From the religious perspective, I’ve often wondered why Christians favor Judaism over Islam. Jews don’t recognize Christ; Muslims do. That was me as a young man being precocious enough to question just about everything. As I matured, I realized it was more a political thing, not having much to do with religion at all, just one tribe trying to dominate or exterminate the other.
In fact, anti-Semitism has been around just as long as anti-Islamic sentiment: One can’t compare the atrocity of the Crusades with the Nazi Holocaust in sheer numbers, of course—the Nazis killed a lot more efficiently than Christian crusaders. But religions generally have the common denominator that their fanatical believers will fight with anyone they consider a heretic. So much for God’s love, whatever name you give Him.
After my article about Saudi Arabia, I thought I’d provide some balance and write one about Israel…today’s Israel. You see, we progressives aren’t really worried about wasting more money on giving Israel military gifts like Iron Dome, an improvement on an old US antimissile system that’s still far from being perfect. We’re worried about making a right-wing fascist country like Israel even stronger. (Don’t like the word fascism? Substitute ultra-right-wing.) It doesn’t matter that moderate and progressive Israelis outnumber the far-right wingnuts there. Look at the US and its turn to fascism. Minorities, especially in a parliamentary system, can become tyrannical. (If you don’t like those words, call it tyranny of the minority, an euphemism for the Good Ole Piranhas and their rabid supporters.)
It’s ironic that Israel and Iran are at such odds when both are basically fascist theocracies, the last controlled by the ayatollahs and the first by the ultra-orthodox Jews. Young Israelis don’t like that some of their citizens avoid fighting for their country and are paid to study the Koran…excuse me, the ancient Israeli writings. Why is that any different from Saudi Arabia’s support of schools that teach Islamic fundamentalism?
That brings me to this sad conclusion: This world will be destroyed by human beings’ proclivities for tribalism. Long ago, as in the Crusades, when spears and swords were the only weapons and fighting was close and personal, world destruction wasn’t possible. Yes, people died, but not all of humanity. Nowadays, weapons are more lethal…and impersonal; bombs can fly when someone pushes a button to launch an attack on another tribe. When that happens, does it matter which tribe does the dirty deed or thinks another tribe deserves it?
Progressives have a responsibility to do everything in their power to make the world a safer place. Any policies, programs, or actions that don’t satisfy that criterion should be questioned vigorously. That includes a lot of political and religious issues.
We might be genetically wired to be tribal. Makes sense in prehistorical terms. It doesn’t make sense now when people can look down from space and see a beautiful but suffering planet, humanity’s home attacked by humanity. Any differences we might have must be resolved with logic and reason. Otherwise everything else we do loses any meaning.