Morality vs. immorality in today’s politics
Consider the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza and a quotation from the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:14 in the Hebrew Bible): “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: A voice is heard in Ramah weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Is the right wing, ultra-orthodox, extremist political party of Benjamin Netanyahu that no longer accepts its own Hebrew version of the Old Testament identical with Trump’s MAGA Party that no longer accepts the New Testament as Gospel, other than “cherry-picking” which chapter and verse it chooses to accept or reject? And where is Donald Trump in this debate?
He really doesn’t care since he’s not personally involved. He’s waiting for a negative outcome of this war so he can blame Biden. Netanyahu has always been the darling of the Republican Party, circumventing Barack Obama in his last visit, speaking in Washington at the beck and call of Mitch McConnell, the speaker who originally vilified Trump for his insurrection and now endorses him for another term for president.
The “new” Republican Party (the “old” gone forever), the Christian fascist MAGA Party is caught in the crosshairs of morality vs. immorality, no longer believing the words of the founder of Christianity, no longer believing that character matters, is now vesting its entire philosophy on ruthless power, no matter the consequences, the fitting profile of the Israeli prime minister.
The ancient voice that resounded in Israel 2,000 years ago is heard today, not just in the Middle East, but around the world, but the city and surroundings have changed. Replace the “m” in Ramah to “f” in Rafah and we’ll revisit the murderous actions of Herod, now with Netanyahu in his callous overreaction to the slaughter of the innocents by Hamas.
James D. Cook
Schaumburg