"Your Chance To Own A Piece Of History": A London church auctions Piccadilly "Wall" parts

"We are a community of people who aim to be inclusive and accepting – regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, background or belief."
That's the proud boast of an Anglican church in north London called St Luke's, West Holloway.



Writes its vicar, the Rev. Dave Tomlinson: "St Luke’s is a glorious mishmash of people – young and old, men and women, black and white, gay and straight – who have found in this place somewhere to belong, somewhere to make friends, somewhere to grow personally and spiritually, somewhere to laugh and weep together, somewhere to explore the mystery we call God. We are a church that tries to combine the rich and broad tradition of Christianity with insights and understandings from the present, and this is reflected in our theology and worship."

(Also included in the leadership team are: "The Revd Martin Wroe, Associate Vicar, who is also a full-time freelance writer ... Music Director, Justin Butcher ... [and] Ruth Peacock who is a broadcaster and journalist.")

It would seem that those "insights and understandings from the present" to which the vicar refers are one-sided when it comes to  the State of Israel.  St Luke's would appear to be another left-leaning English church that is interested only in embracing and exploring the Palestinian narrative.

Its musical director, Justin Butcher, is presumably the man of that name who is creative director of the "Bethlehem Unwrapped" project that was responsible for the disgraceful, despicable "Wall" stunt at St James's, Piccadilly, over Christmas (photo above of Israel-supporters locked out of the St James's courtyard during that event).

That stunt, of course, gave no consideration whatsoever to the Israeli case for having constructed the separation barrier nor, needless to say, the fact that the barrier has succeeded in diminishing suicide and other terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens.

And today a spin-off event is to be held on St Luke's premises (hat tip: reader P, who sent me the following, the substance of which, together with the one of the "graffitied panels" referred to, can be seen on the website of the Arab-British Centre here):

'Premiere of the Bethlehem Unwrapped film documentary & AUCTION of the Bethlehem Unwrapped “WALL” Next Wednesday, June 4th, 7pm for 7.30pm St Luke's Church, Hillmarton Road, London N7 9RE

Your chance to own a piece of history:

On December 23rd 2013, the 8m high “WALL” installation was built across the courtyard of the historic Christopher Wren church, blocking it from view, “unwrapping” the reality of Bethlehem at Christmas – a city and a people imprisoned by the Separation Wall.

Accumulating the graffitied drawings and messages of an estimated 30,000 visitors from all over the world, “WALL” became a major collective work of protest art. The installation was reported and reviewed by global television, radio, print and online publications, and reached a social media audience of 8 million via Twitter. At the closing ceremony on January 5th 2014, the Wall was transformed into a bridge, symbol of hope and connection. On January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Wall was dismantled.

We are delighted to invite you to the auction of this historic canvas, graffiti snapshot of the moment when the Wall came to London.

Graffitied panels from “WALL," centrepiece of the acclaimed Bethlehem Unwrapped Festival will be auctioned at St Luke's Church, Hillmarton Road, London N7 9RE next Wednesday, June 4th 2014 at 7pm for 7.30pm, to raise funds for the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem.

Also on display, with some items on sale, is artist Meg Wroe's exhibition of paintings on wood from her 2012 visit to Bethlehem, together with an exhibition of children's art from the Dar Al-Kalima School in Bethlehem, "All They Draw Is The Wall". See http://megwroe.com/bethlehem.html.

The evening includes the premiere of the Bethlehem Unwrapped documentary & light refreshments from Zaytoun CIC.

We look forward to welcoming you, and thank you for your support for Bethlehem Unwrapped.

Kind regards – Justin Butcher Deborah Burton Creative Director, Director, Bethlehem Unwrapped Tipping Point North South"

Too bad the St James's Church officials spay-painted over messages on the wall that did not suit the church's propagandistic purpose.  Otherwise the "graffitied panels" up for auction at St Luke's could have included these reminders that Israel has a case worth heeding, and is, indeed, more sinned against than sinning:

Now, that would offer "real insights and understanding", and provide the punters with a real "piece of history", wouldn't it?

Springtime, Piccadilly: Another Anti-Israel Bash At Lucy's Place?

On 20 May this year the London Anglican church that hosted the despicable anti-Israel "Wall" stunt, Rev. Lucy Winkett's St. James's Church, Piccadilly, is hosting an event in conjunction with the NGO Embrace the Middle East (formerly BibleLands), which is headed by an arch-critic of Israel, Jeremy Moodey.

To quote publicity material issued by the church and posted on the NGO's website:

"We are thrilled to announce that His Beatitude Gregory III Laham, the Syrian-born Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, will be the speaker at the Embrace Annual Lecture this year. Patriarch Gregory will be speaking on the role of Christians in Syria and in the Arab world and the challenges they face. The lecture will be chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Mor Eustathius Matta Roham, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jazirah and Euphrates...."

Now, it seems fair to say that in the West the 80-year-old Gregory is not exactly an household name, and information about him, in particular his attitude towards Israel, is seemingly sparse online.  Naturally, he, like Archbishop Roham, is centrally concerned with the welfare of Christians in the Near and Middle East, as this article indicates.

However, we might be forgiven for inferring, from some of the snippets of information that appear online, that he is, towards Israel, not the warmest of friends.

Wikipedia (providing footnoted sources for its statements) tells us that

'In December 2010, [he] was quoted by the Lebanon Daily Star as claiming that attacks against Levantine Christians, were part of a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam.” [He] reportedly stated that "All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam... But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam.” He further added that media portryal of the attack the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was "a conspiracy against Arabs and the pre-dominantly Muslim Arab world that aims at depicting Arabs and Muslims in Arab countries as terrorist and fundamentalist murderers in order to deny them their rights and especially those of the Palestinians.”....'

So, will the event in May prove to be an anti-Israel bash?  It's futile to jump to conclusions, and we may be in for a pleasant surprise, but if I was a betting person, given that Gregory seems to have form on the issue and given who will or will in all likelihood be present, I'd wager that Israel will come in for its unfair share of attention.

As for the vicar of Virginia Water, who I understand is expected to attend the event, he clearly does not support Israel's right to exist as the sovereign country it is; anyone who still believes that he does, take note of this:

By the way, there's a nice simply-expressed clerical Kiwi rejoinder to Sizer's anti-Israel nonsense here

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).

"The Laboratory Called Israel" & Other Tropes: A Quick Video Miscellany

Here's a mish-mash of video links I've been meaning to put on before but which I never got around to, beginning with this video in which American Muslims for Palestine review their anti-Israel initiatives so far, and foreshadow developments in 2014.


Then (hat tip: reader Ian) there's Chloé Valdary's excellently edited footage of anti-Israel speakers at Tulane University in New Orleans; to see this enlightening video, in which one speaker contemptuously refers to Israel as a "laboratory", click here

 In the following video by Richard Millett in December, Reverend Lucy Winkett, instigator of the disgusting replica Wall at St James's, Piccadilly declares that no messages on the replica Wall will be censured unless "abusive", an undertaking that of course rings disturbingly hollow in view of the fact that messages supportive of Israel were swiftly expunged by church personnel:

Here's footage of how the crowd of Israel-haters reacted when the replica Wall in Piccadilly came tumbling down (5 January):

To see Lucy Winkett receiving the adulation of the crowd, thanking them, and smilingly giving the thumbs up regarding her church's vile stunt, click here

"Don't Let The Zionist Divide Us!": A strange call from Christians

Thanks to the kindness of a reader in London I'm now in possession of the Church of England newspaper editorial of 17 January, some of which so evidently irritated the anti-Zionist head of the Christian NGO Embrace the Middle East (see my post here).

Headed "Anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe", it's a robust editorial which, since it's now archival, and such a contrast to the toxin spewed out by some Christians regarding Israel, I feel compelled to reproduce in toto.

The editorial was, of course, written over a week prior to the disgraceful, despicable scenes witnessed in Paris on Sunday (see here) but is relevant to those scenes nonetheless:

'Fans flock to French comic Dieudonné on social media’ we are told by the BBC’s Georg Lentze of the BBC Social Media Monitoring Unit. Dieudonné has several convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech in France, and his very popular shows have recently been banned for this reason. All forms of social media are showing real spikes of interest and favour, YouTube, Facebook ‘likes’, tweets, a TV channel, all register enormous popularity. He unites the poor immigrant Muslim youth and the anti-immigrant National Front bloc. He taps into the growing anti-politics feeling rising in Europe. Dieudonné operates with a subtle ambiguity, as the New Yorker’s Alexander Stille reported: of a distinguished French Jewish journalist Dieudonné said: “When I hear him speak, Patrick Cohen, I say to myself, you see, the gas chambers … too bad.”

 The meaning is clear, the grammar broken up to gain deniability. He has developed a cynical inversion of the Nazi salute that has gained such traction as to have been used at a Premiership football match to bait Jewish fans. The French authorities are concerned and trying to suppress the activities of this ‘comedian’ and activist, but that suppression stokes a victim image and social media popularity.

Reuters photo of the French demo

 Hatred of Jews is now popular in France again, and barely 60 years after 1945. Dieudonné plans to use his Human Rights to free expression to overturn government bans on his very lucrative shows. The bitter irony is that the mass murder of the Holocaust was the driver for the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Dieudonné himself is a ‘holocaust denier’. In the UK there is a growing movement to boycott the state of Israel by academics who think that Israel is guilty of repressing Palestinians. The University and College Union of lecturers had invited Bongani Masuka, someone found guilty by the South African Human Rights Commission of anti-Semitic hate crimes, to speak at their conference, and the UCU Annual Congress voted against dissociating itself from his views. UCU refused to accept the definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. A Jewish academic, Ronnie Fraser, felt harassed by the UCU’s action and complained of anti-Semitism to a Tribunal, which denied his complaint.

The Tribunal likened Fraser to a rugby player who was asking to be bashed and bruised in such a game, and so was entitled to a low degree of legal protection – an astonishing argument. The Church of England is also perilously close to adding respectability to his movement, as the Sunday Programme debate between Lucy Winkett and Alan Johnson showed: fashionable St James’ Piccadilly protested at the protective wall around Bethlehem, Johnson argued this protest ignored the realities of the context. Christians should beware of singling out Israel for protest, the Israel – Palestine spat, like Northern Ireland, is just one of many contested areas in the world, and the rising tide of hatred of the Jews is a toxic movement to make fashionable – again.'

Just how toxic a movement can be seen in a number of avowedly Christian sites, including pages on Facebook.

Regular readers of this blog may recall my post here drawing attention to the truly heinous rantings and ravings of a heavy-duty antisemitic Facebook page calling itself "Christians United for Peace", which wallows in medieval-like lies concerning Jewish beliefs and practices.

Earlier this week, as a result of sustained pressure brought to bear on Facebook by concerned individuals and groups, the egregiously misnamed "Christians United for Peace" page was removed from Facebook.

Today, however, the page was back up, with its previous nonsense intact, and spewing out its customary venom against Jews, Judaism and its texts, Israel and Zionism in such new posts as these  (which like most if not all of the posts attract breathtakingly antisemitic comments from the site's avowedly Christian followers):

 

But this odious Facebook page  is not the only avowedly Christian one that specialises in invective that crosses the line into antisemitism.

Similar group pages, including that belonging to Christian Friends of Palestine, are  riddled with antisemitic posts from avowed Christians, posts such as these gems from an American with a Spanish-sounding name.

First:

Of all the people on planet Earth, the ones I love and respect most are the Palestinians!!!

Under any period of Human History on Earth there had been such brave and heroic people such as the Palestinians.

The entire Satanic Zionist world turned against them and there they are, without army, without weapons, without electricity, water etc... but they are steadily standing against the mightiest zionist countries of the world.

They don't need any super powers to support them!!! They already have the mightiest one on their side. They have God on their side!!!

Second, regarding the photo of a huge mass demonstration he’d posted:

This is not Egypt,

It is not Syria,

It is not Greece...

This is Spain and you won't see this in your News Channels because the Spanish Government is helping the Zionist Jooish Banks on behalf of the spanish population.

The Zionist Jooish Media keeps silent on this as long as the Government acts accordingly and in favor to Zionist rules!!!

Third, regarding Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and former Australian prime minister John Howard:

If you still believe we live in a democratic western world, you are then just as fucked up as these poor bastard leaders reading a peach [i.e. speech] ordered by their masters the Zionist Jooz Of PissraHell.

Fourth, regarding Hitler:

He was a filthy Zionist Joo himself. Don't take me wrong.

I need you to drop the way of thinking all of us been programmed to think to be able to understand what I'm going to say.

What Hitler did to the Joos is called Collateral Dammage.

First of all Germans never killed 6million Joos and all of us by today and hopefully know it was our history's biggest lie.

He maybe did kill some of them to show the real Jooish haters of Germany that he was one of them.

The Jooish Rothchild family sponsored him since he was a kid and placed him in the Nazi Youth Camps so he could blend….

And then, from others, there are posts denying the Holocaust, impugning the Jewishness of Ashkenazim, smearing the Rothschilds, likening Israeli statesmen to the anti-Christ, and so on and so forth.

One recurrent theme that runs through many of these sites is this one, the profile picture of Christian Friends of Palestine:

 Christians United for Peace puts it like this:

Strange, isn't it, how, despite the ruthless persecution of their co-religionists by Islamists in the Middle East, avowed Christians – and as we are only too aware, they include many (like the church authorities who enlisted the aid of Interpal in sponsoring the Piccadilly replica "Wall") who are unconnected with these dodgy Facebook groups – seek to make common cause with Islam by scapegoating Jews Zionists?

Israel-Bashing Christian NGO Head Moodey: The St James's Piccadilly Stunt Was Not Antisemitic

Founded in 1828, The Church of England Newspaper is apparently the oldest still-operating religious newspaper in the world. I gather that, unlike Britain's other Anglican newspaper, the Church Times (a mere newcomer to the scene given its launch date of 1863) it is not easily inclined to act these days as an echo-chamber for Israel's inveterate bashers within the Anglican communion.

On 17 January The Church of England Newspaper carried an editorial critical of the disgraceful Israel-demonising stunt held for the twelve-day Christmas period in the forecourt of St James's Church, Piccadilly. 



Try as I might, I have  been unable to locate a copy of this editorial (if anyone knows of an online link I'd be extremely grateful for it.)*


However, the general thrust of the editorial may be deduced from the following letter in response from Jeremy Moodey, CEO of the NGO Embrace the Middle East (formerly known as BibleLands), who like Stephen Sizer is an arch-foe of Christian Zionism.  (Sizer features the letter on his eponymous blog, but don't bother dashing over there: the blog has no facility for comments.)

Carried by the paper on 24 January (yesterday), Mr Moodey's epistle, blithely dismissive of the role of the real separation barrier in saving lives and ignoring altogether the sheer one-sided pro-Arab bias of the stunt and the repellent antisemitic daubings that the stunt attracted, states:

As seen on Elder of Ziyon blog

"Your editorial observations on anti-Semitism in Europe (Comment, 17 January) betray some confused thinking. Any manifestation of anti-Semitism should be deplored, and people like the French ‘comic’ Dieudonné who appear to promote hatred of Jews should of course be vigorously challenged. But you also raise the boycott campaign against Israel and the ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ event at St James’ Piccadilly and imply that these too are somehow making hatred of Jews ‘fashionable’ again.

Legitimate criticism of the State of Israel for its 46-year occupation of the Palestinian territories and its ongoing violation of Palestinian human rights should not be equated with ant-Semitism, and it is mischievous of you to connect the non-violent boycott campaign, St James’s and the admirable Lucy Winkett with such a vile prejudice. You cite the definition of anti-Semitism prepared by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in 2005, and this does indeed suggest that certain types of criticism of Israel may be anti-Semitic. But this definition was only ever a draft document, and it has never been formally accepted by the EU. Moreover, the EUMC was replaced in 2007 by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, a body which has distanced itself from the draft definition of 2005. Nor has the UK government accepted the EUMC definition.

The focus at St James’s over Christmas was on justice, and how the separation barrier, a construction which has been deemed to be illegal under international law (International Court of Justice opinion, July 2004), is impacting the lives of millions of Palestinians. These include many indigenous Christians in Bethlehem, whose historic lands have been confiscated for the barrier. You cite Alan Johnson of the pro-Israel NGO BICOM as claiming that the event at St James’s decontextualized the barrier, by paying insufficient attention to its security rationale. Yet Mr Johnson himself decontextualized the barrier by not referring once to occupation or Israel’s illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, 80% of which are conveniently annexed by the route of the wall deep into Palestinian territory. How can it possibly be anti-Semitic to highlight such an injustice?

The battle against genuine anti-Semitism is devalued when it is widened to include non-violent campaigns to persuade the State of Israel to comply with its obligations under international law."

The American Christian scholar Dexter Van Zile wrote some time ago, and at some length, about the "anti-Israel tenor" of Embrace the Middle East, which he warned was in danger of being transformed under Mr Moodey's stewardship from "a bona fide Christian development organization ... into an anti-Zionist propaganda mill".

Van Zile continued:

'.... Judging from the organization’s annual reviews and reports Embrace clearly does good work in the three countries where it focuses its attention – Israel, Egypt and Lebanon.

Unfortunately, mixed in with Embrace’s good work is an alarming amount of hostility toward the Jewish state. Israel is regularly cast as the villain in the story Moodey tells about the Middle East. The undeniable misdeeds of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Middle East are selectively ignored....

Moodey ignored Hamas’s failure to protect the rights of Embrace’s primary clients in Gaza – Christians – and offered not one word of criticism for the hundreds of rockets that landed in Israel in the months and weeks prior to Operation Pillar of Defense.

No reasonable commentator can ignore the role Hamas has played in making the lives of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip miserable and its cynical use of the suffering it has caused as a tool to lambaste Israel. No reasonable commentator would fail to hold Hamas to account for the rockets it launched, or allowed to be launched into Israel.

Moodey does.

.... How about stating that Palestinians need leaders with a true vision for peace? Israel withdrew its citizens and soldiers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, only to be attacked by Hamas in 2006. Moodey insists that Israel withdraw its citizens from the West Bank, but what assurances can he give that such withdrawals will lead to peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors?

Israel has been repeatedly attacked in recent years from every bit of territory from which it has withdrawn. It has recently been attacked from the Sinai, from which it withdrew in the 1970s. It was attacked from Lebanon in 2006, from which it withdrew from in 2000. And Hamas’s primary recruiting grounds for suicide bombers during the Second Intifada were those cities and towns in the West Bank from which Israel withdrew its soldiers in the 1990s....

Another demonstration of how, under Moodey’s leadership, Embrace’s resources have been used to broadcast a partisan anti-Israel narrative is a report about the human rights of Arabs living in Israel. The report issued by Embrace on Monday, December 10, 2012, at the request of Lambeth Palace, looks at the status of Arabs living in Israel.

The report details how Arabs are discriminated against in Israeli society and asserts that Israel has yet to reconcile the tension between “its identity as a Jewish state and its claim to be a democracy with equal rights for all.”

Yes, Arabs living in Israel do experience problems with discrimination, but the humiliating reality is this: They enjoy more rights and freedom and greater opportunity than Arabs in any other country in the Middle East – and they know it.

Consequently, 35 percent of the Arabs living in East Jerusalem would prefer to live in Israel if a two-state solution were achieved. Moreover, there has been a notable increase in the number of Arabs applying for citizenship in Israel since the Oslo Accords....

And while Embrace the Middle East is obsessing about the impact of Israel’s Jewish character on the rights of its minorities the organization ignores an important fact. The Palestinian Constitution of 2003 states that Islam is the official religion of Palestine and that “the principles of Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.” This sounds a lot like the constitution of Egypt, where the Coptic minority has endured great suffering over the years....'

The vicar of Virginia Water: back from Africa and back on form

Articles describing the tragedy of Christians suffering persecution and death under the jackboot of  Islamic regimes are commonplace these days because, of course, Islamic outrages against Christians have intensified to crisis point.

The day before Mr Moodey's letter was published in the Church of England Newspaper, yet another lament for the agony of the Middle East's Christians appeared online; it's this one, by Michael Brendan Dougherty, which is aptly titled "The world's most ancient Christian communities are being destroyed — and no one cares".  The subtitle runs: "Christians in the Middle East have been the victims of pogroms and persecution. Where's the outrage in the West?"

 Disturbingly (though apparently not for those Christians who hate Israel so much that they make common cause with Christianity's enemies), among the sponsors of the St James's Piccadilly stunt that Mr Moodey insists was not antisemitic was the Islamic charity Interpal, whose chairman is the reputedly hardline Islamist Ibrahim Hewitt, about whom Harry's Place has a latest blog here.  

As Dexter Van Zile remarked in the article cited above:

The irony is this: While Embrace the Middle East has invoked Israel’s Jewish character as an obstacle to human rights, it is carrying water for Palestinian leaders who are planning to turn the territory they control into an Islamic country where non-Muslims are by definition, second class citizens under Shari’a law....

Embrace’s board of trustees has, wittingly or unwittingly, made a choice to associate the good works of their organization with a patently obvious anti-Israel agenda....

Israel sets the gold standard for human rights in the Middle East, treating its enemies, minorities and dissidents with far greater humanity than any other country, regime or political movement in the region....'

 * 28 January: I have been sent the editorial by a reader who kindly went to the trouble of copying it out for me.  I'm very grateful indeed to him for it:

Anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe

‘Fans flock to French comic Dieudonné on social media’ we are told by the BBC’s Georg Lentze of the BBC Social Media Monitoring Unit. Dieudonné has several convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech in France, and his very popular shows have recently been banned for this reason. All forms of social media are showing real spikes of interest and favour, YouTube, Facebook ‘likes’, tweets, a TV channel, all register enormous popularity. He unites the poor immigrant Muslim youth and the anti-immigrant National Front bloc. He taps into the growing anti-politics feeling rising in Europe. Dieudonné operates with a subtle ambiguity, as the New Yorker’s Alexander Stille reported: of a distinguished French Jewish journalist Dieudonné said: “When I hear him speak, Patrick Cohen, I say to myself, you see, the gas chambers … too bad.” The meaning is clear, the grammar broken up to gain deniability. He has developed a cynical inversion of the Nazi salute that has gained such traction as to have been used at a Premiership football match to bait Jewish fans. The French authorities are concerned and trying to suppress the activities of this ‘comedian’ and activist, but that suppression stokes a victim image and social media popularity.

 Hatred of Jews is now popular in France again, and barely 60 years after 1945. Dieudonné plans to use his Human Rights to free expression to overturn government bans on his very lucrative shows. The bitter irony is that the mass murder of the Holocaust was the driver for the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Dieudonné himself is a ‘holocaust denier’. In the UK there is a growing movement to boycott the state of Israel by academics who think that Israel is guilty of repressing Palestinians. The University and College Union of lecturers had invited Bongani Masuka, someone found guilty by the South African Human Rights Commission of anti-Semitic hate crimes, to speak at their conference, and the UCU Annual Congress voted against dissociating itself from his views. UCU refused to accept the definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. A Jewish academic, Ronnie Fraser, felt harassed by the UCU’s action and complained of anti-Semitism to a Tribunal, which denied his complaint.

The Tribunal likened Fraser to a rugby player who was asking to be bashed and bruised in such a game, and so was entitled to a low degree of legal protection – an astonishing argument. The Church of England is also perilously close to adding respectability to his movement, as the Sunday Programme debate between Lucy Winkett and Alan Johnson showed: fashionable St James’ Piccadilly protested at the protective wall around Bethlehem, Johnson argued this protest ignored the realities of the context. Christians should beware of singling out Israel for protest, the Israel – Palestine spat, like Northern Ireland, is just one of many contested areas in the world, and the rising tide of hatred of the Jews is a toxic movement to make fashionable – again.'

Suffer Little Children: An Open Letter to Rev Lucy Winkett

Before

Dear Reverend Lucy Winkett,


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

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

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

After

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Facebook page of the Emmaus Group explains:

Child “crucified” in Syria.

The image ... shows a very young girl tied to railings in a crucifixion style position and left until dead. The image was sent to us via facebook from a contact in Syria. The girl’s crime, as if there could be one? Her parents were Christians. She was tied up and made to watch her parents being killed then left. This evil act was perpetrated by Syrian rebels. The same rebels the West continues to support financially, with training and technology and supposedly, “non lethal hardware.”\

 Sadly this practice is not new. Christian children have been crucified in Iraq in an attempt to terrify their parents and the Christian population in general. See link

I'm sure that you will jump at the chance for your church to express solidarity with persecuted Christians throughout the Islamic world by making this little girl a symbol of your protest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)