America and Israel, again

The big news this week is about the Israelis using deadly force to attack a ship that was delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. We must grant that Israel did make some effort to prevent an armed confrontation. They offered to let the vessel unload its cargo in Israel, so that the Israelis could inspect it and then give the humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, and the vessel refused. It seems apparent that the vessel was intended not just to deliver humanitarian aid but to provoke the Israelis and call world attention to the blockade of Gaza. But to most observers the Israeli commando raid was vastly disproportionate to the offense. One observer, quoted on radio, said that Israel has used military force as its main and sometimes exclusive venue of relations with its neighbors ever since the 1967 war, and quoted a Jewish proverb: To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

The Israeli government, though officially neutral on religion, clearly considers itself to be the continuation of God’s Kingdom as described in the Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament. As I noted in an earlier entry, they seem to base their self-identity on the Biblical nation of Israel which conquered its neighbors by genocide. I suggest that they look at the rest of the Hebrew Bible—in particular, the prophets. I will use the prophet Amos as an example.

Amos’ prophecy is structured as a spiral of denunciations, starting with Damascus. “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment…” This wording implies the same thing as when a parent says to a child, “That’s enough!” which does not mean “That was exactly the right amount of disobedience,” but rather, “You have gone too far.” Next, Amos denounces Gaza, then Tyre, then Edom, then the Ammonites (the people, not the extinct mollusks), then Moab, making a circle around Judah, spiraling closer and closer. And then, with exactly the same literary construction, the prophet says, “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,” then says the same for Israel.

Even back during the days of ancient Israel and Judah, “Bible days,” as some would call them, “God’s kingdom” was called to the same standards and subjected to the same judgment as all other nations. This is clearly not American policy. America accepts Israeli acts that we would condemn if any other nation committed them. Israel listens too much to Joshua; they should listen more to Amos.