The "Chosen" People

LA Times

The Muslim world is obsessed with the Jews and with annihilating the one Jewish state, an obsession analogous to that of the Nazis.


In the words of Catholic scholar Father Edward Flannery, "the Jews carry the burden of God in history." Most Jews do not believe this (or almost any Jewish religious doctrine, for that matter). And many Jews dislike talk of chosenness because they fear it will increase anti-Semitism. They may be right.


But it doesn't alter the fact that the worldwide obsession with one of the smallest countries and smallest peoples on Earth, and the unique hatred of the Jews and the Jewish state by the world's most vicious ideologies, can be best explained only in transcendent terms. God, for whatever reason, chose the Jews.

This article is quite scary and probably represents why some Jews feel a comraderie towards the Christian Right. This man's logic is seriously flawed and egocentric. He tries to make the point that being "chosen" is not racism. Technically the allegations of "racism" are incorrect since emetic people include many Jews and Arabs. More correctly the word prejudice should be used.
He seems to miss entirely that the issue of racism comes up most often with radial Zionism which seeks to eliminate the Arab population in Israel, one way or another. The other form of prejudice is the laws within Israel that apply differently to Israelis and Palestinians based solely on genetic heritage. Even some Jews are said to be "less Jewish" than others. There is a multi-tiered set of rights and privileges based on heritage. By definition, that is prejudice. From Merriam-Webster Online, prejudice is:

...preconceived judgment or opinion...an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics.

The prejudice in this article is directed at the "Muslim World". The truth is the Muslim world is no more obsessed about what they see as a cruel invader than any other people. The title of the article, "Evil targets God's chosen" implies the "Muslim World" is evil. Pat Robertson has been quoted saying the same.
For those who are having trouble with this argument, let me describe a analogous situation. Lets say a tribe Native Americans establish a relationship with the Chinese in 100 years. China, who has advanced it's technology well beyond the rest of the world as the new "super power", has given superior military technology to the tribe. The tribe now decides it wants back it's ancestral land which just happens to include Washington DC and much of the central east coast. They take the land, forcibly, and set about defending it from a furious American population. But because of their military inferiority, they are unable to take back their capital.
Would attempts by Americans to take back their capital at whatever cost be considered prejudice? Very likely in the heat of war politics, Americans would say many times they will "sweep them into the sea", "wipe them from the face of the earth". Would this make it prejudice?
Would the tribe be considered prejudiced because they took back the land? Naturally, many of the Americans would be displaced by the war, many would become refugees. There would be much conflict within the community where rebellious residents would harass and be harassed. But would this conflict be called prejudice?
Now if the tribe threw out Americans just because of their "American-ness", restricted their rights, and went after criminals and terrorists within the American community with little regard for innocent bystanders, prejudice would apply.
If Americans started killing Native Americans of other tribes, regardless of their peacefulness, prejudice would apply.
Suppose the tribe started calling all Americans "evil" because they wanted to wipe out their new country. That is prejudice.
If Americans started targeting Chinese where ever or whoever they were for murder, and sent a commando raid to Beijing to blow up the largest building full of people, they too would be acting on prejudice.
Prejudice was not what started the conflict in the Middle East. It was a classic clash of cultures where one culture with superior military power imposed it's will on another. This is a process that has repeated itself over and over again in history. In all of history's clashes of culture, prejudice very likely developed after the war, while the dominant culture imposed it's will on the population within it's new territory. It is truly a natural part of history.
But that doesn't make it right.


Complete Article
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-faith10jul10,1,2570016.story
Evil targets God's chosen
By Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com.
July 10, 2005
If the west understood the meaning of the Muslim terrorism against Israel and of contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism, it would be far better prepared to fight the sort of terrorism that struck London last week.
However, as almost always happens, too many dismiss anti-Semitism as the Jews' problem or even the Jews' fault, when in fact it is the most accurate predictor of an evil that humanity will have to fight.
That, to the world's benefit and the Jews' unhappy fate, is the role Jews play. That is the way it is because the Jews are the chosen people.
Now, believe me, I am well aware of the hazards of making such a claim.
First, it sounds racist.
Second, it sounds chauvinistic, as if it were a claim of inherent Jewish superiority.
Third, it sounds irrational, if not bizarre.
But the claim of Jewish chosenness could not be racist because a) The Jews are not a race. There are Jews of every race. And b) Any person of any race, ethnicity or nationality can become a member of the Jewish people and thereby be as chosen as Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah or the current chief rabbi of Israel.
As for chauvinism, there is not a hint of inherent superiority in the claim of Jewish chosenness. In fact, the Jewish Bible, the book that states the Jews are chosen, constantly berates the Jews for their flawed behavior. No holy work of any other religion is so critical of the religious group affiliated with that holy work.
As for the claim of chosenness being irrational or even bizarre, it is so only to an atheist. But anyone, even the atheist, must look at the evidence and conclude that the Jews play a role in history that defies reason.
Without the Jews, there would be no Christianity (a fact acknowledged by the great majority of Christians), no Islam (a fact acknowledged by few Muslims) and nothing that developed in those cultures that was based on belief in the God the Jews introduced to the world — such as science and the abolition of slavery.
Other nations have perceived themselves as chosen or divinely special. China means "Middle Kingdom" in Chinese — meaning that China is at the center of the world. Japan considers itself the land where the sun originates ("Land of the Rising Sun").
What's different about the Jews is that vast numbers of people outside the religion have believed the Jews' claim or hated the Jews for it.
But the greatest evidence for chosenness is the evil that has targeted Jews since the mid-20th century:
• Nazi Germany was more concerned with exterminating the Jews than with winning World War II. Whenever there was competition for resources between the war and the "final solution," Hitler chose the murder of Europe's Jews.
• Throughout its 70-year history, the Soviet Union persecuted its Jews and tried to extinguish Judaism. At the time of Stalin's death, he was planning a massive killing of Soviet Jews.
• The United Nations has spent more time discussing and condemning the Jewish state than any other country. That is why the U.N. General Assembly has passed an unparalleled 322 resolutions against Israel. Yet this state is smaller than every Central American country. Imagine if the amount of attention paid to Israel were paid to Belize — who would not think there was something extraordinary about that country?
• The Muslim world is obsessed with the Jews and with annihilating the one Jewish state, an obsession analogous to that of the Nazis.
In the words of Catholic scholar Father Edward Flannery, "the Jews carry the burden of God in history." Most Jews do not believe this (or almost any Jewish religious doctrine, for that matter). And many Jews dislike talk of chosenness because they fear it will increase anti-Semitism. They may be right.
But it doesn't alter the fact that the worldwide obsession with one of the smallest countries and smallest peoples on Earth, and the unique hatred of the Jews and the Jewish state by the world's most vicious ideologies, can be best explained only in transcendent terms. God, for whatever reason, chose the Jews.
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Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times