Bible thumping to Bible burning

Israel's religious right may not mind the zealous support of the religious right in America. They certainly have no liking for their religion, however. Emad Gad surfs the Israeli Web

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Israeli leaders are always keen to present Israel to Western public opinion as an extension of Western civilisation; often the Israeli political and intellectual elites talk about Israel as a Western democratic nation that is a cultural anomaly in its surroundings. In the same context, much is heard of Judeo- Christian culture, an entity in which all differences between Christianity and Judaism have been virtually erased.

Ideas held by the conservative right in the United States have made the relationship between these two religions even more complex. For the US conservative Christian right, Israel occupies a very important position, although it is fundamentally a bridge or a transition to the next phase: the Second Coming of Christ. Thus, the relationship is in some sense purely opportunistic, and Israel is simply a tool. Nevertheless, both parties to the relationship -- Israel and the Christian right -- seem to have transformed this transitional phase into a permanent relationship.

In consequence, the US Christian right has painted an idealised picture of Israel and made political support of it an absolute necessity. The core of the relationship is ignored, along with the Jewish religious right's view of Christianity and Western civilisation. The Jewish right holds an extreme view of Christianity, one based on hostility and conflict, as revealed by Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (1999), written by Israeli author Israel Shahak with Norton Mezvinsky. The authors note in the book that, "Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph, the spiritual authority of the Shas Party... argued in an 18 September, 1989 article in Yated Ne'eman that since Israel is too weak to demolish all Christian churches in the Holy Land it is also too weak to retain all the conquered territories. Using this reasoning, Rabbi Yoseph advocated that Israel make territorial concessions in order to avert a war in which Jewish lives will be lost. Rabbi Yoseph did not mention Palestinians nor even their most rudimentary rights."

The authors further elucidate the rabbi's thoughts, "Rabbi Yoseph, renowned for his halachic erudition... began by disagreeing with the NRP and Gush Emunim Rabbis who argued that the beginning of redemption and God's commandment to conquer the land of Israel were more important than the saving of Jewish lives that would be lost in the war of conquest. Rabbi Yoseph acknowledged that in messianic times Jews would be more powerful than non- Jews and would then be obligated to conquer the land of Israel, to expel all non-Jews, and to destroy the idolatrous Christian churches. Rabbi Yoseph, however, asserted that the messianic time of redemption had not yet arrived. He wrote:

"The Jews are not in fact more powerful than the non- Jews and are unable to expel the non-Jews from the land of Israel because the Jews fear the non-Jews... God's commandment is then not valid... Even non-Jews who are idolaters live among us with no possibility of their being expelled or even moved. The Israeli government is obligated by international law to guard the Christian churches in the land of Israel, even though those churches are definitely places of idolatry and cult practice. This is so in spite of the fact that we are commanded by our [religious] law to destroy all idolatry and its servants until we uproot it from all parts of our land and any areas that we are able to conquer... Surely, this fact continues to weaken the religious meaning of the Israeli army's conquests [in 1967].'" In other words, Rabbi Ovadia argues that "Jews have a religious duty to expel all Christians from the state of Israel only if doing so would not endanger Jewish life."

According to Shahak and Mezvinsky, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, chairman of the Committee of the Rabbis of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, made a similar point in 1992, "No rabbinical authority disputes that it would be ideal if the land of Israel were inhabited by only Jews." Another rabbi, Shlomo Min-Hahar adds, "The entire Muslim world is money- grubbing, despicable and capable of anything. All Christians without exception hate the Jews and look forward to their deaths."

In fact, the ideas expressed in Shakak and Mezvinsky's book are still current in Israel and have gained added force. They are often publicly expressed. One example is a Halachic injunction issued by Rabbi Uziel Eliyahu on 31 May, 2004, in response to a reader who had written in a question on the religious Web site www.kipa.co.il. The reader enquires, "In my city library, there are several copies of the New Testament. Can I take these copies without permission and burn them?" The rabbi responds, "Truly, this book deserves to be burned! But you must calculate every step wisely so that this causes no harm! You should not behave like a thug or a barbarian, entering a place you do not own, taking what you don't like and burning it, even if you are right. Intelligence is a prerequisite of justice.

Thus, you should go repeatedly to the library where these copies are found or to library officials and entreat them kindly, gently, smiling, and with a great deal of faith in an attempt to convince them to remove the book from the library and rid them of this evil. If you are rejected, you must at least put a distinguishing mark on the book so that the public does not think it is the Old Testament. This is so that someone seeking the Old Testament knows where to look, and someone who wants to study the Christian period and look at this book will know it is not the Old Testament!"

Often Jewish religious fanaticism towards Gentiles and Christianity is expressed in reader comments written in to Israeli Web sites following the publication of a story in which a Western official makes a statement or decision related to Israel. An example can be seen in the responses sent to the Israeli news site www.nfc.co.il following a story published on the site on 14 May, 2004, about the Pope's impending visit to Washington. The story reported, "Cardinal Pio Laghi, the Pope's envoy to Washington, said before Coalition forces entered Iraq that the Pope intended to warn Bush that US military forces in Iraq are damaging efforts to bring Christianity and Islam closer together. He said it was imperative for the President to first study the culture of the Islamic world. 'The American Coalition forces in Iraq must withdraw,' Laghi told Agence France-Presse (AFP). 'Other forces must arrive in the context of an international presence, which those who sought to start the war should not control.' Commenting on news reports about the torture of Iraqi prisoners and detainees, Laghi asked, 'How can they stay in Iraq with these ongoing abuses?'"

As soon as the Cardinal's statements were published on the Web site, readers began writing in attacking both Christianity and Islam. One reader wrote, "this is all nonsense. Islam and Christianity are not religions, but beliefs. Anyone can believe what he wants, but there is one religion in the world, and that is Judaism, not Gentile beliefs written by humans. The Creator is the one who handed down the Hebrew Torah."

Perhaps it is time to start presenting Israel to the Western public as a non-democratic Jewish nation, a religious state that represents a source of tension and instability in the Middle East, in part because it is based on religious foundations.

For more published examples of Jewish extremist thought, please visit the Web site of Arabs Against Discrimination www.aad-online.org.