Looking up what G*d commanded the Jews to do with the Canaanites is quite educational.
True.
And don't get me wrong, I don't personally prefer that (I would hate to see the Christian Holy Sites demolished -- though I could not care less about the Muzzie sites). But the Scriptures say what they say. And if Israel is claiming its legitimacy from Divine Patrimony, then they need to act that way. Else they need to drop it...and quit shining on American Evangelicals.
I mean, compare the extract from Deuteronomy above with this from the The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel:
The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; [vs] it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
How in the world can it comply with what was envisaged by the prophets (like the quote from Moses, above) while guaranteeing freedom of religion? Did not a prophet command: You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree; you shall tear down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; you shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy their name out of that place?
I don't see how you can do both?
And, to the point of the article, did not a prophet utter the following:
(Isaiah 3:16-24)
The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet;
the Lord will smite with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.
In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;
the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs;
the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;
the signet rings and nose rings;
the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags;
the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.
Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.
The above seems rather inconsistent to me with what I see from Israel (which, despite the terrorism, seems like a very nice modern, Western democracy)