Bishop versus Israel
I find it inexplicable that Episcopalian Bishop Thomas Shaw will once again protest outside the Israeli Consulate.
Never mind whether Israel's response to the kidnapping of its soldiers could be considered disproportionate. That's just part of a larger picture in which Palestinians elected a terrorist-led government dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Now Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has gotten into the act.
Unless Shaw believes that Israel ought to hand over all of its territory to Hamas, then it's hard to understand precisely what it is he's protesting. And, well, what about it, Bishop Shaw: Is that what you believe?
posted by Dan Kennedy @ 1:24 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
But isn't bombing the the Gazans' only electrical generating plant a wildly disproportionate response to the kidnapping of one combatant soldier?
Ron -- You can do better than that. Try responding to:
"Never mind whether Israel's response to the kidnapping of its soldiers could be considered disproportionate. That's just part of a larger picture in which Palestinians elected a terrorist-led government dedicated to the destruction of Israel."
Thanks.
Look like instead of the usual annual pledge to my Episcopal parish next year, it's going to have to be some sort of restricted gift, so as to make sure none of my money goes to support diocesan-level idiocy like this.
ah, the hell with israel. who needs em?
Dan, how about:
"That's just part of a larger picture in which Israel visits violence upon Palestinians via air strikes and seizure of land. Israel doesn't merely have a government 'intent' on the destruction of Palestine. They actively attack Palestine via air strikes, and have been doing so for decades."
You won't get far unless you concede the point that Israel's own actions are a huge part of the mess that they have been in for decades now. It seems to be a legitimate point to say that Israel always escalates the level of violence. That doesn't mean that the Palestinians are innocent. But it's certainly not the case that the Israelis are innocent, either.
Perhaps Shaw is protesting the indiscriminate killing. That would be the Christian thing to do.
Dan, I don't think Shaw is condoning the actions of Hamas. I'd like to echo Kane's comment, above - if Israel expects us to see them as better than the terrorists, don't they need to be above inflicting so much indiscriminate suffering on a civilian population?
Hamas has been atrocious, as could be expected. I expect Israel to do better. I don't expect passivism, but I expect better than knocking out power to hospitals and hundreds of thousands of people.
Bishop Shaw isn't the first Christian Bishop to give back handed support to folks who think the world would be better off without Israel and its people.
There is a long sorry history of this among Christians.
Ratzinger interestingly one who's spoken out against a long Christian theological tradition.
Bill Baar, that is an extremely distorted and dishonest way of characterizing what Shaw is saying.
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