Month: August 2019

Israel’s Culture of Killing

Today’s edition of Haaretz contains another moment of truth from Gideon

Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy

Levy about Zionist racism, lies, and the currency of anti-Palestinian hatred throughout Israeli society.

The piece is entitled “If There’s Such a Thing as a Murderous Culture, Then It Exists in Israel.”  I have excerpted the piece below, or you can read the entire article here:

“This is what the editor of Haaretz’s Culture and Literature supplement, Benny Ziffer, wrote on his Facebook page upon returning from paying a condolence call in the settlement of Ofra: ‘En route I looked at the Palestinian villages alongside the Jewish communities, and I thought of how for the Palestinians murder is a type of sport or enjoyment, perhaps a substitute for erotica. From that perspective we will never have anything culturally in common with them.’

“And if that weren’t enough, Ziffer also wrote, ‘Regarding this evil and undignified people living among us, we can only yearn for the land to vomit it out, because it isn’t worthy of this land, which is full of Jewish blood that it has spilled.’

“His post generated no comment. Ziffer has apparently exhausted his allotted attention. By contrast, Yaron London succeeded in raising a bigger momentary storm with less serious remarks: ‘Arabs are savages … they don’t only hate Jews, they kill their own first and foremost.’

“More than one straight line connects London and Ziffer. Their comments reflect the spirit of the times in Israel…

“More than they are racists, London and Ziffer are disseminating lies. I was sitting in London’s studio when he said his piece; I tried to respond in real time but to no avail. So I will try here.

“We examined the past decade; those murderous, bloodletting Palestinians, have since January 2009 killed 190 Israelis. How many Palestinians were

An Israeli soldier detains an unarmed Palestinian man following a weekly nonviolent protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel, Kfar Qaddum, West Bank, August 23, 2019. Credit AFP

killed by Israel, the seeker of peace and goodness, which will never have anything culturally in common with the Arabs? Some 3,500. Israel was 18 times more murderous. Was it for sport? Erotic pleasure? Of course not, but the blood speaks: Israel draws far more of it.

“Is it permitted to say that it’s Israeli culture to spill blood wholesale? According to London, yes. There is something called national culture, even if it’s a culture of killing. But when one speaks about genetic characteristics, it’s racism. One can even generalize, as London said, a generalization will always be unjust to the individual and the exceptional. But it has to based on reality, and the reality is that the enlightened whites have, in the past 100 years, massacred more people than all the Muslims and savages combined. Not only were Hitler and Stalin not Muslims, since World War II the United States, the land of the free, is guilty of more killing than any other country. Most of its mass killers are decidedly non-Muslim.

“Someone who generalizes isn’t necessarily a racist. But he may turn out to be a liar. If there’s a culture of killing, it actually exists in Israel. Soldiers and policemen who shoot to kill as a first choice testify to a warped morality. Fear, hatred, self-pity, the security cult, dehumanization and an itchy trigger finger are all Israeli cultural traits that lead to this mass blood-letting, but woe unto anyone who dares define Israel as having a murderous culture. He’d be condemned as an anti-Semite. The Palestinian people, on the other hand, are one of the most restrained people in history in its violent resistance to occupation and injustice. That’s the truth, there’s no denying it.

“Israel actually likes cultural and national generalizations, especially when they glorify its image. The ‘Jewish genius,’ ‘the chosen people,’ ‘Jewish morality,’ and ‘eternal Israel,’ are evidence of baseless arrogance. Ziffer has every right to think that the Palestinians enjoy murder and London can think they are savages compared to us, the enlightened and developed. It is our right (and duty) to answer them: There are no lies more abominable than these.” (emphasis mine)

Let’s Burn Our Neighbor’s House Down, Then Refuse to Give Him Shelter

In 2009 the Obama administration, led by the full-throated imperialist war-monger, Hillary Clinton, facilitated a military coup against the

Former Honduran president Manuel Zalaya

democratically elected, and wildly popular, Honduran president, Manuel Zalaya (see here, here, here and here).

Since then, Honduras has descended into a horrific maelstrom of drug-trafficking, gang warfare, murder, and economic collapse for the common people.

But little of this matters to the U.S. government because our hand-picked replacement for Zalaya, the current president Juan Orlando Hernandez, has implemented the malicious, neo-liberal economic practices well-suited to the expansion of American multi-national corporations.

Never mind that Hernandez and his family are all up to their eyeballs in the

Current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez

drug trade. Together with his wife and brother, they have all been indicted by U.S. attorneys for drug trafficking (see here, here, here and here).

Under Hernandez’s watch, Honduran democracy has been crushed and the gates of hell-on-earth opened up.   It is now one of the most violent nations in the western hemisphere with a sky-rocketing murder rate.

The greatest factor driving this scourge of nation-wide violence is the shocking growth of drug-cartel related gang violence.  These brutal gangs literally run the country, at least for the average man and woman in the street.

So, the people literally flee for their lives, especially the lives of their children.

Honduran migrants take part in a caravan heading to the US, on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on October 21, 2018. – Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, AFP journalists at the scene said. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP) (Photo credit should read PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images)

And they flee to the United States, NOT as “illegal immigrants” (whatever you think of that label) but as legal asylum seekers.

What does America do — after we have destroyed their homeland?

We refuse to give them the humanitarian assistance that they deserve.

In other words, first we burn their house down, and then we refuse to give them shelter.

Instead, we take away their children, put them in detention camps or foster homes and lose track of where we put them.

Please watch the video links below for more information about the current immigration debate that rarely if ever receives the attention it deserves from the media or our politicians.  Have you ever heard an intelligent conversation or debate about our current immigration policies that included this issue of U.S. interference abroad?

I haven’t.

First, an interview with Pulitzer-Prize winning author/journalist, Sonia Nazario.  She describes her recent investigative visits to Honduras, and what she witnessed there (about 18 min.).

Hondudran gang members. Enforcers for drug cartels propped up by the U..S.

She describes Honduras today as “a narco-state supported by the United States.”

Second, a two-part interview (part 1, part 2) with former president Zalaya where he discusses the U.S. backed coup that forced him to flee the country.

He aptly describes Hillary Clinton as a “mafia boss.”

Everyone seeking refuge in our country after escaping the violent landscape

Clinton, the “mafia boss”

left to them by U.S. interventionism, deserves asylum here.

Christians especially ought to be knowledgeable and filled with empathy over the plight of those refugees who suffer because of American meddling in their homelands.

Include these crucial facts in your next conversation with anyone ignorantly chanting, “Send them back.”

Another Brave Editorial from Gideon Levy on Israeli Apartheid, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy has become the journalistic conscience of Israel.  And he continues to receive regular death threats as a result.

Rep. Tlaib, with family, being sworn in as a Congresswoman

His column today applauds the bravery of Reps. Tlaib and Omar in continuing to unmask the oppressive, undemocratic, and racist nature of Israel. And, ominously, the death threats against Tlaib, Omar and their families continues to rise, as well.

Levy’s piece is entitled, “Tlaib and Omar Make Things Clear About South Africa’s Successor.”

Of course, Israel is the “successor” to South African apartheid.

Below is an excerpt. You can read the entire article, complete with an

Rep. Omar, with her family, being sworn in as a Congresswoman

embedded video interview with Tlaib’s grandmother, here.

“Two American lawmakers helped reveal the truth about Israel to their country and the world. Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar should be thanked for this. And President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in their own way, helped uncover the truth. They are also to be thanked. The two of them, who banned the two legislators from entering Israel, saved us from another false representation.

“After all the human rights activists who have been barred from entering Israel, it took the ban on two American congresswomen to show that Israel is one of the only countries in the world that turns visitors away based on political views or opposition to a country’s regime.

“The Zionist left did its part as well. Stav Shaffir and Tamar Zandberg were distraught over the “damage to Israel’s image” that would be caused, so they advised the government on how to keep defrauding the world and claim that there is no apartheid while there is indeed democracy. Shaffir, who called Netanyahu a coward – he’s certainly far less a coward – wanted to explain to her American colleagues the “complexities of the conflict,” that wretched expression that serves the cowardly Zionist left, whose members love to use it to obscure the loss of their way and the clear fact that nothing is complex about apartheid.

“No one thought that the situation in South Africa was complex but the white nationalists and their sympathizers. Neither should anyone around the world make a mistake and think this about South Africa’s successor. Black-white, occupier-occupied – it’s not complex at all…

“These two courageous members of Congress, one from Minnesota and one from Michigan, have challenged the people in Israel who declare themselves against the occupation. Were these Israelis shocked by the entry ban because of damage to Israel’s image, or because of the representatives’ determination to work against Israel? Are they only declaring opposition to the occupation, or do they support activists like Tlaib and Omar and other BDS sympathizers?

“Israel almost beat them. Happily, Tlaib came to her senses and didn’t fall into the trap. The shameful proposal to let her visit her grandmother is a manifestation of colonialism: depoliticizing the Palestinian issue, transforming it from a national matter into a humanitarian one, and then portraying the occupation as merciful.”

What U.S. Politicians on the AIPAC Trip to Israel Will Never Learn, And Why Reps. Tlaib and Omar Were Right to Boycott It

The city of Ramallah is the provisional capital of the Palestinian state.  It is located in the West Bank region designated as Area A.

Supposedly, Area A is under the autonomous control of the Palestinian Authority.  Israeli propaganda says that the people living in this area have complete autonomy without the interference of Israeli forces.

Zionist literature, included ALL of the Christian Zionist work that I am reading these days, label Palestinian protesters against Israel as unappreciative, recalcitrant dead-enders who rebel simply because they hate Jews.

The proof, they say, is the supposed freedom and independence Palestinians have been granted by Israel throughout the West Bank in communities designated as part of Area A.

In other words, why else would Palestinians who have been granted their freedom continue to protest against good-natured Israel?  Obviously, they must be ungrateful anti-Semites.

Below is a video of Israeli soldiers harassing and firing tear-gas at a non-violent march of Palestinians near the city of Ramallah in Area A.

Check it out:

This confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians is something that politicians on a tour of Israel sponsored by AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) — such as the one recently boycotted by Reps. Omar and Tlaib — would never be allowed to see.

Forty-on Democrats and thirty-one Republicans participated in the most recent trip, sponsored annually by AIPAC.

Thankfully, the trip was boycotted by Reps. Omar and Tlaib because they know better.  These women know the truth about Israel.

Israeli public relations people sponsor these tours in order to repeat their government propaganda:

“Nothing to see here in Area A. These people are autonomous and independent. They live in freedom.  Disturbances are addressed by Palestinian police. Israeli soldiers are not allowed here.”

And this smiling gaggle of American doofuses, masquerading as

U.S. politicians being indoctrinated by Zionist propaganda on AIPAC sponsored tour of Israel

knowledgeable politicians, will then return home more ignorant and ill-informed about the plight of the Palestinian people than when they accepted a free trip to Israel from AIPAC.

And they will repeat these lies to their constituents, many of whom  are misguided Christian Zionists, about Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank.

The fact is, there is no place in the West Bank, Gaza or the state of Israel where Palestinians are truly free. They do not enjoy civil rights or genuine equality anywhere that is controlled by the Israeli government.

As you watch the video notice that the only people carrying weapons are the Israeli soldiers.  All of the Palestinians are unarmed. I have never seen any Palestinians carrying weapons at any of the protest marches I have attended in the West Bank.

I recognize one of the marchers as a friend of mine who is unwaverlingly committed to non-violence.

Some months ago he was released from an Israeli prison.

He had been arrested for the horrible crime of protesting the all-too common imprisonment of Palestinian children by the Israeli military.  He dared to stand in public with a home-made sign objecting to the arrest of 17 year-old  Ahed Tamimi for the dangerous act of slapping an Israeli soldier.

A soldier, by the way, who had just finished shooting one of her cousins in the head.

My friend’s arrest for protesting occurred in another section of Area A, where — the Israeli government assures us — the Palestinian people are free.

 

We Have an Empathy Deficiency

I tried listening to a conservative, call-in radio program last night.  Five to ten minutes was all I could take before my bleeding ears forced me to change the station.

The topic of conversation was the “invasion” of immigrants “flooding” across America’s southern border.

The first thing I noticed was the ignorance on display about the average person’s living circumstances in Central American countries where the U.S. has toppled governments in the recent past. The second and most prominent factor was the hard-hearted lack of empathy or compassion voiced by both the bloviating host and his lynch-mob minded callers.

It was painful to listen.

The ability to empathize – that is, feel an impulse for putting ourselves in another person’s place, to understand their pain, to try to feel what they are feeling as they are feeling it – is an important trait for every human being to possess.  Some would say it is part of what makes us human.

Unfortunately, not everyone can do it.  Many don’t ever try.

Both sociopaths and psychopaths can be identified by their inability, or well-practiced disinterest, in feeling empathy.  So, they can skin cats alive and watch other people suffer without experiencing a twinge of concern or human kindness.

I can only hope that a high percentage of psychopaths make evening calls to conservative radio talk shows .  Otherwise, America really is in deep trouble.

Perhaps you have heard the old saying about empathy:  Before you criticize another person first walk a mile in his shoes.  Then when you do criticize him you will be a mile away AND have his shoes.

At least, that seems to be the American, conservative understanding of empathy nowadays.

These children came home from school only to learn that their parents had been arrested by ICE. ICE agents say they are not responsible for the children

The painful lack of public empathy that I witnessed last night is also glaring evidence that many Americans who call themselves Christians do not know Jesus Christ from a hole in the ground, no matter what their “testimony.”

Empathy is THE cardinal Christian virtue.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ was/is the supreme demonstration of divine empathy.  The Father’s empathy for us, lost sinners, motivated him to send

His parents have vanished and ICE made no allowances for what to do with him or dozens of other minor children

his one and only eternal Son into this world. Empathy for humanity moved the Son to become fully human; to experience all that we experience; and to stick with it for an entire lifetime.  He walked in our shoes, carried our burdens, suffered injustice, died our death, and finally experienced resurrection as our Precursor.

To know Jesus is to know empathy.

To be like Jesus is to demonstrate empathy for others, but especially for those who are the most “unlike” us.  The Son of God was UTTERLY unlike sinful humanity in every way. Yet, He set aside all privilege in order to rescue undeserving, ungrateful, self-destructive people like you and me.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom founded on empathy for others unlike ourselves.

It is a kingdom founded upon practical action to meet others in their suffering and to alleviate their distress, to bring practical solutions to human dilemmas, to save life, to make more room for those seeking safety, to share whatever we have with those who have lost everything.

Without empathy there is no such thing as Christianity.

Without empathy there is no discipleship.

Without visible demonstrations of practical empathy there is no Christian Church.

Without empathy there is no hope for the human race or the planet.

Today Is Always a Good Day to Stand Up for God’s Kingdom

The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio happened within 13 hours of each other.  Together they leave 29 people dead and between 50 to 60 people wounded.

Police on the scene in El Paso

The El Paso gunman left behind a manifesto proclaiming his allegiance to white supremacy, decrying the dangerous hordes of brown immigrants “flooding” across our southern border.  I haven’t heard any details yet about the shooter in Ohio, his motives or political ideology.

At least, law enforcement has begun to describe these horrific incidents for what they are:  domestic terrorism.

The FBI continues to warn that the vast majority of these incidents are committed by right-wing political extremists who are, without exception, white men.  In most cases, their targets are people of color.  Nowadays, anyone who looks like they might be Hispanic or Muslim is scrutinized without mercy.

Look at YouTube to watch the many videos posted there showing the white vigilantes who have deputized themselves to harass people of color.  They call the police because they overheard someone speaking a different language, or saw a black person walking through the neighborhood and “looking suspicious while being black.”

No informed citizen with an ounce of common sense can deny the overt,

Survivors of the El Paso shootings

blatant, explicit encouragement that such anti-immigrant, white, racist extremism is receiving from the White House.

If you don’t understand or believe that previous sentence then, I am sorry, but you are lost.

You need to be converted.

Your conscience has been swallowed up by the swamp of moral relativism and outright evil that has taken hold of this country’s public life, especially within the comfortable parlors of political conservatism, Republicanism and establishment D.C. power brokers.

And, yes, that moral degeneration includes the Democrats as well as anyone else who remains silent while the newest wave of neo-Nazis, skin-heads, neo-fascists and every other stripe of authoritarian race-baiter feels that this moment in our nation’s history is their opportunity to resurrect the Confederate flag and wave a banner of white, racial superiority over the graves of innocent men, women and children whose skin-tone carries too much melanin.

But I reserve my strongest condemnation for conservative evangelicals who continue to endorse this president’s policies and turn a blind eye to the daily dose of hatred spewing forth from his puerile and filthy mouth.

He is the latest anti-Christ who has risen up to deceive the church; like a  false prophet crying, “Peace, peace!” while he sows seeds of hatred, lies and racial division.

Everyone likes to imagine they would have been a hero in Hitler’s Germany.  We all tell ourselves, “I would have resisted.  I would have hidden Jews in MY attic.  I would never have allowed the Nazi flag in MY church.  The Fuehrer’s censors would have never have been allowed to edit MY sermons.”

We swear that we would have been a faithful Israelite, never to be counted among the idolaters that sent the nation into exile.

We would have been faithful disciples. Unlike Simon Peter, we would have spoken up in Jesus’ defense when the time came.

Well, folks now is the moment, another moment of truth.

Another opportunity for faithfulness to Christ is staring us in the face.  The question is – what will we, what can we, do?

I have a few suggestions:

  1. Every church, and every member of every church, located in a town, village, city or unincorporated township with a population of dark-skinned immigrants needs to walk door-to-door through those neighborhoods, shaking hands and offering hugs, help and resources while welcoming those people of color into your community. Listen to their stories. Ask if there is anything you and/or your church community can do to help meet their needs.  Then follow through, and do it. Make new friends. Have them over to your home; eat together and publicly testify to their humanity at every opportunity. Push for your church to become a more inter-racial community, if it isn’t already.
  2. Challenge all racist, white-nationalist types of conversation whenever, wherever you hear it – especially among Christians. Remind people that Jesus of Nazareth was a very brown-skinned, Palestinian Jew who had once been an immigrant himself seeking safety in a foreign land (Egypt). We worship a dark-skinned Savior.  Avoid fights, but faithfully and boldly represent the universal love of God for all people everywhere.
  3. Remind people that there is a difference between illegal immigration and seeking asylum. Asylum-seeking is perfectly legal. In fact, I believe that America owes automatic asylum – even citizenship – to anyone fleeing a dangerous situation in a country that has been destabilized by U.S. intervention, whether military, political or economic. THAT, my friends, includes the whole of Central and South America.  When the United States helps to destroy the social fabric of a nation by forcing it to adopt policies that serve American interests first, then we must take responsibility for the human fall-out. (Personally, I also believe that illegal immigration ought to be decriminalized.  We would still have border guards patrolling the southern border humanely, seeking to care for the people they detain and send back, but what is the point of jailing these people as felons after their second capture?  It serves no purpose but to enrich those who own America’s private, for-profit prison/detention system.)
  4. I haven’t touched on the many related issues such as the American gun lobby, gun ownership, etc. because I don’t want this post to become a book. We could also talk about the policy of separating children from their parents when detained at the border, and the fact that our government admits to having “lost track” of nearly 1,500 of these children.  Imagine if they were your children…
  5. Urge your pastor to talk about these issues in the context of obedient Christian discipleship. It is obvious and easy to “pray for the victims” of a mass shooting. Perhaps, it is the pastoral thing to do. But think about it: what good did it do for patriotic, German pastors to offer nice pastoral prayers for those who were being arrested and tortured by Hitler’s SS guards, while remaining silent about the immoral policies being implemented by those unjust arrests?  The church needs more than safe, pastoral prayers for victims. We need strong leadership and pointed Biblical teaching that identifies immorality and injustice in the public square; that gives direction to God’s counter-cultural ways of kingdom living in a nation wrestling with its own racist demons.