Fighting Yesterday's Battles

Moral Myopia Kisses Indignant Self-Righteousness

A heated debate has been raging over recent weeks in the NZ blogosphere. One left-leaning blog (some would say so left-leaning as to be lying on the ground) defended good old Mahmoud's rant at the recent UN Conference in Geneva to combat racism.

That great statesman who stands as a veritable colossus astride the world stage, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran used the occasion to denounce the state of Israel and Zionism as the essence of racism. Mahmoud is infamous for his denial of the historical existence of the Holocaust. He has also argued that Israel has no right to exist as a nation and, therefore, he wants to see it obliterated. In this view, he is not alone. It is held in common with most consistent Islamic adherents.

Writers at the blog Tumeke! have supported his remarks, agreeing that Israel was conceived in sin, theft, murder, and rapine. Moreover, since it was a state for Jews, by definition it represents institutionalised racism. Mmmm. One would have thought that Jews were found in many nations and amongst many races, as a universal religion tends to be. Really, the case would be more cogent if Israel were excoriated as "religist" or something like that. But, we digress.

So offended have been some bloggers that they have excommunicated Tumeke!, wanting nothing further to do with such extremism. But wait on--these earnest folk at Tumeke serve a useful purpose from time to time as foils to make sound and cogent arguments, do they not? Is it not useful at times to have a jester in the court?

But, allegations of racism and the monumental folly of denying the existence of the Holocaust aside, underneath there is a more serious issue at stake. What Mahmoud and his fellow travellers at Tumeke! are arguing is pretty standard stuff from an ethical perspective. They are proposing that an historical injustice has been committed with the formation of Israel in 1945 and subsequent years. They are arguing further that historical injustices must be removed and reversed. Therefore, Israel must be dismantled and the Palestinians put back or restored to a pre-1945 condition.

Now there is a plethora of groups, nations, peoples who would have a great deal of sympathy with this way of thinking. Displaced indigenous peoples the world over for one. ("We were here first and you took the land off us.") Aggrieved groups amongst Ukrainian, Irish, Scottish, Tamil and other people groups would also raise their hands.

We, for our part, have to agree that the creation of the modern state of Israel was more a manifestation of realipolitik rather than an application of the principles of international law. The continuing displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice pure and simple. Zionist extremism and terrorism was just as evil as any other terrorism. If the UN insisted, for example, at the behest of Britain and the United States, that displaced refugees out of Afghanistan and other places should be granted a homeland north of Whangarei to the Cape in order to right the injustice of Islamic terrorism, and that all people currently living in Northland would have to decamp southwards upon command, most reasonable people in this country would regard that as an unlawful action.

But regrettably, such things happen in a fallen world. This is not to excuse the evil, nor disregard it. But, the attempt to turn the clock back and go back to the way "things were" is the height of folly and is a further wrong. You cannot do evil that good may come. You only create bigger and worse problems. The adage, "two wrongs do not make a right" is apt here. That is why Mahmoud is wrong, if not evil, in calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel. It is also why zealots in Israel who march into Palestinian villages and towns and push out Palenstinian families so they can occupy their "rightful" land are equally wrong.

In this fallen world there is no ideal restoration where all past evils are atoned for, and the afflicted perfectly restituted. The attempt to solve problems by reverting to an earlier time is naive folly. Rather, every generation, having inherited a set of circumstances (much of which may have been wrong and evil) is obligated to do what they can to apply the Law of God to their neighbours as they find them, not agitate to reverse the course of history back to an earlier time.

Rather than living in the past, all men are obligated not to steal, not to covet, not to kill their neighbours, now. These obligations apply across borders as well as within states. Surely, this is one of the most pointed lessons of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. After all, would not the Good Samaritan have had the opportunity to reflect upon all the historical injustices committed to and upon his people by the Jews, stretching back centuries, as he walked that day down to Jericho? But he chose to live in the present and fulfill his obligations to God and his neighbour, as he found him. This is what God requires. To do something else is sinful.

The naive and foolish attempt to reverse history and go back to an earlier time in the supposed attempt to right historical wrongs and remove injustice only serves to perpetrate yet more theft, killing, injustices, and evil. The cycle never ends, and becomes increasingly vicious.

The standard of Jerusalem flies above all people groups and nations. Our restitution, our healing, our salve lies in Christ, not in a vain attempt to right historical wrongs by reversing history. Our duty is to live with our neighbours as He has commanded. Therefore, the cup of cold water needs to be offered daily by Palestinian to Israeli, and by Israeli to Palestinian. All new "legalised" theft, covetousness, and murder must be laid aside. Those who break His Law must be restrained and duly punished for their evil doing. Make restitution wherever possible. But the attempt to punish present generations for the evildoing of former generations is the height of arrogance and folly. The attempt to rewind history is an act of rebellion against the providence of God Himself.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his camp followers, together with his Western liberal cheerleaders, want self-righteously to do evil that good may come. Zionists, in denying the God given right to Palestinians to live in peace, without being driven out of their homes and off their farms for the sake of a spurious historical "title" to their lands is theft pure and simple. They would sow to the wind: they, and their victims, would inherit the whirlwind.