Thursday 7 December 2017

What's with Jerusalem?


You could read many thousands of words about the Realpolitik of the decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and several thousand more about the outrage in reaction thereto.

Or you could just read this from Ali Rivzi, aka The Atheist Muslim: "The truth about why Jerusalem has been such a nexus of conflict & bloodshed for billions of Jewish, Christian & Islamic mythologists is rarely stated [so] plainly":


.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is just name calling and I would hope sophisticated atheists find that a bit tiresome.

Last Sunday a bunch of us Christians were discussing the cancelled atheist party in Melbourne (as I recall) because not enough people would pay to hear the great poster boy speak. The consensus among us was disappointment because we like that atheists are at least engaged rather than apathetic. When I read the comment above I wonder if we were mistaken to be disappointed.

I think that the Jews can stick their capital anywhere they like and they have significant history at this location. Orthodox Christianity is not interested in an earth bound Jerusalem so the bickering over this matter is between the Jews and Muslims, which with Israel being secular means their interest is historical and political. That leaves the Muslims as the only people in this matter who are approaching it on a superficially religious basis. Its a political scrap at the end of the day but its more always convenient to blame religion.

3:16

Mark Hubbard said...

Nah, 3:16, this is brilliant, and states the case perfectly.

MarkT said...

To the extent Trump's move is a symbolic gesture, letting the Middle East know he supports Israel (which I assume it probably is), it's a good move.

Ben said...

Everybody already knows the US supports Israel. Trump made his decision based on pressure from Evangelical nut jobs who believe Jerusalem must be the capital for the second coming of Jesus.

What this move does is essentially abandon America's supposed role as an objective mediator. And it puts staff at every US Embassy at risk. Unbelievably dumb