A question of holiness
Pinhas Walerstein, hailed by part of the Israeli media as "a moderate settler", a few days ago called upon fellow settlers "not to harm the IDF's holiness".
The IDF's holiness. The holy IDF. The Holy Army. In every other country of the Western Democratic World, to which Israel so much wants to belong, these words would sound very strange, not exactly part of 2010.
In the Middle Ages, indeed, there were such things. Holy Armies there were all over Europe, orders of fighting monks which went on Crusades and Holy Wars. But all this went out of fashion, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago.
At those times, Jews did not have Holy Armies. Jews who had to bad fortune to find themselves on the path of a Holy Army often had a very bitter fate. But it seems that about a thousand years out of schedule, somebody is trying to make up for lost time, create here a Holy Army and send us by an express train back to the Middle Ages.
Note: This blog is going on vacation until February 1.
