There is an old joke about a man who is into sadism, necrophilia and bestiality who sees his psychiatrist and asks, “Am I flogging a dead horse?” I sometimes get the feeling that, although I am not into any of these little peccadilloes, I am nevertheless flogging a dead horse because I am back once more onto that curse of mankind - religion. Maybe my previous remarks, jocular though they may have been, about fundamentalist Christians and Muslim fanatics helping to lesson the world population wasn’t so far off the mark as the world grows ever more mad. (Could it all be down to that other curse of the modern world, the mobile phone addling their brains do you think?) We now have to add some orthodox Jews to the list of the religious bloodthirsty.

But first the massacre in Oslo, in one of the most peaceful countries in the world. ‘The Sun’ puts it down to Al Qaeda. ‘The Sun’ probably puts everything down to Al Qaeda. Others blame Neo-Nazis (another insane lot) the man himself who planted the devastating bomb and then went on a shooting spree killing and wounding so many youngsters enjoying themselves on a vacation island, describes himself as ‘a fundamentalist Christian’! Judging from his photograph he was when younger, blonde, blue-eyed and extraordinary handsome, typically Aryan so maybe he is a neo-Nazi Christian or a Christian neo-Nazi. Whatever he is, he has killed a good number of people, nearly a hundred. He describes his action as “gruesome but necessary.” He said he would explain his actions in court. That should be interesting except there is a call for his rabid views not to be made public.

But on to the Jewish story. Big headline – “King’s Torah splits Israel’s religious and secular Jews.” Rabbis Dov Lior and Yacob Yousef have been detained for questioning and hundreds of right-wingers have demonstrated outside Israel’s Supreme Court over the detention. The Rabbis had endorsed a highly controversial book, The King’s Torah – written by two settler rabbis justifying in certain circumstances the killing of non-Jews including those not involved in violence. A chapter entitled “Murder of non-Jews in time of war” has been widely quoted in the Israeli media. It states “you can kill those who are not supporting or encouraging murder in order to save Jewish lives.” No bones about that. There seems no shame in the use of the word murder. At one point it even suggests that babies can justifiably be killed if it is clear they will grow up to pose a threat. How you ascertain that I have no idea. But it seems Jehovah is still up to his old tricks or, maybe as a Christian, you would put it all down to the devil. Will the Palestine question ever be solved while these right-wing religious maniacs in Israel spew forth their unquestioning beliefs? Somehow I very much doubt it even though everyone knows more blood will have to flow.