Tag Archives: Palestine

Ed Bangers

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I see wandering minstrel Ed Sheehan has run into a spot of bother. I’m not a fan of the Ginger One – I can only name about three of his songs – but I do have some sympathy for him as he finds himself embroiled in a decidedly no-win situation.  

Apparently one of his support acts on his current world tour, a rapper with only a passing acquaintance with talent, an individual by the name of Macklemore, decided to use the platform Sheeran had provided him with to make pro-Palestine and borderline anti-Semitic pronouncements. The promoters of the tour decided this was potentially damaging especially during its American leg, and Macklemore was subsequently dropped from the roster.  

Other of Ed’s support acts decided then that they too would jump ship in support of Macklemore and abandon the musician who was paying them for their (musical) support. Ed then issued a statement to say he didn’t have a view about Gaza and that all he wanted to do was perform his songs for the people who’d paid to hear them, while making lots of money for himself. Which seems reasonable enough. It’s what pop stars do. His fans hadn’t, presumably, handed over their hard-earned cash to hear him pontificate on matters he knows, like his detractors, little about.

This proved to be not good enough for those who demanded he must have a view and that that view should be the same as theirs – ie: that he too should firmly come down on the pro-Palestine side of the argument. Naturally, Ed immediately capitulated and did just this, issuing a tearful apology to fans and the rest of the world during one of his concerts in Philadelphia.

This pantomime was not enough for those who claim to promote hope against ‘hate’. Too much, too little, too late seemed to be their verdict. The situation in Gaza that Ed had described as complicated (he’s right, it is) was, they declared, nothing of the sort. They insisted and continue to insist that morally one can only come down on the Free Palestine side of ‘history’; no other option is possible.

None of these people, it seems to me, are possessed of any self-awareness. None of them ask themselves –

Why does it matter what a pop singer thinks about an issue as complex as Gaza?

Is Sheeran not entitled to maintain a silence over an issue he knows, by his own admission, little about? Sheeran is neither a philosopher nor a diplomat; why must he use his celebrity status to pontificate on the state of the world?

How much do declarations by public figures change situations on the ground? Not at all, I wouldn’t have thought.

If it wasn’t okay for Sheeran to remain silent about Palestine – there are no neutral positions, remember – why is it okay that those who badger him remain silent about the Islamist massacre of Christians in Nigeria (25,250 men, women and children) and the displacement of 2 million others? Why aren’t those who’ve got it in for Sheeran protesting and making public declarations about this particular appalling situation?

What if Ed had arrived at a different position from the one his detractors expected of him? His fellow pop star, the songstress P!NK did precisely this and is now being faced with attempts to hound her out of her position as a Unicef ambassador.

What does Free Palestine actually mean? Hamas has said frequently that the only way Palestine can be free is if the Jews either leave the area (not going to happen) or are exterminated. Is this the solution the Free Palestiners are demanding? Or have they something else in mind? If so what?

Does sloganeering and virtue signalling ever achieve anything? Has bullying a lightweight pop star into submission changed the situation in Palestine one little bit? Did Netanyahu take notice of Macklemore’s and Ed’s eventual declaration and decide because two pop stars he’s never heard of have called him out on the severity of his retaliation for the 7th October 2023 massacre of Israelis, he should maybe ease up a bit?

Was Christopher Hitchens right when he said religion poisons everything? If Judaism, Christianity and Islam were to disappear overnight, would the world not be a whole lot better off?

Answers on a postcard, please. Not that anyone’s listening to anything we say either, but…

 

 

 

Evidence of God

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As for evidence, you might be aware of Israel. That nation has been in the news much of late. So, without being flippant at all, I present Israel as evidence. Think about it. They are living the script written thousands of years ago. Not by chance.

Israel as evidence for the existence of God. I’m thinking about it as Don suggests.

Where did it all begin, this bizarre notion that one tribe in the Middle East was chosen by God to be his special people? According to the Genesis myth, it was when YHWH promised Abraham he’d be his best buddy forever and ever, so long as he mutilated his body and those of his sons in perpetuity. They would also have to keep every one of this bullying god’s 365 rules and regulations, including the petty and piffling ones. So far so good, apart from the fact it was all very one-sided, and the mutilation of course. You’d think this would’ve been a sign that things weren’t quite kosher, but no; Abraham and his descendants buy into it and almost straight away, YHWH begins to let them down.

God’s Chosen Ones soon find themselves slaves in Egypt. A second mythical character is needed – up pops Moses – to get them out of this scrape. Unfortunately, after Moses has finished chatting with YHWH, who identifies as a burning bush on the top of a mountain, the sulky deity feels slighted by something the Israelites are doing. As is his way, he has many of them slaughtered and the rest he forces to troop around the same small plot of land for 40 years. This is how best buddies treat each other!

Later, the Jews find themselves defeated by the Babylonians and are carted off into exile. This exile, which YHWH does nothing to prevent, lasts 70 years. Still, it leads to a pleasant song made famous by Boney M in 1978 so I suppose it was worth it.

For the next few hundred years, Israel falls under the rule of other nations more powerful than itself. Not to worry though, YHWH is still ‘looking after them’, particularly those who are slaughtered in the rebellions that ensue. As Robert Conner says in a recent comment on Debunking Christianity, ‘If Yahweh ever threatens to bless you and your children, just kill yourself and get it over with.’

Fast forward to the Roman occupation of Israel. YHWH, having undergone a makeover, reneges on his promise to take care of his Chosen Nation forever and ever and comes up with a different plan to save people from his own cussedness. Now, if they want to continue as his friend, they have to believe a supernatural being has returned from the dead.

Abandoned by God, as he now wants to be called, Jews who haven’t defected to the new faith see their sacred, eternal temple destroyed by the Romans in AD70. Thousands of them are massacred and the Jewish nation ceases to exist.

This sets the pattern for the next two millennia in which God’s new friends organise pogroms, massacres and vicious persecution of Jews. This culminates in the Final Solution of the Third Reich which seeks to eliminate the Jewish people entirely. While awaiting extermination in a concentration camp, Andrew Eames scrawls on the wall of his prison: ‘If there is a God, He will have to beg for my forgiveness.’ God allows six million of his Chosen People die at the hands at the Nazis.

Following the second world war, Israel takes possession of the area surrounding Jerusalem, then occupied by Palestinian Muslims who are themselves descended from earlier immigrants. Thousands on both sides are slaughtered in the conflict that follows. In 1948, after almost 2,000 years, Israel becomes a nation once again; not through any miracle of God but as a result of human endeavour and bloodshed.

Tension and further skirmishes followed, leading to the present day when Israel finds itself under attack by Hamas terrorists. Thousands of innocents – women, children and babies – have been slaughtered without mercy. Israel is, as I write, retaliating and intends to enact further vengeance. And where is God in all this? You guessed it: nowhere to be seen.

All of this, according to some – including the naive writer at the top of this post – serves as evidence of God’s existence. That Israel has persevered for so long, despite opposition, persecution and the holocaust is not, however, evidence of God, any more than the great cathedrals of the world are. It is instead testimony to the resilience, resolve and sheer bloody mindedness of the people themselves. Perhaps their belief in YHWH (they don’t of course recognise his Christian counterpart) has fuelled their persistence, as it has their territorial claims.

Jewish beliefs and history are not evidence that YHWH exists. If anything, his apparent abandonment* during their many trials and tribulations is evidence to the contrary.

*Of course a non-existent entity can’t actually abandon anything, any more than it can lend its support or favour one group of people over another.