Leftist Christians vs. the Jewish State

on October 11, 2012

Image

By Mark Tooley

As much of the Middle East tilts towards or implodes into Islamist rule, the ever feckless Religious Left in America has organized an ecumenical appeal asking the U.S. Congress to reduce U.S. aid for Israel.  After all, it is pro-America, democratic Israel that is the primary threat to peace and stability in the Middle East.

Of course, the church potentates opened their recent letter to Congress with the usual claim to evenhanded neutrality. “We recognize that each party—Israeli and Palestinian—bears responsibilities for its actions and we therefore continue to stand against all violence regardless of its source,” they supinely insisted. How nice. But of course their only policy recommendation is to punish Israel.

Read more here.

  1. Comment by Dan Trabue on October 11, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    The “leftist Christians” want to “punish Israel,” how, exactly? By treating both sides the same? By not giving weapons to Israel OR Palestine, that is seen as “punishment…”?

    Where I come from, treating folk equally and not providing weapons to either side is called treating folks equally, not “punishment.”

    Strange.

  2. Comment by dover1952 on October 11, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    Dan. The problem is that these guys read the Bible in such a way that they believe God gave the land of Israel to the Hebrews forever. They conveniently forget that that Jesus left their house unto them desolate and said that they would be scattered away, which came to pass. It does not say how long they will be scattered. It does not say that they cannot come back and then be scattered again. It all comes down to how you read and understand the Bible–and people do that in many different ways.

  3. Comment by Dan Trabue on October 11, 2012 at 8:45 pm

    I get that. Disagree with their hunches and hermeneutics, but I get it.

    What I don’t get is saying that our policy “punishes” Israel because we treat them the same. That’s just not a reasonable statement, so far as I can see.

    You could make the case that we ought to treat Israel DIFFERENT and that there’s reason, in essence, to punish Palestine by giving Israel weapons. But not giving Israel weapons is not a punishment, in any reasonable sense that I can see.

  4. Comment by dover1952 on October 12, 2012 at 1:53 am

    Dan. They believe that a refusal to give weapons to Israel is the same as withdrawing support for Israel.

    In my opinion, there will never be peace in the Middle East. All you have to do is look at the history of the region going back thousands of years—wars, misery, and death. Making it worse are the two belief systems. The Jews think God gave them the land forever. The other side believes that once a piece of land becomes inhabited primarily by Muslims, it becomes Moslem land forever by the will of God. If Muslims abandon it for 7,000 years, it does not matter. It is Muslim land forever and whoever is sitting on it has no right to be there. This sort of thing is insurmountable on both sides.

    Moreover, the Israelis see peace as a threat to national security. A peace treaty makes a man want to breathe a sigh of relief and retire for relaxation under his fig tree. Relaxation under the fig tree leads to complacency. Complacency leads to waking up one morning and finding your nation gone. The israelis believe that eternal vigilance is the price of keeping the Israeli state, but they do not see the vigilance in the same light as Americans. Rather, for them, vigilance is spending every second (24/7) hyped up on caffeine, suffused with anxiety, muscles always tense, and the giant bugs on Starship Troopers are coming through all five doors at any second. Nothing less than that will ever keep Israel free, and the natural condition of relaxation that comes with any peace treaty would be incompatible and unworkable with the need to maintain that constant state of readiness for war. Thus, the Israelis are doomed to never be at peace. In fact, one could argue that this condition of never being at peace or being able to be at peace is part of the punishment dealt to them—part of the package of being left with a house that is desolate.

    That said. I have always been a supporter of Israel.

The work of IRD is made possible by your generous contributions.

Receive expert analysis in your inbox.