Judaism: An Insurmountable Obstacle to Peace

Religious violence in Israeli occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem, the Palestinian West Bank and, on occasion, in Israel itself, is increasing rapidly. Many people believe this is caused by the recently elected Netanyahu/religious right government which is speeding-up the expansion of Israel's decades old illegal and cruel occupation of Palestinian land. This is only a branch of the problem. The root of the problem is Judaism.

As a Jewish state, Judaism and its ungodly Hebrew Bible are at the heart of Israel. The Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament is an essential source of justification for the Jewish state's violent theft of Palestinian land. This is due to religious Jews who take the Hebrew Bible seriously and who actually believe it is God's Word. They believe Genesis 15:18 which claims God told Abram, aka Abraham, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." Obviously, these borders for a bible-based Greater Israel include much more land that what currently belongs to the Palestinians. Once the Palestinians are ethnically cleansed from their land via Israel's bible-based occupation, there will be additional lands that will need ethnic cleansing.

The Jewish state of Israel's brutality against the Palestinians is also bible-based. The Hebrew Bible is overflowing with alleged commands from God to the Jews to slaughter Gentiles and to take their land and possessions. It depicts God as a warmonger for Israel's benefit. For just one example out of many, Exodus 15:3 states, "The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name." The seventh chapter of Deuteronomy starts with God allegedly ordering the Jews to commit genocide against seven nations that God will deliver to them so that the Jews can take their land. Deuteronomy 7:2 has God saying to the Jews:

"And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:" (As the Deist Thomas Paine wrote in The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition, "Belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man.")

In addition to this, the ancient Jewish clergymen who wrote the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament, wrote the lie-based myth that God chose the Jewish people "above all people that are upon the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6). Jewish superiority and the promotion of the Jewish state of Israel over all other nations are key to the Hebrew Bible and continue into the Christian New Testament.

Israeli politicians today make frequent use of their Hebrew Bible to justify their expanding occupation of Palestine. This is often seen by statements made by Israeli PM Netanyahu who said all of the city of Jerusalem has been Israel's capital for 3,000 years. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon (pictured above holding the Hebrew Bible while giving a speech at the UN) used the Hebrew Bible as justification for Israel's ever-expanding occupation of Palestinian land. Danon stated,

"We do have biblical rights to the land. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, or Jew - you read the Bible, you read the stories of the Bible - it's all there. This is our deed to the land. That's biblical."

This destructive and peace preventing Bible lie is so pervasive it is infecting American politics to the point that several state legislatures have passed resolutions openly claiming God gave a gift of real estate to the Jews for their Jewish state of Israel. An example of this is found in the South Carolina House of Representatives which passed a resolution which contains these biblical lies and parrots what Israeli ambassador Danon said:

"Whereas, Israel has been granted her lands under and through the oldest recorded deed as reported in the Old Testament, a tome of scripture held sacred and reverenced by Jew and Christian, alike, as the acts and words of God; and

Whereas, as the Grantor of said lands, God stated to the Jewish people in the Old Testament; in Leviticus, Chapter 20, Verse 24: "Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey";" (Here is an interesting and well documented article to counter the lie about the history of Israel.)

The Israel over-all powers in the US have been waging a war against Americans' rights to freedom of speech and expression. Many US state legislatures have passed laws that allow states and local and county governments to require people and companies that do business with them to sign a pledge that they are not and will never boycott the Jewish state of Israel. This is a clear unconstitutional violation of the rights of Americans. Last month the US Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by an American who was fighting to stop the state of Arkansas from attacking the rights of people to boycott Israel. This US Supreme Court decision not to hear the case is a huge victory for Israel and all enemies of free speech and free expression.

Danon's statement that whether you are Jew, Christian or Muslim "you read the Bible" reveals a problem that must be overcome. Christianity and Islam seem to indicate that Gentiles relish the thought that they are God's chosen people with the "true" covenant with God. That's why the New Testament is called the NEW Testament. The Gentile Christians wanted the label of "God's chosen ones" for themselves, thus replacing Jews as the chosen ones of God (this is called replacement theology). Likewise, the Gentiles of Islam like to think of themselves as God's favorites and the ones with the "true" Word of God. Deists, and all freethinkers, have the priceless opportunity to let the sincere people in these man-made "revealed" religions know that God is NOT the author/originator of any of them. Deists need to help people realize the only Word of God is the beautiful and wonderful Universe we are all a part of. In The Age of Reason (for a free copy of The Age of Reason in PDF click here), Thomas Paine did an inspiring job of pointing this fact out when he wrote:

"I believe it is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a Word of God can unite. The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they may be. It is an ever existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God."