The question I am begging today is whether or not war is justifiable when its done on religious grounds. No, I’m not talking about terrorist attacks or freedom fighting by Muslims, but rather a Zionist movement backed by the orthodox Jewish community. I was shown this article yesterday, and I watched the programme today. First started off with a cliche debate of terrorism in the UK then went off to talk about how Rabbis took up weapons in the Israeli Army to fight the rather horrifying war last year in Gaza. I am not going to say whether that war on Gaza was fair or not but rather whether it is alright to fight a religious war in this day and age - and what is the repercussions of mixing religion, politics and war.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that wars nowadays are not religiously motivated. What is shocking to me watching this programme is not the fact that a war was religiously motivated, but rather it is encouraged on religious grounds. Inevitably, the scale of the atrocities committed enlarges significantly when you truly believe that there are no moral consequences for your actions since its sanctioned by God. By rights, in a religious context, moral absoluteness originates from God almighty. Therefore, in a true holy war, when you die, you die a martyr and you go to paradise. Believing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a replay of the Biblical conquest is saddening. To me its not a replay of Biblical Zionism - the wanting of returning to the holy land given by Elohim (the lord in Hebrew - not going to use the ‘Y’ word since in Judaism is not respectful), rather is a replay of the crusades who thought they were fighting God’s war when in fact they were fighting Pope’s war. The same thing here, rabbis are encouraging people to fight the ’sons of darkness’ (the Palestinians) - when it clearly states in Genesis that ALL MEN are created in the image of God. So what’s going on? Forget about St Thomas Aquinas’ just war theory since that was an add-on for Christians, but what is the religious justification for taking machine guns into civilians home killing the innocent? Its all over my head.
I am going to pointing out the hypocritical or confused state this world is operating in. Since Israel is a legitimate state in the eyes of the western powers, religious leaders are suddenly given pardons for war crimes but if it were imams and sheiks taking up guns and WMD we’ll have a hot debate on whether or not Islam condone violence. Trust me though, if they did, Muslims - knowledgeable ones who know their religion - would be the first to come out to condemn it. Of course, reading this you too might recognise the biased in my message. Indeed, there are many Jews who voice their concerns over rabbis picking up guns. Surely we have to be careful when invoking God’s name in a war, especially religious leaders since they are all we have to look up to. For those who believe in a true salvation that we will have the final day of judgment, be very worried when making something lawful when its not because its God who would have the final say.
I’m still practicing my patience although the last few days had been challenging and I’ve been failing at it. I blame lawyers! What is the law without compassion? - I shall examine that later.