The creation of the Zionist entity has been based on what is described as the divine concept of the Promised Land. Interpreting the book of Genesis (17:7 - 9) of the Old Testament, Zionists say the land of Canaan forever belongs to the Jewish people.
"And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
"And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations."
These verses provide, in their opinion, the primary basis for the Promised Land concept. But this is not the view of all Jews. Many Orthodox Jews and groups such as the Neturei Karta object to the Zionist interpretation and state that the "covenant" was based solely upon the people's obedience to the Will of God.
Showing posts with label Christian Zionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian Zionism. Show all posts
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Evangelicals call on Jews to assert Jesus’ gospel
World Evangelical Alliance ends Berlin conference with statement calling for mass Jewish conversion. Decree enrages Jewish communities, ADL says "issuing such troubling words from Berlin is height of insensitivity."
Seems that Israel's useful idiots have crossed the line....
Seems that Israel's useful idiots have crossed the line....
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
In Case You Missed It: Pastor John Hagee at AIPAC Conference Warns Iran it Could Suddenly Vanish
"Hagee leads Christians United for Israel, which boasts on its leadership bodies the nation's highest profile Christian right leaders."
Christian Zionist Gathering Mired In Controversy
"According to Wilson, at Hagee's Cornerstone Church in San Antonio on three consecutive Sundays in March 2003, the pastor delivered "sermons heavily loaded with anti-Jewish memes, stereotypes, slurs and conspiracy theories, one of which was almost identical to what was perhaps Adolph Hitler's favourite conspiracy theory, which alleged that an international Jewish banking cabal, led by the Jewish Rothschild banking family, controls the fates of entire nation, even the progression of world events and history, through the manipulation of global money markets."
Looks like Christian Zionists are starting to lose their utility as "useful idiots."
Looks like Christian Zionists are starting to lose their utility as "useful idiots."
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Jewish Agency, interfaith group deal angers U.S. Jewish leaders
"The agreement has infuriated the heads of major U.S. Jewish federations, which provide about two-thirds of the agency's budget. They charge that it will give evangelical Christians, whose donations finance the IFCJ, a say in the agency's management."
You would think Zionist Christians would finally wake up. Zionist Jews only want their money and mindless support ~ they have to keep their opinions to themselves.
You would think Zionist Christians would finally wake up. Zionist Jews only want their money and mindless support ~ they have to keep their opinions to themselves.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Dealing With Christian Zionists Inside Our Own Churches And Families
"A long time friend named John wrote in frustration about a reply he received from his pastor in response to his letter about the church’s lack of concern for the ongoing slaughter in Iraq. John sought an answer to two scriptural references, and to his frustration the pastor’s reply was entirely secular. This big church pastor ignored the questions involving Jesus and the Apostle Paul’s words. Instead, John was told how evil Saddam Hussein was; that Islam must be stopped, and that the State of Israel is an example of why all wars are not evil."
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
CHRISTIANS BRUTALIZED IN HOLY LAND
"Besides the fact that Israel has now become a haven for international gangsters—meaning rampant prostitution, drugs, human trafficking and money laundering to name a few—there are other indicators surrounding Israel’s political and social character as well that show she is anything but friendly to the morals and precepts of Christian teachings. Christian churches that were not taxed are now being sent heavy bills. Media outlets featuring Christian programming on television and radio are having their license renewal applications rejected.
More telling though is the fact that physical attacks on Christians, their symbols and institutions continue in Israel unabated, and not by “Islamo-fascists” (so much discussed by the likes of Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes, John Hagee, Bill O’Reilly, et al.) but rather by a more fanatical sect that has nursed a hatred for Christianity since its inception, the people who collectively call themselves “the Israelites” and whom Christians are told to “bless.”"
More telling though is the fact that physical attacks on Christians, their symbols and institutions continue in Israel unabated, and not by “Islamo-fascists” (so much discussed by the likes of Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes, John Hagee, Bill O’Reilly, et al.) but rather by a more fanatical sect that has nursed a hatred for Christianity since its inception, the people who collectively call themselves “the Israelites” and whom Christians are told to “bless.”"
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Hagee: Jesus IS NOT the Messiah?
No man can serve two masters and it looks like Pastor Hagee has chosen Zionist Jews and Israel over Jesus
Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0K1GEs2gAI
Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0K1GEs2gAI
Zion's Zealots
by Eileen Fleming - Nov 8, 2007[Miami, Fl. November 6, 2007] The James L. Knight Center was packed to the rafters with John Hagee's tribe of Christian Zionists and south Florida's right wing Jewish community. Zion's Fire Banners, dancers, singers and a band whipped the crowd into a frenzy of spinning, jumping, clapping, twirling and moved the rotund Hagee to link arms with men in skull caps and dance the Hora-not to Hava Nagila, but to repeated choruses of:
Shout for joy and victory! Bat Yerushalyim
From one end of the stage to the other, the largest American and Israeli flags I have ever seen were draped side by side and by the end of the evening I imagined every star on the red-white-and blue had morphed into the Star of David.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez pointed to the flags and exclaimed: "Isn't that beautiful up there together? I get goose bumps! All nations have been created by an act of man, except Israel was created by an act of God."
Rabbi Freedman delivered the Invocation, "We are all friends of the only democracy in the Middle East."
I immediately recalled what American Israeli, Jeff Halper, the Founder and Coordinator of ICAHD/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions told me during one of my five journeys to Jerusalem:
"Israel is a not a democracy but is an Ethnocracy, meaning a country run and controlled by a national group with some democratic elements but set up with Jews in control and structured to keep them in control."
Rabbi Freedman continued on, "From Mount Sinai to Mount Zion to Mount Vernon we are all Zionists! Israel is second to America in how many immigrants we have absorbed."
Immigrant absorption in Israel comes with perks and is called Aliyah, ["go up"] and is a fundamental concept of Zionism enshrined in Israel's Law of Return, which permits any Jew from any where in the world the legal right to government assisted immigration and settlement in Israel, automatic Israeli citizenship, unemployment benefits, free medical, and subsidized housing. Young adult immigrants receive free room, utilities, and three meals a day for the first five months and 100 percent of their tuition is paid by the government.
Hagee's mastery of manipulating the fears of his audience garnered him a standing ovation as the shofars blew, "Israel was re-born by an act of God and Israel lives! The Jews have suffered great persecution and survived slavery and the Final Solution! God Jehovah will bury Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran! The flag of Israel will fly over the undivided Jerusalem and be the praise of all the earth! It's 1938 again and the new Hitler is Ahmadinejad! Radical Islamisicts are threatening to develop nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel and then the USA! But we are indivisible and we are both here forever!"
The oft repeated comment ascribed to President Ahmadinejad, that "Israel must be wiped off the map," was addressed by Virginia Tilley, Professor of political science who wrote:
"In his October 2005 speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad never used the word "map" or the term "wiped off". According to Farsi-language experts like Juan Cole and even right-wing services like MEMRI, what he actually said was "this regime that is occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."
"In this speech to an annual anti-Zionist conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad was being prophetic, not threatening. He was citing Imam Khomeini, who said this line in the 1980s (a period when Israel was actually selling arms to Iran, so apparently it was not viewed as so ghastly then). Mr. Ahmadinejad had just reminded his audience that the Shah's regime, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein had all seemed enormously powerful and immovable, yet the first two had vanished almost beyond recall and the third now languished in prison. So, too, the "occupying regime" in Jerusalem would someday be gone. His message was, in essence, "This too shall pass." http://www.counterpunch.org/tilley08282006.html
Being a Christian of the Beatitudes-sticking to what Jesus actually taught and not worshiping any state or nation, I hope that the zeal of particular Christians for the state of Israel will also pass and because of their love for the Jewish people, I have hope they will have ears to hear the wisdom of the American Jewish progressive political and spiritual community and organization, Tikkun.
Tikkun is Hebrew for mend, repair and transform the world.
Tikkun researched to discover that there are three distinct elements energizing the Christian Zionists:
1. A strong commitment to conservative and ultra-nationalist American politics (so strong, I believe, that if the U.S. were to decide to break with Israel, this part of the Christian Zionist leadership would go along with that and drop its defense of Israeli policies).
2. Dispensationalist religious commitments that lead many of the Christian Zionists to yearn for a cataclysmic "end of history" eschatological war in the Middle East that will precipitate the second coming of Jesus and the Rapture in which all true Christians will go to heaven and all Jews who have not yet converted to Christianity will burn in hell for eternity.
3. A widespread understanding among many Christians that atonement and repentance is needed for 1700 years of murder, rape, and oppression of Jews that was frequently generated by the Church (though, of course, the Evangelicals do not recognize that church as their church). In this category are many Christian Zionists who genuinely feel terrible about what has happened to the Jews and genuinely want to help the Jewish people. Their philo-Semitism is real and sincere. [Rabbi Lerner, Tikkun Magazine page 9, Nov/Dec. 2007]
But in Miami the other night, multitudes of misled and misinformed Christian's celebrated military occupation, violence, power and control and ignored the gospel Jesus preached: "It is the peacemakers who shall be called the children of God." –Matthew 5:9
Hagee repeatedly cited that all worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but neglected to mention that the first mention of Israel is in Genesis 32:22, when Jacob was renamed Israel for having wrestled and struggled with the Divine.
Hagee threw out the names of all the Hebrew prophets, but not the fact that God raised up prophets to speak truth to power and arrogance and to remind people of what God desires:
"What does God require? He has told you o'man!
Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord." -Micah 6:8
God also raised up prophets to remind them they cannot know the mind of the Mystery of the Universe, for "His thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."- Isaiah 55:8
God raised up prophets to admonish the "stiff necked people" [Exodus 34:9, Proverbs 29:1] and that "My people are fools, they do not know me! They are skilled in doing evil, they know not how to do good."-Jeremiah 4:22
Hagee invoked the "Torah Way" but neglected what the Torah commands:
"From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught...that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, 'vomit you out' if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]:
"When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' but also 'you shall love the other. '" [Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007 ]
Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine
The Politics of Servility
Congress and the Israel Lobby
by WILLIAM COOK - Nov 7, 2007
Shakespeare's Caesar caustically commented, "Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once." Curious how our lawmakers huddle behind their sophistries, their voice votes, their parliamentary play acting to avoid the daring feat that would force them to confront the moral consequences of their obsequious pandering to the lobbyists who pad their pin striped suits with the means to stay in office, all the while selling their souls to their executioners. Every day they die another death; every day a new resurrection to fulfill their obligation to their puppeteers. How different from their forebears who understood the valiant feast on liberty, even in the face of death: "Americans! Liberty or Death" rang through the hills of Massachusetts and all the colonies as the Revolution loomed, a fervor marked by foreigners because they could see the Americans really meant it. But how can our representatives be free if they are at the mercy of a foreign lobby? (David Fisher, Liberty and Freedom, Oxford University Press, 2005).
Consider the last annual gala held by AIPAC where Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nev.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R. Ky) appeared as keynote speakers to an audience that included half of the U.S. Senate and more than half of the House, an event that took place just as the newly constituted Congress of Democrats was asserting its response to the American electorate with a provision to require the President to get the Congress' approval before he took any action against Iran. By the end of the week AIPAC had successfully pressed for removal of this bipartisan provision from the bill ("Jewish News Weekly of Northern California," Ron Kampeas, 3/16/2007). David Corn, reporting in Nation magazine noted that keeping that provision in the bill "would not be to the liking of AIPAC, the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby, which has declared the Lantos bill a top priority (Lantos' bill pushes legislation to intensify sanctions against Iran). " In a recent speech AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr said that legislation restricting Bush's options would be 'a sign of weakness.' Asked if he can point to a political fight lost by AIPAC recently, Representative Larson replied, 'Not to my recollection.'" (Corn, Nation 4/23/2007). Pat Buchanan, four days later wrote "Why did Pelosi capitulate? Answer. She was 'under pressure from some conservative members of the caucus, and from lobbyists associated with neoconservative groups that want war with Iran and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,' writes John Nichols in the Nation."
M. J. Rosenberg, in a commentary on the Mearsheimer and Walt study of the influence of the Israeli lobbies on our representatives offered this reflection, an observation that came from his own experience serving representatives over the years: "Once again, Presidential candidates are being told that in order to earn the 'pro-Israel' label, they must heartily endorse the status quo. That means that when asked what they would do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the candidates must state unequivocal support for Israeli policies. They must never use the words 'even-handed' or 'honest broker.' There is a script and candidates must not deviate from it." ("W-M's Best Seller: Why the Hysteria?" 09/07/07).
"There is a script and candidates must not deviate from it." So much for the valiant soul who searches his/her conscience, free in his/her mind to decide issues that send young Americans to their deaths or to varying states of dementia caused by roadside bombs that shake the brain inside the skull like a bartender preparing a cocktail. So much for the valiant legislator that hides behind the façade dictated to him or her by AIPAC extolling the desire of the Israeli government for peace with Palestine when, in fact, it desires nothing of the sort short of the slow, agonizing, and insidiously torturous ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from their own homeland. So much for the representatives of the people, who were voted into office with the expressed understanding that they would not just bring the invasion of Iraq to an end but would not create another unprovoked war with another mid-east nation that would cause the deaths of more U.S. soldiers to say nothing of the innocent people caught in the maelstrom of murderous slaughter their mild "yea" could cause even as it ushers forth from their respective mouths. So much for liberty, for the mind free to reflect, weigh and judge for self. So much for the mind Jesus sought to instill in the Christian, the true Christian who followed His teachings, not the venom hurled from the pulpit of Pastor John Hagee and his ilk, militant ministers of the AntiChrist they condemn, preaching a gospel of hate that supports the rabid minority of Zionists that debase the very beliefs of Christianity.
Listen to the voice of Christ that our representatives have buried under their fear of AIPAC retribution lest they have to confront the reality of Jesus' teachings, not the "reality on the ground" that the AIPAC vultures peck at them day in and day out. Hear the words of Jesus, words never uttered by Hagee who would find no peace in the inclusiveness they extol:
"He made strangers his own;
In their differences, they manifested his will." (Plate 99: 9)
"The Truth is one and many,
So as to teach us the innumerable One of Love." (Plate 102:12)
"So it is with the sons of God; wherever they are
They are just as precious to their Father." (Plate 110:48)
"Whoever is free of the world
Can no longer be made into a slave there." (Plate 113)
(from the Gospel of Philip, Jean-Yves LeLoup, Inner Traditions, VT)
Christ's intent, as expressed here as it is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is to show humans that they can be one with him by comprehending what he says and does to see in the differences of people, including strangers, the Truth that there is in all diversity One Love that binds because all are precious to their Father. This is a gospel of inclusiveness, not divisiveness. But to attain that Truth, each must abandon the "wills" of the Hagee's and AIPAC that seek to force their intents on our representatives by coercion through money and fear through controlled power that destroys the politician. Our representatives must be free in mind and spirit, not slaves to the fanatics of Dominionism and Zionism.
There is an untold irony behind the research that Mearsheimer and Walt brought to light, a story that goes back to the years preceding the UN creation of the state of Israel. As early as 1941, and obviously for some years preceding that date, Jews living in Palestine found themselves under the total control of the "gangs" of Zionists who dictated the allegiance they must have to the establishment of the Zionist state they were determined to bring into existence. That allegiance they ensured through coercion and fear. These are the words of the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, addressed to the Secretary of State, dated 16th of October, 1941.
A second matter which deeply impresses me is the almost Nazi control exercised by the official Jewish organizations over the Jewish community, willy nilly, through the administration of funds from abroad, the issue of labor certificates in connection with the immigration quota, the forced contribution of funds and the power of the Histadruth. The Royal Commission were, in my view, fundamentally at error in describing the Jewish community in Palestine as "intensely democratic' (chapter V, paragraph 7). The Zionist organization, the whole social structure which it has created in Palestine, has the trappings but none of the essentials of democracy. The community is under the closed oligarchy of the Jewish official organizations which control Zionist policy and circumscribe the lives of the Jewish community in all directions the Mapai, the Histadruth, the Vaad Leumi and the Jewish Agency. The reality of power is in the Agency, with the Hagana, the illegal military organization, always in the background. (copy of dispatch, Reference No. 0.8.573, Rhodes Library Archives, Bodleian Library, Oxford University).
The irony of course is that the Jewish people, roughly 500,000 in 1941, were, in the opinion of the High Commissioner for the British Mandate government, controlled by the Zionists by methods not dissimilar to those being used on Jews and legislators alike in our government today. M and W have recounted the techniques used to subdue criticism of the state of Israel so that our representatives fear even the use of "even handed" or "balanced broker" that might imply the need for some measure of justice by Israel for the Palestinians. MacMichael's report establishes the truth about the military power Zionists had at their disposal even as early as 1941. He notes they could field approximately 30,000 well trained and experienced troops, and in numbers and caliber they are a "formidable adversary." Yet, then as now, the Zionists proclaim that it is the Jews who are in danger, who are the victims despite their evident superiority then as now.
The issue is not that our representatives obsequiously cater to the desires of AIPAC and the Israeli lobbies; a brief recounting of the constant flood of resolutions and acts passed in support of their desires is sufficient to show that reality (this is not a complete list, only a smattering): HR 311, 371, 390, 398, 615, 617, 4235, 4681 (the Palestine Anti-Terrorist Act, not yet passed in the house but passed in the Senate as S2370), the Syrian Accountability Act, HR 1828 passed 398 to 4, and, perhaps the most cowardly resolution of all, one in direct opposition to the expressed condemnation of every nation in the UN, the one that endorsed Israel's ravaging of Lebanon, its unparalleled invasion of a nation that had done nothing to Israel in the late summer of 2006, a vote that effectively left every congressmen stark naked before the moral outrage of the world's community, and, one more that sets their cowardice before the public as if it glowed in florescent lights, one in striking contradiction to the reversed action under way on the remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, HR 52 paying tribute to Rev. Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp in commemoration of the Jewish Holocaust, passed unanimously 413-0, and HR583 which recognizes the 6 million Holocaust victims passed this year, September 17. Why do they have trouble remembering the Armenians?
And, finally, we must consider HR 2464 and HR 2953 to direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to promote Holocaust education and awareness in K-12 in all states. This legislation does not promote the Holocausts most relevant to the American people, the holocaust against the Native indigenous peoples that lived on this land when Europe invaded or the Holocaust that our forebears and citizens executed through the "institution" of slavery where millions died at sea and millions more were buried in unmarked graves. It does not include the Armenian Holocaust or the Bosnian Holocaust of recent years or that in Darfur presently, or Rowanda, or our own taking place in Iraq where over a million civilians have died or in Palestine which is currently in its 60th year of genocide.
I would commend the learning outcomes that should result from study of the Holocaust, outcomes that are pertinent to all such barbaric behavior by humans against their brothers and sisters. "Teaching about Holocaust allows students to consider such issues as indifference toward suffering, use and abuse of power, prejudice, racism, and the disintegration of civilized values" (The Holocaust Education Project," Margnet Lincoln). Indeed, all our representatives might benefit from such study, but not by isolating it to the tragedies suffered by one group with no mention or concentration on others. Perhaps the heinous actions of the state powers that exist and terrorize their citizens and those under occupation, as in Darfur, Iraq, and Palestine, might force our legislators and those in the UN to intervene and stop the slaughters, not with military force, but moral force, that the teachings of Jesus as noted above, teachings now embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, become the shield of Justice for all.
But this is not to be. Our legislators hide behind their feigned love of Israel as dictated to them by the lobbies, feigned because they proclaim the friendship for that democratic state, the only one in the mid-east when they know in their heart of hearts that Israel is not a democracy, not in its constitution (which it does not have even after 60 years of existence), not in its apartheid restrictions imposed on its Arab (read Palestinian) citizens (which it proclaims are equal in all respects to Jews though Jews alone can purchase land in Israel), not in its moral adherence to international law or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (although it is a signatory to that document even as it defies 160 UNGA resolutions asking that Israel abide by international law). No, our legislators will continue to grovel before the lobby, to speak the script, to assure themselves the continued support of those who dictate how they will vote despite the consequences to the best interests of the United States.
Let's consider the consequences and weigh them before the "One Love" that Christ suggested might be a way to everlasting peace. I'm not going to relate a series of statistics that demonstrate the idiocy of the lobby's line that Israel is in danger of "being wiped off the map." Any staff member can be sent to gather that information should the congressman wish to contrast the enormity of the evidence that shows that the state of Israel dominates in all respects the reality on the ground over a population, an indigenous population, that has nothing no army, no weaponry of consequence, no control of its own territory, no air force, no navy, no Revolutionary Guard, no tanks, no F-16s, no planes period, no water, no roads, no electricity, even no garbage pickup, except as Israel may grant in its largesse it has only the force of moral superiority to throw against the occupiers, the oppressors who have been condemned by the international community over and over again, and but for the fawning obedience of our representatives as they cast their lone veto in the Security Council, Israel might have been forced to accept its moral responsibility before the world's communities and grant a tinge of justice to the people of Palestine.
Instead, let me offer a few images of the reality they allow to happen in the name of America, the land that in its foundational documents extols equality for all people, the Bill of Rights for all people, justice before the courts regardless of privilege, a voice in the government that is granted the right to govern by the consent of the people, and from these basic rights, the moral foundation that requires each and every citizen, most certainly our legislators, responsibility to ensure that justice for all is served. Instead, we are placed under the pall of a small group of our citizens who manipulate our legislators to their own ends by coercion and fear, and, in that control, they deny the rights of the American people to determine their own fate.
This is the same reality that Akiva Elder, the prominent journalist for Ha'aretz, the moderate Israeli newspaper, notes, in an interview with Amy Goodman, is his lot when covering military affairs in Israel. He and his colleagues must endure the review of their reporting by the military before it is published and any reporting on Israeli military actions must be seen through the lens of external newspapers, "the New York Times reported that." "The policy is that we have an Israeli military censorship, and there is an agreement between the military censor and the editors of the Israeli papers that when it comes to sensitive issues, we have to submit every story to the censor " When Amy Goodman asked, "You're in the United States now. Do you still have to abide by " "I'm afraid so." "Why?" "You don't want to put me into trouble, right? I have to go back to Israel. Well, if you offer me asylum, then I will consider it. But my children are waiting for me at home, so I you'll have to forgive me." "What would happen if you defied the censor?" "My editor on my newspaper will be fined." Such is the state of open dialogue and investigative reporting in that democratic state. But then one might argue that our own press operates under similar restraints imposed by its corporate owners. (see interview with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now," 10/8/2007). How similar Elder's comments to those made by Rosenberg that are imposed on our legislators. How similar the means of control imposed on the Jews in 1941 by the ruling oligarchy of "the Agency and Hagana."
Perhaps if our legislators had fought in the military, (there are some exceptions), they might envision the enormity of the contrast on the ground. The reporting talks about battles with Palestinian militants, about terrorist attacks against IDF forces, about military engagements with Hamas fighters, (the primary source of our main stream media information as it comes from Israeli officials), but does not mention that one side has tanks and humvies, a network of highways for military transport, satellite surveillance, F-16 fighter jets for air cover support, helicopters with missile launchers, state of the art machine guns for its soldiers, and night goggles while the Palestinian insurgent has spit and stones, homemade Qassam rockets, and ancient rifles. How difficult can it be to hurl such weaponry, $300,000 dollar missiles at paraplegic men in wheelchairs? How difficult can it be to drop 500 pound bombs on apartment tenements in refugee camps? How difficult can it be to prevent ambulances from taking injured people to hospitals? How difficult can it be to deal with children that throw stones at tanks and use them as target practice? How difficult can it be to prevent fishermen from catching a few fish off Gaza when the Israeli Navy controls the shore with state of the art ships? How difficult can it be to control the lives of all Palestinians when the state can field 700 checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza, surround the entire area with a cement and steel and electric wall that literally imprisons the entire people, imposes identification systems that control movement throughout the occupied territory with IDs and colored license plates, and controls all legal matters of recourse to justice by courts totally controlled by the Israeli state? This is justice? This is the American way? This is the best use of our 3 to 5 billion dollars every year to ensure peace in Palestine? What hypocrisy. What mockery of our purported democratic system. What a way to ensure that America is hated around the world. Yet this is what our legislators have bought for the American people by fawning before their benefactors at AIPAC.
You have heard of the injustice done to Israel by the "kidnapping" of three soldiers, the ostensible cause of Israel's invasion of Lebanon? Strange that word "kidnapping." Israel has over 11,000 Palestinians, hundreds of them children, incarcerated without charge. They have not been kidnapped. They are potential terrorists. Yet according to Geneva Conventions, occupied people can legally fight against their occupiers. "Kidnapping" becomes "capturing" an enemy soldier. States negotiate the exchange of prisoners, they do not attack an innocent nation. You have heard that individual Palestinians attack Israelis, even commit suicide to destroy innocent people, yet we never hear that Israel daily commits crimes against humanity as declared in the Geneva Conventions and in the UN Charter against masses of Palestinians by collective punishment, house demolition in the thousands, confiscation of homes and land, stealing of natural resources to supply the settlements, torture of prisoners, extrajudicial executions, all illegal, all done with the complicity of our Congress, in our name.
These are the representatives that are devoted to America's security, its standing before the international community, and human rights. They like the first lady last month (USA Today, October 10, 2007) proclaim their intense desire to ensure that human rights are protected in Burma, in Darfur, in Pakistan, in all the hot spots on the globe, but not in Palestine. The only human rights we protect in Palestine are those of the occupiers.
We overlook how the occupiers train their teenage troops to act against the people they oppress. Dalia Karpel reported in Haaretz' Hebrew Weekend Supplement September 21, 2007 the nature of that training based on interviews with former IDF soldiers. Needless to say it was not reported in the American press. This report describes the research of Psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Professor Joel Elizur of the Hebrew University. "We Israeli Soldiers were put there to punish the Palestinians, says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada." "The soldiers enjoyed the 'intoxication of power', and had pleasure from using violence," according to the researchers. "What is great is that you don't have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD." "We drove through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn't hurl a stone at us or anything. Then without any reason "X" shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk." "He captured a kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid's elbow! Damn me if I'm not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid's stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn't believe our eyes But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him." "A woman threw a stone at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can't have children any longer. Next time she won't throw sandals at me and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can't spit now." "He was real big, some 30 years old. He refused detention. We hit him but couldn't force him down. We beat him and told him to lie down. Till he finally did. We drove to the base with him. By that time he had lost consciousness. He died some days later." These are the compassionate humanitarians that oversee the International laws that govern the responsibilities of the occupying forces. These are the soldiers we support. This is the way we protect America.
And so our legislators, fearing their own potential loss of their House or Senate seat, continue to support the desires of the Neo-cons and AIPAC and its fellows despite the condemnation of the world's communities that see nothing but hypocrisy in their behavior. What the world sees is simple enough if Americans were given the truth by its main stream media: "700 checkpoints that strangle the Palestinians' freedom of movement, 68 women forced to give birth at checkpoints since the year 2000, half of the babies died and four of the women, 18,000 houses have been demolished by Israel since 1967, often over the heads of their inhabitants In the old city of Hebron, 400 fanatical settlers protected by Israeli Defense Force soldiers hold 30,000 Palestinians to ransom. They stone and kick the inhabitants, while the Israeli army forbids Palestinians to drive in some areas, even to walk on the streets. I saw for myself the concrete blocks, rubbish and human excrement thrown down onto passing Palestinians by the illegal settlers occupying the flats above Arab shops.. The racist graffiti is shocking " ("Go and See the Truth for Yourself, I Did," Asad Khan, Special Registrar, Respiratory Medicine Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, UK, British Medical Journal, October 7, 2007).
So while our legislators dress appropriately in their double breasted suits, with their American flag lapel pins glowing in the ballroom lights at the AIPAC gala, as they grovel before the keypad denizens of the posh offices that turn out the legislation they will vote on in the following weeks, the people of Palestine suffer the humiliation, the suffering, the agony of the occupation, the illegal occupation, that our friends on K street impose on people they do not know or could care less about. Yet there are those in the Jewish community who suffer a like humiliation as they watch their compatriots commit their non-Jewish atrocities to further their rapid Zionist ends, and they, like us, must endure the corrosive rot of our constitution and Bill of Rights as the cowards in our Congress convince themselves that they are obedient to the word of their Christ and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights even as they lift their cocktail glass in celebration of the latest resolution they've passed for their masters.
by WILLIAM COOK - Nov 7, 2007
Shakespeare's Caesar caustically commented, "Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once." Curious how our lawmakers huddle behind their sophistries, their voice votes, their parliamentary play acting to avoid the daring feat that would force them to confront the moral consequences of their obsequious pandering to the lobbyists who pad their pin striped suits with the means to stay in office, all the while selling their souls to their executioners. Every day they die another death; every day a new resurrection to fulfill their obligation to their puppeteers. How different from their forebears who understood the valiant feast on liberty, even in the face of death: "Americans! Liberty or Death" rang through the hills of Massachusetts and all the colonies as the Revolution loomed, a fervor marked by foreigners because they could see the Americans really meant it. But how can our representatives be free if they are at the mercy of a foreign lobby? (David Fisher, Liberty and Freedom, Oxford University Press, 2005).
Consider the last annual gala held by AIPAC where Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nev.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R. Ky) appeared as keynote speakers to an audience that included half of the U.S. Senate and more than half of the House, an event that took place just as the newly constituted Congress of Democrats was asserting its response to the American electorate with a provision to require the President to get the Congress' approval before he took any action against Iran. By the end of the week AIPAC had successfully pressed for removal of this bipartisan provision from the bill ("Jewish News Weekly of Northern California," Ron Kampeas, 3/16/2007). David Corn, reporting in Nation magazine noted that keeping that provision in the bill "would not be to the liking of AIPAC, the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby, which has declared the Lantos bill a top priority (Lantos' bill pushes legislation to intensify sanctions against Iran). " In a recent speech AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr said that legislation restricting Bush's options would be 'a sign of weakness.' Asked if he can point to a political fight lost by AIPAC recently, Representative Larson replied, 'Not to my recollection.'" (Corn, Nation 4/23/2007). Pat Buchanan, four days later wrote "Why did Pelosi capitulate? Answer. She was 'under pressure from some conservative members of the caucus, and from lobbyists associated with neoconservative groups that want war with Iran and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,' writes John Nichols in the Nation."
M. J. Rosenberg, in a commentary on the Mearsheimer and Walt study of the influence of the Israeli lobbies on our representatives offered this reflection, an observation that came from his own experience serving representatives over the years: "Once again, Presidential candidates are being told that in order to earn the 'pro-Israel' label, they must heartily endorse the status quo. That means that when asked what they would do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the candidates must state unequivocal support for Israeli policies. They must never use the words 'even-handed' or 'honest broker.' There is a script and candidates must not deviate from it." ("W-M's Best Seller: Why the Hysteria?" 09/07/07).
"There is a script and candidates must not deviate from it." So much for the valiant soul who searches his/her conscience, free in his/her mind to decide issues that send young Americans to their deaths or to varying states of dementia caused by roadside bombs that shake the brain inside the skull like a bartender preparing a cocktail. So much for the valiant legislator that hides behind the façade dictated to him or her by AIPAC extolling the desire of the Israeli government for peace with Palestine when, in fact, it desires nothing of the sort short of the slow, agonizing, and insidiously torturous ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from their own homeland. So much for the representatives of the people, who were voted into office with the expressed understanding that they would not just bring the invasion of Iraq to an end but would not create another unprovoked war with another mid-east nation that would cause the deaths of more U.S. soldiers to say nothing of the innocent people caught in the maelstrom of murderous slaughter their mild "yea" could cause even as it ushers forth from their respective mouths. So much for liberty, for the mind free to reflect, weigh and judge for self. So much for the mind Jesus sought to instill in the Christian, the true Christian who followed His teachings, not the venom hurled from the pulpit of Pastor John Hagee and his ilk, militant ministers of the AntiChrist they condemn, preaching a gospel of hate that supports the rabid minority of Zionists that debase the very beliefs of Christianity.
Listen to the voice of Christ that our representatives have buried under their fear of AIPAC retribution lest they have to confront the reality of Jesus' teachings, not the "reality on the ground" that the AIPAC vultures peck at them day in and day out. Hear the words of Jesus, words never uttered by Hagee who would find no peace in the inclusiveness they extol:
"He made strangers his own;
In their differences, they manifested his will." (Plate 99: 9)
"The Truth is one and many,
So as to teach us the innumerable One of Love." (Plate 102:12)
"So it is with the sons of God; wherever they are
They are just as precious to their Father." (Plate 110:48)
"Whoever is free of the world
Can no longer be made into a slave there." (Plate 113)
(from the Gospel of Philip, Jean-Yves LeLoup, Inner Traditions, VT)
Christ's intent, as expressed here as it is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is to show humans that they can be one with him by comprehending what he says and does to see in the differences of people, including strangers, the Truth that there is in all diversity One Love that binds because all are precious to their Father. This is a gospel of inclusiveness, not divisiveness. But to attain that Truth, each must abandon the "wills" of the Hagee's and AIPAC that seek to force their intents on our representatives by coercion through money and fear through controlled power that destroys the politician. Our representatives must be free in mind and spirit, not slaves to the fanatics of Dominionism and Zionism.
There is an untold irony behind the research that Mearsheimer and Walt brought to light, a story that goes back to the years preceding the UN creation of the state of Israel. As early as 1941, and obviously for some years preceding that date, Jews living in Palestine found themselves under the total control of the "gangs" of Zionists who dictated the allegiance they must have to the establishment of the Zionist state they were determined to bring into existence. That allegiance they ensured through coercion and fear. These are the words of the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, addressed to the Secretary of State, dated 16th of October, 1941.
A second matter which deeply impresses me is the almost Nazi control exercised by the official Jewish organizations over the Jewish community, willy nilly, through the administration of funds from abroad, the issue of labor certificates in connection with the immigration quota, the forced contribution of funds and the power of the Histadruth. The Royal Commission were, in my view, fundamentally at error in describing the Jewish community in Palestine as "intensely democratic' (chapter V, paragraph 7). The Zionist organization, the whole social structure which it has created in Palestine, has the trappings but none of the essentials of democracy. The community is under the closed oligarchy of the Jewish official organizations which control Zionist policy and circumscribe the lives of the Jewish community in all directions the Mapai, the Histadruth, the Vaad Leumi and the Jewish Agency. The reality of power is in the Agency, with the Hagana, the illegal military organization, always in the background. (copy of dispatch, Reference No. 0.8.573, Rhodes Library Archives, Bodleian Library, Oxford University).
The irony of course is that the Jewish people, roughly 500,000 in 1941, were, in the opinion of the High Commissioner for the British Mandate government, controlled by the Zionists by methods not dissimilar to those being used on Jews and legislators alike in our government today. M and W have recounted the techniques used to subdue criticism of the state of Israel so that our representatives fear even the use of "even handed" or "balanced broker" that might imply the need for some measure of justice by Israel for the Palestinians. MacMichael's report establishes the truth about the military power Zionists had at their disposal even as early as 1941. He notes they could field approximately 30,000 well trained and experienced troops, and in numbers and caliber they are a "formidable adversary." Yet, then as now, the Zionists proclaim that it is the Jews who are in danger, who are the victims despite their evident superiority then as now.
The issue is not that our representatives obsequiously cater to the desires of AIPAC and the Israeli lobbies; a brief recounting of the constant flood of resolutions and acts passed in support of their desires is sufficient to show that reality (this is not a complete list, only a smattering): HR 311, 371, 390, 398, 615, 617, 4235, 4681 (the Palestine Anti-Terrorist Act, not yet passed in the house but passed in the Senate as S2370), the Syrian Accountability Act, HR 1828 passed 398 to 4, and, perhaps the most cowardly resolution of all, one in direct opposition to the expressed condemnation of every nation in the UN, the one that endorsed Israel's ravaging of Lebanon, its unparalleled invasion of a nation that had done nothing to Israel in the late summer of 2006, a vote that effectively left every congressmen stark naked before the moral outrage of the world's community, and, one more that sets their cowardice before the public as if it glowed in florescent lights, one in striking contradiction to the reversed action under way on the remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, HR 52 paying tribute to Rev. Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp in commemoration of the Jewish Holocaust, passed unanimously 413-0, and HR583 which recognizes the 6 million Holocaust victims passed this year, September 17. Why do they have trouble remembering the Armenians?
And, finally, we must consider HR 2464 and HR 2953 to direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to promote Holocaust education and awareness in K-12 in all states. This legislation does not promote the Holocausts most relevant to the American people, the holocaust against the Native indigenous peoples that lived on this land when Europe invaded or the Holocaust that our forebears and citizens executed through the "institution" of slavery where millions died at sea and millions more were buried in unmarked graves. It does not include the Armenian Holocaust or the Bosnian Holocaust of recent years or that in Darfur presently, or Rowanda, or our own taking place in Iraq where over a million civilians have died or in Palestine which is currently in its 60th year of genocide.
I would commend the learning outcomes that should result from study of the Holocaust, outcomes that are pertinent to all such barbaric behavior by humans against their brothers and sisters. "Teaching about Holocaust allows students to consider such issues as indifference toward suffering, use and abuse of power, prejudice, racism, and the disintegration of civilized values" (The Holocaust Education Project," Margnet Lincoln). Indeed, all our representatives might benefit from such study, but not by isolating it to the tragedies suffered by one group with no mention or concentration on others. Perhaps the heinous actions of the state powers that exist and terrorize their citizens and those under occupation, as in Darfur, Iraq, and Palestine, might force our legislators and those in the UN to intervene and stop the slaughters, not with military force, but moral force, that the teachings of Jesus as noted above, teachings now embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, become the shield of Justice for all.
But this is not to be. Our legislators hide behind their feigned love of Israel as dictated to them by the lobbies, feigned because they proclaim the friendship for that democratic state, the only one in the mid-east when they know in their heart of hearts that Israel is not a democracy, not in its constitution (which it does not have even after 60 years of existence), not in its apartheid restrictions imposed on its Arab (read Palestinian) citizens (which it proclaims are equal in all respects to Jews though Jews alone can purchase land in Israel), not in its moral adherence to international law or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (although it is a signatory to that document even as it defies 160 UNGA resolutions asking that Israel abide by international law). No, our legislators will continue to grovel before the lobby, to speak the script, to assure themselves the continued support of those who dictate how they will vote despite the consequences to the best interests of the United States.
Let's consider the consequences and weigh them before the "One Love" that Christ suggested might be a way to everlasting peace. I'm not going to relate a series of statistics that demonstrate the idiocy of the lobby's line that Israel is in danger of "being wiped off the map." Any staff member can be sent to gather that information should the congressman wish to contrast the enormity of the evidence that shows that the state of Israel dominates in all respects the reality on the ground over a population, an indigenous population, that has nothing no army, no weaponry of consequence, no control of its own territory, no air force, no navy, no Revolutionary Guard, no tanks, no F-16s, no planes period, no water, no roads, no electricity, even no garbage pickup, except as Israel may grant in its largesse it has only the force of moral superiority to throw against the occupiers, the oppressors who have been condemned by the international community over and over again, and but for the fawning obedience of our representatives as they cast their lone veto in the Security Council, Israel might have been forced to accept its moral responsibility before the world's communities and grant a tinge of justice to the people of Palestine.
Instead, let me offer a few images of the reality they allow to happen in the name of America, the land that in its foundational documents extols equality for all people, the Bill of Rights for all people, justice before the courts regardless of privilege, a voice in the government that is granted the right to govern by the consent of the people, and from these basic rights, the moral foundation that requires each and every citizen, most certainly our legislators, responsibility to ensure that justice for all is served. Instead, we are placed under the pall of a small group of our citizens who manipulate our legislators to their own ends by coercion and fear, and, in that control, they deny the rights of the American people to determine their own fate.
This is the same reality that Akiva Elder, the prominent journalist for Ha'aretz, the moderate Israeli newspaper, notes, in an interview with Amy Goodman, is his lot when covering military affairs in Israel. He and his colleagues must endure the review of their reporting by the military before it is published and any reporting on Israeli military actions must be seen through the lens of external newspapers, "the New York Times reported that." "The policy is that we have an Israeli military censorship, and there is an agreement between the military censor and the editors of the Israeli papers that when it comes to sensitive issues, we have to submit every story to the censor " When Amy Goodman asked, "You're in the United States now. Do you still have to abide by " "I'm afraid so." "Why?" "You don't want to put me into trouble, right? I have to go back to Israel. Well, if you offer me asylum, then I will consider it. But my children are waiting for me at home, so I you'll have to forgive me." "What would happen if you defied the censor?" "My editor on my newspaper will be fined." Such is the state of open dialogue and investigative reporting in that democratic state. But then one might argue that our own press operates under similar restraints imposed by its corporate owners. (see interview with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now," 10/8/2007). How similar Elder's comments to those made by Rosenberg that are imposed on our legislators. How similar the means of control imposed on the Jews in 1941 by the ruling oligarchy of "the Agency and Hagana."
Perhaps if our legislators had fought in the military, (there are some exceptions), they might envision the enormity of the contrast on the ground. The reporting talks about battles with Palestinian militants, about terrorist attacks against IDF forces, about military engagements with Hamas fighters, (the primary source of our main stream media information as it comes from Israeli officials), but does not mention that one side has tanks and humvies, a network of highways for military transport, satellite surveillance, F-16 fighter jets for air cover support, helicopters with missile launchers, state of the art machine guns for its soldiers, and night goggles while the Palestinian insurgent has spit and stones, homemade Qassam rockets, and ancient rifles. How difficult can it be to hurl such weaponry, $300,000 dollar missiles at paraplegic men in wheelchairs? How difficult can it be to drop 500 pound bombs on apartment tenements in refugee camps? How difficult can it be to prevent ambulances from taking injured people to hospitals? How difficult can it be to deal with children that throw stones at tanks and use them as target practice? How difficult can it be to prevent fishermen from catching a few fish off Gaza when the Israeli Navy controls the shore with state of the art ships? How difficult can it be to control the lives of all Palestinians when the state can field 700 checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza, surround the entire area with a cement and steel and electric wall that literally imprisons the entire people, imposes identification systems that control movement throughout the occupied territory with IDs and colored license plates, and controls all legal matters of recourse to justice by courts totally controlled by the Israeli state? This is justice? This is the American way? This is the best use of our 3 to 5 billion dollars every year to ensure peace in Palestine? What hypocrisy. What mockery of our purported democratic system. What a way to ensure that America is hated around the world. Yet this is what our legislators have bought for the American people by fawning before their benefactors at AIPAC.
You have heard of the injustice done to Israel by the "kidnapping" of three soldiers, the ostensible cause of Israel's invasion of Lebanon? Strange that word "kidnapping." Israel has over 11,000 Palestinians, hundreds of them children, incarcerated without charge. They have not been kidnapped. They are potential terrorists. Yet according to Geneva Conventions, occupied people can legally fight against their occupiers. "Kidnapping" becomes "capturing" an enemy soldier. States negotiate the exchange of prisoners, they do not attack an innocent nation. You have heard that individual Palestinians attack Israelis, even commit suicide to destroy innocent people, yet we never hear that Israel daily commits crimes against humanity as declared in the Geneva Conventions and in the UN Charter against masses of Palestinians by collective punishment, house demolition in the thousands, confiscation of homes and land, stealing of natural resources to supply the settlements, torture of prisoners, extrajudicial executions, all illegal, all done with the complicity of our Congress, in our name.
These are the representatives that are devoted to America's security, its standing before the international community, and human rights. They like the first lady last month (USA Today, October 10, 2007) proclaim their intense desire to ensure that human rights are protected in Burma, in Darfur, in Pakistan, in all the hot spots on the globe, but not in Palestine. The only human rights we protect in Palestine are those of the occupiers.
We overlook how the occupiers train their teenage troops to act against the people they oppress. Dalia Karpel reported in Haaretz' Hebrew Weekend Supplement September 21, 2007 the nature of that training based on interviews with former IDF soldiers. Needless to say it was not reported in the American press. This report describes the research of Psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Professor Joel Elizur of the Hebrew University. "We Israeli Soldiers were put there to punish the Palestinians, says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada." "The soldiers enjoyed the 'intoxication of power', and had pleasure from using violence," according to the researchers. "What is great is that you don't have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD." "We drove through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn't hurl a stone at us or anything. Then without any reason "X" shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk." "He captured a kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid's elbow! Damn me if I'm not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid's stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn't believe our eyes But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him." "A woman threw a stone at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can't have children any longer. Next time she won't throw sandals at me and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can't spit now." "He was real big, some 30 years old. He refused detention. We hit him but couldn't force him down. We beat him and told him to lie down. Till he finally did. We drove to the base with him. By that time he had lost consciousness. He died some days later." These are the compassionate humanitarians that oversee the International laws that govern the responsibilities of the occupying forces. These are the soldiers we support. This is the way we protect America.
And so our legislators, fearing their own potential loss of their House or Senate seat, continue to support the desires of the Neo-cons and AIPAC and its fellows despite the condemnation of the world's communities that see nothing but hypocrisy in their behavior. What the world sees is simple enough if Americans were given the truth by its main stream media: "700 checkpoints that strangle the Palestinians' freedom of movement, 68 women forced to give birth at checkpoints since the year 2000, half of the babies died and four of the women, 18,000 houses have been demolished by Israel since 1967, often over the heads of their inhabitants In the old city of Hebron, 400 fanatical settlers protected by Israeli Defense Force soldiers hold 30,000 Palestinians to ransom. They stone and kick the inhabitants, while the Israeli army forbids Palestinians to drive in some areas, even to walk on the streets. I saw for myself the concrete blocks, rubbish and human excrement thrown down onto passing Palestinians by the illegal settlers occupying the flats above Arab shops.. The racist graffiti is shocking " ("Go and See the Truth for Yourself, I Did," Asad Khan, Special Registrar, Respiratory Medicine Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, UK, British Medical Journal, October 7, 2007).
So while our legislators dress appropriately in their double breasted suits, with their American flag lapel pins glowing in the ballroom lights at the AIPAC gala, as they grovel before the keypad denizens of the posh offices that turn out the legislation they will vote on in the following weeks, the people of Palestine suffer the humiliation, the suffering, the agony of the occupation, the illegal occupation, that our friends on K street impose on people they do not know or could care less about. Yet there are those in the Jewish community who suffer a like humiliation as they watch their compatriots commit their non-Jewish atrocities to further their rapid Zionist ends, and they, like us, must endure the corrosive rot of our constitution and Bill of Rights as the cowards in our Congress convince themselves that they are obedient to the word of their Christ and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights even as they lift their cocktail glass in celebration of the latest resolution they've passed for their masters.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Amazing Grace
by Charles Sullivan - Nov 6, 2007It seems inexplicable that so many of the American people can be so dazed and confused, while moral degenerates ransack our nation, piss and defecate upon the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and brazenly loot the public domain, making a mockery of the rule of law and societal norms; whatever they may be.
Incredible lies are routinely passed as truth and the world as we know it is unraveling, as we prepare to invade and occupy yet another country, perhaps igniting World War Three. We go on with the insipid routine of our dull lives: we go shopping, and bombard our senses with mind numbing entertainment, telling ourselves that it—fascism—can’t happen here, even as its poisoned blossoms unfold before our astonished eyes and fill our lungs with their noxious fumes.
We refuse to believe what we are seeing and we dismiss it as too preposterous to be real. We no longer wholly trust our own senses or follow our most innate instincts, failing to recognize that they are all that is true; all that allow us to survive the wretched madness that pursues us like rabid dogs, and relentlessly nips at our fleeing heels.
Increasing numbers of us move through this world with a sense of impending doom but we do not fully comprehend its origins or the breadth of the disaster it portends. We sense not only that something is wrong—something is terribly, irreconcilably, sickeningly, wrong. We do our utmost to repress those feelings, telling ourselves that our worst fears, our darkest nightmares, are irrational, unfounded phantoms of the imagination; so many ghosts lurking under our beds.
We have been programmed to believe that we are the greatest nation to ever emerge from the mists of history, that everything about us as a people is exceptional and exemplary. Despite a history of endless provocation and war and countless other forms of self mutilation, we claim that we are a peace loving people—god’s own children, animated by divine stirrings.
But perhaps our state of confusion, our disorientation, and our shock at what the government is doing in our name—all of which seems to be occurring at the blinding speed of light—and our refusal to believe that which is so blatantly obvious to all but those who wear mental blindfolds, or the criminally insane, is a form of psychological shock and awe that has been deliberately imposed upon us not only by depraved politicians vying for wealth and power, but by our every societal institution.
We have arrived at our place as a result of an educational system that does not teach us how to think, but to follow rules and obey authority; to bow to self policing peer pressure and group think: a system that prepares us to pass math tests but not those of citizen and neighbor. We dutifully recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag but we hold no allegiance to the world’s people, or its stunning biological and cultural diversity, or to truth. We were led to the precipice by religious institutions that operate by the same principles as “for profit” corporations, encouraged by Zionist and Christian fundamentalists with visions of Armageddon dancing in their crazed, bigoted heads. We are here because we pay attention to a media monoculture that does not inform, but lies and deceives for money.
We are here because we are morally lazy, uninterested, distracted, overworked, over burdened with debt, and apathetic to a fault. We confused the symbols of democracy with democracy itself; and we foolishly thought that democracy could somehow magically move of its own accord, without our participation as citizens. Too many of us believed that all that was required of us was to vote in elections in which the outcomes were preordained by the candidate’s access to wealth. We told ourselves this is democracy, but we were tragically mistaken. And now it is too late.
The rush to Armageddon will occur quickly; it must happen, like the passage of the Patriot Act, before the people have time to digest what is being done to them, before they can concoct an intelligent and rational response to shock and awe; before the people can organize against the premeditated murder and mayhem that awaits them.
We Americans are the product of free market ideologues, religious zealots, and vulgar experiments in social engineering. We are being led to slaughter, and to be slaughtered, by dark and foreboding forces bent on the destruction of all that is decent, just, and beautiful.
Yet many will continue to believe that the president and his henchmen are sane and just people. Some will even ordain them devout Christians and extol their dark virtues as enlightenment and courage. Others will continue to believe that the sycophants in Congress will awaken at the eleventh hour to save us from our own delusions and excesses, not recognizing that we are alone and have only one another. It has always been so; but rather than uniting against our tormentors—we fight amongst ourselves.
Events may already be in motion that have acquired an unstoppable momentum, like a hulking meteor streaking in deadly silence toward the earth in precise accordance with the laws of motion. But like all tempests, they too will eventually blow themselves out and, better people than us will someday attempt to rebuild the world anew. I wish them luck and amazing grace, the kind of grace that is so conspicuously absent in us. In the words of labor organizer, Joe Hill, murdered by the state before a Utah firing squad: “Good luck to all of you.”
No more can we enjoy the sight of soft summer sunsets in tranquil settings, accompanied by the singing of the wood thrush, and choirs of chanting insects embracing the darkling twilight; but forever more the rocket’s perpetual red glare and silent, distant death. We are nearing road’s end. The time is fast approaching to mount the nearest hillside, to hold our loved ones close; to sip some vintage wine, and watch the fireworks that are even now hurtling their way toward Armageddon. The time is nigh to watch the world as we knew it wink out of existence, and to say goodbye. It’s been good to know you.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Judeo-Christian Conflict: Zionism vs. Jesus
by Charles E. Carlson - Oct 31, 2007Christian Zionism is a growing enigma to traditional Christians and to non-Christians alike. Most of those inside its churches are very certain of what they believe, but they are not at all sure why they believe it.
It is this author’s conclusion, based on personal observations at some 60 churches where Project Strait Gate has confronted and interviewed congregation and staff, that none of the dispensational or Judeo-Christian inside can open a New Testament and support what they believe from its pages. Most will not try. This paper is dedicated to the friends and families of some 60 million Americans who are in this dilemma.
The problem for Christ followers in Judeo-Christian churches is that their belief system varies depending on who is in the room, and what the subject is. If the subject is personal salvation for those who are present, Jesus Christ is the king, and His word is law, however many passages are avoided. But, whenever the subject is the state of Israel, or any news topic having to do with Zionism, or Jews in general, Jesus is left out in the street. There can be little or no room left for Him because political Zionists, secular American Jews or Israelis, have zero tolerance for Jesus. Israel and Jesus, mix like oil and water. For the most part, the words of Christ are unwelcome in Zionist circles, which may explain why His words are increasingly ignored and distorted by celebrity Judeo-Christians aspiring to a seat among the political Zionists. An increasing number now accept the insulting, irreverent, oxymoron “Christian-Zionist” (CZ) as their label, thinking it makes them instantly presentable to Jewish Zionists.
In the words of one visiting Pastor Art Preisinger, at an openly Christian-Zionist John Hagee meeting, “was not a shred, a trace, a scintilla of Christianity in the proceedings.” We agree. Hagee’s Night To Honor Israel Speech in Washington DC is some 25 minutes long, and Jesus was not mentioned or quoted one time in it, not once. The same was true at his event in San Antonio on October 21, 2007. The purpose of this paper is to show why Jesus’ teachings are intentionally and pointedly left out. (2) Preisinger
Outright self-contradiction is a hallmark of Judeo-Christians. We Hold These Truths discusses Old Testament corruption in our 43-minute audio video presentation, which is centered on what is probably the most used passages of Judeo-Christianity’s doctrine, Genesis 12:3, the fractured root of political Israel’s claim to the Palestinian’s land.(3)Cause*
Judeo-Christianity’s favorite book, The Scofield Reference Bible, published by Oxford University Press, was written and repeatedly updated, and each new Edition takes on more radically Zionist political undertones, corrupting the understanding of Genesis 12:1-3, as well as Jesus’ own words, as recorded in the New Testament book of Matthew 25 which is our main theme in this paper.
Jesus is quoted in the 5th Chapter of Matthew: “love your neighbor… and even your enemy… that you may be fit for the kingdom on heaven.”*3 The Zionist version, as we shall see, sounds like, Love the state of Israel and God will give you earthly prosperity. Unfortunately, the Zionist version is the one used in Mac Hammond’s church and his magazine.
Mac Hammond of Minneapolis is a mega church celebrity pastor. He is publisher of the materialistic sounding Winner’s Way Magazine. (5) He is pastor and founder of Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Heights, MN, one of many celebrity Christians who has hitched their star to Israel, and is on the board of Christians United For Israel, and he seems to be ready to saddle up and join the war on Islam. We will dissect his words to help to expose the Judeo Christian distortion about what Jesus said. First for Hammond's zionized view of the world, we quote him in Winner’s Way, volume 3, 2007 and page 2.
“The global political scene today, the greatest enemy of all nations is radical fundamental Islam—or Islamofacism. As a militant group, they have made their strategy very clear to the world—to eliminate Satan and Great Satan, i.e., Israel and America, which is the equivalent of Judaism and Christianity.”
Hammond is no peacemaker; but Jesus is. Christian Zionists must twist and pervert Jesus’ own words because His words never support Christian Zionism’s militancy toward Muslims. Mac Hammond does us a rare favor by explaining his beliefs about the 25th chapter of the Book of Matthew to the point where it would be unrecognizable to the converted tax collector believed to have written it. Hammond:
“God has mandated us to bless Israel—and blessing Israel is a way to open up our lives (or country) to the blessing of God. In other words, God has promised to bless anyone who blesses Israel—Christian or not. That’s how important this is to God! He said in His Word, if you bless Israel, if you bless the seed of Abraham, then He would bless you. Blessing Israel is so significant to God that He does not require a person to be a Christian—to have a covenant with Him—in order to be blessed.”
Pastor Hammond’s story of Abraham’s blessings and curses is taken from the distorted Zionist version of the Book of Genesis 12:3 as found in the Oxford University Press owned Scofield Reference Bible, 1967 edition, page 19, explained in our audio-visual, the Cause of Our Conflict.*(2) Furthermore, Pastor Hammond represents that it pays dividends to bless Israel; maybe that is why the title, “Winner’s Way.” Mac Hammond states that those of other religions (or no faith at all) can also earn God’s blessing by favoring Israel, including we suppose, those who despise Jesus, which is the case with most Israelis who do not even believe he existed. This universal blessing is an amazing admission for Hammond, a born again Christian.
Judeo-Christians get around this problem of how non-Christians can earn heaven by telling you the “blessings” have nothing to do with heaven, but are earthly blessings about the “second coming” of Jesus “after the Rapture.” However the scripture Hammond picks to prove his point is all about heaven and hell; the tax collector Matthew says so, quoting Jesus! Hammond, as a Judeo-Christian, would normally swear that only by knowing Jesus can one be saved from damnation; so what value can there be for the pagans to earn earthly blessings if they are dammed for eternity for failing to follow Jesus’ words? It seems Hammond will say almost anything to rationalize honoring political Israel as a god. One might wonder from what source he receives his favors.
We Hold These Truths must ask and answer, “Where in scripture does Hammond get the idea that blessing political Israel will bring God’s blessing on “us”? Typically, Hammond has learned to ignore almost everything Jesus left for instructions if it contradicts Christian-Zionism. All lean on Old Testament prophesy such as Genesis 12:3. Here we find the words that most Christ followers think God spoke to Abram 3000 years ago in a first person exchange:
“I will bless them who bless thee, and curse them who curse thee.”
Hammond applies these words not to Abram (later Abraham) and his immediate family, but to the present-day political Israel that came into existence some 3000 years after Abram’s death, and was created by the United Nations in 1948, at which time it chose “Israel” for a name. Hammond goes on to amplify:
“We need to be involved in blessing the nation and the people whom God has called the apple of His eye.”
“If we will get involved, I believe we will see amazing breakthroughs in our lives, homes, churches, ministries, and communities.”
“Even our nation as a whole will be blessed if our foreign policies line up with God’s desires for the nation of Israel.”
“I sincerely believe it’s time for us to make a decision to be proactive in this arena; for when we don’t actively bless Israel, we curse them by virtue of apathy.”
Hammond says he considers being apathetic toward Israel a sin. Just how proactive does he want us to be? Would we get greater blessings from God if we went out and killed someone we thought might be an enemy of Israel? But what if we kill an entire family of Muslims? When Project Strait Gate had a vigil at Hammond’s church in Minneapolis one of the signs displayed was: Who Would Jesus Bomb? There was no answer. Here is Hammond’s confusing explanation of where Jesus fits in:
“We recognize the validity and veracity of Israel’s present-day covenant with God. We know the new and better covenant we have, ratified by Jesus’ shed blood, provides for us all the benefits of salvation, including experiencing the presence of God today…. Do you want the blessing of God in your life? Do you want change in your life today? Then bless Israel and the Jew. Acknowledge the present-day veracity of their covenant with God. Move toward them in solidarity. And bless Israel.”
Is this doublespeak? In the same breath Hammond acknowledges Jesus’ “new and better covenant” for “us” who have already experienced the “benefit of salvation, including experiencing the presence of God today”….But then Hammond goes on without a breath: “do we want God’s blessing in our life”? “Then bless Israel and the Jews.” Note he did not say anything about following Jesus’ teachings to be blessed.
So which way is it? Did Jesus give “us” a new covenant, or do we earn earthly blessings by supporting political Israel, knowing they kill innocent people every day? Mac Hammond wants blessings, the heavenly ones, and he wants the earthly blessings too, so he, like every Christian Zionist, must manufacture scripture to justify winning both ways. Let’s find out what Mac Hammond says he believes about Jesus and, “God’s blessing in our life.”
In Matthew Chapter 25, Jesus tells his closest followers about heaven and hell, as we will see later. First we will hear Mac Hammond’s, interpretation in Winner’s Way, page 5:
“In Matthew 25:31-33, the Bible reveals that part of the criteria in how the nations will be judged is how they treated Israel: ‘When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left’ (NKJV).”
“Many believe this passage is speaking of the point in time when the Church will have been raptured, so these are not Christians that are being gathered before the Lord, but rather the nations of unbelievers who have remained on the earth.”…
“Many scholars agree that these verses reveal that the nations of people who go into the millennium are going to be selected on the basis of how they treated Israel as a nation and the Jew as an individual.” …
”Even our nation as a whole will be blessed if our foreign policies line up with God’s desires for the nation of Israel.” …
“I sincerely believe it’s time for us to make a decision to be proactive in this arena; for when we don’t actively bless Israel, we curse them by virtue of apathy.”
To find the source of Hammond’s strange interpretation of the much quoted sheep and goats’ parable, we go straight to the footnotes in the 1967 Edition of the Scofield Reference Bible, owned by Oxford University Press that explains Matthew 25 exactly as Pastor Hammond teaches it, page 1036-37*(4)
2(25:32) This judgment of individual Gentiles is to be distinguished from other judgments in Scripture…This time the judgment is “when the Son of man shall come in his glory,” i.e. the second coming of Christ after the tribulation. The subject of this judgment i.e. “all nations.” I.e. all the gentiles then living on earth. Three classes of individuals mentioned: (1) sheep, saved gentiles; (2) goats, unsaved gentiles and; (3) brethren, the people of Israel…the test of this judgment is the treatment by individual gentiles of those who Jesus calls “my brethren” living in the preceding tribulation period when Israel is fearfully persecuted ( Gen 12:3). …. The sheep are the Gentiles saved on earth during the period between the rapture and Christ’s second coming to earth.”
To repeat Pastor Hammond’s teaching:
“Many scholars agree that these verses reveal that the nations of people who go into the millennium are going to be selected on the basis of how they treated Israel as a nation and the Jew as an individual.”
Mac Hammond does not tell us he finds his fantasy about loving Israel in the Scofield footnotes, but it becomes crystal clear when we compare. Oxford’s Scofield makes loving Israel part of man’s eternal security. Hammond even teaches that our nation can be cursed if we don’t do it, and if we bless Israel we will get material rewards. More confusing still, he teaches that Jesus’ lesson does not even apply to us, and amazingly, it did not even apply to the twelve people to whom he delivered the lesson two millenniums ago! Why bother to tell them if it was not for them, but about a future “end times?” Jesus did not say a word about the end times, it was written into footnotes in the Scofield Reference Bible about 1900 years after the death of Matthew.
It is a mistake to write off Mac Hammond as a fanatical charlatan because, if we do so, we do little or nothing for those who follow him. We must instead find out where he got his false faith and deal with it factually; only in this way can we change the intelligent many that are misled.
The Oxford Press Scofield Reference Bible is the most purchased study bible ever. It has been the standard for dispensationalists since 1908. Footnotes added to King James Edition color the religious thought of some 50-60 million Americans, including 16 million Southern Baptists. It is evident from several recent polls that another 40 million Americans are directly or indirectly influenced by “Christian” media, which is almost entirely Judeo-Christian in teaching. To a greater or lesser degree these 90 odd millions are tied together by some vague thought pounded into their conscience and unconscious that they owe something to Israel, and to every Jew, and punishment await them if they fail to comply. But none of this is anywhere, but in the Scofield footnotes.
Mac Hammond wrote: “when we don’t actively bless Israel, we curse them by virtue of apathy.”
Indeed, Jesus spoke about apathy too, but not a word about blessing Israel. When one of the rejected sheep in Jesus parable of sheep and goats asked Jesus why those symbolized as “goats,” was turned away from the kingdom of heaven, Jesus answered:
“I was hungry and ye gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you took me not in; naked and you clothed me not; sick and in prison and you visited me not;”
The goats protested that they had never had the opportunity to feed Christ, to which Jesus’ reply was all about apathy:
“Verily I say unto you, for as much as you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me…and ye shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”
Does that not sound like it is about heaven and hell? We think so, and Jesus said it was. All the verses of Matthew 25 are part of Jesus’ full lecture on this one subject. Jesus told his disciples twice in advance that the lecture was about, “the kingdom of Heaven,” no where does He mention the kingdom of Israel, as both Scofield and Mac Hammond want their readers to believe. This is important enough to look at Jesus’ words in verses 1 and 14 respectively: (1) “Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto…” and (14) “the kingdom of Heaven is like…”
In Matthew’s account, many Israelis would likely be found on Jesus left hand among the goats because of the way they have treated their fellow men, particularly the Palestinians. Perhaps most Judeo-Christians would be right there with them because of their benign neglect of the least of these, Jesus’ brothers.
More evidence that Oxford/Scofield set out to steal Matthew 25
Oxford Press, a Zionist influence organization in the UK, clearly wanted to change the subject to make Jesus’ words seem to fit a different sheep and goat judgment, one that required Christians to support and honor political Israel. Never mind loving and doing kindness to the least of your fellow men. Into the 1967 Scofield Reference Bible Oxford Press, the owner inserted a forgery line of their own in italics just before verse (31) which reads:*(5)
“Judgment of the individual Gentiles at Christ’s return to earth.” (5)
Causing the passage to read as follows:
“Judgment of the individual Gentiles at Christ’s return to earth.” (31) Then the Son of man shall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
The change in meaning is inescapable. Jesus said he was talking about “the kingdom of Heaven”, but… Oxford press brazenly changes the occasion to “Christ’s return to earth.” Furthermore, the judgment that Jesus said applies to “all the nations” applies only to gentiles at some future event not in heaven but on earth.
Mac Hammond may have been fooled along with those he is teaching, or he may like it this way because it works for him. Whatever his reason, he uses a forgery to build his own earthly kingdom.
Stop: please do not go on reading unless you understand what you have just read. If it is not clear, find a Bible and read the words in Matthew 25 in context, then judge for yourself. If you too, have been misled by Bible forgery, the rest of the story will blow your socks off!
Once you understand the Judeo-Christian’s invention, the rest of the story of Matthew 25 is revealed by simply reading it with an open mind. It is about loving and helping the most needy and helpless of the human race. It is in no way about worshiping or serving political Israel. Jesus provides two parables, one parable of the faithful followers who love the least of their brothers as they should love Him, Jesus; the second parable about the sheep that forget to love the least of their brothers, and as a consequence were driven out of the kingdom of heaven. How very simple. Jesus explains His one law, love your brother as you love yourself, and even try to do the seemingly impossible, love your enemy.(1)
But the inventive Judeo-Christian, Mac Hammond, has his own formula. Never mind the suffering Afghan child, Iraqi mother, or Palestinian hungry teenager, just love the state of Israel to earn material favor for you right here on earth where you do not have to die to collect! This is the distorted and biblically false message of Christian Zionism. Mac Hammond is apostate and he takes Jesus’ “name in vain.” This too is a violation of one of God’s simple and logical commandments.
Conclusion:
The one great unbridgeable error common to dispensational or Judeo-Christian leaders is the provable fact that there is little or no Christ in what they teach. In the heat of supporting a growingly unpopular world Zionism and its brutal repression of the occupied Arab/Muslim people of Israel, Judeo-Christian leaders directly and arrogantly contradict what Christians everywhere take by faith to be the words, and laws of Jesus Christ. This is why Judeo-Christianity must end, and will end, with the emptying of its churches.
Endnotes:
*(1) Jesus’ new commandment: You have heard that it is said thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy, but I say to you, love your enemy, bless them who curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father that is in heaven. KJV Matthew 5:43-46
*(2) From Religious Rant to Political Bombast to Spiritual Emptiness and Deception, by Pastor Art Preisinger Jun 02, 2007 http://cp.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1418
*(3)Cause of Our Conflict, Audio-visual, by Charles Carlson
http://www.whtt.org/show
*(4) Scofield Reference Bible 1967 Version, page 19-20;
*(5) Winner’s Way, Vol. 3, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley - Oct 24, 2007
Rightwing U.S. Christians and Jews continue to escalate their anti-Muslim jihad, bent on waging endless war against a billion of the world's people. The most frenzied promulgator of fatwas against all things Islamic is professional propagandist David Horowitz, funded to the tune of $15 million by Hard Right corporations and think tanks "to promote a white supremacist, pro-war agenda." Horowitz has declared October 22nd to 26th "Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week," buttressing the Bush regime's claim that Muslim fundamentalism - as interpreted by the Christian-Jewish Right - is the moral and historical equivalent of Nazism. Senior columnist Margaret Kimberley suggests a counter-event: "Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week."
"They believe in endless wars of aggression, the destruction of the last vestiges of civil liberties, and subservience to a corporate power."
Right wing propagandist David Horowitz has declared October 22nd through October 26th Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Horowitz is one of the biggest beneficiaries of right wing welfare, mostly from the hands of ultra-conservative foundations run by the Scaife and Bradley families. He has received more than $15 million in handouts to promote a white supremacist, pro-war agenda.
"Horowitz obsession is focused on Islam and on keeping Americans whipped into a frenzy of fear and hatred against all Muslims."
The current Horowitz obsession is focused on Islam and on keeping Americans whipped into a frenzy of fear and hatred against all Muslims. The very term Islamo-Fascism is a cynical creation of neoconservatives, designed to insure blind adherence to the Bush war on terror scheme.
The biggest perpetrators of terrorist acts are and always have been governments, not individuals of any religion. When the United States refers to "state sponsored" terror, it must be looking in the mirror. War is the very worst act of terror that can be practiced, giving governments permission to kill and commit brutal atrocities that would be loudly condemned if committed by individuals.
If the world's major religions are compared in terms of body count, it is clear that Islam should not be seen as the enemy. The two nations now in the fifth year of a plan to commit wars of aggression in the Middle East are Israel and the United States. If there should be warnings about particular religions and allegations of fascist connections, the perpetrators are Christianity and Judaism, not Islam.
It is manifestly unfair to label entire groups based on the behavior of a few. The Israeli lobby actively promotes war, but it can't be said that all American Jews are themselves pro-war. Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity. Many Christians may resent the verdict of guilt by association, but they would do well to remember that Muslims are also entitled to make their own pleas of individual innocence.
Instead Muslims are called upon to denounce any act of brutality committed by another Muslim, and to defend their religion from slanderous attacks. What is good for the Muslim goose, should also be good for the Christian and Jewish ganders. Therefore, October 22nd to October 26th in the year 2007 should also be known as Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week.
"Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity."
The lawyers who wrote memos defending torture are all Jews and Christians, so are the members of Congress who advocate for endless warfare. All of the neocons who spent years plotting the occupation of Iraq and now the destruction of Iran are Christians or Jews. None are Muslim, nor are they atheist, agnostic, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, or practitioners of Voodoo. All attend churches and synagogues and in fact brag about their religious piety.
The lawyers who wrote memos defending torture are all Jews and Christians, so are the members of Congress who advocate for endless warfare. All of the neocons who spent years plotting the occupation of Iraq and now the destruction of Iran are Christians or Jews. None are Muslim, nor are they atheist, agnostic, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, or practitioners of Voodoo. All attend churches and synagogues and in fact brag about their religious piety.
Norman Podhoretz, father of neocondom, said of the prospect of bombing Iran, "I hope and pray we will...." Crackpot preacher Rev. John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, whose sole reason for existing is to guarantee the killing of thousands of Iranians. Hagee wants war and wants Bush to start it whenever he feels like it. "We do not have a declaration of war for Iraq, and neither does the president need one to expand it into Iran." Giving political leaders permission to kill as they please is Fascism 101.
Horowitz and his gang have carried out a very sinister plan. They fit the description of fascists to a T. They believe in endless wars of aggression, the destruction of the last vestiges of civil liberties, and subservience to a corporate power. Yet they have succeeded in wielding the epithet of fascism because of Democratic party treason to Bush, a corporate media that deliberately withholds information from the public, and the apathy and confusion that dominate American life.
"Christians United for Israel's sole reason for existing is to guarantee the killing of thousands of Iranians."
Americans do need to be aware of a fascist threat, a threat that comes straight from the White House, Wall Street, and the halls of Congress. It can only be fought if its presence is acknowledged and if citizens know that they still have the power to stop it.
Politicians will be of no help in this struggle. Looking to them for salvation is useless when they are in fact the source of the problem. The Democratic congressional victory is nearly one year old and has yielded nothing but one victory after another for the Bush regime.
In a little more than a year, November 4, 2008, a new president will be elected. Another Fascism Awareness Week should be declared at that time. It should be declared to remind us that the fight to maintain democracy will not end with George W. Bush. That is the awareness we really need now.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
Rightwing U.S. Christians and Jews continue to escalate their anti-Muslim jihad, bent on waging endless war against a billion of the world's people. The most frenzied promulgator of fatwas against all things Islamic is professional propagandist David Horowitz, funded to the tune of $15 million by Hard Right corporations and think tanks "to promote a white supremacist, pro-war agenda." Horowitz has declared October 22nd to 26th "Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week," buttressing the Bush regime's claim that Muslim fundamentalism - as interpreted by the Christian-Jewish Right - is the moral and historical equivalent of Nazism. Senior columnist Margaret Kimberley suggests a counter-event: "Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week."
"They believe in endless wars of aggression, the destruction of the last vestiges of civil liberties, and subservience to a corporate power."
Right wing propagandist David Horowitz has declared October 22nd through October 26th Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Horowitz is one of the biggest beneficiaries of right wing welfare, mostly from the hands of ultra-conservative foundations run by the Scaife and Bradley families. He has received more than $15 million in handouts to promote a white supremacist, pro-war agenda."Horowitz obsession is focused on Islam and on keeping Americans whipped into a frenzy of fear and hatred against all Muslims."
The current Horowitz obsession is focused on Islam and on keeping Americans whipped into a frenzy of fear and hatred against all Muslims. The very term Islamo-Fascism is a cynical creation of neoconservatives, designed to insure blind adherence to the Bush war on terror scheme.The biggest perpetrators of terrorist acts are and always have been governments, not individuals of any religion. When the United States refers to "state sponsored" terror, it must be looking in the mirror. War is the very worst act of terror that can be practiced, giving governments permission to kill and commit brutal atrocities that would be loudly condemned if committed by individuals.
If the world's major religions are compared in terms of body count, it is clear that Islam should not be seen as the enemy. The two nations now in the fifth year of a plan to commit wars of aggression in the Middle East are Israel and the United States. If there should be warnings about particular religions and allegations of fascist connections, the perpetrators are Christianity and Judaism, not Islam.
It is manifestly unfair to label entire groups based on the behavior of a few. The Israeli lobby actively promotes war, but it can't be said that all American Jews are themselves pro-war. Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity. Many Christians may resent the verdict of guilt by association, but they would do well to remember that Muslims are also entitled to make their own pleas of individual innocence.
Instead Muslims are called upon to denounce any act of brutality committed by another Muslim, and to defend their religion from slanderous attacks. What is good for the Muslim goose, should also be good for the Christian and Jewish ganders. Therefore, October 22nd to October 26th in the year 2007 should also be known as Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week.
"Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity."
The lawyers who wrote memos defending torture are all Jews and Christians, so are the members of Congress who advocate for endless warfare. All of the neocons who spent years plotting the occupation of Iraq and now the destruction of Iran are Christians or Jews. None are Muslim, nor are they atheist, agnostic, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, or practitioners of Voodoo. All attend churches and synagogues and in fact brag about their religious piety.The lawyers who wrote memos defending torture are all Jews and Christians, so are the members of Congress who advocate for endless warfare. All of the neocons who spent years plotting the occupation of Iraq and now the destruction of Iran are Christians or Jews. None are Muslim, nor are they atheist, agnostic, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, or practitioners of Voodoo. All attend churches and synagogues and in fact brag about their religious piety.
Norman Podhoretz, father of neocondom, said of the prospect of bombing Iran, "I hope and pray we will...." Crackpot preacher Rev. John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, whose sole reason for existing is to guarantee the killing of thousands of Iranians. Hagee wants war and wants Bush to start it whenever he feels like it. "We do not have a declaration of war for Iraq, and neither does the president need one to expand it into Iran." Giving political leaders permission to kill as they please is Fascism 101.
Horowitz and his gang have carried out a very sinister plan. They fit the description of fascists to a T. They believe in endless wars of aggression, the destruction of the last vestiges of civil liberties, and subservience to a corporate power. Yet they have succeeded in wielding the epithet of fascism because of Democratic party treason to Bush, a corporate media that deliberately withholds information from the public, and the apathy and confusion that dominate American life.
"Christians United for Israel's sole reason for existing is to guarantee the killing of thousands of Iranians."
Americans do need to be aware of a fascist threat, a threat that comes straight from the White House, Wall Street, and the halls of Congress. It can only be fought if its presence is acknowledged and if citizens know that they still have the power to stop it.
Politicians will be of no help in this struggle. Looking to them for salvation is useless when they are in fact the source of the problem. The Democratic congressional victory is nearly one year old and has yielded nothing but one victory after another for the Bush regime.
In a little more than a year, November 4, 2008, a new president will be elected. Another Fascism Awareness Week should be declared at that time. It should be declared to remind us that the fight to maintain democracy will not end with George W. Bush. That is the awareness we really need now.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Leading scholars on Christian-Jewish relations meet at Iona College to talk about growing criticism of Israel.
Seems that some Christians at least are starting to wake up!
by GARY STERN, THE JOURNAL NEWS - October 24, 2007
Scholars committed to improving relations between Christians and Jews are finding that growing criticism of Israel among left-leaning Protestants and Catholics is forcing them to leave their comfort zone and face sensitive political questions.
"None of us who went into this work bargained to become political scientists whose task would be resolution of these insoluble dilemmas," said Chris Leighton, executive director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
Leighton was speaking Monday at Iona College, where the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations concluded its two-day annual meeting. The group represents 28 academic centers, mostly based at colleges, that try to nurture Christian-Jewish understanding at the local and national levels.
These scholars are well versed in the historical, scriptural and theological ties between Christianity and Judaism, and they generally try to promote a more nuanced mutual understanding between the two faiths.
But sporadic, often harsh, criticism of Israel from liberal mainline Protestants and so-called "peace and justice" Catholics is raising difficult questions about how to separate traditional Jewish connections to the land of Israel from day-to-day Israeli politics and treatment of the Palestinians.
"The problem is when people conflate Israeli national policy with Judaism, which has a detrimental effect on Christian-Jewish relations," said Elena Procario Foley, chairwoman of the Council of Centers and holder of the Brother John G. Driscoll Professor of Jewish-Catholic Studies at Iona. "What we're trying to do is think about the theology of the land of Israel, which is a necessary piece if we're going to address the human rights needs of Israelis and Palestinians."
One scholar wondered if it's wise to discuss the Middle East without having a Muslim voice.
In recent years, several mainline Protestant denominations have considered divesting from Israeli companies as a way to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. On Friday, a controversial conference is opening in Boston called "The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel."
"There is a certain group of liberal Protestants who don't get it," said Ruth Langer, academic director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. "There is an aspect of Protestant theology that seems to give preferential treatment to the underdog, without really understanding why, in this case, they are the underdog."
Veterans of the Christian-Jewish dialogue tend to be very knowledgeable of the history of Christian anti-Semitism and protective of Judaism when any developments in the Christian world ring of the past.
The Rev. John Pawlikowski, director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said some Christians need to learn to critique Israel without implying Israel is an "evil nation."
"From Christian Palestinians, we hear critiques of Israel that are anti-Semitic, where the Palestinians become the new suffering Jesus on the cross," he said. "You can criticize Israeli policy without reverting to classical Christian anti-Semitism."
by GARY STERN, THE JOURNAL NEWS - October 24, 2007
Scholars committed to improving relations between Christians and Jews are finding that growing criticism of Israel among left-leaning Protestants and Catholics is forcing them to leave their comfort zone and face sensitive political questions.
"None of us who went into this work bargained to become political scientists whose task would be resolution of these insoluble dilemmas," said Chris Leighton, executive director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
Leighton was speaking Monday at Iona College, where the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations concluded its two-day annual meeting. The group represents 28 academic centers, mostly based at colleges, that try to nurture Christian-Jewish understanding at the local and national levels.
These scholars are well versed in the historical, scriptural and theological ties between Christianity and Judaism, and they generally try to promote a more nuanced mutual understanding between the two faiths.
But sporadic, often harsh, criticism of Israel from liberal mainline Protestants and so-called "peace and justice" Catholics is raising difficult questions about how to separate traditional Jewish connections to the land of Israel from day-to-day Israeli politics and treatment of the Palestinians.
"The problem is when people conflate Israeli national policy with Judaism, which has a detrimental effect on Christian-Jewish relations," said Elena Procario Foley, chairwoman of the Council of Centers and holder of the Brother John G. Driscoll Professor of Jewish-Catholic Studies at Iona. "What we're trying to do is think about the theology of the land of Israel, which is a necessary piece if we're going to address the human rights needs of Israelis and Palestinians."
One scholar wondered if it's wise to discuss the Middle East without having a Muslim voice.
In recent years, several mainline Protestant denominations have considered divesting from Israeli companies as a way to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. On Friday, a controversial conference is opening in Boston called "The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel."
"There is a certain group of liberal Protestants who don't get it," said Ruth Langer, academic director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. "There is an aspect of Protestant theology that seems to give preferential treatment to the underdog, without really understanding why, in this case, they are the underdog."
Veterans of the Christian-Jewish dialogue tend to be very knowledgeable of the history of Christian anti-Semitism and protective of Judaism when any developments in the Christian world ring of the past.
The Rev. John Pawlikowski, director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said some Christians need to learn to critique Israel without implying Israel is an "evil nation."
"From Christian Palestinians, we hear critiques of Israel that are anti-Semitic, where the Palestinians become the new suffering Jesus on the cross," he said. "You can criticize Israeli policy without reverting to classical Christian anti-Semitism."
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Christians bring Iranian Jews to Israel
My God - Christian Zionists are paying Iranian Jews to leave Iran.
Associated Press - Oct 22, 2007
JERUSALEM (AP) — Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have helped convince dozens of Iranian Jews to move to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran's tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group's director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.
The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ's Second Coming.
But an Iran expert said the money would not be enough to draw Iranian Jews, who generally do not perceive themselves to be in great danger in the Islamic republic.
About 25,000 Jews are left in Iran — an overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 65 million — the remnants of a community with origins dating to biblical times. Most Iranian Jews left for Israel or the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Still, Iran's Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, and Iranian Jews have some legal protections. But Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations. Eckstein argued that calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's elimination, coupled with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, represent danger.
"Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late '30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?" he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has called a "myth."
Eckstein said his group has helped bring 82 Jews to Israel from Iran since the project began this year, and hopes to bring 60 more by year's end.
The charity, based in Jerusalem and Chicago, has raised $1.4 million for the project, Eckstein said. The IFCJ initially offered $5,000 per immigrant, but doubled the amount when response was lower than expected, he said. Immigrants also receive government aid upon arriving in Israel.
One of the recent arrivals, a 31-year-old widow with three children, said she was not in danger in Iran but was concerned for her children's future.
"At the end of the day, this is the place for the Jewish people," she said, referring to Israel. She is living in the southern port city of Ashdod. Though she claimed to have felt safe in her hometown of Isfahan, she asked that her name be withheld to protect family remaining in Iran.
The grant from the IFCJ was what enabled her to come to Israel, she said. Most Jews in Iran have heard about the grant through word-of-mouth and Israel Radio's broadcasts in Farsi, she said.
Iranian government officials would not comment on the new project.
Iran's Jewish community is technically protected by the Islamic Republic's constitution, and has one representative in a 290-seat parliament.
In a speech at Columbia University in New York last month, the Iranian president insisted that Iranians "are friends of the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."
Nonetheless, the Jewish community has led an uneasy existence under Iran's Islamic government.
In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.
"Generally, Jews are free to practice Judaism inside Iran," said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s. Iranian Jews, however, are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.
Such attacks have not led to a mass exodus from Iran, because the majority of Iranians are hospitable to the Jews and most Jews in Iran are economically comfortable, Javedanfar said. However, he noted, "the level of concern has increased" because of Ahmadinejad's statements.
This is not the first time evangelical Christians have taken part in bringing people to Israel. Eckstein's charity also played a role in funding the immigration to Israel of 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe, a group in India claiming descent from one of the Biblical "lost tribes" of the Jews.
The charity's evangelical donors, who tend to have hardline political views, see encouraging Jewish immigration as a way of strengthening the country in the face of Arab threats.
The IFCJ is one of the most prominent examples of Israel's alliance with evangelical Christians, who have become among the country's most generous donors and most enthusiastic political supporters.
The ties have been welcomed by many Israelis but criticized by others.
Some Israelis believe the country should not align itself with a group seen as an extreme element of American society, while others have charged that the evangelicals' goal is ultimately to convert Jews to Christianity, a charge the evangelicals deny.
Associated Press - Oct 22, 2007
JERUSALEM (AP) — Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have helped convince dozens of Iranian Jews to move to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran's tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group's director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.
The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ's Second Coming.
But an Iran expert said the money would not be enough to draw Iranian Jews, who generally do not perceive themselves to be in great danger in the Islamic republic.
About 25,000 Jews are left in Iran — an overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 65 million — the remnants of a community with origins dating to biblical times. Most Iranian Jews left for Israel or the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Still, Iran's Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, and Iranian Jews have some legal protections. But Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations. Eckstein argued that calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's elimination, coupled with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, represent danger.
"Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late '30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?" he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has called a "myth."
Eckstein said his group has helped bring 82 Jews to Israel from Iran since the project began this year, and hopes to bring 60 more by year's end.
The charity, based in Jerusalem and Chicago, has raised $1.4 million for the project, Eckstein said. The IFCJ initially offered $5,000 per immigrant, but doubled the amount when response was lower than expected, he said. Immigrants also receive government aid upon arriving in Israel.
One of the recent arrivals, a 31-year-old widow with three children, said she was not in danger in Iran but was concerned for her children's future.
"At the end of the day, this is the place for the Jewish people," she said, referring to Israel. She is living in the southern port city of Ashdod. Though she claimed to have felt safe in her hometown of Isfahan, she asked that her name be withheld to protect family remaining in Iran.
The grant from the IFCJ was what enabled her to come to Israel, she said. Most Jews in Iran have heard about the grant through word-of-mouth and Israel Radio's broadcasts in Farsi, she said.
Iranian government officials would not comment on the new project.
Iran's Jewish community is technically protected by the Islamic Republic's constitution, and has one representative in a 290-seat parliament.
In a speech at Columbia University in New York last month, the Iranian president insisted that Iranians "are friends of the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."
Nonetheless, the Jewish community has led an uneasy existence under Iran's Islamic government.
In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.
"Generally, Jews are free to practice Judaism inside Iran," said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s. Iranian Jews, however, are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.
Such attacks have not led to a mass exodus from Iran, because the majority of Iranians are hospitable to the Jews and most Jews in Iran are economically comfortable, Javedanfar said. However, he noted, "the level of concern has increased" because of Ahmadinejad's statements.
This is not the first time evangelical Christians have taken part in bringing people to Israel. Eckstein's charity also played a role in funding the immigration to Israel of 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe, a group in India claiming descent from one of the Biblical "lost tribes" of the Jews.
The charity's evangelical donors, who tend to have hardline political views, see encouraging Jewish immigration as a way of strengthening the country in the face of Arab threats.
The IFCJ is one of the most prominent examples of Israel's alliance with evangelical Christians, who have become among the country's most generous donors and most enthusiastic political supporters.
The ties have been welcomed by many Israelis but criticized by others.
Some Israelis believe the country should not align itself with a group seen as an extreme element of American society, while others have charged that the evangelicals' goal is ultimately to convert Jews to Christianity, a charge the evangelicals deny.
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Unacceptable Cost of Christian-Zionism
by Charles E. Carlson- Oct 22, 2007Far and near, high and clear,
Hark to the call of War.
Over the gorse and the golden dells,
Ringing and swinging the clamorous bells,
Praying and saying of wild farewells:
War! War! War! (Robert W. Service)
The legacy of pain it is leaving for your grandchildren
No religious persuasion has ever been more clearly responsible for so much bloodshed and destruction as has “Christian Zionism.” This 100-year old offshoot of fundamental Christianity has almost single-handedly legitimized wars in Arab states since January 1991. Its power at the polls is only now being understood.
We Hold These Truths’ objective for nine years has been to explain why members of this loosely knit group we call Judeo-Christianity thinks and acts as though political Israel was a god. We have documented how they have been misled, especially at the seminary level, by deliberately corrupted scripture and commentaries about scripture, which has then been taught from thousands of pulpits and media outlets. We have amply covered the changes made in the Bible(s) used by Christian Zionists in prior referenced works. (1)
We note again that the grassroots individuals within this movement are almost always motivated by altruistic religious belief (this author was once one of these), while the driving force behind their leaders is almost always tainted by money and the power of fame.
This paper explores how Christian Zionism is co-opted by a foreign lobby, AIPAC, and used to carry out Israeli objectives. AIPAC and its powers were well documented in 1994, in One Nation under Israel by Andrew J Hurly, and published by We Hold These Truths. (2)
Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell (died in 2007) may have been the first leader to recognize the potential for linking dispensational Christianity with Zionism and harness its combined power into a political movement with loyalty to the state of Israel as its primary and passionate mission. In the early 1980s, Falwell called his fledgling army “The Moral Majority.” It was later referred to as the “Christian Right.” Today the millions of people who have made the present state of Israel the centerpiece of their Christian religion have been given the name “Christian Zionists.” (3)
We Hold These Truths prefers to describe both the Christian Zionist leaders and their misled followers as “Judeo-Christians,” a broadly accepted term, to reflect the fact that the religion they are following is no longer traditional Christianity, but one into which Judaism was injected, producing a radically altered hybrid.
We Hold These Truths’ Pharisee Watch was created as a think-tank to expose Judeo-Christianity’s apostasy. Project Strait Gate was created in 2003 to help correct Judeo-Christian leaders by confronting them in their members’ presence, usually by holding vigils outside churches to protest their use of the bible to support war.
Essential facts about Christian Zionism
First: It must be understood what Judeo-Christianity (also called “evangelicalism,” dispensationalism, or Christians Zionism) is: by any name, a 20th Century phenomena, an apostate-cult, meaning it practices, in part, a deviant path of following Christ, and it relies upon many varied human sources other than the traditional bible(s) for its theology.(4)(5)
Second: Judeo-Christianity ascribes holiness to a foreign political state, Israel, as though it was itself a god. It placed political Israel on the throne along side of Jesus Christ, and, in so doing, its teachers ignore, if not annul, much of Jesus’ teachings. (1) (2) (3)
Third: Rank and file churchgoers and many lesser known Judeo-Christian pastors think of themselves as moral, even when they are actively contributing to immoral acts, such as supporting mass military assassinations in Gaza and the West Bank. They do not consider these acts immoral because they believe events are ordained, or even demanded, by God. Anger against them is misplaced, because they, too, are victims of their own acts. They probably bring as much suffering upon themselves and their families as on any other middle class group. Because opposing any war that Israel favors is considered a-religious, it is quite likely that there are proportionately as many while, Judeo-Christian boys and girls serving, and therefore killed in military combat, than for instance the sons of agnostics or other religious groups. We have yet to find any date to support or discredit this argument so it is offered strictly as this author’s observation and opinion.
Finally, Judeo-Christianity is much larger than generally believed and is active in every state and community in the USA. The new CNN.com is featuring from an upcoming, six-hour television event, "God's Warriors," hosted by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour stated in the introductory segment: “A recent poll found that 59 percent of American evangelicals believe Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. She also asserted: “The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates 85 million evangelicals believes God tells them to support Israel — more than six times the world's Jewish population." This author has confirmed that several Pew Foundation polls have been supporting this statement for more than four years, and if act suggest higher percentages than used by CNN. (6)
For these several reasons Judeo-Christianity can easily be used by its leader, and by the leaders of Israel, to carry out a political agenda that favors that foreign political state over and ahead of the interests of America, and ahead of the interest of any humans in the USA or any other country except Israel. For the most part followers of the cult do not know they are being used. Without this understanding many are confused between Judeo-Christian religion and its political agenda. Pro-Israel activists, including John Hagee, should rightly be registered as agents for a foreign government, so open are their objectives.
Some of our allies against serial wars attribute them to Israel itself, working through its agents and lobbies for the purpose of gaining US dollar support and creating chaos in the Middle East for its own benefit. Much more is finally being exposed about the powerful Israeli lobby led by The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) AIPAC has an agenda that calls for the USA to finance and bless its occupation of its neighbors and eventually control the oil of the Middle East and uses tactics that are contrary to American interests.
Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have written a powerful paper, The Israel Lobby, which tells us Israel has too much influence in US Foreign Policy. Their paper has led to a soon to be released and much anticipated book that is making giant waves across the world even before it is printed, as Israel seeks to prevent its promotion. (7.Rapture ready video)
AIPAC and several sister organizations, including Unity Coalition for Israel, have enormous finances, lobbying and press power, but until now it has lacked a broad based voter network in the US. Christian Zionism gives the Israeli lobby people power making it virtually unstoppable on any issue. It becomes America’s “Shock and Awe.”
We Hold These Truths sees hope. Educate the laymen within our own churches, especially mainline churches, can break Israel’s power-hold over our politicians, and it can restore others to follow Christ instead of Israel. More important, we see no other way to do it!
Without the voting support of church going Americans, Israel’s well-established desire to see Iraq destroyed and its oil divided up resulted in the first gulf war in 1991 and the present contemplated devastation of Iran is only a precursor of things to come.
According to the Pew Foundations polls, as many as 40 million churchgoing voters are exposed to John Hagee and hundreds like him on Sunday. Many more, maybe 100 million, are influenced by Judeo-Christian network TV and big name national and international home Bible studies. Without the influence of Judeo-Christians, there would be no support for bombing Iran today; without it, 3700 Americans would not have been killed in Iraq, and the 200 Iraqis who died in just one day of its civil war. Without the Judeo-Christians, our Congress would not have allowed George W. Bush to breach the Bill of Rights with Homeland Security or with his aggressive executive orders; without the Judeo-Christian power bloc we wonder if there would have been an Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo.
AIPAC and many American businessmen have profit interests in war and campaigned for new wars as a matter of business, but it is the Judeo-Christians who have provided the grassroots clout to keep the War On Islam churning.*
The Dollar Cost of killing
The occupation of Iraq has paralyzed the oil production from the 2nd largest oil resource in the world. Before the occupation it did not cost $50 to fill the family car. Before the occupation Christian Zionist children and grandchildren could afford milk at a cost per gallon less than diesel fuel, and truck drivers could afford both milk and fuel. Before “wars” on Iraq, American industry was healthy and had not yet been shipped to China.
Our economic catastrophe is real, lead by the real estate and mortgage bubble. Why? Because of the cost of a war is over $500 thousand million dollars, and most of the money has been printed, so it will have to be repaid in higher prices later on. This judgment is like a foul smelling vapor that cannot be put back in the bottle. I use the word “catastrophe” where others talk of “crisis” because crisis can sometimes be avoided and often leads to practical solutions. Not so with our “catastrophe.” We have passed the crisis stage years ago when we began serial wars for economic purposes, printing the money to pay for them.
This would be a great time for a Judeo-Christian financial “rapture;” instead we have a bailout by our benevolent Central Bank to save us. It tells us openly they have, in only one week, printed $63 billion to pay for bad loans made by mortgage lenders. Decades ago FED bail out gifts to big friends were kept as tight secrets to keep the public’s collective mind off “inflation,” but no more. Now we are told about it openly to convince us the Bankers who finance war are in control, and we can trust our retirement plan to Washington and Wall Street. There is no end to the amount of price inflation we can expect, food prices will surely be the next to skyrocket on our shopping list for reasons to be explained in our next issue.
Judeo-Christians as a group are most responsible because it is they that supported the wars for which all these dollars were wasted on killing people.
Christian Zionist leaders like Gary Bauer, John Hagee and Pat Robertson are not the only ones who believe the Christian Zionist vote controls the USA. Politician Tom Delay who was an ardent supporter of every war against Islam, recently was quoted as saying at John Hagee’s Night to Honor Israel in Washington DC, that he not only “believes in the Rapture, I live for it” Too bad Delay left the world in such a mess just before his anticipated departure.(8)
Israel lobby harness Judeo-Christianity
Every politician in Congress and those competing for the presidency know George W. Bush became president because he and Carl Rove found a way to identify Bush with the Christian Right, but to get this blessing one must also be Israel blessed. Even today 70% of Republicans support Bush and his war in Iraq because what is left of the Republican Party is predominantly Judeo-Christian.
Presidential candidates and congressmen alike know they need the Christian Right to be elected. Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton know this, and candidates who want Christian Zionist leaders to endorse them must go to Israel first and receive its stamp of approval from Israel’s reigning power, the Likud government. Hillary Clinton was in Israel to curtsey to the Likud leaders, as did Republican Rudi Giuliani. The Israeli press reported Rudi assured their Likud leaders that if he is the US President there will be no problem with Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel’s spokesman quoted him as promising there will be no Palestine state in his White House. Giuliani promises four more years of military aid for Israel, and four more years of occupation and starvation for the Philistines. Israel has ample reason to trust Giuliani so he will get its support.
Now, having earned Israel’s endorsement, Giuliani is all set to seek the smiling handshake and endorsement of American Christian Zionist leaders, which then give him access and a forum before 100 million Judeo-Christian US citizens and perhaps as many as 40 million voters. AIPAC is an enforcer to make sure the congressman follows through on his promises, but the votes come from the people who have been suckered into believing Judeo-Christianity is the same as following Christ.
Giuliani is openly in favor of abortion on demand and is tolerant of life practices that are traditionally mortal sins for Judeo-Christians, but that did not stop Pat Robertson from blessing him, “Giuliani will make a fine President,” stated Robertson. It remains to be seen how Hillary (she is pro-abortion on the record) will posture herself to be moderated and open minded about a Pro-life, Judeo-Christian image in order to capture enough Christian Right votes so she can win, as did her husband Bill in 1996.
The relationship between the Christian-Zionists leaders and AIPAC is simple and straightforward. AIPAC pressures Congressmen in Washington to give Israel what it wants; the Christian-Zionist celebrities brainwash the laymen in hometowns to pressure the Congressmen at the polls, and the Congressman takes a junket to Israel and complies. Congress is in the vice between the strongest lobby in Washington and the biggest lobbying voting block in the country. Why would they listen to you or me?
Christians are deceived by Zionism
Misguided Christians have been used to fight and support war from the 11th Century Crusades to Iraq. The names have changed but the message has not. A Pope who called himself Urban II is said to have told the bishop and earls who were to lead the First Crusaders it was up to them to rid the Holy Land of infidels so “Jesus could return there.” They passed this message on to the peasants who suffered and died for this false cause for the better part of 200 years. The result was the feudal system in Europe.
Judeo-Christianity, like Pope Urban II, teaches we all must honor Israel ahead of America, and even rebuild a temple there before Jesus will come. The story has hardly changed in a thousand years. Never mind the fact that Jesus did not seem to say anything like this. Urban II did not share his private economic dreams with the peasants, but he did tell the leaders of the Crusade that the purpose of holy wars was for the loot, and the Crusaders proved to be expert looters.
The leaders of the Christina Zionists, Hagee, Robertson, and a hundred more are the knights and barons at the head of the Crusades’ columns. Their loot comes in the mail and from credit card contributions from the peasant’s foot soldiers.
Human cost to the Judeo-Christian families
Church-going Americans are not only going in debt for war, they supply their sons and daughters to be killed and maimed in the contest. Celebrity Zionists beat the drums for war that Israel wants, but I have not heard of Hagee’s or Farwell’s son enlisting, or any of the congressmen’s children. The scorched foot soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan include a disproportionately large number of Judeo-Christians, who we believe, often enlist because mom and dad raised him in the Judeo-Christian church where volunteering is considered noble, even today after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Their youths are taught that if we honor Israel we earn blessings for America from God. It is these young men who pay with shattered bodies and broken minds for the free junkets to Israel taken by a reported 80 Congressmen in August 2007.
"Where are you going, Young Fellow My Lad,
On this glittering morn of May?"
"I'm going to join the Colors, Dad,
They're looking for men, they say."
"But you're only a boy, Young Fellow My Lad,
You aren't obliged to go."
"Well, I'm seventeen and a quarter, Dad,
And ever so strong, you know."
–Robert Service about 1918
Recently I was introduced to a sandy-haired, smiling 26-year old with a crushing handshake. But he walked haltingly on two steel legs and his hip joints are also man-made so terrible were his wounds in a rocket attack in Iraq. He talked of friends who have died. He was 17 when he enlisted and the army is all he knows, he would go back to his unit. It did not surprise me when this clean cut young American told me he is a Southern Baptist…every bit a gentleman, he looked and acted the part. He confided that his mother has recently become adamantly against the War (though he did could not bring himself to engage in “political talk”). I know that this mother must be thinking… if only she had been pro-peace before her young son enlisted seven years ago.
We Hold These Truths has hear other stories from boys with a Judeo-Christian upbringing whose parents did not know they needed to guard their children from recruiters. We owe it to every Judeo-Christian to tell them about the cost of our serial wars against Islamic non-enemies. The giant Israeli Lobby does what it wants in its own interest...in Israel's interest and they will not stop no matter what we do.
We must blame those who have influence, the Christ follower who mistakenly listens to the celebrity Christian leaders, and who are themselves victims. What has the Judeo-Christian movement given back to America? Is has sacrificed the value of loving your brother as yourself, as Jesus demanded…even loving your enemy. It has left in its place a legacy of hatred, war, violence, and diluted money, all in the name of Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. This can and must be changed from inside these apostate churches and media sources.
We need to appeal to the sense of morality of Judeo-Christians. Its members are directly responsible for the three current crises in American culture, these being the War, inflation and the break down of morality that always accompanies war. They do it for only one reason; they are led into following an apostate Christianity that started only about 100 years ago, first legitimized by Cyrus I Scofield. (1)(5)
We concluder there could have been no Shock and Awe or war of occupation in Iraq were it not for the Christian Zionists’ zealous campaign to destroy Muslim nations. The now publicly acknowledged War on Islam is in fact already 17 years old. Project Strait Gate was started to challenge it in its very lair. Jesus and his disciples took their arguments to the temple and the synagogues. We are doing the same.
What is the matter, Young Fellow My Lad?
No letter again to-day.
Why did the postman look so sad,
And sigh as he turned away?
Well, I hear them tell that we've gained new ground,
But a terrible price we've paid:
God grant, my boy, that you're safe and sound;
But oh I'm afraid, afraid.
War! War! War! By Robert W. Service, poet of the Alaskan gold rush, who served as an ambulance driver, but refused to enter combat in World War 1.
~~~~~~
(1) Scofield Reference Bible Audio Visual, Charles Carlson (http://www.whtt.org/show)
(2) One Nation Under Israel, Andrew J. Hurley, AIPAC power and Israel’s history (http://eshop.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=28)
(3) Forcing God’s Hand, Grace Halsell, describing authors Junket with Falwell to Israel (http://eshop.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=28)
(4) God’s Wrath On The Left Behind, Lisa Ruby, an evolution of the Left Behind Series (http://eshop.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=28)
(5) The Final Apostasy, by Gordon Ginn, Ph.D., a deeper look at the abuse of Scripture (http://eshop.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=28)
(6) Pew Foundation asks what White Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants and Catholics believe about Israel (Pew http://eshop.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1389)
(7) The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign Policy, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, http://eshop.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=885
(8) Rapture Ready, Mike Blumenthal at CUFI Washington DC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMRgT5o-Ig
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