(I am half Jewish and have spent a considerable amount of time in Israel. So my views about it, both pro and con, are complicated)
Ground Zero for the end of the world
Why is the U.S. so totally, blindly, slavishly supportive of Israel? No American politician will ever say “we should cut off military aid to Israel. It would save us a bundle, they aren’t the only country in that part of the world we’d like to have friendly relations with and besides, they can take care of themselves. They’ve got, by far, the most modern military in the Middle East and they’ve got nukes, too, even if that’s not official, who are we kidding, here,” any more than a U.S. politician will ever say “You know, maybe it’s time we started placing some reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.”
I’m sure there’s a combination of reasons, but there are two I want to write about tonight. First is the national political map. No presidential candidate is going to carry New York or Florida without the Jewish vote. Probably not California, either. Or Connecticut. Or New Jersey. Also, their financing would take a considerable hit.
So, they suck up to Israel as a reliable way of getting the Jewish vote, but I think this is a miscalculation, and one that underestimates the Jewish people. Not all American Jews are pro-Likud military nuts. Also, they’re not single issue voters. Joe Lieberman, yeah, but not all of them.
The second reason is the evangelicals, who are a rather large voting bloc. They’ve got this weird fixation with Israel which is based on it being the biblical land and plenty of them literally believe that the end of the world will take place in a big battle at Har Megiddo (Armageddon), which is in the north of Israel, not far from Nazareth. Pretty area.
For some reason, they seem to think this is a good idea.
These people are nuts. First of all, even if you did believe in biblical prophecy, the end of the world is not something to be looking forward to. Personally, I would rather we avoid it. Secondly, the whole idea is absurd. The end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 doesn’t mean anything, and the book of revelations doesn’t, either. Nobody can predict the future. Nobody ever could.
(There’s a real simple reason for that. The future is not pre-determined.)
If we can survive the next couple of decades without bringing about the end of the world in a global orgasm of suicidally self-destructive wish fulfillment, maybe people will start to get over their religious nuttiness and realize that Israel, as a modern state, is just a place like other places. A relatively small place, inhabited by fewer than 8 million people. Many of whom would like to find a peaceful resolution to their problems.
But we have to get over this idea of Israel as sacred ground. That is just nonsense.
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