Likelihood of Success

In an article trying to explain the involvement of doctors in the London / Glasgow plot, Christopher Hitchens, attempting to show that doctors can be terrorists as long as they’re religious enough, writes:

You may recall the case of Dr. Baruch Goldstein. On Feb. 25, 1994, this Israeli army physician stalked into the so-called “Cave of the Patriarchs” in Hebron, unslung his automatic weapon, and fired into the crowd of Muslim worshippers, killing 29 people of all ages and both sexes before being killed himself. … In Goldstein’s view, Hippocratic precepts were overridden by Orthodox teaching, and there were a number of rabbis ready to support his stand on the matter. There were also a number of rabbis who decided to consecrate his tomb as a shrine to a brave Jewish martyr, and the children of ultra-Orthodox settlers were seen wearing buttons reading, “Dr. Goldstein cured Israel’s ills.”

Hitchens is one of my favorite writers; but on the subject of religion, he’s not only wrong, he’s — quite ironically — irrational, a true believer. Phrases like “a number of rabbis,” used twice, are telling. How many? Answer: Not too damned many — essentially a Kahanist fringe. Goldstein was a mass murderer, as well as one who caused much subsequent loss of Jewish life. He was motivated by an offshoot of religion called Religious Zionism which infuses political, nationalistic action with religious themes and justifications. (For a good, sincere and intelligent discussion of Torah law and Baruch Goldstein, see here.)

If Hitchens were right and religiosity were proportional to a propensity to violent extremism the more “right-wing” a religious Jew may be, the more supportive he would be of Goldstein’s actions. This is true — on the political left/right spectrum.  But not on the religious one.  The “ultra-orthodox” Jews in Israel may be many things, but dangerous to others, as a statistical matter, they certainly are not.  It is the more religiously “centrist” but politically reactionary “National Religious” that get us Baruch Goldstein and the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.

That is a tragedy of Religious Zionism — it has no real response to Kahanism, which is merely its nationalistic and bigoted tenets taken largely to their logical extreme. It’s complicated.  But if Christopher Hitchens is going to write about religion, though, he should get it right.