As a rule, I try to refrain from writing about the Middle East. The conflicts in that region are mostly geopolitical, not religious. But every now and then religion leaps to the forefront and can’t be ignored.
That’s what happened during the so-called “12-day war” between Israel, the U.S. and Iran, when leaders of all three countries invoked God and their respective religions to justify their actions.
It started with Benjamin Netanyahu, who was followed by Donald Trump. And then came Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—all of the invoking God as being on their side against their enemies.
Which raises several questions, starting with: If, as these monotheistic religions claim, there is only one God, who does that God listen to when asked to bless the wars of one country or another?
Or maybe, as Mark Twain wrote, that's a lunatic question.
Read more in my recent Free Press column.
