An appraisal of the current situation centered on the conflict from Lebanon.

The Jew in Catholic Theology

Mr. Sobrino had an intersting post and comments in 'The War and a Teaching Moment for Catholics.' The folowing was a submission for comments that was not accepted, from Commonweal:

the Gospel of John portrays Jesus telling his disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If Jewish covenantal life with God has never been invalidated, however, do Jews need baptism to be in a saving relationship with God? On the other hand, if Christians do not seek to convert the Jews, hasn’t a fundamental Christian teaching been jettisoned, namely, that Christ is essential for everyone’s salvation?

The answers to such questions depend on how (the recent encyclical) Nostra aetate is interpreted. And some recent interpretations show how pivotal that declaration remains. In a November 2005 essay in First Things, Cardinal Avery Dulles offered a minimalist reading of Nostra aetate, claiming that the council “left open the question whether the Old Covenant remains in force today.”

There are several problems with this assertion. True, the declaration did not explicitly use the word “covenant” to characterize the enduring relationship between God and the Jewish people. Yet by rendering Romans 9:4-5 in the present tense (“to them belong the covenants”) and by invoking Romans 11:28-29 (“the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made”), Nostra aetate clearly affirmed the special relationship between the people of Israel and the God revealed in the Bible. This affirmation was later echoed by Pope John Paul II, who unequivocally and repeatedly stated that there exists “a covenant of eternal love, never revoked by God” between God and the Jewish people. More recently still, Pope Benedict has observed that “the favor of the God of the Covenant has always accompanied” the Jewish people, from biblical times to the present day, “giving them the strength to overcome trials.”

Two lines of registration are required at Commonweal to read the whole July 14th article, one of the best at this Catholic lay magazine.

Update: Mr. Sobrino this from Ignatius Loyola, Jesuit founder, in his Aug 15 blog:

At another point in the book, an Italian cardinal is quoted as comparing Escrivá to Saint Ignatius Loyola: as the Spaniard Loyola was the saint who implemented the Council of Trent, so the other Spaniard Escrivá was the saint who implemented the true vision of Vatican II (Allen, p. 17). (By the way, before reading this quote from a cardinal, I had written much the same thing earlier in this blog.) Here is what Loyola himself said about the possibility of being Jewish: "I would consider it a special thing to be united to Christ, our Lord, and to Our Lady, the glorious Virgin Mary, with ties of blood!" (quoted in Roy H. Schoeman, Salvation is from the Jews, Ignatius Press, 2003, p. 341).

Lamont, an archetype?

Learning more history, that Lamont is the grandson of Corliss Lamont, who... Well here is how the story goes. Corliss' father was a director for JP Morgan investment banking and became a wealthy man. Corliss was then wealthy by inheritance, became a fashionable Communist and was head of the ACLU from 1932-54. He continued his devotion to lefitsm through his life. Intersting this wind of history and suggested ambivalent conflict with the father should come through into current events. It perhaps sheds a little light on the current problem in the Democratic party. In a view the stuctural theory of personality analysis, there is the idea that ruler of self expression or superego holds in check infantile expression. The ego or operational area of the personality is ideally to some extent neutral in this fight. On occcasion though the ego gets identified with the unaceptable impulses and then essentially attempts to compromise itself to get out from under the guilt.

Good Points

Jewish authors essentially say work with the neighbor Lebanon.

"Indeed, it is more than likely that many of the civilian casualties being repeatedly mentioned in the media are in fact Hezbollah fighters killed while hiding in civilian clothes. This does not excuse Israeli mistakes that have undoubtedly cost the lives of genuinely innocent civilians, but exaggeration and Hezbollah tactics of mixing combat fighters among civilians clearly accounts for a fair percentage of the lives lost so far," reports Asia Times.

'Mothers don't let your children grow up and date Nasrallahs.' The country of Lebanon seems to have decided to date Nasrallah. Southern mothers were clearly not in control. Pity. "Crying shame."

Inspired by an Israeli article reprinted in Annika's Journal

Re: Iraq

Checkmate?

Fight

Reuters reports that '10 Israeli soldiers were killed in a rocket attack.' Pretty much a random shot that could have gotten anybody outdoors. They were reservists, military age civilians about to become soldiers perhaps. On the other hand, I read of the soldiers coming back from Lebanon that there is a concern about using the Air Force against firing positions for Hizbullah. There may be women and children there, but they are not civilians. They are draftees. Of course I know that Jews have suffered, cf. my comments in Haaretz, as what I call draftees or what you may call hostages. You are not fighting an aggressive war which Leviticus prohibits. They like calling you Nazis, and you can favor or abjure thinking of yourselves as Panzergruppe Yishrael, but few of you are going to be given an opportunity for Argentina. There are military necessities.

Update:
An example of Israel's Rules of War.

"But is not the evaluation of a war in terms of its justice a practice of conscience?" Leon Wieseltier will take you, perhaps after registration, to some agreement and a window to why there is not 'proportionality' in sympathy to take up Nathalie's question from a previous post.

To put this in further perspective, see here.

John McCain, R-Ariz. spent 5 years as a POW and has 7 children, one of whom just joined the Marines. I'd say that's doing pretty well. I'd like to see Rudy Giuliani run though. At this point, we need somebody who knows how to police a large city, Baghdad.

Met a man from Cairo today. Cairo, IL that is. Put me in mind of the grandiose Texan humor to have towns named 'Paris,' 'Athens.' I don't know if you know this, but the one state in the world where Neanderthals have the right of return is Texas. We try to signal that with our town names. Also put me in mind of Jim McMahon. He was several years older than most of a group of friends I hung out with on Portsmouth Street before I was deported. Remember riding around on bikes one day with him, the freshman philosopher, teaching that 'Every dog has his day!' He did become a philosophy teacher at Southern Illinois University, history of ideas, and got teacher of the year award. He got the 'crucify you award' the next year, was fired. He was working then as a motorcycle mechanic that year I talked to him and, ever the philosopher psychologist, said, 'You change your group of friends.'

Hezbollah enteritis

'In Qana, grocer Hassan Faraj -- who had sworn a day earlier never to leave -- jumped at the chance to escape. He shuttered his shop and loaded his wife and child into a van to go north into the mountains.

"My mother is very unwell, I must go and see her," he said, explaining his change of mind and insisting he was just dropping off his family to return.'

It seems to me one day he was sucking up to the local brave Hizbollah heroes, defenders of international law, candidates for Order of the Maltese whatever from the Vatican Pharisees office, etc. Then something changed his mind. The whole world hates the perfidy of the Jews at Qana; what is so hard about saying, 'They're terrible mean and nasty. They blew up the building and killed my cousins and the children,' sob, ('and a couple of nice people who hadn't paid their bill,') (blows nose). 'My holy duty from the Koran is to protect my children,' sob, sob, "I must quit this lovely place of my birth and leave it only to the Hizbollah heroes, who by the most sweetest of graces will courageously stay..' Why not? Because, he doesn't want his heroes to misunderstand and think that he is criticizing blowing up the building. He doesn't want them to get confused and think he might be thinking of their guilt, nor does he want to stay where he may have just seen useful dead examples of "Israeli injustice." Love for your sick mother gives you a better exeunt.