Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Thursday 16 January 2014

Suffer Little Children: An Open Letter to Rev Lucy Winkett

Before
Dear Reverend Lucy Winkett,


Recently, for twelve days over the Christmas period, St James's Church Piccadilly, of which you are minister, hosted in its spacious forecourt an eight-metre high replica of the Wall.

The cost of this noxious stunt, seen by many people (and who can blame them?) as reeking of an antisemitism that they had assumed belonged to Christendom's past, was a staggering £30,000.  Many people might regard that figure as akin to the 30 pieces of silver for the sake of which Judas is said to have betrayed your messiah, Jesus.  After all, the expenditure of £30,000 on a replica Wall must seem to many people to be a tragic, wasteful betrayal of the needy and anguished, whether they be at home or overseas.

Now, the actual Wall (a separation fence for most of its length, truth to tell) is not the most picturesque of sights (nor is it, incidentally, unique in the world), but in the circumstances at present governing the Middle East, such a separation barrier that protects Israeli civilians from Palestinian Arab suicide bombers is a regrettable necessity. It does its job well.


After
As you know only too well, of course, when the replica Wall was standing members of the public were encouraged to write messages on it, and naturally availed themselves of that opportunity.   Many were intemperate attacks on Zionism and the State of Israel and some reflected Jew-hatred raw and savage.

A church official with a spray can was on hand to paint over messages deemed offensive.  The criteria for offensiveness was idiosyncratic, to put it kindly.  For instance, a swastika was left untouched until two Jewish sisters, naturally affronted by that symbol, scrubbed it out themselves.  One of the sisters then wrote "This Wall Saves Lives".  But her handiwork did not last long.

For your official moved with alacrity when messages sympathetic to Israel were spotted, as in the case of the reference to a baby girl, three months' old, whose head was virtually severed from her tiny body by Palestinian Arab terrorists who butchered her and her parents and siblings in 2011 (see the accompanying photos labelled "Before" and "After")

My reason for writing this letter is to suggest a new stunt that your church could  now undertake.  I'm sure you will be as enthusiastic about it as I am. Perhaps it could be your Easter project.  I certainly hope so.

You see, for this stunt you would not need, as you did in order to fund the costly replica Wall, to hold the begging bowl out to various radical (including, if I'm not mistaken, Islamic)  bodies.

All you would require for this stunt would be a number of cardboard placards and a thick black texta pen to make posters (Jill, a Christian lady  from Sussex Friends of Israel, is an expert in this area, and I'm sure would be glad to advise on how to make a good sturdy poster carrying true and effective information and slogans).

Apart from those props all you would require would be the big iron gates behind which St James's Piccadilly nestles (see accompanying photo, which depicts Sussex Friends of Israel kept firmly out on the pavement by that hefty barrier, securely locked against them by your checkpoint guards (I jest, I jest) your church officials when the replica Wall was standing on the other side).

Oh, and you'd also need a few chains.  I'm sure the church officials who kept the Sussex Friends of Israel out will have one or two, complete with padlocks.  Your members will doubtless have others: in garages, in bike sheds, that sort of thing.  And if worse comes to worst, string and twine will suffice.

"The church gates? Chains?  Why so?" you will ask.  

The answer, Reverend Winkett, lies with this very small, beautiful, anguished child.

Unless you understand Arabic, she could not begin to explain it to you herself, even if she were still alive.

You see, this little girl's parents were Syrian Christians, and like them, she became a martyr to her faith.  A martyr to her parents' faith, I suppose I should say in view of her tender years.  A martyr at the very hands of the cruel and ruthless Islamists and Jihadists who wish to wipe Israel and Jews and Christians and Christianity from the face of the Middle East.
 

The Facebook page of the Emmaus Group explains:
Child “crucified” in Syria.
The image ... shows a very young girl tied to railings in a crucifixion style position and left until dead. The image was sent to us via facebook from a contact in Syria. The girl’s crime, as if there could be one? Her parents were Christians. She was tied up and made to watch her parents being killed then left. This evil act was perpetrated by Syrian rebels. The same rebels the West continues to support financially, with training and technology and supposedly, “non lethal hardware.”\
 Sadly this practice is not new. Christian children have been crucified in Iraq in an attempt to terrify their parents and the Christian population in general. See link
I'm sure that you will jump at the chance for your church to express solidarity with persecuted Christians throughout the Islamic world by making this little girl a symbol of your protest.

By staging a demonstration at your church gates, with congregants tied to the gates in symbolism of this little girl and the agonies she and her parents suffered, you will be demonstrating that your church does not stage publicity stunts only in order to bring infamy upon the little State of Israel (where, as you will already be aware, Christians are well-treated and increasing in number).

I'd suggest that, to symbolise the little girl in the blue dress fully, congregants (the female ones, of course) beg or borrow a dress in that colour to wear during the twelve days of the demonstration.

"Twelve days!" I hear you exclaim. "Why twelve days? The Wall stood for twelve days because it was Christmas!"

Indeed it did.  And because it did, this stunt should be of comparable duration: one day for each of the Apostles.

Such a stunt by your church would also show that, contrary to widespread perceptions, the western Church does sympathise with the persecuted and martyred Christians of churches in the Islamic Middle East and elsewhere, and is prepared to be seen to do so.

You might also be the catalyst that spurs western governments from their shameful inertia regarding the plight of the Middle East's Christians into action.

24 comments:

  1. GO JULIE!!
    This must have given all the FM Arabists heart attacks, that's assuming they have them.
    Australia FM: Don’t call settlements illegal under international law

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    1. The worst Liberal government is better than the best Labour one, I reckon.

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  2. OMG, I will never get the picture of this little girl out of my head again. This so-called "church" sides with 'people' (for lack of a more appropriate word) who crucify little girls and who teach young boys to decapitate little chicks as "a practice for the time when they are going to decapitate Jews".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4pT95hk2gg

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    1. Ghastly stuff, Rita. Cruel beyond words.

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    2. Daphne, it appears the photo of the little girl might NOT be as represented on the Emmaus page. Although the earliest mention I can find (approximately 2nd hand, which is better than the 3rd- and 5th- and later-hand links) says she's watching her parents being killed, it does NOT say she herself was left to die.

      http://www.examiner.com/article/syria-james-woods-tweets-photo-of-girl-chained-to-fence-by-syrian-rebels

      I'm glad about that at least. The story is horrible enough WITHOUT the embellishments.

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    3. I tremble for her fate, though. Raped? Forcibly converted?

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  3. Just a quick heads-up: there's a typo in this post that has left the word "public" missing the letter L. You might want to fix that.

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  4. Women not allowed to sit on chairs!
    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4586/islamists_latest_shocking_brutalisation_of_women

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  5. Another error is that it was 30 pieces of silver, but all that is dwarfed by the treatment of Hadas Fogel and the unknown Syrian Christian girl. I'll do what I can to publicise this on my blog with selected 'Highlights' - if they can be called that.

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    Replies
    1. I blame all errors on the heat here, Ian!! It's like being in a sauna. However, it is supposed to get cooler this evening.
      If you could help to make "The Little Girl in Blue" a symbol that would be great.

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    2. BTW< have you actually sent or emailed a copy of this to Lucy Winkett?

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    3. Oh, Daphne, most certainly!! You should send a copy of this not only to the Referendette, but also to the Archbishop of Canterbury. I am serious ! This post should actually be published far and wide and further and wider !

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    4. I agree with Rita. The more they get the better. http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/

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    5. Thanks, Ian. I was hoping you'd reply. OK, then. I will.

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  6. I wanted to post the exchange I had with St. James Church, but it's too long for this blog's word limit. Anyone who would like to see it can read via http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/israels-beautiful-resistance-to-suicide-bombers-response-lucy-winkett/#comments (about halfway down the comments) and/or http://anneinpt.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/calling-on-my-london-friends-protest-anti-israel-st-james-church-wall/#comments

    Let me know (via here) what you think of my efforts. I think Daphne's is great.

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    1. From Brian's Letter to Lucy Winkett:
      "Then there is the fact that the International Court of Justice declared that any sovereign state may erects a barrier of any sort on its own actual border, and this is a perfectly legal act under international law. It is regrettable that Israel’s isn’t, in fact, so built in its entirety, but this could easily be remedied, unlike the lives, limbs and suffering of the victims of terror. The barrier can also, in the event of peace, be removed.

      However, for there to be peace, there needs to be an agreement between at least two participants in whatever the conflict is. Or, as Perez de Coelha, former Secretary General of the UN, said in relation to the conflict over the Falklands Islands and the failure to find a peaceful solution, “It takes two to tango”. By focussing exclusively on the supposed evil of Israel and the Israelis, your church’s efforts serve only to objectify the Palestinians: they have no agency in this matter, but must be seen only and always as the victims of others. Why aren’t you and the others responsible for this event pressurising the Palestinians and their allies to come to the negotiating table (which is open and before them, courtesy of, inter alia, the US Government) to negotiate in good faith? Or would that deprive the collective you of a simple and easy propaganda victory?

      For that matter, why have you chosen this issue and not others? Why not, for example, take the opportunity to remind the world of the unlawful occupation by Morocco of Western Sahara? Or of Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus? Why not take a stand on China’s invasion and occupation of Tibet? All worthy subjects for your compassion. Come to that, why are you not protesting what is happening to your co-religionists across the Moslem world? Can you name a country in the Moslem world that is as tolerant of Christians as is Israel? Or as tolerant of Moslems of any denomination as Israel is? Why do you not choose to highlight the fate of Sunni Moslems in Shia-dominated countries, or that of Shia Moslems in Sunni-dominated ones?"
      Good points.

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  7. The more I think about it the more I become convinced that there was no good outcome. Even if she was not deliberately left to die, what became of that little mite? Was she trafficked to the predatory men from other Arab countries who have been preying on Syrian women and girls?
    In any case, the fact that she was made to watch the killing of her parents is reason enough to make "The Little Girl in the Blue Dress" a symbol of the persecution and annihilation of Christian communities in the ME.
    My granddaughter is almost two; I doubt that little girl is much older than her.

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  8. Proof of evolution?
    Tanya Plibersek 2002
    "...I can think of a rogue state which consistently ignores UN resolutions, whose ruler is a war criminal responsible for the massacres of civilians in refugee camps outside its borders. The US supports and funds this country. This year it gave it a blank cheque to continue its repression of its enemies. It uses US military hardware to bulldoze homes and kill civilians. It is called Israel, and the war criminal is Ariel Sharon. Needless to say, the US does not mention the UN resolutions that Israel has ignored for 30 years;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Plibersek#Israel

    Tanya Plibersek 2014
    On behalf of the [Australian] Federal Opposition, today we remember former Israeli Prime Minister and general, Ariel Sharon who passed away this weekend.
    Ariel Sharon embodied fearless leadership through trying times and spent his life serving Israel and its people.
    In his final years as Prime Minister, Sharon made great strides in the Israel-Palestine peace process, representing a courageous shift in his politics in favour of a two-state solution.
    Sharon will be remembered as a giant in the history of Israel and the Israeli people will deeply feel his loss.
    http://israelissueswa.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/the-great-strides-of-arik-sharon.html

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  9. Al Guardian pulled an article about Hamas BFF Stuart Rees!
    Why did the Guardian publish, then remove, article on anti-Zionist ‘activist’ Stuart Rees?
    http://cifwatch.com/2014/01/16/why-did-the-guardian-publish-then-remove-article-on-anti-zionist-activist-stuart-rees/

    More on Stuart Rees and Hamas
    http://israelissueswa.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/sydney-university-is-again-under-fire.html

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  10. Someone posted my thoughts up the page.

    Why don't you send this to the 'dear' Pastor, the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury ?

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  11. Speaking of Anglicans
    George Browning: Bishop's troubling stance on legality of Israeli settlements
    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/bishops-troubling-stance-on-legality-of-israeli-settlements-20140117-310bh.html

    Apparently he thinks Hamas and Hezbollah advocate a 2 state solution? and are motivated to violence by "settlements". Also Israel/Jews are cause of all the trouble in the M.E./World. He then finishes up with a quote from George Washington advocating isolationism, an odd stance for the President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network to invoke.

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