How to Counter CAMERA Obscura - Speak the Truth and Support Justice

Today is Day 14,452 of the Maintenance of the Immoral and Illegal West Bank Settlements and more than 40 years since the start of the immoral and illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Micah.6:8 “He has told you, O man, Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God

Whenever I am asked "what we can do", I invariably return to an article by Starhawk which was first published in the Sept/Oct 2002 issue of Tikkun Magazine entitled
"Loving the Jewish Community Means Supporting Justice".

In this blog I attempt to point out how the teachings of Judaism are inconsistent with the actions of the Government of Israel in the occupied territories as well as how we might respond. Starhawk does this so well that I am taking the liberty which I have not done in a while of simply reprinting the entire article.

I believe that were we to take Starhawk's advice and Speak the Truth and reach out as she suggests, we would be able to: shred the curtain that CAMERA and others have tried to draw across the occupied territories; shed light on the gross violations of Palestinians human rights being carried out by the Government of Israel; and support the calls for the a demand that the Government of Israel end the occupation.

What do you think?

Deuteronomy 16:20 – “Justice, justice shall you pursue that you may live and inherit the land which God gave you” and the footnote in the 1980 Hertz Edition “(T)here is international justice, which demands respect for the personality of every national group, and proclaims that no people can of right be robbed of its national life or territory, its language or spiritual heritage.

Loving the Jewish community Means Supporting Justice

Supporting justice in the current crisis in the Middle East is not easy. The issues are painful for any Jew to face. Criticizing Israel comes at a huge emotional cost for all of us who were raised to love her. And when we do, we meet a wall of denial, hostility, and rage. Yet if we truly love Israel and the Jewish people, we must speak and act against the policies of the Israeli government.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine is a huge injustice. I have recently returned from spending time in occupied Palestine. I have witnessed the siege of the Balata refugee camp, seeing with my own eyes the level of ongoing repression and humiliation that the occupation entails. I could detail the abuses I saw, and what may be worse, the way the occupation is a constant, relentless assault on any sense of hope or safety, any possibility of normal life.

What I want to tell now, though, is not this story of oppression, but what happens when we tell this story. We expect to receive the usual denunciations and death threats from the opposition: Tikkun has received plenty of these threats, many of them directed against its editor, Rabbi Michael Lerner. What hurts even more, though, is the criticism that comes from friends and allies who tell us that we are being too provocative, arousing too much anger and hate, not being loving enough toward the Jewish community.

The question is, how can we be truly loving to the Jewish community under these conditions? Real love speaks truth, even if that truth is unwelcome. Real love challenges the beloved to be her or his truest possible self. We cannot love the Jewish community by condoning injustice or colluding with abuse. The most unloving thing we could do for Judaism is to accept its identification with current Israeli policies.

Loving the Jewish people may mean calling them to our deepest and fullest understanding of God. If the Jewish God is truly a God of Justice, it's the ultimate insult to Judaism to imply that He would condone and sanction a great injustice. A Jewish state cannot be sustained by unjust actions and remain Jewish.

If Judaism is the worship of one God who created the whole universe, we cannot imagine that God cherishes only the Jews. A monotheistic God must also be the father/mother of the Palestinians, for how could a loving God who is All create a people separated from God? A God who is God of the Jews and not of the Arabs would be merely a tribal godlet, a cosmic football fan rooting always for only one team. To worship such a God would truly be idolatry. We cannot love Judaism by accepting a diminished concept of God; we cannot accept God as being any less than the great, pulsing, life-generating force of creativity and compassion that reverberates through all human beings and through the universe.

Loving the Jewish community may also mean challenging what it means to be a member of that community. Who decided that "real Jews" support Ariel Sharon, while those who dissent are somehow less Jewish? The essence of anti-Semitism is the portrayal of the Jews as one monolithic whole. Real Jews are actually hugely diverse -- politically, spiritually, and culturally. One of the loving things we can do for the Jewish community and to counter the very real anti-Semitism that does exist is to embody that diversity, to be a strong, loud, clear, and Jewish voice that can also champion the rights of Palestinians to peace and hope and life.

It would not be loving toward the Jewish community to allow certain factions to silence all criticism of Israel by screaming "anti-Semitism." For the more we use that charge to fend off valid criticism, the more we undercut its power and validity, and the less likely we are to be listened to when we face true anti-Semitism.

Real anti-Semitism does exist, but so does Jewish racism against Palestinians. And it would not be loving of the Jewish community to allow that prejudice to continue unchallenged, to accept the picture of the Palestinian community as a monolith of mindless hate. When we see the Palestinian community as an undifferentiated enemy, we fall into hopelessness and despair, for how can we make peace with"animals"? The truth, however, is that the Palestinians are not some mindless force of evil, they are real human beings. Among their community, just as in the Jewish community, are people who hate and people who love; broad-minded, tolerant people and narrow, prejudiced people; people who love war and people who want peace; people who want to die and those who want to live. The more we can see the Palestinians as real human beings, the more hope we can find in the situation. We can then begin to strategize about how to foster a climate that discourages hate, instead of feeding it as the current policies do. We can begin to envision the possibility of a just peace and reconciliation.

When Jewish peace activists speak out in a truly loving way, we will undoubtedly be met with anger, rage, even real hatred. But we are not creating that hate. I can think of no way we can speak in a truly loving voice that will not evoke anger, because we are saying things people do not want to hear, speaking truths that challenge comfortable assumptions and self-righteousness and that which is always hardest to face, the justifications that we use to ease our conscience when we know we are doing wrong.

In Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," he writes about the criticisms he received from fellow ministers for being too confrontational and provocative. And he says that nonviolence is not about avoiding conflict, but about heightening it until those who have always refused to negotiate are forced to do so. He too preached love, but had to withstand the venomous hate of the Southern segregationists. And yet the movement he was part of succeeded in changing a deeply entrenched, oppressive system. Nonviolence is the art of provoking confrontation that can lead to change, the willingness to directly confront oppression and absorb violence without retaliating or passing the violence on, and the belief that ultimately truth will win and even bitter opponents will reconcile.

Political change almost always comes through some level of conflict and confrontation, violent or nonviolent, because, as King also says, those who hold power and privilege rarely relinquish it voluntarily.

Essentially, we are asking the Jewish community to give up its position of privilege, both because it is morally right to do so, and because it is ultimately in our community's self-interest to do so. That message challenges our self-conception as victims. We have been victims over and over again for 2000 years; in this case, however, we have also become the victimizers, and no one enjoys having that pointed out. The only way to break through this denial is to tell the truth, strongly and clearly but with compassion, and then withstand the storm that results.

People give up privilege when it becomes too costly and uncomfortable to hold on to it. A nonviolent strategy for change involves causing discomfort, making the inherent violence in the system visible and arousing moral condemnation of the violence, dramatizing the injustice, heightening the social and political costs of continuing the system, and ultimately undermining the legitimacy of the current system and its supporters. We break through the wall of denial by making it too uncomfortable for people to shelter behind it.

Our task is not to convince those who are actively and bitterly opposed to us. They will be the last to change.

I see the task as threefold:

Mobilize Jews who oppose the occupation to become more visible, vocal, and active, to take greater risks and become a strong, cohesive, and powerful voice for justice.

Provide a rallying beacon for all those who are uncomfortable with the current situation but have not yet formulated a position. We must show how current policies run counter to true Jewish ideals and interests and set new terms for the debate.

Provide information and education to those who are not informed, and create
enough drama and urgency that the apathetic have a reason to want that information. And, please, stay alive and healthy while doing so. We've had enough martyrs!

So, let's imagine some possibilities:

Suppose we continue to speak out honestly, fearlessly, and lovingly, without worrying about the reactions we'll get.

Many people will respond negatively, vilify us, spread vicious rumors and lies, etc.

But we'll simply continue to speak the truth, without retaliation, without wasting our energy defending ourselves against ridiculous allegations, just saying with deep compassion, "I know many people don't want to hear this truth, but my God is a God of justice and only the path of justice leads to a viable future for the Jewish people."

For every person ready to brand us traitors, there are probably ten people out there who are confused, who sense that there is something deeply wrong and don't know what to do or say about it, or who already know it's wrong and just feel hopeless and despairing. This group includes many Israelis as well. Staunch Zionists won't be convinced, but the vast legions of these Jews who are already uncomfortable about the issue will hear us and think, "Thank God there is a Jewish voice actually telling the truth!" Then the next task will be to get them to coalesce into a coherent force that can be a counterweight to the current self-defined "mainstream" Jewish community.

If we can do that, the world will see that Jews are not a monolithic voice on this issue, that there is a strong Jewish movement for justice. It will help undercut the very real anti-Semitism that is resurging today, and strengthen the position of those who deplore both anti-Semitism and the injustice of the occupation. It will also give some hope to the Palestinians, and encouragement to those within their community who don't want to hate Jews, who do separate Israeli policy from Judaism, who still yearn to believe in the possibility of peace. It will lay some groundwork for future reconciliation, and help strengthen the Israeli peace movement.

This is an optimistic scenario, but I believe it is perfectly possible.

Perhaps this is once again an era of prophecy. This is a time when we need to speak with a moral voice, in the voice of those ancient prophets calling the community to a deeper and fuller conception of God. Tikkun has begun the work of Isaiah and Jeremiah -- it is time for more of us to join their ranks.

Starhawk is a life-long peace and social justice activist and author of nine books including The Fifth Sacred Thin and Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (New Society) www.starhawk.org

CAMERA Obscura - ICAHD and Jeff Halper - Part 2

As I said in a previous post, in a response to one of my posts about ICAHD and Halper, I was referred to an article by CAMERA .

I have always been intrigued by CAMERA but resisted reading any of its material. I decided to look at this article and attempt to analyze it. In the first article I addressed its comments on house demolitions and the ability of Palestinians to obtain building permits. I appreciate the messages from Zionism on the Web which allowed me to elaborate on some of my points.

THE UPROOTING OF ONE MILLION OLIVE TREES

From one of my six part series on this Blog entitled Take Your Olive Branch and Shove it!

“Olive trees are very significant culturally and economically for Palestinians. Jewish Israeli settlers (JIS) attack Palestinians, uproot olive trees and fence off Palestinian olive tree groves. IDF soldiers and Israeli civilian authorities, in general, support the actions of the JIS, protect them while arresting Palestinians and bring few criminal charges against the JIS. …In addition, Palestinian farmers in the West Bank now face over 500 physical obstacles and closures including the separation wall that is being constructed by the GOI which restrict their movement and often prevent them from accessing their trees.”

Moving right along, the CAMEAR article quotes Jeff Halper as saying

“since 1967 Israel has uprooted or cut down a million olive and fruit trees”.

And says,

“Halper's claim that Israel has ‘uprooted a million olive or fruit trees’ is also ridiculous, considering the huge increase in olive production.”

As I will comment on below, CAMERA in 2005 produces some figures from ’67-’93 and says that because there was increase in production.

What is this supposed to mean? Is the avid reader of CAMERA supposed to believe that because there was an increase in olive production, this “proves” that there was NO uprooting of ANY olive trees? Or perhaps the avid reader would think that because of the increase there might have only been 100,000 olive trees uprooted? Or maybe only 17?

CAMERA made this bold statement that the claim about olive tree uprooting is “ridiculous.”

CAMERA has to have been aware of the intense efforts of a number of organizations to plant olive trees of Palestinians uprooted by Jewish settlers and the IDF. They had to have read articles in Haaretz and other media outlets about the uprooting of olive trees. They must have been aware of the facts of uprooting of olive trees and intimidation of Palestinians trying to harvest their olives by Jewish settlers which led the Supreme Court of Israel to severely criticize the lax approach displayed by the police and security personnel in their law enforcement work against violent settlers, and to rule that the closure of territory to Palestinians, to protect them from settlers, is akin to granting a prize for violence and to issue an order to the Israeli security forces to protect Palestinian farmers and their property.

If Jeff Halper’s claim that one million olive trees have been uprooted since 1967 is ridiculous, why does CAMERA not provide the reader with its facts? I am not impressed by the argument that something is ridiculous. When I was in law school I learned to rarely use the words “clearly” or “obviously” about anything. That is what CAMERA did. One substitute for “ridiculous” would be statistics. What does CAMERA’s research (and there is no doubt that CAMERA has some very talented researchers working for it) show are the number of olive trees of Palestinians uprooted since 1967?

Suppose it is ONLY 10,000. What then? Would CAMERA justify that?

Forget the violations of international law, human rights law, UN Resolutions for the moment. How would CAMERA respond to my allegation that actions of Jewish people in uprooting olive trees violates Deuteronomy 20:19 which says, “When you besiege a city … you shall not destroy its (fruit) trees … You eat of them, do not cut them down; for man’s life depends on the trees of the field.”

THE INTIFATAS ARE “HARDLY THE FAULT OF ISRAEL"

It also quotes Jeff Halper as saying

“the Palestinians are left today with scorched earth …no agriculture”.

In this May 12, 2005 article CAMERA then devotes much space to showing that from 1967 to 1993 (that’s correct, citing in a 2005 article production data ending in 1993), that indicate a substantial increase in production of olives and vegetables and potatoes to “prove” that there is indeed agriculture.

Has anything of note happened in the last 15–20 years?

Oh, the article goes on to note

“There is no doubt that the Palestinian economy was harmed by the first intifada and the second intifada, but that is hardly the fault of Israel.”

How harmed was it, CAMERA?

I have been told that the role of CAMERA is to simply point out inaccuracies it finds in the media. It just provides the facts and CAMERA should be supported if it presents the truth.

This last statement by CAMERA about the intifadas being hardly the fault of Israel. That is such a bold opinion. There are some people who believe that blame for the violence can be placed on BOTH Israel and the Palestinians and that there MIGHT have been some actions by the Government of Israel that could have had some role in caused the uprisings of the Palestinians.

Such a statement by CAMERA is both gratuitous since Jeff Halper said nothing in that quote about the intifada and not at all believable.

I think the process of analyzing this article by CAMERA is a worthwhile endeavor but it is likely that I will not devote much time to reading its material when I finish this effort. My analysis so far has raised serious doubt about whether CAMERA is, indeed, "promoting truth".

CAMERA Obscura - ICAHD and Jeff Halper - Part 1

I must thank Shlomo and someone from the team at Zionism on the Web for writing comments about Jeff Halper and ICAHD. I have read all the material that you recommended and appreciate your taking the time to do so. You have both raised so many issues that I expect to devote a number of posts to them.

Let me start with the article from CAMERA. I have had the opportunity to be in the legal community for 47 years. CAMERA has the traits and characteristics of many of the lawyers I have known. The report shows excellent research. There is a wealth of facts to support most statments. It is well written. The entire report is a well-crafted argument in favor of and a brief in support of its client, the Government of Israel.

What that means is that there is no attempt on CAMERA's part to be objective.

For this post let me limit myself to its comments about house demolitions.

The first is CAMERA's response to its quote from Jeff Halper: "no homes for the young generation (Israel has demolished 12,000 homes since the occupation began and refuses to issue permits to build now ones)."

"Halper's other claims are just as false as his agricultural claims. For example, his allegation that there are 'no homes for the young generation,' because Israel has 'demolished 12,000 Palestinian homes and refuses to issue permits to build new ones,' is utter nonsense."

What is CAMERA trying to say?

You might think that it is saying that the demolition figures are utter nonsense?

OR you might thing that it is saying that the claim that the Government of Israel refuses to issue permits is utter nonsense.

And you might believe CAMERA.

The problem that CAMERA has to deal with is that if you were to find out that the Government of Israel has demolished 18,000 homes of Palestinians for no security reasons, you would be outraged and might believe that that action of the Government of Israel is illegal and immoral.

You would likely have the same reaction if you find out that the Government of Israel refuses to issue permits to build houses to Palestinians and only issues them to Jewish settlers.

What CAMERA then seems to do is to either totally avoid providing facts to prove that the allegation about the demolition of the 18000 homes is false OR sweep it away with the comment that it is "utterly ridiculous".

Here is what you can learn about House Demolitions in the Occupied Territories since 1967.

These are figures for Palestinian homes. If approximately 120,000 Druze and Arabs were expelled from the Syria Golan Heights in 1967 and their villages (134 in number) were completely demolished, that makes about 20,000 additional demolished homes, assuming six people per family unit. The following sources are by year. In years without sources, the figures were arrived at through interviewing Israeli government or military personnel, or by collecting Palestinian testimonies.

compiled by Jeff Halper, Executive Director, ICAHD
(sources below)

* year - number of demolitions
* 1967 - 6,317
* 1968 - 140
* 1969 - 301
* 1970 - 191
* 1971 - 2,231
* 1972 - 35
* 1973 - 34
* 1974 - 61
* 1975 - 77
* 1976 - 24
* 1977 - 1
* 1978 - 2
* 1979 - 18
* 1980 - 30
* 1981 - 24
* 1982 - 35
* 1983 - 12
* 1984 - 2
* 1985 - 44
* 1986 - 49
* 1987 - 104
* 1988 - 587
* 1989 - 567
* 1990 - 306
* 1991 - 307
* 1992 - 193
* 1993 - 130
* 1994 - 153
* 1995 - 69
* 1996 - 168
* 1997 - 257
* 1998 - 180
* 1999 - 142
* (Intifada) - 4,747 (2,781 military, 1,966 administrative)
* 2005 - 290
* 2006 - 319

* TOTAL 18,147

Sources

* 1967: United Nations General Assembly (1967). “Report of the Secretary-General under General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES-V) and Security Council resolution ).” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . Thomas Aboud (2000) “The Moroccan Quarter: A History of the Present.” Jerusalem: Jerusalem Quarterly. Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . Palestine Remembered (n.d.) “Imwas”, “Bayt Nuba”, “Yalu”. Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . The UN Report refers to 850 houses demolished in Qalqilya and 360 in Beit Awa. It also states that the Beit Mersim (Beit Marsam) was entirely demolished and had an original population of approximately 500. We averaged just over 8 people per house to arrive at the figure of 60 houses for this village. Also quoted in the report is the demolition of 18 houses in Surif. Abowd’s articles states that 135 houses were demolished in the Moroccan Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The villages of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba were entirely demolished in 1967. The website “Palestine Remembered” cites the 1931 British census listing 224 houses in Imwas, 245 in Yalu and 226 in Beit Nuba. According to the 1961 Jordanian census, the population of the towns increased by 91%, 70% and 43%. An extremely conservative estimate would be a 10% increase in the amount of housing by the 1961 census, adding a total of 69 more houses for a three-village-total of 764. This total does not include the numbers from the Jordan Valley villages of Nuseirat, Jiftlik, and Arajish, all of which were leveled.

* . United Nations General Assembly (1984). “Report of the Secretary-General, Living Conditions of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . This is the source for all statistics on demolitions between 1967 and 1982. In the actual report these are listed as punitive demolitions because all demolitions were classified as “Collective Punishment.”

* 1971. Human Rights Watch (2004). Razing Rafah. New York: Human Rights Watch. Jeff Halper (2005) Obstacles to Peace (Third Edition). Jerusalem: PalMap. This number is from a mass demolition that took place in the Gaza Strip in August. It happens that Ariel Sharon was the leader of that mission.

* 1983. Ronny Talmor (1989). Demolition and Sealing of Houses As a punitive measure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Intifada. Jerusalem: B’tselem. This report is the source for the data on punitive demolitions from .

* 1987. B’tselem (2005). “Statistics on demolition of houses as punishment .” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . All the statistics on punitive house demolitions from come from this source. B’tselem (2006). “Statistics on demolition of houses built without permits.” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . All the statistics on administrative demolitions between come from this source.

* 1994. Meir Margalit (2006) Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City. Jerusalem: IPCC. Also personal communication with Dr. Margalit, field researcher for ICAHD. B’tselem (2006). “Statistics on demolition of houses built without permits.” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ). Weekly Humanitarian Briefings #s 86-178. All statistics about administrative house demolitions between come from these sources.

* . B’tselem (2006). “Statistics on houses demolished for alleged military purposes.” Retrieved 25 September 2006 from . UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ). Weekly Humanitarian Briefings #s 86-178

My suggestion is that you ask CAMERA to do similar research and determine the number of houses of Palestinians which have been destroyed without any security reason and ask CAMERA to justify that by international law and the teachings of Judaism.

This is THE issue, not the comment that there are "no homes for the young generation". What do we call that in law - the red herring, the straw man? Pick something minor and blow it up and destroy it. Maybe no one will notice the elephant in the room.

Razzle dazzle 'em.

And CAMERA goes on to say "Even Palestinian officials contradict Halper's claims, and admit that Palestinians can build, both with and without permits. For example, Khalil Tufakji, the leading Palestinian building and demography expert, and obviously no friend of Israel (why is that, CAMERA, is that because all Palestinians hate Israel?)stated on CNN (interesting to rely on the station that broadcast God's Warriors, the program CAMERA referred to as CNN's Abomination)that: "We can build inside Jerusalme, legal, illegal -- rebuild a house, whatever, we can do. Maybe we lose ten house, but in the end we build 40 more houses in East Jerusalem."(CNN, September 19, 1998)

And THAT is supposed to be an argument AGAINST the ICAHD statement that the Government of Israel refuses to issue permits to build new ones!!

CAMERA obscura.

There are numerous sources for the position that the Government of Israel does not issue permits for Palestinians to build houses.

Here's what the Rabbis for Human Rights has to say:

Amir Cheshin, who served as Teddy Kollek’s and Ehud Olmert’s Arab affairs advisor, writes in his book, From Separate and Unequal: The Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem, “In 1967, Israel’s leaders adopted two basic principles in their rule of East Jerusalem. The first was to rapidly increase the Jewish population in East Jerusalem. The second was to hinder growth of the Arab population.” While there are countless examples of this ruthless policy being applied, there is one family in particular that has suffered excessively – the Dari family, who have been labeled “common criminals” by Jerusalem’s Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, because they dared to build their home without the requisite permits. Why? Because such permits are virtually impossible to acquire because Israel has turned urban planning in Jerusalem into a tool of the government in order to prevent the expansion of the Palestinian population in the Holy City.

That is about the issuance of permits in East Jerusalem. What about in the West Bank?

Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes built without permits continued around Israeli installations in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, displacing hundreds. Building permits were almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain, and according to Israeli officials as many as three thousand homes in the West Bank could be subject to demolition. At the same time Israel targeted Palestinian homes for destruction, Israel authorized massive housing construction, tax incentives, and roads and related infrastructure for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Government approval of new construction often immediately followed attacks by Palestinians on settlers, as in the decision in August to expand the Yitzhar and Tel Rumeida settlements, and to allot NIS 90 million to build new settlements and expand existing ones. In response to a survey in August by Peace Now that found 5,892 new units under construction in 142 settlements, while 2,888 completed units stood empty, the Housing Ministry admitted that almost a quarter of all units built by the government in the West Bank between 1989 and 1992 had never been occupied. Human Rights Watch World Report 1999

I am serious wnen I say that I appreciate your sending your comment. It encouraged me to look at CAMERA in a way that I have been resistant to do in the past. As I mentioned above, unless I get sidetracked, I plan to continue to analyze this article about ICAHD because I think that these two entities - ICAHD and CAMERA represent two diametrically opposed views of not only Israel/Palestine but the world.

What is missing in the geographic area in which I live is any ANY such open discussion such as we are having and that IS the path to a just peace.

In the same respectful way you asked me to take another look at ICAHD, I, of course, suggest you do the same with CAMERA.

Razzle Dazzle 'em

Razzle Dazzle ‘em

With apologies to the late great lyricist, Fred Ebb, whose song from Chicago, Razzle Dazzle, I just heard as I drove home today. Also credit to the Boston Globe where all these quotes appeared this year on the dates noted.

ROXIE Oh Billy, I'm scared.

BILLY Roxie, you got nothing to worry about.
It's all a circus, kid.
A three ring circus.
Exemplifying Sabeel's grotesque demonization of the Jewish state is the theme of its Boston conference: "The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel." It is hard to imagine an uglier slander. Apartheid was the racist system through which South Africa's white minority government ruthlessly repressed the country's large black majority, denying them political rights and relegating them to third-class education, housing, and employment. Israel, by contrast, is a flourishing democracy based on tolerance, individual liberty, and the rule of law. 10/21

These trials- the wholeworld- all show business.
But kid, you're working with a star, the biggest!
That conference (Sabeel) is bad for peace, it’s bad for America, it’s bad for Israel, and it’s bad for the Palestinians.". 10/28

Give 'em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle Dazzle 'em
Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate.
Israel wants peace, regardless of the falsehoods and misrepresentations which will be heard at Old South Church this weekend.” 10/28

Give 'em the old hocus pocus
Bead and feather 'em
How can they see with sequins in their eyes?
Under the apartheid system in South Africa, a small minority maintained a monopoly over all political and economic power, and used its legal system to oppress the majority. In contrast, Israel is a democracy, in which the rights of religious, ethnic, and sexual orientation minorities are protected under the law. Boston Globe 10/30

What if your hinges all are rusting?
What if, in fact, you're just disgusting?
The revival of the Jewish state with a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan. "When I was a child," Livni has said, "all I ever heard about was that we Jews have the right to a state on both sides of the Jordan." But Jabotinsky knew very well that the Jews would not be welcomed: "The native population, civilized or uncivilized, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists," he said, "and it made no difference whether the colonists behave decently or not." 8/13

Razzle dazzle 'em
And they;ll never catch wise!
It is true that in response to deadly terrorist attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has been forced to adopt stringent security measures, such as the protective fence between the West Bank and Israel proper, or the checkpoints at border crossings. These are unpopular and inconvenient, but they have saved many Israelis, Arab and Jew alike, from being murdered or maimed. 10/21

Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle
Razzle dazzle 'em
Give 'em a show that's so splendiferous
Row after row will crow vociferous
Leading Jewish organization are criticizing the United Methodist move and say they are worried that the step here could reenergize advocates of divestment nationally. They argue that divestment is not appropriate because Israel is unable to work with a Palestinian government that is associated with terrorism.” 7/31

Give 'em the old flim flam flummox
Fool and fracture 'em
How can they hear the truth above the roar?
For the past three decades, Sabeel has billed itself as the voice of the beleaguered community of Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel. Over the years, Sabeel has been successful in convincing well-meaning, but largely ignorant Christians in the United States and Europe that the Palestinian people are innocent sufferers and the Israeli government their brutal oppressors. Boston Globe 10/25

Throw 'em a fake and a finagle
They'll never know you're just a bagel,
I was offended by Desmond Tutu’s coming to the United States and calling on American Jews to abandon one of the core elements of our faith, the support for a secure Jewish state in Israel. Boston Globe. 10/30

Razzle dazzle 'em
And they'll beg you for more!
The United Methodists’ New England conference has posted on its website letters of support from a variety of Jewish peace groups. But … (he) said those groups are “the most radical, anti-Israel elements of the Jewish community.” 7/31

Give 'em the old double whammy
Daze and dizzy 'em
We reject the premise of the report, that East Jerulsalem is occupied territory. Israel is committeed to a diverse and pluralistic Jerusalem, to improving the conditions of all the city’s inhabitants and to protecting their interests as part of our sovereign responsibility. If any population in Jerusalem in Jeruslaem is thriving and growing, it is the Arab population. 5/15

Back since the days of old Methuselah
Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler
I am both saddened and outraged by Archbishop Desmond Tutu's grossly inaccurate application of the apartheid label to Israel Boston Globe 10/30

Give 'em the old three ring circus
Stun and stagger 'em
When you're in trouble, go into your dance
The pro-Israel demonstrators said Tutu’s comparison of Israel to apartheid in South Africa was unfair because Israel is a democracy where Arabs have rights.” 10/28

Though you are stiffer than a girder
They'll let you get away with murder
To make matters worse, Ateek has invoked the notion of the wandering, defenseless Jew as a good thing by writing that Jewish statehood contradicts the Jewish call to suffer. This type of language has been regarded as taboo by responsible Christians since the Holocaust, and its reemergence in Ateek's writing is as ominous as a noose hanging from a tree. 10/25

Razzle dazzle 'em
And you've got a romance
Anyone who uses apartheid as an accusation is really employing old anti-Zionist arguments - that's really what it is - and is really applying a double standard of judgment to Israel which can be traced to historic anti-Semitic rhetoric, that all things Jews do are evil, including their nationalism,’ 10/14

Give 'em the oldRazzle Dazzle
Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle
Razzle dazzle 'em
Israel is pressing for a vaguely worded document that would give it more room to maneuver….The goal, Olmert said “is to arrive at a joint statement during the international conference, even though the existence

of such a statement was never a condition for holding this conference. 10/15

Show 'em the first rate sorceror you are
Long as you keep 'em way off balance
How can they spot you've got no talent
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) … describes Sabeel as ‘an anti-Zionist organization that traffics in anti-Judaic themes.” 10/14

Razzle Dazzle 'em
Razzle Dazzle 'em
Razzle Dazzle 'em
And they'll make you a star!
“We Stand With Israel As concerned citizens, we stand with the Jewish community and proudly raise our voices in solidarity with the people of Israel, a brave democracy that has yearned so long to live in peace. 7/20/2006, Huge Ad signed by most of Massachusetts’ “prominent’ politicians shortly after the attack of Lebanon by the Government of Israel

Thoughts after Attending the Sabeel Conference - Part 4 -Christian Zionists - Bill Moyers and Doomsday

Sometimes I think that my computer is like what I hear about TIVO - you select a show and TIVO informs you are shows that are similar to that show. I just wrote about Christian Zionists and while checking the open Word files, I found "Welcome to Doomsday" by Bill Moyers from the Volume 52, Number 5, March 24 2005 issue of the New York Review of Books. Seriously, I do not recall opening that file although I do remember reading it two years ago. I have not included the second part of the article where he elaborates on the implications of having individuals be responsible for the environmental policy development and implementation in the United States.

As you read this, keep in mind also the implications of having the believers in the Rapture for whom a fundamental principle is the retaking by the Jewish people of the entire biblical land of Israel be given policy making positions as the United States supposedly works for a two state solution.

God help us!!

Welcome to Doomsday

By Bill Moyers
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=17852
(I have provided this link but there are restrictions to obtaining the review from this site.)

There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis.

Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges.In the just-concluded election cycle, as Mark Silk writes in Religion in the News,”the assiduous cultivation of religious constituencies by the Bush apparat, and the undisguised intrusion of evangelical leaders and some conservative Catholic hierarchs into the presidential campaign, demonstrated that the old rule of maintaining a decent respect for the nonpartisanship of religion can now be broken with impunity.”

The result is what the Italian scholar Emilio Gentile, quoted in Silk's newsletter, calls "political religion"-religion as an instrument of political combat. On gay marriage and abortion- the most conspicuous of the "non-negotiable" items in a widely distributed Catholic voter's guide-no one should be surprised what this political religion portends. The agenda has been foreshadowed for years, ever since Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other right-wing Protestants set out to turn white evangelicals into a solid Republican voting bloc and reached out to make allies of their former antagonists, conservative Catholics.What has been less apparent is the impact of the new political religion on environmental policy. Evangelical Christians have been divided. Some were indifferent. The majority of conservative evangelicals, on the other hand, have long hooked their view to the account in the first book of the Bible:”So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

There are widely varying interpretations of this text, but it is safe to say that all presume human beings have inherited the earth to be used as they see fit. For many, God's gift to Adam and Eve of "dominion" over the earth and all its creatures has been taken as the right to unlimited exploitation.

But as Blaine Harden reported recently in The Washington Post, some evangelicals are beginning to "go for the green." Last October the National Association of Evangelicals adopted an "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," affirming that "God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part." The declaration acknowledged that for the sake of clean air, clean water, and adequate resources, the government "has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation."

But even for green activists in evangelical circles, Harden wrote, "there are landmines."

Welcome to the Rapture!

There are millions of Christians who believe the Bible is literally true, word for word. Some of them-we'll come back to the question of how many- subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the nineteenth century by two immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them with their own hallucinations into a narrative foretelling the return of Jesus and the end of the world. Google the "Rapture Index" and you will see just how the notion has seized the imagination of many a good and sincere believer (you will also see just where we stand right now in the ticking of the clock toward the culmination of history in the apocalypse).

It is the inspiration for the best-selling books in America today-the twelve novels in the Left Behind series by Christian fundamentalist and religious- right warrior Tim LaHaye, a co- founder with Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority.

The plot of the Rapture-the word never appears in the Bible although some fantasists insist it is the hidden code to the Book of Revelation-is rather simple, if bizarre. (The British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for refreshing my own insights.) Once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned the Messiah will return for the Rapture. True believers will be transported to heaven where, seated at the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents writhe in the misery of plagues-boils, sores, locusts, and frogs-during the several years of tribulation that follow.

I'm not making this up. Like Monbiot, I read the literature, including The Rapture Exposed, a recent book by Barbara Rossing, who teaches the New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and America Right or Wrong, by Anatol Lieven, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. On my weekly broadcast for PBS, we reported on these true believers, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the Rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. To this end they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers.

For them the invasion of Iraq was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation, where four angels "bound in the great river Euphrates" will be released "to slay the third part of man." A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed-an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the Rapture Index stood at 144-approaching the critical threshold when the prophecy is fulfilled, the whole thing blows, the Son of God returns, and the righteous enter paradise while sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.

What does this mean for public policy and the environment? Listen to John Hagee, pastor of the 17,000- member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, who is quoted in Rossing's book as saying: "Mark it down, take it to heart, and comfort one another with these words. Doomsday is coming for the earth, for the nations, and for individuals, but those who have trusted in Jesus will not be present on earth to witness the dire time of tribulation." Rossing sums up the message in five words that she says are basic Rapture credo: "The world cannot be saved." It leads to "appalling ethics," she reasons, because the faithful are relieved of concern for the environment, violence, and everything else except their personal salvation. The earth suffers the same fate as the unsaved. All are destroyed.How many true believers are there? It's impossible to pin down. But there is a constituency for the End Times. A Newsweek poll found that 36 percent of respondents held the Book of Revelation to be "true prophecy." (A Time/ CNN poll reported that one quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks.)

Drive across the country with your radio tuned to some of the 1,600 Christian radio stations or turn to some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear the Gospel of the Apocalypse in sermon and song. Or go, as The Toronto Star's Tom Harpur did, to the Florida Panhandle where he came across an all-day conference "at one of the largest Protestant churches I have ever been in," the Village Baptist Church in Destin. The theme of the day was "Left Behind: A Conference on Biblical Prophecy about End Times" and among the speakers were none other than Tim LaHaye and two other leading voices in the religious right today, Gary Frazier and Ed Hindson. Here is what Harpur wrote for his newspaper:

I have never heard so much venom and dangerous ignorance spouted before an utterly unquestioning, otherwise normal-looking crowd in my life.... There were stunning statements about humans having been only 6,000 years on Earth and other denials of contemporary geology and biology. And we learned that the Rapture, which could happen any second now, but certainly within the next 40 years, will instantly sweep all the "saved" Americans (perhaps one-half the population) to heaven....

But these fantasies were harmless compared with the hatred against Islam that followed. Here are some direct quotes: "Islam is an intolerant religion-and it's clear whose side we should be on in the Middle East."

Applause greeted these words: "Allah and Jehovah are not the same God.... Islam is a Satanic religion.... They're going to attack Israel for certain...." Gary Frazier shouted at the top of his lungs: "Wake Up! Wake Up!" And roughly eight hundred heads (at $25.00 per) nodded approval as he added that the left-wing, anti-Israel media-"for example, CNN"-will never tell the world the truth about Islam. According to these three, and the millions of Americans they lead, Muslims intend ultimately "to impose their religion on us all." It was clear, Harpur wrote: "A terrible, final war in the region is inevitable."

You can understand why people in the grip of such fantasies cannot be expected to worry about the environment. As Glenn Scherer writes in his report for the on-line environmental magazine Grist, why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible?

Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? Why bother to convert to alternative sources of energy and reduce dependence on oil from the volatile Middle East? Anyway, until Christ does return, the Lord will provide.

Scherer came upon a high school history book, America's Providential History, which is used in fundamentalist circles. Students are told that "the secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece." The Christian, however, "knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's Earth.... While many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."

While it is impossible to know how many people hold these views, we do know that fundamentalists constitute a large and powerful proportion of the Republican base, and, as Anatol Lieven writes, "fundamentalist religiosity has become an integral part of the radicalization of the right in the US and of the tendency to demonize political opponents as traitors and enemies of God and America"-including, one must note, environmentalists, who are routinely castigated as villains and worse by the right. No wonder Karl Rove wandered the White House whistling "Onward Christian Soldiers" as he prepared for the 2004 elections.

Israel Palestine Forum

I just found out about the Israel Palestine Forum developed and moderated and administered by the one and only Richard Silverstein, he of the Tikun Olam - Make the World a Better Place Blog. I encourage you to visit the Forum and, if you like what you see, become a member.

Not having seen any topic on the Forum with the subject of House Demolitions, I just posted a message about Jeff Halper, ICAHD, house demolitions, colonization, dispossession, apartheid and the death of the two-state solution and the solution - ending the occupation.

Thoughts after Attending the Sabeel Conference - Part 4 -Christian Zionists

More about the Sabeel Conference

The first session: A presentation by Don Wagner, the author of Anxious about Armageddon, on the Christian Zionists

Don first related this story the substance of which I found in a review of his book.

“It was on a sweltering July evening in 1950 that Wagner heard his first confusing references to the Middle East and its role in the future of Christianity and the world. Then aged eight, he had accompanied his grandparents to a revival service in a rural upstate New York church. There he heard a persuasively emotional sermon on "Hell and The Latter Days," the core of which he relates in this abridged excerpt from his book: "'We have entered the final days of history,' the evangelist proclaimed. 'There is a terrible, bloody battle about to be waged, far worse than anything we witnessed in World War II. The Bible predicts this war will be fought at Armageddon and will involve the nation Israel against forces from the north, probably Russia. There has never been a war as terrible as the one we are about to witness. Nation will fight nation, and brother will battle brother. "'How do we know this?' he asked. 'Because everything is happening just as the prophets of the Old Testament predicted. When God's people, Israel, return to the Holy Land to establish their own state, everything will be in order for the countdown to the end of history. The Bible says that when this occurs, the final battle will be close at hand. Just two years ago, after centuries of statelessness, the Jewish people miraculously created their nation. What an amazing opportunity! God has chosen to begin this prophetic countdown in our lifetime. "'But the Bible warns us that Jesus will return before this terrible battle takes place. He will take His own from the earth. They will be spared this awful final battle, and you can be among them if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior...Are you ready tonight to meet Jesus if He returns? If you have not accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, if you have not repented of your sins, you could be left behind to perish in the final battle.'"

Don went on to talk about: the millions of people that are convinced that the Final Battle will occur in their lifetimes; the role of the Jews and the State of Israel in precipitating the battle; the close working relationship between Christian Zionists and The Israel Lobby (including having the TV Evangelist John Hagee, the head of Christians United for Israel - CUFI - speak at the annual AIPAC meeting); and the two options that Jews have – convert to Christianity or be incinerated at Armageddon (there seem to be a “working” estimate that two-thirds will convert and one-third will be Left Behind to “perish in the final battle”.)

I had never heard of CUFI but did not some signs from that organization held by some of those standing in front of the Boston Public Library protesting the Sabeel Conference. The irony of watching this effort to ban free speech critical of the Government of Israel, to smear speakers and intimidate anyone supporting them taking place next to such an imposing symbol of the search for truth and enlightenment was not lost on me.

I recall a Jewish settler – formerly a practicing lawyer in New York -on the CNN God’s Warriors show, was asked why she would work with a Christian Zionist church whose principle was the elimination of all Jews who did not convert to their form of Christianity. She noted how much financial and other support the church had provided for her settlement and said that since she was not a believer in what it said, there was no problem. (As someone who has devoted over 20 years to advising lawyers on how to locate satisfying positions, as I watched and listening to the passion in her voice, I thought that if she had been one of my clients, I would have considered her one of my successes. It does, however, help you to understand why the public has such a low
opinion about lawyers.)


I especially appreciated Don’s quote from Israeli author Gershon Gorenberg who said that the Christian Zionist philosophy is essentially a five-act play “where we as Jews disappear in the fourth act, just prior to the return of Jesus.” (By the way Gershon Gorenberg, if you recall, is the person who uncovered the 1967 memo by Theodor Meron, legal counsel of the Israel Foreign Ministry in which he concluded “civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention prohibits a nation from transferring its citizens to occupied territory.)

With friends like that …………..

Congratulations to The Israel Lobby on finally finding a “partner for peace.”