Even though I’ve been an agnostic since junior high, the time I spend in church every Sunday is important to me. My wife, who has been my Sunday School teacher for better than a decade, intends to go to seminary when she retires in a few years. That should be an adventure.
Today we began a month-long study of the Old Testament’s books of History. I’ve always been intrigued with the idea God took Israel away from one set of inhabitants to give it to the Hebrews. After Rome crushed Israel in about 60 AD Hebrews had to wait 1,900 years to reclaim Israel from the Palestinians who had occupied it during the diaspora.Â
Politicial science has a fancy word for the dreams of a people to return to their ancient homelands. Its called irredentism and Jews are not the only irredentists. Over the weekend a small band of irridentist North Americans joined much larger numbers of Hispanics who were protesting the treatment of immigrants in the United States. This small band waved placards claiming America for themselves as decendents of the Maya, Aztec and other native peoples.
It seems to me that the Indian claims on North America have as much validity as the Hebrew claim on Isreal, or to put it another way, no better claim - except for one thing - the Jewish people’s have reclaimed Israel through war and treaty.
There is one fly in the ointment for Jewish Israel. Jewish Israelies don’t have as many babies as Palestinian Israelies. This means that at some time in the future they could be out voted by Palestinians who might wish to act on their own irredentism.
Would the United States support the claims of such a democratic majority if it were to exert itself? This strikes me as a good question to ask on the Sabbath.
