On Tuesday, September 3rd I will interviewed by my friends at the Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine. Watch it live at 1 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific.
We will focus attention our on the ways in which Israel is expanding its war against Gaza into the West Bank. I will talk about my most recent visit to the West Bank this past June where I stayed again with my Palestinian family in the Aida refugee camp.
Check out the link below to either watch the show live or to catch it later at your own convenience. Once it’s recorded, it will remain available available on YouTube.
Next Tuesday, August 13 you are invited to join a conversation Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
Dr. Cannon wrote one of her two(!) doctoral dissertations on the history of the American evangelical church’s engagement with Israel. Which is more than a coincidence, since will be the topic of our conversation next Tuesday.
Why do western evangelicals generally side with Israel in its war against Gaza? Why don’t we respond to Palestinian suffering — some call it a genocide — as empathetically as we do the Israeli pain of October 7?
Tune in and share your own thoughts next Tuesday! Join us at 11 am Eastern, 8:00 Pacific at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHIs8HnRiMA
Some people’s experiences in an Israeli prison are even worse than Munther’s.
Sometimes you don’t need to hear the story. You only need to see the released prisoner’s face. And then imagine the inhumanity that produced such heart-breaking expressions.
Last June I posted the story about my visit to the West Bank region known as Masafer Yatter.
Terry and I had helped to plant new trees and grape vines for a Palestinian farmer by the name of Hafez Hureini. Mr. Hureini’s hands had been broken by Jewish settlers who were in the process of stealing his land.
The young people from Aida Refugee camp (where we lived) were helping him to catch up on his backlogged farm maintenance. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, we were attacked by both Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers as we worked.
That’s right. In Israel it’s apparently illegal to help a Palestinian farmer work his own farmland.
A few days ago I happened across an Al Jazeera documenatary focusing on Mr. Hureini’s continuing struggle against Israeli land theft! Here you can meet this man and hear his story for yourselves.
Yes, the settlers are still stealing. The soldiers are still oppressing the innocent and defending the thieves. And Mr. Hureini continues to stand his ground peacefully.
All the while, our God sees it all and promises to one day restore justice to his world. And I’ll give you a hint: justice ain’t on the side of Zionist land theft.
Below is the abstract, that is a brief summary of the article:
The apologetics of pro-slavery, pro-segregation Christians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were identical to the methods of biblical interpretation used by Dispensationalist Christian Zionists today. The ideology’s specific rules of ‘literal interpretation’ and ‘antecedent theology’ led both groups to similar conclusions about slavery and racial segregation, on the one hand, and Jewish privilege and Palestinian displacement, on the other. Abolitionist efforts to promote a Christ–like hermeneutic rooted in Christian morality points the way forward to correcting modern theologies, such as Dispensationalist Christian Zionism, that continue to sanction human oppression.
I believe that clicking the highlighted title above will allow access to the article online. However, if this does not work for you, let me know and I can send you a copy.
Yes, I too am disappointed by the numerous formating and editorial errors in my article. Yuck! Unfortunately, it is too late for me to do anything about it now…sigh…
One important fact that the mainstream media will not tell you about the current anti-war protests condemning Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza is that many of the leaders and participants are Jewish Americans.
Two important Jewish organizations — If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace — are leading the way in these student protests.
Remember this the next time you hear someone accuse these protests of being “antisemitic.”
They are not anti-semitic. That is a standard Zionist lie used to distract from the real issues.
Rather, they are anti-war, anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian, pro-humanity.
Simone Zimmermann is a young Jewish woman, and cofounder of the Jewish organization IfNotNow, who is also one of the creators of the important, recent film Israelism. I encourage everyone to watch this story of how an increasing number of young Jewish Americans are turning away from Zionism and embracing the just cause of Palestinian liberation.
Several months ago Christianity Today produced a video series intended to justify Israel’s war against the people of Gaza.
My friend, Dr. Rob Dalrymple, has watched these videos and in the process
Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital after it’s destruction by Israel
of writing a series of responses to these heavily prejudiced productions.
Rob’s second post is titled “When Injustice Isn’t Injustice and Justice is Injustice.” I encourage you to read both posts. Below is a brief excerpt from post number two:
As the church, we are called to cry out against injustice. We are to weep with those who suffer injustices. We are to condemn those who commit injustice. And we are to demand justice; especially for the sake of the oppressed.
Yet, when it comes to the actions of Israel we get a little uneasy. (Even this last sentence is sure to ruffle some feathers).
When the conversation turns to Israel and its assault on Gaza, some unwritten (though they are practically written on stone) rules are invoked before the conversation is allowed to proceed.
First, there must be an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas. Check.
This includes their attack on Oct 7 and their stated goal of annihilating Israel. Check.
Second, there must be a complete acknowledgment of Israel’s existential fear of annihilation. Check
Third, there must be a condemnation of antisemitism. Check.
Once these boxes are all checked, the conversation may continue.
Several weeks ago I posted a breaking news story from +972 magazine discussing an Israeli military program blasphemously called “The Gospel” that used artificial intelligence (AI) to bomb civilian targets in Gaza.
Now +972 has broken a second story exposing two additional AI programs also being used for bombing Gaza. They are called Lavender and Where’s Daddy?
As the article describes, Israel’s favorite tactic is to bomb suspected — note SUSPECTED (Israel’s military leaders admit that the programs have as much as a 10% error rate) — Hamas fighters in their homes at night, slaughtering entire extended families in their sleep.
Apparently, the program title Where’s Daddy? is meant to be a cruel joke, as in: We know where daddy is sleeping, and we are going to bomb his entire family to smithereens. Ha ha ha.
Yes, Israel has intentionally been slaughtering civiliansfrom the beginning of its war against Palestinians in Gaza.
It is no accident that the death toll is now more than 33,600 people, 70% of whom are women and children. Over 13,000 of them under the age of eighteen.
Compare that last figure to the approximately 500 children killed during the past two years of fighting in Ukraine. Here is more tragic evidence of the gruesome anti-Arab racism animating the Jewish-supremacist state of Israel.
Below is a brief excerpt of the +972 article followed by a video clip of an excellent editorial by Krystal Ball from Breaking Point news:
During the early stages of the war, the army gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions, adding that, normally, they would personally devote only about “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing — just to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male. This was despite knowing that the system makes what are regarded as “errors” in approximately 10 percent of cases, and is known to occasionally mark individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups, or no connection at all.
Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.
You know the old maxim, “If you want something done right, then do it yourself.”
Or, if you can’t do it all by yourself, then connect with a powerhouse group of dear friends who all share a common vision and do it together. It’s a lot more fun that way to work with highly competent friends who all want to work for the same goals.
This is the origin story of a new group that I am a part of that is creating a new podcast dealing with the violent, tragic — now genocidal — relationship existing between Israel and the Palestinian people.
The group’s name is “Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine.” Posted below is our first video were we introduce ourselves and briefly explain what we hope to accomplish in the coming months.
We are currently making arrangements to interview an important Israeli historian and activist (I will keep his name a secret for now) who will offer an insightful, vital introduction to the history of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
If you want to know who he is, then be sure to subscribe and come back!
I urge you to visit our YouTube page and press the subscribe button. You will not want to miss any upcoming conversations.
Here is the channel’s official description:
This channel promotes understanding about Israel-Palestine, by hosting conversations with scholars, activists, and people directly affected by events in the Holy Land. Each episode elevates an important voice, explores contrasting perspectives, and shares insights that we think are urgently needed. We want to challenge stereotypes, dismantle barriers, and humanize everyone involved. Rather than defend a single narrative, we encourage critical thinking and informed engagement with the complexities of Israel-Palestine. Join us as we imagine for the Muslims, Jews, and Christians of Israel-Palestine a future based on justice, equality, anddignity.
This gentleman shares a number of crucial insights into Israel’s manipulation of Holocaust memory, and the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
