Graeme Decarie
Well-Known Member
Well, the important thing is one that the churches will not do.
What is behind western support is the interest of western capitalists in supporting Israel. israel exists in the first place because western capitalists wanted it to exist as a major foothold for them in in the middle east. Thus our failure to criticize anything done by Israel. Thus the expendability of Palestinians.
Like the money changers in the temple, capitalism exists for the self interest of the major capitalists. Inevitably, it encourages greed and war which most of society finds quite respectable. By definition, this is not a Christian system. But church-goers commonly are people who crave respectability. They are most unlikely to challenge anything that most of our population finds quite respectable.
The creation of Israel was a huge mistake. We did it not out of any love or concern for Jews. We did for economic and strategic reasons. And we did it by giving them somebody else's land
Minimally, the U.N. should long ago have stopped Israeli abuse of Palestinians. It still could. But the UN is dominated by the U.S. The UN has accepted Israeli abuse, and even encouraged it. The result is a Palestinian 'nation' that is just a collection of splinters robbed by Israel and broken by Israel. What is required now is UN expulsion of Israelis from Palestinian territory, use force against Israel to prevent its abuse of Palestine, and supply aid to Palestine to recover.
Would the churches advocate that? I have seen no evidence that they will.
There is no easy answer to this - and none that the church alone can create. What it can do is to awaken people to the wrongness of what is being done. That's at least a starting point. But throughout history, the churches and their members have been more interested in conformity than change. There was a period in Canada - say 1920 to 1960 or so when some Christian leaders took a stand against capitalism in its indifference to human needs. Thus the old CCF and the introduction of medicare.
But they were a minority, and seem to have long since disappeared.
Minimally, what the churches could do is to put pressure on the federal government to be less cooperative with the American domination of the UN on this and other matters. (Hey! church-goers have no problem demonstrating against abortion. Should they be willing to demonstrate against mass murder and Canadian participation in it?)
What is behind western support is the interest of western capitalists in supporting Israel. israel exists in the first place because western capitalists wanted it to exist as a major foothold for them in in the middle east. Thus our failure to criticize anything done by Israel. Thus the expendability of Palestinians.
Like the money changers in the temple, capitalism exists for the self interest of the major capitalists. Inevitably, it encourages greed and war which most of society finds quite respectable. By definition, this is not a Christian system. But church-goers commonly are people who crave respectability. They are most unlikely to challenge anything that most of our population finds quite respectable.
The creation of Israel was a huge mistake. We did it not out of any love or concern for Jews. We did for economic and strategic reasons. And we did it by giving them somebody else's land
Minimally, the U.N. should long ago have stopped Israeli abuse of Palestinians. It still could. But the UN is dominated by the U.S. The UN has accepted Israeli abuse, and even encouraged it. The result is a Palestinian 'nation' that is just a collection of splinters robbed by Israel and broken by Israel. What is required now is UN expulsion of Israelis from Palestinian territory, use force against Israel to prevent its abuse of Palestine, and supply aid to Palestine to recover.
Would the churches advocate that? I have seen no evidence that they will.
There is no easy answer to this - and none that the church alone can create. What it can do is to awaken people to the wrongness of what is being done. That's at least a starting point. But throughout history, the churches and their members have been more interested in conformity than change. There was a period in Canada - say 1920 to 1960 or so when some Christian leaders took a stand against capitalism in its indifference to human needs. Thus the old CCF and the introduction of medicare.
But they were a minority, and seem to have long since disappeared.
Minimally, what the churches could do is to put pressure on the federal government to be less cooperative with the American domination of the UN on this and other matters. (Hey! church-goers have no problem demonstrating against abortion. Should they be willing to demonstrate against mass murder and Canadian participation in it?)