ISRAEL: WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW

by Harmony Grant - Oct 22, 2007

What is it they say about too little, too late? Some public figures are beginning to figure out Zionism -- others muddle on in darkness. Tony Blair, the boyish blue-eyed ex-PM of Britain , was surely Bush's strongest ally in the Iraq war. He recently toured the West Bank to see the fruits of the Jewish state he has spilt British blood to protect. The Independent reports his shock. Witnesses say "he was genuinely taken aback by his trip to the West Bank sector of the Jordan Valley – where Palestinians are allowed to dig wells only a third as deep as Israelis- [as a result of] the exploitation of resources by the rich Jewish agricultural settlements at the expense of closed in Palestinian farmers."

Although a world leader, Blair apparently didn't realize the conditions of life for Palestinians under Israel 's thumb. So how could we expect more from average citizens, living in a society of controlled information?

Another elite who is thinking for himself is leading UK evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Yet he faces the charge of "classic anti-Semitism" for stating the documented fact that the American Jewish lobby is "monopolizing American foreign policy."

But other powerful national leaders seem impervious to the evidence piling up against Israel 's image as a free, friendly ally. Sam Brownback of Kansas recently supported a right-wing Israeli proposal to defeat the two-state peace process. Rabbi Elon, chairman of the right-wing National Union Party in Israel , came up with the plan, which denies a Palestinian state. Brownback called it "a movement forward." Indeed it is--a jack-booted, bully's step toward even greater darkness. Elon's spokesman said bluntly, "This is the completion of the transfer of [the Palestinian] population that began in 1948." Yes, indeed, let's complete that bloody, violent expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians, merchants, farmers and tradespeople, exiled into virtual concentration camps in Gaza , Lebanon and the West Bank .

If Mr. Brownback visited the real Israel --not the one of evangelicals' tours--would he repent? Like Mr. Blair, wouldn't he be "taken aback" and in "shock?" Imagine if these men spoke to Abdullah, who had to identify the lower half of his son's body in a morgue refrigerator--his son who was one of the 92 Palestinian children killed in this past year of the Jewish calendar.

Haaretz 's Gideon Levy reports that in the same year, "Not a single Israeli child was killed by a Palestinian." But one-fifth of killed Palestinians were teenaged or younger. Levy recounts the murder of 15-year-old Ahmed Asasa, shot in the neck by a sniper while running in terror from Jewish soldiers invading the boy's village. Levy tells of a teenage girl shot by a sniper while studying for school tests in her home in a Jenin refugee camp. "Her bloodstained notebooks bore witness to her final moments."

Levy remarked to a French reporter that the sight made him ashamed to be an Israeli. French TV censored his comment, for fear of its Jewish viewers. His eyewitness account and his simple statement of truth would be even more quickly sliced out in the USA , the one nation virtually as responsible as Israel for these children's blood.

The more important a truth might be, the more carefully we should investigate any evidence for it. Evangelicals like Sam Brownback are passionately committed to the welfare and good reputation of Israel . But if there is even a chance that God is angry, that this nation is not the innocent embattled ally she pretends, we should carefully seek out the truth.

This is not an easy thing to do, even though the evidence abounds. We live in a society of carefully filtered information. Those who stray from the mainstream of acceptable opinion enter emotionally charged territory. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith has been most persuasive at blackening certain fact-based opinions because of the supposed motivations or emotions behind them. (If it's "anti-Semitic," it doesn't matter if it's true!)

Consider that conservative pundit Ann Coulter is facing flack for a simple statement about Christians' desire for Jews to be "perfected" through faith in Christ. The National Jewish Democratic Council told Republican presidential candidates that they should publicly rebuke her remark. For what!? Coulter said no more than any third-grade textbook on world religions. Christians believe Jews must convert and put their faith in their true Messiah.

Jewish activists' intolerance of this simple truth about religious belief speaks volumes. Evangelicals should be slow to ally themselves with those who want to silence the most basic facts of our faith! And we should be a lot more persistent in seeking truth outside the mainstream. If Christians' desire for Jews' salvation is "anti-Semitism" and should be censored, what other facts are being kept in the dark?