A corrupt, maleficent theocratic autocrat is dead, felled by two other schoolyard bullies. And we are at war.

Why? Well, it certainly distracts us from everything else Trump and Netanyahu were doing. In the middle of this war, as turmoil abounds, as folks shelter from the bombs and watch as the world holds its breath, let’s look at the movements those two other autocrats are leading – at items not listed in press conferences. These three bullies (one deceased) have far too much in common. A Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim walked into a war….

In recent times, the tenor at home in both Israel and the US has been repressive onslaughts by far-right religious fundamentalist nationalists seeking to control the rest of us according to their perception of “right.” The leaders do not only want to “win,” they want to gain and retain influence, stay out of jail, and push the limits of the law to do so. The right wing is in power, and its belligerence is not limited to war on other countries. They will use these would-be despots to prevail.

Right is not always right. The bullies are after us, too.

In the US, White Christian Nationalism has infiltrated the right wing currently in power. These Nationalists have been hell-bent on dominating the country for a long time, and their latest efforts include posting their sect’s version of the Ten Commandments in our public spaces, teaching their religion in our public schools, and making Christianity the religion of the land. They disregard our mandated separation of church and state.

Ideals woven throughout their presidential guidebook “Project 2025” would outlaw anything they deem to be against their religion, such as gay rights and women’s rights. They want married women to stay home during elections while their husbands vote on their behalf. “Nationalism” rears up as the government sends around soldiers to arrest those who “look different” in our own cities, under the presumption that they are interlopers and do not deserve to share in our liberties.  They want everyone who is not White Protestant Christian American by birth to be pressed into leaving. They have deported – and murdered – US citizens in their massive unholy sweeps.

They say they like Jews, for the moment, and are using us as scapegoats, accusing universities and other organizations of antisemitism which they insist can only be cured by eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. If the programs so arbitrarily deemed offensive are not eliminated, the administration takes away governmental funding, including financing that was previously allocated and is already being used for research and development and educational initiatives having nothing to do with either DEI or Judaism. They are taking over concert halls and museums, national parks and historic landmarks.

Trump needed a good war to distract from this and his own failings (such as the Epstein files, tearing down half the White House, renaming everything in sight after himself, hanging the image of the late Charlie Kirk on the Education building, and so on, not to mention the crimes he has already been convicted of), at least until after the November elections.

In Israel, the far-right ultra Orthodox seek to use civil law to exclude egalitarian family worship at the Wall.  This imminent Knesset decision (now delayed until after the war) reflects only one front in their attack.  They deem only their brand of Judaism to be kosher.  They wish to control all of Israel, as they broadly define it.  They “settle” occupied territories and harm others who live there, basing their choice of property on the Tanakh rather than on current law and world situation.  They feel they have the right to own, to take, to dictate, to use force and weapons to dominate, and to write laws to exclude others.  They happily send others’ children to war while still wrangling to keep theirs at home.

They deem themselves holier, more “observant,” and more deserving than all other Jews.

And they claim they are exercising Jewish values!  These are certainly not my Jewish values, and surely a majority of the world’s Jews agree with me.

Many of the actions taken by Israel’s far right instigate the ever-growing antisemitism around the world by playing into the hands of the propagandists who paint us all as white colonialists seeking to oppress populations of color.  As the far right in the U.S. chant “Jews will not replace us,” the far left chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”  Between Trump’s White Supremacist base and Netanyahu’s cabinet backed by the ultra Orthodox, everyone feels free to believe their feeds and despise us.

We have to a great extent lost the sympathy of the world.  We are no longer seen as an oppressed minority (though we are still 0.2% of the world and most countries don’t want any of us).  We are seen as the oppressors.

What happened to tending the earth, caring for those in need, being inclusive, welcoming the stranger among us?  Don’t all religions expect this?  Where does any of this appear?

Morality versus Ethics

Again, each of our countries (and several others) makes too much of religion being a matter of state.  It should not be, with the possible exception of Israel accepting Jews as citizens and remaining the Jewish homeland.

Religion is a guide to morality.  Faith circumscribes our lives with what is good to do and what is not good to do.  It describes our relationship with a higher being and with the universe, and defines our responsibility to teach those principles to the next generation.

Civil laws are our code of ethics.  They delineate how we interact with one another and create a thriving civilization, a community that functions for the common good.  Civil laws bind us together as a society.  We elect representatives to create laws and to tend to the operations of the government supporting our basic needs in thriving societies.  Our representatives in government should seek to craft laws that do not restrict or forbid anyone’s practice of religion.  Provide clean water and take out the trash!  Keep us safe and healthy.

Certainly we must live by our religious tenets.  But imposing them upon others as if it serves the common good has been proven wrong in every society that has endured such forced proselytizing.  It is most especially wrong to couch it within democratic multicultural civil law.  Religion does not give anyone the right to control others.  It is meant to define your own life.

We Jews do not proselytize others.  We have taught this for many generations, and we do not make it easy for others to join us.  The proscription of proselytizing also must apply to our own co-religionists who believe differently.  You may not tell us how to live our own code of morality, whether or not your party is in the majority.

Civil laws must serve the common good.  They must provide ways of sharing what we have in our civilization, not provide chains that restrict certain classes from exercising rights.

War is wrong.  Distraction by death is especially wrong.  This right-wing “religious” nationalism is wrong in both the U.S. and Israel.  And each is on a path to the extremism exhibited by Iran in recent decades.  Whether we are jubilant or tentative about decimating Iran’s government, we have to recognize the same tendencies in our own countries as well.

We already know how to create a fulsome society, each of us grounded in our basic morality while expressing freedom and liberty with commonly shared goals.  We are here to understand, and to work – civilly and ethically – to spread that understanding.  And to make peace more than we make war.

We find ourselves at war with a theocracy that turns religion into evil.  Let’s recognize what we are becoming and stop now.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)