Israel Matzav

We may not have to be a convent, but we have to remember why we're here

In the Corner, Mike Potemra - who is not Jewish - tells the story of an anti-Iraq War blogger named Mark Shea who is trying to drive a wedge between Israel and its Christian supporters by showing a tourism promoting video of a good-looking Israeli blonde in a bikini.

He [Shea] realizes that this is really a “Golden Calf appeal to Money Sex and Power” that is “perfectly representative of typically debased postmodern secular culture.”

Potemra says there's nothing wrong with it:

Now, I think Israel is both a secular national state and a nation of descendants of God’s Chosen People—and this gives me two reasons to back Israel. As an Evangelical, I have emotional and religious reasons to support the Jewish believers who live in Israel; as a believer in secular freedom—America, too, is a secular (i.e., non-confessional) state, and long may it remain so—I support the people of Israel, believers and non-believers alike, who are just trying to live normal lives in the face of enemies who want to (first) put their women in burkas and (second) exterminate them. I can’t, of course speak for all evangelicals; but from what I know, many of us have a sense of humor and will not let the Sex Police of the Blogosphere turn us against a brave ally fighting a just war.

Potemra is right. But for those of us who live in Israel and appreciate that this is God's land, we owe it to ourselves to make sure we remember why we live here and what we're supposed to be doing here. You all know who you are and I don't need to lecture you about it. You all know that if we start to forget why we're here, God has His ways of punishing us and they may include some or all of our international support abandoning us. As to the rest of you, I won't bore you with that video.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:13 AM