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B’Tselem is an internationally recognized human rights organization located in Israel. Its original mission was monitoring the mistreatment of Palestinians by the Israeli army in both Gaza and the West Bank.

The organization has won several international awards, including the 2014 Stockholm Human Rights Award and the 2018 Human Rights Award of the French Republic.

In January 2021, B’Tselem announced that its mission was expanding. The announcement came in the form of a public declaration describing both the Israeli nation-state and the Palestinian Occupied Territories as a single territory uniformly governed by a system of Jewish Supremacy.

The declaration is titled, “A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid.”

Apartheid is defined as systemic discrimination based on race and/or ethnicity that is endorsed by state authorities and embedded in the nation’s legal system.

In Israel and the rest of Palestine, this means that all Palestinians are always second class “citizens” (though many can never attain citizenship), while Jews enjoy first class citizenship within a society created exclusively by and for Jews alone.

I have posted an excerpt from B’Tselem’s announcement below. Encourage your pro-Israel friends to read it and to investigate B’Tselem’s website. They will find a wealth of information documenting their claims.

To learn about the details explaining how and why Israel imposes Jewish supremacy upon the Palestinians, I encourage you to read the entire proclamation by clicking on the title above:

The Israeli regime, which controls all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, seeks to advance and cement Jewish supremacy throughout the entire area. To that end, it has divided the area into several units, each with a different set of rights for Palestinians – always inferior to the rights of Jews. As part of this policy, Palestinians are denied many rights, including the right to self-determination.

This policy is advanced in several ways. Israel demographically engineers the space through laws and orders that allow any Jew in the world or their relatives to obtain Israeli citizenship, but almost completely deny Palestinians this possibility. It has physically engineered the entire area by taking over of millions of dunams of land and establishing Jewish-only communities, while driving Palestinians into small enclaves. Movement is engineered through restrictions on Palestinian subjects, and political engineering excludes millions of Palestinians from participating in the processes that determine their lives and futures while holding them under military occupation.

A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime. Israeli apartheid, which promotes the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians, was not born in one day or of a single speech. It is a process that has gradually grown more institutionalized and explicit, with mechanisms introduced over time in law and practice to promote Jewish supremacy. These accumulated measures, their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive – all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met.

If this regime has developed over many years, why release this paper in 2021? What has changed? Recent years have seen a rise in the motivation and willingness of Israeli officials and institutions to enshrine Jewish supremacy in law and openly state their intentions. The enactment of Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People and the declared plan to formally annex parts of the West Bank have shattered the façade Israel worked for years to maintain. . .

The Israeli regime’s rationale, and the measures used to implement it, are reminiscent of the South African regime that sought to preserve the supremacy of white citizens, in part through partitioning the population into classes and sub-classes and ascribing different rights to each. . .

As painful as it may be to look reality in the eye, it is more painful to live under a boot. The harsh reality described here may deteriorate further if new practices are introduced – with or without accompanying legislation. Nevertheless, people created this regime and people can make it worse – or work to replace it. That hope is the driving force behind this position paper. How can people fight injustice if it is unnamed? Apartheid is the organizing principle, yet recognizing this does not mean giving up. On the contrary: it is a call for change.

Fighting for a future based on human rights, liberty and justice is especially crucial now. There are various political paths to a just future here, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but all of us must first choose to say no to apartheid.

It’s like deja vu all over again.

The transition from George W. Bush’s presidency to the Barak Obama administration strikingly revealed the partisan hypocrisy of Democratic leaders and the supposedly “liberal” establishment in America.

While Obama not only continued but intensified many of the worst features of the Bush administration (like expanding the drone bombing and assassination programs, extensive bombing in Syria, and destroying Libya, to mention only a few examples) Democratic and liberal leaders, journalists, and commentators fell silent.

Folks who screamed bloody murder when Bush had done similar things, suddenly became mute, offering no criticism at all — not even a muffled guffaw — when Obama did the very same things.

The Democratic/liberal establishment is applying the same double standard today now that Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump. I fully expect that the Biden administration will continue the same imperialistic foreign policies, the same neoliberal economic policies, and increasingly oppressive domestic policies as would any other member of the entrenched DC establishment.

Here are a few examples and a few prescient predictions from a few thoughtful analysts:

• Biden’s first statement on foreign policy endorses upstart, opposition figure, Juan Guaido, as the president of Venezuela. (I have written many times about US attempts to overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected president, Nicolas Maduro; see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
• Biden is already in the process of creating new domestic terrorism surveillance laws; see here, here, and here. Listen to this good discussion of Biden’s authoritarian impulses with Chris Hedges and Glenn Greenwald here.

No, the video below is DEFINITELY NOT mocking a man of god.

Just the opposite. Copeland is a false teacher, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a

fraud who exploits gullible people to line his own pockets. Jesus and several New Testament writers warn God’s people to avoid and condemn the destructive antics of men and women like Copeland.

In case you don’t the name, Copeland is a multi-millionaire “televangelist” whos preaches a prosperity anti-gospel. He owns three private jets and a $200,000 Lamborghini SUV. Of course, the opulent mansion goes without saying.

Mockery and condemnation is the only type of attention he deserves.

So enjoy:

Nathan J. Robinson has a good article at Current Affairs entitled, “A Guide for High School Students on How to Avoid Propaganda.”

The article addresses students because of the increasing number of school

districts using videos produced by Prager University (a conservative propaganda mill) for classroom instruction.

If you or your friends have wondered how to distinguish fake news from legitimate reporting, I highly recommend taking the time to read this article carefully. It is very good.

In a world where more and more people are wondering if ANY media outlets can be ever be trusted to tell the truth, Robinson offers a clear examination of media bias. He also walks the reader through 4 recent news stories and explains how to separate the “wheat from the chaff” to discover the truth of the matter.

It’s a longer article but well worth your time.

Below is an excerpt, or  you can find the entire article here.

It would be nice to think that we ourselves are smarter [than the ancients], that we could never end up being so delusional. But anyone can be fooled, for a very obvious reason: most of our knowledge isn’t arrived at rationally. We develop our understandings of the world through trusting what other people are telling us. That does not just go for religious believers. All of us have to have “faith” that we are being told the truth, because it is impossible for us to prove all the things we need to believe. George Orwell noted that most people believe the Earth is round not because they have personally deduced it to be the case, but because they have been taught it. Orwell said that if we encountered a Flat Earther who asked us to prove it, many people would struggle. Orwell himself was somewhat confident he could deal with a Flat Earther, but less sure he could take on someone who argued, say, that the moon is a flat disc.

President Trump’s attempt to pressure Michigan Republicans into complying with his desire to replace Democratic state electors with Republicans appears to have failed.

CNN reports on the meeting and its aftermath:

Earlier today I posted about the White House invitation to two Republican state officials, both heavily funded by the DeVos family, to meet with the president in Washington. Trump obviously wanted to discuss the results of the Michigan presidential election recount.

Why meet with Republican state legislators? Because Trump hoped that they might overturn the election results by picking their own Republican electors — a strategy that he discussed openly long before the election.

Despite the fact that the Michigan recount has confirmed Biden’s victory, the certification of that result had been delayed.

The Detroit Daily News has a good article explaining the ins and outs of that certification process, what is at stake, and why the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers have been flip-flopping on their votes to certify or decertify the vote count (they first voted no; then yes; then no again after each received a phone call from the president — and no, the president’s personal involvement is not normal).

As best as I can determine, all but one of Trump’s lawsuits have been dismissed by the courts, generally due to lack of evidence.

Although Rudy Guliani and others continue to insist that they have an

abundance of evidence demonstrating massive, nation-wide fraud, they have not been able to produce it convincingly for the courts.

The judges presiding over these suits in federal court have been both Republican and Democratic appointees. So, these have been bipartisan dismissals, making it hard to suggest a partisan conspiracy against Trump in the judicial system.

The Georgia recount has also confirmed the original results in favor of Joe Biden. Even though Guliani, together with Trump’s other lawyers, have accused the Dominion Voting System of secretly flipping thousands of Trump votes to Biden, no evidence has yet been provided to back up this claim.

In fact, the Georgia recount constitutes a decisive debunking of the Trump- team accusations. Certainly, if thousands of Trump votes had been secretly flipped to Biden by malicious software, then the state-wide, hand recount would have exposed the computer-enabled deception.

It didn’t happen.

Guliani has repeatedly stated that Biden’s victories in Democratically controlled cities is blatant evidence of Democratic election fixing.

Really?

Let’s think about this claim. Isn’t it likely that a majority-Democrat area will vote for the Democratic candidate? So, doesn’t it make sense that Biden (a Democrat) is most likely to win in Democratically controlled areas of the country? How is this evidence of nation-wide, voter fraud?

I watch and read a good deal of conservative, Republican news. I have yet to find any of the information briefly provided in this post being covered by those news outlets. What I do find is the endless repetition of Trump’s accusations of fraud, but always without evidence or discussion of unfolding developments in real time.

Repetition is not an argument; neither is it evidence of anything other than a person’s dogged commitment to their own ideas.

I intend to write more about this dangerous problem within the church in the near future.

Most people belief that the earth is round, but we can’t be certain because the Flat Earth Society insists it is flat.

 Most scientists think that global warming is accelerated by CO2 emissions, but we can’t know for sure because others say it is not.

The preceding two sentences are examples of a logical fallacy known as a false equivalency, sometimes called the “both sides” argument. (See the definition and explanation below as well as here and here).

The logical fallacy known as a false equivalency presents two different positions, or different sides of an argument, as if they were equally valid when, in fact, they are not. This highly illogical way of looking at the world has become increasingly common in both news and social media.

Sometimes it appears innocently when a person, such as a reporter, is unclear about the facts of a case and wants their presentation to appear unbiased. In this instance, an honest reporter will admit his ignorance as he gives both sides of a possible explanation.

More often, however, false equivalencies are intentionally used to mislead and to misinform. It is a common rhetorical trick deployed in political propaganda.

I recently heard an outrageous example of false equivalency on the radio while I was listening to a conservative call-in program (driving cross-country looking to trap a little falcon called a merlin).

A Trump-voter had called the program and was deriding Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (NOTE: I am NOT a fan of either!!!) while insisting that the recent presidential election was fraudulent.

(Heads up on another false equivalency: many say Biden won the election, but many Trump supporters say the election way rigged. Therefore, we can’t know the actually winner).

The pro-Trump caller noted that while Democrats applauded Kamala Harris because she and Biden intended TO UNIFY the country, he knew that both were avid communists intent on destroying America.

How did he know this?

Well, he cited a specific page from Karl Marx’s work, The Communist Manifesto.  Marx urges his fellow revolutionaries “TO UNIFY” the proletariat (that is, the workers) in their pursuit of radical, political transformation.

In other words — according to this caller’s logic — whereas some people thought the Democratic presidential ticket was hoping to heal the nation (Ahem: if you really believe that, I’ve got a good deal on a piece of swamp land in Florida to sell you), he knew that the Democrats were really closet Communists planning a socialist revolution to destroy America.

How did he know this?

Well, both Harris and Marx talked about uniting the common people.

Of course, the host of the call-in program did not point out this whopping, outrageous instance false equivalency. In fact, he thanked the caller for his historical insight and let the comparison stand, thereby giving it his official, radio stamp of approval!

That is how propaganda works. And I hope my readers can see for themselves how very malicious such false equivalencies can be.

But false equivalencies are also used by people like politicians and church pastors who are afraid of losing part of their audience.

Rather than taking a position on a controversial issue; rather than calling out falsehoods and misinformation; rather than explaining why one position is clearly illegitimate while another is the ethical position required by good citizenship or Christian faith, these “leaders” will describe a variety of positions as all equally legitimate possibilities.

For instance, the Black Lives Matters movement sparked a deluge of bogus false equivalency arguments from conservative church leaders, though I don’t have space to describe them all here.

We see that the question boils down to a matter of discernment. How do we know the truth of a matter? Of all people in this world, Christians ought to have an especially deep allegiance to knowing the truth.

So, here are a few key ingredients to help us in pursuing the truth in public debate:

1. Do your research. What are the facts? What is the relative expertise of the supposed “experts” whose conclusions disagree? Are there reasons for either side to be biased in its conclusions? (For instance, when the work of “scientists” who minimize the dangers of global warming is funded by the fossil fuel industry, their arguments are HIGHLY suspect). Who is paying for these people to say the things they say? Are there other vested interests at stake in the argument? What is the background, education, professional history of the various people making these claims?
2. Yes, this type of research takes time, so admit ignorance when necessary. What?  You say you don’t have that much time to spare? If that is the case, then – to put it bluntly – stop talking. If I don’t have the time to educated myself about a subject, then I shouldn’t be making pronouncements about it. That doesn’t mean I can’t discuss it, but it does mean that I must speak with hesitation and humility. Drop the pretense of self-confidence. Learn to say, “I’m not sure. I don’t know. This is only my opinion.”
3. Grow a spine. This point is especially pertinent to people who call themselves Christians. NOT ALL POSITIONS ARE EQUALLY VALID OR ACCEPTABLE. Thus, falsehoods, misrepresentations, and immorality must be identified and condemned wherever you see them.

All politics involves moral judgment. Pastors who say they won’t allow politics into their church are deluding themselves. The real question is, What sort of politics are you encouraging your people to embrace (whether explicitly or implicitly, by promotion or silence)?

Every Christian must be committed to exemplifying Christ-like morality. And that includes politics.

It only follows, then, that many political positions/decisions must be rejected by God’s people, since not all conflicting positions can be equally ethical, true, or Christ-like.

The basis for a Christian’s political decisions must always be the life, character, and teaching of Jesus Christ. (No, Jesus may not have an opinion on every policy, but he does have an opinion on the over-arching moral effects of our politics).

Any supposed church leader who either (a) fails to apply this “Jesus test” to their politics, or (b) says that any and all political views are equally permissible within the church – in other words, there are no truly “false” equivalencies, only diverse equivalencies – is either lazy, dull-witted, or cowardly.

The gospel witness of Christ’s church can only suffer when leaders either employ or tolerate these sorts of false equivalencies. Yet, they are rampant within today’s political discourse.

Where is the church’s influence in combating this sort of propaganda?

Where is the church taking a stand for TRUTH in public discourse?

From what I can see, the church is not very different from the polarized, partisan public that draws life from the popularization of of malicious and illogical false equivalencies.

As I see it, baptizing this brand of sloppy thinking is merely the lazy person’s way of appearing tolerant.

President Trump torpedoed son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s, plan for a federally organized, covid testing program because he believed that it would primarily benefit “blue states” (the states that he did not carry in the 2016 election).

A recent investigative article at Vanity Fair explains what happened. I have posted an excerpt below:

Despite the Rockefeller Foundation’s round-the-clock work to guide the U.S. to a nationwide testing system essential to reopening, the foundation has not yet been able to bend the most important curve of all: the Trump administration’s determined disinterest in big federal action.

On July 15, in a video call with journalists, Dr. Shah looked visibly frustrated. The next day, the Rockefeller Foundation would be releasing a follow-up report: It called on the federal government to commit $75 billion more to testing and contact tracing, work to break through the testing bottlenecks that had led to days-long delays in the delivery of test results, and vastly increase more rapid point-of-care tests.

Though speaking in a typically mild-mannered tone, Shah delivered a stark warning: “We fear the fall will be worse than the spring.” He added, putting it bluntly: “America is not near the top of countries who have handled COVID-19 effectively.”

Just three days later, news reports revealed that the Trump administration was trying to block any new funding for testing and contact tracing in the new coronavirus relief package being hammered out in Congress. As one member of the Rockefeller coalition said of the administration’s response, “We’re dealing with a schizophrenic organization. Who the hell knows what’s going on? It’s just insanity.”

You can read the entire story here.

President Trump’s mismanagement of the US pandemic have been largely motivated (above and beyond his gross incompetence) by his partisan efforts at reelection.

Members of Kushner’s task force reveal that Trump was disinterested in their plan because he believed that “blue states” would be hardest hit by covid.

In other words, if he didn’t carry a state in the 2016 election, he didn’t feel the need to help the people who didn’t vote for him.

Let that fact sink in…

Numerous outlets are reporting this story in one form or another (here, here, here, here, and here for only a few examples).

Ironically, the current resurgence of the virus is now hitting red states the hardest, and seems to be a major cause for the current nose-dive in Trump’s approval ratings.

Now that the “mass human sacrifices” are including Republican voters, what will Trump do?

Personally, I am not holding my breath. Trump remains Trump, a gross narcissist who is too ignorant and stupid to care about anyone but himself, even when the nation is dying.

 

Scott Hancock is a history professor at Gettysburg College. He is also a serious disciple of Jesus Christ.

Hancock regularly goes to the Gettysburg battlefield to talk with visitors, hoping to educate them about the roots of the Civil War and the southern states’ investment in defending slavery.

It is amazing to me how often his critics repeat the Confederate propaganda created by the United Daughters of the Confederacy catechism for southern children. (Check out my post on the UDC here).

(I am indebted to John Fea’s blog for directing me to this video).