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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 10, 1984
From conjecture about the past one is led to consideration of the
present. If Josephus was right and it was the Zealots who were
chiefly responsible for the national disasters of their time, is
it possible that the� desperate spirit of extremism and pseu'=
domessianic fanaticism which exists today among certain elements
in modern Israel could be the� cause of future tragedy? Is it
fair to ask whether modern zealots such as the Temple Mount fa
natics, Kach extremists, Gush Emunim militants and Jewish under
ground activists could lead a gullible public into an emotional
and aggressive nationalism and its corollary of permanent armed
conflict, with an erosion of Jewish moral values and even Jewish
physical disaster?
Of course, conditions
are
entirely different. Then, Rome was the
strongest power in the world. Judea was the weakest.... But by
the same token one can argue that conditions are completely dif
ferent in other aspects also••.• Instant communication and modern
travel have made the world a smaller place than it was, so that
what happens in one country is immediately known and affects many
countries.
It has been said that peace is indivisible. So is war. That is
why, in the long run, the world may not absorb or even tolerate
the harsh realities of�n Arab-IsraeIT conflicr-with its time
bomb set to blow .!!Ethe whole Middle East, and then possibly the
world•.••
Zealotry derives from a different set of values, far removed from
reason and compromise. Zealotry has no room for doubt and is mo
tivated by a burning passion for a single point of view. Zeal
otry generates hot power. But, like an overheated boiler, it can
explode, with horrific consequences for everyone.
Perhaps a
straight line can be drawn from the Zealots in the period of the
war against Rome to their counterparts in modern Israel.
And perhaps another straight line may be drawn between zealotry and jihad
spawned violence in the Middle East to future European intervention in the
region to put an end to the conflict before it gets out of hand.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau