Many thanks for the best wishes. Perhaps we could extend that to include the Middle East?! Pleasure to chat with you.

All the best,

Tim

Yes the will, wrought by God in grace & glory, makes us spiritual beings! My triad is: will-intellect-emotions!

I am not that political, save a real conservative. But always first a spiritual being, graced by God In Christ!

Best of it mate for your work and studies/blog!

Sincerely,
Father Robert

Anti-Semitism is a problem, I agree. Besides the overtly hateful and conspiratorial rhetoric across a lot of the Muslim world, there is also still a strong current of anti-Semitism in Western thought. Muslims rightly perceive, for example, the British press (and some sections of the public) as Islamophobic, and view this as an acceptance of a form of proxy racism. The Jews, too, continue to be the target of explicit hate, physical or otherwise, as my conversations with the British Jewish community attest. A drift towards the right in parts of Europe has given a new lease of life to ‘quiet racism’, of which Muslims are currently the recipients, but the Jews will be back in vogue when the wind starts blowing in a different direction, we can be sure of that. We could also look at the furore over Walt & Mearsheimer’s recent ‘outing’ of the Jewish lobby in the US, though, as an example of how accusations of anti-Semitism are also used, by Jews among others, as a slur on a person’s integrity. Politics, politics.

I was thinking of Ireland earlier, and certain similarities between Israel/Palestine and Ireland do exist, although that debate can end up being somewhat facile. One thing that did occur to me was the demographic issue. Unionists/Loyalists have often talked of being driven from their country, their way of life watered down to the point of irrelevance. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Northern Ireland and I’ve heard plenty of Catholics talk about biding their time until ‘we outnumber them’ through higher birth rates. This might sound strategically ludicrous, but I wonder if Israelis feel the same way.

I share your concerns about the Shi’ite states (and Israel!), but I’m with Gramsci on this one, as I always am when considering the future. In his Christmas letter from prison, 1929, he wrote:

I am a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

The internal struggle continues.

Yes your presupposition of the Judeo biblical text, would be yours. After having lived there for several years I came to see many things. The love, care and reverence that the Hasidic Jews for example had for their biblical text was profound! I came to love one very well known Jewish philosopher-theologian, who died in the 60’s: Martin Buber!

One factor that you have not spoken about straight-on is the hate that so many have for Israel and the Jews! This is just simply incredible! And I am an Irish born man, in my 50’s, and have seen a bit of religious hatred myself. I was theologically educated in England however (D. Phil.,Th.D.). So I love the whole of Great Britain too!

Sadly, we have not seen near the end of the problems in the mid-east! I personally believe that the radical Muslims, the leaders of Iran, Syria, etc. They will try to take their best shot at Israel. However, I am not sure Israel will wait too long before they go themselves. Just my own opinion.

Fr.R.

Thanks for your take on this. Then you would not see any biblical-land warrant for Israel? I am not blank-check for Israel at all, but the issue over land and God’s promises to the Jewish people seems a real issue! Do we not have to respect that aspect, at least in principle?

Fr.R.

I know what you mean, but surely the communication of which we speak is a function or symptom of a deeper condition, namely the relative inability of institutions to be truly self-aware and their consequent inability to learn and adapt, at least rapidly enough for operational requirements. This is the Nagl argument stated badly, I grant you, but he’s got a point, although (as Mike says above) he might also be part of the problem.

It’s not something that troubles me much, to be honest. A quarter-century before I was born, the colonial powers carved up the Middle East, took some land from those with a claim to it, and gave it to others who also had some claim to it. These claims derived from a potent mix of conflicting interpretations of a book written by a host of largely anonymous and partial authors, coupled with some deep-seated cultural tensions, virulent hostility even, fed by unbalanced policies derived in part from those self-same colonial powers.

In the sixty years since the founding of Israel, the parties conflicting over land rights have with few exceptions proven themselves to be spectacularly incapable of accommodating any other worldview than their own. Instead, they have resorted to terrorism, degradation of human rights, outright warfare, and violations of every form of acceptable behaviour. Censure from external authorities has been patchy, occasionally biased, blinkered, and riddled with post-Holocaust guilt. In 2008, Israel continues to expand its 1948/1967 boundaries, whilst Palestine cannot even decide which group of terrorists/freedom fighters should represent them at a negotiating table, should one appear.

When I say it doesn’t trouble me, I refer to the establishment of the state of Israel, not of the current situation, which is deeply disturbing and apparently intractable (although I don’t think it’s the root of all the region’s problems, unlike many people). I am not qualified to be either ‘for’ or ‘against’ the founding of Israel, and am content to treat it as an historical fact. That does not excuse anyone but me, but nothing I can ever do will change that history.

I am definitely not ‘for’ certain Israeli policies, but I am also not for the genocidal policies of Hamas, for example. I must have thrown my hands up a thousand times in my life, accompanied by some utterance like, “I give up! Let them destroy each other!”, only to once again hope something will change for the better. Each little step towards mutual accommodation seems to be scuppered by violence of some form or another.

I just think it’s a shame that Matthew 7:3 falls in the New Testament, rather than the Old (where perhaps the people that matter could read and take notice of it):

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?