israel

The State of Israel

Israel is a country with problems, and not all of them involve Palestinian suicide bombers. They are in the position of being an ancient nation with a young country. More than perhaps any other people on earth they have also been forced as of late to choose between religion and survival. It is a problem that the rest of the Western World should take an interest in for, though our secular ideals may come from the Greeks, the roots of our religious ideals are all in the nation of Israel. Practically all religious people in the west owe a little to the people of Israel and to their history as a nation of priests, keeping alive the worship of the one and only God. It is infinitely tragic that many in Israel, and the Jewish community around the world, have given up their religion, the very thing which has caused them to survive being one of the most persecuted nations in history.

Naturally, as a Christian, I see it as a great tragedy that the masses of Israelites did not embrace their Messiah when He came to redeem them. However, I will also always have a special place in my heart for Jewish culture due to my own religious origins. Before I "came home" to the Catholic Church I had been raised in the Church of God 7th Day, which, admittedly more so in times past, put great emphasis on the Old Testament and Jewish traditions such as clean and unclean and the Saturday Sabbath from evening to evening. Due to this, I think some people growing up mistakenly thought I was Jewish myself.
It is from the ancient Kingdom of Israel that we inherited the ideas of legitimacy, that there is one priesthood, one true belief and even one sacred royal house with the right to rule all others. It was a

firm belief of the ancient Israelites that the House of David was not meant to rule Israel alone, but was intended to one day rule over the whole world with justice and piety. In the days of the "glory of Solomon" it is not hard to see how many people could believe in this whole-heartedly. However, Israel was again and again struck down at the peak of success, which itself points to another mark of merit for the Jewish people: in spite of priding themselves on being "God's Chosen People", they must be the greatest nation in the world for keeping such complete records of all of their faults and failures. When mistakes were made they were always in the record for future generations to learn from.
          Lately, much has been made about the Jewish leaders who, when Jesus was on trial and condemned to be crucified, called out to Pilate, "Let his blood be on us and on our children". Since I believe in the Gospels, I accept that this was said, but the entire life as well as death of Jesus Himself was a lesson that God does not put curses on anyone, but that all can be saved and that God is unwilling that any should perish. Perhaps not as much would have been made of this were it not for the fact that only a short time later Rome re-conquered Israel and totally destroyed the Temple. The ensuing persecution of Jews over the centuries that followed makes it completely understandable that so many would want to reclaim Palestine and establish a Jewish state, though given subsequent events, one can hardly imagine that Israel was once thought of as being established as a haven against anti-Semitism.
          Today, Israel is in great peril, and given the attitudes of extremists on both sides, I fear will remain so as long as current attitudes exist. With fanatics on one side determined to kill every Jew and wipe Israel off the map, and on the other those determined that the country should rule all of the Middle East from the Sinai to the Euphrates, these people will probably be killing each other until Jesus comes back. We are involved mostly because Israel as seen as a western outpost in the Islamic world, and I almost wish it was not so. Israel is more like us than any Arab country, but I fear much of these similarities are ones that I am the least proud of in my own country.
          As with most issues, the problem Israel faces will not be solved by the liberals or by the war hawks. Those choosing the military solution will never be able to wipe out every Muslim, and the more they crackdown the more young Palestinians will be drawn into the arms of the extremist groups. However, the liberals have no solutions and do just as much to antagonize the Muslims by trying to make Israel, once called a nation of priests, into a secularized nation which accepts such things as abortion and homosexuality, which most Muslims find repulsive. And, it must be said, neither side is very friendly toward the Christian community. The liberals hate them for being Christian and the hawks hate them for being ethnic Palestinians for the most part.

So, what is the answer? If anything, history has taught us that it will not be easy. The first thing to do would be for both sides to stop raising their children with a hatred of the other. The Arabs will have to firmly recognize the right of Israel to exist as a country and the Palestinians will have to replace their current leadership with one that will be reasonable with the Israelis and crackdown on the terrorist fringe.
Israel really just needs to stop trying to be like the rest of the world and be Jewish. They need to "try a little kindness" in dealing with those Palestinians willing to negotiate and above all try to

end the trend of secularization and hold on to their religious roots. Religion is the only thing that has managed to keep Israel alive during all of these centuries of scattered exile. As for anything more concrete, I will reserve comment as my usual desire to see the restoration of monarchy and national monuments carries alot of implications in the case of Israel than with any other nation in the world.
Finally, the world at large also has to take a greater interest. By and large, Israel is the religious heart of most of the world. As such, it should be a nation of peace and prosperity, of history and culture; not gay night clubs and suicide bombers. And, if nothing else works, we could always take the Pope's advice and simply let God control things ;-)

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