End of Judeo-Christian Fraud?

[Idaho Kid]

Carolina Landsmann, Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.764727

The day after a Muslim asylum seeker ran over a crowd of Christmas shoppers in Berlin last month, a Fox News correspondent questioned President-elect Donald Trump about his initial response, in which he'd stated that this was an attack on Christians. "Who said that?" asked Trump. "I think it was you in a press release," she replied. "How will it affect relations with Muslims?" she continued. Trump interrupted her to say, "this was an attack on humanity. That's what it was, an attack on humanity. This has to stop."

Trump's spontaneous reaction was a bit confusing. At first it seemed as though he was demonstrating some responsibility, pulling back from the divisive terminology of a religious conflict. It wasn't a Muslim man attacking Christians but an attack against humanity. But if humanity is the victim, who does Trump think the assailant is? It's unclear who is on the other side of the fence he drew around humanity – is it only the terrorist or all Muslims? And where are the Jews in all this?

Under the cloak of political correctness, under which any differences between human beings are denied, differences between Jews and Christians have been relegated to differences in their religious beliefs. Moreover, in a secular world such differences have lost their behavioral distinctions, not to mention their ethical ones. It is forbidden to think, let alone express out loud, the obvious: that the differences between Judaism and Christianity, which embrace different systems of morality and education and differ in character, manifest themselves in the way states conduct themselves. And now, even before Trump has been sworn in, a layer of political correctness that has covered "humanity" like natural toned makeup is being peeled away, exposing a mix of skin tones for all to see.

Even here in Israel we've discovered this month that we're Jewish, with the attendant characteristics. The sharp response to the UN Security Council resolution on the settlements was explained by the prime minister thus: "We don't turn the other cheek." We all know who does. Everyone knows we're Jews, so what did Benjamin Netanyahu try to clarify? It looks as though he wanted to endow this fact with new meaning.

For the first time it appears that Netanyahu is trying to highlight differences between us and Christians, instead of searching for common denominators. He pointed to a qualitative moral difference between us, not just a quantitative one. Until now we were simply more ethical than others – the Israel Defense Forces is the most moral army in the world, we said. The implied assumption was that Christians and Jews share the same moral yardstick. But now all that universal values nonsense is behind us. "Enough with that Diaspora mentality," clarified Netanyahu. "There is no political wisdom in groveling." What are we, Christians? From now on we'll respond as Jews, in other words, using a different ethical yardstick.

Netanyahu laid the foundation for a new kind of dialogue between Israel and the world. No longer will values shared by Israel and the Western world dictate Israel's policies, but a value system unique to Jews. Jews, as is well known, do not turn the other cheek when they're slapped. For us, the guiding principle is to preemptively kill anyone rising to kill you, as the Talmud decrees. All that remains is to convince Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkot, who is still stuck in yesteryear's Diaspora code of ethics.

However, words cast into the vacuum of space can return like a boomerang. Anyone who talks about "we" should not be surprised if he soon hears the term "you" in the plural. The state of the Jews should prepare to be on the receiving end of the attitude the world reserves for Jews. This time it will be without the protection of political correctness, which was invented specifically for them. What does it mean to be a nation that lives among others as if it were like them, while at the same time living according to a different ethical system?