Nationalism and religious fanaticism are a dangerous combination in any country.
It means that people worship their collective selves instead of a universal God, and regard rival nations as the equivalent of demons.
I hesitated to post this video because I don’t want to associate myself with the anti-Semites in the comment thread. I have had many Jewish friends and acquaintances during my life, none of whom adhered to the theology described by the brave Israeli journalist Yossi Gurvitz. I do not think that what he describes represents the best values of Judaism.
But I think what he describes is real, and should not be ignored in the name of tolerance.
I do not criticize Israeli policy from the standpoint of moral superiority. I don’t think the Israeli government has done anything that the American government has not done.
Tags: Israel, Jewish Fundamentalism, Nationalism, Zionism
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
October 19, 2015 at 7:01 am |
Judaism is no different than any other major faith/religion. It has its dark spaces, cases where people have abused it, etc.
Yossi points out that Judaism as described by the Bible is incomplete, due to the Catholics including certain cannon or there being others left out, etc. But I think if one does take the time to read through the books of the old testament (or even better, listen to them in an Audiobook at 1.5X speed 🙂 -you get a pretty good idea.
The Jews have a long history of being aggressive and war like, being felt they were called on by God to wipe out entire nations time and time again. At the same time, as God would bless them, they’d mess it up for themselves, also time and time again…
I don’t say that to be anti-semetic, It is just my understanding of the Old Testament. I always thought of it as somewhat a critique of mankind as a whole and a lesson on human nature itself.
Yossi Gurvitz is brave to make this modern day critique.
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