The Hypocritical Protestant Churches
The recent initiative by a group of Protestant Christian leaders calling on Congress to reevaluate military aid to Israel is a nauseating example of applying double standards against Jews and Israel under the cloak of piety and hypocritical sanctimoniousness…writes Isi Leibler.
Isi Leibler
The signatories include leaders of the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and National Council of Churches. Although many of the rank and file members of these churches are supporters of Israel and unaware of these activities, their radical anti-Israeli leaders were obviously not inhibited from taking such action despite being aware of the role of their churches in demonizing, persecuting and murdering Jews over the past 2000 years.
One is tempted to suggest that some of the current Lutheran leaders have inherited the antisemitic poison of their 16th century founder, Martin Luther, who after failing to convert the Jews, called on his followers to murder these “poisonous envenomed worms” and set fire to their synagogues and schools . They have simply redirected his antisemitic obsessions towards the Jewish state in lieu of individual Jews.
These Protestant Christian groups share a common belief in the displacement of the Old Testament by the New, in stark contrast to the evangelical Christians who reject this approach and do not believe that permanent exile is God’s punishment for Jews’ rejection of Christianity.
The timing of this appeal to Congress to effectively end military aid to Israel magnifies their malice. Israel today confronts greater threats to its existence than at any time since its creation. It is the only country in the world whose neighboring countries would embark on a war designed to annihilate it tomorrow – if they felt they could succeed.
It is a time when a nuclear Iran poses a potentially existential threat to Israel; when Islamic fundamentalism has extended its influence and menaces Israel security at virtually every border; when the antisemitic Moslem Brotherhood, the creator of Hamas, holds the reins of power in Egypt and threatens to undermine the peace treaty with Israel; when Al Qaeda operates freely in the Sinai Peninsula and threatens Israeli civilians; when Iran’s surrogate Hezbollah, is pointing thousands of missiles towards Israel’s major population centers; when Hamas continues launching missiles from Gaza against innocent Israeli citizens; when Syria is engulfed in a bloody civil war between Al Qaeda, jihadist groups and Assad’s Alawites with 30,000 people already killed.
One must ask: Is this a time for “Christians” to call on Congress to limit military support for an embattled Jewish state?
And the utter humbug in which they sanctimoniously couch their approach by claiming that they wish “to help build a peaceful and resilient civil society” and “seeking a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians” – despite many having been at the forefront of BDS campaigns against the Jewish state.
They act as though Israel represents the obstacle to peace talks. Yet PA head Mahmoud Abbas refused to deal with the Israelis even after Netanyahu had implemented an unprecedented 10 month freeze on settlements in a futile effort to bring them to the negotiating table.
The church leaders complained bitterly about the settlements, which beyond the major blocs, amount to a minute proportion of the West Bank. They conveniently overlook the fact that two Israeli Prime Ministers offered the PA virtually the entire West Bank but were rebuffed without even a counter proposal. They also disregard events following the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza when the areas ceded were transformed into launching pads for hurling missiles deep into Israel.
Nor apparently were “Christian” sensitivities disturbed by the vicious antisemitic incitement and hatred as well as the sanctification of terrorist mass murderers not only by Hamas but also the PA, both of which to this day still deny that there is any Jewish link with Jerusalem.
And, if that were not enough, the bizarre behavior of these Christians is exacerbated by their blindness and insensitivity to what is happening to their own Christian kinsmen in the region. In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and most Moslem countries, freedom of religion other than Islam is absolutely prohibited. Christians are persecuted and no day passes without reports of pogroms and murders against Christian minorities especially Coptic Christians in Egypt. Tens of thousands of Christians fled Arab countries whenever Islamists assumed control.
Are they not aware of the mandatory death penalty which Islamic jurisprudence imposes on converts from Islam to Christianity or any other religion? Or the death penalty for blasphemy which is repeatedly applied against infidels?
Yet these “Christians” have the gall to call on Congress to restrict military aid to the sole democracy and only country in the region in which Christians and all faiths are guaranteed freedom of worship. A country in which Christians are to be found at every level of Israeli society including the Knesset, the Supreme Court, and academia.
Yet when it is suggested that these Christians are biased against Israel or motivated by antisemitism they will indignantly insist that they are merely seeking justice for the oppressed Palestinians suffering under Israeli occupation. They conveniently ignore the fact that granted security, the vast majority of Israelis yearn to separate themselves from the Palestinians and have no wish to rule over them.
To their credit, most American Jewish leaders have responded with indignation and anger at this primitive display of double standards against the Jewish state.
JCPA president Rabbi Steve Gutow accused the signatories of being “out of sync with mainstream values” adding “we eagerly await the day when these church leaders step away from the troubling fixation on hurting Israel and adopt an approach to peacemaking that fosters reconciliation rather than conflict.”
The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, stated that such callous and biased behavior by these Christian groups warrants a reevaluation of their organization’s interfaith activities.
They also assert that aside from the double standards employed in this call to Congress, the timing of such an initiative in the midst of the Jewish holidays and the absence of any prior consultation is an “egregious breach of trust” which challenges the merits of maintaining interfaith dialogue with such hostile groups.
And full marks to Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League who withdrew from an October 22 interfaith event with these groups and called on all other Jewish groups to do likewise.
In a post Holocaust era in which Israel and the Jewish people are no longer powerless, there is no need to humiliate ourselves by sharing platforms with Christian denominations which behave towards us or the Jewish state like their predecessors behaved towards Jews in the Middle Ages.
Fortunately there are numerous other Christians like the many evangelicals who passionately love the Jewish state and Catholics influenced by the Vatican Council’s 1965 Nostra Aetate and who have demonstrated their strong support for Israel.
If you critizse Islam you are quickly described as Islamaphobic however it is open slather vilify zionists and that is freedom of speech
I wouldnt like to live in a one state as advocated by Antony L and his followers or in other words a Israeli state he would like to see where Jews live under a Muslim
Majority
We have all seen How the Muslims treat each other , Christian minorities I hate to imagine how long the Jews would last .
Micahel
I am tagging on you for a number of reason, not least because I agree with you.
The larger picture here is as follows:
Islam has been engaged, say, since the early 1950 in a massive act of revival and expansion.
As a strong fundamental religiousmovement it has been applying with various degrees of discretion the essential desire of universal domination, hence, exclusion of ANY other religious concept.
To cut it to our chaes: Judaism and Jews have been used as the most effective conduit for the purpose presented above. Jews are the common ground on “interest” for the other universal religions, Xtian in addition to the Islam. I shall not go into the solid anti Semitic tradition of the Church.
The Church must be made aware, as a consequence, that the fleeting tollerance of the Islamic onslaught of it as a convenient ally, means that the Church itself is also targeted in the same ideological sense as Judaism, also meant to be conquered and dismissed.
The temporary alliance between Islam and at least some segments of the Xtian fold is an integral part of the grander plan, as explained. One only has to look at the less discreet and, somehow, premature, attacks against the Coptic Church in Egypt, a country now under the very rule of the political arm of the said Islamic advances.
The Protestants in question are but a small part of a religious familly which, in fact, DOES contain elements aware of the process I just described, thank G-d !!
This, I believe, should be the message to be insisted upon and I come full circle here to Michael’s point that, indeed, speaking with courage against the inherent intollerance revealed by the fundamentalist Islam can only HELP those who are exploited by means of crude hatred injecetd in the Islamic strategies.
Anthony,
1. You can find all sorts of people saying any manner of things about Zionism – that’s not new. The meaning of Zionism is pretty simple, really, so let’s not get bogged down with who said what. The raison d’etre in regard to Zionism lies fairly and squarely in the need for a homeland for the Jewish people, preferably the one that has been theirs for centuries – Israel. So, definition of Zionism = homeland for the Jewish people. So many people have a problem with this, and use the Palestinian situation to condemn it, ignoring other important elements pertaining to that situation for their own agenda.
2. It most certainly is clear to anyone following events that world-wide support for Israel is waning, and why is that? It’s a combination of highly successful Palestinian propaganda being backed to the hilt by a mixture of anti-Semites, academics and intellectuals whose realities are so esoteric as to be floating in the clouds, and ignorant, wet-behind-the-ears activists who are full of ideology and short on thorough research and life experience.
3. “It is time for Israel to recognise that its future rests more on international support than the arms it receives from the US.” You must be joking! Since when in history have Jews anywhere been able to even contemplate receiving international support – to rely in any way on receiving it and, more dangerously, to assume it will be forthcoming, is a danger Israel cannot court.
4. As a Christian, I wonder what it is that leads you to believe that Zionism is anti-Jewish?! I do hope it’s not based on your knowledge of the thinking of some Rabbis (again), who by the way are vastly in the minority in regard to this kind of thinking and who are also of a particular narrow view in regard to their theological interpretations, none of which has much to do with the concrete problem facing the Jews existing around them. Perhaps the ‘international community’ sub-consciously wants the extinction or demise of the Jews – of course, no educated, civil person would own up to that, so they have to play games of pretence, of puffed up indignation and pretence at caring for the plight of the Palestinian people – organized flotillas to Gaza, unbalanced, melodramatic media reportage taken up by the ill-informed public with a vengeance. No matter that the leaders of the Palestinian people have let their people down dreadfully by their political decisions, time and time again, when they could have had the land and the peace they so eloquently make a plea for a number of times over, going back as far as 1948. No matter that Palestinian people didn’t even identify as such until after 1967 (between 1950 and 1967 they were happily Jordanians, when Jordan had control of the area). If as a Christian you are concerned with what goes on in Gaza and the West Bank, then look a little further and more deeply into the situation, and see for yourself how the Arabs are their own worst enemies. Israel would like nothing more than to be free of its necessary involvement in these areas; all it needs to withdraw completely is its security both guaranteed and in actuality complied with.
Yeh Antony (L) I presume
it’s all about those poor poor Palestinians if only our Jewish 5 th column would be as concerened about the Jews living amongst a neighborhood of barbarians .
Just a reminder: Catholics, at least this one. do not support Israel’s crimes against humanity and war crimes. In my opinion Zionism is anti-Jewish as many rabbis have stated from the time the idea first took root in Europe. Operationally, Zionism is anti-Christian. Zionism can only exist in a climate of repression of the rights of Palestinians—the record speaks for itself. It is clear to anyone following events that support for Israel world wide is waning. It is time for Israel to recognize that its future depends more on international support than on the arms it receives from the U.S.
Yes Peter how dare Isi Liebler stand up for Israeli Jewish Human Rights.!
Michael, you clearly must have read another article.
I would almost agree with you if that was what Isi Liebler wrote, except that I don’t think human rights are confined to Israelis or Jews. However there is nothing in his piece along the lines you suggest.
The US church leaders in question have written to Congress asking for the following:
‘We urge an immediate investigation into possible violations by Israel of the US Foreign Assistance Act and the US Arms Export Control Act which respectively prohibit assistance to any country which engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations and limit the use of US weapons to “internal security” or “legitimate self-defence”.
More broadly, we urge Congress to undertake careful scrutiny to ensure that our aid is not supporting actions by the government of Israel that undermine prospects for peace. We urge Congress to hold hearings to examine Israel’s compliance, and we request regular reporting on compliance and the withholding of military aid for non-compliance.’
Which part of this call is improper in a democracy? We should accept this scrutiny, even if some of us don’t like it, unless we believe that Israel operates to another set of laws both in the United States and at home.
One doesn’t have to agree with those proposing such an investigation, but to suggest it should not take place is foolishly defensive, to name-call those pursuing it anti-Semites is unacceptable, and to then tar ordinary Christians anti-Semites by association is……well…..as I wrote…offensive to any thinking person.
I share your passion and frustration, Isi, at the situation that exists whereby all the facts you so cogently state are simply ignored as if they didn’t exist. As to the people who ignore them, such as the particular Christians you speak of, and so many left-wing academics and ‘intellectuals’, if all of them stood in front of you right now and you repeated these words in person loudly and clearly, still they would be ignored to the point where they didn’t even register in the minds of those concerned. They want to think what they think regardless of anything. That’s what is astonishing, and also offensive.
Anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head and gathering force in the world in the guise of new and different facades and must be countered and called for what it is, just as you have done with your article Isi Leibler.
Another excellent analysis Isi
Hello,
Sorry to hear it. I didn’t really realize Protestant leaders could be like that still now, even though we have the 21st century and wish the gruesome chapters of history never came back!
I must admit the Protestants I like and understand are those I get to see on channels like TBN, God TV, etc.
Being a dedicated Catholic myself, I share the opinions of Protestants like John Hagee. He loves Israel and so do I – with all my heart. My wife and I love Israel and Her wonderful people and wish them all the very best in the future.
G’d bless you!
Krzysztof
Hello,
Surely, this should never happen! Sorry to hear Protestants can be like that.
In fact, the Protestants I know and value are those portrayed on channels like TBN, God TV, etc. Although being a dedicated Catholic myself, I fully share the views of John Hagee on Israel and love and adore Israel and all Her wonderful people and wish them all the very best!!!
Kindest regards
Chris
One must remember that the churches in question have left liberal leadership. For whatever reason the far left has turned on Israel, (The left liberal Democrat party displayed this at the convention.). It should also be noted that these same Protestant denominations have been bleeding membership.
Isi Liebler’s outburst is astonishing in its offensiveness and irrationality.
In essence, his claims are these. First, military aid to Israel is an unconditional duty for the United States. Second, all “Protestant Christian groups” continue to share a common belief that permanent exile is God’s punishment of the Jews and hence are viscerally opposed to Israel. Third, Christians who fails to support such aid unequivocally therefore are anti-Semites desiring the destruction of the Jewish State. Fourth, they are not really Christians at all (hence his use of inverted commas when referring to them throughout the article). Finally, any denomination questioning military aid to Israel should be shunned because it is ‘behaving towards us or the Jewish state like their predecessors behaved towards Jews in the Middle Ages’.
In essence, therefore, Christians choosing to question Israel’s policies, or even oppose some, are simply evidencing a redirected historically entrenched anti-Semitic obsession. I cannot begin to imagine how most ordinary Christians – members of the denominations Liebler names and reviles – would feel in response to his syllogistic slide.
Isi is stating the obvious. The supercessionism of the Protestants listed is unacceptable and they need to be informed that C19 &C20 ignorant bigotry and hatred has no place in this century or ever, on this planet. The rivers of blood and the mountains of ashes are stains on that unChristian version of Christianity that no unctious phrases of peace and love can hide. Those unreformed reformers still peddle hate, hypocritically couching that in terms of love, all the while ignoring the hate directed by Muslims against ME Christians. A major problem is that many of the ME Christian groups are spuoting the same hate message for two reasons. One is that they are unreformed Jew haters and the other is that that is their traditional means of ingratiating themselves with their mohammedan oppressors and overlords. Israeli tolerance of political priests (and political imams) is partly to blame for that. Israel should ensure there is a clear separation between religion and politics in areas under its control and it should start with slapping down political rabbis.