Author Chris Hedges. (photo: PBS)
11 August 14
od’s
covenant in the Promised Land was not made with those who pilot F-16
fighter jets that drop 1,000-pound iron fragmentation bombs over the
concrete hovels of Gaza. It was not made with those operating Apache or
Cobra attack helicopters that unleash lethal fire over crowded refugee
camps. It was not made with drone operators that clinically kill
children ... outside mosques. It was not made with M-60 tank units and
artillery crews that murder families huddled in terror in their homes.
It was not made with those on gunboats that slaughter boys
playing on a beach. It was not made with those that fire Sidewinder
missiles and drop 250-pound “smart bombs” on apartment blocks. It was
not made with snipers from the Golani Brigade that gun down unarmed men and women for sport. It was not made with occupiers that reduce an entire people to a starvation diet—indeed count the calories to keep them barely alive—or to those who use words like “mowing the lawn” to justify the indiscriminant slaughter of innocents.
God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made with
politicians—including every member of the U.S. Senate—that mouth words
for peace and perpetuate war, that call for justice and perpetuate
injustice, that refuse to stand up for the rule of law and the right of a
captive people to be free.
God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made,
finally, with any race or religion. It was not made with the Jews. It
was not made with the Muslims. It was not made with the Christians.
God’s covenant—in the Bible and the Koran—was made with the righteous.
When Ibrahim asked in the holy Koran if the covenant could be inherited,
he was told bluntly: “My covenant is not given to oppressors.” And
God’s iron requirement to stand with the oppressed occurs as well in the
Hebrew and Greek bibles. Those who turn away from righteousness—be they
Jew, Christian or Muslim—violate that covenant. They are not God’s
people.
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