Christian Attitudes

Link: http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/6883.htm

In an article entitled "Prejudices revived in US by Palestinian Christian group" in Israel Insider, Roz Rothstein tells us that:

Throughout October, a largely unseen wave of anti-Semitism has been washing up across North America in a series of conferences run by a Jerusalem-based organization called the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.

The anti-Semitism of Sabeel is unmistakable.

I attended the two-day Sabeel conference held at Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology, where I witnessed intolerance and prejudice against Jews and the Jewish State. I did not think I would witness this in America's third largest city, especially at the close of yearlong celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in America and only 65 years after the Holocaust.

The writer assumes that the audiences are well-meaning, innocent perhaps rather gullible people, but I’m not so sure that those who attend Sabeel’s conferences are unaware of what they are doing. I suspect that these gatherings attract anti-Semitic Christians who are happy to find their prejudice supported by this organisation, and given an excuse to indulge their hatred instead of to deal with it as sinful.

I fear that other well-meaning audiences will be deceived by Sabeel's cloak as a Palestinian Christian group seeking peace, and thus unwittingly sponsor Sabeel's hate-filled, deceptive programs.

A comment on this item in Stand for Israel tells us that

I attended the Sabeel Conf. In Chicago with Roz, and the only thing missing were white hoods and Wagner.

Link: http://www.hcef.org/hcef/index.cfm/mod/news/ID/16/SubMod/NewsView/NewsID/1362.cfm

Experts on Christian Zionism will speak at the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation's (HCEF's) 7th International Conference on October 22 in Silver Spring, MD.

None of the ‘experts’ on Christian Zionism are Christian Zionists. Indeed, they are hostile to Christian Zionism. It is rather like holding a conference on the subject of ‘African Americans’, at which all the 'experts' are members of the KKK.

the panel presentation will detail the differing views that Christian Zionists have from mainstream Christians and the detrimental impact this ideology has on the Holy Land Christian communities and peacemaking initiatives in the Holy Land

According to Sir Rateb Rabie, HCEF Co-Founder and President, "Christian Zionists tend to label more traditional denominations, such as the Greek Orthodox and Catholics as being outside of the Christian Church & non-Christians”.

I once heard Zionism defined as the acceptance that Jews have a right to a state of their own, in Israel. Christians who come within this definition include
Catholic Friends of Israel They are Christian Zionists. I once tried arguing with one such ‘expert’ that a Christian Zionist is simply a Christian who is also a Zionist, and who supports the right of Jews to their State of Israel. He refused to accept this. He had a very narrow definition of Christian Zionists, and would not recognise anyone outside that definition, even if they happened to be both Christian and Zionist, as a Christian Zionist.

In other words, he was stupid and illogical, with a blind determination to pursue his favourite prejudice. How can one discuss anything with such people?

Link: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=40840&eng=y

Remember the recent row between the Vatican and Israel? It appears that the Vatican media is part of the problem. In the above article, scroll down to the section entitled: “But the Vatican media are still out of control”. It tells us that: “One area in which great disorder still reigns at the Vatican is in the field of information”

There are problems surrounding the Vatican press officer.

In an interview last October 16 Joaquín Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican press office since 1984, recalled that it was John Paul II who asked him to help “resolve the communication problems.” But Navarro doesn’t have the same kind of agreement with the new pope. And things are worsening between him and the secretariat of state, upon which the press office formally depends. At the end of August, Navarro and cardinal Angelo Sodano even quarreled publicly, each blaming the other for a declaration that had created serious problems between the Holy See and Israel.

More problems with the Vatican newspaper, which has published some deeply prejudiced articles about Israel.

The newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano” is also out of control. Rather than representing the official line of the Holy See, it reflects the humors of its director, Mario Agnes, and of his influential friends in the curia, with cardinal Crescenzio Sepe first among them. Anti-Israeli and pacifist to an extreme, “L’Osservatore Romano” has on a number of occasions forced the secretariat of state to run for cover.

An example of the behaviour of this newspaper during the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethehem here: Interview with former Israeli Ambassador to Vatican

L’Osservatore Romano, for example, the official Vatican newspaper, regularly referred to the standoff as an Israeli “siege,” even accusing the Israelis of trying to “exterminate” the Palestinian people. The paper falsely reported, Lamdan charged, that the Israelis had killed a Catholic priest and injured a group of Brigittine nuns. The paper ran photos showing Israeli soldiers “in the worst possible light,” Lamdan said. At one point, Jewish leaders accused L’Osservatore of anti-Semitism.

Then there is Vatican Radio and also the Pontifical Council for Social Communications…

Many expect Benedict XVI to bring order to this confusion. In the meantime, he’s trying to shelter himself from it the best he can

It seems as though the Vatican communications departments need a good shake-up.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4354666.stm

Egypt has started to build a security fence around the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh to try to stop attacks on the town, security officials say.

Why, just like the Israelis!

The officials said the fence would stretch for 20km (12 miles) and force vehicles wanting to enter the town to pass through one of four checkpoints.

Oh, the humiliation of having to go through checkpoints! Isn't that one of the excuses offered by those who sympathise with suicide terrorists?

Worst of all -

A town resident told Reuters that one portion would cut off a nearby Bedouin settlement where many workers live.

So where are all the complaints from the
World Council of Churches or the
Lutherans or
Anglicans or
United Church of Christ or
an assortment of Catholic bishops or the United Church of Canada or even the First Presbyterian Church in New Canaan?

Anyone?

Silence.

Link: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19813

Stand for Israel draws attention to this excellent article on Sabeel, in Front Page Magazine. Under the title Racist Road Show, it is worth reading, and do follow the links.

Rabidly anti-Israel-anti-Semite founder of Sabeel, Naim Ateek, who describes himself as a Christian, shows signs of making his
hate-spreading tours in America an annual event. After all, which country is supposed to be the biggest supporter of Israel? America. And which group in that land provides much of the support? American Christians, of course. So Ateek and a gang of like-minded associates must carry out a verbal crusade in the US, to try and weaken Christian friendship for the world’s only Jewish state.

This year's anti-Israel barrage began in Chicago on October 7 and 8 at Hyde Park's Lutheran School of Theology, where several Sabeel proponents held that the time for a two-state solution has past. Besides for that, Sabeel and Ateek are champions of a broad Israel-divestment campaign and advocates of replacement theology. Indeed, their work parallels that of other fraudulent peace groups, which also ultimately seek Israel's dissolution.

Ateek’s dishonesty is revealed in this article. Like Sabeel’s hero, Arafat whose campaign of suicide bombing
they excuse he says one thing to one audience, but something quite different, and more frank, to another.

The same two-faced pattern applied in Chicago, where Ateek described Sabeel as a non-violent organization seeking a Palestinian state alongside Israel—but then disparaged Christian Zionists. “We believe the Bible has been used as an instrument of oppression,” he said. Next, Harvard-educated Palestinian Authority legal adviser Michael Tarazi openly contended that a two-state solution will no longer work. Many others agreed.

In short, Ateek and Sabeel believe that while 22 Arab and 57 Muslim nations have unceremoniously expelled or excluded Jews and discriminated harshly against Christians, the Jewish people should not have a Jewish state in Israel, even one that gives full citizenship and rights to Christians and some 1 million mostly Muslim Arabs.

Read the article for more information about Tarazi and his lies.

Not to be outdone in the lying contest, ISM’s George Rishmawi invents his own bizarre version of the Jewish blood-libel.

Also in Chicago on October 7, International Solidarity Movement co-founder George Rishmawi claimed that Israel uses special gas to impair the musculature of Palestinians, making them easier to arrest, according to StandWithUs activists and Evangelical Lutheran Dexter Van Zile, a United Church of Christ (UCC) member and Executive Director of the Judeo Christian Alliance, who attended the two-day meeting. When asked the name of the gas, Rishmawi skirted the issue, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces always quickly collect gas canisters so that no one will know what chemical is used. Rishmawi is well-known for his espousal of Christian jihad ideology, disseminated through both the ISM and the Rapprochement Center.

Sabeel has been identified by the ADL as
a driving force behind the churches’ divestment campaign and for a horrible example of the deicide imagery used by Sabeel, see
this example of identification of the Palestinians with Christ.