Rite and Reason:On the very same day recently that the US government announced it was to supply $20 billion worth of advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia, and €30 billion to Israel, a friend sent a short internet video.
Taken by Max Blumenthal (who is Jewish), the video reported on a conference last month in Washington which was organised by Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
Delegates comprised several former and current US senators: Joseph Lieberman, John DeLay and Rick Santorum. Presidential candidate John McCain paid a surprise visit. Delegates were asked about the "second coming". DeLay announced that he was looking forward to it: others pitied those who would be left behind in "the rapture".
Since the second coming was presumably going to happen in Israel, it was imperative that good relations with Israel be maintained. For these reasons, CUFI lobby Congress to oppose a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and encourage a pre-emptive strike on Iran. Calmly envisaging the destruction of a country with 70 million people, they argued that if "we" don't take out Iran, or if "we" move out of Iraq, Muslims (who have Satan behind them) will take over and follow "us" here.
They looked forward to Armageddon. Some had their bags packed: others wore T-shirts comparing lesbians, gays and bisexuals to animals, and waited for the earth to be cleansed. A problem arose - the antichrist. What would such a person look like? Some delegates announced gravely that the antichrist would be a peacemaker: one who had promoted peace for many years and who would force Israel into a peace treaty with the Arabs.
Delay Armageddon and you delay the rapture, it was argued, forcing conference delegates back to the harsh realities of the daily grind from which their omnipotent fantasies had protected them. Had a mere human being expressed such fantasies, any junior psychiatrist would have instigated appropriate medical procedures. Any police officer would have prosecuted such hate speech on the spot. Expressed under the auspices of religion, however, such views receive immunity.
We are not dealing with religious beliefs, but omnipotent fantasies of empire backed by the most devastating weapons known to humankind. When paranoid delusions are backed up with $50 billion worth of weapons, we need to question freedom of speech and ask: whose speech, whose trade, whose victims?
Studies are now emerging about the lethal role such fantasies played in the run-up to the Iraqi invasion. The presence of distinguished members of the US legislature at that Washington conference speaks volumes about the ongoing ability of such fantasies to inform decision-making at the highest levels.
What does this have to do with Ireland? The Government's three monkeys (freedom not to hear, to see, or to speak evil) approach to the ethics of weapons-parts manufacturing here and the use of Shannon airport facilitates a build-up to what is potentially one of the greatest threats to the future of humankind.
In the past, Ireland often led the world on international policy. Today, the challenge is much greater; the stakes much higher; the consequences, immeasurable. We must ask questions of our fundamentalisms. What gods do we now worship? What fantasies sustain our wellbeing? At whose expense do we remain silent?
The video my friend sent me is at: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/07/christians_united_for_israel.php
Mary Condren Th.D. is co-ordinator of the forthcoming conference, Challenging Cultures of Death: Mercy Not Sacrifice. http://www.instituteforfeminismandreligion.org