Stephen Sizer: Statement by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry

This statement has been issued today by Mr Peter Wertheim, CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, regarding the ABC's interview with Stephen Sizer, aired on Friday, and mentioned in my Sunday post:

For centuries, Easter Holy Week was an occasion for incendiary sermons and outbreaks of mob violence against Jewish communities throughout Europe.   In recent years we have seen a more subtle version of that tradition take shape. Commentaries about Israel, especially in the lead-up to Easter, often go beyond mere criticisms that are similar to those levelled against any other country or government, and are couched in terms that evoke ancient calumnies against Jews as a group.  Some of Steven Sizer’s public statements have been in this category.

Although David Rutledge’s interview of Sizer on the ABC RN Breakfast program on Good Friday explored some of these statements, it was a soft interview that allowed Sizer’s self-serving answers to pass unchallenged.

Rutledge allowed Sizer to get away with claiming that none of the speakers at one of the conferences he addressed in Tehran in 2014 were criticised as antisemitic. In fact, as was reported at the time, the Iranian-run Press TV described the conference as intending to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over the US and EU politics”, with one session devoted to examining “Mossad’s role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”, and another discussing “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist ‘Public myths’ ”.

Rutledge gave only partial information about, and under-played the full extent of, Sizer’s own statements legitimising outlandish conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the September 11 terror attacks in the US.  There was no mention of the fact that Sizer’s own Church in the UK was so embarrassed by his public statements that it extracted an undertaking from Sizer to stop commenting on the subject while he remained a vicar, an undertaking which Sizer subsequently broke.

Nor was there any mention of the fact that in November 2016, Inter-Varsity Press (IVP), one of Britain’s largest Christian publishers, withdrew Sizer’s books from sale and ceased to list them on its website.

Rutledge took it upon himself to tell Sizer “I accept you are not an antisemite”, instead of adhering to proper interviewing standards and allowing the audience to make up its own mind.   Under the working definition of antisemitism adopted by the 31 democratic countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, including the UK, the US and EU, certain kinds of criticisms of Israel are internationally recognised as antisemitic.  It is strongly arguable that some of Sizer’s statements about Israel fall within that definition, but Rutledge did not put this question to Sizer.

Finally, Rutledge should have taken to task Sizer’s egregious comments about Israel ceasing to be a democracy if it retains the settlements in the West Bank.  At official permanent-status negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders at Camp David in 2000, in Taba in 2001, in Jerusalem in 2008 and in Washington DC in 2010, both parties accepted the principle of “land swaps”.  This would involve incorporating into Israel’s territory a small part of the West Bank where the major settlement blocs are located in exchange for Israel ceding to the Palestinians an equivalent area of land from within Israel’s pre-1967 territory.

Overall, Rutledge’s interview was far beneath the standards of probing, well-researched, quality journalism that regular listeners expect from an ABC RN current affairs program.  For this he should apologise not only to the Jewish community but to the ABC’s entire audience.

Instead of pre-judging Christian Zionism by only featuring one of its critics, the ABC should for once set aside its customary hostility towards Israel and its Jewish and Christian supporters, and interview one of Christian Zionism’s more able exponents, such as Dr. Jürgen Bühler, the President of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

Stephen Sizer's Return (updated again)

Who can this be?  An actual or theoretical April Fool?

After a two-week propaganda tour of Australia, Peacemaker Trust's founder and CEO the Rev Dr Stephen Sizer, formerly vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, has returned to Southampton. And so has his luggage, temporarily lost.

Despite his return, echoes of his visit live on, in the interviews that he gave while here.

A wily disingenuous campaigner, he said nothing, at least that I heard, about his support for the Right of Return, or about the support for a One State Solution that, as I showed here, he has avowed.

This screenshot dates to 2014.  But, at the time of typing this blogpost, our old mate is still listed as a "Liker" of "BDS for the Return", and when we click on the links provided on its Facebook page we find:

"This page is for Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) Actions that are directly relevant to the implementation of the Palestinian refugees right to return to their homes and lands of origin."

Screenshot in 2014

"Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is a broad-based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public education on the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations Resolutions upholding such rights."

If the original Arab generation which fled (and were invited back by Israel) and the so-called "refugees" who are their descendants (the only such people with inherited refugee status in the world) were to "return" we all know how long the sovereign state of Israel would last.

On Good Friday the ABC (Oz's answer to the BBC, and just as biased towards the left and against Israel, if anything more openly) Sizer was interviewed by regular presenter David Rutledge, a lapsed Christian with a theology doctorate, about Christian Zionism.  The entire program was saturated with leftist propaganda, some of it more egregious than the rest, and the interview with Sizer fitted seamlessly into that predictable agenda.

"Many evangelical Christians today are convinced that recent events in the Middle East herald the imminent return of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom on earth - and Israel is central to the whole plan. These are Christian Zionists, and according to Stephen Sizer they're misguided — and possibly dangerous", runs the website.

At the ABC studios Sizer, pictured below with his minder Father Dave Smith, an anti-Israel Sydney clergyman, looks like the proverbial cat who got the cream:

Rutledge, in a somewhat lighthearted tone, described him as "a rather controversial Anglican cleric" and at the start of the interview mentioned the polarising effect he has.  But Rutledge was soon sniggering in the background at some of the ex-vicar's descriptions of Christian Zionist thought.  Sizer's spiel was his usual one.

Rutledge assured him "I accept that you are not an antisemite" and Sizer quoted the Bishop of Guildford (the one who suspended him from social media for six months, though that was not spelled out) as privately telling him "Stephen, on the Middle East you're on the side of the angels".

Are you a glutton for punishment?  The program is here

This weekend was broadcast former South Australian premier-turned-clergyman Lynn Arnold's recorded radio interview with Sizer.  It opened with such a lot of discussion about Sizer's early life (our old mate was eventually obliged to spell out his birthplace, Lowestoft, for Arnold, who kept mispronouncing it Lowerstoke) that I was lulled into a false optimism that Sizer's propaganda would be timed out.  But alas.

"This evening my very special guest is Rev. Stephen Sizer" said Arnold by way of introduction, before reciting the biblical passage (no random choice, for it was cited again later on to deny the validity of Zionism) that Sizer had chosen to preface the interview, from Psalm 87.  Suddenly, the interview turned to Sizer's views on the usual Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Our old mate's pleasant, plausible tones were heard declaring that the land is "occupied territory just as it was under the Romans" and that on the usual pilgrimage "On Day One you go to Yad Vashem ... because then you are not going to criticise the Israeli occupation of Palestine" and launched into his well-practised critique of Christian Zionism and support for BDS.

Overlooking Sizer's past excrescences (could he really have been ignorant of them?) the indulgent Arnold encouraged listeners to look at Sizer's website and the Peacemakers website to learn more about his views.  Deftly done. No word from Arnold about Sizer's chastisement by his bishop, his notorious 9/11 post, his reasons for quitting his pulpit ahead of schedule.  Nothing embarrassing to our old mate whatsoever was invoked.

I reckon Sizer left the studio well-satisfied.

Back in the 1980s and thereabouts, Radio 3CR, Melbourne, was one of the most virulent Australian  purveyors of anti-Israel propaganda, its most notorious anti-Israel voice being that of Bill Hartley, aka "Baghdad Bill", an extreme left-wing figure in the Victoria state ALP (Australian Labor Party) whose hagiographic obituary (2006) in Green Left Weekly notes:

"His dedication to the Palestinians, one of the most oppressed and mis represented people of the past 60 years, was well known, and his connections allowed many of us to visit the Middle East and gain access to refugee camps and contacts that allowed an invaluable insight into the issues."

While in Australia, Sizer was interviewed on 3CR by Robert Martin:

 'This week we are joined by Dr Rev [sic] Stephen Sizer with whom we have a discussion around Christian Zionism, its sway in America and the term “The Chosen People”.  We exchange thoughts about the Christians who are scared to criticize Israel in fear of being labelled as an Anti Semitie [sic], as well as Armageddon and the attacks by the Hasbara.'

 As Sizer posts triumphantly here, "Robert didn't need convincing":

No wonder he didn't.  Martin is a well-known anti-Israel activist:

In this video, which, like the above photo, can be found on his Facebook page, he buttonholes and then harangues a polite group of frum Israelis, including women and girls, his face growing contorted, and his voice strident, with rage:

"You're racist .... You don't care because you think it's God's will?.... I won't talk nicely, because you're a bunch of animals!"

A still from the video:

 Martin's Facebook page is littered with comments from feral antisemites.  For instance:
 

I listened to Part One of his interview with Sizer, here.

An Arabic-accented voice announced that the program, "Palestine Remembered", is brought to the listener by the only program in English "totally dedicated to the Palestinian cause", spoke of the program's honour and delight in having Dr Rev [sic] Stephen Sizer and Martin then declared: "I'm so honoured to be joined by Dr Rev [sic] Stephen Sizer today".

Sizer gave the usual spiel, preached to the converted that "Zionism is a form of racism", and answered Martin's eager questioning about the "Chosen" concept with an analogy to colonialism, observing that it is "used to justify the theft of land from the indigenous people, the Palestinians".  He declared that "the Bible affirms the one state solution", and told how the British government last year could not be persuaded to apologise for the Balfour Declaration ("the government were so in bed with the Zionist lobby").

Of the messianic hopes of religious Jewish settlers Martin remarked "Let's kill more Muslims, and kill more Christians — it doesn't matter does it?, and Sizer did not demur.

He identified five stages of reaction by "Zionists" to anti-Zionists such as he:

Update, 5 April.

1.  They try to buy you ...

2.  They try to intimidate you, with emails and articles.  People involved in Hasbara are paid to send emails, he alleged, before bemoaning this article in The Spectator by Melanie Phillips. It's "a shock" to be accused of antisemitism, he told Martin, when asked.

3.  They try to isolate you, turning publishers against you and causing people who have booked you to speak to cancel the event.

4.  They stalk and harass you, telling of his woes with the Seismic Shock blog (his interviewer makes some telling crack when told the blog owner's Jewish-sounding name) 

5.  They kill you. "They take people out."  (At this point the interview ended so abruptly that even the most pro-Israel of listeners could be forgiven for thinking Mossad had terminated it, but then came the Arabic-accented voice advising that Part Two will be coming soon.)

If Sizer doesn't want to be lumped among the antisemites, he could begin by defriending on Facebook people such as the prolifically-posting Derek Andrew Hands  (it would take him some time!):

And sever ties with this bloke:

Tony Gratrex, the PSC stalwart and  9/11truther, merits no fewer than ten pages in part one of David Collier's superb exposé of antisemitism in the Palestine Live Facebook group and is mentioned in part two of the same report.  Despite (surely not because of?) Gratrex's appalling record, Sizer has welcomed him into an exclusive Peacemakers (I'm sorry, I'll type that again, "Peacemakers") Facebook group.

As well as eschewing one of the commenters on this recent article:

In response to these comments on that article in Sight

Sizer has posted the following

and his pseudonymous Facebook buddy Harriet S Place chimes in

Anti-Zionist blogger Harriet, whoever he is, seems mighty tolerant of conspiracy theories.  Here's what I just found on his Facebook page, with no trouble at all:

Not a good look for a nice Christian boy, Harriet.

Not a good look at all.

Update: Australia's most-read columnist Andrew Bolt on Sizer and the ABC in press article  today (hat tip: Ian)  See also here and the next post but one.
With many followers, and given his intention to wean Christians, especially Third World Christians, away from support for Israel, I'm not so sure that Sizer is as comical-ish as this very useful article from AIJAC implies.

Onwards Christian Zionism!

By  Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Michaela Frai, a research associate there, a disturbing article on Iranian influence in South America:

'Across the region, Iranian preachers and their local enablers have presented themselves as advocates of human rights and social justice to gain footholds among disenfranchised and marginalized communities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Peru. Relying on allies such as Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, Iran has established forward operating bases for the spread of their propaganda.'

 The article focuses first on the visit to São Paulo, Brazil of Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, 'who openly calls for the “annihilation of Zionism” and has promoted friendly relations with the Taliban':

 'Araki’s visit is yet another demonstration of how the Iranian regime is busy exporting its own brand of radical Islam, in order to radicalize Shi’a expatriate communities while spreading Tehran’s influence in the region. 

The hosts for Araki’s lecture in Brazil on July 29th were none other than local Hezbollah-linked religious centers that promote Iran’s Islamic revolution. Guests from across the continent included Latin American and Iranian clerics who are disciples of Mohsen Rabbani, Iran’s former cultural attaché in Latin America and the mastermind of Argentina’s 1994 AMIA terrorist attack that left 85 dead at a Jewish center.

Since the 1980s, Tehran has worked diligently to create the infrastructure for both overt and covert operations in the Western Hemisphere. Araki’s visit is part of a well-orchestrated plan to indoctrinate and radicalize existing Shi’a communities while seeking new acolytes among local sympathizers of Iran’s political agenda.'

The authors then describe the baneful impact of Peruvian indigenous rights activist and convert to Shi'a Islam Edwar Quiroga Vargas, founder of several 'Inkarri-Islam' Shi'te cultural centres Inkarri-Islam, and the antisemitism inherent he espouses and promotes.  Alarmingly,

'Quiroga is not an isolated phenomenon, and not only because since 2011, he has opened five more cultural centers across Peru and overseen nearly twenty-five students who have traveled to Iran to attend Rabbani’s religious programs in Qom. Iranian cultural centers and their Iranian-trained local converts promote a similar radical agenda across Latin America and, indeed, globally....

Ultimately, Iran threatens the national security of the U.S. and its allies with its spread of anti-Zionist hatred and Islamic revolutionary rhetoric to the Western Hemisphere. The networks established by Iran do not just promote hate speech; they are intimately involved in criminal enterprises such as narco-trafficking to generate tens of millions of dollars to fund Hezbollah and other Iranian clients....' 

Read the entire article here

All the more reason, then, to esteem and encourage the Christian Zionists in the region.

To quote from a recent article regarding Christian Zionism:

 'Outside of the United States and Western Europe, Pentecostal Chris­tianity has witnessed massive growth since 1980. The advance of Pentecostalism in the Global South constitutes one of the biggest religious developments in the late twentieth century. Brazil and Nigeria have seen the rate of Protestant identification double or triple in recent decades. Many new churches and denominations preach a version of the prosperity gospel that combines individualistic and nation-based blessings. Christian Zionism is often central to Pentecostal understandings of nation-based blessings.

This is true for Renê Terra Nova, currently director of ICEJ in Brazil. Born into a Catholic family, Terra Nova converted to Pentecostal Christianity at the age of twenty and began to attend the Baptist Theological Seminary of North Brazil. In 1990 he broke away from his first church and founded First Baptist Church of the Restoration in Manaus. In his teaching and more than a dozen books, Terra Nova emphasizes “family restoration,” a concept that is flexible enough to relate both to Brazilians’ personal families and to healing God’s family, composed of Jews and Christians. As his website explains, Terra Nova takes as a sacred duty his ministry’s “work in spreading love for Israel and the true root of our faith: ­Jerusalem.” Terra Nova’s literal connection to ­Jerusalem through the massive “caravan” tour groups he leads underpins his emphasis on the prosperity gospel. Through “showing the way to ­Jerusalem,” Terra Nova has “raised the spiritual level of the people, showing that poverty, misery and ruin are stigmata of the past and that the great truth is prosperity: a right of every child of God.” He claims to lead a congregation of 75,000, with church branches throughout central and northern Brazil.'

 Remember, though, one of their leaders, Dr Luis Fernadez Soares of Guatemala, 'expressed concern" at the 2017 Herzliya Conference in June

'regarding the challenges faced by South American Christians who openly express solidarity with Israel in countries “governed by leftist leaders,” who have close relations with Arab nations as well as Iran and the Palestinians.

Solares suggested that evangelical institutions increase their cooperation across countries where they are represented, in addition to ramping up ties with Israeli embassies and local Jewish communities. Israel should foster closer relations with evangelical communities in Latin America and “ask them to pray for Israel and place Israeli flags in their congregations'.

Read more here

Meanwhile, from Bethlehem, one who has long been doing his utmost to undermine Christian Zionism round the globe and who is, incidentally, no stranger to Teheran and to the London studios of Iran's propagandistic Press TV, has been posting numerous photos of scenes from his recent trip to the West Bank (he's just flown back to the UK).  He's gone for glorious Technicolor in most of them, as with the mural portrait below of the murderous old rogue Arafat.

(Hero of yours, Mr Sizer???):

Flatters the old rogue, eh?:

 But one sequence of photos is not in colour:

Unusually, I'm glad to see and say, the vicar has not attracted mere yes-men with this particular propagandistic exercise.  Certainly, there are the usual suspects, who have hastened to share the Ashrawi quotation, but one commenter boldly differs (at the time of posting this no response from Sizer on there has been forthcoming):

"This wall is to stop terror attacks on civilians while we all wait for genuine negotiations. While we wait, should Israel just accept the murder of its people? Yes, the wall inconveniences some Palestinians, but it also saved Israeli lives. Is Palestinian inconvenience a higher priority than Israeli lives?? What an immoral proposition!"

And another commenter, a Facebook friend of Sizer, contends:

"I don't recall black people calling for the eradication of white people, or black people continuously bombing, kniving, shooting and threatening white people. I think apartheid was something very different. Yes the wall is a tragedy. The situation though is very complex. You may see oppression of a suffering people. Others see necessary self protection of a vulnerable state.Remember the holocaust."

 A person with an Arabic name replies: 'Umkhonto We Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”)'

To which this answer is given:

"Nope. Totally different thing! That was an armed uprising against a pre existing apartheid. Israel meanwhile is trying to protect itself from nearly a century of threat to the jewish people and half a century of denial of its political right to exist."

The commenter continues, taking on several Sizerites, who are unused to dissent on Sizer's thread and who include a woman who declares that "Zionist Jews" were responsible for the Holocaust:

"I quite agree that Israel AND the Palestinians (And surrounding Arab nations) need to do a lot more and a lot better ... BUT ... it is language like "apartheid" here, which does absolutely nothing for either the real historic apartheid of black people, OR for the complex issues facing Israel and the Palestinian people....

Bus bombs, knife attacks, rocket launches, decades of denouncing the state of Israel's right to exist, vitriolic hatred of the Jewish people, repeated statements of surrounding nations to wipe the state of Israel from the earth, ... yes ... the core issues are complex....

[M]y point here was merely that this is not apartheid.

Also, in regard to Hamas and the PA - they may well have verbally recognised the state of Israel's right to exist, but they have done very little to cease the hostilities...

Palestinians are not merely segregated for racial purposes. Not at all. They are segregated for security purposes with very real and very tangible reasons all proven in his with very real and very tangible reasons all proven in historical fact. Apartheid ONLY segregates for racial purposes... The situation is about security first and foremost. And while the "optic" may focus on the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis, there needs to be a widening of that optic to see the treatment of Israel by surrounding Arab nations - who themselves first mistreated those same Palestinians as well and are themselves culpable for the continuing threat towards Israel and the continuing mistreatment of the Palestinians."

Seems to me that that friend of Sizer's should be on the "Board of Reference" of Sizer's so-called "Peacemaker Mediators" instead of the dyed-in-the-wool anti-Israel types who loom large there.

On The Perils Of Looking The Gift Horse Of Christian Zionism In The Mouth

In this month's issue of Mosaic Magazine, Robert W. Nicholson writes:

'At a time when the state of Israel lies under existential threat from jihadist Islam, and under ideological and diplomatic assault in foreign ministries, international organizations, churches, universities, editorial offices, and other circles of advanced Western opinion—and when even some Jews in the Diaspora seem to be growing disenchanted with the Zionist cause—millions of evangelical Christians unabashedly continue their outspoken, wholehearted, stalwart defense of both the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

By all rights, this rather stunning fact—the fact of a vibrant Christian Zionism—should encourage a welcoming response from beleaguered Jewish supporters of Israel. Instead, it has caused palpable discomfort, especially among Jewish liberals. Wary of ulterior religious motives, and viewing evangelicals as overly conservative in their general outlook on the world, such Jews either accept the proffered support with a notable lack of enthusiasm or actively caution their fellow Jews against accepting it at all. To many, the prospect of an alignment with evangelicals, even one based on purely tactical considerations, seems positively distasteful. Very few have attempted to penetrate the evangelical world or to understand it in any substantive way.

This is a pity, for many reasons. It is also a serious strategic error. For the reality is that today’s Christian Zionism cannot be taken for granted. For one thing, not all evangelicals do support Israel. For another, more alarming thing, a growing minority inside the evangelical world views the Jewish state as at best tolerable and at worst positively immoral, a country that, instead of being supported on biblical grounds, should be opposed on those same grounds.

Jewish supporters of Israel who view evangelicals monolithically may judge this latter development to be a matter of little significance. I would argue otherwise. A debate is beginning to take hold within the evangelical world, and the Jewish future will be greatly affected by how it unfolds.'

Read the entire article here

"No Return To The 1967 Borders" Warn Christians United For Israel (includes video of Glenn Beck speech)

An emotionally-choked Glenn Beck, whose props included a whip made at Auschwitz, gave the keynote address to some 4,200 Christian evangelicals at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Washington summit on 23rd July, which was attended by a number of public figures opposed to Obama's Middle East policy.

Reports Nathan Guttmann, inter alia, in the Jewish Daily Forward:

'Christian evangelical supporters of Israel sent a strong message of opposition to President Obama on Iran and the renewal of Mideast peace talks ....

A series of speakers who took the stage at the conference .... stressed Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran by taking military action and spoke out against attempts to force Israel to accept a peace plan based on the 1967 borders.

For the administration, now fully engaged in Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent success in getting Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, the conference of Israel’s Christian supporters served as a sobering reminder that U.S. efforts on this issue are not shared by all.

“Mr. Kerry, restarting the peace process with the Palestinians is fiddling while Rome is burning,” Rev. John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and president cried out to the cheers of an excited audience expressing its support with lengthy applauds and the blowing of the shofar. “How can you make peace with someone who wants you to unilaterally accept defeat by accepting the 67 borders?” Hagee added.

The fiery pastor spoke strongly about the need to allow Israel to take military action if needed. “The next time we should turn the IDF loose and have a total victory in the Middle East for peace that will last,” Hagee said in his address.

“No return to the 1967 borders,” Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of San Antonio, Texas, said in his the invocation. “No return to the Auschwitz borders.” ....

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor who spoke at the conference’s main event, the Night to Honor Israel, argued that Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and therefore their call for two states is no more than a “euphemism for the destruction of the state of Israel.” Prosor insisted that peace with the Palestinians could only be reached once they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and change their anti-Israel curriculum at schools...."

And to quote from an eyewitness description of the summit here:

'.... In an interesting response that seemed to resonate with Christians who are becoming aware of an infiltration of the Palestinian narrative into American churches, Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau said that “Arab money and the radical Left” have fueled media attacks on Israel. The comment showed a growing awareness of the problem, as CUFI Western Regional Director Randy Neal outlined similar problems to hundreds of college students Sunday afternoon. More than ever, there was sense at this CUFI Summit that the era of unchallenged attacks from the Left is over.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor related a dual story that underscored the difference in the cultures of jihadists and those who oppose them. Cantor said that he had been part of a delegation that heard a detailed briefing on the Iron Dome project, which has saved thousands of Israeli lives during rocket attacks from Gaza....

Many in attendance were brought to tears by the address delivered by Richard Kemp, commander of British forces in Afghanistan. Kemp began by revealing his own Christian faith, and invoked the name of another legend, whom he called “The greatest Christian Zionist in Britain.” He went on to say that he had, that morning, spoken to Orde Wingate. Many in the crowd smiled but were puzzled.

“I spoke to him this morning at Arlington,” Kemp said. Wingate, the British major-general who was a Christian Zionist, helped train what would become the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces. Wingate was killed in a plane crash in India, in 1944, but remains a beloved figure for Israelis and their American supporters.

Kemp delivered an impassioned defense of Israel that brought many in the room to tears. He mentioned several of Israel’s major battlefield achievements, calling the 1976 Entebbe rescue, “The most breathtaking special forces operation the world has ever seen.”

Kemp also referred to the CUFI Summit as a “remarkable event,” and indeed it was. Jews and Christians alike were moved by such displays as the “Wall of Remembrance,” which profiled the 1,000 Israelis killed by jihadist terrorism since 2000.'

 Update: more here

"The Almond Rod": A Welcome New Christian Blog

British Methodist-turned-Anglican Ian G has been a reader of this blog since soon after it began.  His comments have always been welcome, and I've had reason to tip my hat to him on not a few occasions (he's not to be confused with another very welcome contributor, that resource extraordinary, Ian, whose latest links are in a comment on my previous post).

It was Ian G who enabled this post, which consists largely of his doughty protest to the British Museum regarding its inappropriate use of the P-word, and he also authored this guest post about a Christian NGO and its dangerous attitude to Israel.

Ian G must have the magic touch, because both posts received a lot of attention.

A retired teacher of religious studies, he has now launched a blog of his own, entitled "The Almond Rod," and while its main focus is irrelevant to our purposes, he intends to turn his attention to Israel and Zionism from time to time.

It being Easter, Ian has just put on a post called "Who Killed Jesus? Murder or Suicide?"  He tells me:

"It is an examination of the proper Christian understanding of what Jesus' death was all about. My argument, although lengthy as a blog post, is an outline of, what I believe to be, correct interpretation and theology. I make no concessions on what I believe, but I hope that I have shown that labelling the Jews as 'Christ-killers' is biblically illiterate, theologically unsound and illogical.  I hope it will be of interest to your readers ..."

Thanks, Ian G.  At a time when Israel is under constant and even increasing demonisation from so many in the Christian churches, who frankly ought to know better, your entry into the blogosphere is a welcome development!

"A Very Worrying Development": The Rebranding Of NGO BibleLands

Readers who've looked at my previous post will notice that the chief executive of the British NGO BibleLands has taken umbrage at what I've cited regarding the Islamic persecution of Copts and other Christians in the Middle East, and concentrates his fire-power upon Israel.

A Christian reader of mine, Ian G, who has been a teacher of religious studies, has the following to say about BibleLands.  I thank him for sharing his insights with me.  What he writes makes interesting and disturbing reading.

Writes Ian G:

"I see that they also intend to change their name to 'Embrace the Middle East'. The logo is also being changed to two hands where the Cross is suggested, rather than plain and obvious.

See here and here

Whenever a Christian organisation rebrands like this, one needs to look closely for the real reason. They always talk about modernising and relevance, but they often mean abandoning the original vision.

In this case, the name BibleLands clearly accepts that Israel, along with other nations, has an historic connection to a piece of the BibleLands. The Cross is an historic event that took place in Roman occupied, Jewish Jerusalem. Much of the Tenach and the New Testament takes place in Israel.

If, like me, you were brought up to believe in an Israel that occupied, roughly, Galilee, Samaria and Judea, than the return of Jews to the Land is of momentous significance to both Jews and Christians. Most especially to all who actually believe the Bible.

Whilst the debt that Christianity owes to Judaism is implicit in the name BibleLands it is eradicated in 'Embrace the Middle East'. Now the Middle East is just another place that needs help.

It is also worth looking at their interactive map of Israel and Palestine.

It would appear that Bethlehem is 50 per cent Muslim and 50 per cent Christian. My understanding from sources such as the Barnabas Fund  and Israel Today is that this is no longer accurate. For example Israel Today recently published three articles on the exodus of Arab Christians from areas in the control of the Palestinian Authority: or the archived articles of the Barnabas Fund.

Apparently, 70 per cent of the population of the Gaza strip live below the poverty line. Oh, and Israel does not have a recognised capital in Jerusalem. Funny, but the Bible says...

Now you see why they've changed the name.

The sad and dangerous thing about all this is that generations of churchgoers have grown up singing their Christmas carols from the 'Bethlehem Carol Sheet' produced by BibleLands. But that was in the day when Jesus was a Jew and Bethlehem was the City of David –  in Judea ( Luke ch.2 v.4).

What is missing from their website is a clear 'Statement of Faith'; there are now only 'Core Values' backed up with selected New Testament verses.   (A text out of context is a pretext.)

Compare this with the statement of faith for Barnabas Fund  and any other genuine Christian organisation and it quickly becomes obvious that BibleLands has lost its way.

This is happening to more and more Christian groups and denominations and is a very worrying development."

No Imperilled Gaza Christians Please, We're Methodists

For recommending a (pro-Israel) Christian website that has highlighted the plight of Christians in Gaza I've been rapped over the knuckles, so to speak, by one of the Methodist ministers who blog not infrequently about the supposed crimes and shortcomings of Israel.  It happened like this.

On a post of the minister's that links to this article on The Electronic Intifada by anti-Israel crusader Ben White about "critic of Islam" Dr Patrick Sookhdeo,  I commented:

A quite reasonable suggestion, I thought.  After all, the blog in question often, with alacrity, indeed with an apparent relish, draws attention to the plight, real and imagined, of Palestinian Arabs under Israeli rule.  Surely it would wish to highlight the plight of Palestinian Arabs under the jackboot of Hamas.  Especially when those Palestinian Arabs are suffering because they are Christians.

I thought wrong.

I responded:

Added the erudite Anglo-Jew whom I mentioned en passant in a previous post:

But to no avail. The Christian site's post that "rather smacks of Islamophobia" was decidedly unwelcome.  Khaled Abu Toameh's article, also about the persecuted Christians of Gaza, was ignored.

However, despite the demonstrated dark side of Mondoweiss, that site by, contrast, is not off-limits:

The entire thread can be seen here

Christians United For Israel Summit (video)

It sure beats those flotilla and flytilla bigots we've been seeing and hearing too much of lately!

No Welcome in the Hillside: The War Against Zionism is both Macro and Micro

On 21 July this year the Jerusalem Post carried a humdinger of an article by Welsh-born Shimon Cohen entitled “Would We Say it in Public?”  Inter alia, he called for the pride of Jewish youth in the Jewish State and its achievements to be rekindled.

My own solution to this problem – a partial one, anyway – can be found in my very first blog post, in which I argued that, however high the financial cost, a far worse cost will ensue if Israel fails to establish what’s often been mooted and is long overdue – a satellite television station to counter the remorseless anti-Israel propaganda that is encountered on such channels as BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Press TV. The humanitarian endeavours and the medical and scientific breakthroughs that regularly emerge from Israel, yet receive scant attention in a media that prefers to present the Jewish State as an imperialistic militaristic leviathan, would be given the publicity they deserve – and desperately need. This would help to balance the negative images of Israel by a biased media that are influencing and eroding support for Israel among sections of the public, particularly in Britain and other parts of Europe, and to the apathy if not antipathy towards Zionism that we are told engulfs many Jewish young people today.

“Growing up, Israel was at the very heart of my Jewish being”, wrote Shimon Cohen.

”Not identifying as a Zionist was out of the question. My parents and grandparents carried living memories of Jewish statelessness – discrimination, pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust.

As their generations diminish, so does our appreciation of what it was to be a Jew in a world without Israel.

As a child in 1960s Wales, I was inspired by the miracle of Jewish redemption in our ancient homeland.

My bedroom was adorned with posters of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan. Unlike most British Jewish children today, I had never set foot in Eretz Yisrael. But I knew its geographical features and landmarks as well as I knew my local neighborhood.

Its heroes were my heroes. Its achievements were my achievements.

At my Cardiff state comprehensive, I stood out among Huws and Gareths.

Yet with every feat of Israeli audacity, from the raid on Entebbe to Eurovision victories, I was the toast of the school. My pride in Israel was boosted by my non-Jewish classmates.”

Yes, that was in the era when the new kind of Jew envisaged by the Zionist Movement – a Jew deprived of the “ghetto bend”, a Jew with a country to call his own, and a “normalised” status among the nations  was generally lauded – as a heroic figure, a David versus the Arab Goliath. It was before the Keith Kyles and Michael Adamses and Robert Fisks and John Pilgers and Alan Rusbridgers and Orla Guerins and Jeremy Bowens had stamped their poisonous journalistic imprint upon public opinion, and turned Israel into “The Jew among the nations”, scapegoated, persecuted, reviled.

Cohen’s mention of Wales interested me because, as I mentioned in a previous blog, David Lloyd George, whose Cabinet promulgated the Balfour Declaration and who was a lifelong philosemite, was a Welshman (albeit one born in Manchester) and spoke of his knowledge of the Old Testament and of his sense of identity with Jews as fellow-members of a small but ancient people. Indeed, Wales is about the same size as Israel. Moreover, the translation of the Bible into Welsh during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is what saved the Welsh language from extinction, and so closely did the Welsh chapel-goers read the Old Testament that the names of many Welsh people – the Welsh took hereditary surnames later than the English, some surnames not being fixed until the end of the nineteenth century – are identical to Jewish names (presenting a hazard for genealogists and other historians).

For example, before he was identified as a Welsh shepherd lad, Aaron Aaron was counted among the Jewish convicts who sailed to Australia with other British transportees on the First Fleet (1788), and when Welsh fashion designer David Emanuel, with his (Jewish) wife Elizabeth, was selected to design Lady Diana Spencer’s wedding dress, he was eagerly claimed as “one of us” by the Jewish press.

Given the sturdy thread of philosemitism that has existed among the Welsh, it’s unpleasant to see the hostility towards and ignorance about Israel displayed by Jill Evans MEP and certain other members of the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru; these include politician and Baptist minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas, who in cavalier disregard of the reality on board the Mavi Marmara, states on a Plaid Cymru website for Muslims: “It is frightening to think of the horrific ordeal that humanitarian activists – delivering aid to the region – had to endure during Israel’s unprovoked attack, for which the Israeli Government must face sanctions.”

It’s unpleasant, too, to learn of an apparent instance of anti-Israel bigotry in Gwernymynydd, a village outside Mold in Flintshire. The bigotry has targeted the 40-strong Father’s House Congregation, which meets – or rather met until 30 October – on Saturdays (its Sabbath) at the local Village Centre. This photo shows a service in full swing – note the Israeli flag, which symbolises the congregation’s warm support for the Jewish State.

The congregation’s pastor, former National Crime Squad detective Rev Mike Fryer, who used to be pastorof Mold Christian Fellowship, was in Sderot in 2006 when a Hamas missile landed 200 yards from whe school at which he was staying. He studied at Yad Vashem, is a director of Christians For Zion, and on the board of Israel-based Out Of Zion Ministries, and has written a fine essay called “Christian Anti-Semitism Today” (cfoic.net/addpages.jsp?pageID=219) that I mentioned in an earlier blogpost. Here’s a taste of the congregation’s website www.fathershouse.uk.com/resources/israel.htm

The congregation has used the hall for over a decade, but in May was told in writing of a problem the local council had regarding its activities; in August it was given notice to quit, and now, in November, has been evicted. It seems that the May letter informed the congregation that "There has also been great concern expressed about the content of your web site, and the very controversial views it contains. The Village Centre Committee does not wish to be associated with your views." The chairman of the Centre’s management committee says there had been comments from people in the village "about their extreme views but that has nothing to do with our decision to terminate our agreement with them"; he claimed: "They [Fathers House] operate on a Saturday afternoon and early evening which in effect blocks two sessions.//We have a lot of people who want parties on a Saturday.  They have been given the option of a Sunday."

Rev Fryer is quoted as saying:

"There are obviously individuals on the committee who don't like our views.

We have been there for more than 11 years. We pay more money in than any other group using the hall, and we probably do more for the community than any other group.

We normally meet on a Saturday from 2.30pm until 7pm, but we have said we're happy to meet earlier, and have even cancelled some meetings when necessary.

They wanted us to use the hall on a Sunday, knowing very well that our Sabbath is a Saturday. The committee claims it' is because of a rise in requests to use the hall on a Saturday. But I'm a trustee on the committee and I've asked to see the diary but I've been told I'm not allowed."

The congregation, which has obtained temporary premises elsewhere (outside Flintshire, for fear of similar action against it by other councils in that county), remains defiant. On the Christians for Zion website (http://www.christiansforzion.com/ ) it states:

“Fathers House stands firm in their support of Israel and belief that the land of Israel was given to the Jewish people as an everlasting possession in accordance with the scriptures. Fathers House are not willing to compromise in expounding these scriptures and in making their support for the Jewish people and the establishment of Israel widely known through many mediums including the Fathers House website and the Christians for Zion website. The management of the village centre made it very clear in their correspondence in May of this year that the views expressed in the Church Website were enough of an issue for them to evict the congregation from the Council-owned centre. This is without doubt a case of discrimination under section 45 of the Equality Act 2010.”

It is tempting to dismiss this as a parochial dispute, of no consequence outside the village concerned. To do so is a mistake. For if Rev Fryer is correct, and the congregation has indeed been evicted for its pro-Israel views, this is yet another instance of the demonization of Israel and its champions that is happening across Britain; the anti-Israel bigots within and without the Christian Church must not be allowed to win. Clearly, the war against Zionism (indeed, what some analysts have called today’s “War against the Jews”)  is being waged at both the macro and the micro level.

In Praise of Israel's Christian Friends

On 6 July 1897, at a restaurant in London's Piccadilly, Theodor Herzl outlined his grand Zionist vision before a mainly sceptical audience comprising members of a club for young Anglo-Jewish intellectuals and cultural figures.  The most enthusiastic commentator present was an elderly non-Jewish guest, the pre-Raphaelite painter Holman Hunt, a devout Christian who knew the Holy Land intimately, depicted real Jewish faces (of people he encountered during his sojourns there) on his biblical-themed canvases, and had put forward a scheme for Jewish settlement not unlike Herzl's own - and at virtually the same time.

He was one of a number of nineteenth-century figures in the English-speaking world dedicated to the restoration of Jews to Zion.  While some of them were millenarians, believing that the ingathering of the exiles was a necessary prelude to the conversion of the Jews and thus to a new messianic age, some had no strong missionary agenda.  Arguably the most remarkable of the latter type was the Protestant, anti-Roman Catholic novelist and editor Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, who died in 1846; she anticipated the well-known twentieth-century philosemite Rev Dr James Parkes in holding that Judaism constitutes an alternate path to redemption.

Nowadays, mention 'Christian Zionism' and the American Evangelical Christian Right most often springs to people's minds.  In 'liberal intellectual' circles it is de rigueur to deride its adherents.  But at a time when 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions' is becoming the slogan of certain denominations and faith groups, some of which are attempting to invalidate the Jewish People's historic attachment to Eretz Israel altogether, all well-wishers of  the Jewish State should accord them the appreciation they deserve.

 Other staunch supporters of Israel in Christian circles include the Roman Catholic Sisters of Sion, represented at the Solidarity with Israel rally held in Sydney last month (during the immediate fallout from the flotilla affair) under the auspices of the News South Wales State Zionist Council.  As the name indicates they also include the Anglican Friends of Israel, founded in Britain in 2005; among its patrons is the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, and chaplain to the London Stock Exchange.

As its website shows, the Anglican Friends of Israel are not slow, when occasion warrants, to counter injustices against Israel, be the latter in word or deed; among their more recent activities, for example, is a commendably articulate and robust letter to the BBC regarding its biased reportage, and a fine defence of Israel regarding the boarding of the Mavi Marmara - a defence which demonstrates a close knowledge of the issues involved and a sophisticated grasp of political realities.  A more sophisticated grasp, it is tempting to add, than that of Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was quick to condemn Israel as soon as news of Israel's raid on the Mavi Marmara broke - overlooking the terrorist-links of the IHH which sponsored the 'aid convoy' as well as the defensive reasons for Israel's  Gaza blockade and before all the information about the raid came to hand. (Justifiably, the Anglican Friends take him to task.)

Nor must we omit to mention Christian Friends of Israel (UK) who have joined with the Zionist Federation of Great Britain to denounce the recent resolution by the Methodist Conference to boycott produce from the disputed territories. The Anglican Friends have roundly condemned the Methodists too.  So, to all Christian champions of Israel: heartfelt gratitude and praise.