Are You Ready to Face the Facts About Israel?

by Paul Craig Roberts

"On October 21 (1948) the Government of Israel took a decision that was to have a lasting and divisive effect on the rights and status of those Arabs who lived within its borders: the official establishment of military government in the areas where most of the inhabitants were Arabs." - Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History
I had given up on finding an American with a moral conscience and the courage to go with it and was on the verge of retiring my keyboard when I met the Rev. Thomas L. Are.
Rev. Are is a Presbyterian pastor who used to tell his Atlanta, Georgia, congregation: "I am a Zionist." Like most Americans, Rev. Are had been seduced by Israeli propaganda and helped to spread the propaganda among his congregation.
Around 1990 Rev. Are had an awakening for which he credits the Christian Canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and author Marc Ellis, co-editor of the book, Beyond Occupation.
Realizing that his ignorance of the situation on the ground had made him complicit in great crimes, Rev. Are wrote a book hoping to save others from his mistake and perhaps in part to make amends, Israeli Peace/Palestinian Justice, published in Canada in 1994.
Rev. Are researched his subject and wrote a brave book. Keep in mind that 1994 was long prior to Walt and Mearsheimer's recent book, which exposed the power of the Israel Lobby and its ability to control the explanation Americans receive about the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Rev. Are begins with an account of Israel's opening attack on the Palestinians, an event which took place before most Americans alive today were born. He quotes the distinguished British historian, Arnold J. Toynbee: "The treatment of the Palestinian Arabs in 1947 (and 1948) was as morally indefensible as the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis. Though nor comparable in quantity to the crimes of the Nazis, it was comparable in quality."
Golda Meir, considered by Israelis as a great leader and by others as one of history's great killers, disputed the facts: "It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist."
Golda Meir's apology for Israel's great crimes is so counter-factual that it blows the mind. Palestinian refugee camps still exist outside Palestine filled with Palestinians and their descendants whose towns, villages, homes and lands were seized by the Israelis in 1948. Rev. Are provides the reader with Na'im Ateek's description of what happened to him, an 11-year old, when the Jews came to take Beisan on May 12, 1948. Entire Palestinian communities simply disappeared.
In 1949 the United Nations counted 711,000 Palestinian refugees.
In 2005 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimated 4.25 million Palestinians and their descendants were refugees from their homeland.
The Israeli policy of evicting non-Jews has continued for six decades. On June 19, 2008, the Laity Committee in the Holy Land reported in Window Into Palestine that the Israeli Ministry of Interior is taking away the residency rights of Jerusalem Christians who have been reclassified as "visitors in their own city."
On December 10, 2007, MK Ephraim Sneh boasted in the Jerusalem Post that Israel had achieved "a true Zionist victory" over the UN partition plan "which sought to establish two nations in the land of Israel." The partition plan had assigned Israel 56 percent of Palestine, leaving the inhabitants with only 44 percent. But Israel had altered this over time. Sneh proudly declared: "When we complete the permanent agreement, we will hold 78 percent of the land while the Palestinians will control 22 percent."
Sneb could have added that the 22 percent is essentially a collection of unconnected ghettos cut off from one another and from roads, water, medical care, and jobs.
Rev. Are documents that the abuse of Palestinians' human rights is official Israeli policy. Killings, torture, and beatings are routine. On May 17, 1990, the Washington Post reported that Save the Children "documented indiscriminate beating, tear-gassing and shooting of children at home or just outside the house playing in the street, who were sitting in the classroom or going to the store for groceries."
On January 19, 1988, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, later Prime Minister, announced the policy of "punitive beating" of Palestinians. The Israelis described the purpose of punitive beating: "Our task is to recreate a barrier and once again put the fear of death into the Arabs of the area."
According to Save the Children, beatings of children and women are common. Rev. Are, citing the report in the Washington Post, writes: "Save the Children concluded that one-third of beaten children were under ten years old, and one-fifth under the age of five. Nearly a third of the children beaten suffered broken bones."
On February 8, 1988, Newsweek magazine quoted an Israeli soldier: "We got orders to knock on every door, enter and take out all the males. The younger ones we lined up with their faces against the wall, and soldiers beat them with billy clubs. This was no private initiative, these were orders from our company commander.... After one soldier finished beating a detainee, another soldier called him 'you Nazi,' and the first man shot back: 'You bleeding heart.' When one soldier tried to stop another from beating an Arab for no reason, a fist fight broke out."
These were the old days before conscience was eliminated from the ranks of the Israeli military.
In the London Sunday Times, June 19, 1977, Ralph Schoenman, executive director of the Bertrand Russell Foundation, wrote: "Israeli interrogators routinely ill-treat and torture Arab prisoners. Prisoners are hooded or blindfolded and are hung by their wrists for long periods. Most are struck in the genitals or in other ways sexually abused. Most are sexually assaulted. Others are administered electric shock."
Amnesty International concluded that "there is no country in the world in which the use of official and sustained torture is as well established and documented as in the case of Israel."
Even the pro-Israeli Washington Post reported: "Upon arrest, a detainee undergoes a period of starvation, deprivation of sleep by organized methods and prolonged periods during which the prisoner is made to stand with his hands cuffed and raised, a filthy sack covering the head. Prisoners are dragged on the ground, beaten with objects, kicked, stripped and placed under ice-cold showers."
Sounds like Abu Gharib. There are news reports that Israeli torture experts participated in the torture of the detainees assembled by the American military as part of the Bush Regime's propaganda onslaught to convince Americans that Iraq was overflowing with al-Qaeda terrorists. On July 23, 2008, Antiwar.com posted an Iraqi news report that the Iraqi government had released a total of 109,087 Iraqis that the Americans had "detained." Obviously, these "terrorist detainees" had been used for the needs of Bush Regime propaganda. No one will ever know how many of them were abused by Israeli torturers imported by the CIA.
Rev. Are's book makes sensible suggestions for resolving the conflict that Israel began. However, the problem is that Israeli governments believe only in force. The policy of the Israeli government has always been to beat, kill, and brutalize Palestinians into submission and flight. Anyone who doubts this can read the book of Israel's finest historian Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006).
Americans are a gullible and naive people. They have been complicit for 60 years in crimes that in Arnold Toynbee's words "are comparable in quality" to the crimes of Nazi Germany. As Toynbee was writing decades ago, the accumulated Israeli crimes might now be comparable also in quantity.
The US routinely vetoes United Nations condemnations of Israel for its brutal crimes against the Palestinians. Insouciant American taxpayers have been bled for a half century to provide the Israelis with superior military weapons with which Israelis assault their neighbors, all the while convincing America – essentially a captive nation – that Israel is the victim.
John F. Mahoney wrote: "Thomas Are reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: an active pastor who comes to the unsettling realization that he and his people have been fed a terrible lie that is killing and torturing thousands of innocent men, women and children. Not without ample research and prayer does such a pastor, in turn, risk unsettling his congregation. The Reverend Are has done his homework and, I suspect, has prayed often and long during the writing of this courageous book."
Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian and pastor who was executed for his active participation in the German Resistance against Nazism.
Professor Benjamin M. Weir, San Francisco Theological Seminary, wrote: "This book will make the reader squirm. It asks you to lend your voice in behalf of the voiceless."
Americans who can no longer think for themselves and who are terrified of disapproval by their peer group are incapable of lending their voices to anyone except those who control the world of propaganda in which they live.
The ignorance and unconcern of Americans is a great frustration to my friends in the Israeli peace movement. Without outside support those Israelis who believe in good will are deprived, by America's support for their government's policy of violence, of any peaceful resolution of a conflict began in 1947 by Israeli aggression against unsuspecting Palestinian villages.
Rev. Are wrote his book with the hope that the pen is mightier than the sword and that facts can crowd out propaganda and create a framework for a just resolution of the Palestinian issue. In his concluding chapter, "What Christians Can Do," Rev. Are writes: "We cannot allow others to dictate our thinking on any subject, especially on anything as important as Christian faithfulness, which is tested by an attitude towards seeking justice for the oppressed. It's a Christian's duty to know."
Duty, of course, has costs. Rev. Are writes: "Speak up for the Palestinians and you will make enemies. Yet, as Christians, we must be willing to raise issues that until now we have chosen to dodge."
More than a decade later, President Jimmy Carter, a true friend of Israel, tried again to awaken Americans' moral conscience with his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter was instantly demonized by the Israel Lobby.
Sixty years of efforts by good and humane people to hold Israel accountable have so far failed, but they are more important today than ever before. Israel has its captive American nation on the verge of attacking Iran, the consequences of which could be catastrophic for all concerned. The alleged purpose of the attack is to eliminate nonexistent Iranian nuclear weapons. The real reason is to eliminate all support for Hamas and Hezbollah so that Israel can seize the entire West Bank and southern Lebanon. The Bush regime is eager to do Israel's bidding, and the media and evangelical "Christian" churches have been preparing the American people for the event.
It is paradoxical that Israel is demonstrating that veracity lies not in the Christian belief in good will but in Lenin's doctrine that violence is the effective force in history and that the evangelical Christian Zionist churches agree.

Enough already!

By Frank Scott Online Journal Contributing Writer

While a cowardly congress avoids prosecuting George W. Bush for using the constitution as toilet paper and getting us into war by twisting facts even more than his syntax, more serious problems await their failure to act as representatives of the American people.
Problems such as: Should we bomb Iran for Israel, or pay Israel to bomb Iran and either way suffer the consequences? Should we resolve this dilemma with the present regime, or wait for the new executive staff next year? How long can the international community -- the USA, Israel, a British lapdog and a French poodle -- tolerate the mad killer in Tehran who threatens to exterminate Jews, sodomize puppies and rape white women in his demonic campaign to rule the world. Or something like that.
Our political paparazzi spread stories of Ahmadinejad and Iran that are almost that blatantly idiotic. As madmen press for us to murder more people in their quest for a divinity that will leave them chosen survivors of a nuclear holocaust, our corporate congress acts as willing servant. It is only aroused to action when Zionists snap their fingers, or when neocons wave a flag.
No wonder so many are swept up in a passionate hope that dulls the senses, but at least seems to offer some light at a very dark time. It is necessary to be asleep to experience a dream, but now we need to be comatose to imagine an American Dream of prosperity, peace and justice, let alone a self-focused one of personal success. A fully awakened people have to confront the present crisis before it becomes an American Nightmare.
The constant leaking of information about planned attacks on Iran indicate that groups within the establishment, supportive of empire but opposed to its present madness, are trying to avoid disaster. But the ruling fanatics are also hard at work, and with the most spineless opposition our nation has ever known -- if they’d been around during the American revolution we’d all be speaking with British accents -- there is a vital need to come out of our political slumber, or mythical dreams will become factual nightmares.
While it’s easy to see that attacking Iran could be more insanely destructive than the slaughter we have caused in Iraq, that is only apparent to those with some sense remaining after having our heads beaten to a pulp by distortions of reality. Our irrational consciousness controllers claim that Iran threatens mankind, especially Jewish mankind, and this based on evidence as convincing as proof of how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
When Ahmadinejad quoted his Imam and said that the rulers of Israel, like those of the Soviet Union, would vanish into history, it somehow became a threat of holocaust revival, endlessly repeated by those incapable of coherent reasoning in English, let alone the Persian spoken by Ahmadinejad.
At a time of confusion and fear, many Americans who hardly believe much their government and its controlling institutions say, seem ready to swallow any bilge shoved into their heads if it’s about the Islamic world. This may be a time for the doubters of much that they are told, most of the time, to become disbelievers in everything they are told, all the time.
Given that we are supposedly a nation of believers, it might be better if we prayed for guidance from immaterial forces before letting hysterical crackpots push us into supporting material action of ever more murderous intolerance and stupidity.
Iran is neither a threat to America, nor is its nuclear program any of our business. Especially since our business involves being the only nation to have ever used nukes, arming ourselves with more of them, and remaining silent about the mass murder potential of the primary source of moronic fables about Iran. That would be AIPAC -- the American Jewish lobby -- and Israel, where Mordechai Vanunu spent years in prison for trying to tell the world that it is as great a threat to humanity as is the USA. Why? It is founded on a myth of perpetual threat of annihilation at the hands of the rest of the world, so that any defense against that threat, however irrational, is deemed logical and even divine.
For the moment, the paranoia is focused on Iran, but it once was Iraq and soon could be any nation or group that incurs the animosity of Israel’s American lobby. And it doesn't take much beyond honest criticism to incur the highly financed rage of that lobby and its sentiment of pending doom, based on biblical legend more than historic reality. If descendants of Native Americans and African slaves had the same psychological aberration, Americans might never be allowed to sleep again.
A public almost desperate to see the Bush regime fade away seems to have been lulled into a state of greater passivity than usual. But the incredible nature of proposed war on Iran may be, hopefully, pushing many closer to action. If that only involves a gentile sector of the ruling class, relief will be brief, at best. If it means a breakthrough in desires and demands for a truly democratic society run by a majority of citizens and not their minority rulers, we may not only avert short-term disaster but bring on real long term-hope for progress.
If we remain angry, confused and lashing out at innocent scapegoats instead of challenging real power, an outlook that can seem personally bleak could soon turn into one of social disaster. It is long past the time for Americans to say we’ve had enough and we can’t take it anymore. That means ending the dictatorship of corporate wealth and Zionism, and beginning a democracy of all the people. Can we? We’d better.

Copyright © 2008 Frank Scott. All rights reserved.Frank Scott writes political commentary which appears in the Coastal Post, a monthly publication from Marin County, California, and on numerous web sites, and on his shared blog at legalienate.blogspot.com. Contact him at frankscott@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online JournalEmail Online Journal Editor

Zionist Terrorist Web Site brags about bombings and shows pics

Son of a Zionist Terrorist: Rahm Emanual’s Dirty Secret

The new "golden boy" of the Democrat Party, the Israeli-American congressman Rahm Emanuel, is the son of terrorist.

Really, I am not making this up, the chief power-broker of the Democrat Party, the 5-and-a-half foot foul-mouthed Israeli named Rahm, is the son of terrorist – a real living terrorist.

So, what do we do as citizens of the land of the free and the home of the brave fighting the War on Terror?

Do we run and hide from the foul-mouthed little Israeli who danced ballet and swears for effect - or do we laugh? Or do we demand answers? How can we respect a U.S. Congressman who served in a foreign army and whose father was a terrorist?

Rep. Rahm Benjamin Emanuel, the Democrat congressman for the 5th District of Illinois in Chicago is the son of an Israeli terrorist. Rahm's father, Benjamin, was a member of the Irgun, the Zionist terrorist organization that coined a new word as they blew up hotels, train stations, and other buildings in Palestine in the 1930s and 40s.

Rahm was an Israeli citizen until he was 18 years old, when for obvious reasons he hid his Israeli passport in his underwear drawer. In 1991, however, he pulled his Israeli passport out and went and reportedly joined the Israeli Army to defend Zion from Saddam's Scuds.

Irgun, the army of his father, is short for Irgun Zvai Leumi, which supposedly means something like "National Military Organization" in Hebrew. As a matter of fact, the Irgun was simply a terrorist Zionist group that operated in Palestine from 1931 to 1948. They killed innocent Palestinians and British soldiers and blew up buildings.

After 1948 they became part of the new Israeli government and did the same thing. In September 2001 they put their skills to work in New York City and Washington to kick start the "war on terror" - a conflict long promoted by their chief architect, Bibi Netanyahu, son of the former secretary of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. [Ze'ev's former name was Vladimir]

The Irgun even has a website with pictures of the buildings they blew up before they demolished the World Trade Center with Thermite and high explosives:

(Note: There are numerous pictures of Irgun terrorist activities at this link.)

In Israel, the Irgun is referred to as Etzel, an acronym of the group's Hebrew initials. The Irgun was considered a terrorist organization by the British authorities as well as by mainstream Zionist and Jewish organizations, such as the Jewish Agency, the Haganah and the Histadrut. (It just has not made it onto the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations – even after blowing up the World Trade Center. Some people are slow to learn.)

Irgun was founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the relationship with Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism made it the predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut and Likud parties.

Guess who runs Israel today?

Answer: The sons and daughters of Irgun. (Check out the commander list on the Etzel website if you don't believe me.)

Guess who runs the United States today? The same people – let's start with Rahm Emanuel.

Of course you won't find anything Rep. Emanuel's father's exploits in Palestine on Rahm's website.

The late Sherman Skolnick of Chicago called Rahm Emanuel the "Acting Deputy Chief for North America of the Mossad – Israeli Intelligence.

Skolnick went on to say that Emanuel's father Benjamin had been "part of the Israeli assassin team that murdered Sweden's Count [Folke] Bernadotte" in 1948. Bernadotte was the envoy of the United Nations in Palestine who sought to find a solution to the UN Partition Plan that gave Palestinian land to Jews from "beyond the pale."

Was Skolnick correct? Skolnick does not document his claims so checked into his allegations.

"Beyond the pale" would certainly describe where Rahm Emanuel's family came from. His father's family came to Palestine from somewhere in the Ukraine in 1917, according to what Dr. Benjamin M. Emanuel told me the other day. Dr. Emanuel now lives on the appropriately named Locust Road in Wilmette, Illinois.

Benjamin, speaking with a thick Israeli accent, told me that his father's name was Ezekiel Auerbach and that his mother's name was Pinina or something like that. He said it meant "pearl" in Hebrew. Asked about his role in the Irgun, Ben told me he had been a "simple soldier."

Yes, Ben, but serving as "simple soldier" in a terrorist organization makes you a terrorist. And the fact that you served in a terrorist organization 60 years ago makes no difference. You know, same rules for Nazis and terrorists.

Is that not what all those fellows in Guantanamo are being held for?

The Emanuel family name was Auerbach until 1936, although they are not related to the famous rabbinical family of Germany and Krakow named Auerbach. Ben said that his family was from Russia. (Well, the pale but not quite Russia.)

His father Ezekiel supposedly changed the family name to Emanuel when his son with that name died fighting Palestinians in 1936.

Many Jewish families in Palestine changed their names to make themselves sound like they actually came from Palestine. And you wondered where all those Jews disappeared during World War II?

Sheinerman became Sharon, Yezernitzky became Shamir, and Auerbach became Emanuel, and so on. And then multiply by a few hundred thousand. Voila! Millions of European Jews vanish from the face of the Earth - and build new lives in Palestine.

Ben told me that Emanuel Auerbach had died from "shrapnel in the knee" in 1936. When I asked him today for details on this incident he suddenly decided that he did not want to do an interview on the phone and hung up.

But before he terminated the conversation, Dr. Benjamin Auerbach-cum-Emanuel told me that he had been a member of the Irgun and had served under Menachem Begin. He told me that he had never met Begin and had not smuggled weapons into Palestine, other news reports notwithstanding.

Naftali Bendavid (not a local reporter) with The Chicago Tribune spent 18 months working with Rahm Emanuel to prepare a story for the week after the mid-term elections although Naftali did not think that there was enough room in the 9-page story to mention the salient fact that Dr. Benjamin Emanuel had been a member of the terrorist organization – the Irgun.

No. In 9 pages of Bendavid's fluff piece there was simply no room to mention the ugly fact that Rahm's father had been a member of a terrorist organization.

Naftali Bendavid (clearly of Israeli persuasion) wrote a 9-page cover story for last Sunday's paper, which took up the entire second section of the now-failing Chicago Tribune. (The latest rumor in Chicago is that the indicted but not convicted Zionist criminal Maurice Greenberg may buy the Tribune.)

(This is the same paper that actually hired an outside writer from TIME magazine to co-author a short piece in order to properly smear me and misrepresent the story of my brutal arrest at the hands of Homeland Security goons last August.)

Naftali, at his office in Washington, knew all about Irgun when I spoke with him on the phone. When I said it was an egregious omission to leave out the fact that Rahm's father had been in the Irgun, he said he just couldn't figure how to squeeze that bit into a 9-page article.

Naftali, let me help, as English is my mother tongue: "Rahm Emanuel's father Benjamin was a member of the Irgun, a Zionist terrorist group that operated in Palestine from 1931 to 1948. The Irgun blew up buildings and killed hundreds of innocent people in order to achieve the goals of militant Zionism in occupied Palestine."

Rahm's mother is Martha Smulevitz, who married the Israeli doctor in August 1955. Ben told me that they met in Chicago. I asked if she was related to the Smulevitz family that was living in Palestine in the 1930s. He said no.

There are Smulevitz's and Shmuelevitz's all throughout the Zionist invasion of Palestine. One was hanged by the Brits, one dealt with the Nazis in Berlin, and another was the chief of staff for Menachem Begin – take your pick.

It would, however, be most interesting if Rahm's mother were actually related to Moshe Smulevitz, the Zionist who went to Berlin with Pino Ginzburg to arrange the transfer of Jews and money to Palestine – with the Nazi regime.

And you wonder where Rahm Emanuel got his "chutzpah" from?

"I said before the election that if the Democrats win the House, the lion's share of the credit should go to Rahm," says Rep. Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. "He legitimately can be called the golden boy of the Democratic Party today. He recruited the right candidates, found the money and funded them, and provided issues for them. Rahm did what no one else could do in seven cycles."

And the fact that more than 70 percent of the American population is opposed to wasting U.S. blood and treasure to fight a Zionist war in Iraq means nothing?

Christopher Bollyn – Rumor Mills News November 17, 2006

Rahm Emanuel’s younger brother, Ari Emanuel, is Michael Moore’s agent in Hollywood.
He encouraged this latter to point out the supposed responsibility of Saudi Arabia in September 11 attacks in his famous film Fahrenheit 911, the showing of which was ensured by the Democratic Party.

John Hagee: deviant theology, dangerous foreign policy

By John Taylor
Online Journal Contributing Writer

May 7, 2008, 00:21

Pastor John Hagee gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: “The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad.”

Worse, Hagee wants to jump start what he sees as the inevitable battle between Israel and the US and an alliance of the Islamic states and Russia: “The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West.” Hagee’s bizarre interpretation of the Bible sees war with Iran as a “biblically prophesized End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming.”

If Hagee were just another kook, walking around Times Square carrying a sign saying “The End is Near,” there would be no need to worry. In fact, Hagee is senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, with a congregation of 18,000, appears weekly on 150 TV stations around the world and is the head of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), a lobbying group founded to advance the interests of the State of Israel in the U.S. Congress. Not only does Hagee advocate aggressive war against Iran, he is a strong supporter of our continuing misadventure in Iraq and he opposes any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, arguing that God has given all of Palestine to the Israelis.

John Hagee’s end time theology transmogrifies Christianity into little more than a death cult in which the State of Israel is worshipped like a latter day Golden Calf. Despite his weird views, Hagee has access to senior politicians in the US and Israel; he likes to brag that he has met every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin.

President Bush praised Hagee’s CUFI for “spreading the hope of God’s love and the universal gift of freedom.” How to square “spreading . . . God’s love” and the “gift of freedom” with bombing the Iranians is hard to fathom, but, in any event, evangelicals like Hagee have been among President Bush’s strongest supporters and the president is not about to abandon them now.

Senator Joe Lieberman is also a Hagee fan and praised him at last year’s CUFI meeting in Washington, likening him to Moses, “a man of God . . . leading a mighty multitude.” If comparing Hagee to Moses seems over the top, remember Hagee and Lieberman have a lot in common. Both men were keen to see the US invade Iraq and both would like to have Uncle Sam attack Syria and Iran, a wish shared by many in Washington, especially arms makers, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and neocons in the White House and the Pentagon.

John McCain recently thanked Pastor Hagee for endorsing his run for the presidency. Eight years ago, McCain made a point of denouncing Hagee’s fellow evangelical Jerry Falwell as an “agent of intolerance” and an “evil influence on the Republican party.” Clearly times have changed.

Hagee’s distorted view of Christianity, his hatred of Islam (Hagee once said "those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews”) and his toxic criticism of American Middle East policy have all become part of American political discourse. For example, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma believes “We are Israel’s best friend . . . because of the character we have as a nation . . . This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true.” Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey opined, “I am content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank . . . I happen to believe the Palestinians should leave.” And just a few months ago, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, an ex-evangelical preacher himself, said he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state, but not in Palestine, rather in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

Many people, some influential, some not, think religious belief should guide American Middle East policy. Others would say that that the Bible and foreign policy ought to remain entirely separate and that a discussion of Hagee’s religious doctrine is about as meaningful as trying to decide how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. What individuals on both sides of this debate don’t realize is that Hagee’s highly selective reading and strange interpretation of the Bible put him well outside mainstream Christian belief.

Hagee regards God’s covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis as granting the Patriarch and his descendents unconditional title to the Holy Land. He concludes, therefore, that no territorial compromise with the Palestinians is desirable or necessary. Hagee preaches that those who bless Israel will themselves be blessed (Genesis 12:3) and that a close military and political alliance between the United States and Israel is mandated in scripture. Further, Hagee sees the 1948 emergence of an independent Israel as a sign of the second coming of Christ. Finally, and most controversial of all for an evangelical preacher, Hagee claims that God’s covenant with the ancient Hebrews allows Jews to be saved without belief in Christ.

Did God grant Abraham and his offspring unconditional and eternal possession of the Holy Land? Many scholars would argue that remaining in the land required the Israelites to keep God’s laws. Failure to do so would bring divine punishment. Moses warned in Deuteronomy 28, “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law . . . you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of.” The Hebrews’ captivity in Babylon and the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD demonstrate to many scholars that God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendents was conditional and their right to the Holy Land by no means absolute.

When Hagee advocates unqualified American support for the State of Israel as a means of obtaining the Almighty’s blessing, he assumes the modern State of Israel is a linear and worthy successor to Abraham. Does blessing Israel mean giving the government of the State of Israel unconditional political, financial and military support? One could argue that Israel’s efforts to colonize the lands captured in 1967 and to dispossess the Palestinians violate the Old Testament commandments against theft and killing. Furthermore, Hagee’s callous disregard for the suffering of indigenous Christians and Muslims is certainly contrary to the New Testament injunctions to “love thy neighbor as thy self” (Matt. 19:19) and to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” (Matt. 7:12), to say nothing of “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). Hagee’s bizarre theology has hijacked the messages of the Old and New Testaments to sanctify the injustices done in the Holy Land.

The second coming of Christ is a difficult issue because the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. In his book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee enumerates 10 “signs” which he claims “prove” that Christ’s return to earth is imminent. But Luke’s gospel (17: 20) gives a diametrically opposing view: “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed.” Furthermore, Pastor Hagee may say he knows when Christ is returning but his confidence is inconsistent with the parable of the bridegroom (Matt. 25): “you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

Most people who have studied the Christian religion, believers or not, would assert that the New Testament requires belief in Christ for salvation: that is, after all, what makes Christians Christians and the New Testament new. Hagee’s interpretation of scripture posits that salvation for Jews is also possible in Christianity because of God’s covenant with Abraham. Pastor Hagee’s view is obviously erroneous: the gospel of John states, “I (Christ) am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

It is easy to understand why Hagee preaches what he does. If you make the State of Israel an object of veneration and at the same time insist that its inhabitants convert to Christianity, you are not going to make many friends in Israel or among Israel’s supporters in the US. And for similar reasons Hagee asserts the Bible favors the Israelis over the Palestinians: Pastor Hagee obviously enjoys meeting Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, speaking in front of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and having Malcolm Hoenlein, the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, visit him in San Antonio. Hagee bartered his faith for power and fame, money and notoriety. An advocate of unjust war, Hagee has put down the Bible and taken up the sword. His kingdom is very much of this world.

The Founding Fathers were wise to forbid in the Constitution the establishment of a religion in the US. Although morality, often finding its roots in religion, will always influence government and election of public officials, the specifics of religious belief and practice have been kept, for the most part, in private life, to the nation’s great benefit. Making decisions about war and peace based on strange interpretations of arcane End Time prophecy is dangerous and absurd. That Hagee is a serious political player in 21st Century America shows we have truly entered a post Enlightenment era.

John Taylor, a lifelong Republican, received an AB in Near Eastern Languages from The University of Chicago. He is a US Army veteran. As a young man he served in the Middle East as a civil servant, archaeologist and banker. Prior to retirement he worked in the energy business in Texas for 20 years.

Should the United States Worry About “Zionists” as Fifth Column?

Yes.

Jefferson Corner/ Kenny's Sideshow

Last week calls by candidate Hillary Clinton to obliterate Iran for and on behalf of Israel and her willingness to commit to nuclear war costing the lives of hundreds of millions of people for and on behalf of a state that since its inception has been at war with all of its close and distant neighbor is a grave warning to Americans of the danger of Zionism on America and the world.

In few weeks President George Bush will lead a delegation of “Whose Who” in politics, government, business, media and arts and head east to Tel-Aviv to their “Mecca” to celebrate and give allegiance to the State of Israel on its 60th anniversary. Europeans will be celebrating for having gotten rid of the majority of Jews within Europe.

Since its inception in the late 18th century Europe, the zionist movement worked so hard to transform All Jewish communities within the West in its own image and tried and have succeeded to a great extent to transform the US and European Jewry to loyal followers and Israeli loyalists resurrecting the feelings of alienation among world Jewry to their own countries and of course reigniting again the horrible seeds of anti-semitism. The measure of success of the zionist enterprise is its ability to disfranchise old established Jewish communities in their native countries and countries of birth and citizenship and give them their “choice” of immigrating to Israel, the only place “where Jews can feel Jews”.

To this end trillions of dollars of “Jewish” money and from citizens tax payers from around the world were committed to Israel building its new infrastructure based on defense, armaments and Spartan siege mentality. Unlike the claims of zionists of having made the desert bloom, Palestine was a thriving community with well known products around the world such as Jaffa oranges. With Trillions of dollars pouring into Israel and with an already thriving Palestinian community, one can make the “moon bloom”. Hence the Zionist myth of making the “desert bloom” we did that in Arizona and we are not zionists.

The zionist ideology based on “Jewish nationalism” fed on and in reaction to European and Western/Christian anti-semitism, pogroms and the holocaust, succeeds for the most part in converting and transforming Jewish loyalties to “their” Jewish state Israel and the zionist movement. If the Catholic church and Islam tried to convert and shift loyalties of community of the faithful from that of their national state to loyalty to Rome and Mecca, I am sure that zionists would cry foul and would charge Rome and Mecca with inciting “treason” among citizens of the world. zionism as a form of racism did succeed in making transformation of Judaism from a religion of faith to one “religious nationalism” with the Israel being the “nation” and central to Jewish life and succeeded in making the Jews feel the needs for “separate” and shifting loyalties from their native countries to that of Israel. This new zionist ideology is not different from that of the communist ideology which demanded shifting of loyalties from ones country to that of the Soviet Union and Moscow. If Islamists loyal to a foreign agenda could not be trusted or entrusted with the interests of the United States claims often raised by the likes of Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes, Charles Krauthhammer then the same can be said of zionists within the United States, they too could never be trusted with the interests of the United States since they too are loyal to a foreign agenda, Israel.

Not only did the zionist movement demand Jewish loyalties to zionism and Israel it also sought to recruit Christian evangelical movements and transformed them to Christian zionists with shifting loyalties to Israel from than of their own country especially in the United States. This unholy alliance came about as an alliance between Israel’s Likud party and right wing Republicans during the Reagan administration where each was supporting the other for their own domestic and international agenda, especially in oppositions toward peace between Israel and the Arabs. Of course we all know the agenda of evangelical zionists which is the ultimate conversion of Jews or putting them to death in fulfillment of biblical prophecies. Such is the unholy alliance.

In the hey day of the Soviet Union, it succeeded to a limited extent in having a”fifth” column within the government of the United States. The Zionists went even further, they made sure that committed and loyal zionists are in every branch of the US government and in key positions, in the White House, Justice Department, Home Land Security, State, Defense, CIA, NSC and other key security agencies, especially in US Congress where key decision makers, staffers are loyal zionists. However it was not enough for the zionists to have such an army of Israeli loyalists among the tens of thousands in government, it made sure that it also spread its tentacles to the media, art and culture and of course in business, hence the danger to Western democracies and to the world in general.

The arrest two week ago of the 84 years old American Jew, Ben-Ami Kadish on charges of spying for Israel is but a tip of the iceberg where committed zionists with loyalties to zionism and Israel are in the tens of thousands within the different branches of government especially the State and other security agencies, with many security agencies employing dual nationals (Israelis and US) and employing former members of Mossad in key positions with US security agencies...

This commitment and loyalty to Israel was and is the driving force behind many of the very dangerous acts and decisions taken by officials within the different US administration. The Ben-Ami Kadish case is but on case, to be added to the Pollard case and many other cases the government simply refuses to bring out into the open.

One has to keep in mind the many incidents where zionists put the interests of Israel first. The case of the missing/stolen 100 kilogram of uranium 235 missing from the Apollo plant in Pennsylvania is but one of those incidents where the managing director of the plants having strong ties to Israel. The same is true of the case the nine kilogram of weapon grade uranium found missing from Erwin, Tennessee. The case of the missing two tons of uranium missing during a trip between Antwerp to Genoa but an added story to Zionists loyalty to Israel where the owner of the ship was identified by the Norwegian as an Israeli secret agent.

In the United States, the zionists tentacles are found every where. Lyndon Johnson as president under the influence of his “zionist “ national security advisor Walter Rastow made sure that nuclear capabilities of the F-4 Phantoms delivered to Israel where left intact in violation of the US export regulation, even refusing to fully investigate the case of the missing nuclear fuel from the Apollo plant.

More dangerous was Johnson's total disregard of the lives of US sailors killed in cold blood by Israeli jets and torpedo boats on the USS Liberty with Johnson's Jewish national security agency director snuffing out any resolution and finding Israel responsible for the cold blooded murder. Admiral McCain (father of John McCain) as Commander of US Sixth Fleet denied help to the attacked ship and its dead and injured crew on orders from the Zionists within the White House. In the 73' War, Kissinger a die hard zionist almost caused a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union in his attempt to save Israel in the first few days of the October War, stripping the US army of its tanks and missiles in Europe and flying military equipment directly to the battle field in an added attempt to save Israel while putting the US and its armed forces in Europe at risk. However Kissinger's committment to Israel did not stop there. He made sure he got rid of all “Arabists” within the State Department for fear that they may be hostile to Israel. Kissinger's decisions again, were based on his zionist ideology and not based on the US national security interest.

Zionists with the State and Defense Departments were the driving force behind Cheney-Bush War on Iraq. It is their zionism and loyalty to Israel, that was the driving force for getting the US committed to war. Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearl, Douglas Feith, Elliot Abrams and William Kristol are all zionists with loyalties to the zionist agenda and Israel, are fully responsible for the death of more than 4,000 US soldiers, responsible for the more than 40,000 combat injuries, more than a million Iraqis dead and of course the more than $ 600,000 Billions the cost so far, of the War on Iraq. All of that for and on behalf of Israel. These zionists with their loyalties to Israel are similar to Communists with their loyalties to Moscow. However the George Bush administration is not the only administration to put zionists in charge of the US policies in the Middle East. Bill Clinton entrusted US policies in the Middle East to key staffers who came directly from Israeli/zionist work shop. Dennis Ross and Martin Indyke where and are committed zionists and Israeli loyalists...

Presidential candidates John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should think twice before making loyalty to Israel and zionism the central theme of their presidential campaign. How about putting America first for a change?

Jefferson Corner

Several Reasons Why it isn't about Oil

By Curt Maynard

The war in Iraq, and America’s so-called Imperialistic ventures in the Mid East have nothing to do with oil.

How do you know that you might be asking?

Without delving into some very credible “conspiracy theories,” which tend to cause the eyes of “enlightened” Americans to glaze over in their own unique self-righteous stupor, let me relate some facts below, that should, assuming the reader has the ability to think properly as my friend in Rome Alfio Faro, likes to say, convince even the skeptic that Bush’s recent forays into the Middle East have nothing to do with the monopolization of oil reserves. I won’t leave the reader hanging, after relating these facts I’ll spell out in one word exactly why Bush is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and why he intends to attack Iran and Syria as well.[1]

The Third World nation of South Africa produces a barrel of oil from coal for under $35.00 a barrel.[2] The United States of America has some of the largest coal reserves in the world.[3] These coal reserves are of a far higher quality than that used by South Africa, the sulfur content is much less, and thus, American coal can be converted to oil cheaper than can South African coal.

You may have heard about Canada’s Oil Sands, but what you may not have heard is that within these sands Canada harbors nearly as much oil as Saudi Arabia.[4] Granted, it costs much more money to extract this oil from the sand than it does for Saudi Arabia to open its spigots, but at current oil prices, $76.00 a barrel, it is both feasible and profitable to begin mass production.[5]

What the reader, especially the American reader, is almost certainly unaware of is that the United States of America has even more oil than Saudi Arabia or Canada locked away in strata of shale under the Rocky Mountains.[6] Costs to extract this oil are considerably higher than extracting it from sand, but bear in mind, at current prices, it too can be extracted profitably with technology that already exists. Not to mention the fact that its extraction, assuming that illegal aliens aren’t invited en masse to fill openings, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans, not service related jobs, but real employment with real salaries and benefits.

Methane Hydrate – methane hydrate is essentially frozen methane gas. Methane gas burns cleaner than any other energy source known, if combustion is complete; there is no appreciable pollutant created from its use. In any case, methane hydrate exists in reserves so large that they dwarf all of the oil and coal reserves combined, the world over, from the dawn of time; it lies under the oceans and has already been extracted by the industrious Japanese. Its extraction at present is too costly to be profitable, but like anything else, costs decline over time and/or as the result of new technology.[7]

If the United States government were truly interested in marshaling oil sources around the world, would it not be doing everything within its power to mollify relations with the countries that possess the oil? Instead Bush is doing everything he can to alienate the populations of oil producing nations, and doesn’t seem to be in the least bit concerned about the consequences of such foreign policy folly.


Above I promised that after relating some facts I’d spell out in one word exactly why Bush is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and why he intends to attack Iran and Syria as well. Dear reader, the reason in one word is “Israel.” Why Bush pursues his insane adventures in the Mid East for the Zionist state is not exactly known, some think he is a Christian fundamentalist, with a “dual covenant” eschatological outlook, this writer seriously doubts this premise, Bush’s words may exemplify Christian value and virtue, but his actual behavior demonstrably prove that his words are empty and are meant only to maintain a relatively powerful base, that of the Christian voting block.[8]

There are others that believe Bush may be compromised in some way and may be under the influence of those blackmailing him; those who would and could reveal to the world some dark secret hiding in the closet of the Commander and Chief. I suppose it’s possible, I personally don’t believe that former President Clinton just happened to meet up with a young Jewess named Monica Lewinsky, who just happened to save a sample of the President’s sperm discharged on her dress after administering fellatio. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, but I’ll bet it wasn’t a happy accident.

Is Mainstream Media Biased Towards Israel?

There seems to be such a taboo in the media about anyone or any story that is critical of Israel. Witness the recent attacks on the Obama campaign via activities by his ex-pastor that was considered "Anti-Israel". Remember the vicious treatment that Jimmy Carter got for mentioning the words "Apartheid" and Israel in his book title? Candidate after candidate has to pay lip service and claim his blind allegiance to that state... and why? why is it the "kiss of death" to be critical of Israel.

There seems to be such a taboo in the media about anyone or any story that is critical of Israel. Witness the recent attacks on the Obama campaign via activities by his ex-pastor that was considered "Anti-Israel". Remember the vicious treatment that Jimmy Carter got for mentioning the words "Apartheid" and Israel in his book title? Candidate after candidate has to pay lip service and claim his blind allegiance to that state... and why? why is it the "kiss of death" to be critical of Israel.

Israel is by far the largest recipient of our tax dollar funded foreign aid, shouldn't we able to question the actions of that state? A lot of damage has been done in our name (and at our expense), yet we can't seem to questions anything in public without being castrated as social pariahs... Why is it much easier to criticize Israel in Tel Aviv then it is in Washington DC?

Here is what I know:

- Israel has maintained one of the longest occupations in modern history controlling the fate of over 2 million palestinians

- Israel is the only nuclear country in the area with no open access to their inventory and no signatures on any non-proliferation agreements

- Israel maintains one of the largest concentration camp style prison in the world known as Gaza. And yes, that's exactly what it is if you look at the living conditions of people there.

- Israel maintains an apartheid style system in the West Bank with separate roads and services for different groups.

- Israel continues to deny the right of return to over 2 million refugees spread all over the world for more than 50 years... can you imagine living in shanty towns and tents for over 50 years??

- Israel maintains a racial based system of government based on the failed ideology of Zionism. An ideology that at heart is based on racist nationalism granting rights to one "ethnic" (or is it religious?) group only

- While Israel claims to be living in the constant fear of terrorism, the death ratio of Palestinians vs. Israeli is roughly 13 to 1. Yet, somehow, they are the victims, and our media pushes that notion on us (and we wonder why the world hates us).

- Israel has TWICE invaded its northern neighbor, Lebanon and continues daily violations of its air space. Complaints to the UN are constantly blocked by, guess who?, the USA.

This list can go on longer, but I think I made my point.

So why, knowing all that, it is still a major faux pas for anyone to question our relation with Israel. And please don't give me the "You're an anti-semite" line... Being critical of Israel does not make one an anti-semite or a self hating Jew. Why is it that at a time when the US is heavily involved in a huge mess in the middle east, that our politicians, thinkers, activists, do not dare discussing the issue that is at the heart of the conflict?

So, Is Mainstream Media Biased Towards Israel? Yes