Saurian Tail wrote:Here you have a perfect the alignment of Jewish exceptionalism and its corollary right of return married to the Christian belief in the centrality of the Jewish people and state in their apocalyptic destiny.
For Jews, this is about return and chosenness. For Christians, this is about the end times. This is real for these people. Apocalypse is welcome because the "believers" will be raptured out and spared judgement. That people who believe this are in positions of power is grave threat to those of us who want the human race to grow up and build a more loving and sustainable future for our children.
It has nothing to do with "chosenness." That actually doesn't mean what it's colloquially supposed to do, in reality. It's just why Jews are Jews -- ie, because they were chosen to be. Likewise, "exceptionalism." I'm never even sure what that means, in a religious context, tbh. Judaism doesn't care about how good it is relative to other religions. I mean this in a strictly neutral, non-value-laden and purely intellectual sense, but:
That's a Christian thing, and something that matters to Christianity. Because Christianity sought (and seeks) converts. However, it's pretty much a non-issue to Jews.
The right of return is maybe a little more ambiguous. But it was (mostly) cooked up in order to justify zionism on an ex-post-facto basis. Not everyone accepts the doctrinal reasoning behind it. Many reject it. And, generally speaking, neither living in Israel nor having the right to do so is at all a central, major, or signature aspect of Jewish faith and practice. People might (and do) have strong feelings about it. Obviously. But they're highly unlikely to be strong
religious feelings, unless they're Christians whose eschatological beliefs require the Jews to be resident in Israel prior to the return of the messiah.
In which case, as Saurian Tail says.
