Canada: Anti-Semitic Church Attack on Israel
by Christine
Williams
June 22, 2012 at 5:00 am
June 22, 2012 at 5:00 am
|
Share:
   |
Be the first of your
friends to like this.
This hatred
has nothing to do with the so-called "occupation," as Palestinian
schoolchildren are taught to believe, but is instead fuelled by Israel having a
different ideology of true Democracy and Human Rights in a region where most
leaders are hostile to both.
The United Church of Canada has released the 26
page report
of its Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy, which the church will consider
introducing as policy when the denomination's 41st General Council convenes in
Ottawa August 11-18. The Working Group indicates that its recommendations were
put forth in search of truth, justice and reconciliation when in fact it does
little or nothing of the sort. It refers to Israel as the "thief,"
the "occupier," and the "oppressor," and compares Israeli
policies to those of South Africa under apartheid, and more shockingly to
Sudan, despite the fact that people from Africa risk their lives to get to
Israel to escape the Islamist apartheid rampant throughout African countries
such as Sudan, South Sudan and Nigeria, to name but a few.
While acknowledging Israel's right to exist,
this biased and scathing report against Israel calls for "Christian
economic action" against it, and points out that Canada does not recognize
permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967. Nevertheless it
omits that these territories -- under dispute -- were taken by Israel in a defensive
war, the second that united Arab countries had initiated against it since
Israel's founding in 1948. It is difficult to imagine a view advanced by the
United Church working group, along with the automatic majority of autocracies
in the United Nations, that countries which start wars and then lose them
should be rewarded. The Group also omits that Canada is the greatest friend to
Israel and that it opposes anti-Israel labels, as well as attempts to
exterminate Israel economically by means of divestment, boycotts and sanctions
[BDS].
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John
Baird recognized immediately what this working group failed to recognize:
he stated in May that "the world cannot take the words of Hamas, Hezbollah
and Iran as mere rhetoric and risk appeasing these malicious actors in the same
way the world appeased the Nazis.… Under our prime minister, and under this
foreign minister, Canada will stand with the Jewish state and people as they
struggle to protect their very right to exist."
The three-member working group exerts a feeble
attempt to justify the contents of its report by stating that anti-Semitism
does not entail calling Israel into so-called accountability. In addressing the
report's repeated referral to Israel as the "occupier," the so-called
"occupation" must be understood through the lens of the historic 1967
six day war of which an inevitable preventative strike by Israel against the
nations of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq occurred as these nations were
preparing for a united attack upon the Jewish State.
The Syrian Defense Minister, Hafez Assad, and
President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq had both
declared that it was time to wipe out Israel's existence (reminiscent of
Iran today), and Egypt -- preparing for war -- had illegally closed off the Gulf
of Aqaba in preparation for attack. In response, Israel launched a preventative
strike and won the strategic territories of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula
(Egypt), the West Bank and
East Jerusalem (from
Jordan), and the Golan
Heights (from Syria) – all land which it is accused today of
"occupying," even after giving back to Egypt 100% of its land in
exchange for a peace treaty that as of this writing might be in danger of being
abrogated by Egypt.
Israel's having taken this land in war was not
from greed, but for Israel's strategic survival against mortal enemies that
sought its destruction. With this in mind, it is worth remembering that nearly
every state has achieved its current existence as a result of wars, most from
greed. Our continent is no exception. According to the criteria of the
stone-throwers against Israel, we too are "occupiers" on native
lands, which includes the three-member United Church working group, who, being
themselves "occupiers," have their own Christian "sins" to
contend with.
Another historic event alluded to by the
working group is the war that broke out when the British withdrew from the
Palestinian region in 1948. The
British Response to Jewish immigration in fact set a precedent of appeasing
the Arabs – a practice followed for the duration of the Mandate for Palestine.
The British placed restrictions on Jewish immigration while allowing Arabs
freely to enter the country. As the British withdrew from the region in May
1948, Israel was attacked immediately (the next day) by five surrounding Arab
nations. While acknowledging the attack on Israel, the working group report
nevertheless emphasizes the Palestinian refugees created by this war, while
leaving out the fact that Palestinian Arabs continued to refuse to recognize
Israel, and instead began launching terrorist attacks from the Palestinian Arab
community that became increasingly organized and dangerous through the course
of time with the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization of which
Yasser Arafat would eventually become Chairman. The Palestinian Authority in
its revised charter still calls for the elimination of Israel, by stating that
the revised charter incorporates everything in the previous version.
As the Working Group zeroes in on Palestinian
victimhood, the exponentially growing number of Palestinian refugees each year
is, in fact, a
calculated scam -- one that is costing Western nations tens of billions of
dollars per year in mandatory "donations." The number of refugees is
projected to balloon to 20 million in the next 50 years, and would, at that
time, include something like the great-great-great-great grandchildren of the
original refugees, who by then would long since have died. By that token, is
everyone in Greece now a refugee from the Peleponnesian
War?
Although there are indeed poverty stricken
areas in the Palestinian territories -- and often shocking discrimination
against the Palestinians in (and by) their Arab host countries -- according to
the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, GDP growth in the Palestinian
Territory of the West Bank was astronomically high at 9.9% in 2011, and the
Gaza strip a staggering 23%. Ironically, the Palestinian Territories are, at
this moment, enjoying greater growth than the North American taxpayers who are
funding them.
The most basic problem at the root of the
Palestinian-Israeli issue is not the so-called "occupation," as
stipulated by this working group, but the refusal by Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority to recognize Israel's right to exist, and the murderous
hatred expressed by these leaders against the state of Israel and the
Jewish people.
Even as Egypt was preparing itself for a runoff
election, Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad said a win by Muslim Brotherhood candidate
Mohammed Morsi would be a boon to Palestinians, ending the frosty relationship
between Hamas and Egypt. Hamad
added that no one in Hamas supports recognizing Israel as a nation.
While the United Church Working Group
acknowledges Israel's right to exist, it does so only in lip service, without
taking into consideration Israel's need to protect itself. Israel has long
faced threats of suicide
bombers seeking to inflict as much injury as possible on victims, as well
as trying unsuccessfully to cripple them with fear. The Working Group's
objectives do not even take into account the Jihadist call to war against
Israel , and children being taught in Palestinian
schools to hate and kill Jews. This hatred has nothing to do with the
so-called "occupation," as Palestinian children are indoctrinated to
believe, but is instead fuelled by Israel having a different ideology of true
Democracy and Human Rights in a region where most leaders are hostile to both.
Israel is not an Islamic caliphate and herein lies the problem. The the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, worked hand in hand with
Hitler during World War II and during the Holocaust to destroy the Jewish
people simply because they were Jewish. Al-Husseini blocked attempts to rescue
thousands of Jewish children from several countries under German control,
effectively sentencing them to death. Few know that Yasser Arafat was a blood
relative of the Grand Mufti; and that Arafat's his real name was Mohammed
Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa Al-Husseini. Few also know that
Arafat, whose mother was a cousin of the Grand Mufti, was a great admirer of
this work.
As this working group attacks Israel, there are
those Christians in abundance who support
Israel, understand the struggles it faces, and also recognize the plight of
the Palestinians as they are used as pawns by their own leadership to feed an
agenda of hatred against the Jews and against the West in an effort to distract
their people from the true source of their misery: the corrupt and wretched
governance at home. Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu has lauded such Christian support, which even includes
Mosab Yousef, the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of
Hamas.
Mosab Yousef, who converted to Christianity,
now exposes what is truly behind the "peace process." And speaking of
conversions, an admirable moderate Muslim in Canada refers to what happened to
a Christian convert in a Muslim regime as he discusses the
brutality in Muslim societies where a " young man is pinned to the
ground, his head is twisted and a knife held against his throat. In a few
minutes the head is severed and held up for display to the public, who are
loudly chanting, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greatest!"]. In
the video of this gruesome public execution of an apostate, the victim had
converted to Christianity from Islam."
This brutality seen in Muslim societies brings
us to a critical point outlined by the United Church working group: "holding
Israel, like any other modern democratic state, accountable for its actions is
one way civil society strengthens democracy and justice;" and, further,
that Israel should be held to a higher standard than the surrounding
non-democratic countries. This is nothing short of a highly racist statement,
implying that the surrounding "barbarians" are capable of nothing
more than savagery, so why expect anything of them or hold them accountable? In
other words, they are the brown people from whom we should expect little more
than violence and brutality. "Those Muslims" are quite capable of
being civilized and should be called to the same -- admittedly flawed but
higher -- standard as any other Western nation -- as many Muslim Reformists are
trying to do today in efforts to protect the rights of women and human rights
overall.
By contrast, in Israel, which is branded
apartheid, Arabs are allowed full voting rights; positions in Knesset;
employment rights, and for that matter, the freedom to be homosexual – the
last, in their own countries, grounds to be murdered.
While all evidence attests to Christians
having been driven out of Bethlehem by Muslims, the Working Group asserts,
in yet another misinformed allegation, that it was the "occupation"
that has driven out the Christians. The Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in
fact violated – and continue to violate -- the human rights of Christians
through beatings, intimidation, fire-bombings of their institutions, torture,
kidnapping, and sexual harassment, thus leading to their exodus from Bethlehem:
the very place honored as the birthplace of Christ.
In conclusion, the United Church working group
needs to do its homework along with some other Church groups that
condemn Israel. Israel is increasingly bullied by the OIC-dominated United
Nations, as well as surrounding enemies that have historically sought its
destruction. There are still many maps that exclude Israel, including one which
was displayed
at the U.N. and which was used to mark the commemoration of
"International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" on
November 29, 2005. "The working group takes seriously questions
about why Israel is currently the only country in the world being challenged by
a global boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS)." In asserting
this, the United Church would do well to observe its own faith by remembering
that Christ, too, was ganged up against; so it is a moot argument to inquire
why Israel is being challenged by a global BDS movement -- that is unjust and
reprehensible -- as this small nation continues to fight for its existence.
Related Topics: Israel
| Christine
Williams
To subscribe to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list_subscribe.php
To subscribe to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list_subscribe.php
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment