Monday, June 01, 2009

Life and death in the unholy land

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand for a halt to all construction in West Bank settlements.

Netanyahu, who spoke at a meeting of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said a call by the U.S. to stop all so-called natural growth in existing settlements was unreasonable, according to someone who was present at the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was held behind closed doors.
"So-called 'natural' growth" indeed!

Perhaps if the U.S. defunded Israel until settlements ceased things might shift. But since AIPAC has Congress by the gonads it will never happen. More's the pity.

I have no sympathy for those who have stolen land beyond the 1967 borders and I do hold the government of Israel accountable for allowing it. It is not in Israel's best interest and it perpetuates hostility every bit as much as the rhetoric and actions of Hamas or Hezbollah.

Think how much easier the task of the IDF would be if they were not defending scattered settlements.

There is NO excuse for the settlements.

Nor was there an excuse for stealing land from the First Nations of this continent.

Historical realities, but not justifiable.

Swinging out on a tangent....

When I was a pious, Baptist teenager I suspect I may have wanted to visit "the Holy Land." I cannot remember that desire in me any time from Baptist seminary days onward. I do not believe any particle of creation is more or less holy than any other part; it is all the body of God. Where Abraham and Sarah or Jesus and Mary once walked means less to me than that all of the cosmos is the expression of the Word. I am more interested in where Jesus is in our lives today than where he was two millennia ago.
--the BB

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