Americans Pick Obama as Personal Hero; Jesus Comes Second

Americans Pick Obama as Personal Hero; Jesus Comes Second
By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Feb. 21 2009



President Barack Obama’s popularity overwhelms that of Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, according to a new poll that shows Obama as the person Americans named as their hero.




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President Barack Obama’s popularity overwhelms that of Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, according to a new poll that shows Obama as the person Americans named as their hero.

American adults (age 18 and over) spontaneously named President Obama as the person they admire enough to call their hero in a Harris Poll that did not provide a list for respondents to choose from.

The Harris Poll, released on Thursday, was conducted on 2,634 U.S. adults between Jan. 12 to 19, 2009 – just ahead of President Obama’s inauguration.

“The fact that President Obama is mentioned more often than Jesus Christ should not be misinterpreted,” The Harris Poll clarified in its report. “No list was used and nobody was asked to choose between them.”

Following Barack Obama, the next most popular personal heroes are Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger, and Mother Teresa, respectively, to round out the top 10 people Americans say they admire and would call their hero.

In the top 20 list, God held the No. 11 spot while evangelist Billy Graham tied with former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the 13th slot.

Respondents gave multiple reasons for their choice of heroes, including: doing what’s right regardless of personal consequences (89 percent); not giving up until the goal is accomplished (83 percent); doing more than what other people expect of them (82 percent); overcoming adversity (81 percent); and staying level-headed in a crisis (81 percent).

Only 14 percent of Americans said they admire either their mother or father enough to call them their hero. In contrast, nearly half (49 percent) said a public figure is someone they admire and consider a personal hero.

The public also named several well-known figures that they no longer consider their hero, which includes Colin Powell, George W. Bush, John McCain, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy. In 2001, Bill Clinton topped the list for a similar survey conducted by Harris Poll.

Among other observations made by the poll’s conductors, six of the top ten heroes are dead (including Jesus Christ); the top 10 list includes five presidents; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ranks higher in the 2009 list (No. 12) than her husband, former President Bill Clinton (No. 16).

Since the 2001 list, several people have dropped off the list completely, including Pope John Paul (was 18th), Jimmy Carter (was 20th), Nelson Mandela (was 21st), Michael Jordan (was 9th), Princess Diana (was 16th), and Tiger Woods (was 23rd).

Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter

http://christianpost.com/Society/Polls_reports/2009/02/americans-pick-obama-as-personal-hero-jesus-comes-second-21/index.html
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ELUANA ENGLARO DEAD

Eluana Englaro dead
Published: February 11, 2009


Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Itay's Health Minister has announced that long term coma patient Eluana Englaro is dead only four days after doctors began a "gradual" reduction in her food and water intake.
The announcement was made as the Italian Senate debated a bill that would have saved Englaro's life.

Although no cause of death has been announced, earlier news reports indicated that Englaro's intake of nutrients was being replaced with a heavy dose of sedatives. Palliative medication in high doses can cause a patient to die prematurely.

The news follows public statements by Englaro's physician that she has enjoyed almost perfect physical health during the 16 years following her car accident in 1992, which left her bedridden and in a minimal state of consciousness. She was 38 years old.

Although euthanasia is illegal in Italy and Englaro's body functions were not dependent on machines, her father received a decision from Italy's final appeals court in 2008 allowing him to remove hydration and nutrition in order to kill her. The ruling was based on the notion that food and water constitute "medical treatment," which can be withheld at the patient's discretion.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International denounced Englaro's killing and expressed puzzlement at her quick death.

"To intentionally dehydrate a person to death dehumanises them because it denies them the basic care due to a human person. We turn them into an object," he told LifeSiteNews.

"Everybody deserves basic care, which includes food, fluid, and warmth as long as it is necessary to sustain life. This is not extraordinary treatment."

"We ask the question, how did she actually die? She wouldn't have died in just a few days of dehydration," he added.

Vatican press office director Fr Federico Lombardi said in a statement that Eluana was "a person who we loved much and who in the last months became a part of our lives," Zenit says.

"Now that Eluana is at peace," he said, "we hope that her case, after so many discussions, will be a motive for serene reflection and a responsible search for the best way to accompany the weakest, with love and careful attention, with the due respect for the right to life."

He quoted Pope Benedict who on Sunday called for the care of those "who can in no way take care of themselves, but depend entirely on the care of others."

"But the physical death is not the last word for Christians. In the name of Eluana, we will continue to seek the most effective path to serve life," he concluded.

The Italian bishops, who had repeatedly asked that Eluana be kept alive, expressed their "great pain" at the death of the Italian woman. They said they hoped her death unites "those that believe in the dignity of the person and the inviolable value of life, above all when it is defenseless."

The bishops added, "We call all not to flag in this passion for human life from conception until natural death."

Euronews reports some Catholic activists have called for an autopsy. They fear that doctors may have tried to accelerate her death before a law passed forcing them to start feeding her again.

In another story, the Korean Catholic Church did not oppose the removal of a respirator from a terminally ill comatose grandmother.

Park Jung-woo, spokesman for the Life and Ethics Committee at the Archdiocese of Seoul of Catholic Church said that "extending painful treatment just to extend time waiting for death is meaningless."



http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=11668

Al-Qaeda would blow up ‘Christ’s burial site’ says Israeli election favourite Net

Al-Qaeda would blow up ‘Christ’s burial site’ says Israeli election favourite Netanyahu


By Damien McElroy in Jerusalem

Telegraph

Benjamin Netanyahu, the favorite to win next month’s Israeli general election, yesterday predicted al-Qaeda would blow up the purported burial place of Jesus Christ, if the country relinquished control of Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu, who claimed to have forecast the destruction of the Twin Towers by Islamic extremists in 1995, said terrorists would target the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Christianity’s holiest site.

“Radical Islam is willing and will want to attack the symbolic heart of the Christian religion,” he said. “This will incur a chain reaction we can’t even envision. We will witness an escalation of religious conflict above and beyond the regional conflict we have now.”

The leader of the Right-wing Likud opposition recalled that he had warned Islamic terrorists would detonate a nuclear device in the Manhattan World Trade Centre complex in a 1995 book, six years before the September 11 attacks.

He claimed that the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre would trigger a clash between religions, much greater than the “regional conflict” that currently wracks the Holy Land.

Israel annexed Jerusalem after the 1967 war and has overseen a massive expansion of the city’s Jewish population.

The church on the Hill of Calvary is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the Holy Sepulchre, according to the New Testament. It attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims each year and is a spiritual focal point for all the Roman and Eastern rite churches in the city.

Any discussion of returning part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians, who also claim it as their capital provokes sharp divisions in Israeli politics. The February elections were called after Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister and new leader of the Kadima party, failed to form a government to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert because she would not rule out negotiations on the division of Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu, who boasts of closing down Palestinian offices in Jerusalem and expanding the number of Jewish building projects during previous terms in government, said Likud would not discuss sovereignty over Jerusalem.

But he forecast that the most radical groups among Israel would gain a foothold to wage attacks on Israel. He said: “If we move out of even one piece of Jerusalem, Hamas moves in, Iran would have a base to attack us in the heart of our capital.” It emerged yesterday that the size of Jewish settlements on the West Bank had grown by 69 per cent in 2008. Activists with Peace Now reported that Israel’s army was quietly promoting the establishment of new settlements, as well as the expansion of existing outposts.

The development appears to violate Israel’s official promises to restrict the unrestrained growth of the settlements.

It is another damaging blow to Tony Blair’s credibility as international envoy to the conflict. Since taking up office Mr Blair has negotiated the dismantlement of just one Israeli army checkpoint but the total number has gone up to 699 from 521.

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/10407

The Presentation of the Lord - Feast

* Monday, 2 February 2009
The Presentation of the Lord - Feast



Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2,22-40.

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,"
and to offer the sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons," in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."
The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted
(and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.






02 February
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The Presentation of Child Jesus in the Temple



THE law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, ordained that a woman, after childbirth, should continue for a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean, during which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch anything consecrated to God. This term was of forty days upon the birth of a son, and double that time for a daughter. On the expiration of the term, the mother .vas to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or Temple, a lamb and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, as an offering to God. These being sacrificed to Almighty God by the priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity and reinstated in her former privileges.

A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was required of all, whether rich or poor; but as the expense of a lamb might be too great for persons in poor circumstances, they were allowed to substitute for it a second dove.

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and His blessed Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is evident that she did not come under the law; but as the world was, as yet, ignorant of her miraculous conception, she submitted with great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance which the law required. Devotion and mal to honor God, by every observance prescribed by His law, prompted Mary to perform this act of religion, though evidently exempt from the precept. Being poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor; but; however mean in itself, it was made with a perfect heart, which is what God chiefly regards in all that is offered to Him. Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself, there was another which ordered that the first-born son should be offered to God, and that, after its presentation, the child should be ransomed with a certain sum of money, and peculiar sacrifices offered on the occasion.

Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys not only in the essential points of the law, but has strict regard to all the circumstances. She remains forty days at home; she denies herself, all this time, the liberty of entering the Temple; she partakes not of things sacred; and on the day of her purification she walks several miles to Jerusalem, with the world's Redeemer in her arms. She waits for the priest at the gate of the Temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation, presents her divine Son by the hands of the priest to His Eternal Father, with the most profound humility, adoration, and thanksgiving. She then redeems Him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and receives Him back again as a sacred charge committed to her special care, till the Father shall again demand Him for the full accomplishment of man's redemption.

The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery—the meeting in the Temple of the holy persons Simeon and Anne with Jesus and His parents. Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received into his arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised God for being blessed with the happiness of beholding the so-much-longed-for Messias. Re foretold to Mary her martyrdom of sorrow, and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would accept of it on the terms it was offered them; but a heavy judgment on all infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians, also, whose lives were a contradiction to His holy maxims and example. Mary, hearing this terrible prediction, did not answer one word, felt no agitation of mind from the present, no dread for the future; but courageously and sweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne, also, the prophetess, who in her widowhood served God with great fervor, had the happiness to acknowledge and adore in this great mystery the Redeemer of the world. Simeon, having beheld Our Saviour, exclaimed: "Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, because my eyes have seen Thy salvation."

This feast is called CANDLEMAS, because the Church blesses the candles to be borne in the procession of the day.



Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]






http://www.dailygospel.org/www/main.php?language=AM&localTime=02/02/2009

ISRAEL: The New American Idol

ISRAEL: The New American Idol
Ericka Moore Jan 26, 2009



ISRAEL

The New American Idol

By Ericka Moore





Israel has become the new American Idol. The mantra of “We will always support Israel” is disturbing enough coming from our President and most of the Congress and Media, but when many of the Christian Evangelical Churches across America are the loudest voices in the chorus, it’s time to investigate.



The most-quoted Biblical “proof text” that I have heard referenced by Christians who believe we must unconditionally “bless” the modern day state of Israel is as follows:



“The LORD had said to Abram,…

‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And whoever curses you I will curse;

And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” *



Genesis 12:1-3 NIV



Assuming that scripture interprets scripture and that the New Testament writers often quote, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, explain the meaning of Old Testament passages, let’s take a look at the Bible’s New Testament book of Galatians. The entire book should be thoroughly studied in context to delve into this subject in depth, but for the purposes of this article, I will quote only a few passages.



In Galatians 3:8, the Apostle Paul quotes a portion of this same scripture:



“The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”



Notice that Paul refers to this expression as “the gospel.” And what is the gospel message that God is proclaiming to Abram in advance? Is it the current political state of Israel that God is saying will be a blessing to all nations? Paul goes on to decisively answer that question in verse 16.



“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his Seed. The scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘to your Seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.”



When churches take the verses from Genesis 12:1-3, and apply them to the present day state of Israel, they are distorting the very gospel itself. Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, is the Seed through whom “all nations will be blessed.” That is, and always has been, the only gospel message of both the Old and New Testament.



Paul closes Galatians 3:26-29 with these profound words,



“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”



We are all equal in the sight of God. He displays no favoritism based on race, social status, or gender. Jesus Christ gave his life out of love, not to save a tiny plot of land or a favored ethnicity, but for all mankind. Not for inanimate shrines and places, as much as we may love what they represent to us, but for the forgiveness of sins and salvation for all who will receive Him. This is the very essence of true Christianity.



These truths were clearly understood and echoed by the founders of our country in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Today, as Palestine bleeds and the church remains silent, let these words soak deeply into our souls and sear our consciences with conviction that every person is a unique masterpiece of God with inestimable worth and dignity.



“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”



In Congress, July 4, 1776

Declaration of Independence



Bold type added for emphasis.
Ericka Moore can be reached at. ccarlson@whtt.org:




http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=2831

Christian Zionism, Evangelicals and Israel

Christian Zionism, Evangelicals and Israel
Gary M. Burge, Ph.D.

Gary Burge earned his Ph.D. at King's College in Aberdeen, Scotland and
is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College & Graduate School in
Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author is The Anointed Community: The Holy
spirit in the Johannine Tradition (1987), Who Are God's People in the
Middle East? (1993), Interpreting the Gospel of John: Guide to New
Testament Exegesis, No. 5 (1998), and Whose Land? Whose Promise (2003).


If there ever were doubts about the ongoing presence and influence of
Christian Zionism in Israel, you only had to visit Jerusalem earlier
this month to witness the Christian Embassy's one week Tabernacles
Festival. On Tuesday the 14th 15,000 people paraded outside Jerusalem's
Old Walled City. The predominant colors for clothes were red, white and
blue, and many Americans wore necklaces sporting a Star of David, a
Menorah and a Christian fish symbol. American flags were distributed
liberally to cheering parade-watchers. A delegation from the South wore
gallon-sized cowboy hats and steer-horned belt buckles while they
carried a large banner, "Oklahoma loves Israel." The city predicts that
the assembly pumped about $10 million into the struggling Israeli
tourist economy.


Who are these people and what do they stand for? And how do they link
their religious faith, politics and commitment to Israel?
The Bible and the Romance of Palestine


It would be wrong to think of Christian Zionism as a recent phenomenon
invented by Gary Bauer and Tim LeHaye. Some scholars think that its
roots go as far back as the pilgrims who saw their journey as a
re-creation of the Israelite pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They did not
apply this to Judaism, however, but took the Biblical story as an
allegory for their own pilgrimage. Nevertheless this created a
sympathetic understanding of the religious refugee that is seated deeply
in the American psyche and likely shapes many of us even today.


The more important story begins in the 19th century. Religious interest
in Ottoman Palestine grew dramatically during the Victorian era as
travelers - romantic travelers - sought adventure by ship, train and
horseback. And they came to Palestine in great numbers. The 1880s
found a number of influential preachers there too. Rev. DeWitt Talmage
pastured the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York and returned home from such
a pilgrimage to publish his Twenty Five Sermons from the Holy Land. In
it he offered a romantic picture of a Jewish renaissance in the country.
He praised philanthropists such as Montifiore and Rothchild for
financing the return of Jewish life there. Here is a sample from one of
his sermons:


"[Many who are] large-hearted have paid the passage to Palestine for
many of the Israelites, and set apart lands for their culture; and it is
only a beginning of the fulfillment of Divine prophecy, when these
people shall take possession of the Holy Land. The road from Joppa to
Jerusalem, and all the roads leading to Nazareth and Galilee, we saw
lined with processions of Jews, going to the sacred places, either on
holy pilgrimage, or as settlers. All the fingers of Providence nowadays
are pointing toward that resumption of Palestine by the Israelites."


In 1891 George Adam Smith wrote his popular The Historical Geography of
the Holy Land and there portrayed an empty, biblical land awaiting the
return of Judaism. Such publications resonated with a growing public
interest in Palestine and the Bible, especially in Britain,. And during
WWI when the prospect of the fall of the Ottomans, Jewish Zionist
leaders influenced by men such as Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) could
capitalize on these British interests. The little letter of Nov. 2,
1917 from the British foreign office - now called the Balfour
Declaration - is likely the final synthesis of this religious vision and
politics in Britain.
Dispensationalism


Among conservative Christians in Britain, this unity of political
destiny and religious fulfillment was given its theological form in the
hands of an Irish pastor J.N. Darby. As Herzl was the father of Jewish
Zionism, one could argue that Darby was the father of Christian Zionism.
Darby's system - soon called Dispensationalism - taught a literal
fulfillment of prophesies in the near-present age. He used the biblical
books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation to weave a consistent
picture of the Last Days. The church is raptured, the anti-Christ
arises, Armageddon erupts, and Christ returns to establish his kingdom
on earth. But above all, the revival of Israel is the catalyst of the
End Times.


Despite eight missionary trips to America, Darby was greeted here with
indifference. But when leading evangelists such as Dwight Moody, Billy
Sunday and Harry Ironsides saw how the drama and fear and hope in this
scenario influenced audiences, Darby's views caught on like wildfire.
In 1881, for instance, Horatio and Anna Spafford and 16 friends opened
the American Colony in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City to watch - as
they put it - "prophesy being fulfilled."


William Blackstone (1841-1935) was a Chicago evangelist and student of
Moody. In 1878 he published Jesus is Coming which was America's first
Dispensational best-seller. The book went through three editions and
was translated into 42 languages. In 1890 Blackstone was visiting
Jewish settlements in the Holy Land and organizing conferences in
Chicago to restore Jews to Palestine. Blackstone worked closely with
Jewish Zionists and in 1918 was hailed by the Zionist Conference of
Philadelphia as a "Father of Zionism." In 1956 Israel memorialized him
by naming a forest in his name.


In 1909 Cyrus Scofield published a popular study bible, the Scofield
Reference Bible, and in its footnotes readers throughout America
inherited Darby's theological program. (To date over 2 million of them
have been sold.) In 1917 five weeks after the Balfour Declaration, the
Turks handed Jerusalem over to Britain to the amazement of prophesy
watchers. In 1918 dispensationalists organized their first prophesy
conferences and they continued for decades. Before long - throughout
the 1920s and for the next 40 years - Dispensationalism tied to Israel
and prophesy became the litmus test of evangelical orthodoxy.


Dispensationalism had a variety of detractors over time and today we
cannot think of all evangelicals as dispensationalists. Nevertheless,
while formal Dispensationalism with its complex view of the covenants
has lost a large following, what remains is the skeleton of its
eschatology. Technically called pre-tribulation, pre-millennialism it
defends Darby's basic outline: Israel returns to the Holy Land, the
church is raptured, a tribulation brings Armageddon, and Christ returns.


This framework remained prominent for evangelicals but throughout the
1940s dispensationalists began to believe that the birth of Israel was
imminent. When it occurred in 1948, Dispensationalists were euphoric.
The key piece was now in place. Israel's swift victory in 1967 - hailed
by many as a divine miracle - sparked even more zeal for prophesy.
Writers such as Walvoord and Ryrie viewed modern history through this
Biblical lens for a new generation. In 1970 Hal Lindsey then published
The Late Great Planet Earth which popularized and dramatized the
unfolding of political events in Israel and how the Bible predicted
them. To date, Lindsey's original book has sold 25 million copies.
More recently Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' popular Left Behind series
fictionalizes this eschatology and has sold over 50 million copies in 11
volumes.


These remarkable numbers of publishing sales are important because they
show that among countless Christians in America, there is a residual
eschatology at work - and most of them have no idea where it came from.
Just ask someone who goes to church how they think the world will end.
Many will recite Lindsey to you claiming that this is what the Bible
teaches.
Christian Zionism


Today a movement called Christian Zionism has harnessed these disparate
parts. Its advocates have shed much of Dispensationalism's theological
program but have kept its eschatology. Christian Zionism weds religion
with politics and interprets biblical faithfulness in terms of fidelity
to Israel's future. Its spokespersons are today well-known among those
on the Christian Right: Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Ed
McAteer, Gary Bauer, and Kay Arthur. Those committed to Christian
Zionism share the same five core beliefs:


(1) The Covenant. God's covenant with Israel is eternal and
unconditional. Therefore the promises of land given to Abraham will
never be overturned. This means that the church has not replaced Israel
and that Israel's privileges have never been revoked despite unfaithfulness.
(2) The Church. God's plan has always been for the redemption of
Israel. Yet when Israel failed to follow Jesus, the church was born as
an afterthought or "parenthesis." Thus at the rapture the church will
be removed and Israel will once again become God's primary agent in the
world. We now live in 'the times of the Gentiles' which will conclude
soon. This means that there are two covenants now at work, that given
through Moses and the covenant of Christ. But the new covenant in no
way makes the older covenant obsolete.
(3) Blessing Modern Israel. We must take Gen. 12:3 literally and apply
it to modern Israel: "I will bless those who bless you and curse those
who curse you." Therefore Christians have a spiritual obligation to
bless Israel and "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." To fail to bless
Israel, to fail to support Israel's political survival today, will incur
divine judgment.
(4) Prophesy. The prophetic books of the Bible are describing events of
today and do not principally refer to events in Biblical times.
Therefore when we look at, say, Daniel 7, if we possess the right
interpretative skills, we can see how modern history is unfolding. This
quest for prophesy has spawned countless books interpreting Middle East
history through the Bible.
(5) Modern Israel and Eschatology. The modern state of Israel is a
catalyst for the prophetic countdown. If these are the last days, then
we should expect an unraveling of civilization, the rise of evil, the
loss of international peace and equilibrium, a coming antichrist, and
tests of faithfulness to Israel. Above all, political alignments today
will determine our position on the fateful day of Armageddon. Since the
crisis of 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it has been easy to
persuade the public that history is unraveling precisely as
dispensationalism predicted.


It would not be difficult to offer fatal criticisms of this theological
framework. Many biblical scholars have already done so. For instance,
the covenant's promises are conditional and their blessings are revoked
when there is faithlessness. The Babylonian exile is the best example
of this. But in addition the New Testament is making a stunning claim
about genuine continuity between the covenants, that Christians are the
children of Abraham and heirs of his promises.


But the most important critique - and here I think we discover the
Achilles' heel - is that Christian Zionism is committed to what I term a
"territorial religion." It assumes that God's interests are focused on
a land, a locale, a place. From a NT perspective, the land is holy by
reference to what transpired there in history. But it no longer has an
intrinsic part to play in God's program for the world. This is what
Stephen pointed to in his speech in Acts 7. The land and the temple are
now secondary. God's wishes to reveal himself to the entire world. And
this insight cost Stephen his life. Such an understanding is a far cry
from the views of Christian Zionists like Ed McAteer who recently
commented, "Every grain of sand, every grain of sand between the Dead
Sea, the Jordan River, and the Mediterranean Sea belongs to the Jews."
Stephen would be alarmed.
Blessing Israel


The theological commitments of Christian Zionism are therefore not new.
But today they are boldly proclaimed and closely linked to a political
agenda in America. And today evangelicals are told that we hold a
spiritual obligation to "bless Israel." When pastors such as John Hagee
of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, can deliver $1 million to
Israel, a new definition of evangelical missions is at work. But
blessing Israel is not simply a matter of giving money. It is also
found in political advocacy. For instance, when Israel invaded the West
Bank in April, 2002 following the Passover bombings, President Bush
urged Ariel Sharon to withdraw from Jenin. Christian Zionists mobilized
an email campaign that produced 100,000 letters for Washington. And it
worked. Bush never said another word.


Leaders like Jerry Falwell thus see their mission as protecting Israel
politically. On CBS's 60 Minutes (June 8, 2003) he remarked, "It is my
belief that the Bible Belt in America is Israel's only safety belt right
now." Falwell continued, "There is nothing that would bring the wrath
of the Christian public in this country down on this government like
abandoning or opposing Israel in a critical matter. And when the chips
are down Ariel Sharon can trust George Bush to do the right thing every
time." These words were as much warning to Bush as anything since
Bush's political analysts believe that Falwell's "Christian public" is a
core constituency.


Today the same strategy is at work. On May 19, 2003, 23 Christian
Zionists sent President Bush a letter outlining what was wrong with his
Roadmap to Peace and urging him to end it. Its signatories included
Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer, John Hagee, James Kennedy and others. In a
similar manner Gary Bauer spoke at this year's AIPAC convention. Even
Pat Robertson can rebuke Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, on
his nationally syndicated "700 Club."


In recent days no one has matched House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R,
Texas) for his zeal to bless Israel. Delay is often sought in
Washington as a spokesperson for Christian Zionism. And he is
forthright in his commitment even when it contradicts the president. On
July 30 of this year he addressed the Israeli Knesset and his views were
so extreme that the Labor Party leader Danny Yatom commented afterwards,
"Geez, Likud is nothing compared to him!" Another legislator commented,
"Until I heard him speak, I thought I was the farthest to the right in
the Knesset!"


Delay announced that he was an "Israeli at heart" and then upon his
return home challenged the Bush's Roadmap openly. He has appeared at
meetings of the influential Christian Coalition with Benny Elon, the
leader of the pro-ethnic cleansing Moledet Party arguing that a
"transfer" of Palestinians out of Israel could be justified on Biblical
authority. Recently the Los Angeles Times condemned DeLay for using
"the considerable power of his office" to "promote his personal
apocalyptic views."


But in addition to blessing Israel, Christian Zionists are clear that
those who fail to bless will be punished. Kay Arthur appeared with
Falwell on CBS's 60 Minutes and there surprised her audience when she
suggested that the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin was linked to
his involvement in the Oslo Peace Accord.


In June CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network which produces Pat
Robertson's 700 Club) published a news item warning America about
natural disasters that will be God's punishment on America. The day
after Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in and the Roadmap was set in motion, CBN
told us that the next day began the worst month of tornadoes in
America's history. Their best example happened on Oct. 30, 1991, when
former President Bush (Sr.) met with Israelis and Palestinians to
discuss compromises. CBN commented, "That same day, thousands of miles
away, a powerful storm was brewing off the coast of Nova Scotia. On
October 31, what would be called 'the perfect storm' smashed into New
England pummeling the president's Kennebunkport, Main, home with waves
30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required
to create it only happen once every 100 years." The deduction was
clear: Bush had angered God in his negotiations and God had sent
America punishing weather in response.


As odd as all of this may sound, it is consistent with the theological
worldview embraced by Christian Zionists who believe that Christian
faith and politics must be wed in Israel. To deny this synthesis is not
only to contradict the Bible, but it is to stand in the way of what God
is doing in history, a history foretold millennia ago by the Biblical
prophets.


http://www.christianzionism.org

Will President Obama save Israel?

Will President Obama save Israel?
by Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C
Posted: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 18:51 (EST)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote as to why Christians should not support Israeli aggression on Gaza. Many people responded with totally divergent views. Now is a good time to review what has happened.

The pro-Israeli lobby is the most powerful and cashed up lobby in the US Congress. Supported by fundamentalist Protestants combined with wealthy Jewish citizens, every US administration has been forced into agreeing to support a militarily strong Israel. Under Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton and Bush Jr. the USA funded Israel for billions of dollars flowing into Israel every year to support the Israeli armed forces. A Jewish population of six million citizens could not afford the largest, most powerful army in the Middle East without the billions of US dollars. In its turn the US has been happy to have another country keeping the Middle Eastern Arab countries in check without interfering with the Arab American oil trade.

Hence the attack on Gaza is a stern warning to Lebanon and the Hizballah and Iran, which funds both Hizballah and Hamas. That lesson to the other countries has cost Gaza at least 2,400 Palestinian dead and 4000 injured, the majority of both the dead and wounded being civilians and children.

Will Obama continue the US support of a militaristic Israel? While cognizant of the Jewish and fundamentalist Christian lobby, unlike the previous presidents he does not owe his election to this lobby. Obama has made a point of saying he wants to build better relations with the Arab nations and has pointedly refrained from excusing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israeli commanders and politicians are faced with a painful dilemma with the gains appearing to diminish compared to the spiralling costs — to Israel’s moral stature, to the lives of Palestinian civilians and to the world’s hopes that an ancient conflict can ever be resolved. Israeli politicians and generals know that the total elimination of Hamas’ entrenched military command is not possible. The more realistic outcome is an unsatisfactory truce that leaves Hamas wounded but alive and able to regenerate — and Israel only temporarily safe from attack.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, promised a “war to the bitter end.” But after 60 years of struggle to defend their existence against foreign threats and enemies within, many Israelis are wondering, “Where does that end lie?” During this recent aggressive attack on Gaza, a large protest force against their own armed aggression caused politicians to re-think their strategy of a cease-fire. The threat posed by Hamas is only the most immediate of the many interlocking challenges facing Israel, some of which cast dark shadows over the long-term viability of a democratic Jewish state.

Israel has grown into a strong, modern and democratic country and a dependable American ally. A strong, confident Israel is in America’s interest, but so is one that can find peace with its neighbours, cooperate with the Arabs to contain common threats and, most important, reach a just and lasting solution with the Palestinians. That is what President Obama wants.

The offensive in Gaza may limit Hamas’ ability to menace southern Israel with rocket fire but, as with Israel’s 2006 war against Hizballah, the application of force won’t extinguish the militants’ ideological fervour. The anti-Israeli anger swelling in the region has made it more difficult for Arab governments to join Israel in its efforts to deal with Iran, the patron of both Hamas and Hizballah, and a state whose leaders have sworn to eliminate Israel and appear determined to acquire nuclear weapons.

Some critical correspondents called for the Palestinians to accept the democratically elected Israeli Government. But just as ominous for many Israelis is a ticking demographic time bomb: the likelihood that Arabs will vastly outnumber Jews within the next ten years (by 2020) in the land stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. That is a catastrophic prospect for the Israelis.

At some point Israelis will have to choose between living with an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, or watching as Jews become a minority in their own land. Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank, with those in Israel, may already outnumber Jews, and given their higher birth-rate, scare even hawkish Israelis like former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who abandoned the biblical dreams of an Israel stretching all the way from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Many of my critics do not understand that this dream has already been abandoned by the Israelis.

As Prime Minister Olmert recently warned, “If we are determined to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, we must inevitably relinquish, with great pain, parts of our homeland.” In other words, if Israelis cling to the West Bank and Gaza, as many religious Zionists insist, Jews will find themselves a shrinking minority in their own state.

Not only would Israel cease to be a Jewish state, it would no longer be a democratic one either, unless Arabs are given a fair share of power. A few bold Arab intellectuals are saying Palestinians should abandon the idea of a two-state solution and just wait until they outnumber the Jews. But the population shift underscores a plain fact: for Israel, the status quo won’t be good enough for much longer.

A new exodus from the promised land? Many Israeli citizens have already given up on Zionism, the philosophy that underlies the existence of the Jewish state. It calls for the return home of the world’s Jews, because of the continuing violence and for the sake of their children.

The fact of so many Israelis leaving the Jewish state to reside elsewhere clearly presents an ideological and demographic problem. In the past several decades, emigration has been growing. From 1990 to 2005, more than 230,000 Israelis left the country; a large proportion of these departures included people who initially immigrated to Israel and then reversed their course (60% of 2003 and 2004 departures were former immigrants to Israel). Eight percent of Jewish immigrants in the post-1990 period left Israel, while 15% of non-Jewish immigrants did. In 2005 alone, 21,500 Israelis left the country and have not yet returned.

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, as of 2005, an estimated 650,000 Israelis had left the country for over one year and not returned. Of them, 530,000 are still alive today. This number does not include the children born overseas.

The Ultra–Orthodox make a great deal of living in the Promised Land, including the settlements on the West bank. But most Jews are not Orthodox (believers in the Old Testament and Practitioners of the Jewish religion.) For the majority, the Promised Land is a political issue. Of all Israeli citizens, 25% are atheist, not believing in God at all, 43% are secular having no patterns of synagogue attendance or observance of regular worship. They are pagan non-believers. There are 12% who describe themselves are traditionalist or (non-practicing Jews) while 9% describe themselves as “religious” but not observing the Jewish religion. There is less than 1.8% who describe themselves as any kind of Christian, including an infinitesimal part of less than 1% who are Messianic Jews.

So here is a new part of the equation. As the numbers of Jews in Israel become a smaller part of the general population, a new Exodus is likely – this time from the Promised Land to the two continents where Jews from South Africa have moved in the last two decades – to North America and Australia.

Israel was established following a century of Zionist lobbying and to salve the Western nations’ conscience over the Holocaust by giving the Jews the birthplace of their ancestors, in spite of the Palestinians who had lived there continuously for 1,300 years and considered it the homeland given to their Father Abraham. Israel is a latecomer to the land even though they share the same patriarch who was promised the land.

Many Christians remember the promise to Israel, but forget Ishmael’s descendents were also there, and the Bible nowhere says the Promised Land will be for one tribe alone. Some CDP members who emailed me wrote that the fact that Israel suffered almost no casualties (four killed and 57 wounded since December 27th 2008) while the Gazans suffered 2,400 citizens killed and over 4000 injured is a sign that God was blessing Israeli soldiers.

I repudiate that suggestion. This is terrible theology, a sign of crooked thinking and absolutely untrue to every situation where the innocent suffer. It is simply a sign that one side had an army, navy and an air force, all armed with the latest weapons, and financed with billions of US dollars – while the other side did not. We do not believe the dictum that God is on the side of the strongest battalions. What a primitive view. In the early days of the church, this mentality was found in those in the stands of the Colosseum who were cheering on the lions!

The immediate challenge facing Israel is that posed by Hamas. Gaza’s tragedy has for days been playing out on the world’s TV sets. Israel’s predicament is that in any confrontation with its enemies, it is damned if it does and doomed if it doesn’t.

An Israel General election in a couple of weeks for a new Prime Minister to replace the corrupt Ehud Olmert, meant that all candidates for the position wanted their nation to see them tough on Hamas and keen on war.

Hamas’ provocative rocket barrages could not go unanswered. So many people believe the propaganda that Israel had to go to war to protect itself from Hamas rockets. These people never acknowledge that for over two years Hamas has fired rockets because Israel had blocked all borders – not allowing in food, fuel, the commodities for normal living, nor allowing Palestinians to get out to go to work in factories or farms. Every farm, orchard and food factory surrounding Gaza was bulldozed by the Israelis. The tunnels into Egypt supplied the food required for one and a half million people but also allowed rockets to be smuggled.

Neither do people who promote Israel’s Navy pounding the Gaza houses, Air Force directing bombs and rockets, and Army tanks shelling houses, schools, hospitals and refugee camps, ever consider whether Israel’s response has been proportional to the threat.

Many who wrote to me stated that Israel had to respond because Hamas rockets were wiping out Israel’s cities including Jerusalem and killing large numbers of Israel’s citizens. That is rubbish. There has been no major damage to any city in Israel, including Jerusalem.

In fact Palestinian rocket attacks (which number 8,000 rockets over 8 years) which sounds like total warfare, have resulted in 20 Israeli deaths over those 8 years. That is half the number of deaths of people involved in traffic accidents on Israel’s roads every month. Compare that with over two thousand deaths and four thousand injured in the past three weeks in Gaza. The Israeli aggression has been out of all proportion to their perceived threat.

Worse than Israel’s loss of standing in the eyes of all other major countries of the world has been the loss of Israel’s perceived power of deterrence, which is key to keeping its hostile neighbours at bay. Israel has failed in these past weeks, despite all the damage to Gaza their armed forces delivered to disarm Hamas. That power was badly eroded in 2006, when Hizballah was able to withstand the Israeli onslaught, force a cease-fire and claim victory in the process.

That surely emboldened Hamas, which intermittently sent rockets into southern Israel and finally prompted Israel to respond in force. As respected Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, “A country that is afraid to deal with Hamas won’t be able either to deter Iran or to safeguard its interests in dealing with Syria, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he didn’t intend to topple Hamas; he knows Israel can’t fill the vacuum of leadership that its elimination would produce in Gaza. Neither can Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s preferred Palestinian leader, who is fading into the background in the West Bank. If there was one loser in the Gaza conflict it was the leader of the Palestinians, Abbas, who has been propped up by Israel and USA. Even those Gazans who do not support Hamas know now that only Hamas can gain them freedom.

So Israel has said it will be satisfied if Hamas stops shooting rockets and an international force polices the Egyptian border to keep the militants from re-arming themselves with weapons smuggled through tunnels.

Hamas says it will agree to a truce if Israel retreats from Gaza and loosens the economic chokehold that has strangled the 1.5 million Palestinians who live on the sliver of land along the Mediterranean. After weeks of global outrage over the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza, any mediator — France, the European Union, Turkey or Egypt — will insist that Israel end its 18-month blockade on all food, medicines, supplies and movement for work.

What then? Like Hizballah, Hamas will declare itself victorious: not only will it have survived a direct assault by a far superior military force, but it will also have freed Gazans from Israeli tyranny. As an added bonus, any economic revival of Gaza would put money into Hamas’ coffers. But Israel would gain some breathing space and force Hamas to prove it can actually govern and maintain stability in Gaza rather than heap blame entirely on Israel.

Some of my critics refuse to see any blame attached to Israel because they say, “the Bible can explain the mystery behind the supernatural hatred of the Jews. Bible prophecy predicted that Israel would be miraculously reborn in ‘the last days’. This will be soon followed by Armageddon and the return of Y’shua the Messiah. All of this is being fulfilled to the letter before our eyes. So don’t be surprised or afraid. Messiah Y’shua’s return to deliver those who have believed in Him is coming very soon.”

All of this is according to their theory of Biblical prophecy and their timeline. Most Christians in the world do not agree with them. Not one Christian reason was given to support Israeli aggression against Gaza.

Now that Western observers have been allowed into Gaza, they have discovered more than enough evidence that Israel committed war crimes in its three weeklong offensive. The UN investigator, Richard Falk, has called for an independent inquiry into Israel’s violation of international humanitarian law. Falk said Israel’s actions against the besieged Gazans are reminiscent of “the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto” which included the starvation and murder of Polish Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.

“There could have been temporary provision, at least, made for children, disabled, sick civilians to leave, even if where they left to was southern Israel,” said the Jewish American academic. Falk, who was denied entry to Israel in December, said Gazans may have been mentally scarred for life because Israel made no effort to allow civilians to escape.

Israeli officials moved closer to being prosecuted for war crimes after Norwegian medics in Gaza found traces of depleted uranium on Gaza victims, suggesting that Israel used the illegal weapons in its war on the impoverished territory, which houses some 1.5 million Palestinians.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there is a “high risk of developing cancer from exposure to radiation emitted by depleted uranium weapons.” The Geneva Convention has classified depleted uranium ammunitions as ‘illegal weapons of mass destruction’ due to their high radioactivity and toxicity.

Israel faces potential war crimes charges over its excessive use of other controversial weapons on the densely-populated coastal strip. Human rights group Amnesty International has also said that Israel “used white phosphorus munitions indiscriminately and illegally” in overcrowded areas of Gaza.

“The repeated use of white phosphorus in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime,” said Amnesty International. White phosphorus is a high-incendiary substance that bursts into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, burning flesh to the bone and often leading to death.

My correspondents do not take these illegal activities by Israel into account. The argument that the assault was for self-defence is not acceptable, as the UN Charter and international law, do not give Israel the legal foundation for claiming self-defence.

But by killing thousands of Palestinians, Israel may have undermined its hopes of forming common cause with moderate Sunni Arab states against the nuclear ambitions of Shi’ite Iran. The Gaza offensive has greatly weakened Israel’s few Arab allies. Moderate Arab countries that were edging closer to recognition of the Jewish state are now recoiling from what they see as the slaughter of fellow Arabs in Gaza.

Israel’s leaders need to recognize that if Hamas cannot be beaten militarily, then it must be engaged politically. That means accepting the idea of dealing with some kind of Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, for the Islamic militants legitimately came to power in the January 2006 democratic elections.

The new administration in Washington has a chance to be both supportive of Israel and tough with it. Obama has the freedom to reduce America’s financial support to Israel dramatically and, with the world’s financial chaos, he has a good excuse to significantly cut back. Without those huge financial supplies, Israel’s future is in doubt. Its survival depends upon Obama.

As Christian people of faith we seek nonviolent ways to confront the violence, terrorism and fear prevailing in many countries. We need believers from all Christian denominations, but also representatives of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, to join the efforts for peace. The most effective work for peace will ultimately require interfaith vision, effort and cooperation. No desire to make our own concept of Biblical prophecy come true should prevent us from working with people of good will from other faiths.

War is contrary to the will of God. It is true that many Christians still see war as a last resort. But there is now broad agreement that war is ‘inherently evil’. Christians should never identify human violence with God’s purposes. It is never redemptive. Instead, the Bible calls us to be “ambassadors of reconciliation.”

On the Web:
http://www.cbs.gov.il
www.smh.com.au
www.time.com
www.amnesty.org

http://au.christiantoday.com/article/will-president-obama-save-israel/5262.htm

Zionist rabbis says Torah permits killing Palestinian civilians

Zionist rabbis says Torah permits killing Palestinian civilians

06/03/2008



OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--The association of rabbis for the people and land of Israel headed by extremist rabbi Dov Lior issued on Wednesday a religious ruling legitimizing the shelling of Palestinian civilian gatherings by IOF troops at the pretext of responding to the rocket attacks carried out by the Palestinians.

According to this ruling, the Torah permits the shelling and bombing of Palestinian rocket sources even if there are civilians living there and considers that the Israeli army must sometimes respond to the source of fire immediately without giving any advance warning to the Palestinian civilians.

This ruling also says that if the Palestinian civilians are concerned about their lives, they should stop the Palestinian resistance from firing rockets on Israeli settlements.

In another serious development, the Israel TV channel two revealed on Wednesday that the IOF troops are planning to implement a mass transfer operation against thousands of Palestinian citizens living near the security fence area between Gaza and the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 as a prelude to bombing it indiscriminately.

Channel two reported that Israeli war minister Ehud Barak tabled to the Israel mini-cabinet a plan to deport thousands of Palestinians from several areas at the pretext that rocket attacks are carried out from them in preparation to destroy entire Palestinian neighborhoods.

In another development, head of the national religious party (Mifdal) Effie Eitam called at the Knesset's rostrum for deporting the Palestinian citizens who went on protests on Tuesday in the Umm Al-Fahm city to condemn the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Eitam described the protesters as traitors and threatened the Arab MPs saying: "One day we will expel you from this place along with everyone demonstrated against Israel."

For his part, Arab MP Jamal Zahalka responded during the session to Eitam saying: "You are a racist, fascist and fanatic," so the Knesset speaker asked Zahalka to leave the session immediately.


Original link :

Palestinian Information Centre/Palestine-Info

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk


Link to this page :

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Israel’s Chief Rabbi calls for ethnic cleansing of non-Jews in Palestine

29/01/2008
Israel’s Chief Rabbi calls for ethnic cleansing of non-Jews in Palestine

From Khalid Amayreh in occupied E. Jerusalem



A leading Israeli rabbi has called for ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians who have been living in Palestine from time immemorial.

The rabbi, Yona Metzger, who hold the official title of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Israel, was quoted Monday as saying in an interview with the British Weekly, the Jewish News, that the Palestinian people could have a nice country in the Sinai desert.

“Take all the poor people from Gaza to move them to a wonderful new modern country with trains, buses and cars, like in Arizona. This will be a solution for the poor people-they will have a nice country, and we (the Jews) shall have our country and we shall live in peace.”

Metzger also reportedly said that he would discuss the “matter” with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, adding that he thought the idea would find popularity among Israelis.

The rabbi also suggested that Muslims had no right to Jerusalem, saying that Muslims had Makka and Medina, and that Jerusalem belonged solely to Jews.

Metzger’s remarks were dismissed by Muslim scholars in the West Bank as “hateful, mendacious and racist.”

“This Nazi-like rabbi should know very well that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians and that that he and other Zionists should return back to Eastern Europe and the Khazar region,” said Abdul Ja’abari, Professor of Sharia and Islamic studies at the Hebron University.

“Thos who seek to banish us from our motherland shall themselves be banished.”

Ja’abari described Metzger’s remarks as “hateful, mendacious and racist.”

“If this man who calls himself rabbi had a modicum of morality and justice, he would call for the repatriation of these refugees back to their former homes and villages from which they were expelled when the hateful Israeli state was established.

“He claims to be a follower of the Torah of Moses, but as far as I know the Torah prohibits oppression and prohibits injustice and prohibits stealing people’s land and property.”

Sheikh Mousa Hroub, another Muslim scholar from the Bethlehem region, called Metzger “ignorant of both religion and history.”

“He should know that present-day Palestinians have more spiritual and biological connections with Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Ibrahim (Abraham). He should also know the Arab presence in Palestine preceded the Jewish presence by at least a thousand years. So what is that ignorant rabbi talking about?

Hroub also dismissed Metger arguments that Muslims have Mekka and Medina as holy places and that Jews had Jerusalem.

“I am not against Jews praying in Jerusalem or San Francesco. This is not a problem. But to say that Muslims and Christians should be treated as second –class citizens and second-class worshipers is totally unacceptable.

“This is like saying that the Christians had the Vatican and don’t need other places like Bethlehem and Nazareth. It is nonsense.”

Zionist rabbis in general normally hold radical and even racist views toward non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular.

A few weeks ago, an Israeli rabbi named David Batsri referred to Arabs as “donkeys” who he said were created by the Almighty in a human shape in order to work and carry out certain tasks.

Such blatantly racist remarks are made routinely by Zionist religious leaders in Israel where society continues to drift toward religious and nationalist chauvinism.

Not all rabbis accept these extremist views, enforced by the persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In fact, some rabbis spearhead the struggle for human rights in the occupied territories. They argue that Israel’s behavior are incompatible with the authentic teachings of Judaism.

[ 29/01/2008 - 12:42 AM ]




Original link : http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/


Link to this page :

http://www.terrasantalibera.org/BULLETIN%205-1=5MARCH2008=IsraeliRabbiEthnicCleansing.htm