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Carolyn Brouillard's avatar

Excellent article. I'm currently struggling with the ideological separation of what you call "Spiritual Israel" from "Zionist Israel." While I can see the distinction you're making, I'm not sure they are actually independent or divergent. Making a distinction is a bit unsettling for me because it seems like a way to dismiss Israel's crimes and warmongering as a product of "extreme" and/or orthodox factions or Netanyahu himself. I had the same feeling when watching, "The Bibi Files," promoted by Ian Carroll. Seemed like a limited hangout, meant to concentrate responsibility with what is portrayed as a minority.

While clearly some (probably many) people in Israel, including rabbis, are against Israel's military actions and the horrors they cause, the more I learn about the prophecies and what the Torah and Talmud actually says and the more supremacist and hateful stuff I hear from orthodox rabbis and even just your average person on the street, the more problematic I find their collective worldview--secular Jews included.

I actually have it on my idea list to write an article about how it is not possible for a certain group of people to be "chosen" or have a special relationship or covenant with God. That is a fabricated human construct, and the idea that Jews are supposed to be moral leaders is laughable in light of their actions in the real world. My mom has been to Israel and Palestine multiple times over the past several years and always comes back with horror stories about how the Palestinians are treated, even before the most recent events.

I have compassion for the Israelis, who are probably among the most programmed and manipulated people on the planet, who are raised within a construct that demands compliance with an exorbitant array of rules and customs, who feel like they are perpetual victims facing existential threats. Obviously your average Israeli is not directly responsible for the actions of its government, as is true here in the US and everywhere else. But it is seeming to me that it is actually some of the spiritual and cultural foundations that are the root cause problems, making everyone who ascribes to them complicit or culpable in some way. It is why a growing number of my Jewish friends are actually renouncing their culture and religion because they are seeing it for what it really is.

Lest anyone think my only problem is with the Judaic faith, I view all religion as a scourge on the planet, being invented primarily for purposes of control, including the suppression of consciousness.

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Simon Madden's avatar

The Mahdi could be seen as a precursor to the second Advent of Jesus, in the same way that John the Baptist preceded Jesus and also identified him, so it will be with the Mahdi. History repeating itself.

The Mahdi will pave the way for the eventual return of Jesus, and Muslims also see Jesus as the Messiah. In this respect, there will be an End-Time alliance between Christians and Muslims. This can be seen in the alliance between Russia and Iran.

The Ad-Dajjal Al Massih (the deceiving Messiah) will be Jewish (with the long side curls of an Orthodox Jew) as the Jews in the time of Jesus rejected him, thus, they are awaiting for their own Messiah.

Actually, a part of me thinks Israel is in the process of trying to hasten the arrival of their Messiah.

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