Israel's population is becoming more religious. Perhaps they should also start reading their
bible. Yet, they will not like what they find in it. Micha, the prophet, for example, who warned
his people:
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house
of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert
all equity.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem
with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the
priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet
will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is
not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall
become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
(Micha, III,
9-12).
The Romans
fulfilled Micha’s prophecy, occupied Jerusalem and destroyed Jewish national life.
Israel has not learned.
Is our much esteemed blogger turning to the doomsday prophets for want of better arguments?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments, it´s a bit worrying but I find that I agree with most of what you have written recently.
ReplyDeleteI note that our esteemed blogger is venturing into new areas of research - whether out of desperation or not I do not know - but clearly the Bible (Old Testament) represents uncertain territory for him.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Testament is replete with flawed characters in order that we may learn from them. The Bible makes no attempt to hide the weaknesses of human kind and alternatively issues warnings, threats and blessings to those who behave or misbehave.
The very first characters we meet in the Bible are Adam and Eve. Their failing was not only to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, but more importantly to fail to take responsibility for their actions. It wasn't me said Eve to God -it was the servant who persuaded me. It wasn't me said Adam to God - it was Eve who persuaded me. As a consequence, the couple were evicted from the Garden of Eden and the rest is history. We learn with this first story that wrong or sinful acts have consequences - especially if we get caught.
I do not believe that Israeli society is any different in this respect to the OECD countries. We have recently seen repeated financial and immoral scandals in Fifa, IAAF, Spainish royalty, Chinese government ramping up their programme to reduce rampant fraud and corruption internally, not to say what on earth must be going on within Russia, South America and Africa.
What is different in Israel is the fearless way in which the authorities pursue wrong doers. The judiciary is fiercely independent and has marched off Ministers, a former President and possibly very soon a former Prime Minister to prison. Ministers now increasingly resign from office if their name is implicated in scandal. In this respect, Israel clearly operates a zero tolerance regime which is much to be applauded.
The Israel economy is booming and the country retains its strong democratic identity whilst the middle (muddle) east around them collapses in nearly all respects. It is still a new country - not yet 70 years old and the development of the necessary powers and resources to tackle fraud and corruption etc. is still being developed so that it will increasingly act as a deterrence to wrong doers. In this respect, Israel is to be applauded for the progress it is making.