It is good to remind ourselves that the Christian right believes that the Second Coming of Christ will be ushered in by a war in that region of the world in which the Eastern Mediterranean meets Western Asia, which we often call the Middle East.
The present state of Israel was planted in this region by European religious colonists based on an ideology, namely that Jews needed a state of their own because non Jews were hopelessly Anti Jewish, and that God had given this land to their religious ancestors. This movement called Zionism had originated in a Europe in the nineteenth century during a period in which national states were tapping into the anti-human ideologies of nationalism and racism in order to enlist their peoples for imperial adventures. Almost two millennia of Christian anti Jewish teaching fed into the new racism. As the nationalism and racism of the Europeans was being intensified, Jews began to migrate to the Americas in large numbers. The Zionist movement recruited smaller numbers to go to Palestine and plant small colonies among the mostly Arab indigenous population. The area was ruled by foreign empires, the Turks before World War One, and the British after that war.
The genocidal violence experienced by European Jewry before and during World War Two led by Germany's Nazis but supported by far too many Europeans and Americans led to the consolidation of Zionism among the Jewish people's of the world and to their support for an violent insurgency to create a Zionist State on the Eastern Mediterranean. The British labeled the irregulars who led the insurgency terrorists.
What I know most deeply about Unitarian Universalism I learned in Sunday School, and what I learned includes a vision of a human community. Since I was a child I have understood that nationalism and racism are ideologies that are anathema to the core values of religious liberalism. We are called to witness to that human beings can live in peace and understanding, transcending ideologies that pit one people against another.
The problem with Zionism as a response to the racism and nationalism of the European Christians was that it nurtured a racist and nationalist world view among the Jews. The state of Israel conceives itself as an exclusive Jewish State with a theological mandate to occupy and clear the land for Jews. The Palestinians (whose ancestors were the people of the Bible, who became both Moslems and Christians, who trace their families back to the ancient people of this land who were once the Canaanites, Hebrews, and Samaritans) were replaced by force by Europeans. The state of Israel is a European type state, driven by modernist technologies and guided by a world view that envisions all traditional economies to be primitive because subsistence and living close to nature can't be converted into cash. This is not the way of life or the world view of the ancient Hebrews. The Biblical mandate is a convenient hook to claim land, but it is not taken seriously as a spiritual guide.
The opposition movement that arose among the Palestinians also turned to racism and violence. Zionism is a response to European racism and nationalism. In turn, Zionists advocate an ideology that mobilizes people based on fundamentalist religion and narrow racial nationalism. The Islamic opposition mobilize the fight against the Zionists on the basis of fundamentalism and racial nationalism. In our country the Christian right chose to support Israel, in order to usher in the end of the world. The secular liberals chose to support Israel out of guilt for the holocaust. The secular conservatives chose to support Israel because the Israelis are part of the multinational corporate community. I pray that religious liberals might refrain from joining with these supporters of nationalism and violence, instead we should witness to our own values. I pray that we can contribute to breaking the spiral of reactive ideologies based on racism, nationalism and violence.
Terrorism is a word that means using force and violence against civilians in order to weaken their allegiance to the political power. A terrorist is a terrorist whether or not s/he wears is a member of a cult, a opposition political party or a state. The United States and Israel may wish to describe their opponents as terrorists, but by using force and violence against civilians to intimadate and coerce they forfeit the moral high ground.
The only way to overcome terrorism is create an international consensus to stop the use of force and violence against civilians. In order to overcome anti Jewish racism we must also overcome anti Arab racism and vice versa. There will be no winners in a struggle of one Racist Nationalism against another Racist Nationalism. No short term foreign policy objectives can justify leaving our religious liberalism in our inner most closet while we go into the world and play politics. As religious liberals it is time to come out and announce that the Apocalypse has come, and the Peace that we seek is among us and within us, but we must give it voice. The Messiah will not be running for election in 2008, we can't hope that some Democrat or Republican will lead us to a just peace in the "Middle East" without our voices being raised. We have soul work to do. Let us overcome the notion that we can find peace through violence, or establish justice through gaining power over others.
Let me preface my comments by stating that I am Libertarian conservative by politics, and a Pagan UU. I think your arguments are internally flawed. To begin with, the Jewish claim to Israel is not just religious or Biblical- do you deny that Jerusalem was a Jewish city, or Israel a Jewish state in historical fact, not just religious myth?Why do you consider them "Europeans", and not displaced israelis? Is it their fault they were driven from their land? Why should Palestinians have the right of return if Jews do not?
Perhaps peace cannot be found through violence- but survival can. Or do you argue that had the Jews used non-violent persuasion in 1948, 1967, and 1973 that their attackers would have seen the error of their ways and withdrawn?
As to civilian attacks, the governments of Lebanon and and Syria are permitting Hizbollah to launch missiles against Israel from civilian twons and villages, sometimes setting up the launchers in village squares. Do you formally declare that anyone using human shields must be considered immune to attack? If that's the official position, what's to prevent Hizbollah from strapping women and children to their tanks and rolling into Tel Aviv? If that's to be the position of all religiously liberal people, can you name one nation on Earth that does NOT fit the label "terrorist"?
You allow yourself to support one form of organized violence against another, both of which care not one wit for civilians.
The Zionist movement who colonized Palestine have less claim to the land than Saxons in Germany have to England...the Palestineans who have lived there for three thousand years have a land claim based on continuous cultivation. The Jews who lived as peasants in Palestine became Christians and Moslems
My word..
...how can you discuss this history without mentioning the Ottoman Empire...
This is the closing act on WWI...all of these countries are artificial... none have any legitmacy other that what was given them in 1919 when the lines were basically drawn.
People So Bold did mention the Ottaman Empire, aka the Turks.
Bill- quite true; we're reaping what the European colonialists sowed.
Clyde- you did not address the issue of what to do when the nation on your border permits Hizbollah to put its command and control centers and armories in deep bunkers below apartment complexes, and rocket launchers in village squares. Given that Lebanon will not eject them, is the only option to accept whatever Hizbollah launches without reply? Would you grant Hizbollah immunity from attack? Is liberal religion a suicide pact?
Israel by using force and violence created opponents that use force and violence.
Yet, Joel want to reduce the question to a tactical question....what to do the Israelis do with the mess that the Israelis created.
1) Strenghten the Lebanese state.
2) Since the Israelis have been kidnapping Palestineans and imprisoning them, they have no high moral ground when one of their soldiers is kidnapped....so one acts like a responsible state and engages in prisoner exchange...only the US and Isrealis find the macho posture attractive...I can kidnap your militants but you can't kidnap mine..
3. and finally negotiate and end to violence from the high moral ground. Bombing Christians and Sunni Moslems in Lebanon only turns the whole country against Israel and further isolates this nation that few people in the world take seriously anymore.
You've tackled an extraordinarily involved problem with a great deal of moral clairity. Unfortunately, I don't think moral clarity is going to guide policy on this issue any time soon. So what do you see as a first, practical step towards an eventual moral solution to this problem?