Egyptians. All his cannon fire could do was put a dent in the nose of the Sphinx. The dent is still visible today and probably always will be.

Another politician, the late president Anwar El Sadat, decided to fight one last war against Israel before making peace with Israel. His reason was to prove the valor of the Egyptian-fighting men before signing a peace treaty with the much-hated enemy.

Egypt launched an attack against the much-feared Bar Lev Line across the Suez Canal and broke through. The Egyptian Army continued to fight and advance until the American forces flew nonstop from North Carolina to the middle of the Sinai Desert, landed behind the Israeli lines, and helped to surround the Egyptian Army. A military officer recounted how he was picked up in the middle of Sinai, taken prisoner by the Americans, and held until President Sadat, peace be upon him, called off the Egyptian attack and eventually made peace with Israel.

The oldest son of our young couple was born the same night that President Sadat flew for the first time to Israel to start the peace process. Upon landing in Israel, the airplane carrying President Sadat was immediately surrounded by the Israeli Army to thwart any surprise attack. Only the president came smiling and waving down the steps of the aircraft, much different from the American president Ford later on in Vienna. It took two years to discuss and sign the Camp David Peace Accords between the American president Carter, Prime Minister Begin of Israel, and the hero of the whole affair despite his need to fight a war before making peace, the late and honorable president Anwar El Sadat.

Unfortunately, his peace signing cost him his life as his body was riddled with seventy-six bullets, none of them fatal. However, his life could not be saved after being taken to the hospital. Doctors, nurses, and an anesthesiologist all worked in vain to try to save his life. So died a president who said he wished for peace at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert. He hoped for one place to be built that all people could come to and pray for peace. There is a well-preserved letter written by the Prophet Mohammed himself guaranteeing a peaceful journey to and from St. Catherine’s Monastery. An Egyptian embassy official once said, Go for it. You believe in it. May we all believe in peace and live that way. The late president Sadat was a man who fought for peace, believed in his heart and mind in peace, and died with his boots on for peace.

Fortunately, his successor, President Hosni Mubarak, kept the peace for thirty years. Whatever the problems with Mubarak’s presidency, he did keep the peace. Nobody died fighting a war under President Mubarak. The next Egyptian president Morsi was duly elected but arrested and jailed for not improving Egypt and taking the vengeance of the Brotherhood into the streets. Since 1952 the Brotherhood has been persecuted by Presidents Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak. It is not too farfetched to think that once they gained power, they felt it was their turn to persecute. This may not be true, but the facts speak for themselves. In Algeria years ago, a fundamentalist government was duly elected but soon removed from power for pursuing their own agenda instead of one beneficial to Algeria as a whole. The military took over power and ruled until the next elections were held. In the meantime, for a bloody ten years, many battles, attacks, and slaughters were held until both sides agreed to a ceasefire. No winner was declared, but Algeria has continued to have elections without the ongoing bloodshed. So peace did finally come somewhat to Algeria.

Back to Egypt where the story of our young couple starts and the importance of President Sadat to them. Our couple never met President Sadat, but contacts with officials around President Sadat set up a nebulous link.

The current president el-Sisi has warned there will be no more Brotherhood during his time. In order to stop the bloodshed, it may be necessary to say so. Few people, if any, want to repeat the bloodshed of Algeria.

The male member of our young couple is American by birth but 50 percent Hungarian by his paternal grandparents. Both of these grandparents were born in Hungary, the grandfather in Bodony and the grandmother in Forro. The grandfather came to the USA at sixteen and first worked in a mine in Western Pennsylvania for a bottle of alcohol a day. Since he couldn’t cash the bottle at any bank, he looked for another job and found one in Northwest Ohio where he worked for the rest of his life. He retired as vice president of the steel company even though he could not write or read English very well. An Irishman was paid to do his reading and writing. The grandmother was born across the Atlantic and took a boat at the age of two with her mother from Trieste to Ellis Island in New York. Both grandparents are listed on the records at Ellis Island with pictures of their respective ships that they sailed on. The grandfather took a ship from Hamburg to Ellis Island. The two did not meet until years later in Northwest Ohio. They had two surviving children, their son being the father of the male member of our young couple. A note of interest is that the fast trains from Cairo to Alexandria were made in Hungary. Growing up, the female member of our young couple rode them every summer to spend the summer in Alexandria near the beach. Alexandria is usually twenty degrees Fahrenheit cooler than Cairo, the home of one of our young couple. Also, Egypt and Hungary share a word named goulash. In Egypt it is a sweet; and in Hungary, it is a meal of potatoes, vegetables, and meat served as one dish. Hungary is important to the story as it is the place where the troops of Genghis Khan were finally stopped.

In the grandfather’s village of Bodony, natives told me that it was first settled with soldiers from the army of Genghis Khan who fought and survived the long trek from Mongolia to Central Europe. It took Marco Polo two years to walk from Italy to India to China. His was a peaceful trip. He even wrote books about his travels and ordeals. The Khan took a while longer to reach Central Europe with all his battles along the way. The Khan’s DNA was found to be in many parts of the world due to his travels and the migration of others. It may even be in the blood of our young male member. It was never checked.

In any case, the Khan and Marco Polo provide different angles to our story of the young couple. The young male member of our couple wanted to improve his life, so he went to Egypt. He had already lived and studied in France and Spain without any complaints, but the search went on. It is reported that the Khan was looking for improvements for Mongolia but, in fact, spilled a lot of blood on the search. On the other hand, our young male was too looking for improvements but did so in a peaceful way.

Our gallant young traveler spent six weeks in France with a French student of the same age; then the French fellow came to Ohio for six weeks with the American and his family. During the trip to France, Paris, Geneva, a small historic village on the way to Geneva, Lourdes, Grenoble, and a trip to Barcelona were included.

On the trip to America, stops were made in New York for the World’s Fair plus New York City itself; Detroit and Rouge Car