by Ismael (therealdiogenes)/Opinion
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18)
“‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43–44).
So much hatred; so much anger; so much self-righteous posturing. So much evil masquerading as divine goodness. Give me a break.
For those who pretend to know what God thinks (“What would Jesus do?), who are guilty of the worse sort of arrogance, thank you for your insights into Divine Wisdom the rest of us poor mortals have no means of fathoming, and demanding we support whatever actions the government of Israel deems appropriate in response to the attack by Hamas. Your seething hatred and desire for revenge on behalf of Israel, even as you blaspheme in opening remarks (deleting a letter doesn’t let you off the hook), reveal a soul not touched by the forgiveness and love of Jesus, but wrapped in Satanic desire for war and vengance. Satan loves conflict and human beings hurting and killing each other. Welcome to his army.
No one of any decency justifies the Hamas atrocities in their murdering civilians. Likewise no one should justify the Israeli government’s actions massacring unprotected civilians in Gaza using American airplanes to level whole blocks of residential Gaza and using internationally outlawed weapons to effect mass civilians casualties. And no, Israel doesn’t “give warning for residents to flee” because Gaza is an open-air concentration camp created by Israel and there is nowhere to run. The situation is terrible and pretending Israel is “God’s people” merely emboldens the worst bully in the Middle East and allows their own crimes to go unacknowledged and unpunished.
Getting a (usually misinterpreted) version of history from a book written and rewritten over the centuries by many different people, sometimes attempting to convey spiritual insight but more often vested in consolidating power to themselves, is absurd. We live in a real world where many many of the 8 billion people inhabiting the planet think your religion is as wrong as you think theirs is. Great, let’s fight about who is right; it’s not like so many human beings have killed and died trying to impose their version of religion on others. What does Jesus think? For those ignorant of history, the United States WAS NOT founded as a “Christian” nation precisely because the founding fathers (most of whom were Freemasons and Deists) realized Europe has been awash in blood over religious differences and did not wish to repeat that nonsense in the New World (sort of). Stop trying to impose your version of Christianity on everyone else.
Facts are annoying; our last President used the term “Fake news” to dismiss any inconvenient information exposing his constant lies and vulgar disparaging of people he disagreed with. Many supporters took up his banner and loudly and ignorantly attacked anyone or any news organization attempting to provide some journalistic balance to the political debate he tried to smear in order to protect his nefarious deeds. To this day, the political party he belongs to is held hostage to the fanatical minority wishing to impose a theocratic, non-democratic state in America. Power is their agenda; fear is their weapon. And despite their feeble claims to the contrary, their incitement against “Liberals,” “the Dems,” “the Left,” the LGBTQ community (in particular Trans people), “Wokeism” (do they even what the word means?) is their clever way to churn up angry emotion which has often resulted in violence against their fake enemy. Do you want a civil war AGAIN in this country? Just so a bunch of billionaires and corrupt politicians can continue to rip us all off? The last one didn’t turn out too well for the South; the next one will destroy everyone. There are no victors in a civil war, only damaged survivors.
Which brings us back to the present situation in the MIddle East. Why is the political debate in the United States regarding Israel so one-sided? We can express two differing points of view about any other issue–abortion, the death penalty, gun laws, welfare, drug legalization, civil rights, the fossil fuel destruction of the environment, etc.–except aid to the State of Israel. Traditionally both Democrats and Republications have fallen all over each other to declare their undying love and allegiance to the “Jewish State.” (By the way, until Netanyahu, Israel did not identify itself as an absolute “Jewish State,” although the laws of Israel have always favored Jews over non-Jews. This is the reason the country has been denounced as racist.) Money. Both parties have received enormous amounts of money from the State of Israel (via AIPAC–the American-Israeli Political Action Committee, operating against United States law, by the way, which is conveniently ignored when it comes to Israel), and, in return, Congress votes enormous amounts of money–in grants, loans (always forgiven), weapons, financial subsidies, etc.–to that country. They give money to Congressmen to keep them in office, and then Congress votes “aid” packages back to Israel. Did you hear the word “bribe?” And think how much benefit that money would be if used for our own people in Louisiana, instead of propping up a racist regime that lies, steals and murders Palestinians in their own land.
And for those who blindly believe Israel is our ally, ask the relatives of the murdered crew of the USS Liberty, brazenly attacked by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Or the U.S. State Department, desperately trying to effect damage control with our real allies after Jewish-American Jonathan Pollard decided his real loyalty was to the State of Israel, not the country of his birth. Pollard sold numerous closely guarded state secrets and disclosed the names of thousands of people who had cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies. The damage to America was incalculable; how many American operatives were killed as a result of this betrayal is unknown even to this day. Yet, Israel granted Pollard citizenship in while he was incarcerated in 1995, and worked ceaselessly for his release, while at the same time lying and interfering with the investigation into Pollard’s crimes (Israel paid him well enough for him to spend the money on cocaine, alcohol, and expensive meals), which included using classified documents to attempt to broker arms deals with the governments of South Africa, Argentina, Taiwan, as well as agents of Pakistan and Iran. Political pressure from our paid-off (bribed) politicians got him his freedom. He resides today in Israel, happy and unrepentant, and a hero to the Jewish people of Israel. So much for our Middle Eastern “ally.”
American media is notoriously biased. Any website on Facebook or Twitter (despite Elon’s lying false claim to support free speech) is removed in order to prevent anyone from reading opinions not sanctioned by the Jewish State and their American supporters. Politicians justly decry atrocities committed by Hamas, a right-wing authoritarian religious group (sound familiar?) that murdered moderate Palestinian Authority politicians in Gaza in 2007 and rules with an iron hand, but ignore atrocities committed by the Israeli government and the settler communities against Palestinian civilians. And to complicate matters, the ignorance of the Christian Zionists in the Evangelical community are complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian population by their ironclad support for the whatever Israel does, no matter how abhorrent or atrocious. The sad irony is that Christian Palestinians, a big chunk of the population, are also the victims of Israel persecution, but the Christian Zionists are too ill-informed to understand how their unquestioning support for the Jewish State helps target their own co-religionists (unless, of course, they are not considered “real Christians” by the Christian Zionists).
The issue of how the many American Christians have been hood-winked into thinking Israel is “God’s People” is worthy of volumes in itself. Mostly it derives from misreading of scripture and a very confused understanding of the founding of the State of Israel itself, believing Armageddon is around the corner. Israel has no Constitution like America to form the basis of their laws. In fact, Israel from the very beginning has been opposed by many Orthodox Jewish communities, rightly saying that the foretold Jewish state is to be created by the Messiah, not by a bunch of German Atheist Jews creating a modern secular state. Judaism is not meant to be a nationalist religion, nor is “Jewish” a race, although racists use it as such, both inside Israel and out. Most Israeli Jews have been brainwashed to believe “Jews” are a separate race, something Hitler would eagerly agree with. This accounts for the modern difficulty Israel has for defining someone as a Jew. According to the religious Orthodox wing in Netanyahu’s cabinet, Conservative and Reform Jews are not really “Jews” and should have no rights in Israel. This argument has been fought over since the beginning of the country. If they can’t decide who is a Jew, who can? But when accosted for their treatment of the Palestinians–who now out-number them in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank and create the situation of the minority population subjugating the majority–Israel plays the victim card. You can’t criticize OUR treatment of Arabs because we were victimized by Nazis 65 years ago (Then why did the victors in WWII give the Jewish victims of the Holocaust Palestine rather than a piece of Germany?). The tactic of claiming to be victims while oppressing others is now being used by the white supremacists in this country. Students of history may remember Hitler invading neighboring countries to “protect” their ethnically German minorities from so-called “oppression.”
What a mess!
Many Jews are NOT Zionists, but you rarely hear about them because the media is heavily influenced by pro-Israeli sources. Israel dismisses them as “self-hating Jews” and wants the American public to be shielded from their perspective. They don’t believe in the Second Coming of Christ tied to an agenda supporting the State of Israel. In fact, for those who don’t bother to count or read, according to the scriptures, Jesus is way way overdue, because the State of Israel was founded in 1948, and is He supposed to reappear on earth within a generation. Christian Zionists and Armageddon lovers keep resetting the clock to justify supporting Israel in its atrocious behaviour toward the country’s original inhabitants. But it ain’t going to happen. When the clouds of radioactive dust clear after WWIII (disgustingly anticipated by some fanatics), Jesus will not walk out of the rubble and proclaim the Kingdom of Jerusalem. What happens then? Oh sorry, folks, I guess we was wrong. Oops!
Solution? Yes. But few wish to hear it.
Goodbye, Israel, the Jewish State, privileging the Jews (whoever that is) over everyone else. Goodbye, Palestine, no to Hamas and a religious legal system based on the Koran. Hello, secular democracy. Both side must agree to legally treat everyone as equal with equal respect and equal rights, as difficult as that is. Let the calendar begin from day one; let the reparations be discussed in good faith.
Naive? Maybe.
But I was there when the Oslo Accords were implemented and Bethlehem and Ramallah were liberated from Israeli military rule. I saw Palestinian and Israeli police working together, laughing, cooperating, to maintain the semblance of order while thousands people, Jewish and Arab, Israeli and Palestinian, finally realized oppression and denial of basic human rights only prolonged the hatred and vengeance of generations. The majority of both sides were weary of conflict, and both sides wanted their children to experience peace. It was a beginning, like the integration of white and black in this country. Only by mixing the populations of both, can people see each other as human beings, equal in the eyes of the Lord (despite Israelis constantly calling Palestinians “animals” so they can murder them with impunity). It could have worked; it would have worked.
Rabin, who engineered the Accords is murdered by a right-wing racist Israeli settler (settlers often chant “Death to Arabs”) who is proclaimed a hero by some. Fast forward to the election between Simon Peres, who vowed to implement the rest of the Accords, and Netanyahu, who vowed to demolish them. The extremists on both sides, fearful of losing their own power did everything to sabotage the agreement, an agreement that was the first step to a lasting peace. The week before the election, Hamas, nasty as ever and interested only in their own agenda, blew up three Israeli buses in Jerusalem. Netanyahu plays on fears and wins by the barest knife’s edge, sends Ariel Sharon with tanks to destroy any trace of the budding Palestinian infrastucture, with America sitting by doing absolutely nothing. The chance for peace torpedoed, and the situation gets worse and worse. And the Christian Zionists? Well they don’t want a peace there because it might interfere with their desired end-of-the-world scenario.
Now Israel vows to exterminate everyone in Gaza, one million children and one million of the other civilians, the “animals.” This, of course brings peace; this, of course creates love and understanding. But idiots and racists say the people of Gaza–every one of them–deserve to be murdered by the Israeli government that treats all non-Jews as non-human, not deserving of any consideration. A dead Israeli Jew is a “murdered” victim of a war crime; a dead Palestinian Arab is just a “killed” piece of collateral damage. And America, instead of forcing Israel to concessions, emboldens them and bankrolls their racism. Remember after 9/11? Why do they hate us? I’ll give you a good guess.
Palestinians were told to recognize the state of Israel. They did. Palestinians were told to disavow terrorism. They did. Palestinians were told all sorts of things they needed to do to implement peace. They did every single one of them. The ONLY THING Israel was told to do, and agreed to do, was STOP expanding the settlements and reign in the racist fanatic settlers who openly declared their desire to exterminate or expel the Palestinians on the land of Palestine/Israel. THEY DID NOTHING AND THE UNITED STATES DID NOTHING TO PENALIZE THEM FOR BREAKING THEIR AGREEMENTS. So, who are the liars? Who stands in the way of peace? Before you brainlessly side with Israel and watch your tax dollars used to commit real genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, learn the truth, remember the horrific crimes committed AGAINST Palestinians, and pray to a God that loves all His children and does not favor murdering children and innocent civilians in order to allow the State of Israel to implement its racist agenda.
1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Matthew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
1 John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
1 John 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
Romans 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
And, finally, for those of you salivating over Israeli vengeance in Gaza,
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
Photo courtesy of VOX
