The Battle of Religious Fundamentalism

Dear Friend,
The following article illustrates the size of our dilemma: HAMAS is the religious equivalent of Israeli "fundamentalism", invoking "God's help" in destroying those who are not "of God". This is further compounded by "Christian" Zionists, who also invoke "God" to help rid the world of those arrayed "against God".

Where are the voices of those who believe it is the will of "God" to allow Jews, Muslims and Christians to learn to live together, side by side, in that God-tormented land, learning from each other, making room for each other, listening to each other?

It looks to me like there are two kinds of people in the US and the world right now: 1) Those who work towards finding ways of "living together" as part of the world's great religions and 2) Those who deep down believe that the differences are irreconciliable and will always lead to bloodshed and annihilation of "the other". Why are both of these tendencies "true"? JRK

In a follow up to yesterday's report by Donald MacIntyre from Jerusalem, the Independent Newspaper has an article, entitled, "Israeli's told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza". If true this is a lamentable example of how religious Zionism is justifying racism and ethnic cleansing.

MacIntyre writes, "Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza, according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation.

The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."

One has to ask which rabbinate? Perhaps the one the Apostle John refers to in the Book of Revelation 2:9-10, 3:9? [This paragraph smacks of the kind of "Christian fundamentalism" that we must stop invoking, IMO - JRK]

Back in May 2007, the Jerusalem Post reported that Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu wrote to the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert about Gaza. Under the heading "Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza" Matthew Wagner writes,

"Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings... Eliyahu's son, Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of Safed, said his father opposed a ground troop incursion into Gaza that would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life."If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."