Month: April 2024

The goldilocks zone between genocidal maniacs and assassins

eejoseph

We have a very good idea of how many official entities in the Middle East want to see the demise of the State of Israel and that gives us an idea of how many armed entities are loath to have a war with Israel.   A dispassionate observer might be tempted to say that the terrorists, the freedom fighters, and the legitimate representatives of contenders are wearing the stripes of a cowardly lion.

Do not keep telling the oppressed to calm down

The kingdom of Israel was once a celebrated vineyard. Divine expectations were high, and people, including heads of state, came to see the wonder of Israel, but a few hundred years after Solomon’s stellar rise, Israel was clearly just a story, a mere proverb.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Isaiah 5:7

The slide into idolatry and the rebellion against the house of David began in the reign of Solomon’s successor.  Suicide bombers began in the early years of ancient Israel.  Both Iran and Israel have books documenting the unmistakeable hand of God. So please give us a break about democracy in Israel, about humanitarian conventions in the Arab world, about outrage over international violence in the G7, and let all nations pull their pants down and show the world their private shame and willing impotence.

They do not know what justice looks like

It is not likely that a modern nation of any political stripe does not know what justice looks like.  Playing with that lie will entrench xenophobia and privilege in some places, and the members of the United Nations had better make sure that its resolutions are not simply wheel spinning cowardice and selfishness.

Iran, Qatar, Russia, the United States all know what manipulating the world of the poor looks like, but only Israel knows what it is to have an approved world power breathing down its neck.  The Jewish people had better not be pretending that Iranians and Jewish people were never friends.  What am I saying?  Are not the most dramatic happenings in Jewish life due to interactions with Babylonians (ancient Iraqis), Persians (ancient Iranians), Greeks (the Seleucid rulers of Palestine and the Maccabean wars), and the Romans? How do we explain the twice destroyed temple and the Dome of the Rock mosque? Many westerners want to take sides in the most exacerbated and exploited family feud without knowing the facts. A large segment of Black people want to insert themselves into the Palestinan problem and the aspirations of Jews and Arabs. Go ahead! Jump right in and singe your feathers! Israel is a mere parable, not a leader of revelation or governance. There is no difference between Arab and Israeli tribalism. Both have been spreading forth bloody hands, and their prayers cannot penetrate the artifical dome over their heads. Maybe it is not the foreign influences alone that made the sons of Israel a byword: let’s give tribalism and bad leadership some credit.

It ought to render you sleepless

eejoseph, , , ,

It does not occur to all the supremely endowed colonial and religious movements that it is a crime and utterly immoral to occupy land in God’s name, disenfranchise any part of the population, slander foreigners,  allow the abuse of  children, bully a superpower to fund terrorism, to flip the terrorist label over onto people who resist an illegal occupation and a crime to use a veto to shield criminals from accountability at the United Nations.

Conveniently there’s no 11th commandment that outlaws racism and bigotry

Being strictly textual, the United States and Israel can do whatever works to affirm their right to kneel on the necks of citizens and loudly proclaim the right to affirm themselves as law and order reformers.  What a load of hogwash!  That Israel has violated the rules of war and occupation in plain sight for seven decades does not give people pause is not surprising.  Perhaps people are pausing now that Israel is having to face the music over its superior defence systems, open discrimination,  corrupt leadership, and excessive sectarianism.  There may well be a political party for every territorial and theological interest.  The Holy Land is one of the last places one would expect to find violations of both human rights and humanitarian conventions. What would Moses say, if anything?

God’s law is not shelter from philanthropy and the pursuit of justice

Listen carefully and you will hear certain groups placing themselves beyond the reach of international law as if there was no single human race, no single planet of which we are caretakers.  We Christians can be charged with pie-in-the-sky fantasies but you will not find us denying our humanity, because in the final verdict of the divine tribunal every person relies on divine mercy, and many religious people will be decisively silenced by the conscientious conduct of non-religious people getting God’s approval. Justice for religious people will always be tainted by tribalism and self-interest.

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

John 5:45

Gratefully our passions are in check when we see opportunites to look down our noses at our fellow-citizens. We are not interested in indicting, condemning and destroying anyone. We are certain that Christ and Moses part ways in this arena. Injustice can be disguised as righteous indignation but God is neither mocked nor deceived,