While Christmas—the birth date of the Messiah, Jesus Christ—marks the watershed of splitting calendar history into two epochs, B.C. and A.D., Easter marks the day and commemorates actual events, however miraculous, that followed the crucifixion and death of Christ that transformed the world forever.
But how and why would that torturous event and extreme sorrow associated with the death of the messiah affect eternity in a positive way? Why should Easter be a joyful time? The answer is neither elusive nor complicated.
There are many religions of the world going back thousands of years. But only one of them, Christianity, has a founder who professed to be the Messiah—the son of God—who provided irrefutable proof of who he was by conquering death through resurrection. Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.
Christ is absolutely unique in being the only person in history who was pre-announced starting a thousand years before he was born, with over 100 prophetic accounts from 18 different prophets from the Old Testament between the tenth and the fourth centuries BC—predicting the specifics of his coming birth, life, and death. Hundreds of years later, the details of Christ’s birth, life, betrayal, and death validated those prophecies in surprisingly accurate and minute detail. One thousand years BC, David prophetically wrote about the crucifixion of Christ at a time crucifixion was unknown as a means of execution.
Every other consequential person of history came into the world to live. The death of other religious leaders—such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Mohammad, and Confucius—brought an anticlimactic end to their lives and their work.
But Christ came into the world as God’s son in order to die and pay the price for man’s sin. His sacrifice was the ultimate climax of his life, done for the benefit of all mankind—opening the way to eternal life in heaven for all who believe.
Of the five major world religions built on personalities, only Christianity claims its founder is still alive, having overcome death through resurrection. No Jew ever believed that, after Abraham died and was interred, his tomb ever became empty. After Buddha died, no disciple claimed that he or she saw or spoke to him again.
As for Mohammed, the founder of Islam, there is no trace of his appearing to his disciples or followers after he died. His occupied tomb is located in Medina and is visited by tens of thousands of devout Muslims every year.
Christ was unique in giving up his life as a sacrifice to fulfill why he came into the world. Christ showed the highest standard of love possible, through compassion for outcasts and healing the afflicted, by his teachings, and ultimately in making the ultimate sacrifice—giving his life to rescue and save mankind. Then, to provide “seeing is believing” evidence, God brought Jesus back from being dead in a tomb to being alive—resurrected—so people would have living proof of who he was.
The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed Jesus firsthand after the resurrection. In fact, Jesus made at least ten separate appearances to his disciples between the resurrection and his ascension into Heaven, over a period of 40 days. Some of those appearances were to individual disciples, some were to several disciples, and once to some 500 at one time.
Particularly noteworthy is that there were no accounts of witnesses who came forth and disputed these appearances or called it a “hoax.” Not a single one. Nor do we find any historical record of any witness accounts that were contradictory.
While there are skeptics of the biblical Jesus, there’s actually far more reliable historical evidence for his life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than for any other historical figure of ancient times. Consider, for instance, that the authenticity of Alexander the Great, who was born some 350 years before Christ, is based on two original biographical accounts of his life by Arrian and Plutarch, which were written some 400 years after Alexander died.
The manuscripts of Virgil and Horace, both of whom lived within a generation of Christ, were written more than four centuries after their deaths. The copy of works by Livy and Tacitus on Roman history and the works of Pliny Secundus on natural history were written more than 500 years after the time of the original account.
Yet no one doubts Virgil and Horace lived and authored great poetic masterpieces. Nor do we hear questions about the authenticity and accuracy of accounts of Livy and Tacitus in chronicling the events of the Roman Emperors Augustus, Claudius, Nero, or Tiberius.
We know the historical Jesus through four different accounts known as the gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—not written hundreds of years later, but within a generation or two of Jesus’s life. Apostles Matthew and John provide eyewitness accounts from their years of walking with Jesus as disciples. Mark also had eyewitness experience, although he was only a teenager when Jesus began his public ministry. Luke, the doctor, learned about Jesus from his friend Paul, the apostle who wrote the most letters in the New Testament.
About 1,000 times more manuscripts preserve the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament (about 25,000 total) than there are preserving other classical ancient works of historic figures who lived at approximately the same time, with the exception of Homer, whose “Iliad” is backed by 1,800 manuscripts. But that is still less than one-tenth the number of ancient manuscripts that back the authenticity of the New Testament.
Because of their experience with the resurrected Jesus, the apostles were in a unique position, knowing with certainty that Jesus was truly the Son of God. They had been present for the life, ministry, miracles, and death of Jesus. If the claims about Jesus were a lie, the apostles would have known it. That’s why their commitment to their testimony was so powerful and compelling.
Additionally, the apostles’ willingness to die for their claims has tremendous evidential value, also confirming the truth of the resurrection. No one will die for something he invented or believes to be false.
Seeing, talking to, and touching the risen Jesus transformed the apostles, who then committed the rest of their lives to educate and advocate for the truth about the message of salvation through Christ. Eleven of the twelve apostles—including Matthias who replaced Judas, the betrayer of Jesus—died as martyrs for their beliefs in the divinity of Christ. The twelve, John, was exiled to Patmos Island, where recorded the book of Revelation.
It turns out that Easter, which has its ultimate meaning in the resurrection, is one of ancient history’s most carefully scrutinized and best-attested events. The resurrection is real, and changes everything. Easter is the commemoration and celebration of the single event that transformed the world forever.
Scott Powell is senior fellow at the Institute for Faith and Culture, and senior fellow at Discovery Institute. His recent book, Rediscovering America, was #1 new release in history for eight straight weeks at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637581599). Reach him at scottp@discovery.org.
“It turns out that Easter, which has its ultimate meaning in the resurrection, is one of ancient history’s most carefully scrutinized and best-attested events”.
There’s always going to be questions, and rationalizations with their appeals to contrary accounts for ‘the debaters of this age’.
For me, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (ESV) exemplifies reality:
” For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.
As a Jew I would like to wish every Christian a Happy Easter just as so many Christians have wished me a Happy Passover.
Both of our religions share so many values that make the world a better place to live.
May we both respect our differences while celebrating our many commonalities – such as the command to love your neighbor.
My Lord and Savior was called “Rabbi”, in his time.
I don’t speak Hebrew, but it’s been my understanding that “Rabbi” (besides being a title of honor for a Jewish clergyman, as it is today) meant “Teacher” (which of course Jesus was).
Am I wrong?
What if your neighbor is Adolf Hitler? Am I commanded to love Hitler?
We don’t have to love our neighbor, what we need to do is respect our neighbor’s individual rights and private property rights, and he needs to respect ours, even if we don’t love him, and he doesn’t love us.
I believe the correct words are “Love thy neighbour as you love yourself”
Which describes what you desire, but you cannot give any credit to religion.
You are similar to Bill Barr who I think it was who made a movie that stated that no records of Christ existed.
He was an aggressive atheist who seems to be more reasonable today.
I think you really do love Hitler. You certainly talk about him often enough.
Your biggest problem is you don’t respect the individual rights of anyone who is a Jew or a Christian. You feel you have the right to trash them whenever it pleases you. But woe to anyone who deigns to say anything negative about your girlfriend.
You are incapable of loving anyone but yourself
You’re COMMANDED to love me as you love yourself. So when are you going to pay my bills and invite me to dinner?
You don’t get it . You never will get it. You are too much of a lunkhead to get it.
Your posts do get inordinately stupid during Holy Week and the period just before and including Christmas. But when you suffer from narcissistic personality disorder it’s to be expected.
How’s the recruiting coming along. Getting anywhere with those childish endless schoolyard trash talk? Yeah I thought not.
I have a feeling the government pays your bills and feeds you as well.
Love has nothing to do with bill paying or dinner invitations. Love is the ability to even pray for Hitler’s soul.
“I have a feeling the government pays your bills and feeds you as well.”
To Intrepid,
if altruism and self-sacrifice are a moral duty and the highest moral ideal, then the government should and must pay my bills and feed me. Altruism proclaims NEED MAKES RIGHT — you are your brother’s keeper, and your neighbor’s keeper, and the stranger’s keeper, and your enemy’s keeper. Love your enemy, turn the other cheek.
Keeping the money you earn is SELFISH and you know selfishness is evil. You have to altruistically spread the wealth. The love of money is the root of all evil so give your money away and be good.
Your neighbor’s children and every illegal alien’s child NEED an education, so go pay your property tax, pronto.
I already said I think the government pays your bills and feeds you, since your job seems to be trashing Christians 24/7. How could you possible hold a fulltime job. Basically you are a leftist bum, as far as I can see.
I give my money to the government in the form of taxes. And believe me, it’s a lot more than you will ever pay. I also pay my property taxes when the bill comes in twice a year. How much do you pay in property taxes. My guess is zero since you are probably a renter.
Unfortunately for you, you think Christianity is literally giving away all of your property, which says to me you are incapable of coherent thought. And please don’t give me your usual garbage about the only real Christians are those from the Middle Ages.
You are a jealous. You have a rampant case of narcissistic personality disorder. See a psychiatrist before you start acting out. That is where you are headed.
I have yet to see anyone agreeing with you of late.
THX 1138, = You are incapable of loving anyone but yourself.
I think that his problem is, he is “Narcissistic” therefor not capable of loving anyone else.
THX is a jealous, small minded man. He has a rampant (and possibly incurable) case of narcissistic personality disorder.
No, you are not commanded to ‘love’ Hitler. God is very clear: “Let love be without hypocrisy, hate what is evil and cling to that which is good.” God cannot love Satan (Is Satan His neighbor?). If one is the personification of evil I must hate that one. God ‘hated Esau’.
I believe that Hitler was the personification of evil. I must hate evil. Another truth worth researching: we are commanded ‘not to cast pearls before swine.’
“celebrating our many commonalities”
Remember Christianity started as reform Judaism. In first century Rome Christians were called new Jews vs old Jews.
Blessed Be Thou. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will. Hebrews 13:20-21.
Thank you very much, Yehuda. You’re a mensch! 🙂
The LORD bless you, Yehuda Levi!
In the New Testament book of the Gospel of John, chapter 4, is the account of the woman of Samaria. I call your attention to verses 25 and 26: The woman said to Him (i.e., Jesus), “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
If you are more comfortable speaking with a fellow Jew to learn more about this, there is such a thing as Messianic Judaism. Why don’t you speak to the Rabbi of one of those groups.
The Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament book (i.e., his letter to the Church at Rome) of Romans, chapter 10, at verse 1: Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them (i.e., his fellow Jews) is for their salvation.
Mother Miriam and Jewish Catholic, both on YouTube, are notable converts to Catholicism. Roy, of the Jewish Catholic channel, tells a remarkable story in which Mary appeared to him. I believe Roy is Harvard/MIT educated and was very successful before this happened and transformed his life. Both channels are worth visiting.
HE HAS RISEN
Excellent reflections by the author. What may be added is that the Son of Man/Son of God will return at the (soon) end of this age to set up His Kingdom here on Earth, ruling from Jerusalem. Our destiny is not eternal life in Heaven, but here where we belong. The Earth was created for us.
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign ON THE EARTH”. Rev. 5:9-10
“There were loud voices in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” Rev. 11: 15
“.. in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Daniel 2:44
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. 4‘ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21:3-5
Now, THAT’s wonderful news, and the full story of the Gospel.
The National Geographic special on the Shroud of Turin is absolute proof that something miraculous occurred. It’s excellent
Additionally, Jesus cured the blind man at Bethesda – and the. Calibrated his vision “I see men walking as trees”. It is now know from people who have had their vision restored that they need to relearn to see.
He is, indeed. Risen.
Palm Sunday comes week before Easter then Comes Good Friday then its Easter but unlike Christmas Easter varies between March and April
Yes, because Christmas Day is defined (in Western Christianity and as a government-accepted Holiday) as December 25.
Good Friday (the Crucifixion) and Easter (the Resurrection), on the other hand, are commemorated and celebrated at the time of Passover (the exact date of which varies from year to year in the Hebrew calendar); the apostles (all of whom were observant Jews) gathered with Jesus for The Last Supper in observance of Passover.
And then, the next night (or was it later that same night?), He was betrayed, arrested, “tried” before the corrupt Sanhedrin on the basis of perjured accusations because they feared his challenge to their power; then sent to Pontius Pilate to be condemned to death by crucifixion.
Donald Trump is neither a saint nor, certainly, the Son of God; but the striking parallel with President Trump’s current ordeal is unavoidable.
Someday soon I hope to wake up and meet friends and relatives in Pyongyang for an early breakfast before traveling to Jerusalem for an audience with the King. After receiving my assignment, I’ll set out to the Valley of Hamon-gog to join the weapons collection and burial details to clean up the remains of the hybrids who perished during Har-meggedon.
Once those unpleasant tasks are completed, I will look forward to about nine hundred additional years of living in peace and prosperity. Everyone will own stock and save for the future, and no one will ever go hungry again. Capitalism (Biblical Capitalism) will turn a ruined world into paradise.
Lions and wolves will lay down with lambs. Children will play with adders, and dangers will become largely unknown.
Unfortunately, that’s my flesh talking. My spirit realizes when that day comes, all those who are lost today will be lost forever–and I do not wish their fate on even my own worst enemy. There is time to dream later. Now, there is plenty to harvest.
I adore what we Christians call the Old Testament. I read and study it daily, with delight and wonder and have done so for many years.
Samuel was deeply grieved when Israel asked for a king to reign over them like the gentiles. 1 Samuel 8:7 records God’s response: Israel did not reject Samuel (a type of priest / king) but God Himself as their King. The chapter goes on to describe what the people can expect from their kings and it is not pretty.
Israel rejected their King again when Jesus was handed over by the rulers to die as the Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. See John 1:29 and many others. But not all Israel rejected Him, even as it is today. Those early believing Jews received and nourished the Church. They are our roots.
God is King. He has no plan to allow Himself to be replaced by any mere mortal. No one else can rule us in perfect justice and mercy. No man born of woman, save one, could rightly reign in glory over Israel and all the earth, bringing the Abrahamic promises to all mankind. Even the first David was undeniably a sinner. Jesus, as David’s greater Son (see Psalm 110:1; Luke 20:42), challenged all his critics to convict Him of sin. See John 8:46. No one could. He is the God Man, One in Being with the Father who alone is worthy of the Throne.
That was a wonderful summary of God’s truths.
Thank you.
After I posted, I remembered Abraham’s near sacrifice of his own son, Isaac. Genesis 22:7 – 8:
7…“ ‘The fire and the wood are here,’ said Isaac, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’
8 Abraham answered, ‘God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two walked on together. ”
God Himself provides the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. It is unspeakably and unimaginably beautiful and never ceases to fill me with awe and gratitude.
May I say again what has often been said by many people who are correct: THIS IS INDEED HIGHLY IMPORTANT!
If you understand, believe in & care at all about the resurrection of Christ, you will cease calling it “Easter”which is the celebration of Ishtar which is DIRECTLY the celebration of satan and luciferic religion & control over the Earth!
AT LEAST et your words straight! Call it resurrection day, or something even remorely Christ_relatrd, call it anything but not “Easter”. It is not Easter!
The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many
MARK 10:45.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Amen.
Christian Palestinians are waiting in Occupied Palestine,and Occupied Jerusalem for their Savior, since the Church on Earth and the Christian West has abandoned them to the Jewish Nation.
Where are the Christian Crusaders of the liberal democratic West? Perhaps then there will be justice for the victims,and repentance by the victimizers,and forgiveness by victims and victimizers,alike, for their sins and crimes against the other. Amen.
Part 1
Ah, the joys of Jew Haters and apologists for Islamist terrorism bringing up the largely-symbolic and utterly vestigial number of “Falestinian Christian” Dhimmis to vilify Christianity, the West, Israel, and Jews.
“ Where are the Christian Crusaders of the liberal democratic West? Perhaps then there will be justice for the victims,and repentance by the victimizers,and forgiveness by victims and victimizers,alike, for their sins and crimes against the other. Amen.”
Learn history. When the Caliph conquered Jerusalem from the Christian Romans, he imposed Dhimmitude or death on all non1Muslims. Christians were forbidden from building new Churches, banned from public prayer, from spreading the Gospel to Muslims, and forced to pay the Jizya. It was in essence a recipe for the death of the faith and its slow erosion.
“Learn history. When the Caliph conquered Jerusalem “…..
My focus here is the Jewish victimization of Palestinian Catholics and other Christians,which the Christian West,and Jews,conveniently/willfully ignore. As to your comment, Jews,Christians,and likely many Muslims,especially young women,would acknowledge the need for Islam to embrace Modernity, the sooner,the better. For the most part,Jews and Christians are no longer plagued by the deadly schisms that we witness on a daily basis in Islam ,ie the Sunni/Shia divide.It has been decades since Northern Ireland has seen daily violence between Catholics and Protestants like we see between Sunnis and Shia communities and Nations today.
Part 1
“My focus here is the Jewish victimization of Palestinian Catholics and other Christians,”
*WHICH YOU LIE ABOUT.*
The FACT of the matter is that the “Jews” and Israel have victimized “Palestinian Catholics and other Christians” infinitely less Fatah has, to say nothing of Hamas and Falestinian Islamic Jihad.
I know the many, many sins and dysfunctions of Israel regarding Christians, probably far better than you do. I also know they are not the reason why Bethlehem is a thoroughly Islamidcized nightmare. They are also not why converts to Christianity are persecuted most cruelly throughout Judea, Samaria, and the West Bank. Those Christians that do not speak out on this are showing they have greater allegiance to a totalitarian, Fascist, Islamic Supremacist dictatorship than to the Cross, and are treating their faith as a tribality and political identity marker exactly as Christ condemned much of the Jewish elite for doing.
Enough with the nonsense about Apartheid, you obviously do not understand what it means.
While I don’t have a dog in that tragic conflict,I do come by my interest honestly. My Grandfather was a Palestinian Christian born in Jerusalem,in the days of the Ottoman Turks,decades before Zionist Israel was recreated at the expense of Palestinian Christians and non-Jews. He emigrated to Canada as a young man,and was killed working in the Coal Mines of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
I do have first hand knowledge and experience of ethnic conflict,having been a Regular in an all White Unit in Rhodesia,as well as living/working in Apartheid South Africa for a short time. My comments stand.
” “Jews” and Israel have victimized “Palestinian Catholics and other Christians” infinitely less Fatah has”
Occupation, Displacement,Ethnic Cleansing,and Crimes Against Humanity, by the numbers,eh? Arguably,we could compile a list in descending order of .historical Crimes Against Humanity, maybe starting with the Jewish holocaust. But to what end? To Deny the Palestinian Nakba? To minimize what the Serbs and Croats did to the Muslims in Bosnia? Jews,with some notable exceptions,ie JVP, IJV,and their Christian Zionist allies,don’t acknowledge the immorality of Zionism and the Occupation of the Palestinian People at the expense of another innocent,vulnerable People,at a time when the world had seen the horrors of ethnic cleansing and genocide,and European Colonial powers were in the process of decolonizing..Instead,they engage in the narrative and agenda of Denial and Victim-blaming.Your use of “Falesinian” in place of Palestinian is a stark example of such DENIAL.Holocaust Denial is another such contemporary example.
Part 2
“which the Christian West,and Jews,conveniently/willfully ignore.”
The boy that cries wolf gets ignored. Such are the wages of sin. This is not a hard concept to understand.
How many times have “Palestinian Christian” :leaders” been caught lying on behalf of their Islamist masters, been caught lying on behalf of genocidal, Literal Islamofascist thugs such as Amin al-Husseini. who would have shot or beheaded them as soon as looked at them? How many times have they been caught justifying Murders such as the Munich Massacres?
How many Christian leaders have spoken up against the likes of Arafat perverting the Cross for their political and genocidal aims? Up to and including acts of perfidy such as the weaponization of Red Cross materials?
The West grew tired of fighting over the Levant in the Middle Ages when it saw how little help it would get. Britain and France’s experiences between WWI and the 1950s did little to reassess that. And even separately, the West learned through hard experience to distrust totalitarian propaganda put forth by the like of Fascists and Communists (of which the current Falestinian Authority and its cousins are heirs of), even those ostensibly speaking as Christians.
“The boy that cries wolf gets ignored. Such are the wages of sin. This is not a hard concept to understand.”
Easy to understand within the context of denial and victim-blaming,as is fitting with the narrative and agenda of Zionists and their defenders.
Again, Palestinian Christians find Brotherhood in their fellow Palestinians,victimized by Jews,with the complicity of the West,and their Churches.Zionists often like to deny the historical existence of a Palestinian People,ignorant of the reality that Zionism itself and the Occupation of the Palestinian Homeland by the Jewish diaspora created a Palestinian People.The Palestinians ,as a People, were created in the misery, humiliation,and powerlessness of the Refugee Camps.Whereas European Jews lost their souls in the Death Camps,Palestinians found theirs in the Refugee Camps.
Part 3
” As to your comment, Jews,Christians,and likely many Muslims,especially young women,would acknowledge the need for Islam to embrace Modernity, the sooner,the better.”
The problem with Islam in the Levant is by and large not that it has failed to embrace modernity, but that it has embraced it all too viciously. The Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots are fundamentally a modernist movement, taking the ideology of the Wahhabis and Ikhwan that fought and eventually failed during long 18th-early 20th century wars for Arabia and fusing it with measured engagement with the modern world, as told by that learned Western-educated intellectuals Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb.
Amin al-Husseini took this a step further by drawing inspiration from the budding Muslim Brotherhood movement and then fusing it with Honest-to-God Fascism that he had absorbed through his German and Italian contacts, which is why during the revolts of the 1930s he worked hand in glove with Nazi commandos and Italian intelligence in his goal of genociding Jews and ultimately Christians in the Mandate, in Iraq, and in Syria.
The generations after the old, disgraced Mufti did not have a Reich or a New Rome to turn to for material and ideological succor, so they made partnership with the Soviet Union and its vassal “Arab Socialist” imitators.
Capitalism, Democracy, Good Governance, Rule of Law, Human Rights,are the Hallmarks of Modernity, today. What distinguishes them from the rest is that they mostly work for the people,most of the time. Flawed and imperfect, for sure,but only the Universal Constants are perfect.
Ideologies have their histories,roots and grievances in the context of the times,and conditions, but too often fail to embrace change. For the most part,the West has embraced change,whereas much of Islam has failed in that respect.Islam still has one foot in the past,stuck there,like Communist Cuba,burdened with past injustices and conditions. Pity
Part 4
So what you have is essentially a core of Islamist supremacism adapted to modernity through calculated fusion with elements of 19th/20th century nationalism, Fascism, and Communism. The fact that it still holds traces of pre-modernist influences such as the doctrine of Muslim Supremacy and the ghost of the Millet System does not change that it is a beast that is quite adapted to modernity in a way that the likes of IS were absolutely not.
And you wonder why I, who have had to help rehouse refugees from the Levant, am so indifferent to the self-righteous making their own propagandistic appeals on behalf of Husseini’s heirs while garbed in the cross?
It is at this point that I point to what Christ says about those who lead the little ones astray, and what The Father said about those who carry His name in vain or falsely. Suffice it to say, at the very least the leadership of the “Falestinian Christians” have far, FAR more pressing things to worry about than the Israelis. I do not envy them. At this point, I barely pity them. Christian pity and compassion does not mean blindness to those that sin heinously, especially when mangling God’s Word and betraying the Gospel.
“Suffice it to say, at the very least the leadership of the “Falestinian Christians…”
As far as the Christian community in Occupied Palestine goes,that ship has left the port, thanks largely to the Zionist Occupation of the Palestinian Homeland,or “Falestinian” Homeland,as you would say,and the sequelae of displacement and ethnic cleansing.. Still,with some notable exceptions,ie Maronites,most Israeli Christians self-identify as Palestinian,rather than Israeli.The remaining Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem suffer more from restrictive and smothering Zionist policies than Muslim ideology. The irony of an existential Zionist threat uniting Christian and Muslim Palestinians should not be lost on Jews,or Evangelicals. Just sayin’.
Part 5
“For the most part,Jews and Christians are no longer plagued by the deadly schisms that we witness on a daily basis in Islam ,ie the Sunni/Shia divide.”
And people wonder why?
Though that is not through lack of trying and I fear part of it is due to the rotting away of much of the core of the West under heretics that are at best post-Christian, like a certain alleged Vicar of Rome. For all of John Paul II’s many, many issues (and I speak as a Protestant) he was a far more serious Christian than Francis is.
“It has been decades since Northern Ireland has seen daily violence between Catholics and Protestants like we see between Sunnis and Shia communities and Nations today.”
But the only totalitarians in Ireland were fanatical elements of the IRA, and maybe the odd Fascist among the Unionists. That is not the case in the Levant and it hasn’t been for a long time.
While a Roman Catholic, I have to admit to damning the IRA and it’s terrorist bombings,but the Orangemen were deserving of a corner in Hell alongside the IRA gunmen.
I can’t say anything more about Islam except that while the majority of Muslims are good,decent people,who make contributing citizens as valuable as any other, certain aspects of Islam need to be acknowledged by Muslims and the West as anathema to Western/Christian/Jewish values today,and those aspects of Islam need to be dragged,kicking and screaming if needed,into Modernity. Quote me. Just sayin’.
Part 1
Alas, it looks like some do not learn.
“While I don’t have a dog in that tragic conflict,I do come by my interest honestly.”
You may come by your interest honestly, but you very obviously do NOT exercise it honestly.
” My Grandfather was a Palestinian Christian born in Jerusalem,in the days of the Ottoman Turks,” decades before Zionist Israel was recreated at the expense of Palestinian Christians and non-Jews.”
But centuries after Old Jerusalem had been raised, the Old City of Eastern Jerusalem had been the longest continuous center of Jewish life in the world, and decades after the “Old Yishuv” and Arabs from further abroad both began to migrate to it.
Which the Falestinian Leadership have been trying to viciously erase, up to and including harassment of archaeologists and attempts to redact the archaeological record (with “help” from the likes of UNICEF.
Part 2
” He emigrated to Canada as a young man,and was killed working in the Coal Mines of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.”
Well, while I am little inclined to trust what you write given your obvious track record of dishonesty, if that is true I give my sympathies. He is in God’s hands now, and I trust the judgement of the Fairest Judge.
“”I do have first hand knowledge and experience of ethnic conflict,having been a Regular in an all White Unit in Rhodesia,as well as living/working in Apartheid South Africa for a short time. My comments stand.”
Your comments stand as a catastrophic indictment of your ignorance and stupidity. Testimony of experiences online are cheap, and frankly a factual fallacy remains a factual fallacy even if it is echoed by a SEAL that is a world renowned expert in Guerilla Warfare. And in particular, your attempts to play the usual “anti-Zionism not anti-semitism” shell game underlines how your Grandfather apparently told you essentially nothing about the Husseinis and Arafats.
Part 3
“Occupation, Displacement,Ethnic Cleansing,and Crimes Against Humanity, by the numbers,eh? ”
You really don’t want this discussion to focus on The Numbers, because to do so would be to underline the guilt of the Arab Higher Committee, the Arab League, and the Falestinian Government Organizations as exponentially guiltier of all of the above than Israel. In particular the forced ethnic cleansings (“ideally” by deportation, often by simple murder) of Jews from Baghdad to Morocco going back to the 1930s, climaxing in the genocidal obliteration of the Old City of Jerusalem by the Transjordanians and Husseini’s militias, and ultimately culminating in the massive deportations of the 1960s and 1970s.
And lest you be stupid enough to try and play the race or religion card on me, don’t even bother. Because some member states of the Arab League have since expressed remorse for or at least regret about their actions. Morocco in particular has been trying to encourage Jewish migration back to its country and protection. Admirable in many ways, and it underlines how trying to justify genocide by shouting about Zionists is as immoral as it is futile.
Part 4
“Arguably,we could compile a list in descending order of .historical Crimes Against Humanity, maybe starting with the Jewish holocaust. ”
By all means, let us. I dare you. Because it is not an argument you will ever, ever, Ever be able to win. Especially since Fatah and Hamas both embrace and defend the Holocaust (especially in Arabic, when they think nobody will notice) and enshrine literal collaborators with the Nazis who briefly exported the Final Solution to Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinian Mandate. No Zionist faction is guilty of remotely comparable actions in scale and intent. Even Kahane and Lehi had no interest in exterminating Arabs or Muslims from the face of the planet.
“But to what end? ”
Simple. To evaluate the crimes the different sides are guilty of, to evaluate the truth of the accusations made by the different factions, and to see what parties are primarily responsible for the lack of “Peace for Galilee” and the rest of the Levant.
After all, the Lord God is a Judge and Shrewd measurer of actions, and on occasion he tried to make this fact idiot-proof and self-evident, such as the writing on the wall to the Babylonians.
Part 5
“To Deny the Palestinian Nakba? ”
I deny the “Palestinian Nakba” far less than you do. I will happily talk about its true nature and the atrocities committed by different sides. You on the other hand do not.
Firstly: At the time “Palestinian” did not refer to the Falestinian Arabs, but to the mostly-Jewish “Israelis.” This becomes painfully evident if you actually study primary source documentation at the time (even by those factions quite sympathetic to the Arab League such as the British and Soviets). Which is also unsurprising since the Husseini Clan claimed to be speaking for the Ummah as a whole (an appeal that mostly excluded Christians) while the Arab League claimed to be speaking as a great Arab Nation on behalf of Christian and Muslim “Syrians” and “Egyptians” in the Mandate.
Secondly: As I said before, whatever the tragedies of the Arab civilians, to the leadership behind the Arab League’s war effort, the “Nakba” was that their genocidal plans failed in the face of Israeli resistance. Though the ruins of the Old City of Jerusalem attest it was not for lack of malice or trying. And it is telling for all your egotism and appeals to historical victimization you never once have acknowledged the holocaust in Eastern Jerusalem as the single greatest atrocity in the entire 1948 war (and indeed of that era in the Levant’s history).
Part 6
“To minimize what the Serbs and Croats did to the Muslims in Bosnia?”
In what world did you think I was a Milosevic or Tudjman fan? Laughably absurd from the start, and an indicator you are wildly flailing around, throwing things at me to see if anything sticks. In sharp contrast to the Arab League in 1948 and Tudjman and Milosevic in the 1990s, the Bosnian Muslims were not expansionist they harbored no grandiose plans for ethnic cleansing or genocide. And the figures bear this out. While Izetbegovic was a vile person in his own right and he took many worse figures (including Islamist terrorists) under his wing, they were thoroughly on the defense as the JPA, Krajinan Serb Hardliners, and to a lesser extent Herzg-Bosnian Croats rampaged throughout Bosnia and Herzegovinia.
And crucially, UNLIKE in the Falestinian Territories, no government in the former Yugoslavia openly defends the atrocities committed in the Breakup Wars, let alone literal Nazi Collaborators during the Holocaust. That is a sharp contrast to the cult of the Husseinis tha the Falestinian organizations have put out.
The situation was and is quite different
Part 7
” Jews,with some notable exceptions,ie JVP, IJV,and their Christian Zionist allies,don’t acknowledge the immorality of Zionism”
BECAUSE ZIONISM IS NOT “IMMORAL.” ESPECIALLY IN CONCEPT.
It is the oh-so-“Controversial” idea that Jews deserve to have self-determination in the land they had lived in continuously for thousands of years, like that of any other group. Indeed, claiming that concept in and of itself is immoral is deeply evil, ESPECIALLY when you drill down into the “And then what?” that the stance necessarily requires: Genocide, ethnic cleansing, persecution on par with what the Romans did in the first century CE and what the Nazis (and their local collaborators) sought to do.
But you don’t want to acknowledge that, precisely because it offends your oh-so-precious “sensibilities’ and all encompassing grievances. It would involve raising pointed questions about the existence of the Old Yishuv as a whole and places like the Old City of Jerusalem’s history for literally thousands of years, and particularly since shortly after the first Crusader conquest of it.
And it particularly raises the question of “What now?” Given the wave of Arab League sponsored ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Greater Middle East and how few (with honorable exceptions like Morocco) have the slightest interest in taking them back.
Zionism is and should be non-negotiable.
Part 8
” and the Occupation of the Palestinian People”
“The Palestinian People” originally referred to the Old Yishuv and the communities there, as again becomes PAINFULLY obvious if you bother researching period documents going back to the 19th century. Or you know the basic fact that while Hebrew and Yiddish had “P”s Arabic in the 18th century rarely did, especially in Syria and Egypt.
I would object less to the identification of the Falestinian Arabs as “The Palestinian People” were there not a not-so-subtle attempt to overwrite and deny the Jewish people and history of the region. But there absolutely is, as the Archaeological Wars in Jerusalem and the outlying areas show.
Part 9
“at the expense of another innocent,vulnerable People,”
Oh God Give Me Strength…..
The number of truly innocent peoples, Jews included, is if not zero at least very small. And it is worth noting that it was the cooperation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims during the 19th and early 20th century that turned the region from a literal desert with some spots (as becomes painfully clear if you study documents from WWI) into what it became. There were always malcontents and abuses from the start but the situation was generally looking up until a new generation of fanatics under the “Sheikh Qassem” and the Husseinis raised the banner of mass murder. Not just against the Jews mind, but also the Christians and those Muslims that did not give them what they viewed as due respect
The propagandistic cult about their legacies by the PLO and Hamas puts an eloquent lie to the idea that the Falestinian regimes are anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish, and puts a burning judgement on those that would simultaneously call themselves Christian and pay homage to a clan that tried to wipe Them out.
But we’ve already demonstrated you don’t know much about history in this region, and want to twist what you do know to weaponize it.
Part 10
“at a time when the world had seen the horrors of ethnic cleansing and genocide,”
There has never been a time when the world HASN’T seen the horrors of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Indeed, for much of human history they weren’t even seen as bad things. I direct you to the archaeological ruins of Old Gaza City, which was actually wiped out in a genocidal massacre by the Israelites thousands of years ago. (Which also underlines how if the modern Israel wished to be genocidal, we would not be having this discussion).
“and European Colonial powers were in the process of decolonizing..”
It was BECAUSE of decolonization that Israel was formed, and the first concepts of an Arab Nation-State specific to the region came about.
Part 11
The region was previously subjected to non-European (and if anything even more brutal) colonial empires in the form of Ottoman Turkey and its runaway vassal Muhummad Ali’s Egypt, and indeed the brutal conquest and occupation of the region by the latter, killing about as many people in a few short years during the 1830s and 1840s as have died in all the “Zionist” conflicts since the 1920s to now, with the overwhelming majority of the victims being Arab Muslims and Druze (with Arab Christians and Jews being less numerous but taking pains to reclaim it). By the 1850s the region was retaken by the Ottomans, who proceeded to show they were little better by making plans to exterminate the Jewish and Christian millets, only to be stopped by a mixture of WWI, the for-once vigorous objections of their German Co-Commanders on the front, and the Western Allies caving in the front.
Part 12
Then the British took over, establishing a mandate explicitly for the purpose of creating a Jewish national home (which at the time was broadly popular both in the West and in the Muslim World). But this started running into problems, not the least of which how underdeveloped and underpopulated the region was, and how there were essentially zero Jews living East of the River Jordan. So the British solved the problem by splitting the baby, establishing a Kingdom of Transjordan (now the Kingdom of Jordan) to simultaneously provide a somewhat legitimate government (since the area had been linked to the Hashemites for centuries), contain the Saudis, and help provide representation for Arabs and Muslims
True to form, that didn’t satisfy many people, and that included Jewish and Muslim radicals, with the worst by far being the Husseinis, who exploited their patriarch’s position of trust as Mufti of Jerusalem (which he owed to the British) to raise the banner of Jihad and declare a war of extermination against all non-believers (Translation: All those that did not revere him). The British, in the matter of flailing colonial powers, shifted from appeasing the Jews to appeasing mostly-Muslim Arab anti-Zionists, which they did throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Thus justifiably angering everybody, which meant that after WWII ended the local Jewish militias started shooting at them just as Amin al-Husseini returned from exile to rally his surviving fighters.
Part 13
So after getting shot at by both sides, the British pulled out and the two conflicting “governments” to declare themselves. While the Israelis accepted a partition deal from the UN and Old Man Husseini and the Arab League rejected it. While the Israelis accepted a partition deal from the UN and Old Man Husseini and the Arab League rejected it. And so the sectarian fighting of 1945-47 (much like a redux of that from the 1930s) exploded into a major war in 1948-1949.
“Instead,they engage in the narrative and agenda of Denial and Victim-blaming.”
I see you have practiced Alinsky’s famous dictum of accuse your opponents of that which you are guilty of. Because in truth, it is YOU who are the one that are engaging in Denial. It is ABSOLUTELY YOU who are engaged in the agenda of Victim-Blaming.
It is you who tried to demonize Zionism as a whole, declaring Jews have no right to self-determination or to a nation of their own. As such, you legitimized the genocide of them such as the razing of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1948-49, and countless others. It is You who have obsessed ad infinitum about alleged Christian suffering at the hands of the Israelis while ignoring how Fatah and Hamas agree in little save glorifying men who outright sought to exterminate all Christians in the Levant during the 1930s and 1940s.
Part 14
And it is you who conveniently papered over the thoroughly Fascistic roots and annexationist agendas of organizations like the FLO, which led to utterly avoidable and thoroughly tragic battles like the outbreak of Sectarian War in Beirut during the 1980s and the Black September war in Jordan (remember how I talked about Transjordan’s creation via the partition of the British LoN Mandate for Palestine into Muslim-majority and Jewish-majority areas? Well, up until Black September the FLO considered Jordan to be essentially “Unredeemed Falestinian Clay”, and some of them still do in spite of the utterly ruthless hiding the Hashemites gave to them). It is you who conveniently ignores the role Falestinian Nationalists have played in colonial oppression of other places, such as Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and Syrian-occupied Lebanon.
I am quite happy to talk about the misdeeds of Israel (and I am certain I know about them far better than you). But I have no reason to humor falsehoods or hypocricies, and that is what you mostly push.
Part 15
“Your use of “Falesinian” in place of Palestinian is a stark example of such DENIAL.”
No, it is a stark example of LEXICAL PRECISION, you simpering scumbag.
The FACT of the matter is that it is the more accurate transliteration of the term from Arabic to English, since again Ps are overwhelmingly LOAN LETTERS in the dialects of Arabic present in the Levant and so the “Palestinian” quote unquote as you used them are usually written with characters that are closer to the English “F” or “B.”
I do this also for greater historical accuracy, and to differentiate it from “Palestinians” both to refer to all inhabitants of the British Mandate and the Roman Province, and also to the more specific use of the term to refer to Jews (as again is attested handily).
And you are lucky I am so tolerant and not opposed to the concept of a Falestinian Arab nationhood or people (though I do have an issue with its political leadership and culture), because if I were so inclined I would be completely justified in refusing .
You on the other hand? You are utterly steeped in denial.
“Holocaust Denial is another such contemporary example.”
Such as denial of the Farhud, the genocidal nature of the Husseini insurrections of the 1930s and 1940s, and of the genocide of the Jews of the former Mandate by the Arab League in territories they occupied.
All of which you are guilty of.
Part 16
The differences between the two of us are that I’m not a denier (i am quite HAPPY to talk about Israeli and Jewish war crimes and atrocities, though you apparently aren’t because you resort to vague, intentionally-hard-to-validate-or-falsify accusations), and I actually know a goddamn about the history and linguistics. Which is a pretty sad state of affairs for someone who claims to have had first hand experience, to have been older than me, and to have had a Grandfather who experienced it, but I am left with no reason to conclude otherwise.
Put otherwise, “Git Gud Scrub.”
Or at least stop trying to carry water for a totalitarian dictatorship that draws its ideological heritage from a toxic stew of Medieval Islamic Theocracy, National Socialism, and Stalinism, and whose main ideological problem with Hitler is that he didn’t provide the Husseinis with enough support and that he couldn’t get Rommel across the Suez.
Part 17
“Capitalism, Democracy, Good Governance, Rule of Law, Human Rights,are the Hallmarks of Modernity, today. ”
Funny because Fatah and the CCP disagree. Remind me again: what year of Abbas’s term is it now?
But as far as capitalism, democracy, good governance, the rule of law, and human rights, Israel beats the Falestinian Authority and Hamas handily on all counts of those. As shown by the sizable number of Arab Israelis, and even dissident Falestinians living in exile.
“What distinguishes them from the rest is that they mostly work for the people, most of the time. ”
Except as totalitarians from Marx to Banna noted, the definition of “the people” is quite thorny and liable to abuse and exploitation. And the ability to un-define people from “the people” is about as old as human civilization and was consciously weaponized by the totalitarians of the early 20th century (“Enemy of the People” anybody? Another term from the Soviets that Fatah uses).
“Flawed and imperfect, for sure,but only the Universal Constants are perfect.”
Indeed. And that is also why the testaments of the Universal Constants are so important. And they do not suffer Totalitarian Bronze Calves lightly.
Part 18
“Ideologies have their histories,roots and grievances in the context of the times,and conditions, but too often fail to embrace change.”
Or embrace the wrong kind of change, as I pointed out.
This is word cruft of yours trying too hard to be clever.
” For the most part,the West has embraced change,whereas much of Islam has failed in that respect.”
Change is not a binary. See the discussions on the institution of a Worldly Monarchy in Judah and Israel and the Prophet Samuel’s lament at it. Likewise here. Islam in the Levant did not uniformly fail to change, and indeed many of the problems we see in the region came from accepting change all too handily (whether it be from the influence of Wahhabi theology that had been boiling in Southern Arabia since the 1700s, to the influences of Fascism and Communism in the 1900s, or of the “Iranian Revolution”). There were plenty of evils in the centuries prior (and I would happily write of them), but wooly mammering about “Change” without nuance is a poor guide.
“Islam still has one foot in the past,”
And one foot in the future. But it is in what kinds of pasts and futures that the problem arises.
“stuck there,like Communist Cuba,burdened with past injustices and conditions. Pity”
Ironic given how your ideology is quite similar. And it’s at this point that I note that Communist Cuba was supposed to be the revolutionary, “progressive’ prophet of change to this hemisphere…
Part 19
“As far as the Christian community in Occupied Palestine goes,that ship has left the port, thanks largely to the Zionist Occupation of the Palestinian Homeland,or “Falestinian” Homeland,as you would say,”
Thank you for proving my goddamn point and not realizing how stupid that makes you look. Because apparently the Guardians of the Flock in “the Falestinian Homeland” cared much more for their secular masters and their dogma than about Christ’s Hometown being Islamicized and subjected to Sharia Law. Something that can’t coherently be blamed on Israel, as even a cursory timeline shows.
But I’ imagine you will make a Sisyphean effort to do so anyway.
“and the sequelae of displacement and ethnic cleansing.”
No no, please. Detail the “sequelae of displacement and ethnic cleansing.” Which I note has been more thoroughly done to the Jews than done by them (and indeed the Israeli government regularly cleans out several of the settlements in pursuit of the peace deal).
How well are you familiar with the sequence of events?
I think we both know. But that doesn’t fit your agenda.
Part 20
“. Still,with some notable exceptions,ie Maronites,most Israeli Christians self-identify as Palestinian,rather than Israeli.”
Abject bullshit.
The Falestinian Central Bureau for Statistics estimated in 2017 that there were 47,000 Falestinian Christians living in the region.
https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749cd12.html
In contrast, there are about 185,000 Christians of all national identities living in Israel. And while there are obvious overlaps between the two, the numbers alone tell the tale.
Try to do your research better.
“The remaining Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem suffer more from restrictive and smothering Zionist policies than Muslim ideology. ”
Uhuh, sure brah. Let’s ignore the fact that their population is dropping at about the same pace as in the Gaza Strip, only with far fewer around in the latter case. I have plenty of issues with Israel (and the fact that Netanyahu had to slap down one of his fundamentalist coalition members from banning spreading of the Gospel says little good), but Israel doesn’t go around executing converts from Judaism or Islam to Christianity. The FLO and Hamas do.
“The irony of an existential Zionist threat uniting Christian and Muslim Palestinians should not be lost on Jews,or Evangelicals. Just sayin’.”
You are “just sayin”, but that doesn’t mean what you are saying is correct. It very obviously is not. Now kindly stop wasting my time with lies and shambles of analysis.
Part 21
“While a Roman Catholic, I have to admit to damning the IRA and it’s terrorist bombings,but the Orangemen were deserving of a corner in Hell alongside the IRA gunmen.”
Oh I agree, and I have little love for the Orangemen or Ulster Paramilitaries (or for that matter much of Hagana or Lehi). If anything they deserve it better. But in both cases, terrorism and the method of it were means to an end. When the IRA believed it could defeat the British Army in the field, it tried (and even did so). When it became obvious it could not (especially if it also had to fight the Irish government’s own military as it did in the Civil War) it went underground. I believe a Just God will likely have them all cluster together with the Husseinis and Arafats for a long, long time.
“I can’t say anything more about Islam except that while the majority of Muslims are good,decent people,who make contributing citizens as valuable as any other, certain aspects of Islam need to be acknowledged by Muslims and the West as anathema to Western/Christian/Jewish values today,”
Agreed.
“and those aspects of Islam need to be dragged,kicking and screaming if needed,into Modernity. Quote me. Just sayin’.”
As I mentioned before, much of it depends on the species and nature of modernity. As I pointed out, the Muslim Brotherhood is a creature of modernity. So is Fascism. Indeed, much of them would be unrecognizable to Muhummad, Abu Bark, and Ali.
“Islamist terrorism bringing up the largely-symbolic and utterly vestigial number of “Falestinian Christian” ”
The reason for a “vestigial” number of Christians in Apartheid Israel can be summed up in one word, “NAKBA”. It is both ironic and tragic that Palestinian Christians found sanctuary from ethnic cleansing by Jews in Lebanon,in a Refuge Camp previously occupied by Armenian Christians fleeing their own Genocide by the Turks..
You need to acknowledge the difference between antisemitism and anti-zionism.I suggest you refer to a credible dictionary.Palestinian terrorism needs to be acknowledged and condemned,as do the Crimes of Humanity committed by Jews against the Palestinian People.
“The reason for a “vestigial” number of Christians in Apartheid Israel can be summed up in one word, “NAKBA”. ”
Absolute bulllshit.
Firstly: There is no “Apartheid Israel.” To peddle this is a Lie. If you wish to continue paddling it, I will continue rubbing your nose in the dung you love.
Secondly: The Christian population in Israel is far less “vestigial” than those in the Falestinian Regions. The one in the former has steadily grown since the 1950s, if not the 1590s. In the Falestinian Areas it has remorselessly shrunk over that time. It does not take a genius to realize which side is a greater friend to the House Christ Built.
Especially since there is far greater freedom for apostacy from Judaism and Islam to Christianity and spreading the Gospel in Israel than there is in the Falestinian Territories. Or God Forbid, the West Bank.
“Firstly: There is no “Apartheid Israel.”
I do have first hand experience with Apartheid,Tortoise Herder,South African style.It was pretty ugly,but no uglier than what is going on in Apartheid Israel.I like to compare it to racism in the Southern States vs the Northern States,the former in-your-face,the latter subtle,but real,and impactful.
Now, I do often refer Zionists who falsely equate anti-zionism to antisemitism to a credible dictionary,and the respective and relevant definitions.Well,a taste of my own medicine with respect to equating Apartheid in South Africa and Zionist Israel is in order. The intent is the same, Privilege,and Power,at the expense of the other.The difference: the British and the Boers did not resort to Ethnic Cleansing,unlike the Jews,to gain a majority in their respective,Occupied,Colonized countries.The result, all South Africans,European,African,Asian,or Colored,kept their citizenship,and at the end of the day,all became citizens in post-Apartheid South Africa.No Refuge Camps,no Settlements.Pretty similar to Rhodesia.
Part two
Thirdly: Do not get me started on “The Nakba” because YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE RESULTS.
The Nakba ideology perfectly encapsulates what I have said about how “Falestinian Christians” have let down themselves, their faith, and their flocks. Those that bore the flag Husseini used signed up on behalf of a genocidal, Fascist invasion under the control of a Nazi collaborator who a generation earlier was condemned as too murderous and radical for most proto-Falestinian Arab Muslims. It involved wiping out a whole host of Jewish settlements, including the killing of every Jew captured in Eastern Jerusalem. And the “Nakba” was that they failed to kill them all.
THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH. IS THIS SO HARD TO COMPREHEND?!!? I have little good to say about the Jewish paramilitaries and terrorist outfits like Lehi. As I look more I have less good to say about the likes of Haganah. But they were never committed to genocide. Those that took up arms under the Arab League and al-Husseini were fighting to conclude the Holocaust, and they were beaten for it. Indeed, they deserved to be beaten even more soundly than they were in 1949, as would happen in 1967 and 1973.
” Do not get me started on “The Nakba” because YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE RESULTS.”
The Nakba is real, just as the Holocaust is real.Both Nakba and Holocaust are part of the historical record,and open to investigation,revision,validation. Any other interpretation or narrative qualifies as DENIAL,unless,of course,you believe in Conspiracy Theories.
Part 3
“It is both ironic and tragic that Palestinian Christians found sanctuary from ethnic cleansing by Jews in Lebanon,in a Refuge Camp previously occupied by Armenian Christians fleeing their own Genocide by the Turks..”
The fact that you identify this as “ethnic cleansing” tips your hand and reveals the true nature of it. The Israelis were not anti-Christian, indeed they were not committed to being anti-Muslim or anti-Arab. However they had every reason to be suspicious of a nationalist, totalitarian ideology that demonized them, dehumanized them, and that idolized people who aligned with Hitler to try and exterminate them from Bosnia to Baghdad. Something most “Falestinian Christians” dutifully adhered to.
It also amuses me how you omit the inconvenient parts of history. It is telling that when violence came to Beirut, it largely did so at the behest of the PLO. And when violence was visited upon the “refugee camps” both in Jordan and Lebanon, it largely came as a result of the bellicose, violent foreign policies of the PLO. How many Falestinian Christian leaders spoke up against Arafat when he invaded wider Beirut and threatened to rig it with explosives and blow it up?
““ethnic cleansing” tips your hand and reveals the true nature of it. The Israelis were not anti-Christian, indeed they were not committed to being anti-Muslim or anti-Arab.”
The motive for the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians,whether Christian or Muslim, was simple land greed, greed that persists to this day,in the form of Settlement. This all falls under “Facts on the Ground”. I suspect we could also apply it to Nazi Crimes Against Humanity and the Jews. It is what it is.Pity.
Part 4
Indeed, most of those committing the worst atrocities against Falestinians in Lebanon (beyond the PLO) WERE Christians, the Falange. Who for all of their many, many sins were fervent Christians that repudiated Dhimmitude and loved their idea of nationhood no less than the Falestinians did.
Indeed, the massacres there were ironically restrained by the Israelis, in an act I am sure you will give them absolutely zero credit for. Because you use history as a drunk uses a light post, for support rather than illumination, and because it guts your narrative of an anti-Christian Israel with genocidal Jews.
By their fruits you shall know them. Turns out, there are consequences to placing nationalist ideology and totalitarian obedience to the state over the Cross, and the Lebanese (Christians and not) grew mighty sick of the Falestinian Politicians supporting the likes of Nasser and Syrian Annexationism going back to 1958.
“ndeed, the massacres there were ironically restrained by the Israelis, in an act I am sure you will give them absolutely zero credit for.”
Zionist Israel was cited as at least complicit by omission,if not commission, in the Sabra and Shatila massacres Just sayin’..
Part 5
“You need to acknowledge the difference between antisemitism and anti-zionism.”
I have no problem acknowledging the difference between antisemitism and anti-zionism.
YOU need to acknowledge that the latter is often used as a stalking horse for the former.
You ALSO need to acknowledge that any nationalist or political mythology that idealizes the al-Husseini clan is very obviously trafficking in anti-Jewish hatred far more than it is “anti-Zionist”. The man who helped orchestrate the genocide of the Jews of Baghdad in 1941 was obviously not doing so because of “anti-Zionism.” Nor is Fatah lionizing him for doing so.
However naive and foolish I may be, I am not as naive and foolish as those who would be tricked by this weak chaff of yours.
“I suggest you refer to a credible dictionary.”
I suggest you define what a “credible dictionary” is. And then show you have any justification for doing so.
Part 7
“Palestinian terrorism needs to be acknowledged and condemned,as do the Crimes of Humanity committed by Jews against the Palestinian People.”
Ah yes, false equivalence. I love how you obsess over “Palestinian” Nationalism while merely identifying all Israelis as “Jews.” Because apparently we’re supposed to ignore the host of Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Atheists in the IDF.
The problem, which you wantonly ignore, is that the crimes against humanity committed by the “Falestinian” Authorities are far more systematic and premeditated than that by the “Jews”, as going back to the Arab Higher Committee for Struggle.
Moreover, “Terrorism” is ultimately a means to an end, a strategy rather than a goal. The difference is, for all of their many sins the Haganah and Lehi and others used terrorism in an attempt to secure an independent nation. The Arab Higher Committee and the Arab League used terrorism as a strategy to try and exterminate the Jews and Israelis.
Any pretense that this was just about Zionism died in the streets of Baghdad in 1941 during the Farhud.
The Israelis have been far more willing to make peace with their neighbors and to protect the rights of Christians than the house the Husseinis built.
Part 1
“I do have first hand experience with Apartheid,Tortoise Herder, South African style.”
The assertions of a proven liar and historical illiterate online are of little interest to me. If you do have such first hand experience with Apartheid, kindly identify the analogous law or laws in Israel to South Africa’s Separate Amenities Act of 1953. Which after all was the very essence of APART-HEID, APART-NESS.
This shouldn’t be too hard.
“SIt was pretty ugly,but no uglier than what is going on in Apartheid Israel.”
Nice assertion. Again, where is your evidence? What is the equivalent to the Separate Amenities Act of 1953? Oh also: The National Party ran a One Party Plus Asterisks State, with authoritarian limits on parliamentary process and the outlawing of several dissident parties. It also was so entrenched that reform ultimately had to come from both below (and the threat of revolt) and within (with the Nat Party Leadership signing away). In contrast Israel has seen many changes of governments and ruling parties in a way neither Rhodes’s Rhodesia (or Mugabe’s for that matter) or South Africa prior to 1994 did.
Part 2
“I like to compare it to racism in the Southern States vs the Northern States,the former in-your-face,the latter subtle,but real,and impactful.”
The fact that you think this is a good argument underlines your incompetence. Because Apartheid- ACTUAL Apartheid in contrast to its cousin in Rhodesia, to say nothing of other societies- is BUILT upon being In Your Face, and having as little subtlety or things left to the imagination as possible. Which is why you had signs pointedly telling who could and could not use a given set of facilities, bans on intermarriage, attempts to calve off separate homes, and even the secret police roaming around bombing people or dragging them out (as the cast of the first Zulu movie found out).
Which is why while there was segregation and even Jim Crow in the Northern States, Apartheid was built from the ground up to be even more pervasive and domineering. And attempts to argue about invisible impacts and subtlety merely gnaw away at the basis for your argumentation.
Part 3
“Now, I do often refer Zionists who falsely equate anti-zionism to antisemitism to a credible dictionary, and the respective and relevant definitions.”
As I already pointed out, I’m way ahead of you because I know the difference, I acknowledge it, and I can also point to the proven track record of Jew Haters trying to pretend they are “merely” anti-Zionist. And how on close scrutiny this collapses utterly and completely when I slap their stupid heads with things like the Farhud and the continued glorification of its perpetrators by the FA, FLO, Falestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
Because the Husseinis and the Golden Square taking pains to murder the century-old Jewish community of Baghdad was very obviously not primarily about “Zionism”, and it stands to reason that those that would glorify and defend that action and others are not primarily opposed to “Zionism” except as much as it means the continued existence of Jews, especially in a national home.
It’s a bad moment when I have to give the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah credit for being the more honest of the lot, since they will periodically talk about how the existence of Israel is good in as much as it provides a way to concentrate the Jews into a place where many of them can be killed. Fatah is usually more “subtle” about it (at least in non-Arabic language sources) but their Arabic language rhetoric as well as who they glorify say plenty.
Try. Again.
Part 4
“Well,a taste of my own medicine with respect to equating Apartheid in South Africa and Zionist Israel is in order. ”
To say the least.
“The intent is the same, Privilege,and Power,at the expense of the other.”
Again, bull shit and this gives a handy demonstration of why you are not trustworthy.
” The difference: the British and the Boers did not resort to Ethnic Cleansing,unlike the Jews,to gain a majority in their respective,Occupied,Colonized countries.”
So you’re doubling down on stupid AND undermining your claim to actually know South African history. Kindly study the early years of the settlement of the Cape under the VOC as well as the entire purpose of the Bantustans (themselves revealingly named after the Bantu, who were latecomers to the Cape but bludgeoned their way over older peoples like the San and the Dutch).
It’s also humorous you only apply this to one side of the conflict in the Levant while utterly ignoring literal Holocaust-Lite renditions in places like East Jerusalem. Do you really think the Jewish Population of Eastern Jerusalem vanished voluntarily around 1949?
But of course, you don’t want to acknowledge the ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and outright Genocide of the Arab League and the Arab Higher Committee, because it would destroy any claim you have to a moral or legal high ground.
Part 5
“The result, all South Africans,European,African,Asian,or Colored,kept their citizenship,and at the end of the day,all became citizens in post-Apartheid South Africa.No Refuge Camps,no Settlements.Pretty similar to Rhodesia.”
The fact that you’re claiming this was pretty similar to Rhodesia while utterly ignoring how the ZANU-PF Government engaged in systematic ethnic cleansing and even GENOCIDE on a scale *FAR BEYOND THE ENTIRE SCALE OF THE WARS IN THE LEVANT* blows a giant hole in your claims to have been an infantryman that served in Rhodesia, your claims to have historical knowledge of the region, and your general claims to be a humane or concerned Christian.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/trauma-of-genocide-lives-on-in-zimbabwe/1680755
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/15/zimbabwe.chrismcgreal
I’m an admitted lifelong civilian. REMF or Reservist status would be a step up for me. I spent a few months of my life living and working in Africa, only some of which in Southern Africa. But even I knew about the Gukurahundi and the systematic, worse-than-Apartheid attempts to cleanse “undesirables” from the region.
But apparently you, the veteran infantryman who served Rhodesia, didn’t?
Or at least had absolutely no problems with whitewashing yet another racist, totalitarian, genocidal dictatorship’s ambitions and actions to demonize Jews?
I’d say Devil Take You, but I think He already has.
Part 2
Christian Crusaders from the not-then-Liberal West did come to free the region. They came in their thousands and thousands at great expense over the course of centuries. Kings fought, died, or were even captured. They often committed hideous acts and sins, it is true, but they erected Christian realms throughout the Levant. But they could not unite or endure in the face of Muslim numerical superiority and a largely craven local Christian leadership that was accustomed to Dhimmitude. So eventually the Crusaders stopped coming for centuries. It would be 1917 before another army bearing the Cross came to the land Christ lived in, and it was a polyglot multi faith one by the British Empire and other Western Allies fighting the Ottoman Turks and the Germans and Austrians-Hungarians and In the Levant.
So to you who seeks to vilify the West, let me ask this:
What do the supposed Christian Falestinians do when they bow the knee to totalitarian, Islamist terrorists in Fatah and Hamas? What do they do when the mass murdering, genocidal lunatics of the Al-Husseinis (who murdered them by the thousands during the revolts of the 1930s) are lauded as the epitome of the “Palestinian” National Identity? What did they do when. Bethlehem and other cities were remorselessly Islamicized, their Christian populations being driven to submission, exile, or extinction? How often do they recall the Good Samaritan and remember the commandment THOU SHALT NOT MuRDER?
Part 3
How often do they look across the demarcation to the Christian communities in Israel!?!?
I have plenty of issues with Isr ae l and its religious policies, but it is far better for Christians than the so called Palestinian Territories have been. Regimes that command idolatry of the ancient Phillistines as part of a great national lie, have loyally adhered to Dhimmitude under Muslim regimes, and who have generally accepted the prosecution of other members of the flock and the murder of the innocent by Islamists.
The Falestinians as a whole have a great deal of soul searching to do, but those claiming to be Christian generally have even more.
Also remember what Christ said about motes and planks.
Jews, Christian Zionists,Evangelicals,and the Christian West,including America,have to go beyond denial and victim-blaming,and at the very least acknowledge Crimes and Sins committed against the Palestinian People,whether they are Palestinian Catholics,other Palestinian Christian,or non-Jews, if there is to be a just and fair solution to this long-standing conflict..
By Claire Porter Robbins in Jerusalem 7 April 2023 • 3:06pm
“Jerusalem’s Christians brace for attacks by Israeli extremists as they prepare to celebrate Easter ”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/07/jerusalem-christian-israeli-extremists-easter-attacks/
Great another Jew Hater among us. I see you are racking up the down votes. And your source is a Brit Jew Hating web site.
Well, Tortose Herder, thank you for a respectful, knowledgeable debate on the Falestinian/Apartheid Israel conflict. Given your skills,here,I suggest you be upgraded to Cat Herder. Till we joust ,again. Meanwhile,I must rest,and tend to my battle wounds.
“Well, Tortose Herder, thank you for a respectful, knowledgeable debate on the Falestinian/Apartheid Israel conflict. ”
I wish I could say the same for you, but I won’t.
Over the course of this dispute you have whitewashed and played shill to literal annihilationist genocidaires too many times to count. This is particularly evident when it comes to the conflicts in the Levant, where you will wax poetic about a “vestigial” Christian population in Israel (while ignoring how it is growing more prosperously than the Christian populations in FA or Hamas controlled territory) and talk about ethnic cleansing and Apartheid by Jews while ignoring the systematic campaigns of genocide against them by the Husseinis and Arab League.
How you will ignore Israeli attempts to minimize civilian casualties and prevent atrocities by their allies like the Lebanese to no credit.
That’s expected.
But for you to posture about being a veteran South Africa hand while utterly ignoring the Matabeland Massacres and the ZANU-PF policies of genocide against San, Nbedele, and Whites? In spite of things having no direct ramifications for the conflicts in Israel/Palestine (unless of course one considers that trying to legitimize ZANU-PF’s actions as “decolonization” and anti-Apartheid measures will allow the FA and Hamas to do similar)?
That’s more profane than all the curse words I’ve hurled your way.
Part 2
“Given your skills,here,I suggest you be upgraded to Cat Herder. Till we joust again.”
Honestly if this is going to be how you conduct yourself please spare us all the trouble. Do more research, and in particular soul-searching. I do not claim to be the best Christian or the best human being, but I have never felt the need to lie in an attempt to smear an entire ethnic group with the charge of apartheid or genocide. I have also never felt the need to cover up or even justify the atrocities of a dictatorship or other regime just because they are “on my side” or part of my history.
The same obviously cannot be said for you, in light of your attempts to paper over the importance of the Cult of the Husseinis in modern Falestinian Nationalism and outright denialism about the Farhud, the genocide of Eastern Jerusalem, and the “Rains that Wash away the Chaff.”
You are in even greater moral and spiritual crisis than I am, and coming after an Easter of gluttony and several posts of wrathful posting that is saying something.
” Meanwhile,I must rest,and tend to my battle wounds””
Tend to your spiritual wounds first. One need not like Israelis or Jews or abandon commitment to the Falestinian National Idea in order to avoid carrying water for mass murder by the likes of Mugabe and Amin al-Husseini.
Jesus is the innocent Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed for all of us.
LUKE 1:26-33 “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His Father David, And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Thanks for this Easter message! It was wonderful to read.
Okay…it’s now the 9th, this story’s been posted for two days. Time to post a new lead story.
Love the picture.
I have done a bit of reading on this topic, and I agree with the article. However, I was surprised to see an article like this on Frontpagemag.. Does it mean that David Horowitz and/or Daniel Greenfield are Christians? Just wondering.