Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Leading Israeli authors, intellectuals call for truce with Hamas - Haaretz, September 24, 2007

A long list of prominent intellectuals recently signed a petition calling for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.

The signatories of the petition - which was organized by the sponsors of the Geneva Initiative and will be published today - include the novelists Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Meir Shalev, Judith Katzir, Eli Amir, Savyon Liebrecht, Yehoshua Sobol and Dorit Rabinyan.

The petition, titled “Agreement with [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas, cease-fire with Hamas,” reads: “Israel has in the past negotiated with its worst enemies … Now, the appropriate course of action is to negotiate with Hamas to reach a general cease-fire to prevent further suffering for both sides.”

Danny Rubinstein, How many were arrested last night? - Haaretz, September 24, 2007

Shortly before his death three years ago, the sociologist Gadi Yatziv wrote that in the IDF struggle against terrorism, victory is part of failure. It is impossible to win because every raid, assassination, arrest and roadblock stir[s] rage and hatred and broaden[s] the pool of conscripts for terrorist cells. But it is also impossible to fail because the spokesmen of the Israeli security establishment will always claim that without these raids and roadblocks, terrorism will be much worse. It is an argument that cannot be refuted.

Divine politics | Salon, September 24, 2007

Westerners now talk blithely about the need for a “reformation” in Islam, apparently oblivious to how bloody and traumatic the Christian Reformation actually was. Lilla finds this situation perilous. As long as we refuse to acknowledge the madness of the religious wars and persecutions of the 16th century, he argues, we remain in danger of loosening our grip on “the Great Separation” (of church and state) that resulted from it. By not understanding how easily any politics infused with any religion can drift in the direction of fanaticism and terror, we put ourselves at risk of drifting that way ourselves.

US Holocaust Museum, Auschwitz through the lens of the SS: Photos of Nazi leadership at the camp, Picture 10, Nazi officers and “female auxiliaries”