Noura Erakat is assistant professor of criminal law at Rutgers University, specializing in international and humanitarian law. You can check out her faculty page here.
Her most recent book, which I read not long ago and highly recommend, is entitled Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford, 2019). In this book, she examines the modern history of Palestine through the lens of international law. (I’ll give you a head’s up: Israel has regularly violated, and continues its violations, of international law flagrantly and persistently.)
Recently, Ms. Erakat was interviewed by Aaron Mate, one of my favorite journalists for his independence and investigative abilities, on the Grayzone program, Push Back.
Their conversation concerns the practical effects of President Trump’s recently announced Apartheid Plan for Israeli/Palestinian relations.
Please take the time to watch the complete interview here. It is approximately 15 minutes long.
Her summary: “This plan is much more dangerous than I originally thought.”
In my neck of the woods in NW Montana, talking with a new church acquaintance invariably includes a question about my devotion to Fox News.
When I say that I do not depend on Fox for my news information, that I
Rupert Murdoch, founder of the Fox network
watch Fox mainly for research purposes; and that Fox is not a reliable source for information about the world, the eyes of my new acquaintance invariably go wide, very wide.
“But Fox gives us the Christian perspective,” I am told in a variety of different ways. “It’s the source for the truth.”
“Not really,” I say. “Fox News has always been an outlet for partisan, Republican propaganda. Just as MSNBC serves that purpose for Democratic party propaganda.”
If they haven’t walked away from me by this point (which has also happened), I’ll offer some evidence.
“First, did you know that Rupert Murdoch got his start in American ‘news’ by answering President Reagan’s call for someone to spread Republican ‘talking points’ (double-speak for propaganda) to the American public?”
(No one has ever answered “yes” to this question. You can read an investigative account of the Reagan-Murdoch arrangement here, written by a real journalist. It’s not hard to find similar stories if you look.)
“Second, did you know that leaked Fox memos have revealed that the Fox News desk receives regular updates from the Republican leadership instructing them in the latest party talking-points, which they are required to repeat?”
“In fact, did you know that this practice continues today, as demonstrated by a New York Times story revealing that the official White House talking-points for Fox News impeachment coverage, instructing them in how to discuss the day’s testimony, was accidentally sent to the Democrats?”
The truth is, Fox news has NEVER been about news reporting. It has ALWAYS been a propaganda arm of the Republican party. And it is a serious indictment of American evangelicalism that Fox has been elevated to such an idolatrous, ask-no-questions-please position.
The ONLY reason conservative Christians love Fox as they do is because it provides a daily dose of jingoistic reinforcement for conservative Christianity’s very conservative, Republican politics (which is another sort of indictment against the evangelical church).
Such information idolatry is referred to as confirmation bias. We all prefer to read and listen to the things that conform to and reaffirm what we already believe.
In other words, don’t challenge me, don’t make me uncomfortable, and never make me think.
The simple mantra for the devoted, Christian audience of Fox news clap-trap is: Don’t confuse me with the facts.
Such intellectual and moral laziness is evidence of the age-old human condition. It’s called sin. Nothing new to see here, EXCEPT when American Christians decide to place more of their trust and confidence in something like Fox than they do in Jesus Christ and his teaching.
Which is where vast swaths of the morally moribund evangelical church finds itself today. Frankly, it is impossible to be a Christian with such personal default settings at work in one’s life.
Why?
Because challengingme, making me uncomfortable, and causing me to think are three things that Jesus will always do to every disciple every day.
Let me share another story to illustrate my point:
To give you the short version. Of course, I took issue with what he was saying, and I suggested that I’d buy him a copy of my book and we could make some time to talk about the issues. I assured him that I attempted to root all my conclusions in very careful Biblical interpretation, so we’d also be studying scripture together.
Without a moment’s reflection, he immediately said, “No. I don’t have the time. Besides, anyone can make the Bible say whatever they want.”
Oh really?
I ignored the intended insult — a gross slap in the face to anyone who has spent the majority of their life speaking and writing about the historical aspects of the Christian faith — and that was the end of that.
Perhaps you are already thinking of the many obvious questions left hanging in the air. For instance:
Among all the abusive scripture-twisters in the world, which now apparently includes me, how do you decide which teachers and which “doctrines” to believe?
What are your criteria for selection and how do you apply them?
What role do historical evidence and logical argument play in your decision-making process?
How do you know that the things you believe right now are not the result of someone else’s sly ability to “make the Bible say whatever they want it to say”?
At the end of the day, Christians, of ALL people, must be hound-dogs for THE TRUTH. We should all want to know the truth and nothing but the truth, in all things.
Believing in the necessity of Truth requires that we reject falsehood, whenever and wherever we find it.
Lies, of any type, regarding any arena of interest, should never find a place of comfort in a Christian’s life.
The real problem was not this man’s single-minded devotion to one particular news network, but his refusal to investigate (much less admit) the possibility that he was being deceived (and welcoming it!).
His attitude really was, “Don’t confuse or challenge me with unwanted evidence.”
Even worse, he refused to investigate God’s word with an interested brother in order to discover if he might learn something new (and have fellowship with a new friend).
I am sorry, but all of this adds up to a dangerous, wide-spread disinterest in standing up for the Truth — absolutely THE WORST position any follower of Jesus Christ can ever take.
And it is all on national display in every Fox interview with president
The mass suicide at Jonestown when everyone drank the poisoned kool-aid.
Trump, his defense attorneys (including the one who says he is a Christian), and elected, Republican officials ad nauseam.
While the evangelical church is drinking it all up like the kool-aid served at Jonestown.
Dan Kovalik is another person to whom I always pay attention. He is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, as well as an active labor and human rights attorney.
The independent, investigative journalist, Abby Martin, recently interviewed Kovalik to get his perspective on the recent US assassination of Qassam Soleimani.
I strongly encourage you to watch this YouTube video of their conversation.
It is must see viewing for Americans who are in desperate need of a strong antidote to the barrage of Establishment propaganda shoveled out by every corporate news company in the USA.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Kovalik and Martin expose the long history of unprovoked American aggression against the Iranian people.
Beginning with the CIA coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected president in 1953, Kovalik shows how the US is continuing to lie about (1) Iran’s “quest” for nuclear weapons, (2) Iran’s fictional role as “the world’s largest exporter of state-sponsored terrorism”, and (3) Iran’s “continued attacks” against “innocent” Americans.
In 2013, the CIA publicly confessed its responsibility for the 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government, which we toppled in order to regain control (together with Great Britain) over Iran’s oil resources.
You can read the CIA confession and all the details here in the National Security Archives.
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
America continues its efforts to lie, cheat, and steal its way into controlling Iranian resources again.
And our government, together with all its mindless, media minions, will continue to lie, lie, lie and then lie some more in its efforts to brainwash the public, bedazzling us into stupefied silence — or better yet, heart-felt. patriotic approval — when our bloodthirsty government finally unleashes the savage dogs of war.
DON’T FALL FOR IT!
Christians, you are citizens of the kingdom of God, first! Your membership in the American body politic is nothing compared with this spiritual truth. Your #1 loyalty is to the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth.
He is the Redeemer who calls us to embrace truth not lies, and peace,not war.
If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then understand that in this moment every Christian’s motto must be:
Mother Emmanuel African Methodist-Episcopal Church
On June 17, 2015 Dylann Roof walked into the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist-Episcopal church and sat down to join a Bible study group.
Dylann was welcomed by all, and invited to sit with them. As everyone’s eyes were closed for the final prayer, Dylann took out his gun and killed nine people, shooting them at point-blank range.
One of the victims was the leader of the group, 59-year-old Myra Thompson, a retired public-school teacher and guidance counselor, who
Myra Thompson
just hours before had just been licensed to preach in that very church.
I heard about Rev. Thompson’s book while listening to a local Christian radio station. Rev. Thompson was telling his amazing story of what it had taken for him to forgive Dylann Roof for the crime of killing his wife.
More than that, Rev. Thompson mentioned his continuing attempts to befriend Roof and visit with him in prison, where he is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
I heard a powerful story about the healing power of Christ’s forgiveness and the personal resolve of a deeply compassionate, unusually obedient disciple of Jesus Christ.
It was a story that might normally bring tears to my eyes, were it not for the one thing that the interviewer and host of the program failed to mention – the very thing that I had suspected would go unremarked.
The interviewer and hosts failed to mention that Dylann Root is an avowed
White supremacist, Dylann Roof
white supremacist and neo-Nazi. His most chilling statement from prison was a declaration that he had no regrets. He was not the least bit sorry, remorseful or apologetic for what he had done.
Neither did the radio hosts mention that Root had chosen the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist-Episcopal church because it is a black congregation.
Root deliberately chose a venue for his act of terrorism where he knew every bullet fired was guaranteed to penetrate the body of a black person.
Slaughtering African-American men, women and children was Root’s one and only goal.
None of the white people hosting the interview with Rev. Thompson bothered to connect the Charleston church shooting with the shocking rise in Right-Wing, conservative terrorism in this country.
No one bothered to point out that Root’s online manifesto, entitled The Last Rhodesian, was a white-supremacist screed calling for a race war against all people of color in America. Root confessed that he hoped his massacre would trigger that war.
No one mentioned that the Rev. Thompson’s Christ-like act of forgiveness is (or, at least, I assume it is) a very old, well-practiced act of Christian discipleship exercised within the African American church. A community that continues to confront the never-ending story of racism, discrimination, white violence, lynching and Jim Crow in this country.
I realize that my reader may object.
“Perhaps the radio producers wanted to keep politics out of it,’ you say. “They didn’t want Rev. Thompson’s story about the power of forgiveness to be overshadowed by a political message.”
My response, however, is baloney!
American Christian radio is one of THE most politically driven media outlets available today.
The problem is: Christian radio is driven by conservative, right-wing, Republican politics. A brand a politics that refuses to admit its heinous contribution to the rise of white supremacy in this country.
So, the producers at the right-wing, Christian radio station offer their obeisance to the toadies of the Religious Right political movement and reframe the heartbreaking story of an explicitly racist, white-on-black mass-murder as a heart-warming, tear-jerker testimony to “the power of forgiveness.”
This sin of omission tells us everything we need to know about the Right, including the so-called Christian Right.
Framing is everything.
By trying to avoid politics, a story becomes disgustingly political in the worst way possible.
The nine church shooting victims
For this particular framing of the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist-Episcopal church shooting is blatantly racist.
It’s silence shouts all too loudly, “We will not face the truth about who and what we are as white, American evangelicals.”
“We will support Donald Trump’s racist border policies. But we will not tell the truth about our implicit racism towards our black brothers and sisters in Christ, about whom we know so little. And for whom we care even less – unless, of course, we can turn your experience of pain and suffering in white America into a warm and fuzzy feel-good story for our largely white, evangelical, pro-Trump listening audience.”
I too am a white, American evangelical, and I continually feel ashamed of my community.
Those of you who have read this blog for sometime will know that I try to keep track of Lawrence Wilkerson, his interviews, lectures and writings, as
Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
diligently as possible.
You may recall that Wilkerson is a retired Army colonel, former chief of staff to Colin Powell during the Bush Jr. administration. He is now a regular contributor to The Real News Network.
He is a rare breed. As far as I know, he is the only member of that administration to have promptly admitted to the wrongheadedness, stupidity, deception, illegality, and wholesale systemic, political failure that led up to the disastrous and immoral Iraq war.
The United States is now teetering on the brink of a major conflict, perhaps even an outright war, with Iran. Those of you who have followed the recent history of US relations with Iran will not be surprised to hear Col. Wilkerson describe this administration’s current anti-Iran saber rattling as a repetition of the horrific boondoggle that led us into the Iraq war.
I won’t take the time to rehearse that sorry story-line here, rather I will simply quote a few of the more telling words from Col. Wilkerson in the hopes that you will be motivated to watch the entire 17 minute interview available here and here.
Below are a few gems from Wilkerson:
“I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that we [the US government] would manufacture another Gulf of Tonkin incident…” [Remember, the Gulf of
Vietnamese children fleeing their village; it had just been hit with napalm.
Tonkin incident was a fictitious “attack” on an American ship that became the official excuse for US military action in Vietnam.]
We are being governed “by clowns and baboons in Washington…”
“The world now sees the US as insane…warmongers…”
I believe that every follower of Jesus is called to be a pacifist. Consequently, the Christian’s public posture must always be in favor of peace, combating war and violence whenever, wherever it tries to raise its ugly head.
The necessity of public, anti-war protest is especially urgent when our “leaders” agitate for war on the basis of lies, misinformation and propaganda.
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the United States to see Iran as a hostile power, much less an enemy in need of a good bombing.
Know this: You and I are being lied to regularly by the MSM every time they discuss Iran.
I urge you to please do what I have done — call and/or write your elected officials and urge them to say NO to any and all efforts to attack Iran.
Only Congress has the Constitutional authority to declare war. Tell your senators and representatives, at the very least, to insist on the enforcement of the War Powers Resolutions of 1973.
A few days ago The Wall Street Journal published an expose revealing the Trump administration’s intention to remake Latin America in its own image, continuing to use the well-worn strategies of assassination, economic sanctions — which commonly lead to widespread starvation — and military intervention.
“The Trump administration’s attempt to force out the president of Venezuela marked the opening of a new strategy to exert greater U.S. influence over Latin America, according to administration officials.”
Hence, I offer the following New Testament pesher (a contemporary interpretation) from John’s Apocalypse, chapter 18:
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.With a mighty voice he shouted:
The harvest of a US trained Salvadoran death squad
“‘Fallen! Fallen is America the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for America’s sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered the crimes of the United States. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done.
Pour her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen; I am the sole Super Power. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her…
..Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violence the great nation of America will be thrown down, never to be found again. The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s important people. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In America was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people — who stood to warn you but were few and far between — of ALL who have been slaughtered on the earth by your drones, your assassinations, atomic bombs, cruise missiles, special forces, cluster bombs, stealth fighters, torture programs, death squads, economic sanctions and regime changes.”
“Maduro is a dictator” is the latest product being churned out by the U.S. propaganda mill.
The best way to sift through the noise is to find alternative reports that offer details from the ground. Here are links to two such sources debunking the myths of the American government and our media monopoly.
Read and listen and then ask the question: is it more than a coincidence that American media feeds us a message resulting in public support for another U.S. instigated coup?
Then remember, what were the consequences of our other recent efforts at regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya?
The Alliance for Global Justice has created an online petition and letter writing campaign that allows you to easily tell your elected representatives that you oppose the current U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.
You can sign the petition here as well as call or send a letter to your members of Congress.
Regardless of one’s opinion of the Bolivarian Revolutionary governments in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez or Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. has no business overthrowing foreign governments because we don’t like their policies. There are many other avenues for addressing such issues.
Whether America likes it or not, or will admit it or not, Maduro was democratically elected by the people of his country.
But, of course, the U.S. has a long history of overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world whenever they possess abundant natural resources and the nation’s leaders dare to diverge from the mechanisms of U.S. economic control.
What we are witnessing in Venezuela today is a classic demonstration of the most extreme expression of class warfare. (See my recent series on the class war in America here, here and here).
Let’s begin with two observations:
One, starting with the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999, the Venezuelan government has put an extraordinary amount of energy into improving the quality of life for its poorest members. International capitalists haven’t approved of their methods, but then, they weren’t elected by the Venezuelan people.
Check out this article from The Guardian to see statistics on the dramatic improvements brought about by the Chavez-Maduro party in Venezuela’s levels of education, health care, poverty, infant mortality and unemployment.
Two, Americans in general, and Christians in particular, need to break out of our simple-minded binary (either this or that) way of thinking. The world is more complicated. It rarely offers only two possibilities, e.g. it’s either this way or the highway; it’s always America against the world; vote either Republican or Democrat; you either support another American coup in Venezuela or you are a communist who thinks there is nothing wrong with Maduro.
Christians must think differently!
As citizens of God’s kingdom, we know that there is always another alternative. We are obligated to look at this world through the radically alternative lens of Jesus Christ and his gospel. This requires nuance, an understanding of alternatives, and stepping outside of the conventional “wisdom.”
So, an alternative optionin this current situation is opposition to any and every U.S. attempt to manipulate and control the internal politics of a foreign country.
It doesn’t mean that we are blessing everything that the Bolivarian Revolution has done in Venezuela, but it must mean that as followers of Jesus (a) we applaud the government’s attempts to prioritize the needs of the poorest members of Venezuelan society, and (b) we oppose any actions intended to reestablish domination by wealthy elites inside the country and/or foreign, corporate powers like the U.S.A.
Jesus Christ never bludgeoned anyone into following him. HE is our one and only model in life, not the realpolitik of American “strategic interests.” Using force, deception, or cheating to get our way is not the way of Jesus Christ.
Anyone who wants to understand this world with the mind of Christ; to embrace his/her role as a citizen of God’s kingdom, now living in America; to grasp Jesus’ call to live lives of peaceableness and non-violence, will always oppose, in words and actions, any American attempt to spread more violence, war and social unrest by forcing its will onto other people in the world for its own selfish purpose.
Below are several brief videos offering a picture of the widespread, popular support Maduro has among the poor of Venezuela.
Here and here are two longer videos (about 30 minutes each) offering more detailed discussion of what is happening in Venezuela from long-time students of Venezuelan politics at The Real News.
Trump has publicly “recognized” an opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as Venezuela’s real president. Guaida unilaterally declared himself presidentwith American support, despite the fact that he has never run for president and has never been elected president. (Wow, is that how it works? Maybe I should declare myself president?)
Maduro, on the other hand, has achieved both of these things, with a significant majority of the Venezuelan vote.
John Bolton, the current National Security Advisor, recently called Maduro “an illegitimate” leader who needed to be removed from office.
President Trump has imposed crippling sanctions against Venezuela which have helped to devastate its economy. Check out the State Department’s website listing U.S. sanctions against Venezuela going back to 2014.
Economic sanctions can be seen as an act of war.
Listen to Maduro supporters reject America’s anti-democratic shenanigans:
What is happening now is the culmination of a long-standing American attack against a country that (a) elected to install a leftist government by a popular vote, (b) to nationalize its biggest industries rather than watch its natural resources continue to be exploited for American corporate profits, and (c) to shake itself free of the American Empire.
But as any good slave should know, shaking your fist at “the master” is always a no-no. And the America master will not stand for such disrespect.
If you have not been following recent events in Venezuela or know only the things repeated by American-based media, then a good way to catch up and become properly informed is to watchthis video by the journalist Mike Prysner.
Mr. Prysner, who has spent considerable time in Venezuela, unlike the
Mike Prysner attending a Venezuelan political meeting
typical U.S. reporter, thoroughly addresses and debunks the most common pieces of misinformation, aka propaganda, being spread about Venezuela’s current problems.
If you are as disturbed as I am by America’s oppression of innocent people around the world, and the the rank hypocrisyof our government’s claims to “defend freedom” around the world, then please watch the video above and call your elected representatives.
specializing in international and humanitarian law. You can check out her faculty page here.
persistently.)
indictment of American evangelicalism that Fox has been elevated to such an idolatrous, ask-no-questions-please position.
disturbing when he raised a few issues that I had written about in my book, 
labor and human rights attorney.
antidote to the barrage of Establishment propaganda shoveled out by every corporate news company in the USA.
in Right-Wing, conservative terrorism in this country.
Give back to her as she has given;
campaign that allows you to easily tell your elected representatives that you oppose the current U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.
and (c) to shake itself free of the American Empire.