Conflicts

You know, every time I think I am getting out there in my thinking, I run across someone so far more smart and so far more out there I sound like a valley girl in comparison.

For example he writes that: “The state, as such, has no religious value. No state ever had. Political achievements, conquests, victories—none of these are religiously significant.”  He criticized his countrymen for their ultimate regard of the state using the ultimate accusation for a Jew; “Regarding the state as an intrinsic value is the essence of fascism.”  

And don't we know it!  And then the idea that the abusers become as deformed as the abused:

Rule over the occupied territories would have social repercussions.  After a few years there would be no Jewish workers or Jewish farmers.  The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police–mainly secret police.  A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that this implies for education, free speech, and democratic institutions.  The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel.  The administration would have to suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab Quislings on the other.  There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Force, which has been until now a people’s army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.

And then the source...

"On the one hand he was a libertarian, an extreme form of classical liberalism, and believed that human beings should be free to determine their way of life without any state interference. On the other hand, he was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who insisted that the state and religion must be separated completely to avoid corrupting each other.

Modern states are legal fictions, like a corporation.  Time to visit the charter and rework it given the failures of the current one.  But on to his views on Christians -

Christianity regards itself as the legitimate heir of Judaism, and the heir cannot take possession of the inheritance while the testator is still alive.  The Church did not desire the physical annihilation of Jews.  It was interested in the liquidation of Judaism, and every Jewish convert was precious testimony to its truth.  The Church desired the repentance of Jews and not their death.  However, the existence of scores of generations clearly indicated that there was no prospect of a total conversion of the Jewish people, and only ‘with the last of the Jews would there be an end to Judaism.’ In effect, the extinction of Judaism could only be attained by the annihilation of the Jews.

Fair enough, from a Jewish perspective... and then Catholic teaching...

839 "Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways."325
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People,326 "the first to hear the Word of God."327 The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ",328 "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."329
840 And when one considers the future, God's People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.

To make things even more complicated, the Moslems believe Jesus will return too, not as God, but as the prophet Jesus to convene the last judgment.

Christians:  We told you so!

Jews: Not you again!

Muslims:  Book 'em Jesus, murder one.

You think we have problems now...  but what is amazing is for the vast stretch of history, all these people have gotten along quite well, in spite of the existential differences.  I wish we were in one of those golden ages, like the Tang Dynasty.  Free trade, tolerance, peace and prosperity.

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