Christ-followers are eager to serve and obey God to the best of our ability and knowledge. When there are gaps in our understanding, it behooves us to “grow in wisdom.” For example, what does the Bible say about the Promised Land and God’s chosen people? An introduction, with a link to a more in depth study.
Eighteen years ago this month, Alison Weir returned from her eye-opening, independent trip to Palestine. Many people feel that she may be the Palestinians’ most enduring and relentless advocate.
Her tireless work includes meticulous media analysis, writing, speaking, and educating Americans (and justice-lovers around the world) about the little-known facts of the Nakba (“Catastrophe”), the oppression that Israel has been perpetrating on Palestinians for over seventy years, and how the United States, pressured by the Israel lobby, is complicit.
In Arkansas, a newspaper publisher is in financial straits after refusing to sign an anti-BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) pledge for Israel. He believes that political dissent is protected speech, and that the Arkansas law violates his constitutional rights and his journalistic ethics.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 Palestinians as they prayed. Israeli soldiers blocked Palestinians who tried to flee and who wanted to enter to help the victims. The repercussions of the attack are still felt by Palestinians in Hebron, who have seen their rights eroded and their formerly bustling city centre turn into a ghost town.
Netanyahu is affiliating with an extremist political party named “Jewish Power” whose leaders were disciples of an FBI-designated terrorist… one JP leader referred to Christians as “bloodsucking vampires,” declared Christmas should be outlawed… another has a police record of assaulting both Palestinians and Israelis… another called for violence & a “religious war” against homosexuals… another’s client list reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes in Israel…
Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-9) is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Israel’s approach to Gaza. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict to which there is no military solution. Yet Israel persists in shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force – and not as a last resort but as a first resort.
Operation Cast Lead, the first of several incursions by Israel, killed 1,417 Palestinians and just 13 Israelis. Chillingly, the generals call their repeated bombardments ‘mowing the lawn’
Today we remember the 2008-9 Israeli incursion into Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, which was launched exactly 10 years ago. 1400 Palestinians – including 344 minors – and 9 Israelis were killed in the hostilities.
A UN report found that Israel’s military operation “destroyed a substantial part of the Gaza Strip’s economic infrastructure and its capacity to support decent livelihoods for families.” A decade later, little progress has been made in rebuilding, thanks in part to Israel’s 2 subsequent attacks on Gaza.
Why do many Hasidic Jews abstain from studying the Torah at Christmas? The mythology is that back in the day, Christians liked to persecute Jews during the holiday But according to an authority on the subject, the practice was originally based on a superstition that on Christmas, Jesus had to spend the day “wander[ing] in all pits of excrement or latrines throughout the world” – and studying Torah gave him respite from this torture.
Before the birth of modern Israel, Zionist groups – newly arrived in Palestine – engaged in armed struggle against the British military, whom they labelled as “occupiers.” But now that the tables have turned (and the UN has enshrined the right of armed struggle as a vehicle of indigenous liberation) the Israeli occupation refuses to recognize the Palestinian resistance as legitimate.
Israeli military lives lost, while tragic, are sacrifices made willingly by the occupier who is fully aware that the resistance is ongoing.
Palestinians’ struggle for self-determination is a difficult, costly march; yet history teaches there is simply no other choice. Silence is surrender. To be silent is to betray all those who have come before and all those yet to follow.
Alison Weir reports that in 1991 President George H.W. Bush held up a $10 billion loan guarantee to Israel. Bush said he was “one lonely little guy” against powerful forces. He won the battle, but eventually lost the war, a lesson that politicians have remembered ever since (contains videos)…