What do these words have in common? Trinity was what Oppenheimer christened the first successful test of a nuclear bomb 70 years ago. Gideon's Chariots is what the Israeli government named their recent ultimate genocidal invasion of Gaza.
But what do they have in common? They are both instances of a nation at war resorting to enlisting divine licence to commit terrible, all-too-human crimes against humanity.
Calling the first nuclear detonation Trinity was our own Oppenheimer's brainstorm. This literary genius (not), who seemed to like to show off his eclectic literacy at any opportunity, was familiar with John Donne's "Holy Sonnet XIV" where Donne refers to God in the first line as a "three-personed God". (That would be, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.)
Hiding behind God has worked well for the United States. Both Israel and the United States seem to think that you can get away with just about anything with God on your side.
Gideon's Chariots evokes the story of a young man who is chosen by God to conquer an overwhelming foe of idolaters. He succeeds because it is God's will that he succeed. He is visited by an angel early on, who blesses him with the words: "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!"[
So, I'm confused. Is it Israel or Gideoon mopping up in Gaza, triumphally re-bombing Palestine, bombing the bombed, enlarging craters? Starving the famished? According to the Bible, Gideon started out with a large army, but God kept saying he had too many soldiers and he was divinely instructed to send most of them home., God wanted Gideon to be the living proof that when you have God behind you you can do anything. If Israel is identifying with Gideon, they can do no wrong, and they are picturing themselves as champions of God's will.
This kind of craziness is exactly what gives religion such a bad rap. Instead of copying us, Israel should have learned from our hubris. What evil has discovered is that God doesn't have to follow His own commandments. He made up morality! He can say,"Thou shalt wipe out thy neighbors" and all the sheep will just say "Baaaa".Ãï ? ? €šÃ‚
(Article changed on May 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM EDT)
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