Do unto your neighbor

Do unto your neighbor

By Sara Leibovich-Dar





Two weeks ago last Friday, P. and her children looked out the window of their home in Arad and saw, to their astonishment, several hundred Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) in the parking area across from the house. They were carrying signs that read "The mission in our town, a calamity now and for all time," and "Missionaries - hunters of souls - get out of our town." P. recalls that she felt like she was in a circus - "only, where's the elephant?"



P. is a Jew who believes that Jesus Christ was the messiah. In the past few weeks, the Haredim in Arad have been harassing the 15 Messianic Jewish families in the Negev town. Hardly anyone has come to their aid. The police gave the Haredim a permit to hold demonstrations opposite the homes of the Messianic Jews, the mayor is ignoring the harassment, and the members of the municipal council, including those who are secular, support the Haredim, who have representatives in the local governing coalition.

"My home is like a prison," says P. of the demonstration by the hundreds of militant Haredim. "The police surrounded the house with barricades and the well-dressed Haredim started to make speeches. They said that there's a Christian woman here who kills and who steals children and that the Christians were the ones who started the Holocaust. It was a weird feeling."

P. is a blue-eyed widow who was born in California. She is trying to remain optimistic and to cast the situation in a comic light. A local weekly sent a reporter to cover the demonstration and quoted the following remarks made by the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Arad during the event: "You disguise yourselves as sabras and smile at us, but you're just waiting for the first chance to grab us and crucify us. Get out of here, hypocrites. At least if you wore robes and large crucifixes, we would be able to be careful of you. You are the ones whose forefathers burned Jews to death throughout all the years of history. You are an abomination in Israel, and therefore you must be spewed out of here."

E. and another 10 Messianic Jews were in P.'s house during the demonstration. "We just sat there, singing and praying," E. says. "We didn't want to turn this into a dispute. We waited for them to leave." P. takes solace in the fact that the demonstrators didn't try to break into the house or destroy the small garden that surrounds it. "They obeyed the law and didn't touch property, but we didn't know what to expect from them."

Four days later a few Haredim returned with signs. P. thinks that was the seventh demonstration outside her house. "My children sat on the balcony and watched them. I think the demonstrators were embarrassed. They didn't look at us, they covered their faces with their hands. I would have felt embarrassed in their place, too. There are so many terrible things in the world - and they have to come to demonstrate outside the home of a woman who loves to read the Bible?"

They suspect that you're not so innocent. What do you say to their contention that you persuaded an underage girl to join you and that missionary meetings are held in your house?

"They are mistaken. Not all our gatherings take place here - maybe half of them - and even that is no longer the case. And the young person who joined us did so of her own free will, after she turned 18. I understand that there are a lot of things that they don't like, and I understand that they needed some shows during the holidays, but if they don't come here they'll go to demonstrate next to some other house, so let them come here. I'm strong, and my children aren't so afraid anymore."

P. joined the community of Messianic Jews in Israel 15 years ago, after her husband's death. They lived in Tiberias. He was killed in a road accident when she was pregnant with their third child. "People from the Messianic community really helped me, I mean physical help," she says. "I had three infants and had been in the country only six years, and I had no husband. I wanted to go back home to California, but it's not so easy to pack up three infants and go. Many people came to pay their condolences and then disappeared, but members of the Messianic community gave me true help. That made an impression on me. I told myself that the Lord looks good. I started to trust him, I read the Bible and the New Testament, and my life started to change. I started to read good things and suddenly I had hope."

Dark incitement

Four years ago P. moved to Arad and joined the small local community of Messianic Jews there. The first members of the community came to Arad seven years ago, liked what they saw, and stayed. The others followed. The anti-missionary Haredi organization Yad L'Achim says there are some 12,000 Messianic Jews in Israel, but members of the community say their numbers are far smaller, no more than a few thousand.

The Messianic Jews believe in Jesus - whom they call Yeshua, a Hebrew word with the root meaning "salvation," and the Christian savior's actual name - and celebrate the Jewish holidays with a Christian tone. For example, they hold a Seder at Pesach but cite Christian history in it. They hold bar mitzvah ceremonies for their children, in which the boys declare their love for Jesus. Most of the community's members live in Be'er Sheva, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias and Nazareth. P. moved to Arad to open a foster home for children of the community who for various reasons are unable to live with their parents. She also assists unmarried young women who become pregnant and want to have the child.

P. has three sons; the two younger ones attend military academies and the eldest is already serving in the Israel Defense Forces. "It doesn't bother anyone that they are Messianic," she says. "One of my sons even showed around visitors from the United States who came to see the academy. They were very enthusiastic about the tour."

Last week a girl who gave birth out of wedlock was staying with P., as were four children who had been removed from the home of their alcoholic father. Between making lunch for the children and taking care of the beautiful baby, P. tried to understand why the Haredim chose her as the object of their demonstrations. "I never hid my faith. The welfare office in Arad knows I'm a Messianic. After the demonstration, the social worker called to ask whether it was my house in the photograph in the local paper. Yes, they demonstrated outside my house, I told her."

Until the demonstrations started, she says, her presence in Arad and her work didn't bother anyone. "I never tried to get anyone to change his religion, but a year ago one of the girls who grew up in my home and who is today a soldier, became friends with a girl from Arad and brought her here. She was interested in what we believe in - she was studying for her high-school matriculation exam in Bible at the time - and I read a few chapters of the Bible with her. She showed up when we had youth activities. We didn't throw her out, even though she was under 18. She wasn't baptized until after she turned 18. Afterward she became friends via chat forums with a religious boy. He came here, took down my name and address, and brought the demonstrators."

The demonstrations outside P.'s house began a few weeks ago. At first they were small in scale. "About 20 demonstrators with signs came. I put a film on for the children, so they wouldn't be afraid. The demonstrators left after a few hours, but came back the next day. We weren't afraid. As it happens, I admire the religious people. They stand behind their belief - you can't love the Lord and hide. I don't hide my faith, either."

P.'s neighbors tried to help. In one of the first demonstrations, Zohar Galant, a Dead Sea Works pensioner, who lives across the way, photographed the participants. They were not deterred. In the latest demonstration he tried to argue with them. "There wasn't a great deal I could do. I was shocked," he says. Last week, in the early afternoon of a boiling hot day, a few days after the demonstration, he waited in front of his house for P. to come out on her way to pick up the children from school. Galant crossed the large parking lot that separates their houses, and told her she could come to him if she was attacked.

"Most of the demonstrators aren't even from Arad," he says. "They brought in busloads of Haredim. It was terrible. They incited against them the way Jews were incited against in the darkest periods in history. These people are not missionaries. I have lived across from them for four years now, and I didn't even know they were Messianic Jews. My daughter is in the same class as one of the children who grew up in that house and he has never talked about it. I felt awful, depressed. How can people speak against other people like that? After all, they serve in the army, but the Haredim don't. The Haredim said in the demonstration that Arad was built because of its good air and that the Messianic Jews are polluting the air. But not one Haredi helped build Arad."

Another neighbor, too, Yael Keren, had no idea she was living next to Messianic Jews. "My dog ran off and entered their house, and I didn't see any sign of anything like that there. Until the demonstration no one knew anything about it, so where is the missionary activity? Sometimes on Shabbat I hear prayers coming from the house, but that doesn't bother me. It's not the Messianic Jews who frighten me. It was frightening to see such a large group of Haredim demonstrating here. I don't understand how they were allowed to hold a demonstration here."

Don't take our children

Yakim Figueras, the leader of the small community, says he was surprised that a demonstration of this kind - "which made us fair game" - was held under police auspices. "They said we are worse than [slain Hamas leader Sheikh] Ahmed Yassin, that we are like the Nazis. I'm surprised that they received a permit to demonstrate opposite a private home in the heart of a residential neighborhood."

Superintendent Moshe Ivgy, chief of the Arad police, promises that it won't happen again. "The next demonstrations will be held somewhere else. The neighbors complained, and I don't want provocations with the neighbors. It wasn't right next to the house, it was 50 meters from the house, and it wasn't a demonstration, it was a protest rally, it was all very orderly."

What about the fact that the rabbis incited against the Messianic Jews in a very orderly way, too, and that your forces did nothing?

"If a complaint about incitement is submitted, we will deal with it. I am in contact with the two sides. We will deal with whoever has to be dealt with. The religious people only prayed and left. The neighbors hurled imprecations against the Haredim and irked them."

Rabbi Ben Zion Lipsker, the Ashkenazi rabbi of Arad, says he doesn't regret one word of what he said. "I say clearly and unequivocally: I love every person, I live in harmony with everyone, but they acted against the law and caused two people in Arad to convert."

Then why don't you file a complaint with the police?

"That wouldn't help. As a rabbi, I have to cry out when I know they are burning souls. I have to say what I think. Go to Africa, where there are ignorant people, and try to turn them into believers. Don't take our children."

A similar view is taken by Rabbi Yosef Elbo, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Arad, who also spoke at the demonstration. "Every Jew is obliged to demonstrate against a phenomenon like this, against those who pass themselves off as Jews but infiltrate the weak population groups and start to influence them. And there are people who fall for it."

Who fell for it in Arad?

"I can't give you the exact names. But it's known."

Yet even their neighbors didn't know they are Messianic Jews.

"That just proves the point. Do you see how hidden and covered it all is? They train in how to speak, and they even have a Haredi exterior, with prayer shawls and fringes."

What do you say about the fact that one of the sons of the woman you demonstrated against is serving in the army?

"What does that have to do with anything? Druze serve in the army, too. This is a case of camouflaged influence and it is against the law."

There is no such law.

"I don't know. Yad L'Achim knows all about these matters in depth."

Alex Hartovsky, from the Yad L'Achim branch in Bnei Brak, was one of the organizers of the big demonstration. (Yad L'Achim is a Jerusalem-based organization with branches in the United States, Canada and Australia. A 1997 English-language newsletter of the organization - www.anshe.org/YadLAchim/yad1 - states: "Eretz Yisroel [the Land of Israel] is under ever growing influence of several missionary groups, whose goal is converting the Jewish people. The most powerful of these groups are `Messianic Jews' and `The Witnesses'" - presumably referring to the Jehovah's Witnesses. (More information on the Jewish Messianic movement can be found at www.jewishmessianic.net and other Web sites.) "They portray themselves as being persecuted, but they are the persecutors," Hartovsky says. "We have an emergency telephone line, like the sexual harassment line - everyone protects his business, like a person protects stray animals, because it pains him. People call us, relatives of those who joined the cults, and we also have people from inside the cult. You can call them informers, but in my eyes they are heroes who are working for a sacred cause. You have to understand the inner essence of these people. They want to take over the world, they can't restrain themselves, they have to spread the tidings. I was at the demonstration in Arad, and by the way I enjoyed myself very much. I didn't think the public in Arad found it so painful."

Do you intend to continue?

"We will do a great deal, yet. We will reach every family. We will speak to them. We are not violent. There was one time when missionaries from Switzerland were beaten, but that wasn't us."

A marked woman

A demonstration was held outside Yakim Figueras' house, too, though on a smaller scale. He is a second-generation believer; his parents became Messianic Jews, though they were not born to Jewish families. His mother is Dutch, his father Spanish. Figueras, a social worker, grew up in Omer, an affluent Be'er Sheva suburb, served in the army - where he was wounded in an accident - and still does reserve duty. He came to Arad five years ago after friends moved there. "I was surprised that all this happened in Arad," he says. "We try to be law-abiding citizens. The problem with these attacks is that today it's against me and tomorrow it's against someone else. This is a matter of freedom of conscience and freedom of belief."

His wife, Debbie, an English teacher, grew up in Nahariya. Her parents are Jews from England. Debbie's mother is a well-known Messianic Jew in Nahariya. "The Haredim persecuted them for years," she says. "They stuck posters with her name all over the city and wrote that she had to be expelled from Nahariya because she is a dangerous missionary. The population in Arad seemed to us to be quiet and non-militant. We never go into their areas."

Before Arad they lived in nearby Be'er Sheva. In 1998, Haredim assaulted the Messianic community in the city several times, and the Figuerases decided to look for another place to live. "The air in Be'er Sheva is very polluted, too, and we didn't want to raise our children there," Debbie Figueras says. "We now have four children. We did a lot of looking before we came to Arad and fell in love with this small, pleasant town." Figueras says they did not come to Arad "to raise a ruckus," and therefore the group was surprised by the Haredi assault.

Why were you surprised? You're wandering around in a small town with quite a large Haredi population and offering the New Testament - weren't you afraid that people would be angry?

"It's not true that we preach. If we talk to someone, it's with a person who is in any case interested. I don't shove the faith down anyone's throat. We preach only to those who come to the congregation, we don't go into the streets. Most of the people I know take no interest in these subjects. Most of my friends are secular."

Debbie has been living in constant fear in the past few weeks. "They came with signs next to our house. They prayed loudly in Yiddish, but as far as I know there are no prayers in Yiddish, so apparently they cursed us. It's hard to describe the feeling. It's dreadful. They don't even know us. Yakim asked them why they are frightening the children. They said, `Because there are missionaries here,' and they had no idea that they were demonstrating against us and that we are supposedly the missionaries. It's not pleasant. I served in the army, I was in the territories, in Gaza, my mother is Jewish, and suddenly I'm subjected to attacks like these. Before all this started I lived a perfectly normal life, but now I feel marked. I just can't believe it's happening to me. It's as though I'm living on another planet. A few days ago I went to visit my parents, and there everything is perfectly regular and normal. It's only in Arad that I'm marked."

More...



Very few people in Arad are standing by the Messianic Jews. "Expel them from here immediately," demands Udi Asher, a kiosk owner in the town's large commercial center. The center is empty on this blazing hot afternoon, and Asher seems to be waiting for an opportunity to get mad. "Some woman came here, bought nuts and gave me a New Testament. I wanted to throw her out of the store. I restrained myself, but I didn't understand what she was after. She knows I'm Jewish, so why did she try to convert me? If they're allowed to do that, then so are the Haredim. It's a war of survival. We have to preserve a Jewish character in the town. I still have a limitation in my brain: I don't want to live next to a Christian or next to a Muslim."

Arad has a population of 26,000, with an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent (as compared with the national average of 10.9 percent). Some 40 percent of the residents are new immigrants, mainly from the former Soviet Union. There is a large Haredi population - 300 families of the Gur hasidic sect, 50 or so Chabad families, and another 50 families that support the ultra-Orthodox Shas Sephardi party. In the past few years Arad has changed from a town that traditionally supported Labor to a bastion of the right. In the 1996 elections, Labor won 30 percent of the vote, Likud 22.9 percent, and in 1999, Ehud Barak, Labor's candidate for prime minister, received 64 percent of the vote, nearly 30 percent more than the Likud candidate, Benjamin Netanyahu (35.9 percent). The turnabout occurred in 2001: Ariel Sharon won 58.7 percent of the vote, Barak only 41.2 percent. In 2003, the Likud took about 62 percent of the vote, as against only 21.3 percent for Labor.

Labor also sustained a defeat in the municipal elections last November, when Dr. Motti Bril, an independent candidate who is considered to have a right-wing orientation, defeated Labor's Bezalel Tabib, who was mayor for 15 years. The Messianic Jews settled in Arad during Tabib's tenure. "I never felt their presence," the former mayor says. "I heard about them when someone came to me three years ago and said that they were here and were holding meetings in someone's house. It wasn't a complaint. He said they were very nice. It's true that they talk about the Christian cause, but they are also happy and they sing and talk about love. Every person has the right to do what he wants in his home. It didn't bother me."

The new mayor takes a different approach to the subject. "They are not being persecuted. In what way are they persecuted?" Bril asks. "They come to the place and operate on the fringe of the law that bans missionary activity. We treat them politely and with due courtesy, but they are far from being complete tzadikim [saintly people]. There is a group of Haredim that says they already broke the law when they distributed food to Holocaust survivors ahead of Pesach and placed a copy of the New Testament and some money in the package."

They deny that.

"In the meantime I am not taking action and not doing anything against them. I don't have enough evidence to act against them, so I am not taking any active steps. On the day they cross the line the municipality of Arad will use all its might to expel them. If I had something that is absolute proof, they wouldn't be in Arad. Because I don't, I am tolerant. In the meantime, they are on the borderline but they are far from being persecuted saints. We're on the threshold of a struggle. A group arrives that tries to do something else, and they are allowed to proceed up to a certain limit, but only up to a certain limit. This is a very tolerant city, but missionary activity is against the law. As long as we're in the gray area, we're not bothering with them."

So, to maintain the municipal coalition you prefer to ignore the harassment of the Messianic Jews?

"People are allowed to hold a demonstration next to private homes. It's not pleasant, not conventional, not ordinary, but it's allowed. And it has nothing to do with the municipal coalition. There are people who think that what they are doing is bad and they are demonstrating next to their homes. What's wrong with that?"

Yitzhak Benishti, a Labor Party representative on the municipal council, also objects to the presence of the Messianic Jews. "I'm against all this messianic organizing, I'm not in favor and I don't support them. These are Jews who are engaged in missionary activity."

That's a rumor being spread by the Haredim, but there's no proof of it, is there?

"That's why I say that if they are engaging in missionary activity, I am against. I am not intervening in the matter."

If there's no proof of missionary activity, why shouldn't you intervene to protect them?

"The truth is that I am against holding demonstrations across from private homes and bothering the neighbors. All the neighbors are already very upset."

And what about the Messianic Jews - they are also very upset, aren't they?

"I just haven't been in Arad for the past two weeks. I will consider intervening in their favor. I will definitely consider it."

What the law says

Sergei Bikhovsky, a representative of the centrist, anticlerical party Shinui on the municipal council, and the party's top official in the south, says he is torn between the law - "For me the law is the most important thing, and the law says that missionary activity is forbidden" - and the people themselves, "who are very nice and have even opened a chess club for immigrants from the former Soviet Union. I'm in a really bad spot."

But aren't they in an even worse spot?

"The action taken by the Haredim is not right. The way they reacted isn't so nice."

Gabi Bahan, who was a representative of the liberal Meretz party on the previous municipal council (Meretz does not have a representative on the current council), objects to the Haredi demonstrations. "The rabbis here are conducting illegitimate politics by taking advantage of the Messianic Jews," he says. "It's very easy for a large group to exploit a minority group to crystallize itself. The Messianic Jews live their lives and don't make themselves felt. The question is who the missionary is here. The Gur hasidic sect built a school for secular children to get them to become religious. The town should be pluralistic. The greater the diversity, the stronger we will be as a community."

Nevertheless, Bahan has so far done nothing to protect the Messianic Jews. Maybe he'll write an article for the local weekly, he says. Eitan Michaeli, a resident of Arad and the deputy director of the Be'er Sheva branch of Shatil - which defines itself as "a capacity-building center for grassroots social change organizations" - was also a Meretz representative on the last council. And he has already written an article for the local paper. "It's hard to do more than that," he says. "Arad has become a place where it's very difficult to mobilize people. In the past, people here voted for Mapai [forerunner of Labor], Dash [the defunct Democratic Movement for Change, a centrist party] and for Meretz, but in the past few years the Likud and Shas have become stronger. It's a pity that the rabbis don't understand that they are playing with a double-edged sword. Just as they are now inciting against the Messianic Jews, tomorrow people will incite against them. They are fanning the flames and in the end they will be burned."

The head of the local Likud branch, Moshe Edri, says that he has read the law - "and I hope the mayor will act according to the law and thus resolve the problem."

Won't the problem be resolved if the Haredim are prevented from harassing the Messianic Jews?

"I don't see that anyone is harassing them. I would suggest that there be no missionary activity in any city in this country."

Three sections of the Penal Code deal with missionary activity. According to Par. 174(A), anyone "who gives or promises a person money, the equivalent value of money or any other material benefit in order to entice him to change his religion or so that he will entice someone else to change his religion, shall be imprisoned for five years or pay a fine of 50,000 [Israel] pounds." Par. 174(B) states that anyone who receives material benefits in order to convert is liable to a prison term of three years and a fine of 300,000 pounds. And Par. 368 stipulates that anyone who conducts a conversion ceremony for someone who is under-aged is liable to six months in prison.

In December 2001, the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee voted down a bill by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), which would have imposed a three-month prison term on anyone who tried to cajole someone to convert by means of the mail or by fax. "I have a small boy at home, who could receive missionary material by mail, by fax or by e-mail," Gafni told the committee. "I'd be interested to know why you receive this kind of thing but I don't," wondered MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor). "I have spoken about this to the director of the postal service many times, and piles of this material arrive," Gafni said.

In recent years the Knesset has held only a few discussions on the subject of missionary activity. In one of the most exhaustive discussions, held by the Interior Committee in November 1999, Inspector Yosef Cohen, an officer with the police Investigations Branch, warned against militant persecution of the Christian sects in Israel. "The U.S. administration itself closely monitors the law-enforcement authorities in Israel in regard to persecution of what it calls religious sects, as the messianic sects in the United States have a very powerful lobby in the administration," Cohen said. "Therefore, as with any other law, the law-enforcement authorities in Israel should be especially careful and adopt an attitude that is completely legal, no less and no more."

Cohen also cited some interesting statistics. During the 1990s, he said, the police received between 10 and 20 complaints concerning offenses relating to religious conversion. However, the members of the messianic sects, he said, had submitted no fewer than 60 complaints against Yad L'Achim. "I would expect organizations engaged in guarding the Jewish public against Christian preaching not to resort to violent activity," he noted.

Constant fear

H., a lawyer, is very fearful of the Haredi activity in Arad. She is a 41-year-old single mother with three children. She refuses to divulge any details that might disclose her identity, but agreed to meet with me at the Arad shopping mall. She doesn't meet with strangers in her home, she explained, so that they won't find out where she lives. Her children try not to say anything about her religious beliefs to their friends, so as to spare her harassment.

She became a Messianic Jew two years ago, she says. "For many years I searched for God," she says. "In the course of the search I also became close to the Haredim. A few years ago I even became a regular donor to a Haredi radio station, and I wore long skirts, went to the mikveh [ritual bath] and read three chapters of Psalms every day."

One of her neighbors in Herzliya, where she lived, was a Messianic Jew. "She read me chapters from the Bible. It scared me, but I was also attracted to it. It responded to a lot of things that were bothering me." H. told hardly anyone about her new faith. "My mother knows. We have long arguments. She is a Holocaust survivor. My father doesn't know to this day. The father of my three children became very frightened. He was certain that harm would befall the children. He calmed down only after seeing that nothing happened to the children. My brother learned about it only recently."

Relatives who know about her belief sometimes harass her no less than the Haredim. "My son went to visit someone in the family who knows. My son was wearing a crown that he received from a fast-food restaurant. The crown had illustrations of crosses on it. The relative was so frightened that he cut out the crosses."

Her faith is a private matter, she says. "How can I be a missionary if I hardly talk about the subject with anyone? A friend expressed interest, and I gave him a book to read. He returned the book and said he's not interested in these subjects and that was the end of the conversation. In the past few months I took a course given by the Labor Ministry, and no one there knew I am a Messianic Jew. As far as I'm concerned, it's a private spiritual process. If I don't share it with even those who are closest to me, why would I share it with others?"

For the past few weeks she has been gripped by fear. "It was a bad surprise for me to find out that there are religious wars in Arad. It sounds absurd. It's a small, quiet, lovely town. When I was a girl we spent summer vacations here, and when my mother retired she dreamed of coming back here - which is why I came to Arad a year ago. Who believed it would happen here? We know that we can expect more persecution. We will accept it the way Gandhi did in India, with passive resistance. We will not leave this place. We believe we are doing a good thing for Arad. I pray that there will be an economic boom in Arad. I remember better days here. When I was a girl, there was the Masada Hotel, today it's a heap of rubble. In the winter I prayed for rain in Arad.

To secular eyes, you very much resemble the Haredim.

"That's true. There's a saying that we met our enemies and they are us. The sharpest clashes are with those who are like you.


PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=421251&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

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

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

Olmert stops short of saying “ Israel controls US government”

Olmert stops short of saying “ Israel controls US government”
From Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem

Jan 13, 2009


Israeli Prime Minister has stopped short of saying that Israel controls the US government. Speaking to the Israeli media this week, Olmert said he had asked President Bush to order Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain in a key UN vote on the Israeli genocidal onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she didn’t vote in favor," said Olmert, bragging about "our clout and influence" in the US .

"We didn’t want her to vote in favor of the resolution. And this is what we eventually got."

Olmert said he demanded rather aggressively to talk to President Bush and when Bush was on the phone, he told him to order Rice not to vote for the resolution.

"I said 'get me President Bush on the phone.’ They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia . I said I didn’t care. I need to talk to him now. He got off the podium and spoke to me.

"I told him the US could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He (Bush) immediately called the Secretary of State and told her not to vote in favor."

However, a State Department spokesperson has been quoted as denying Olmert’s claim.

"Mr. Olmert is wrong," the official said.

"Even if everything had gone according to plan, she would have abstained. That was the plan," said the official. "Israel does not make US policy."

In 2001, an acrimonious argument reportedly erupted during the Israeli cabinet
weekly session between then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and then foreign Minister Shimon Peres during which Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying: "Don't worry about American pressure, we control America."

Peres reportedly warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and turn the US against Israel.

At this point, a furious Sharon turned toward Peres, saying:

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear:

"Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Peres and other cabinet ministers reportedly warned Sharon against saying what he said in public, because "It would cause us a public relations disaster."

Israeli sources denied the story.

http://www.xpis.ps/






:: Article nr. 50796 sent on 14-jan-2008 05:25 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=50796

:: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=50796

Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village

Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village
White flags ignored and houses bulldozed with families inside, claim residents
Fida Qishta in Khuza'a and Peter Beaumont in London
The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009

Israel stands accused of perpetrating a series of war crimes during a sustained 12-hour assault on a village in southern Gaza last week in which 14 people died.

In testimony collected from residents of the village of Khuza'a by the Observer, it is claimed that Israeli soldiers entering the village:

• attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;

• killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;

• opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;

• used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells.

If the allegations are upheld, all the incidents would constitute breaches of the Geneva conventions.

The denunciations over what happened in Khuza'a follow repeated claims of possible human rights violations from the Red Cross, the UN and human rights organisations.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that it was investigating "at the highest level" five other attacks against civilians in Gaza, involving two UN facilities and a hospital. It added that in all cases initial investigations suggested soldiers were responding to fire. "These claims of war crimes are not supported by the slightest piece of evidence," said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman.

Concern over what occurred in the village of Khuza'a in the early hours of Tuesday was first raised by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Although an Israeli military spokesman said he had "no information that this alleged incident took place", witness statements collected by the Observer are consistent and match testimony gathered by B'Tselem.

There is also strong visible evidence that Khuza'a came under a sustained attack from tanks and bulldozers that smashed some buildings to pieces.

Pictures taken by photographer Bruno Stevens in the aftermath show heavy damage - and still burning phosphorus. "What I can tell you is that many, many houses were shelled and that they used white phosphorus," said Stevens yesterday, one of the first western journalists to get into Gaza. "It appears to have been indiscriminate." Stevens added that homes near the village that had not been hit by shell fire had been set on fire.

The village of Khuza'a is around 500 metres from the border with Israel. According to B'Tselem, its field researcher in Gaza was contacted last Tuesday by resident Munir Shafik al-Najar, who said that Israeli bulldozers had begun destroying homes at 2.30am.

When Rawhiya al-Najar, aged 50, stepped out of her house waving a white flag, so that the rest of the family could leave the house, she was allegedly shot by Israeli soldiers nearby.

The second alleged incident was on Tuesday afternoon, when Israeli troops ordered 30 residents to leave their homes and walk to a school in the village centre. After travelling 20 metres, troops fired on the group, allegedly killing three.

Further detailed accounts of what occurred were supplied in interviews given to a Palestinian researcher who has been working for the Observer, following the decision by Israel to ban foreign media from the Gaza Strip. Iman al-Najar, 29, said she watched as bulldozers started to destroy neighbours' homes and saw terrified villagers flee from their houses as masonry collapsed.

"By 6am the tanks and bulldozers had reached our house," Iman recalled. "We went on the roofs and tried to show we were civilians with white flags. Everyone was carrying a white flag. We told them we are civilians. We don't have any weapons. The soldiers started to destroy the houses even if the people were in them." Describing the death of Rawhiya, Iman says they were ordered by Israeli soldiers to move to the centre of the town. As they did, Israeli troops opened fire. Rawhiya was at the front of the group, says Iman.

Marwan Abu Raeda, 40, a paramedic working for the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said: "At 8am we received a phone call from Khuza'a. They told us about the injured woman. I went immediately. I was 60 or 70 metres away from the injured woman when the Israeli forces started to shoot at me." As he drove into another street, he came under fire again. Twelve hours later, when Rawhiya was finally reached, she was dead.

Iman said she ended up in an area of rubble where a large group of people had sought cover in a deep hole among the debris of demolished houses. It is then, she says, that bulldozers began to push the rubble from each side. "They wanted to bury us alive," she said.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/israel-war-crimes-gaza-conflict

Despite Call for Ceasefire Israel Prepares to Escalate the offensive on Gaza

Despite Call for Ceasefire Israel Prepares to Escalate the offensive on Gaza



Defying the United Nations Security Council’s resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Israel has threatened to launch a new phase in its two-week-old offensive, which has already killed more than 800 Palestinians.

In a communiqué published on Friday the Israeli government stated it would not accept the January 8th UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government states that the Israeli Army “will continue to act in order to attain the objectives of the operation in accordance with the plans that have been approved upon embarking on the operation."



Earlier Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the UN resolution. In Israel's first official response to the resolution, Olmert's office said Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."



On Saturday Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Gaza - warning of an escalation in attacks.



The leaflets, printed in Arabic, said that Israeli forces “will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip" claiming Israel “is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only.” The leaflets called on Gaza’s population to stay safe by following Israel’s army orders.



Medical officials in the Gaza Strip said the Palestinian death toll had risen to at least 786. More than a third of the victims are children.



The dropping of leaflets appears to be part of psychological warfare tactic.



The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has criticized the practices of dropping leaflets, broadcasting messages over local television and radio, and phoning people ordering them to evacuate their homes.



According to OCHA such practices create panic among the civil population and cause people to flee amidst gunfire and shelling. The UN Agency also claims that there is no safe space in the Gaza Strip making this one of the rare conflicts from which civilians cannot flee.



According to the Associated Press, Israeli officials say they are prepared for a third stage of the offensive, in which ground troops would push much further into Gaza, but are still waiting for approval from the government.



The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the army also has a fourth stage planned that calls for a full reoccupation of Gaza and toppling of Hamas.


http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1522/381/