Anti-semitism and anti-Zionism
August 10th, 2006 ~ Current events, Orthodox perspectiveIn chanting the paraklesis service last night, my attention was diverted by one verse. From the Hymns of Ascent: “Ye haters of Zion shall be shamed by the Lord; for like grass, by the fire shall ye be withered up.”
Ye haters of Zion …
Those who fit that description these days have a very different face than the psalmist would ever have thought. Fewer by far are the people around the world that don’t hate Zion right now. It’s very disturbing to see us all slip-sliding into something that — if defensible and reasonable to many — still doesn’t seem like it should find such a home in us, religiously or culturally.
There’s an absolute barrage of opinion out right now about who’s right and who’s wrong in the current war. In order to get to that place where rightness or wrongness can be determined, it seems to me that it’s necessary to eliminate history and reason for the sake of a good argument. Hard for me to say that Israel has no right to attack Hezbollah when Hezbollah has been attacking them repeatedly in every way they can, taking innocent lives and putting the Lebanese at risk for many years. Hard for me to say that Israel is right to attack when they’re taking 10 casualties — including many innocent men, women and children — in Lebanon to every one of theirs, and when they’re so well-armed that it seems impossible they couldn’t be fighting a “smarter” war (though I’m aware some might think that’s an oxymoron).
More surprising to me has been the cultural shift that has happened. There are two separate issues that concern me — one in the world and one in the Orthodox Church. I have to leave the latter aside for a moment — it’s the one I feel the most uncomfortable talking about. But if I start with the world at large, maybe my own perspective will make it obvious what my outlook is. (I don’t publish my thoughts here as some kind of argument one way or the other — this is one of those times when I’m using all the vast resources of the internet just to try to give myself a little clarity and make a record of what things stood with me at one point in time.) So here’s a small roundup of the issues that have been on my mind the most:
- Anti-Zionism — Many who don’t feel comfortable decrying Jews as Jews would say that they are for the Jews but against Zion. As Jewish talk-show host Dennis Prager writes here, that may be a rather untenable position:
One can argue that the modern state of Israel was founded at the expense of Arabs living in the geographic area known as Palestine (there was never a country or a nation called Palestine); but that in no way negates the indisputable fact that Zionism is an integral part of Judaism.
It’s not to say that Judaism having a need for Israel justifies everything they’ve done, any more than needing to find Israel on a map justifies Protestant support on strictly personal eschatological grounds (which I think concerns a lot of Orthodox more). Whether you think the foundation of the nation was right or wrong, it’s a historical fact at this point. The conclusion of the anti-Zionist would have to be that Israel should cease to exist, but that would either mean the planned and orderly displacement of millions of people and doling out of billions of dollars of property, goods and commerce or else just all-out genocide. The former may be preferred by the global set (though I’m sure they’d rather not propose any solution that sounds so much like a cleaned-up version of the Final Solution). The latter is preferred by Hezbollah and Israel’s many, many other hostile detractors around the world.
- Anti-Semitism — This is the elephant in the living room that everyone is trying to ignore. There’s a reason that Israel has been a country that was forced into existence by Westerners, to the continued outrage and dismay of Easterners. In the wake of World War II, it seemed that the Jews would never evade extermination if there wasn’t some land they could call their own. I can’t think of any other people so roundly despised by so many disparate cultures throughout history. From the Spanish Inquisition to the Russian pogroms to the Holocaust, they seem to be singled out as the obvious scapegoats whenever things aren’t going well. Often in recent days, I’ve been reminded of a lyric to one of Tom Lehrer’s usual tongue-in-cheek songs called “National Brotherhood Week“:
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.The line gets a scream of laughter from the audience, but in the 20 years since I first heard it — and possibly in the 41 years since he recorded it — it only turns out to be more true. Why in the world are the Jews so detested? Christians might be inclined to say that it was the natural result of the rise of Christianity, but if so, shouldn’t anti-Semitism have waned as Christianity became less and less of a cultural force in Europe in the last 50 years?
Michael Medved has an article on the subject that seems both honest and illuminating. Entitled simply “Why the world hates the Jews,” it examines the foundations of anti-Semitism among both the impassioned and the intellectual:
This central, primeval charge that arrogant Jews seek global dominance originates from three distinct historical factors:
1- The emphasis on the “Chosen People” concept in the Bible
2- The prominence and prosperity of Jews in most nations in which they’ve established significant communities, and
3- The startling successes of the State of Israel in the mere 60 years of its existence.
- Losing the left — This is by far my least concern, but just out of curiosity, what in the world happened to the political left’s support of Israel and the Jews? I’ve been waiting in vain for them to do what they love best — stick up for the most oppressed party, rant against bigotry wherever it raises its head, stake out the moral high ground for the people who most reflect their values and insist that America must move mountains to ensure their safety, proliferation and comfort. I’m not saying that viewpoint would have been correct, but it would have been consistent both with the left’s ideology and its history. Instead, from the U.N. to the mainstream media to the glitterati of intellectuals and anti-war celebrities, Israel is the understood bad guy. Did anyone else think it was bizarre that Steven Spielberg, who brought us “Schindler’s List” in 1993, came out last year with “Munich,” a movie that takes a sympathetic look at those that kidnapped and executed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics? In fact, even Jewish leadership gets caught up in the swell of current wisdom, according to one columnist:
Israeli leftists – first at the fringe and subsequently in its mainstream establishment – have accepted the view propagated by the international Left that Israel has no right to exist or to assert its sovereign rights as a Jewish state.
For goodness sake, you mean the one time we could actually use some hearts to bleed they’ve run dry? Why in the world does the left abandon them now? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the virulence and persistence both of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, but I admit I’m basically calling liberals hypocrites and cowards when I do that, and I may be being unfair. I just don’t know why the support dried up as much as it did. Some Orthodox have been saying that America is far too pro-Israel to be objective in this conflict, but I find myself wondering what America they’re talking about. The American right continues to see things that way and the American foreign policy continues to favor Israel as an ally. But those are two small slivers of support — the rest of the strong emotion favors everyone except Israel.
- The church connection — well, I left this one for last, but I really can’t avoid it altogether. The current situation in Lebanon is bringing out national interests that make it a little harder for me to know exactly where I’m supposed to be as a good Antiochian Orthodox Christian. I can’t see favoring one side only in the conflict as some way to show fidelity to my archdiocese; that sounds silly. And maybe — hopefully — I’m not being asked to do that. But what am I supposed to think when the Metropolitan issues a letter that lists only Israel’s atrocities (or propounded atrocities. As this article states, there may be reason to take the “Israel targeting ambulances” charge with a grain of salt.) without mentioning Hezbollah’s ongoing and well-documented terrorism? Or when the Antiochian Web-site posts a resolution that affirms “a statement deploring the killing of any human being,” but lists only Lebanese casualties in its death count, not Israeli? The July 25 letter and this resolution have unequivocal language condemning Israel’s use of force, but not a word condemning Hezbollah’s ongoing terrorist acts against Israel (and America, for that matter), nor its use of civilians as human shields, nor its placement of rockets and rocket launchers in homes and non-military locations (thus ensuring a high mortality rate of innocents).
I don’t have ties to any of the countries caught up in this decades-long debate, and I don’t have family living there. And I have no doubt that before the left starting slanting away from Zionism, I likely was only hearing one side of the story. But for Syrian Christians now to be supportive of Hezbollah (article here) does nothing to correct the errors of the past. I much prefer this OCA arch-priest’s ability to express concern with the regional changes while asserting the humanity of each side:
The violence in the Middle East is an urgent and alarming reality, with no just resolution in sight. It is not right that the citizens of Israel, both Jewish and Palestinian, are under threat of bombardment and terrorist attacks. It is not right that the people of Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority are under threat of air strikes. When violence is directed against Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, the innocent suffer. When violence is directed against militants and extremists by Israel, the innocent suffer.
It is obvious that offering political solutions or strategies is usually not in the competence of churches and religious communities. It is in our competence, however, to insist on the value of human life, on the importance of mercy and compassion, on the urgent need to see the “other” as a fellow human being. In other words, it is the task of churches and religious communities to confront hatred and prejudice, to offer insistently the insight that the suffering of the “other” is not something to rejoice over, but something to grieve over.
Though the article may seem inconclusive compared to the other condemnations on “Directions in Orthodoxy’s” newspage right now, I prefer someone who acknowledges the difficulties that exist to someone who takes my allegiance to nationalism for granted.
In the end, looking for a little common sense and a bit of the Christian wisdom that transcends temporal concerns has left me feeling like a woman without a country. I can’t trust the mainstream reporting, because it’s too one-sided. I can’t hang out endlessly in alternative media outlets like talk radio and the right blogosphere, because they’re too one-sided. And it’s starting to seem that I can’t trust the talking points in my own church, because (unless I’m totally missing something) they’re too one-sided.
A woman without a country. Maybe feeling like that is another reason I can’t utterly forget the sad cries of God’s once-chosen people whose sorrow we sing at the beginning of Lent:
By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it. …
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget its skill
If I do not remember you,
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth —
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy. (Ps. 137: 1-2, 6)
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August 10th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
An excellent post Grace. I appreciate you honesty and questioning in this upside-down time in which we are living. When you state that you “can’t trust the mainstream reporting, because it’s too one-sided. I can’t hang out endlessly in alternative media outlets like talk radio and the right blogosphere, because they’re too one-sided. And it’s starting to seem that I can’t trust the talking points in my own church, because (unless I’m totally missing something) they’re too one-sided.”, I think you are speaking for a great many people, churched and uncurched, liberal and conservative, at what information to believe and hold on to. For myself that is where my faith comes in. I don’t recall where the quote came from but I try to “read with the newspaper (internet, radio, television) in one hand and my bible in the other” and always with lots of prayer.
In reading over my comment I realize that I am not addressing your thoughts on Anti-semitism and anti-Zionism so I will have to return and re-visit that aspect of your post.
Blessings to you and yours…
August 10th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
No need to feel like you have to go over things point by point if you don’t want to. As you can probably tell, I tend to just start in and see where things take me. Sometimes when it’s over and I realize I’ve filled four screens, I feel like I’m asking an awful lot of people.
But it’s a GREAT relief to hear that I might not be the only one feeling a mite abandoned these days.
August 10th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
It is hard because we have a natural tendancy (and I certainly fall into this myself as well) to paint one side as “right” and one side as “wrong” when in my humble (and very well could be wrong) opinion, there is plenty of blame to go around, and all sides have made bad decisions, and all sides have made good decisions, and certainly most of the people who have died have been caught in the middle.
Lord have Mercy.
August 10th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
See, there you’ve boiled down my four-screens-ful into a few sentences. I think the tendency in the “global community” environment is for everyone to feel like they can tell everyone else how to run their country. Certainly outsiders can bring some objectivity, but we lack context and we get impatient with gray areas. We have this tendency to want to draw simple lines — “Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Okay, Right People get what they want. Wrong People have to apologize and promist never to do it again! Problem solved!”
August 10th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
We have this tendency to want to draw simple lines — “Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Okay, Right People get what they want. Wrong People have to apologize and promist never to do it again! Problem solved!”
That’s it exactly. I’ve been contemplating a lot lately context and how much good contextual understanding is needed. And, sadly missing.
However, it’d be nice if it was that easy, kind of McLaughlinish “Wrong. The Correct answer is…”
Sigh.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:05 am
OK, I have one simplistic question. It’s not who’s right and who’s wrong; that’s unacceptably simplistic. It’s this: Imagine the world in five years under two scenarios: the Israelis win and Hezbollah wins. Which world would you prefer?
Hezbollah is holding civilians hostage; its fighters are masquerading as civilians; it’s manufacturing evidence of civilian atrocities at Israeli hands even while it deliberately targets Israeli cities. At the same time, Israelis are held accountable for not fighting this war with one hand tied behind their backs. But Israel’s survival is a real question, and Iran’s ascendancy is a real possibility. These Middle Eastern Christians who think they’ll fare better in a Middle East managed by Iran’s mullahs than in one with a functioning Israeli state are either victims of Stockholm syndrome or otherwise deluded.
The death of the innocent is a matter of pathos, no matter which side the innocent is on. But sometimes to delay war is to make it bigger and to make its outcome even more uncertain. Consider the difference between the few thousand who would probably have died if the Germans had been stopped at the Maginot line in the 1930s and the millions who eventually died stopping them after they took over Czechoslavakia, Poland, Austria, enlisted the Italians and the Japanese, murdered millions of Jews, attacked the Soviets and the Brits . . . . What might have been is a matter of idle speculation, but by the time the Allies countered the Axis, the outcome was in doubt.
The outcome of this war is coming to be in doubt now, and a lot of people haven’t stopped to imagine a radicalized Middle East directing governments in Eurabia, taking over the decimated former Soviet Union, and beginning the process of taking over American cities that has worked so well in Europe.
August 11th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
One thing to remember is that this kind of fighting in the Middle East has been passed down generationally for hundreds and hundreds of years. This fighting and killing is no new problem, nor has it really worsened over time. Each side just has bigger and newer toys—ahhhh the illusions of progress: technological advances and medical discoveries. Sometimes all this “progression” can cause good, but sometimes it just contributes to the disease, creating an even bigger monster. But more than that, the media plays an integral role in spreading “news” almost instantaneously around the world, giving all the world crisis’, disasters, and dramas, global expansion. And the great thing about this, is all this global “exposure” can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home: sitting on the couch in front of the tube, picking up the paper and reading it over a cup of coffee, driving into work and listening to the radio, searching the Internet for a recipe for dinner—it’s EVERYWHERE. Conflict gives the media something to do. The media thrives on conflict, blood, killing, war, sex, crime, drugs, pornography—anything and everything that pollutes the human mind and distorts our perception of “normalacy” and reality.
The sad state of things, I think, is that I don’t think there really is an answer to this war and all the killing. No democracy or institution or law or consequence can change the human heart. You grow up in a certain culture and that is what is normal to you. Some people know no differently. But destroying one terrorist group doesn’t solve the problem. It might temporarily, but there will inevitably always be another group of people that will step up to the plate and be the “heros” and accept their positions of “dignity” and fill the spots of those that were killed prior to them. It’s not about ridding the world of terrorist groups, it’s about changing the hearts of people. And that is one task that a president of any country cannot do on his own, and possibly cannot be done at all.
It makes me think of how the Jews wanted the Messiah that was promised to them. Then He came, and they did not recognize Him. They wanted Him but they’re hearts were not ready. We might want peace in the Middle East, Africa, Korea, or anywhere, and those places might want it for themselves too, but it’s one thing to want it, another thing to do it, and whether or not it sticks is dependent upon whether your heart is ready for the change.
And in the meantime, we as Christians know that killing is not the answer. Christ did not come to “teach people lessons”–at least not the lessons of vengeance, revenge and hatred. He came to bring love. He came to forgive. And He came to save. Our responsibility then is to pray for the state of mankind–WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN–whether you are Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Atheist, whatever. We are all His children. We must continue to pray that the Lord have mercy on us all…
O God, our help and assistance, who art just and merciful, and who heareth the supplications of thy people; look down upon us, miserable sinners, have mercy upon us, and deliver us from this trouble that besets us, for which, we know, we are deservedly suffering. We acknowledge and believe, O Lord, that all trials of this life are given for our chastisement, when we drift away from thee, and disobey thy commandments; deal not with us after our sins, but according to thy bountiful mercies, for we are the work of thy hands, and thou knowest our weaknesses. Grant us, we beseech thee, thy divine helping grace, and endow us with patience and strength to endure our tribulations with complete submission to thy Will. Thou knowest our misery and suffering and to thee, our only hope and refuge, we flee for relief and comfort; trusting to thine infinite love and compassion, that in due time, when thou knowest best, thou wilt deliver us from this trouble, and turn our distress into comfort, when we shall rejoice in thy mercy, and exalt and praise thy Holy Name, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
August 11th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Jan,
That was so clear-headed and well-put that I really wish I’d said it. I think that part of the reason that so many people insist on turning a blind eye to the absolutely horrific tactics of Hezbollah and other radical Islamic factions is because they really *can’t* imagine that they would ever succeed. I get the impression that the reason the whole world asks Israel to fight “with one hand tied behind its back” is that’s somehow the only way that it’s “fair” to the poor Arab countries.
That’s the problem I often have with people who are obsessed with fairness. They’re the last ones to realize that there are a lot of times when the only way to make things more fair for one is by making them less fair for another.
August 12th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Jamie,
I agree that it’s important not to confuse my judgment with God’s. Mine is clouded and limited; His is perfect and omniscient. And given that we’re all a half world away, it’s also important to realize that — as you say — the reports you get are probably riddled with errors.
But I’d probably disagree that the picture being hazy means that there isn’t a picture at all. And just as it would be a bad thing to make too much out of unclear facts, it seems like a bad thing to ignore known facts or pretend that there’s a balance where there isn’t one. In Hezbollah, we have a terrorist organization that
To say that Israel and Hezbollah are equivalent is just an exercise in denial. BUT, if you did say it, you still wouldn’t have arrived at the viewpoint that prompted me to write all this, which is the decided preferance for Hezbollah over Israel.
I don’t say that our job as ordinary citizens and mere Christians our job is easy. But there’s a difference between being judgmental and using judgment. Doing the former is a sin, but suspending the latter will keep us from making the most reasoned decisions we can and arriving at any sensible resolution.
August 12th, 2006 at 8:20 am
I think Michael Medved makes an excellent point regarding why the Jews are hated. His perspective, however, does not take into account the spiritual side of reality. Satan hates the Jews. It was the Jews who God called as a nation to represent Himself. It was the Jews who brought to us the Old Testament Saints. It was the Jews who wrote and delivered the Holy Scriptures to the world and exposed the unseen reality of Satan’s ultimate defeat. And it was the Jews who delivered to us our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who crushed the head of the serpent and disarmed the powers & authorities making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
The Jews are a testimony to God’s faithfulness and reality. And Satan continues to get his “pound of flesh” for all the grief they have caused him. So, he continually stirs up trouble and incites the world against them.
They certainly aren’t innocent and we can’t simply write off everything they do just because they are the Jews, but because of the overwhelming negative public opinion of them, I think we hear only the bad stuff, which of course incites more negative public opinion.
So, even though I think Michael is correct form a natural standpoint, I believe there is more to it than what we can see naturally. Even though the Church is now the new Israel, the natural Jews are still on God’s heart, and He will fulfill his promises to them as His Word has declared.
August 12th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Thank you for those words. They’re a balm to my soul in all this. If we Orthodox acknowledge that there is mystery in the sacraments, the icons, the liturgy — in short, in physical things that God makes sacred by the work of the Holy Spirit — I can’t understand why the Orthodox would deny that there is any mystery left in the people and place that gave us David, Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, Jonah and the Theotokos.
But you’re right — they suffer in a way that seems all out of proportion. I think everyone can sympathize with Tevye’s words in “Fiddler on the Roof”: “We know we’re Your chosen people, but can’t You choose someone else for a while?”
August 12th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Grace — I am new to your site, coming across it while looking up St. Mary of Egypt, finding your church and blog. I am a Roman Catholic teacher living in Virginia. I have a couple of comments, not nearly as deep or insightful as the ones I have previously read.
First, regarding the article by the priest that states that we must see in each other a common humanity and value in life: in reading more and more about the history of Islamic extremism, sometimes called Islamism, I have come to realize that we do not as Christians or Jews, share with them common values of human decency. As I watched the news coverage from Heathrow airport, I was struck by the women in Islamic dress waiting to board planes with their children. The extremists are willing to sacrifice them because they believe that they will immediately enter Paradise. We are facing a foe who does not hold human life and freedom in the same esteem as we do. I fail to see how we can have a fruitful dialogue with the extremists.
Islamism is a political movement that seeks religious purity, much as the Nazis sought racial purity. It is the driving force in much of the religious violence across the continents, seeking to bring about a world governed under Islamic rule. Remember, I am not speaking of all followers of Islam, but the extremists who can be traced back to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1900s. However, I wonder when religious Muslims who abhor the violence perpetrated in the name of Allah and under the banner of Islam will wake up to what is happening. There are over a billion Muslims in the world — by far outnumbering the extremists. But their silence is deafening. I do not believe that anything can be changed by non-Muslims. Pressure and outrage must come from their community and clerics, and be directed at the Imams who are fomenting hatred and who will without hesitation sacrifice innocent life.
Concerning the material you are receiving from your religious leadership, I share with you the grief and sadness that springs from seeing your Metropolitan’s nationalistic position take precedence over his Christian principles. It is equally disturbing for me to read of Syrian Catholics cheer Hezbollah. It seems that ancient hatreds trump religion. How can we on one hand read the ancient Scriptures given to us by God through the Jewish people, and then curse them on the other? Jesus was born and died a Jew. I feel sorry for those who have lost their lives in Lebanon, but their leaders have allowed the nation to be a shelter for Hezbollah for years. May God have mercy on them. I grieve for the Israelis and their losses. They have not always done what is right, but in giving back so much of their land, they have made themselves vulnerable to attack.
I pray that another Holocaust does not occur. I ask God to also raise up leaders in the Islamic community who will confront the Evil that has taken leadership of their religion and endangers all of humankind.
August 12th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Barbara,
Welcome. Very sobering thoughts to contemplate. Let’s hope that some of the sea changes begin to occur inside of Islam and those who have a shared history with these radical fringes. It seems that all that the terrorist faction of Islam can think of with any voices for changes that come from the West (and DEFINITELY those that might come from Israel) is to stick their fingers in their ears and bide their time waiting for a chance for a sneak attack to silence the criticism.
And waiting for those who thought that appeasement might work to wake up is getting a little nerve-wracking as well.
As you say, it’s hard to know where this might end.
August 13th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Grace:
I share your troubled view of things. At the request on the Antiochian website, I did make a gift to the IOCC. They’re asking for $500,000. I felt like this was a drop in the bucket…very nominal. And as a newcomer, I gave nominally. Yet I also felt that y’know, the Israeli’s are suffering, too, and I ought to give there as well to even things out. I see no good side in this, but I also see the Israeli’s in more of a fight for survival after Iranian’s pro-nuclear president vowed to wipe them off the map…well before this present struggle started. Have I made the counterbalancing gift yet? No. The pro-Israeli lobbyists are endeavoring to raise something like $500 million. Wow. I’m sure they’ll get it, too. I don’t know how they intend to use it, either.
But as a newbie, it does trouble me about the imbalance in the news. I do know that if you check out the goarch.org website, there is something that says the Ecumenical Patriarch officially buried the hatchet with between Orthodox and Hebrews in the 17th century….just a few 100 years ahead of Rome. So there is more neutral territory here than perhaps seems in our jurisdiction. Frankly, especially in view of AGAIN’s recent issue on jurisdictionalism, one wonders whether in this case the whole of jurisdictionalism isn’t part of the problem (again) as I doubt that a unified Orthodox church would have felt itself quite so vulnerable to pressures in this way. I would have rather left out all the politics and picking of sides….a matter complicated by the way that “cease fires” have been used as a tactics to the advantage of Hezbollah and their like for years to consolidate and strengthen any ground taken, or avoid the inevitable losses that follow-on to their oft-initiated forrays as the Israeli’s respond. So I find the whole a very very tricky matter to navigate, but I am glad that you did.
There needs to be a way for the Orthodox church to present a holy case for the protection of captives, the rescue of children and wounded and old/infirm, and prayer for peace. Seems this should be untainted by the “sides” to the conflict. And separately, there needs to be a call by the Church for both the Israelis and the Islamists to respect the peace of the non-combatants. I don’t know that the Christians are not involved in this struggle or whether they have made common cause with one side or the other, or both. Certainly there is a place to call for respect of the rights of Christians to worship in both Lebanon and Israel.
As to an ending….there is only an end to the present episode and not to the whole.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
James the T.,
It’s been very vindicating to find out that I wasn’t the only one who was having a problem with these things. I would hope that no one is saying that navigating these shark-filled waters is easy. A lot of times there’s NO really perfect move to make, just the one that causes the least amount of harm.
I have the feeling that part of what’s fueling the emotion from those whose ancestral home (or sometimes family or extended family) is in this region is that there is an ancient feud between Arabs and Jews that New Worlders just can’t understand. We definitely have our history of bad racial relations, treatment of the Amer-Indians and all that, but this isn’t the same. We didn’t view those people as someone that we would be at war with until the end of time (nor do I think that thought — or think — that about us, but I guess I don’t know for sure). It’s a strange thing to have (capital ‘e’) Enemies in that way, and I think there’s something that just can’t be described. I think it seems a little barbaric to us, but Western ways just seem newfangled and irrelevant to these cultures, it seems.
I like the idea of the counterbalancing donation. I didn’t read that issue of Again — wish I had.
August 13th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
JamesT:
Additional thought: Israel looking for $500K in donations doesn’t seem right to me either. It’s for certain that Lebanon is taking vastly more casualties and damage than Israel. I’m not saying that Israel couldn’t find a good use for that money, but Lebanon would probably need it a lot more … IF you could donate that amount of money and not have it go to fund Hezbollah. But that’s probably impossible.
August 14th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Grace:
Okay. Got off my duff. Did the offsetting gift. The issue is a bit different I guess: it’s clear the Israelis after 50 years are accustomed to warfare and in-coming strikes as a way of life. If you check out the website (UJA.ORG) you’ll note the emphasis on bomb shelters….something Americans forsook in the 1950’s (except for the committed Y2K-ers). But note also that one thing overlooked in this is the tendency for indiscriminant attacks by the Hez (title is just too long for this dude to keep typing), while the Israeli’s are expected to pinpoint their response. My point in stating the obvious is that surely some of the suffering in Israel is by Arab Israelis…..not that the Hez would care.
Here’s the material off the UJA.ORG site:
“Is there a fundraising goal?”
“It is costing JDC and JAFI some $50 million monthly to provide this vital support. It will cost an estimated $250 million monthly in addition once hostilities cease to rebuild the economy, infrastructure, and provide the necessary programs. Because the needs are evolving as the situation evolves, we are aiming to raise a floor, not a ceiling, of $300 million, but likely much more will be needed.”
“Do donations go only to Jews?”
“No: we are helping all vulnerable populations, including Israeli Arabs, Druze and Jews.”
There’s more, but this does give a start to understanding that IOCC’s $500,000 is a mere droplet in the water molecule of an ocean. A case of low expectations? I don’t know. I do know that solely replacing the bridge bombed out this weekend would cost many, many millions in the USA. And the cost of rebuilding in Iraq is probably a good measure of the actual costs in Lebanon as well.