"War Has Been Declared. Its Agents Must Be Answered ..."

Er, ever heard of Arab Rejectionism?

Onward Christian soldiers!  That's the title of a well-known hymn, and that, in essence, is the call of call a Christian supporter of Israel, Brian Schrauger, in a call, as it were, to arms.

Writes Brian Schrauger, inter alia:

 'Since 2010, the "Christ at the Checkpoint" conference has only been in Bethlehem. Last week organizers announced they are going global. What must Christians who stand with Israel know and do to counter "Christ at the Checkpoint" and its declaration of war against them?....

“There simply is no biblical basis for Christian Zionism,” says conference organizer Munther Isaac. He made this assertion in 2016 and did so as a pastor, Bible professor and theologian.

At the CatC conference in 2016, the hired gun to assault Christian Zionism was the so-called ‘Bible Answer Man,’ Hank Hanegraaff from the US.

Not only is the ethnicity of today’s Jews dubious, said Hanegraaff, Christian Zionists are directly responsible for what he called Jewish Zionism’s “murder, terrorism and ethnic cleansing in 1948.” Moreover, he asserted, all talk of a third Temple (as per the prophet Ezekiel) is “nonsense.”

In fact, said author and historian Robert Smith this year, all forms, all expressions of Christian Zionism lack ethical integrity. Hence there is no ethical common ground for discussing any of their arguments with them. 

Little wonder that the number one written objective of CatC this year was “to challenge the theology of Christian Zionism.”....  

When the conference kicked off on Monday evening, the keynote speaker was Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malik. Speaking in the place of President Mahmoud Abbas, he declared that Jesus was crucified because he was a Palestinian, then proceeded to eviscerate Israel and US President Donald Trump. 

Every CatC leader was there. They fawned and applauded and patted al-Malik on the back. Then, wrapped in Christian lingo, they re-asserted all of his key points. 

Later in the week an unscheduled representative of the PA appeared at the podium. Her powerpoint presentation was a gatling gun declaration of the PA’s explicit anti-Israel narrative, vilifying it as a criminal enterprise. ....

One of the main ways CatC and its advocates disarm evangelical opposition is by seducing it.

Pleading for love and unity, it relentlessly argues for Israel as an essentially criminal entity. Advocates for Israel who buy the seduction are persuaded that silence in the face of these assertions are necessary expressions of Christian love and unity.

Another seduction is using weapons from an entire armory of rhetorical accusations. The accusations against evangelicals who stand with Israel include charges of one-sided prejudice, lack of compassion, divisiveness, blindness, political motivation and, although the word itself is never spoken, heresy. 

Perhaps the most effective seduction is various use of “bait and switch” appeals. Like a salesman who gets his mark to say yes about things unrelated to his real objective, CatC does the same. Appealing to evangelical sensibilities and expressions, those who participate, standing with raised hands and bowed heads, invariably find themselves in that same posture as anti-Israel invective is proclaimed as gospel truth.

This happened at the very start of this year’s CatC. Asking attendees to stand for an opening prayer, the program immediately proceeded to the ‘Palestinian National Anthem.’ Asked to remain standing, everyone apparently did. Refusing to stand for the prayer, I was spared the embarrassment of having to sit in the face of an anthem that declares, 

Warrior, warrior, warrior, ...

Meanwhile, in London, an undisguised aim

I will live as a warrior, I will remain a warrior, I will die as a warrior - until my country returns Warrior!

.... Never, ever, let down your guard at this event or others like it—including a increasing array of services at local churches.

Go global

CatC’s leadership and advocates are already taking their attack to evangelicals around the world. Apart from the West, they are all-but entirely unopposed. War has been declared. Its agents must be answered. They must be opposed.

Everywhere.

Especially in such a time as this.'

[Emphasis added]

Read the entire article here

Pieces of Hate: "The Palestinian cause is ... for the exploited & oppressed masses in our era"

In London last week, a mob of abusive Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists taunt an unexpected showing of pro-Israelis, standing in dignified fashion in silent counter-protest while the PSCniks raise fists in the air, rasp familiar chants, sound a silly shrill trill, and even indulge in a taunting improvised rhyme that includes da Joo word.

 The doughty David Collier gives the context (and another video) here

And in Toronto on Al Quds Day teacher Nadia Shoufani reminds her fellow Israel-haters of another Israel-hater's words ("... We are here to urge you all to believe ... that the Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only but it's a cause for every revolutionary whereever he [sic] is, a cause for the exploited and oppressed masses in our era ...") before launching into a full-scale rant against the Zionist Entity.

There's a very able refutation here of her damaging nonsense

(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)


Meanwhile, an old friend of ours, Jeremy Moodey, CEO of Engage the Middle East, surfaced in the correspondence columns of the Church of England newspaper (12 May) to argue against its behind-a-paywall editorial of the previous week.  (Hat tip: reader P)

Notice that Moodey has the spiteful audacity to consider Israel a "rogue" state.  He implicitly favours an end to Jewish statehood.

Shame, shame, shame on him.

On social media, another old friend of ours, Stephen Sizer, likes the dissembling Israel-bash, and incorrigible antisemite and 9/11 troofer Tony Gratrex (founder of Reading PSC)  seems equally pleased, sharing the article.

 In defiance, I think we should give this fine fellow with the magnificent moustache a twirl:

They're Having A Laugh, Aren't They?

Er, no, actually.

Facebook group "Christian Friends of Palestine," rather like "Christians United for Peace," are inveterate foes of the Jewish State, and posting over the top canards about Israel (and da Joos) is not unusual for them.

A couple of recent tasters:

But this latest example of their malice must surely take the cake!

Meanwhile, these militaristic Iranians seem deadly serious ("Israel must disappear from the world map")

Read more here

Bonus: this photo, reportedly of a 1991 Iranian postage stamp, has begun doing the rounds of social media ...

Stephen Sizer: “Encouraging research and debate on all aspects of [9/11] is not anti-Semitic"

Reverend Sizer (he's the clean-shaven one)

The London Jewish News is a popular and deserving competitor to Anglo-Jewry's supposed newspaper of record, the Jewish Chronicle.

It carries a report regarding Stephen Sizer's despicable action in linking to a grossly antisemitic article that laid the blame for 9/11 on Israel and a number of named Jews (I posted about this here).

The report, out today, tells that, following overtures from Mr Jonathan Arkush, vice-president of the British Board of Deputies, Sizer has removed that link.

Posted on 20 January (as shown at right) the link to the article (see my above-mentioned post for that) remained on Facebook for over a week, attracting a total of 60 comments, many of them antisemitic, and at least two "shares".  Disturbingly, not one of Sizer's followers suggested to him in those comments that the post should be taken down. 

The London Jewish News quotes Mr Arkush, a London barrister, thus:

“Posting, and giving approval to, an article which in effect accuses Jews of responsibility for the 9/11 atrocity is unquestionably anti-Semitic, just as it is beyond absurd...."

It reports that while Mr Arkush has "welcomed" Sizer's removal of the link, Mr Arkush also notes that he is

“extremely concerned that a Church of England minister could possibly have considered it appropriate or becoming to his position to advertise such racist nonsense”

and that Mr Arkush observes

“The church should be taking action. He is one of their ministers. It should not be left to the Jewish community to have to protest and be forced to take action from outside.”

Sizer reportedly told the paper via email when contacted by them:

“I would welcome articles you can recommend refuting the allegations.” 

The paper goes on:

'Noting that many Americans feel 9/11 was “an inside job,” Sizer added: “It is essential the public become convinced of what happened before and after 9/11. Inevitably the truth will upset many people if it is shown by further investigation that the official explanations are shown to be deficient.” He added: “Encouraging research and debate on all aspects of [9/11] is not anti- Semitic… Suppressing discussion on such grounds will fuel suspicion, not remove it.”...' [My emphasis]

Read more here

 And there's a big article about this unsavoury post of Sizer's in the London Evening Standard that shows the diocese of Guildford is finally on the case!

Another big article in the UK Daily Telegraph

More fame (or infamy) 

Al Beeb carries the story

Cof E statement here  (it misdates the date Sizer posted the link as 29, rather than 20, January)

The Times of London, most of it behind a paywall, and similarly misdating the link:

From the Daily Telegraph inter alia:

 'The Bishop of Dorking, the Right Revd Ian Brackley, said the Diocese of Guildford, which includes Dr Sizer’s Virginia Water parish, is urgently investigating. 

“I want to reassure everyone that we are taking this complaint extremely seriously,” he said. 

“Immediate steps are being taken to investigate and we are in contact with Dr Sizer as well as the Board of Deputies.” 

A spokesman for the Church of England added: “These comments would rightly be seen as unacceptable whenever they were posted. 

“It is a matter of deep sorrow and shame that they have been posted in this week of all weeks. 

“The Diocese of Gui[d]lford, where the Rev Sizer is licensed, is taking immediate steps to investigate .... 

But Dr Sizer was unrepentant. He told The Telegraph: “I was encouraging debate, I was neither saying Israel did it or that they didn’t.”

He added: “I think they are trying to discredit me – they have tried several times to do that and they have seized on one little link to an article.

“With hindsight I wouldn’t have put it on [Facebook] if I had known it was going to happen.”...' [My emphasis]

 (Incidentally, I contacted the Jewish Chronicle not long after I first saw Sizer's post of 20 January and blogged about it.  They could have had a scoop. However, "the organ of Anglo-Jewry" was not interested in reporting about it, nor did their reporter ever, as far as I can tell, tweet it, as he told me he might.  Poor show, JC.  Very poor show.)

Shame On You, Stephen Sizer! Shame On You!

Soon they will rest in the soil of Eretz Israel, in the same cemetery as four of the victims of the Islamist monster who targeted a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, the four victims of the Islamist monster who deliberately made Jews his target, and blasted them to death in a kosher supermarket in Paris while other terrified hostages cowered.  They were (from right to left in the picture) a retired gentleman, a teacher, and two young men who had their entire adult lives ahead of them, one of whom, Yoav, was the son of the chief rabbi of Tunis.  The other, Yohan, was killed when he made a heroic attempt to disarm the Islamist monster.

Murdered because they were Jews

Indeed, it appears that Elsa Cayat, the only woman slaughtered at the Charlie Hebdo offices, was killed owing to her Jewishness (video interview with her cousin, who also tells how Elsa had been receiving antisemitic death threats over her association with the magazine).  No other woman at Charlie Hebdo was murdered by the killers, who reportedly had a self-declared policy of sparing women.

In addition, it's widely assumed, certainly by the school administration itself,  that the supermarket monster who killed a young policewoman and blasted a council worker in the face.had been on his way to cause mayhem and carnage at a Jewish primary school around the corner.

I've a little more to say on the topic of France in the wake of the recent atrocities, but right now I'd like to bring readers' attention to the shameful behaviour of the Anglican vicar of Virginia Water, the Reverend Stephen Sizer, who's been posting his usual propaganda against Israel with breakneck speed. 

Among all of these par-for-the-course items he has also posted items that have more than a whiff of the sewer about them, and are surely unworthy of a professed Christian, let alone a man of the cloth.  Shame on him.  And that goes double for some of his followers.

 The bodies of the Jewish victims of the  Parisian supermarket atrocity were hardly cold when Sizer,  a firm foe of "Islamophobia", shared a link to a Jerusalem Post report regarding a slimy little item from Wikileaks

And instead of lamenting the antisemitism and expressing sympathy for the genuine fear that in the wake of the Paris tragedy has forced the Jews of north London to beef up security – as described here by the Daily Mail – the vicar posted this mockery of the steps Jews feel they have to go to in order to try to keep their community safe from harm (Shomrim, in case some non-Jewish readers don't know, is Hebrew for watchers or guardians):

 

The commenters above include Jewish-born convert to Christianity Miranda Pinch, herself an anti-Israel activist, and Mike Allan, whose persistent antisemitic postings should long since have persuaded the vicar to de-friend him. Here's a current example:

Note the snotty introduction (rather than a condemnation of antisemitism) to this item offered by the vicar to his follows for their delectation:

This, incidentally, is what the above antisemite wrote:

A snide comment regarding this report, which concerns David Ward MP, who was once suspended from the LibDem Party for antisemitic comments:

The following relates to BBC reporter and newsreader Tim Willcox's crass question to a Jewish lady in Paris, which incidentally, as the linked report shows, has been condemned by, among others, historian Simon Schama (good on yah, sir!) 

Included among these comments is a taste of the despicable antisemitism that Sizer lets his followers get away with.

Mick Fletcher's post in full:

For shame, Stephen Sizer.  For shame.

Update; breaking news: Sizer's latest:

 Will someone please bring the disgraceful posts to his bishop's attention?

Update: he's at it again ...

Christmas Cheer From The Vicarage

Trotting out a War On Want card first offered for sale a few years ago, a vicar writes:

Sure you're not pulling our legs, vicar?

Our old mate also writes:

:which has prompted the following unequivocally antisemitic comment from one of his followers (and "Likes" from certain others!)

Better make a New Year resolution to do some judicious de-friending, vicar. 

You don't want to be seen in such company. 

Do you?

"On The 25th of December ... People Around The World Will Celebrate The Birth of a Palestinian Socialist"

In my previous post I linked to several unpalatable examples of Yuletide fare, including one that our old mate Stephen Sizer appears to be promoting (does the Bishop of Guildford know, or care?).

Here is another unpalatable nugget.  I nearly called it "indigestible" but unfortunately there are many people with a vested interest in swallowing such crap with relish, and encouraging others to do so.

And because traditional religious instruction, like history itself, is not taught in schools, there will be an untold number of morons and dupes only too ready to digest this poison.

I have always said, and I will say again: one of the major reasons for the diminution of philosemitism in the Western world is because few people read the scriptures anymore, and in consequence fail to identify with the Jews and with Israel against Pharoah, Haman, and everybody else who seek to destroy them.

The Christ at the Checkpoint Conference Roundly Denounced

Yes, the vicar's there, naturally ...

Well, here it is again, albeit in a deliberately  somewhat truncated version, the post of mine that mysteriously disappeared not long after I posted it a few hours ago:

The latest Christ at the Checkpoint Conference is taking place now, and NGO Monitor's BDS in the Pews initiative has produced a downloadable document exposing the Christ at the Checkpoint events, the main points of which are summarised thus:

 •Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CATC) is a bi-annual event held in Bethlehem, launched in 2010 and organized by Bethlehem Bible College and the Holy Land Trust.  The second CATC conference was held in 2012, and another will take place March 10-14, 2014.

•Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) and partner Holy Land Trust (HLT) have been directly and indirectly funded by the governments of the United States, the Netherlands, UK, EU, and prominent religious institutions.

•CATC seeks to advance the Palestinian nationalist agenda within Evangelical Christian churches, while simultaneously reviving theological antisemitic themes such as replacement theology.

•At previous conferences, multiple speakers made antisemitic comments, such as “God is continuing to have a program with the Jewish people who Paul describes as enemies of the Gospel…” and “Jesus is the true vine, not Israel. He is the faithful Israelite who will accomplish all that the nation of Israel failed to do.”  Other anti-Jewish themes promoted at CATC conferences include the de-Judaizing of Jesus and the promotion of a racial theory of Jewish origins.

•There is a total lack of financial transparency by Bethlehem Bible College regarding CATC.  Neither monetary amounts nor financial donors are available on the BBC website.  

And in a must-read article the project director of BDS in the Pews, Yitzhak Santis, asks not unreasonably:

"Why are taxpayer monies of Western democracies being used to fund anti-Jewish polemics more reminiscent of medieval disputations than 21st century pluralism?

How did government funds come to be used over recent years to enable the Christ at the Checkpoint (CatC) conference – now in its third iteration this week at Bethlehem Bible College – where such polemics were sounded in the past"

 He continues:

"The CatC conference revives medieval theological antisemitism in its discussions of how to advance the Palestinian nationalist agenda within Evangelical churches toward disrupting traditionally strong support for Israel. In support of the BDS campaigns and the wider political war to demonize Israel, replacement theology, de-Judaization of Jesus and the defamation of Judaism are consistent themes.

The BDS movement sees churches as central to achieving their objectives:

Religious institutions are seen in many communities as embodying important moral and ethical principles… Divestment campaigns that target companies such as Caterpillar have been initiated in a number of major Christian churches. Not only will successful divestment campaigns financially weaken the Occupation, but will raise both the public profile and legitimacy of the BDS campaign.

One of the main vehicles for waging this political war against Israel is to revive the themes of religious disputations of the Middle Ages, in which ecclesiastic authorities required rabbis to debate priests on whether Judaism or Christianity was the “true faith.” This stacked deck often resulted in anti-Jewish persecutions."

Towards the end of his article, which really has to be read in its entirety, he remarks:

"No visits appear to be organized to Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem nor are meetings with Israeli Jewish families listed. Moreover, there are no apparent outings to the many Jerusalem sites where Palestinians carried out suicide terrorist attacks. There is a token visit to a West Bank settlement for a “brief tour” and meeting with one Israeli settler. The only Jews apparently scheduled to speak at CatC are so-called Messianic Jews.

Presbyterian theologian Professor Stephen R. Haynes wrote, “When Christians are confronted by the word-sign ‘Jew,’ they are more likely to conjure theological types and anti-types, not to mention cultural and literary stereotypes, than to think of real individuals with the same hopes, failures and foibles as non-Jews… Jewish security is threatened whenever real Jews are associated with the ‘Jew’ of the Christian imagination."

A number of Messianic Jews, askance at the tone and direction of the conference, have issued a no-holds-barred denunciation of it which makes disturbing claims against the sponsors:

"We, the undersigned, will not attend or support the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference because of our assessment of its anti-Semitic content and undertones. We cannot remain silent at a time like this, and as a matter of conscience, we express our serious concern for both the sponsors of this conference, and over the content, message and activities of the past two conferences.

We urge all participants to check their own hearts and minds regarding their attitude towards the Jewish people and the Jewish nation. Anti-Israel politics and political correctness have emerged as focal points of this conference, to which end the state of Israel and the Jewish people have been singled out for constant and severe criticism. The conference sponsors retain connections to pro-jihadist movements or persons, whose political stances threaten the entire Middle East.  By retaining such connections, the conference has failed to uphold points #6 and #10 of its own manifesto.

As sincere believers in Messiah Yeshua, we cannot, and we will not, endorse this conference."

As the earliest commenters on a certain news agency report commending the conference have pointed out, hypocrisy is rife among professing Christians who indulge in perpetual Israel-bashing:

"The reality is harsh: Christians are being attacked and massacred across the middle east in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon. Christians barely exist in many other Arab countries having been forced out or killed off over time. Palestinian Christians are an endangered species and get little protection or support from the PA - that's a sad fact. Christians are abandoning Bethlehem/BJaka/BSahour not because of Israeli rule, but Fatah rule and the Hamas/IJ/Salafist threat."

The Christian communities within the State of Israel are doing well if needs be to know. just go and ask them and then also go ask them how they are being treated by the Muslim Arab community."

Stephen Sizer's "Racists for Israel"

Yesterday, in a comment on my blog that I have not published, the blog's resident troll, a droll, wacky sort of bloke in the UK (who runs a scurrilous anti-Zionist website that I'm more than happy to help leave in the obscurity it so richly deserves by not naming or linking to it) tauntingly alerted me to this event:

Pastor Mike Fryer is no stranger to students of Christian Zionism, and I've mentioned him on this blog more than once for his sterling efforts on behalf of Israel.

In 2010, here, I drew attention to an impressive essay on Christian antisemitism that Mike Fryer wrote the previous year, which contains the following observations:

‘Many in Christendom today are using charity and good works to re-enforce in the minds of many Muslim fundamentalists that Islam has the right and even a duty to take land from the Jewish people and establish a homeland for themselves. They are referring to land, which the Jewish people by right, by international law and by religion are entitled to possess. 

“Christian” organizations such as Sabeel and Christian Aid speak openly in favor of a Palestinian homeland and use terms such as an “oppressive Israel regime” and “Israeli Occupation”; Church denominations such as the Church in Wales, the Anglican Communion, Methodists and Presbyterians have all spoken of divestment of Israel and support the Palestinian cause to create another state within the confines of the land of Israel. These and many other church organizations, such as the Vineyard, are encouraging governments to negotiate with terrorists ... [and] have eagerly moved away from the term antisemitism and now use the term anti-Zionism. What is the difference? By using the former you can be called a racist and prosecuted but the term anti-Zionism is not perceived in the same way and although it means the same it is, in this current political climate, “acceptable”....

In the [Welsh] town in which I live an anti-Israel play was performed at our local theatre. I led some other Christians for Zion supporters as we stood at the door to the theater and gave out leaflets, not criticizing anyone but stating facts. Many local church leaders and Christian groups attended the play and were obviously opposed to our stance. We found it difficult that many who teach from their pulpits that we are always to seek truth actually ignored the truths in our message….

Three years ago I attended a meeting at which a Church in Wales canon was speaking about the situation in Israel. There were a number of clergy present, none of whom knew me. I listened to lie after lie encouraging the audience to sympathize with Islam and the Palestinian people, and to see Israel as an aggressive regime, hell bent on persecuting the Palestinian people. At the end of the presentation there was a time for questions. At the conclusion of a stream of pro-Palestinian questions, I asked some pertinent questions which showed that the speaker was aware that he was not telling the truth about the actual matters he was referring to. The meeting was immediately stopped and worried clergy, thinking I was a journalist surrounded me in an effort to find out what the purpose of my attendance was.’

Last year, Mike Fryer condemned the anti-Israel Greenbelt festival (at which, be it noted, one of the speakers was the Reverend Lucy Winkett of St James's Church, Piccadilly, the woman behind the recent replica Wall stunt) in the following terms (read more of his remarks and about his efforts then here):

'During the years which preceded the Second World War Political and Religious meetings were being held throughout Europe during which Jews were condemned as a danger to society. Little was done by Christians to stop this teaching which incited the hatred which enabled the mass murder of men women and children to take place. Ordinary men who before the war were upright members of the community joined such units as Battalion 101 who were reservist Police officers and who became the most violent killers in history. Within five short years those men in that battalion, who numbered less than 500, originally defenders of communities, became the murderers of 83,000 Jews. They, who had families of their own, stripped and shot women and children at point blank range and the local Clergy watched. This happened for many reasons but one reason was that people were afraid to do anything to oppose such violence. If you were caught helping Jews you would be arrested and taken to the murder camps or executed on the spot, as were your family.

On Sunday the 25th of August the Greenbelt Christian Youth Summer Camp being held at Cheltenham Racecourse will host Reverend Lucy Winkett the Chair of the Amos Trust who will launch, on behalf of the trust, the Kairos Britain network of Churches. This network, which is also being launched in other countries around the world is targeting Israel as an oppressive unjust and racist nation who give no rights to the Palestinians. They condemn Israel and call out for Justice for Palestinians but they ignore the rights of Israel to defend herself and to live on land rightfully her own. They call for what they describe as an end to oppression and injustice by Israel but refuse to address the oppression of Christians in Gaza or the removal of Human rights of women and young men or the summary executions in HAMAS governed areas. They don’t condemn the firing of 29,000 rockets which have been fired at Israeli communities since 2000 or the suicide bombings which are now being prevented by the security fence. They don’t address the increasing teaching of hatred in Palestinian Arab schools. I could go on but I think I have made my point. 

Greenbelt are also hosting a number of other speakers who are anti-Israel, one of whom Mark Braverman who calls Zionism Racism. This conference attended by the big names in Christianity such as Graham Kendrick and Steve Chalk are inciting our youth to hate in the same way as European Church leaders did in the years preceding the Holocaust. This incitement is no less subtle and neither is it in any way less dangerous.

 The difference between now and then is that we are not going to be rounded up and shot for standing with Israel and speaking out when the rest of the Church is condemning her. So why aren’t we? In every genocide there are victims, perpetrators, bystanders and rescuers. Many Christians in Holocaust were classified as bystanders because of the real threat of being murdered alongside Jews. So today why are many in the Christian community bystanders when there is no threat except that of words from those fuelled by antisemtism?

We are conditioned to believe that by attending a conference or a meeting held by a pro-Israel speaker and giving our money to support such ministries that we are doing all we can to help Israel. We are conditioned because this is how it has always been done and we go home satisfied that we have done the work that God has called us to do. We have actually become by-standers even by-sitters unless we put the knowledge we gain from such meetings into real action. Why aren’t we rallying at Greenbelt or New Wine or any anti-Israel meetings? Why aren’t we gathering together to pray at such events and show these groups that their teaching is heretical and inciting hatred.

The first part of the definition of Hate Speech is “Speech which generates fear on the part of an individual or group” I believe the Jewish community here in the UK are not as much fearful of the anti-Israel meetings as they are of the apathy within Christendom which allows these meetings to take place without a challenge.

I have written to the BBC who will hold their Radio 2 good morning Sunday programme at Greenbelt when this network is launched  to point out that we will be attending because there is another side to the story, but they have not replied. I know the Jewish community have asked Greenbelt to allow them a speaker but that has been denied....'

Regarding the despicable Wall stunt at Lucy Winkett's church Mike Fryer wrote on Christmas Eve:

'I can only describe the 30 metre long and 8 metre high wall erected outside St.James Church Piccadilly last night as another warped and disgusting addition to the heretical life of this sad Church.

Rev Lucy Winkett of St. James and Chair of “The  Amos Trust” another organisation which spends its time lying about, and vilifying Israel was the person who launched the Kairos Network at the Greenbelt festival this summer and is backing this horrible construction .

The wall has been erected to try and tell a tale that it is a wall of occupation and apartheid and it is being connected to the Christmas story in Bethlehem which adds to the heretical message. The wall will remain in position for twelve days.The wall is another attempt to sow the seeds of hatred into to congregation members and those who pass by this central London Anglican congregation and is nothing less than despicable.

There is not one acknowledgement of the real security barrier in Israel being a construction for the protection of Israeli citizens from suicide bombings and terror attacks.

It is very sad to this happen in our time in our Capital city but it also sad that the Church leaders has not ordered that it be removed from Church premises.'

I don't know how Mike Fryer persuaded Lucy Winkett to afford him the small concession of holding yesterday's event at St James's Church, and I don't know how successful, or otherwise, the event was, given that there appears to have been little publicity about it. (Update: report by Nick Gray here)

My resident troll posted the above flyer for the event onto his Facebook page, together with a mocking screed of his.  Stephen Sizer, who follows the troll on Facebook, shared the link, and in so doing made a derogatory comment above the flyer:

"Racists for Israel"

I blinked hard when I read this, and double-checked to see whether the vicar had posted so un-Christian and unjustified a remark, or whether the troll had written it.  Alas, the words are the vicar's.

How very ironic it is that Stephen Sizer should label Christian Zionists "racists" when among his own Facebook Friends he has a number of people who have written antisemitic messages on his Facebook wall below links he has made.

He really should take more care regarding the company he keeps on social media.

A few, at least, of his Facebook Friends have an unfortunate history of what  by any fair assessment can be regarded as antisemitic track records.  They have been identified as such not by me (though I have indeed  pointed out a few particularly egregious comments by his Facebook Friends) but by other bloggers.  They themselves know who they are.  But does he?

Sizer cannot be expected to know what his Facebook Friends write away from his Facebook page, but it is surely unconscionable that a man of the cloth such as he allows messages that disparage Jews as Jews, including the racist canard that Ashkenazi Jews are not semites but rather of Khazar stock, to go unchallenged and unchastised.

http://www.newantisemitism.com/2012/03/truth-half-truths-and-lies-christ-at.html

Last week, below a video link that Sizer had made, one of his Facebook Friends linked  to an entirely different video, one of the Rothschilds-control-the-world variety.  The link in question had disappeared a few hours later.  Either the Facebook Friend who posted it had a twinge of conscience or he had been told by somebody that posting so unequivocally antisemitic a message brought the entire thread into disrepute.

If that somebody was the vicar, then, praise where it's due.

But in any case more dissociation from Friends who leave antisemitic comments on his Facebook page needs to be done.

"Racists against Israel"?

Quite so.

Update: see what the survivor of a ghastly attack by Palestinian Arab terrorists says here about Stephen Sizer (hat tip: reader Herb).

Israel Omitted From A Map

It's this one:

Can you guess why?

It's because this is a map, by the Open Doors organisation, showing the 50 countries around the world in which it is hardest to be a Christian. (Article by Katherine Burgess here)

Here's more, in graphic form:

Did you notice what came in at number 36, up two from last year?  Yes, that's right, and as some signatories of the petition (have you signed it yet?) to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the demonic St James, Piccadilly wall have taken the trouble to note, the troubles confronting Christians in the Palestinian Territories can be squarely laid at Islam's door, not Israel's.

Church stewards erased this message from their odious wall

 Here's a sample:

The erection of the ‘wall’ installation by a Church beggars belief. It indicates that the people who organised it are more than even wilfully ignorance, they are biased. I will not go into why the fence/wall was erected, that has been explained ad infinitum and the reasons are painfully obvious. I will however comment on the fact that a church is promoting hate against the only country in the Middle East where Christians are free to practice their religion free from fear and intimidation. It the Church felt it necessary to take a political stand against ‘oppression’ why did it not highlight the plight of Christians in the Palestinian Territories, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. Or else it could have highlighted the plight of the Copts in Egypt who are being assaulted, murdered, raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. I of course could go on talking about the plight of Christians in Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Indonesia etc, etc, but I believe the point has been made that the Church has chosen to falsely condemn (because it is fashionable?) something designed to prevent death, rather than courageously be amongst the first to condemn the horrific ongoing oppression and murder of Christians in the Islamic world (distinctly unfashionable).

A Christian gentleman in Bethlehem told me that the Christian community were being forced out of Bethlehem by extremist Muslims.

I attend an Anglican parish church every Sunday. I totally support the right of the Jewish state of Israel to defend itself and all its citizens against the neverending genocidal Jihad that is waged by many Muslims, among them many Muslims resident in Judea and Samaria. The security barrier is necessary and saves lives.

I am sickened by the anti-semitic activities of leaders of the Church of England of which this is just another example. There is one country in the Middle East, where the rights of women are respected, where the is freedom of expression, where there is freedom of religion and that is Israel.

Displays as this one, besides showing a remarkable lack of true knowledge about the situation, also show a remarkable lack of pastoral ability and compassion one might expect from a minister. What St James Church has done with this heinous display is a caricature that does not speak truth and that will serve only to create more division, rather than bringing both sides closer to peace. It is not at all difficult to find accurate information about what's happening throughout the entire Middle East, and frankly, I think that St James might better attend to its Christian mission by making some noise about what's being done to Christians in countries like Syria right now. Israel is the only real democracy in the entire Middle East, and its Knesset (parliament) is representative of the diversity of its citizens, including Jews, Christians, and Muslims, amongst others. To accuse Israel of apartheid, to insist that the security fence was not necessary to protect Israeli citizens, when crime statistics clearly show otherwise, is bigotry - and coming from a church, it is institutionalised bigotry. Shame on you!

Freedom of worship in Israel - try going to church in Iran or parts of Iraq. Fundamentalist Islam is a far bigger threat to Christian principles

It concerns me that this Church has such little concern for the need to preserve Israeli life. I hope for a better future for the residents of Bethlehem freed from Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror.

Your display is openly slanted and if you realy cared about Christian communities you would bring to attention the suffering in Nigeria ,Syria Egypt Sudan and the dwindling of numbers under Palestinian controlled areas such as bethelehem fallen from 80 to 20 %. I have also worshipped freely in Israel amongst Arab and Jewish Christians mixed-something I could never do in any Arab country.

If you had presented a balanced view and show the suffering of the Israelis (who consist of Jews, Arabs, Christians, Druze and so many others) as well as what is going on on the Palestinian side I wouldn't have been so against this, but this is pure anti-semtism. Shame on You. You bring disgrace on Christianity. I know several Christian Palestinians who look to Israel is the Keepers of the Peace. Without Israel I am told that they would be treated much worse - especially the women amongst them.

How can a church spread so much hate? The Middle East is full of Christians that have been persecuted and killed surely this Church should be supporting them. Where is the cry for help for the Christians suffering in Syria and Egypt? Israel is the only democratic country.

Israel is the ONLY country in the Middle East that has freedom of religion, Christian, Jewish, Muslim etc. As long as you accept that Jews have a right to exist, then Israel will let you move freely, as would any other civilized country. Israel has the RIGHT to defend it's citizens.

While the Christian community in Israel continues to grow at a remarkable rate, in the Palestinian Authority and in Gaza the number of Christians continues to decline dramatically. In Syria, Egypt and other Arab countries Christians are mercilessly persecuted. Any fair minded person, let alone those who claim to be Christian, must surely recognise that Israel cannot be blamed for the Christian exodus from its neighbouring Arab states. Since the Palestinian Authority was established, the Christian community has diminished rapidly. Shortly after Israel ethnicaly cleansed Gaza of its own people in a 'land-for-peace' agreement in 2005, the manager of the Bible bookshop was brutally murdered and the exodus of Christians began. Israel gave land but in return received not peace but, instead, a deadly, almost continuous rain of missiles on its southern towns. To spend thousands of pounds to erect a mock security barrier, St James' church has done, and to make common cause with anti-Christian stand-up comics in order to demonise the Jewish state is deplorable and nothing short of wilful Jew hatred.

I am a Christian and have lived in Israel and amongst the Palestinian Arabs. In Israel, the prospect of bombing was a daily reality. When I lived amongst the Palestinian Arabs, no Jew ever entered the area and committed acts of terror, Not all Palestinians are terrorists,and certainly no Christian ones were ever involved, but the wall is merely a security barrier. Yes, it causes some disruption, but it does save lives, both the lives of the would be terrorists and of the would be victims. Do the vicar, staff and congregation of St James Piccadilly support murder?

Israel is a country that practices tolerance (unlike most of its neighbors in the Middle East. The Christians that live in Gaza and the PA unfortunately aren't treated well by their Islamic occupiers. That's an issue that should be addressed toward Hezbollah.

Isaiah 5:20 'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil'. This hate fest in central London certainly fulfilled the word of God pronounced by Isaiah. St James' has ignored the truth of Islam's oppression of Christian people throughout the Middle East, including Bethlehem, and chosen to vilify the only democracy in the region.

How Hypocritacal can the Church of England Get. I work as a Volunteer for a Food Bank, and i see so much hardship and poverty in this country caused by this Goverments policies, that £30, 000 woulld have gone along way to helping families in crisis at Christmas . Instead of being spent on perpatuteting the Biggest , Racist and Fascist lie ever told. on January the 27th this country will be holding a Holocaust Memorial Day to remember the victims of Genocide. Will they be condeming Syria, Iran,Iraq,Gaza,Palestine,Egypt, Lebanon, Libya for the slaughter of Jews and Christians or their own citizens that is going on at the moment between the different factions of Islam. Are they going to build mock Refugee camps to show the Suffering of South Sudan and the Syrians. What would be of interest if the likes of Lucy Winkett took her head out of the sand and faced up to the truth and thatis thast she and hundreds of othewr Church Leaders have fallen for the biggest con trick of all time by a group of murdering terroists who are perpatrating all of the suffering and genocide in the middle East at this time. The Truth is that Israel is the only Democratic Country in the Middle East and is also a countrey that is giving refuge to Christian and Jewish Refugee`s as well as treating a lot of Syrian Men ,Women and Children wounded in the conflict in Syria. As i said at the beginning how Hypocritical can the Church of England get, it makes me ashamed to actually be a Christian when you see the LIES that the Church of Englanfd are peddling out , it makes me wonder what version of the BVible they atre using

St James would do more good if they concentrated their efforts on helping christian communities in the Islamic world. They desperately need all the help yhey can get

All over the Middle-East - with the exception of Israel - and in predominantly Muslim countries. Christians are being persecuted. Churches are being burned down; congregants are being massacred. (How many people do you have to murder before it becomes a massacre?) And how does St James Church in Piccadilly - and other Christian groups and individuals - respond to this? With condemnation of these countries? With calls for sanctions against them? No. They ignorantly parrot Palestinian propaganda and vilify Israel, the only country in the region where Christians and members of other religions can worship freely in peace and security. They provide moral and financial support to the very people who are persecuting their co-religionists. Why? Is supporting those who openly call for the destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews worldwide more important than saving Christian lives?

Look to the Palestinians to see why christians are being hounded out of Bethlehem.

What Sussex Friends of Israel wanted to write

No Christians are in danger from Israel. Look towards the ones who have no respect for human life and consider Christians as Infidels. Why defend the very people who would burn your Church without remorse. The safety of the Christian Church in Israel is assured by the Israelis. Once they "get rid of the Jews" it will be the Christians next. Israel has every right to defend itself and its citizens including Christians and others against terrorism..

This church never gave Israel a chance to explain why there is a security barrier. Yesterday Israelis were injured when Palestinian threw grenades at them at a Jewish holy shrine in Bethlehem.

The visitor to Bethlehem Unwrapped was invited to believe that all the problems of Bethlehem’s Christians today stem from Israel’s security fence. There was absolutely no mention of the fact that the reason why the Christian population of Bethlehem has declined so rapidly in recent years is not because of this but because the Christians are being gradually forced out from their historic homeland by extreme Islamist Palestinians

One of the most ignorant hateful acts by a Church in recent history. You should be ashamed of this disgrace. In Bethlehem in 1940s, 85% were Christian. Today after years of PLO, Fatah, PA persecution it is closer to 20%. Many have moved into other parts of Israel. Israel is the ONLY country in the ME where Christians are safe and their numbers have grown. You have acted contrary to truth and the interests of Christians. Shame.

The Bethlehem Unwrapped event has caused me much pain, for my brother and sister Believers who are being persecuted in Bethlehem, but not mentioned; for the people and nation of Israel, the birthplace of My Messiah, a Jew and for the Church of England who have ignored God's Word and cursed His chosen people.

We have been living in Israel for several months of the year for the last 7 years and regularly see the kind of negative propaganda generated by people who do not respect the truth. We know Christians who have left Bethlehem and some who would if they could because of the treatment they receive from their Islamist neighbors. Christians have an obligation to get their facts right as far as they possibly can, especially when mounting a campaign that actually harms the minority Christians as well as the way Israelis are portrayed. Blind hatred is a poor master

At Prez Clinton's urging, Acting PM Shimon Peres handed Bethlehem over to the PA/PLO in December 1995. Once the PA/PLO took over, the Christian population there felt harassed and started leaving in larger numbers than before. One local Bethlehem Christian woman complained to a Jewish Israeli from Efrat (whom I knew) that Israel had handed her people over to Arafat and the PLO

The hypocrisy of all anti-Israel Christians is rank. Israel saves Christian lives and in return receives this sort of abuse, abuse that builds to become a threat to innocent Israeli civilians. How anyone can reconcile this with Christian ethics is beyond me.  (This comment is by the admirable Professor Denis MacEoin, the distinguished British scholar who has also written, inter alia, this fine piece about St James's nauseating stunt)

No More Anti-Israel Hatefests at St James's Piccadilly: petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury

Did you know that, according to eyewitnesses, a church official with a spray can was seen dutifully painting over messages deemed offensive (by the church) on the St James's, Piccadilly, "Apartheid Wall" yet did not paint over a swastika? (Disgusted members of the public erased it themselves.)

Did you know that a slogan praising the antisemitic quenelle sign was left on the wall?

Did you know that people bearing Israeli flags, such as the Sussex Friends of Israel (seen below; note the presence of the brave young Arab man, now no stranger to regular readers of this blog, who staunchly defends Israel every chance he gets), were refused admittance into the church compound (protected by tall locked iron gates)?

The despicable stunt held by the church has now been removed, but its pollutant stench, that of church-sanctioned antisemitism, remains.

A petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, has been initiated.  

Please sign it!

"Bethlehem Unwrapped" was a disgraceful [anti-]Israel hatefest.. The Israeli Embassy in London accused St James’s Church in Piccadilly of attempting to “incite against Israel and Israelis”.

The visitor to Bethlehem Unwrapped was invited to believe that all the problems of Bethlehem’s Christians today stem from Israel’s security fence. There was absolutely no mention of the fact that the reason why the Christian population of Bethlehem has declined so rapidly in recent years is not because of this but because the Christians are being gradually forced out from their historic homeland by extreme Islamist Palestinians.

The Rector Lucy Winkett appeared distinctly unbothered by whom she allied with in her anti-Israel hate-festival. One of her ‘partner organisations’ is ‘Interpal’, an organisation which in the US is designated as a terrorist entity.

Neither Lucy Winkett's blog nor the Festival pointed out that Israel is the only country in the Middle East whose Christian population is growing

Worst of all, neither noted that the wall/fence has cut deaths from suicide bombings by over 90%.
How disgusting that £30,000 was given to erect the mock-wall. Why did Lucy Winkett not insist the money was given to the poor and hungry?
 
http://www.thejc.com/comment/columnists/c-e-sanctioned-israel-hate

This church has an unfortunate history of malevolence against Israel.

We call on Justin Welby to condemn this ill-conceived stunt and to ensure that C of E churches are no longer abused to vilify Israel."

To sign, go here