[T]here is only one thing that is capable of providing us with the level of certainty that is needed to keep from buckling under to the escalating local and international pressure. Simply stated, it is the unwavering belief that the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. ... It is this, and not the Holocaust or a UN vote, which is our real claim to the Land of Israel.
In the comments section Meltzer goes on to nail his point home:
What he is propagating is that Jews should use a religious narrative (the "God argument") to ensure the unyielding strenght of the community.
Let’s follow through with this thought. It in effect means that the Jewish nation would have to be unanimous in not doubting this belief system, at least in public. As soon as doubt appears, questions will need to be answered, and there are no good answers as to why this particular claim to the land is better founded than that of the people next door.
What are Meltzer’s answers should he be faced with the assertion that God, or Allah, in fact gave the land to the Arabs? The problem is that there are no tools of argumentative logic to prove that his narrative is more relevant than another supposedly divine claim to the land.
Divinity is not an objective category. It’s a question of accepting or rejecting the story, not of lining up arguments to actually prove your point to be more valid than others. Building the strength of a society on a divine claim won’t work unless people are unanimously accepting the belief. And certainly you can't expect a whole nation to be undoubting, let alone expect the world to do so.
Divinity is not an objective category. It’s a question of accepting or rejecting the story, not of lining up arguments to actually prove your point to be more valid than others. Building the strength of a society on a divine claim won’t work unless people are unanimously accepting the belief. And certainly you can't expect a whole nation to be undoubting, let alone expect the world to do so.
It takes an argument that can be evaluated against other claims within an objective framework to build the strong foundation that can be proven right when it is attacked.
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