Adding nationalism to a religion

Does adding nationalism to a religion make it more compelling or immune to criticism? 

It is an old trick, of course. The Byzantines attacked the the Zoroastrian Persians in 629, all in the name of defending Christianity. 

Soon after, Mohammad, the great warrior who founded Islam, experienced a vision that he was the last prophet. His armies swept all before them, including Persians, Jews, Christians, and Turks. 

The Crusades were organized on the same concept, sending Christian soldiers to fight the heathens. For hundreds of years starting in 1096, armies from Europe were sent to recapture the Holy Land from the followers of Islam. 

The fourteen-hundreds saw the mass expulsion of Jews from Spain as well as the conquest of the New World, where fifty-five million indigenous people would eventually be sacrificed to the Lamb of God. 

Zionists added nationalism to Judaism in the early years of the twentieth century. Ever since that marriage of convenience, we have been told that criticizing Israel's military expansion and occupation is antisemitic, no matter how many millions of Palestinians have been dislocated or murdered. 

In truth, all religions have been used at some point in history to justify slaughter and territorial expansion. That doesn't make it right. And beginning with the Enlightenment, we have come to question some of the more malevolent of religious dogmas. 

"The arc of the moral universe is long," said Martin Luther King, "but it bends toward justice." Justice for all peoples facing oppression. Even the Palestinians.  

Fred Nagel

The Real Assault on Democracy

The New York Times quotes Alexander Hamilton to support the impeachment of Donald Trump. Hamilton wrote that a president who fosters “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils” is betraying our trust. First is was Trump colluding with Russia, and now it is with Ukraine. 

Yet there is one country that has gained almost unlimited power in the U.S. government, and that country is Israel. Its extraordinary influence hardly ever makes it onto the pages of the NYT. 

There is little written about links between Trump and his largest campaign donor, the Israeli/American and radical Zionist, Sheldon Adelson. Trump benefited greatly from the 100 million Adelson gave to the Republicans in 2016, and quickly rewarded Israel by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement. 

In fact, Israel has dominated American foreign policy since its lobby funded Truman's famous whistle-stop tour. Once elected, Truman recognized the state of Israel just minutes after it was declared in 1948. 

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in their groundbreaking book "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" cites the lobby as a major factor in the invasion of Iraq, a misadventure that has cost taxpayers over a trillion dollars. Now Israel insists that we spend another trillion attacking Iran.

When will Americans start seeing this insidious Israeli influence for what it is, a well planned and funded assault on our democracy.

Fred Nagel

The wrong side of history

Germany has come out swinging in its recent support of Israel, condemning the boycott of Israeli products and cultural events as antisemitic. Criticizing antisemitism would have changed the course of history 90 years ago. Is this just a case of bad timing?

Today, it is not Israeli Jews facing racism, violence and the systematic erasure of their culture; it is the Palestinians. Jews in Israel don't need protection any more than the Nazis did during the Third Reich. What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is almost exactly what was done to Jews in the 1930's.

Maybe Germany just doesn't get that human rights are for all people, not just for those in power. In the years up to WW II, all the Germans could talk about was racial purity and how they needed other people's lands, about the same things being demanded by Israelis today. 

In fact, Germany and Israel have agreed on human rights issues before. Both countries opposed the boycott of apartheid South Africa, and both considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Human rights for Black South Africans was about the last thing that either country cared about when it mattered the most.

Germans may think that aligning with Israel will somehow erase the horrors of the Holocaust. It's a cheap fix. Germany is abandoning the Palestinians now for short term commercial and geopolitical gain. Once again, the Germans are on the wrong side of history; they have learned so very little.

Fred Nagel