Sheep magazine Archive 3: issues 18-24

Christmas may be over, but for Jews celebrating the festival of Hanukkah
festivities still are in full swing. Though the story of the Maccabees fighting
their oppressors took place thousands of years ago, disputes over who
should control swathes of land in Israel and Palestine are pressing and
pertinent to this day.
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Following the recent United Nations Resolution 2334, which describes
Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as ‘illegal’
and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, the Israeli government
has made its position clear: ‘Israel believes itself to be an exception’;
settlements in the occupied territories will continue growing, and any
states or persons who criticise this are ‘anti-semitic’ and making a
‘declaration of war’ against Israel. Ambassadors have been recalled;
meetings with leaders have been cancelled; Israeli aid to Senegal has
been stopped.
However, today the doctrine of exceptionalism is perhaps most pervasive
in the USA. It is part of the national mythology that god inspired the
early colonists, such as the pilgrim fathers, to come to America, and that
settlers of european origin had a ‘manifest destiny to overspread the
continent allotted by providence’. Many in the USA still believe that their
country has a special purpose, to hold up some kind of beacon to the rest
of the world.
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 20