Tag: Christian Zionism

A Prayer Request and More Praise for My Book, I Pledge Allegiance

Like most authors, I always appreciate receiving feedback from my readers.  I am especially grateful whenever I hear a story about how my work has stirred positive transformation and been encouraging to someone, especially when that someone is trying to follow Jesus faithfully.

Below I have copied a very kind note I recently received from a minister who has read my newest book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018).

Thank you, pastor, for taking the time to be an encouragement to me:

“At the recommendation of [a] long-time friend and former parishioner… I just finished reading….for the second time…your book, “I Pledge Allegiance”. All I can say, David, is THANK YOU!!! You’ve helped me find some renewed sense of balance in what it means to live in this country at this time as a follower of Jesus. Having just recently retired from parish ministry… I’m aware of how often I waffled, especially in my preaching. There are times when I experience guilt and wish I could begin again to deal in a better way with the influences of congregants. And then there are those times when I’m grateful that I made it through without getting kicked out. The events of this past week put me into an even deeper depression. However, your insights and reminders have helped me immensely. Again, thank you!! And, please, keep writing. David”

In response to this man’s last sentence, let me say that I am trying to continue my writing.  But I am facing a few obstacles.  I mention this because, if you are a praying person, I could use your prayers about my next (possible) writing project.

I want to write a book about both(1)  the theological problems of Christian Zionism and (2) the human suffering entangled with American evangelicalism’s blind support for the nation of Israel.  The book will be half Biblical theology and half real-life stories.

The theology sections will explain the serious errors of “Christian Zionism” (i.e. those who believe that modern Israel is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in need of the church’s, and America’s, wholehearted support).

The real life stories will describe graphic instances of Palestinian suffering and abuse that I have witnessed first-hand during my visits to the West Bank area (captured by the Israeli army during the 1967 war and kept under military occupation ever since).

My proposal for this book has now passed over a number of publisher’s desks.  One publisher said (I am paraphrasing), “Dave, we think this would be a good book, but your previous books haven’t been great sellers for us.  We don’t think we’d make much money from this one, either.”

Four other well-known publishing houses have all said something similar, “David, we like and agree with your proposal.  We think this would me a good book, but we can’t figure out how we would sell it.  Sorry.  Good luck.”

Needless to say, I am a bit frustrated and disappointed.  So, I would very much appreciate your prayers as I try to figure out where next to send the proposal.  I firmly believe this book needs to be written.

Otherwise, perhaps I am at the end of my writing career.  I hope not, but who knows.

Meet the Skunk Wagon. Palestinians Know It Well

Today I want to introduce you to the Skunk Wagon.  I call it the Skunk Wagon because its one and only job is to shoot a long stream of skunk water through a water cannon, powerful enough to knock people — typically Palestinians — off their feet.

Skunk water is one of several new crowd control devices developed by Israeli arms manufacturers.

A BBC reporter described skunk water like this:

“Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven’t been washed for weeks – topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. . .Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon. Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean.”

Don’t worry.  Numerous American police departments have purchased skunk water from Israel so that it can be used on US protesters, too.  You may have a chance to smell it for yourself one day.

Below is a picture of a Skunk Wagon lumbering down a narrow alley way in the Palestinian refugee camp where Terry and I periodically live with my friends.  As you can see, there are no conveniently located crowds of terrorists immediately in need

The Skunk Wagon approaching my home away from home

of dispersal, but that never stops the Israeli army from taking the initiative in looking for someone in need of a good skunk water bath.  The army is nothing if not industrious when it comes to oppressing Palestinians, even when they are living peacefully in their own neighborhoods.

Typically, when Israeli soldiers can’t find anyone to spray on the streets, they begin looking for open doors and windows in order to shoot the skunk water into people’s homes.  Apparently, the soldiers assume that the families inside are a sufficient “crowd” in need of military control.   I guess you could call it an Israeli strategy for domestic crowd control.

On this particular day, my friend’s elderly mother had her windows open to catch the morning breeze.   She is in her late 80s and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, so she was unaware of the Skunk Wagon’s approach.  Even though she was home alone — not malingering in a dangerous crowd of family members — the Israelis decided that she posed an imminent threat and needed to be dispersed.

After all, she is a Palestinian.  As far as the political Zionism of modern Israel is concerned, the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian, or one who lives somewhere else, far removed from the real estate claimed by Israel’s government.

Even feeble, senile women in their late 80s deserve to be sprayed by the Skunk Wagon simply because of who they are and where they live:  they are Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.  As far as the Israeli forces are concerned, that is reason enough to beat, batter, control and dehumanize Palestinian residents in any way possible.

This day was no exception.

So, this Palestinian matriarch saw both her bedroom and living room generously bathed in skunk water.  And hers was not the only home visited by high-powered, mechanical projectile vomiting.

Imagine all of your rugs, chairs, sofas, bedding, curtains, walls, floors, clothing — everything! — drenched in skunk water.  The stench is unbelievable.  After several weeks of intensive scrubbing and cleaning by her family members, the home still reeked.  I have no idea how long it took for the smell to finally dissipate.

But this was only the beginning of the army’s fun.  The soldiers returned several days later, angered that a few boys had dared to throw rocks at them while they shot teargas down the streets and into open windows during another of their frequent invasions.  Driving a mobile teargas launcher

with a PA system, Israeli soldiers returned to deliver a message:  stop throwing rocks at us or we will slaughter you all, young and old, women and children alike.

Listen to the announcement for yourself in the video above.  You can also read a good account of the incident in the online newspaper, Middle East Eye here. (Several friends have confirmed the accuracy of the translation.)

I know of at least one instance where an asthmatic woman died in her own  living room after soldiers fired teargas through her window.  Of course, the military never acknowledges any responsibility, much less liability, for the deaths and numerous injuries caused by their reckless behavior in the camp.

My friends would have bust a gut laughing had I suggested that they send a bill to the army base next door charging them for the time and money spent cleaning up the skunk water in their mother’s home.

At least the soldier speaking in this  video was honest enough — an arrogant lapse for which he may well have been reprimanded later on — to call his comrades what they really are:  THE OCCUPATIONAL ARMY.  (A description consistently denied by Israeli/Zionist apologists.) Of course, as an occupying army they can do no wrong while the subjugated Palestinians can do nothing right.

Terrorizing the locals in any way they please is perfectly acceptable.  There are no repercussions.  But should a few testosterone driven boys decide to express their youthful anger; should they exercise human agency by refusing to lie down and play dead beneath another barrage of teargas

Israeli soldiers conduct a night raid, their favorite time to abduct people, including children, from their beds

and skunk water; should they resist Zionist  oppression by (oh my, heaven forbid!) throwing rocks at the very soldiers who daily treat them as subhuman scum in need of a good skunk water bath before their mass deportation, well then, those rebellious children deserve arrest and imprisonment.

This kind of action serves as Zionist justice in the Occupied Territories.

Israel Bombs Gaza on APR Time.  The Rest of Us Need to Reset the Clock

APR is my own abbreviation for “After Palestinians Respond”.  It is the unofficial but permanent demarcation for all of post-1947 history in Israel.

The Gregorian calendar uses BC and AD, making the birth of Christ the dividing line in world history.  BC designates history “before Christ.”  AD is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”.

For instance, Cleopatra ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 BC.  Emperor Nero ruled the Roman empire from 37 to 68 AD.  The birth of the Nazarene is the permanent line of demarcation between two historical eras.

Recent bambing in Gaza, August 2018

But modern Israeli society has devised a new way to demarcate their history, especially their military confrontations with Palestinians.  Now, the historical clock always begins immediately after the Palestinians respond to Israeli provocation.  In this way, Israeli aggression is conveniently erased from the story.  All that remains are Palestinian actions against Israel.

Let’s look at a few recent examples:

“Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence” – This was a NYT headline on July 20, 2018.  The lead paragraph says: “Israeli warplanes launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip on Friday, one of the fiercest in years, after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border fence during a day of escalating hostilities.” (emphasis mine)

Not until the middle of this article does the writer get around to mentioning that Israeli soldiers have been killing unarmed Palestinians regularly for the

Gazan woman protesting at the Great March of Return

past 17 weeks!  Since the largely peaceful protests in Gaza began on March 30, at least 159 Palestinians have been shot and killed, including women, children and emergency first-aid workers.  More than 16,000 have been wounded, many crippled for life as Israel insists on using live ammunition against unarmed people.

Yet, these facts are not considered relevant for the reader’s understanding of Israel’s recent assault.

The NYT would never deign to report this story more honestly by saying

Gazan child shot by Israeli sniper

that a Palestinian sniper retaliated against Israeli aggression after 17 weeks of constant Israeli sniper fire, during which time Israeli snipers killed 159 Palestinians and wounded over 16,000 more.

Or take this story from the Washington Post (8/9/18):

“Rocket Barrage from Gaza Prompts Fierce Retaliation by Israeli War Planes” — The lead sentence declares: “Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a barrage of rockets from the Palestinian territory…” (emphasis mine).

According to the Post’s framing of the story, Palestinians continue to behave as irrational, suicidal actors instigating yet another round of Israeli bombing by their unprovoked aggression against Israel.

The writer mentions that 11 Israelis were injured by flying debris in their

Israeli war tourists watch Gazan march and Israeli solders shoot

neighborhood. Yet, nowhere does this article print a single word about Israel’s unrelenting assault against the residents of Gaza since March.  The 159 dead Palestinians, including old women, children and medics, go unmentioned.  Neither is there a word about the 16,000 innocent civilians wounded.

As always in APR time, Israelis remain the only victims in the story.  Because that is the point of APR time.

Referring to the rockets sent from Gaza, Naomi Zolberg, 34, a resident of the Israeli city of Sderot (located less than 1 mile from Gaza’s northern border; only 840 meters at the closest point) complained, “We only slept an hour…People were freaking out. It is not normal to live like this, under the will of the other side.”

Perhaps Ms. Zolberg should turn down the volume on her TV.  Apparently,

A section of the Gaza fence

she hasn’t heard the regular, weekly (sometimes daily) rifle-fire targeting the imprisoned people struggling to survive only a short walk from her doorstep.  These are her fellow human beings trapped in an open-air prison, shot like fish in a barrel by Israeli snipers enjoying target practice.

Is that a normal way to live, Ms. Zolberg?

Sadly, it is perfectly normal for people like Ms. Zolberg to ignore the human  tragedy happening under her nose, just as it is normal for Palestinian families to endure it.  Every single Gazan resident would think themselves blessed many times over if only they could switch places with you, Ms. Zolberg, and experience your hard, hard life of freedom living next door to their prison fence.

Israel’s latest existential threat — Palestinians throwing stones at soldiers holding high powered rifles and tanks with machine guns

But we will never see this particular story-line on the evening news because it does not conform to the standard APR rule-book.  And the one rule that can never be broken in Israel’s reporting – and this applies to the vast majority of the Western press which robotically repeats Israel’s perspective on all things Palestinian – is that you never describe Israel’s actions before the Palestinian response.

 What came before the Palestinians acted?  Before the people of Gaza began to march?  Before Gazan activists shot their homemade rockets over the prison fence containing 1.8 million people in the Gazan ghetto?

What came before is repeatedly erased from Israel’s memory, even as it is etched indelibly into Palestinian consciousness.

Yet, it is exactly for the sake of conscience, that we all – especially God’s people – must refuse to abide by Israeli APR time frames.  Ask, learn, study, become educated in the long, tragic history of the many crimes committed against them before the Palestinians finally responded.

Teargas on the Playground

Children in the Aida refugee camp – 7/10ths of a densely packed, square kilometer containing nearly 6,000 people on the outskirts of Bethlehem – have one playground.  It is nestled behind the Lajee Center, one of several community development organizations in this Palestinian community.

No one goes to the playground hoping to play dodge-ball with incendiary teargas canisters, not even Palestinian kids.  But it never hurts to be prepared.  Especially when there is an active Israeli military base across the street from the swing sets and the slide.

Actually, the concrete Annexation Wall (as I call it) is directly across the

Annexation Wall & sniper tower overlooking Aida refugee camp

street, but the resident army unit snuggles tightly against their side of the barrier overlooking the playground.  So, the soldiers have a bird’s eye view of the little boys pushing their toy cars in the sand box.

The army base also has its own set of steel gates, large enough to accommodate trucks, tanks and fully loaded personnel carriers, built into the Wall that grants them immediate access to Aida’s largest street.  The very street passing by the Lajee Center and its playground.

This mammoth, gray gate can only be opened and closed from the outside, the Israeli army side.  The residents of Aida have no control at all.  They cannot lock the soldiers out of their neighborhood, but the soldiers can, and do, invade their homes as they please.

What seems to please the Israeli soldiers most often these days is shooting teargas, rubber bullets and skunk water at the people whose only “crime” is being Palestinian living in Israeli-occupied territory.

Naturally, the crime of being Palestinian includes little children, too.

Why else would Israeli soldiers fire teargas onto the Lajee Center

Children run from teargas on their playground

playground, terrorizing Aida’s preschoolers that sunny, spring morning?  It’s hard for a 4-year-old to outrun the gas, especially when the wind speeds its dispersal.  But the youngsters do their best.  Fortunately, most of them have a parent or older sibling present to help their escape.

The soldiers paused occasionally as they strolled down the wide street, gas masks covering their faces.  Over and over they calmly lobbed canisters of fuming noxious smoke among the panic-stricken children.

Imagine the chaos as people flee in all directions, either trying to escape the plumes of blinding gas or frantically searching for their little ones now vanishing inside a wet cloud of white smoke that can easily suffocate a small child in less than a minute.

Teargas blinds your senses.  It blinds your eyes with incredible, stinging pain, flooding your cheeks with acidic tears.  It also blinds your brain to the neural impulses that tell your lungs TO BREATHE!  So, you think you can’t.

Teargas in the streets

First, because of the burning gas torching your mouth and throat, you can’t breathe.

Second, because your brain has been tricked into suppressing the automatic reflex, you can’t breathe without great, deliberate effort.  But, unless you’ve covered your mouth sufficiently or escaped the cloud of smoke, taking another breath of teargas is the last thing you want to do.  But you need to breath!  So, what do you do

Soldiers do as they please, when they please, wherever they please. This day it pleased them to shoot teargas at little children

I have no idea how the minds and bodies of tiny infants, delicate toddlers, baby brothers and bigger sisters managed to cope with this surprise attack.  Nor do I know the stories of the family members and friends, all blinded themselves, whose only thought was to rescue the screaming child they heard somewhere off in the murky distance. (I heard this story from a friend who filmed the incident as it unfolded from the balcony of her home.  The image above is one frame from that film.)

No one had expected to play dodge-ball with teargas canisters on the playground that day.

But Israeli soldiers are inventive at coming up with new games to play with Palestinians, especially in the Occupied Territories.  And aren’t we told repeatedly that this is the most moral army in the world defending the only democracy in the Middle East?

It’s Official: Israel is a Racist State by Law

Israel’s Knesset has passed a new Basic Law – a series of laws that substitute for Israel’s non-existent constitution – called the Jewish Nation-State Law.  You can read the full text of the law here.

Israel has always struggled to defend its contradictory claim of being a Jewish and a democratic state, simultaneously.  Critics, which most recently includes members of Israel’s Supreme Court, have long pointed out that establishing a state only for Jews undermines its claims to democracy, which requires equality for everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike.

Many Israeli legislators have worried about the court’s bizarre tendency to acknowledge this obvious contradiction and to rule accordingly, issuing decisions which typically favor democracy above Zionist racial profiling.

Horrors!

But, don’t worry.  Israel’s political Zionists have a plan.  Enter the new

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked

Jewish Nation-State Law.  One of the law’s staunchest supporters is the current Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked who openly laments the court’s tendency, when forced to pick between Jewishness or democracy, to defend the democratic principle of equality before the law.

Now the Jewish Nation-State Law will force even the highest court in the land to change its evil ways and acknowledge that, in the land of Israel, Jewish ethnicity rules supreme.  As Justice Minister Shaked declared in a Knesset debate last February

“There are places where the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state must be maintained and this sometimes comes at the expense of equality.”  (emphasis mine)

Ms. Shaked’s thoughts on how to respond to Palestinian resistance against Israel’s military occupation.

Speaking in Jerusalem at the Israeli Congress on Judaism and Democracy the Justice Minister reaffirmed her position, insisting that Israel

“is a Jewish state and not a state for all of its nationalities…the Supreme Court should stop upholding the former at the expenses of Israel’s religious values…We need to protect the Jewish character of the state even if that means sacrificing human rights.” (emphasis mine)

Opposition leaders, some of whom are also Arab legislators, voiced their opposition to the law (here, here and here).  But they lost by a 62 – 55 vote.  This new “constitutional amendment” has thrown down the gauntlet on the world stage.  The message is clear:

Behold, here we stand!  Israel.  A racist, apartheid, Zionist nation-state, and we are proud of ourselves.

What will the world’s civilized nation-states do now?

The Blatant Hypocrisy of “Liberal Zionism” #zionism #christianzionism

Liz Rose, a public school teacher and writer living in Chicago, has an excellent article in Mondoweiss (6/27/18) explaining the hypocrisy of liberal Zionism.  It is entitled “It’s time for Tom Friedman to face the contradictions of liberal Zionism, and move on.”

Because Friedman frequently waves his Zionist banner in the pages of the New York Times, he has become the paradigmatic liberal Zionist in America whose blind loyalty to Israel forces him to speak out of both sides of his mouth.

Trump with al-Sisi

On the one hand, Friedman and his Zionist compatriots complain about an American president embracing fascist dictators, such as Egypt’s al-Sisi, but they remain deafeningly silent about America’s blind support for Israel’s far-right leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump with Netanyahu

Friedman happily quotes and defends Human Right’s Watch when it condemns the abuse of human rights in Egyptian, but he will ignore or condemn the same organization when it highlights identical abuses suffered by Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Here is an excerpt.  You can find the full article here.  It is well worth reading.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult for liberal Zionists to balance their support for human rights and global justice in Trump’s America with their support for Israel. But liberal Zionists in the U.S. still believe they can.

“This tension is evident in Thomas Friedman’s June 19, 2018, opinion piece in the New York Times, “Trump to Dictators: Have a Nice Day.” Friedman compares Trump to dictators and defends human rights, but Israel is left out of the column, and it feels like a glaring evasion. “What’s terrifying about Trump is that he seems to prefer dictators to our democratic allies everywhere,” Friedman rightly suggests, and uses North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his examples. These dictators don’t just “crush their revolutionaries or terrorists but even their most mild dissenters,” Friedman writes.  There’s no “space for even loyal opposition.” Friedman is correct, of course, that dissent is criminalized in these countries, and that Trump’s administration puts no limit on these dictators.

“When looking at Friedman’s column with a non-Zionist lens, however, the alliance between Trump and Netanyahu seems simply too obvious to leave out.  Netanyahu’s dictator-like behavior is clear. The recent murder of 135 Palestinians at the Gaza border (and the wounding of more than 14,000), the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem that Netanyahu pushed, Israel’s decision to ban 20 groups who support BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) from entering Israel, and the ongoing occupation and colonization of the Palestinian people that Israel has never taken responsibility for, are just a few indicators of Netanyahu’s desire for total control.

“That Netanyahu is left out of this column speaks to this growing tension between a universal liberalism and liberal Zionism; to reconcile the two, Friedman is forced to avoid the topic altogether.

“Similarly, Friedman can only sound as though he supports human rights if Israel is not mentioned.  He cites Human Rights Watch to show the changes occurring in Egypt:

“Take Egypt. On May 31, Human Rights Watch reported that the Egyptian police had ‘carried out a wave of arrests of critics of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in dawn raids since early May 2018.’ Those arrested included Hazem Abd al-Azim, a political activist; and Wael Abbas, a well-known journalist and rights defender; as well as Shady al-Ghazaly Harb, a surgeon; Haitham Mohamadeen, a lawyer; Amal Fathy, an activist; and Shady Abu Zaid, a satirist.

“Again, Friedman accurately warns of increased censorship among Egypt’s citizens.  But a site like Human Rights Watch becomes a convenient and valid source for liberal Zionists as long as it is not used to criticize Israel.  When it does, it is accused of perpetuating an anti-Israel bias, rather than being a source that has authority and shows human rights violations by Israel. But Friedman’s liberal Zionism prevents him from acknowledging that Israel might violate the very rights he insists all people should have. For liberal Zionists, however, the only way Zionism and human rights can coexist is to erase Palestinian history and give Israel a pass.”

Munther Amira’s Statement after Prison Release #Palestinians #Israelioccupation

I am happy to say that my friend, Munther Amira, was released from an Israeli military prison about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Munther released a thank you statement on Facebook yesterday, and I want to share it with any of my readers who may have participated in the “free Munther” actions I posted here.

Recall that Munther was arrested for quietly, non-violently protesting Israel’s policy of imprisoning children in its military prisons. He was peacefully walking down the street in his own neighborhood holding up a picture of the Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi, who remains in prison for the “crime” of slapping one of the soldiers who shot her young cousin in the head.

Here is Munther’s letter:

JUN 17, 2018 — My dear friends,

I would like to start my message “post” by thanking each and every woman, man, organization, union, and group for your tremendous support and solidarity. My imprisonment is no more than one small event in the series of the long lasting occupation’s violations of human rights. Since the beginning of occupation 70 years ago, the violations of human rights never stopped. They just varied in shape from cold blood killing, to injuring or imprisoning. They included land confiscation, home demolitions, road blockage, siege, exile, individual and public punishments, all of which contribute to a system of ethnic cleansing. All of which destroy human lives, deprive freedom, erase dignity, end lives, kill hope, and steal childhoods.

My short, but tough and humiliating, six month imprisonment empowered me and strengthened my convictions. Since the beginning I knew that the nonviolence approach I adopted to defend Palestinians human rights, dignity, and freedom will be difficult. This is still true and was confirmed by the violence of the Israeli occupation’s response to my, and many other activists, nonviolent resistance. Your solidarity and support makes it easier for me and others like me to lead this every day fight.

This support will empower the nonviolence movement in Palestine in this long-term endeavor. I hope this support will continue and grow in scale and forms.
During my imprisonment I met with comrades, spending, 36, 30, 28 or 26 years in Israeli political prisons. A lifetime of prison is their fate on this earth. Each of them has their own heartbreaking and incredibly strong story. I listened to them tell me about their dreams, feelings, and hopes for freedom. I learned from their enthusiasm and was stunned by their positive, ongoing energy. They have an incredible discipline and are eager to learn and to teach each other. In prison, I attended lectures discussing global sustainable environments, social sciences, human rights, and international humanitarian laws. It was not – and is still not – easy for me to grasp the source of their hope, their energy, and their ability to think about things like economics and the environment, all while living in a 9 square meter cell.

I saw them touch the glass separating them and their mothers during the monthly visits, imagining they could actually feel them.
I admire their spirit, and hope that one day, sooner rather than later, they will wake up outside, next to their loved ones. As a human rights defender, activist, social worker, father, and most importantly as a human, I and many others in and outside of Palestine will continue our peaceful fight for justice, dignity, freedom and a brighter future.

Finally, I would to like to thank you all again, and to extend my gratitude to all your tremendous support during my time in Israel’s kangaroo courts, which fail to meet the basic standards of fair trial and due process.
These military courts are designed to criminalize Palestinian rejection of the occupation and punish Palestinians for demanding their basic human and national rights. They are a conveyor belt of convictions and injustice that prosecute between 500 and 700 Palestinian children every year, with a near 100 percent conviction rate.

I would like to thank all who demonstrated in the streets, and those who were punished for it. Thank you to the 15,000 people who signed the petition for my freedom. I wish I could thank them all one by one. Thank you to all human rights defenders, unions, human rights NGOs, grassroots NGOs, journalist, bloggers, individuals and groups.

Last but not least I would like to thank my family who has stood by me in this dangerous endeavor from the very first day.

Munther Amira
Aida Refugee Camp
Occupied Palestinian Territories

(Posted on Facebook on 17 June 2018)

Israel, the Great Western Narrative and the Kingdom of God #zionism #jonathancook

Jonathan Cook, a British journalist living and working in Nazareth, Israel.

Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist living and working in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001.  You can find his biography and CV, including his many books, here.

I read Mr. Cook’s blog regularly. I also check out any of his articles or books whenever I come across them.

Yesterday, The Greenville Post (another excellent website I read regularly) published a Cook article entitled “How the Corporate Media Enslave Us to a World of Illusions.” Cook describes the slow evolution of his own social, political and historical consciousness as his work in journalism taught him to recognize something he calls the “Great Western Narrative.”

I hope you will take the time to read Cook’s article.  He is extremely insightful.  I have posted an excerpt below with a link to the entire article.

Cook’s analysis can be particularly challenging for Christians. He not only diagnoses the ways in which western Christians succumb to establishment propaganda, just like everyone else — no, brothers and sisters, we are not immune to the dangers of brainwashing —

But Cook’s advice for breaking free of the “Great Western Narrative” and learning to understand and engage in this world from a more humane perspective, is very similar to the argument I tried to make for Christian readers in my book I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America.

Christian disciples can only perceive this world aright, that is, from a New Testament, heavenly perspective, when we learn to replace the Great Western Narrative with Jesus’ own Narrative of the Kingdom of God.

That should be a lifetime goal for every follower of Jesus.  Yet, it is so much easier to live as loyal Americans than it is to be faithful citizens of God’s kingdom on earth.

This, in a nutshell, is the goal of my blog. Everything I write at HumanityRenewed, is something (I hope) that will help us to peel off the worldly consciousness — the Great Western Narrative — that works overtime to hold us captive and cripple our ability to live out God’s Kingdom citizenship in the here and now.

Nowhere is the evangelical church’s idolatry of the Great Western Narrative, coupled with its abandonment of Jesus’ Narrative of the Kingdom of God, more evident than in its blind devotion to Christian Zionism and the state of Israel, whatever its crimes.

Here is the excerpt:

“Israel is enthusiastically embraced by the Great Western Narrative: it is supposedly a liberal democracy, many of its inhabitants dress and sound like us, its cities look rather like our cities, its TV shows are given a makeover and become hits on our TV screens. If you don’t stand too close, Israel could be Britain or the US.

“But there are clues galore, for those who bother to look a little beyond superficialities, that there is something profoundly amiss about Israel. A few miles from their homes, the sons of those western-looking families regularly train their gun sights on unarmed demonstrators, on children, on women, on journalists, on medics, and pull the trigger with barely any compunction.

“They do so not because they are monsters, but because they are exactly like us, exactly like our sons. That is the true horror of Israel. We have a chance to see ourselves in Israel – because it is not exactly us, because most of us have some physical and emotional distance from it, because it still looks a little strange despite the best efforts of the western media, and because its own local narrative – justifying its actions – is even more extreme, even more entitled, even more racist towards the Other than the Great Western Narrative.

“It is that shocking realisation – that we could be Israelis, that we could be those snipers – that both opens the door and prevents many from stepping through to see what is on the other side. Or, more troubling still, halting at the threshhold of the doorway, glimpsing a partial truth without understanding its full ramifications.”

You can read Cook’s entire article here.

A Few Thoughts on the Vice-President’s Speech at Today’s Southern Baptist Convention

I watched most of Vice-President Pences’ speech at the Southern Baptist Convention today.  Yes, the SBC has a history of extending bi-partisan

(Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

invitations to its politician guest-speakers.

But in today’s political climate under the Trump presidency, with leading Southern Baptist pastors like Robert Jeffress serving as Trump’s so-called spiritual advisors, the image of a “non-partisan” event has worn a bit thin.

Here are a few of my thoughts as I listened to the Vice-President’s speech:

  1. Listening to the convention’s applause for a thoroughly partisan, political talk reminded me of the recent service where church elders walked out on my message for being too political. Would these same men and woman have walked out on the vice-president this morning?  I doubt that very, very much.
  2. I, too, hope that the recent agreement with North Korea will be a step towards greater peace in that part of the world. I stand with the crowd that wants to see the entire world denuclearized. However, as a simple practical matter, I cannot help but wonder why North Korea would denuclearize so quickly and easily almost immediately after achieving its long-term goal of creating its own nuclear arsenal?  Their nukes are brand new! Call me confused…
  3. In terms of world peace, our obsession with North Korean nuclear weapons is downright bizarre in light of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Israel possesses an estimated 250+ nuclear weapons.

Israel has refused to sign the international Non-Proliferation Treaty or to allow independent inspectors to look at its nuclear facilities.

Much of the early technology for Israel’s nuclear weapons program was obtained by Israeli spies stealing US secrets.

Israel threatens and attacks almost all of its neighbors on a regular basis.

Yet, the US never says a thing about the threat posed to world peace by Israel’s behavior or its nuclear arsenal, while we scream and shout about the dangers North Korea and Iran.  I call this hypocrisy.

  1. Well, I could go on about Pence’s misleading claims about the Trump tax cuts, unemployment, the growing income/wealth gap in American and much more, but this is enough for now.

The main question I kept asking myself was this: what does any of Pence’s partisan chest-thumping have to do with the mission of the Christian church?  I do know that there are SB pastor’s raising the same questions and objections within their denomination.  To them I say, don’t stop objecting. Insist that all South Baptist leaders and their churches prioritize the righteousness of the kingdom of God rather than Republican (or Democratic) politics.

(P.S. Excuse me for some shameless self-promotion, but I think I have written a good book about prioritizing the kingdom of God over and above all partisanship.  It’s called I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America).

Oy Vey! Thomas Friedman Gives Palestinians More Unsolicited Advice #zionism #palestinians #gazaprotests

Liz Rose has a fine article at Mondoweiss.net about Thomas Friedman’s latest bit of unsolicited advice for the Palestinian refugees held prisoner in Gaza.  Here is an excerpt from her piece:

“One of the advantages of being a liberal Zionist is that you never have to take responsibility for what Zionism does.  You can blame Palestinians for their own demise, maintain a sense of righteousness while people die, and defend Israel no matter what it does.  And you can state emphatically that you know what Palestinians need to do, though you’ve never considered their experience.  They exist, for you, only in a theoretical sense.

“’Just what are we going to do about the Palestinians,’ you and your liberal Zionist friends can ask over lattes and chai teas at coffee shops.  And when you write about them, you can consider the Palestinian people only as a theory–something abstract to be grappled with–rather than human beings who deserve the dignity and freedom that you have.  You don’t ever have to acknowledge Palestinian history or experience.

“Take, for example, Thomas Friedman’s May 23, 2018, opinion piece in The New York Times, ‘Hamas, Netanyahu and Mother Nature.’  Friedman’s critique–which shakes its finger at the Palestinians who have screwed up again–is yet another liberal Zionist apology for Israel’s recent massacre of 62 people at the Gaza border.  ‘If Hamas had chosen to recognize Israel and build a Palestinian state in Gaza modeled on Singapore,’ Friedman writes, ‘the world would have showered it with aid and it would have served as a positive test case for the West Bank.’  Using an ‘If-X-then-Y’ equation, Friedman knows what’s best for what ails Palestinians.  If they just behaved better, he declares, Israel’s treatment of them would improve.”

You can read the entire Mondoweiss article here.

If you follow my blog, you will remember the piece I wrote several months ago entitled “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?”.  I referred to a similar Friedman suggestion offered in 2002, urging the Palestinian people to send their women, especially grandmothers, unarmed to the front lines to confront Israeli forces with massive, Gandhi-like non-violent protests.

We all saw how Israel responded to that strategy in April and May during the Gaza Land Day Marches.  More than 100 unarmed men, women – including grandmothers – and children were shot and killed by Israeli snipers.  Over 13,000 were seriously injured.

Zionist apologists like Friedman have employed all their tricks of mental, ethical gymnastics in justifying the slaughter.  No matter what the Palestinians do, their deaths are always their own fault.  Unsurprisingly, Mr. Friedman remains stunningly unaware of how brazenly immoral his unsolicited advice continues to be.

For not only does he fail to make the connection between his heartfelt 2002 recommendation of Palestinian self-immolation, he essentially repeats it in a recent New York Times Opinion Piece he calls “Hamas, Netanyahu and Mother Nature.”

“What if all two million Palestinians of Gaza marched to the Israeli border fence with an olive branch in one hand and a sign in Hebrew and Arabic in the other, saying, ‘Two states for two peoples: We, the Palestinian people of Gaza, want to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish people — a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed adjustments.’”

Except, we have all seen that movie, Mr. Friedman.  We already know how it ends: 100+ innocent civilians dead and over 13,000 injured, many crippled for life.

For his own safety, the New York Times should take away Friedman’s pen.  People exhibiting such evidence of advanced dementia, amnesia and/or psychosis should not be allowed to play with sharp objects.

Besides, it just plain hurts to see such deep-seated, pathological moral blindness on display in the opinion pages of one of the world’s leading  newspapers.

Perhaps Mr. Friedman needs a reminder:

  1. NO ONE could walk to the “border fence,” Mr. Friedman, because Israel has never declared its officially recognized borders. (Hard to believe but true). Israel simply grasps more land while the world impotently watches.  The fence you refer to is a Gulag barrier where Israel forcibly contains 1.8 million Palestinian refugees. It does not mark a border.
  2. Almost 30,000 residents of Gaza have already tried your Gandhi tactic, Mr. Friedman. But you know that.  You also remember, as I do, the words of General Amos Gilad (Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Israel Ministry of Defense) when he told American government officials, “we don’t do Gandhi very well.”  This was his tongue-in-cheek explanation for Israel’s 2011 decision “to increase violent pressure on the demonstrations ‘even [if the] demonstrations appear peaceful.’”  You know as well as I do that Israel shoots Gandhi whenever and wherever they see him, Mr. Friedman.
  3. Please, Mr. Friedman, save your protestations about the lack of Palestinian olive branches and peace signs written in Hebrew and Arabic. What will your excuse be next time: “If only 2 million Palestinians approached the fence and shot themselves in the head, saving Israeli ammunition, THEN…”?
  4. Mr. Friedman, you know as well as I do that Yasir Arafat, the leader of the PLO, acknowledged Israel’s right to exist in 1988. And even though Hamas still does not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist (see point 5 below), according to its new 2017 charter, they no longer demand Israel’s destruction and have welcomed the creation of a separate Palestinian state in the lands occupied in the six-day war of 1967 (here, here, and here).
  5. Finally, Mr. Friedman, your political Zionist bona fides are fully displayed when you direct the people of Gaza to confess that they “want to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish people” (emphasis mine).  Notice that the object of the sentence is not the state of Israel but the Jewish people.  Here, finally, is the racist bone that will forever stick in the Palestinian throat, as it does in mine. This outrageous demand ought to stir the entire world to reject “the legitimacy” of the current state of Israel. For here Mr. Friedman and his Zionist compatriots openly confess that Israel is a state for the Jewish people and no one else. All non-Jews are second-class citizens under the rule of political Zionism. No one with a conscience can defend Israel’s “right to exist” as long as it remains a racist state of, for and by Jews alone.

As Archie Bunker used to say, Mr. Friedman, stifle yourself.  Your so-called advice is stale, rehashed Zionist propaganda.

You and yours are morally bankrupt.

You take the vitriol of a racist, apartheid state, siphon it through your effete blender of “reasoned discourse” and offer your readers a sensible justification for mass murder.

You and Joseph Goebbels could be kissin’ cousins.