The Conservative Cat

The meat of Alan's article is the following paragraph.

Ok, the challenge is on. Now let’s see whose God is stronger. Let Hamas and Hezbollah follow the lead of Rabbi Dayan, pray to their God, issue whatever curses they wish and wait for God to strike down the objects of their curses. But let’s stop doing God’s dirty work for him, by taking his law into our own hands.

Dershowitz is not a New Testament Scholar, so he doesn't realize he's stealing material from the book of Matthew, chapter 4, particularly the section where Satan tells Jesus that he should throw himself off the top of the temple to see if angels will rescue him.

Jesus did not appreciate Satan's suggestion.

A Model for Ending Terrorism is an example of what Rush Limbaugh calls "illustrating absurdity by being absurd". Mr. Dershowitz knows full well God is not going to intervene in the Middle East, but he thinks talking about it will prove to people how ridiculous it is to use religion as a justification for war.

That is, perhaps, a reasonable point, but the reason an alarm is going off in your head is that the point is completely irrelevant.

A satirical piece in the Huffington Post is hardly going to make religious fanatics wake up. Instead of making fun of religious fanatics who aren't going to listen, it would make more sense to encourage people of both faiths who are willing to condemn the cycle of violence. Short of genocide, an ascendancy of that sort of person is really our only hope for an end to this nonsense.

The thing is, encouraging the positive may possibly improve the situation on the ground, but it is definitely not going to make Alan Dershowitz feel superior.

Which is why it is so dangerous for humans to start thinking of themselves as superior life forms. Being superior is a great way to get people to give you free room and board, but it truly sucks as a method for getting individuals to stop fighting each other.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat