Mark B still hasn’t addressed the questions I put!
I am not going to get drawn in to a discussion of the etymological or ideological roots of anti-Semitism – Mark and I will clearly disagree. I will simply rebutt the notion that ‘Antisemitismus’ and ‘Judenhass’ are synonymous.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and others have made statements – links are:
Archbishop’s statement on Gaza
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has made the following statement regarding the current situation in Gaza:
The spiralling violence in Gaza tragically illustrates the fact that the cycle of mutual threat and retaliation have no lasting effect except to reinforce the misery and insecurity of everyone in the region. I want to express my grief and sympathy for the innocent lives lost in this latest phase of violence. People of all faiths in this country will want to join their voices to the statements of the Christian Muslim Forum and the Council of Christians and Jews in urging a return to the ceasefire and efforts to secure a lasting peace. We must unite in urging all those who have the power to halt this spiral of violence to do so.
Those raising the stakes through the continuation of indiscriminate violence seem to have forgotten nothing and learned nothing. It must surely be clear that, whilst peace will not wipe out the memory of all past wrongs, it is the only basis for the future flourishing of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The recent statement by the Patriarchs and Heads of Church in Jerusalem reflects a clear awareness that there can be no winners if the current situation is allowed to persist. Its continuation can only condemn ordinary Palestinian and Israeli citizens to the prospect of another year of fear and suffering.
Urgent humanitarian needs have arisen through the attacks on Gaza and Israel and they demand a generous response to local appeals for support, such as that issued by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem for its hospital in Gaza. But this humanitarian response, both local and international, needs to be matched by redoubled efforts in the political sphere.
The prophet Zechariah declared, “Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts”. The New Year is an opportunity for a new initiative that will set the tone for what lies ahead. Religious leaders, most particularly those of the region, have an urgent responsibility in supporting the search for peace and reconciliation. But it is the political leaders and opinion-formers who hold the key to implementing the necessary changes that can bring hope. Can they not agree a period of truce as the New Year begins, so that the communities of the Holy Land may once again explore how common security might at last begin to replace the mechanical rhythms of mutual threat? Might the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the USA combine to make such an appeal and pursue its implementation?
The Anglican Communion worldwide stands alongside other religious communities and humanitarian organisations in its commitment to supporting any such initiative. Without such a sign of hope, the future for the Holy Land and the whole region is one of more fear, innocent suffering and destruction.
The statement by Imam Dr Musharraf Hussain and The Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham, Co-Chairs of the ‘Christian Muslim Forum’ is available at: http://www.christianmuslimforum.org/subpage.asp?id=325
The statement by The Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, Chair of the ‘Council of Christians and Jews’ is available at: http://www.ccj.org.uk/
The statement by the Patriarchs and Heads of Church in Jerusalem is available at: http://www.lpj.org/newsite2006/news/2008/12/gaza-message-en-headschrches2008.html
The statement by the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem about Al Ahli Arab Hospital is available at: http://www.j-diocese.org/newsdetail.php?id=3386
January 1, 2009 at 9:24 am
Happy New Year to you, Nick. I believe I did answer the questions you put, but maybe I need to reword my reponse for the sake of clarity.
1. Israel has the right to protect itself against the military aggression of Hamas against Sderot, Ashkelon and now Beersheva. If you think otherwise, maybe you should join the Mennonites. Anglicans have always accepted some version of the just war theory.
2. The IDF is NOT engaged in indiscriminate warfare against Gazan children, despite the best efforts of BBC stringers and Pallywood photographers to present it as thus. The IDF Code of Military Ethics is very carefully considered and is integral to planning. I don’t often agree with Alan Dershowitz, but his comments in the CSM on IDF planning and the False Moral Equivalence of the commentariat (which I see in so much public handwringing)seem accurate to me: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1231/p09s02-coop.html
Read also what Asa Kashner of Bar-Ilan U says about IDF ethics – very sophisticated ‘Western’ stuff, which goes beyond the British Army’s Six Principles (IMHO).
3. Hamas, OTOH, *is engaged in provocative acts of indiscriminate terror against Israel; and privately, much of the rest of the Arab world wants to see its ass throughly kicked. Therein lies the Arab dilemma: Islamofascism is a terrible snakepit (into which Ahmadinejad is pouring his own poison), but none of the Arab oligarchies (there are no democracies among them) knows how to control it.
4. Of course it is deplorable that children get killed or injured in this conflict; but a lot less of this would happen if Hamas didn’t fire rockets from residential areas or store illegal munitions there – or stopped firing rockets in the first place, returning to the status ante quo of August 2005, when Israel pulled out of Gaza. ‘Obsta principiis’ is a great moral principle – but since Hamas is committed to the destruction of the Zionist Entity, their insane jihadi ‘martyr theology’, and the institution of a Shar’ia state (which they voted for on Dec 24), the voice of sweet Christian reason isn’t likely to prevail. (Though we should not desist from the voice of sweet Christian prayer.) Hamas is involved in a long war of attrition. It’s an ideology of evil, and the few Christians left in Gaza are suffering bitterly from it. There is no wonder that Christian Arabs are pretty happy and flourishing in Israel (and Christian Jews for that matter), and increasingly unhappy in Muslim-controlled Palestinian areas. They are desperately afraid of dhimmi status being revived de facto if not de jure
(As for ‘Antisemitismus’, the term seems to go back to Moritz Steinschneider, c. 1860, in his riposte to Ernest Renan.)