There is a story told in the Bible about the “Good Samaritan.”
It is so familiar and oft repeated that the term itself has become part of the nomenclature, even adopted into the legal lexicon.
But in a nation where less than one-third of its people now attend church (at all, not just regularly), it is well worth repeating the particulars of the tale. And that is especially apropos at a time when so few of our nation’s reputed leaders seem to have conveniently forgotten its thrust, its details, and its essential lesson when it comes to the beleaguered State of Israel.
As related in the tenth chapter of Luke (that’s a book in the Bible for the seventy percent of pagan Americans who never deem to darken the door of a church), Jesus, speaking about the quality of mercy to a particularly Pecksniffian expert on the law of the land, explained (bear with me as I actually quote scripture you unchurched atavists):
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
Jesus then asked the expert, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
To which, surprisingly, the arrant expert replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now, let’s bring the story forward, shall we? Let’s talk about some other Jews who are have been brutally beaten, tossed aside, and left for at least half dead. Let’s reify in a world gone whacko.
Let’s talk about the brutalized, abandoned, and badly battered State of Israel as it fights for its survival – not only against a ferocious, insatiable terrorist enemy, but against its erstwhile friends who are tepidly, timidly “passing by on the other side.”
And in so doing, let’s set our repelled and repulsed sights on our modern-day priests and Levites. Put more precisely, let’s forlornly ferret in vain among Washington’s conservative mega-organizations for one lonely, conscientious, courageous “Good Samaritan” who will take pity on Israel… who will go to it, help bandage its wounds, pour on oil and wine – and for Pete’s sake will have the “grace under pressure” (as Hemingway defined courage) to stand up and speak out for that beleaguered state!
Never in history has a country engaged in an existential battle, defending its own right to live in peace, fighting for its own survival been so ruthlessly, recklessly, and viciously attacked as the tiny State of Israel. Villainized and victimized by everyone from marauding, privileged and pampered college students to the bumbling, stumbling President of the United States, Israel has been cast as the ultimate villain, the unprovoked slayer of the innocents as it fights protect itself from certain annihilation.
It is almost as if the sick, savage, abhorrent, and depraved terrorist invasion of October 7 has been all but forgotten. Swept down the Rabbit Hole of History, there to be convoluted into an act of historic heroism. “After all,” the bombastic, bullying “river-to-sea” Hamas hugging protestors seem to be saying, “they only killed Jews.”
So that being the case, the fog-bound President of the United States intones, what right does Israel have to go after the terrorist monsters and eliminate the threat to its very survival? We need an immediate ceasefire, Mr. Biden blathers time after time and again – one that leaves Hamas fully in place to rebuild its terrorist tunnels, retake all of Gaza, and launch a million more October 7s.
Why? What provokes such a nonsensical response from America’s non compos mentis Commander in Chief?
Well, dontchaknow, the nasty Israelis are defending their very existence by killing off the entire population of Gaza. By wiping out every innocent, unarmed Palestinian in sight – women, children, and tiny little babies included. How does he know? Well, because Hamas told him so (aided and abetted, of course, by the UN, who not so coincidentally also helped Hamas build its terrorist tunnels and perpetrate the atrocity of October 7).
But, never mind all of that, we are instructed by the Hama apologists. And also never mind the absolute expert opinion of one John Spencer – the world’s leading expert on the kind of urban warfare Israel is being forced to fight, again, for its own survival. As the Wall Street Journal reported on May 20:
“Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in history,” John Spencer, chair of urban warfare at West Point, has said, “setting a standard that will be both hard and potentially problematic to repeat.”
Okay, so getting back to our parable of the Good Samaritan, that kind of sums it up for the vicious, violent robbers (Hamas and its apologists in our parable) who attacked the poor Jew and tossed him into the gutter, “leaving him half dead.”
But, what about the priest and the Levite. What about those who passed the brutalized Jew by and scurried on as if nothing had happened.
In short, once again, bringing the story forward to the current imbroglio, what about Washington’s mega conservative groups who are watching Israel be brutalized by arrogant, obnoxious collegiate gascons, the mainstream media, the World Court, and, of course, a mindless, soulless, vote-seeking (“Don’t forget those Muslims in Dearborn, sir!”) President of the United States – and as they watch are barely muttering a damn word?!
Where are their conservative movement’s op-eds? Where are their demonstrations of umbrage at the White House gate? Where are their petitions and protests to members of Congress? Where are their outraged rallies when Joe Biden cuts off military aid to Israel right at the moment when it needs it most?
In short, where is Washington’s Conservative Inc?
Where are the priests and Levites?
In a 1965 speech reflecting on the civil rights movement, which he led, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “In the end, we will remember not the actions of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
Some quarter of a decade earlier a ship carrying some 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany approached the coast of Florida hoping and praying for permission to seek safe haven in the United States. They knew the heinous fate that awaited them back in Hitler’s hellhole. And they begged to be given a chance to survive.
Neither Secretary of State Cordell Hull nor U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose to intervene to admit the refugees. The ship was cruelly turned away from the Florida shoreline, and many of the Jews on what later became known as “The Voyage of the Damned” went on to die in the killing centers of Auschwitz, Sobibór, and other Nazi concentration camps.
The priests and the Levites passed them by. There were no Good Samaritans to take their hand and speak their peace.
Today, we are seeing it all replayed as Israel fights tooth and nail to avoid the sick, depraved Hamas hellholes.
And shame on the tepid, timid Washington mega-conservative organizations – Conservative Inc – for, in the words of Edmund Burke, “remaining silent in a time of great moral crisis.”
To put it all into perspective, allow me to close with this:
When I was a child, I asked my Methodist minister father why the priest and the Levite passed the bruised and battered Jewish victim behind.
He sagely quipped, “Perhaps because they saw that the thieves had already taken all of his money.
History, I believe, is repeating itself with the money changers high astride the helm of Conservative Inc.
And may the God of the Good Samaritan have mercy on their souls.
