Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix, 1828

Magic, the Devil, and of course our Lord Jesus were big some 400 years ago. The woods were believed to be full of spirits, many of them evil; the churches were packed with the faithful; and the Devil was perceived to be everywhere, busy trying to lure the good into sin and damnation. Christ and his angels were our sole protectors against Satan and his infernal kingdom.

The Devil did not play fair, needless to say. He did not always appear with horns and fire-spitting breath, but transformed himself into anything and anybody in order to lure his pray down under. Tales of unmitigated horrors that befell the simpleminded were a dime a dozen, told and retold around fires, in schoolrooms, even from pulpits. I suppose that is how the Faust legend began. I always thought it was Christopher Marlowe, a very talented drunk homosexual barroom brawler, who invented Doctor Faustus at the end of the 16th century. Actually, the Faustian myth began in earlier times, in Germany, where tales of necromancy and sorcery were popular heretical choices. In Marlowe’s play, Faustus has a doctorate from a university but is bored with the academic standards of the time, so he’s approached by the Devil and is offered 24 years of whatever he desires. The good doc goes bananas, becomes invisible, gets to taste the seven deadly sins, plays tricks on the Pope, and pays a visit to Helen of Troy. Then the inevitable happens: Twenty-four years are up and he has mostly wasted his time. The Devil comes to collect and carts Faustus off to hell forever.

I don’t know when the Devil’s emissary Mephistopheles came around, but he makes an appearance in Goethe’s verse play Faust in the late 18th century. The great German copped out in his second part of Faust, when he has him ascend to heaven rather than down under. I suppose it was Christian forgiveness and all that. The reason I’m going on about Faust and Faustian bargains is a recent discussion I had with my very close friend Michael Mailer about Gaza. Michael is a film producer and director and the son of Norman Mailer. I was telling Michael about a New Year’s Eve party I once gave where I introduced his father to a close friend of my wife, an Israeli beauty. “Why don’t you ever come to Israel, Mr. Mailer?” she wailed. “Because they don’t all look like you, sweetheart,” answered Norman and walked away.

Norman Mailer was a radical and Jewish, and from the discussions I had with him throughout the years he and I were friends, he acknowledged that Israel was committing a great crime in suppressing the Palestinians. The great crime was against itself, the Jewish people, and of course the Palestinians. Norman died in 2007, and things have gotten much worse since then where Israel and Palestine are concerned. In my discussion with Michael Mailer, who is half Jewish and a liberal in his politics, I mentioned that the United States must have signed a Faustian pact, otherwise the one-way traffic of bombs, aircraft, arms, and billions simply does not make sense. “Norman would probably be intrigued more by who the modern Mephistopheles is than anything else,” said Michael.

Has Uncle Sam signed a Faustian bargain, and will he be dragged to hell for it one day? Millions in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan believe it to be so, despite the fact most of them have never heard of the good doctor. If America is hated today, it is for her unstinted support of Israel, no ifs or buts about it. The good uncle was the tiny newborn nation’s greatest supporter. The Jewish people had suffered like no other, and they deserved a home of their own. The trouble is there were other people already living there, and some of them had to be moved. Those who had to move are still in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. Some have been there since 1948. Israel annexed the West Bank and the Golan Heights in 1967. While Israel grew in territory, the Palestinian population grew and grew under occupation. The whole area is now about to explode.

Hard-line factions are now replacing Fatah, the main Palestinian group that recognizes Israel. The Faustian bargain that I’m referring to is that of Uncle Sam and Israel. Why doesn’t Uncle Sam order Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and agree to a two-state solution? America would guarantee Israel’s borders and safety, and continue to fund and arm the Israelis, while the West Bank illegal settlements would revert to their rightful owners. Peace and happiness for everyone would follow.

Well, perhaps in the movies, but in real life Mephistopheles has been busy down there, and he has many faces. The religious nuts who are known as the settlers are the problem. Yes, they are part of the only true democracy in the Middle East, where the rights of women and of minorities are respected, but they hold Israel at gunpoint. They don’t serve in the army, don’t pay taxes, and go around the West Bank land-grabbing and shooting Palestinians at will. Actually, the true Faustian bargain turns out to be that of Israeli governments and the religious settlers. Netanyahu is the Mephistopheles. This will have a Marlowe ending, not a Goethe one.