I wasn't gonna get sucked into this, but the longer I
reflected on it, the more ludicrous it became, in my estimation. It starts with
a Facebook post of a piece of video produced by some arm of Israeli Government regarding the reasons for
the size of Israel today and why it doesn't withdraw to the 1948 UN sanctioned borders.
The reasoning, all sound and logical, is
based on more modern and rapid response to weapons of great range and speed. 'Nuff
said about the video. The comments in
support, however are truly fatuous and frightening.
Here's just a sample
of the "logic" of the responders:
"Guys this
is all spiritual- there are principalities and powers of darkness that are
insanely consumed with hatred for God and His chosen people: Jews. There is no
rational judgement being used here. These Muslims are pawns in satan's insane
attempts to scrub the earth clean of God and Jewish people. This is spiritual
hatred and war. The humans involved are merely the marionettes of wicked
princes in high places. It has always been like this for Jewish people, they
have always been persecuted and scattered and satan's attempts to destroy them
are and will be relentless until Messiah returns and destroys him.
But God will defend and protect Israel, and we need to keep
her in our prayers faithfully."
"First and
Foremost Israel Will not AND Cannot be Eliminated. These Countries have been
after Israel for Centuries AND Israel is still here. What is happening now is a
Repeat of the old Testament. We are in the END Times!. Everything Points to it
NOW. The Stage is being set for JESUS Second coming you don't know when, BUT
IT`S VERY CLOSE. Because of whats (sic) going on now."
And, finally, although there are many more, as imbecilic, this, which might be my favorite:
"This
should NOT even be a subject or a discussion!!!! Palestine was NEVER a
state!!!!!!!!!!! Israel belongs to the HEBREW to the Jewish people and the
rabble that settled here should go to the places they came form (sic) Arab
Saudia (sic), Egypt, Lebanon and Syria… READ the HISTORY!!!'
Where to start?
How about with the ludicrous assertion
that some supernatural sky being, (whose "creation" of the earth was
so poorly managed that the trees, dependent upon photosynthesis were "created"
before the Sun, which is, of course,
necessary for photosynthesis to work), ignored all the cradles of civilization in the
Americas, Asia and Africa and gave a promise to an Arab herdsman that would be
applicable to the entire world forever?
How about all the violence precipitated
by the descendants of this man on a journey from Egypt, which, by the way is unsubstantiated archeologically or in any
written record except the one recorded centuries later from oral history of
these same people?
How about the 3,000
(or 30,000) of their own kinsmen allegedly killed over a golden calf? How about
their genetic kinsmen who happened to be living in places like Jericho but had
to be killed because Abraham's clan claimed the same God who screwed up the
creation sequence had promised it to them?
Ignoring all
the blaring inconsistency and
brutal actions based on legend, let's address the
modern, as in the common era. The video deals with the issue of the borders
"agreed' upon in 1948 by the UN and since then, extended by Israel, the
State. Granting that Israeli statehood is a fact, and that they have had to defend
themselves from various neighbors several times, the borders are reasonable, in
my estimation, actually for reasons made clear in the video. It is the
commentary such as those snippets I posted at the top, which are so troublesome
to me.
Begin with the
first statement involving "no rational judgement being used here." This statement is made by a person who then
states that "Muslims are doing Satan's work," directed by "Evil princes in high places,"
but it'll be ok "When Messiah comes."
In retrospect, she's right - there is certainly no rational judgement
being applied here. She obviously
believes in a supernatural sky being who chose a tiny tribal group for dominion
over the entire world and anything required
to accomplish that is justified. This world view is so egotistical and insane
that it is almost impossible to believe, save that we are slapped in the face
by it every day.
Even odder is that many of Israel's strongest
supporters are its former greatest persecutors (more on that in a bit). The late
Christopher Hitchens summed it up
thusly, "I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its
sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in
mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether
one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me.” This seems to be the watchword for some of that
small Arab tribe's descendants. Of course there are those, I not among them, who would claim (and do so every Christmas in
music) that Messiah has come and they killed him. Those are the same persons who
claim that the Bible is the word of God, and yet ignore it when it says Jesus
would be back before the end of the first century, because reality has proven
that to be just another legend.
A close second
in the ignorance derby is this from the second snippet: ".... These Countries have been after
Israel for Centuries AND Israel is still here!" As Israel has only existed for 67 years, this
is demonstrably false. The rest of that selection, featuring all capital letters
every three or four words, is a rant about the "end times" because it's
been "going on for centuries" but this time , really, really no shit,
it's gonna happen!!
As for the last
garbled scream of ignorance....."This should NOT even be a subject or a
discussion!!!! Palestine was NEVER a state!!!!!!!!!!! Israel belongs to the
HEBREW to the Jewish people and the rabble that settled here should go to the
places they came form (sic) Arab Saudia (sic),..." Start with "Israel belongs to the Hebrew,
to the Jewish people, etc." I wonder if the writer is willing to extend
that same largesse to indigenous persons
elsewhere? Of course he isn't, because God likes the Hebrews best and they get
to claim Israel. God apparently doesn't
like Buddhists, Jains, Sihks, Hindus, Muslims, Wiccans, Animists, and, one
should suppose, especially Christians, since Christians have been the primary
persecutors of Jews since 315 AD.
The
"rabble that settled there" was there long before the Hebrews ever
came and stole it from them. I don't mean 1947-48, I'm talking about real
history - Archaeologists have unearthed
the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of
which dates back 11,000 years (9000 BCE), which means the Hebrews invaded and stole territory which had been
inhabited by other Semitic peoples for about 5500 years. Wouldn't it
have been better if God had just told the people who were there to leave, because
he'd promised it to his homies? No war, no Joshua and tumbling walls, no
bloodshed and genocide...not God's way, apparently, not enough senseless violence.
Jump ahead to
the early 4th century, Jews disperse to the far reaches of the Roman empire and
all over Europe and Western Asia. There they are systematically persecuted
(through the medieval into the modern period) by the selfsame Christians who today shout "end times, help Israel." Seems a
bit contradictory, no? The more
fundamental the Christian spirit (until very recently) the more anti-Semitic
the behavior. Muslims didn't kill Jews in Palestine during the Crusades, but Christians
slaughtered them by the score. Christians even killed Jews in Germany during the Crusades. Muslims and Jews fought side by side during WWII
while German Christians were exterminating them.
Without centuries of
institutional systematic anti-Semitic treatment of European Jews, there
might well have never been a Zionist movement in the 1800s. Without the holocaust (again, persecution of Jews
by nominal Christians while the world's foremost Christian, the Pope , looked
on) there would have been no flood of refugees to Palestine, already inhabited
by Arab tenants of richer Arab landowners.
Israel as a state
is simply another colonial attempt, following a war , one of whose aims was to
end colonialism, as stipulated in the Atlantic Charter and the Charter of the
United Nations.. Whether one thinks it justified or not, that's all it is.
Israel is Plymouth Plantation, and its Arab neighbors are Native Americans,
pushed off their land and told where they may live, as long as they behave.
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