Now THAT's funny! The Israelites never gained power through war. Oh Noooooo. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Just a bunch of happy happy joy joy types weren't they? I mean, Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands. Yep, sounds like a right friendly group to me! And the cutting off of the penis's of thousands of troops killed in battle as proof of their deaths. Bushels of peckers for God. LOL! Sure sounds a lot like Allah and his goofballs to me.
But hey - these guys had a head start, and the world wasn't as populated before Christ as it was after Christ. And those good old Islamics sure caught on fast didn't they. Kill your enemies for God. He likes it, he really likes it! (If you don't believe it, just read the Old Testament!)
"If you want to review history keep at it and let me know what a religion based upon the idea that "Heaven is entered under and arch of Swords" is going to be like."
Hell if I know. I would have to ask the ancient Israelite Kings about that. Evidently THEY believed it! And so should you! You're the one defending them! Personally, I don't know what such a heaven would be like, and I don't want to know.
"I encourage all to read the Koran if you have not it clearly illumines the inherent violence of Islam which is more a totalitarian political ideology than a religion in any case."
President Bush calls it a Religion of Peace. He didn't call it a political ideology of peace. At least he knows it's a religion, unlike some posters here.
Saul and David, of course, ruled Israel when it was surrounded on all sides by numerous enemies (the Philistine confederacy, the Edomites, the Moabites, the Amalekites) and under constant threat of annihilation. Clearly the military leader whose self-defense tactics inflicted the maximum number of casualties on enemies who were bent on genocide will be quite popular among the people threatened by those enemies.
However, you snatch the quote out of its all-important context - the "Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands" refrain caused great strife in Israel and almost led to its destruction by souring the relationship between the king of embattled Israel and his best general.
The Scriptures are not presenting it as a wonderful thing to say.
And the cutting off of the penis's of thousands of troops killed in battle as proof of their deaths. Bushels of peckers for God. LOL!
It was not penises, but foreskins. And these foreskins were not offered to God.
If one reads the actual account, one will see that it was Saul - who is portrayed as a sinner and a disobeyer of God's laws - who requested the trophies in the form of foreskins. That was for his own personal amusement and had nothing to do with God's will as portrayed in the Scriptures.
Kill your enemies for God. He likes it, he really likes it! (If you don't believe it, just read the Old Testament!)
Neither the defensive warfare fought by Israel against genocidal enemies nor the peculiar trophies requested in one specific instance by one specific who had fallen from the favor of Israel's God send that message at all.
You are inventing a slander.
Hell if I know. I would have to ask the ancient Israelite Kings about that. Evidently THEY believed it!
Of course they did not, and you have not adduced a scintilla of evidence to suggest that they did.
He didn't call it a political ideology of peace. At least he knows it's a religion, unlike some posters here
It is the only significant "religion" in the world which is based entirely on achieving a specific geopolitical goal.
In Islam, consequently, the entire line between religion and worldly politics is necessarily and irretrievably blurred.
President Bush has Tactical and Strategic considerations in the language he uses since we have need of the help of Moslems in Iraq and Afganistan. And we have been receiving excellent cooperation there and in the UAE without which the War would be much more difficult.
As regards the Children of Israel settlement of the Promised Land perhaps I can work up some sympathy for child sacrificing idol worshipers some time but not today.
And I think if you look at their history you will have to admit that they were on the losing end of most genocidal and military conflicts.