Israel, Palestine, and Christianity

I've been going through a slow change of opinion over the last few years on the question of supporting Israel. Not so much that I was on one side of the debate and now I'm on the other, but I didn't know a lot of things before that I do now.

As is common in many Christian churches, my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or Mormon church, has some beliefs regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. We believe that he will return, and Israel will play a significant role in his return as well as in some serious warfare around the time of his coming.

This leads myself and many other Christians to be generally strong supporters of Israel, because we believe that we will be aligned with Israel and Jesus Christ in those final times. Some better known biblical verses relating to these ideas are found in Isaiah 49:22-23. We believe Isaiah is speaking about the last days, when the Jews have suffered, and gentiles help them.

22Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

23And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

We believe these verses and surrounding verses were fulfilled specifically when Israel became a nation in May of 1948. My understanding is that the victorious powers of World War II basically divied up a lot of areas of the globe, and among them, England (the Gentiles) made a place for Israel. This allowed a mass return of Jews to Israel. Now Israel receives a lot of support from the US as well. So I think that many Pro-Israel Christians see their support of Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy, and something that should be offered without conditions.

While I also think that the support of Israel by the US and England is fulfilling prophecy, I don't think that we need to continue to support Israel blindly or unconditionally. I think the prophecy has been fulfilled. I think that God does not need us to support Israel even when Israel is wrong.

Recently it was reported that one of the wikileaks showed that Palestinians had offered to cede all of Jerusalem to Israel to move negotiations forward towards a two state solution. My understanding is that East Jerusalem was always supposed to be the new Palestinian capital, so a private willingness to cede it completely to Israel shows desperation to move forward with the two state solution.

In the present situation, Palestine would of course be desperate. Shortages of food, shortages of space, shortages of work, an inability to leave their circumscribed locations and return. Areas that are supposed to be part of Palestine when the two state solution is complete are being settled actively by Israel. The halt to settlement construction has ended, and has began again with a vengeance. Palestine has a lot to gain by finalizing the division. What does Israel have to gain? Most of the groups that are violently opposed to Israel will not stop their violence when the Palestinians have their own state.

On NPR several years ago, a veteran negotiator of the Ireland/Northern Ireland struggle commented that there was no peace in Ireland until both sides had more to gain by peace than they thought they could gain by violence. I think the same is true in Israel. Right now Israel doesn't have much to gain by executing the two state solution, and it has a lot to gain by putting it off.

It is my opinion that it is not necessary to support Israel when it is wrong. I think Israel is wrong in this situation. I think stopping financial support for Israel until it finalizes the two state solution is a great idea. I think we can try to help Israel end this conflict and still stand beside them at the end of days.

I appreciate comments, even when expressing contrary views!

Saving hundreds on car insurance

I'm tired of hearing so much deceptive advertising... so my way of stickin' it to the man is by opinionating on why specific advertisements are deceptive or wrong. My first victim is the mega car insurance companies that supposedly save hundreds of dollars compared to their competitor's prices.

The first note here is that they all say that "people who switched" saved. Kind of obvious, but people don't usually switch to a higher or equivalent insurance premium. Everyone saves when they switch. And it makes little difference which company people switch from or to. They won't do it unless they're saving money.

My second thought is that the numbers are always set in annual savings. Most people (by which I mean me at least) don't really think too much about their premiums in annual terms. They pay (and think about it) either monthly, or every six months. So when comparing the supposed average savings to a person's six month premium, they need to cut the advertised savings in half.

The third reason these numbers are so high is that most people that don't have lots of accidents or tickets already have pretty low rates, and don't want to spend the time and effort to analyze and compare the different numbers and contexts for insurance when their possible savings will only be a few dollars per month. Maybe people should, but I don't think they usually do.

Who does look around and switch policies? People who are paying a lot of money for their insurance. Young people (don't get me started about yound whipper snappers...) Accident prone people (in the automotive sense of the word.) Illegals (by which I mean people that get lots of tickets for speeding, illegal lane changes and U-turns, driving while under the influence, etc.) The poor (people with poor credit, owe insurance companies money, etc.)

Most of these people have high premiums. And I think almost all of them are acutely aware of when changes in life circumstances, or time, will reduce their premiums. If a person's been paying an insurance company a ton of money, and they think they can get a lower premium, I think most people would call other insurance companies first. And then they save a ton of money. This is where those huge average annual savings come from.

All of this adds up to the insurance companies finding their average savings to be a very good marketing tool. The problem is that every insurance company can offer a similar line "Our company saves the average person who switched to us X hundred dollars." They can even be specific. And that's why new Geico customers save hundreds switching from Progressive, and new Progressive customers save hundreds switching from Geico.

It may be a completely true number, but if every company can do it then you're marketing to those that are too ignorant to realize that the number is virtually meaningless. My wife and I called Geico, All State, and Progressive some months ago, and premiums that covered less from them would have cost around $10.00 more per month. I'm guessing they have to charge more to cover their massive marketing budgets. My company doesn't do a lot of marketing, and it's better insurance for less money.