On October 28, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu caused a stir when he quoted a controversial passage from the Bible in the context of Israel’s war against Hamas. In a statement to the Israeli public, he said:
[Our soldiers] are longing to recompense the murderers for the horrific acts they perpetrated on our children, our women, our parents and our friends. They are committed to eradicating this evil from the world, for our existence, and I add, for the good of all humanity. The entire people, and the leadership of the people, embrace them and believe in them. ‘Remember what Amalek did to you’ (Deuteronomy 25:17). We remember and we fight.
Critics immediately connected Netanyahu’s statement to another biblical passage in which God commands: “Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Sam 15:3).
The critics took Netanyahu’s reference to Amalek as evidence of the “genocidal intentions” of the Israeli government to engage in the indiscriminate killing of the Palestinians. Inevitably, sensationalist headlines followed, such as “Netanyahu Openly Calls for Genocide Citing the Bible” or “Netanyahu declares holy war against Gaza, citing the Bible”.
However, these titles are “fake news.” Netanyahu did not call for a genocide or holy war against the Palestinians. Nevertheless, his association of Hamas with Amalek to legitimize Israel’s war against the terrorist group came in stark contrast to widespread calls for a ceasefire, including Pope Francis’ own call for a ceasefire ‘in the name of God’.
Both Netanyahu and the pope appealed to God and the Bible to justify two opposite courses of action—war and a ceasefire. Who is right? And which course of action is truly “for the good of humanity”?
To answer this question, it is worth taking a closer look at the figure of Amalek in the Bible.
Amalek in Scripture
Amalek first appears in the book of Genesis as a grandson of Esau, the infamous twin brother and rival of Jacob, father of Israel (Gen 36:12). Amalek inherited Esau’s deep-seated hostility to Jacob. His descendants, the Amalekites, are the first enemies who attack Israel after they leave Egyptian slavery. As Joshua leads men to go down and fight them, Moses holds up God’s staff in prayer, assisted by Aaron and Hur. As long as God’s staff is held up, the Israelites grow stronger and prevail until Amalek is defeated (Ex 17:8-13).
After the victory, the Lord instructs Moses to write in a book that he will “utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” Moses also builds an altar as a sign that “the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex 17:14-16).
The passage from Deuteronomy quoted by Netanyahu elaborates on Amalek’s wickedness:
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God. (Dt 25:17–18)
By attacking and cutting down the stragglers in the rear—the elderly, the very young, the sick, pregnant women, etc.—the Amalekites committed the ultimate crime of being merciless to the weak. Having no fear of God, they betrayed extreme human callousness and a lack of the most elementary decency. According to Jewish tradition, Amalek initially pretended to be Israel’s friend and kinsman, luring unsuspecting Jews to death by calling them by name and inviting them to leave the camp, where they killed them and mutilated their corpses.
Amalek’s treachery and hostility sets it up not just as any enemy but the perpetual archenemy of both God and Israel—the embodiment of chaos and death seeking to thwart God’s redemptive plan by annihilating God’s people. For this reason, Israel is commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Dt 25:19).
As harsh as it is, this decree has a rationale behind it: Amalek must be eliminated because it is the archetype of murderous evil and personification of inhumanity and lack of scruples—in short, a kind of cosmic evil. As long as it survives, it will continue to afflict not only Israel, but the entire world.
Thus, Amalek cannot be appeased. It can only be defeated for the good of humanity. Even the non-Israelite prophet Balaam foresaw its future end: “Amalek was the first of the nations, but in the end he shall come to destruction” (Num 24:20).
The Amalekites continue to stir trouble throughout the Old Testament: They defeat Israel and seize Jericho (Jdg 3:12–13), destroy the produce of the land (Jdg 6:3), and “lay along the valley like locusts” (Jdg 7:12). After the rise of the Israelite Kingdom, King Saul defeats the Amalekites (1 Sam 14:47–48) but—contrary to God’s command—spares their king, Agag, in an act of disobedience that leads to his downfall (1 Sam 15:1–35). The Amalekites persist as David’s implacable foes (1 Sam 27:8) who raid and burn the city of Ziklag and take its women captive (1 Sam 30:1–20). They are repeatedly listed among Israel’s enemies (2 Sam 8:12; 1 Chr 18:11), driven by genocidal intentions (Ps 83:4–7).
The most notorious Amalekite in the Bible is the arch-villain Haman from the book of Esther. Haman is introduced as “the Agagite” (Esth 3:1)—a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag spared by Saul. King Saul’s leniency to Agag enabled his posterity to survive and made possible the rise of his genocidal descendant Haman, who was intent on eradicating the Jews. Haman reveals the justification behind the decree to blot out Amalek. If not carried out, the “spirit of Amalek” continues to be a scourge upon Israel and the world, obscuring the face of God in every generation. Indeed, according to a rabbinic saying,
The name of the Lord will not be complete, and the throne of the Lord will not be whole as long as Amalek’s seed endures in the world; but when Amalek’s seed perishes from the world, the Name will be complete and the throne will be whole.
“You shall purge the evil from among you”
One of the most difficult moral problems in the Old Testament is the question of herem warfare—the commandment to annihilate not only the Amalekites but all the Canaanite nations that previously inhabited the Promised Land (Dt 7:1–5; 20:16–18). The principle behind this commandment is simple: some evils are so extreme that they can neither be appeased nor restrained. They must be defeated and destroyed.
Like the Amalekites, the Canaanites embodied this kind of unrestrained evil. They committed abominations—such as sexual perversion, cultic prostitution, and child sacrifice—that defiled not only their perpetrators but also the whole land. Having defiled the land, the Canaanites received a punishment that fit their crimes: they were to be expelled from it (Lev 18:24–30).
The same retributive principle also applied to ancient Israel, as expressed repeatedly in Deuteronomy “you shall purge the evil from among you” (Dt 13:5–11; 17:2–7; 22:20–24). This was the ground for the Old Testament’s sanction of capital punishment: certain sins are so heinous that they are liable of corrupting an entire society; thus, for the sake of preserving society from their cancerous spread, they are punishable by death.
Divine mercy and divine justice
Though shocking to modern sensibilities, the harsh treatment of evildoers in the Bible is not an expression of divine cruelty or vindictiveness, but of mercy and justice. Divine mercy provides a path to forgiveness through repentance; but divine justice demands that unrepentant evildoers be punished because of the harm they cause to others.
The Bible abounds in examples. On the one hand, God postponed judgment on the Amorites for four generations because their iniquity was “not yet complete” (Gen 15:16). He was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah on account of just a few righteous men (Gen 18:22-33). He overturned his impending judgment on the inhabitants of Nineveh after they repented (Jon 3:1-10).
Yet God also punished societies that persisted in iniquity, such as the generation of the flood (Gen 6:5-7), Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24-25), and Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian exile (2 Kings 25).
While God takes no pleasure in punishing the wicked, repentance is the only sure path to mercy (Ezek 18:30–32). God’s kindness leads sinners to repentance; but those who refuse to repent store up wrath for themselves (Rom 2:4–5). Letting unrepentant criminals off the hook would not be a manifestation of divine mercy. It would be an act of divine injustice, allowing evil to persist unchecked in the world.
Christians who have been taught to “love the sinner and hate the sin” may find this form of divine justice harsh. As Solzhenitsyn rightly noted, the line separating good and evil passes not through states, classes, or political parties, but “right through every human heart.” Since we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and redemption, should we not be merciful towards the sins of others?
The principle is certainly sound in most cases. But it has its limits. For what is a society to do when certain individuals or groups, like Amalek—or Hamas—become so thoroughly depraved that they drag entire nations into chaos?
Hamas: A modern-day Amalek?
The parallels between Amalek and Hamas—which stands for “Islamic Resistance Movement” in Arabic but fittingly means “violence” in Hebrew—are uncanny.
As Amalek—the descendant of Esau—was a distant relative of Israel, so Hamas members—Arab descendants of Ishmael—are distant relatives of the Israelis. As Amalek was consumed with hatred against ancient Israel, so Hamas is consumed with hatred against modern Israel. As Amalek cut down the stragglers who could not defend themselves, so Hamas slaughtered with unspeakable cruelty the weak who could not defend themselves. They raped and killed young girls. They murdered entire families in cold blood and burned many alive. They executed parents in front of their children. They kidnapped babies and Holocaust survivors.
Hamas’ brutality is not new. It has been on the path of jihad since its inception, with its declared goal being not the establishment of a Palestinian state but—like ancient Amalek—the annihilation of Israel. Does Israel have any other viable choice but to destroy it first?
Hamas and the Palestinians
Netanyahu did not characterize all Palestinians as Amalek, and Israel has stated repeatedly that it is not at war with all Palestinians, many of whom are tragic victims of the war. It is well-known that Hamas cynically exploits Palestinian civilians, using them as human shields while Hamas leaders live an opulent life abroad.
Nevertheless, it is disturbing to witness a widespread “spirit of Amalek” in Palestinian society at large. Rabid anti-Jewish incitement, including teaching Palestinian children to hate Jews from the youngest age, has been well documented for decades. The pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free” is nothing other than a genocidal chant calling for the obliteration of Israel.
And according to recent polls, a vast majority of Palestinians (75%) still support Hamas and approve of their October 7 murder spree. Indeed, on that horrific day, crowds of “ordinary Palestinian civilians” celebrated the mass slaughter of Israelis, even beating the bodies of dead civilians being paraded in the streets of Gaza.
One is tempted to believe those Palestinian leaders who boast that they “love death like our [Israeli] enemies love life.”
No herem warfare
Despite the anti-Jewish hatred and incitement in Palestinian society, Israel is waging war against Hamas, not against Palestinian civilians. Israel has enough firepower to annihilate Gaza in one day. It could have carpet bombed Gaza and ended the war on October 8—but it didn’t. Instead, it launched a slow, costly, and dangerous ground invasion, with the aim of releasing all hostages, ending Hamas’ rule over Gaza, and restoring security in the region.
There is no moral equivalence in this conflict: Israel abides by the laws of war; Hamas does not. While Hamas seeks to maximize Israeli civilian casualties, Israel goes above and beyond to minimize them, warning civilians to stay away from military targets and opening humanitarian corridors enabling them to evacuate to safe areas.
Herem warfare—the indiscriminate killing of civilians—is never a acceptable moral option today. The only side that actively engages in it is Hamas (and its jihadist allies)—not Israel. According to the original Hamas Charter, “so-called peaceful solutions… are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement” and “there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad” (Art. 13). Precisely for this reason, Israel must defeat and destroy Hamas.
Authentic mercy and justice
As Adam Smith has said, “mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” Allowing Hamas to survive is neither merciful nor just. It is cruel to both Israelis and Palestinians. A premature, long-term ceasefire would only work in Hamas’ favor, enabling it to regroup, prepare new terror attacks, and continue to sow misery and death among all peoples in the Holy Land and beyond its borders.
This does not mean that we should take pleasure in the war. We can simultaneously rejoice over the destruction of evil—‘for the good of all humanity’—and mourn over the loss of innocent lives on both sides.
History has shown that the Bible is right about Amalek. Evil regimes cannot be placated or appeased. They must be defeated. Just as there could be no negotiation or compromise with the Amaleks of the past—the Nazis, Al Qaida, or ISIS—there can be no negotiation or compromise with Hamas today. It must be defeated and destroyed.
Only with the elimination of Hamas can the Middle East take a small step towards the vision of future peace envisioned by the prophet Isaiah:
Violence (Hebrew hamas) shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. (Isa 60:18)
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Shocked Carl posted this. It is so bad, it’s not even wrong. First of all, there is a very strong Christian prohibition against total war. Review Cardinal Ratzinger’s statements on the Iraq War. Second, while Hamas needs to be addressed, shutting off water and power for over 2mn people is not proportionate or just by any Christian standard (though George Weigel and Ben Shapiro may hold otherwise). Third, a rudimentary understanding of the history of the region would demonstrate that the Palestinians have just as much a claim to the land as Israel, a state built on lies, violence and deception. Make no mistake, Israel is another attempt to worship a golden calf and will end just as disastrously. As an aside, I wonder what these neocons have on Carl.
Self defense is perfectly legitimate in Catholic teaching.
If Hamas ruled Baja CA, digging tunnels from Tijuana to San Diego & conducted terrorist acts, torture, mutilation, kidnapping & murder on thousands of US citizens we might see things differently.
Goodness, we all occupy land that used to be inhabited by another culture, America’s a prime example of that. In the case of Gaza, Israel forcibly removed its own settlers & gave the land to the current inhabitants.
Israel seems the only nation who is expected to defend it’s citizens with one hand tied behind it’s back. It’s a complete double standard. We’d never tolerate Hamas in the same way if they were our neighbor.
Villenueve here is a classic showcase example of misidentifying and misconnecting the “biblical Israel” with the “modern state of Israel.” There is no continuity, equivalence, and identification between the two. It is deplorable that Villenueve inspite of his formal biblical training is not aware of this Zionist tactical misuse and abuse of the Bible to justify their 75 year old and continuing settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid. His view here reflects and repeats that of the American neocon warhawks who are simply lapdogs of the Zionist state of Israel who instead of deescalating are escalating tensions in Palestine Israel. The problem with this biblical exegesis and hermeneutics is Villenueve’s ignorance of the geopolitics behind the Zionist’s misuse and abuse of the Bible to justify its program and practice of “genocide” (most recently used by Pope Francis), “ethnic cleansing of Palestine” (Jewish historian Ilan Pappe’s book title), and “apartheid” (used by Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu). Amalek and his descendants who were “historically” the first nation to fight against the biblical Israel are now “ahistorically” used to refer to any perceived enemies of the modern state of Israel especially those who truthfully expose its illegitimacy and immorality, be it nations like Iran, or the Palestinian people they disposessed and displaced, and even academic institutions and scholars both Jews and non-Jews. The fact is, which Villenueve does not consider here, is the biblical Israel and Zionist state of modern Israel are not one and the same in both senses of continuity or equivalence. Besides not all Palestinians are Hamas just as not all January 6 insurrectionists represent or constitute all Americans. It must be remembered that the Palestinian people is composed of majority Muslims and minority Christians (most of whom are Catholics). Villenueve will be greatly rewarded with further education if he reads the books on this subject by the Catholic Bible scholar Michael Prior,CM especially “The Bible and Colonialism” and “Zionism and the State of Israel.”
Here’s an anecdote that is the primary illustration the Zionist misuse and abuse of the Bible. Like most of other founding leaders and members of Zionism, the movement’s father Theodor Herzl was a professed atheist and secularist. He one day declared in his diary: “God is dead.” Then added: “Before he died, he gave us this land.”
Thank you, Deacon Dom. It is indeed unfortunate that most experts overlook the difference between the Israelis of the Bible and modern Zionists.
Thanks again. God bless you.
What is true is that the State of Israel came into existence on May 14 as the only state to be established on the territory of Mandate Palestine. As such, the principle of international law uti possidetis juris applies, as it does to all situations of decolonisation: the state that emerges on territory after the withdrawal of the administering power acquires title to all territory within the boundary of the colony or mandate territory.
Israel was prevented from integrating its national territory by the invasion of Egypt and Jordan in a war of aggression.
Greg, you forgot to mention Trump.
I can almost guarantee Mr. Trump will make an appearance here if we wait long enough…It never seems to fail.
🙂
But maybe I’ll do the honors myself: I very much appreciate Pres. Trump moving our embassy to Jerusalem where it belonged.
Mr. Trump, the criminal, is a mover of democracy?
Morgan, please share what felony Mr. Trump has been convicted of that would exclude eligibility to hold office?
It’s mostly still a free country & you have every right to voice your opinion but we can’t slander others. Especially if we identify as Christians.
If you don’t like Pres. Trump or his actions, fair enough. Just say so.
morganD , how is Trump allegedly a Criminal, many people have said that the various criminal charges against him are bogus
Mrscracker. Your response and this response does not address the topic. Let me conclude with this political, but lethal subject.
P. Trump was held responsible for the rape of E. Jean Carroll in NYC. That cost him $5 mil. Later during a rage, he called her a “WACKJOB”. Presenidential behaviour? That outburst will continue the trial where he might have to cough up another $10 mil. I don’t know how 52% of potential Republican primary voters would support Trump even if he was convicted, of what I call treason, (trying to overthrow the 2020 election, inciting the Capitol invasion.
P. Trump during his campaign stops said “if elected in 2024 he would stop the war between Hamas and Israel in one day”. “I am your RETROBUTION”. When lying Fox News anchor Sean Hannity asked if he would become a dictator if elected? He said “only on day one”. WOW!
Since Trummp is awash in 91 legal indictments, I will “wait and see”. Trump’s hateful speeches can only ad to his woes. Hold your children close!
God save the union.
God save the union.
Oh Morgan. You must live a sheltered life. BILLIONAIRES dont have to rape anyone. They have plenty of volunteers hoping to become the next Mrs. Billionaire. Get it? We are to believe that a man who owns hotels and houses everyplace decided to rape a woman in a dirty changing room? Yeah, right. This is as believable as the Duke rape case, which is to say, not very. Yet THAT case went on for far too long also, for political reasons. Exactly like this one.Even without a big financial payout, many such women will settle for getting the fame. The unreliability of juries is why most lawyers prefer to settle their cases out of court. Ask one. The fact that a city full of leftists “convicted” him doesnt make it the TRUTH. On the other hand we have a democrat party willing to use lawfare to accuse him of idiotic things. Like in NY, where no bank complained of being defrauded and no one lost any money and the debt was repaid EARLY, he is accused of “over-estimating ” the value of his property. OH NO!!! Get my smelling salts!!! All this in an effort to bankrupt him of hundreds of millions in penalties by a less than ethical woman who RAN for office on the idea of taking him down. Americans can see very well what is REALLY happening here. It’s McCarthyism, pure and simple. And it is disgusting. The fact that he is blunt and some dislike that has no bearing on his ability to conduct his job while in office,and he accomplished MANY things while in office, as the head of JP Morgan Chase Bank was quoted as saying today.
Most of us knew in voting for Trump exactly what we were getting. Someone who would keep fighting for American citizens, no matter what the slime in Washington wanted. He gets things DONE. I am personally not concerned about the fine points of his language while he does it. Finally, I wonder how many of his accusers could withstand the intense, unfair media life scrutiny he has, and still remain standing??? I would bet not many. All of these current cases just as “true” as the fake Russia collusion hoax was proven to be.
Morgan, again I’m only concerned with eligibility. Either a candidate is eligible to run for office under US laws or they’re not. It’s that simple.
Otherwise you have this endless cycle of shaming and virtue signaling going on. And that’s just a way to manipulate the voters.
Mr. Trump was sued by the lady in question. It was a civil suit, not a criminal trial. It had no bearing on his legal eligibility to run for office.
On the contrary. It may be the best item that Carl has posted. It is totally Biblical, which means that it is totally in accord with the revealed, inspired word of God. Sometimes, I think, we tend to forget or ignore the fact that the Old Testament was written under the inspiration of Almighty God. Sometimes we also seem to forget that Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune God (and therefore God Himself) was and IS Jewish, the the Messiah foretold throughout the Jewish (and Christian) Scriptures.
Shocking that a Catholic wrote this article and a Catholic newspaper published it. 15,000 mostly innocent people have been killed already, and we’re arguing against a ceasefire?
Amalek is beside the point. This is not just because Hamas for all its own war crimes (and don’t believe everything you read https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/) is hardly Amalek. The Amalek injunction would no more justify total war today than the command of God, the Lord of Life, to Abraham to kill Isaac would justify some other parent simply taking it upon himself to kill his child.
Nor is it true that Israel is abiding by the laws of war in any shape or form. Does this https://twitter.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status/1730109856445583653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Athegrayzonenews%7Ctwcon%5Es1 look like targeted/proportionate bombing to you? Or does it look more like these Israeli calls for genocide and ethnic cleansing https://www.newarab.com/analysis/erase-gaza-how-genocidal-rhetoric-normalised-israel ? Can we really defend all those countless bombings of civilian buildings, hospitals, refugee centres, places of worship etc or is it time to admit what’s going on?
For an eloquent and informed plea for peace from the (non-Hamas) Palestinian ambassador, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amKnSybgv8s. The killing must stop now.
I disagree with Dr. Villeneuve’s conclusion that Hamas is the problem. Hamas is a biproduct of Islam. The Quran (and yes, I have read it) is quite clear on how to treat non-Muslims. For a good description of the history and current state of affairs on the problem, I recommend Robert Spencer’s “The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process.”
But does not the Quran contradict itself on treatment of the Jews? I understand the later portion cancelled out the prior teachings and became very harsh. Just asking?
I believe you are correct. I’m willing to be corrected, but it is my understanding that initially Mohammed was somewhat accommodating to the “People of the Book”, until they rejected him and his false religion. Then the gloves came off. Several verses in the Quran make it clear that it is impossible for a Muslim to associated with Jews, let alone be under Jewish political authority.
A point to be made about Amalek is the significance of the 13th day of the 12th month in the story of Esther.
After sunset on December 12 1941 (December 13 by Jewish reckoning of time) Adolf Hitler gave the order for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question.
December 13 1961 is the date on which an Israeli court sentenced Adolf Eichmann to death. His executioner Shlomo Nagar hanged him on May 31 1961. In an interview he gave this century, Nagar said,”I was involved in the great mitzvah of wiping out Amalek.”
The law under which he was sentenced is still in force today. It criminalizes genocide committed in Israel and elsewhere and still carries the death penalty – not only for direct participation, but also by participation by complicity and conspiracy.
It is not impossible that the number of Palestinians who are incriminated under this law and liable to the death penalty, should they come to trial, runs into seven figures.
The age of criminal responsibility in the law of Israel is twelve.
Mr. Petek, you mentioned Adolf Eichmann
But what about the “Grand Mufti” of Jerusalem
See this article, https://jcpa.org/article/historical-problem-hajj-amin-al-husseini-grand-mufti-jerusalem/
The Mossad should have Tracked Down the Mufti
put him on trial like Eichmann, find the Mufti Guilty and
Put him to Death
You’ve got to be kidding. That this war is not against Palestinian civilians. Israel hiding behind “human shields” to bomb innocent Palestinian Civilians when they could send in ground troops instead of bombing large groups of people in hospitals and refugee camps and churches.
There is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian civilian. People who aid and support terrorists are not innocent.
Many layers to this onion, some of them as incomprehensible to what’s left of the post-Christian/Western mind as they are to the followers of Islam…
ONE LAYER. A theme embedded in Islam is the self-understanding that they, too, are in the mold of David at war with the Philistines.“‘[About ‘righteous war’] War in the way of Allah’ (jihad fi sabilillah), the Quran cites the case of Saul and David against Goliath and the Philistines (Q 2:246-251)” (Farooq Hassan, “the Concept of the State and Law in Islam,” University of America Press, 1981).
A SECOND LAYER. Of the zealots within Islam (Hamas, ISIS), the jihadist network clearly knows that killing of innocents is immoral…
But they are experiencing a horrified “desire to escape reality or transform it along the lines of a second reality more congenial to the pheumopathological terrorist imagination.” The term applies to a spiritual sickness rather than any psychological disorder or more rational thought process at least calculated to achieve justice, if by whatever means. They know what they are doing: “They are not psychopaths who cannot distinguish good and evil or innocence and guilt” (Barry Cooper, “Jihadists’ and the War on Terrorism,” The Intercollegiate Review, Spring 2007).
A THIRD LAYER. Historically, final deification of the enabling and divinely “dictated” Qu’ran dates back to A.D. 847, over two centuries after Muhammad, when the Mu’tazilite movement was decisively suppressed (another story).
The sporadic Mu’tazilite movement is remotely equivalent to the opening discovered in the West, admitting a flourishing coherence between faith and reason (including reasoning by analogy). But they were suppressed, for at least three reasons. Mu’tazila was deemed dualist in asserting two sources of autonomy and action (God and Man) rather than one (there is no autonomy but Allah). Second, it was blasphemy to hold that God must do what is good for man and that his unsearchable will is anything less than total and arbitrary. And third, it undermined the purity of superior and dictated revelation by asserting categories of good and evil in the universe, independent of the Qur’an (Alfred Guillaume, “Islam,” 1956).
_______________________
Given these and many other asymmetries between the predispositions of Western and Islamic cultures, the papal appeal to “fraternity” is both pragmatically wise and possibly insufficient in the very long run. To what extent have strands of Islam displaced God—let along the self-disclosing Triune One—with the Qu’ran? The “word made book” versus “the Word made flesh.”
Ultimately, the deepest “political” tensions are theological in origin. And, yet, fraternal conversations are still possible between individual witnesses to Christ and individual followers of Islam. Elements of innate and universal natural law still survive in the hearts of all except those who lurk outside of good and evil (another story: Beaulieu, “Beyond Secularism and Jihad—A Triangular Inquiry into the Mosque, the Manger & Modernity,” University Press of America, 2012).
About population resettlement in Palestine following World War II, some perspective might help regarding the dislocation of civilization itself in the 20th Century, including the sorry path of Jewish diaspora from the past two millennia.
World War II directly claimed 10 million military and 7 million civilian lives. World War II, 15 million military and 38 million civilian. After World War II, forced migrations uprooted 18 million in India (Pakistan); Germany took in 12 million refugees (Germans from east of the Oder-Neisse Line–Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia); Japan 6.3 million; southern Korea 4 million; Hong Kong 1.3 million; and then Israel less than 1 million. (Into Israel the immigration of Jews from Muslim countries was 377,000 and from Communist satellite states 307,000, and from Germany 11,000. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/immigrants-to-israel-1948-1952.)
Overall, in one decade the number of people compelled by governments to move across frontiers was equal to the entire traffic of free migrants across the Atlantic Ocean in the century ending in 1913.
Which is to understand that finding a homeland for the Jews after the Shoah was part of a larger adjustment to chaos, a chaos from which our psyche and human vision have not recovered. The thin veneer of political stability is tested. Possibly the only state with the innate and universal natural law actually written into the Constitution is Germany after the Holocaust (the 1948 Basic Law, article 1[1]), and even there the human memory is inconsistent, e.g., legalized and subsidized abortion.
No answers in these numbers, but a pause against short-term memory loss.
Thank you for this wealth of information Peter B.
Among the 51 comments (current count, above and below) are references to the Old Testament divine mandate to annihilate the enemy. A few reflections awaiting further comment:
FIRST, some biblical scholars explain that to even live alongside the worshipers of Baal was to risk eventual intermarriage, the shared idolatry and blasphemy. Hence the separation. So far, so good…
SECOND, in battle to exterminate the enemy. Why? Possibly because there was first the allowance for outmigration of the besieged population—such that any still remaining posed the risk of sleeper cells intent on inflicting damage from within. Extermination also extended to women and children because any survivors were not to be adopted or intermarried, and therefore would find death a merciful alternative to either starving in the wilderness or becoming food for wolves and lions.
THIRD, is the Old Testament mandate, then, a stark reminder of the self-inflicted vulnerability (shared by allies and enemies alike) of the freefall we identify as “original sin”? In the sense of not only moral transgressions, but of each sin being a substitute for God, and therefore an idolatry and personal betrayal of the personal God of all Creation?
FOURTH, how, then, should we really regard the alarming fact and event (more than an idea) of the incarnation of a self-disclosing and (therefore) Triune God into human history? Today, rather than trying to fine tune our civilization, or maybe at least hold the pieces together through statecraft, are we still only one small step beyond the citadels of the Old Testament? Notwithstanding the latest material opulence, political theories, technology, talking heads of global visibility, and mutually-isolating social media.
So, in the perplexing Old Testament, might there be some rationale that only seems irrational to us today in our veneer of post-religious civility? Not sure, either, whether the “walking together convergences” of synodality fully turn the corner on the bottomless mystery, both archaic and modern, of universal original sin–and the permanent call for radical conversion, buoyed up by the gratuitous blessing of sacramental penance.
Bravely said.
Thanks for this discussion. I attended a conference on anti-semitism at Franciscan University in Steubenville in mid-October (it had been scheduled long before October 7, but made much more poignant by that event, incidentally, many of the excellent talks are available on-line, both at Franciscan’s website and the co-sponsor’s, Philos Project, website, though both places it takes some searching). One of the rabbis who spoke explained similarly the meaning of the Amalek reference by the Prime Minister. There was a little back and forth after one talk about whether Amalek/anti-semitism can ever be defeated before the end of time, but certainly he must be fought and minimized. I am afraid at this point however that Hamas is starting to win the media battle, many US news reports seem to care more about the release of a few American hostages than they do about the long-term implications of the war, and there is none of the above context offered about the difference in the goals and tactics of the two sides when casualties in Gaza are reported. Those who advocate a “two state solution”, including apparently the Vatican, need to explain exactly how Hamas or a successor with a different name but the same Amalek goal will be kept from ruling in the Palestinian State. It is a quandary that only Heaven can solve, so Pope Francis’s devotion to Our Lady the Untier of Knots is greatly needed. Until them, I’m afraid we will all continue to see that war is hell, that war is always hell, that war is inevitably hell. The leaders of Israel are in a terrible moral quandary – it is their solemn duty to protect their citizens and yet doing so will inevitably cause harm to some who are innocent. I am reminded whenever photos of the destruction in Gaza City are shown how much they resemble photos of Berlin and other German cities at the end of the war. Does any historian recall the Allies being asked to hold back their march through Europe? Millions of European civilians died, some of hunger, some of disease, some from Allied artillery and bombs. Was there some way of defeating the Nazis without all of that? Step forward, Pope Francis, who has said that war never solves anything, and explain what the alternative was. We all would sincerely like to know.
“The parallels between Amalek and Hamas—which stands for “Islamic Resistance Movement” in Arabic but fittingly means “violence” in Hebrew—are uncanny.”
*******
The IDF are not fighting against the people of Gaza but against Hamas. Hamas is a criminal cartel assigned to carry out terrorist acts by Iran or the highest bidder. If the Barbary pirates & the Jamaican Lottery scammers had offspring they’d resemble Hamas. They’re just pirate mercenaries who profit from ongoing refugee scams.
Hamas holds both people of Gaza & Israel hostage but the Israelis at least recognize their captivity.
Thank you. This article brought all in proper perspective for me. If only all people of goodwill would read it. Surely readers of the New York Times and other papers would be enlightened if it were printed there. Does any paper dare print such truth to guide the thoughts of the people?
It’s imperative that spotlight be made on the “complicated” question of Palestine Israel that immobizes peoples and nations into silence and inaction making the state of Israel beyond moral and legal reproach no matter how inhuman its crimes. This entails the grasp and grip of a number of elements. First and most important is the fact that there is no continuity, equivalence, and identity between the “biblical Israel” and the “modern state of Israel.” Today’s iteration of biblical Israel is the Church, the Catholic Church (CCC 877, LG 9, Romans 9-11 i.a.)
Second, that it is a mistake to frame this story as a “conflict” between two equal claimants to one and the same land. This is a case of “settler colonialism” by Eastern European Jews who migrated and grabbed the land from the indigenous Palestinians (made up of majority Muslims and minority Christians [of which most are Catholics]) who have been in the land for millennia. These “illegal settlers” have been misusing and abusing the Bible by claiming it to be the basis of their “entitlement” and “return” to, as well as of the forced and fatal “banishment” of Palestinians from, the land. These waves of illegal immigrants who arrived starting in 1869 eventually established the modern state of Israel in 1948. In the process these “colonizers” employed the practice of “extermination” and “expulsion” by displacing and dispossessing hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples from their homes, lands, and lives. Third, is to know that what is happening now on the Israeli part is their preservation and perpetuation of this “illegal occupation.” For the past 75 years, the Israeli state and military have employed “genocide” and “apartheid” against the victims of this ongoing injustice. These two parties wage atrocities for opposite reasons. Israelis to keep what it has stolen, Palestinians to get back what was stolen from them.
The “Palestinians are the real victims here” argument is not just ridiculous and false on its face, it is also deeply malevolent and evil.
That is why you need to stretch your knowledge and understanding beyond October 7, 2023 back to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and to the 1869 founding of the Zionist Movement that started the waves of immigration of Eastern European Jews to Palestine (the name of the land before 1948 since the Roman times) when indigenous peoples began to be displaced and dispossed of the homes, land, and freedom. We also need to remember that the Palestinian popuation is made up of majority Muslims and minority Christians (of whom most are Catholics).
Well stated, thanks and God bless
There have been movements of peoples from one place to another since the beginning of time, often displacing or dominating those already there. “Barbarians” into the Roman world (many if not most of us are their progeny and not of the ancient Romans who were invaded and conquered, chew on that), Europeans to North America, Normans to England, etc.. I could go on, because much of history is replete with such, and don’t fool yourself, the natives of those places often were fighting among themselves over territories already. Should all of these takings of land by one group from another be viewed as evil and rolled back? Add to that the clear evidence of the Old Testament that God sometimes approves of these movements and conquests. Whether many of the current governors of the historic land of Israel came from eastern Europe only in the past two hundred years is not in itself determinative of who should rule there now. After all, many of the countries now dominated by Moslems became so by conquest, starting with Arabs riding up into Palestine out of the heartland of this false religion. Why should the inheritors of that conquest be privileged above those who established the modern nation of Israel in the 20th century, who after all were moved in part by the desperation inherent in the Holocaust and the oppression which proceeded it for centuries. What yardstick should be used concerning which conquests should be left alone and which rolled back? Or perhaps someone should suggest that Jews move back to Germany and the Arabs go back to their desert. I’m sure the Apache and the Sioux have an opinion about all this.
I guess, then, those who came to America from foreign lands and displaced the indigenous people who had been here for millennia ought to return to their lands of origin. If all that you state pertaining to Israel and the Palestinians were to be applied to America vis a vis the indigenous population here, there would be a helluva lot of relocation going on. The same could be said for Canada, Australia, Alaska, and all of South America.
Jews are indigenous people of the Holy Land also & only they claim the original deed to that land directly from Our Creator.
Precisely, mrscracker.
They are not indigenous. The Jews who now make up the majority population of the modern state of Israel are from Eastern Europe (mostly Poland, Ukraine, and Russia; Western European Jews mostly migrated to the U.S. and Argentina) who migrated and practiced “settler colonialism” (think of what Western Europeans did in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) starting from 1869 culminating in the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel which in the process displaced and dispossed the indigenous Palestinians who have been in the land for millenia. These Eastern European settlers are only converts to Judaism and never connected by bloodline to the twelve tribes of Abraham’s descendants. They are rightly called the “13th Tribe” in the book of that title by Arthur Koestler. This is recently confirmed in the recent studies by Schlomo Sand in “The Invention of the Jewish People,” and “The Invention of the Land of Israel.” Tsvi Miserai in “Brother Shall Not Lift Sword Against Brother” has even concluded that it is the Palestinians who are truly connected by blood to Abraham having remained in the land for millenia. Koestler, Sand, and Miserai are Jews who do no take the standard Zionist false claims of “entitlement” and “return” to the land are obviously are smeared by Zionists as “self-hating Jews.”
So you must also believe (with Sand) that the exile from Israel was actually a myth created by the Christians to fool the Jews and their ancestors into believing that they were exiled, because the Christians wanted the Jews to believe that they were being punished through an exile so they could be more easily converted to Christianity, keeping in mind that the Jews (according to Sand) were themselves a deeply-devoted, deliberately-proselytizing religion which outside of Israel converted most of their believers who are not really “descendently” Jewish but just dupes in a Christian mythic conspiracy which the once solidly proselytizing (now supposed) Jews fell for. If anything, this experience is an argument for the diaconate to give up its casual reading.
Excuse me. This reading is not even taken up in the diaconate formation program. This is an intentional (not casual as what your mistaken impression is) reading out of a personal passion to learn more beyond what is normally offered in school or the media which only give the ABCs. One has to learn the rest of the alphabet on personal initiative and commitment to never stop reading and studying for life. If you want to begin broadening your understanding of the Palestine Israel question beyond what you were taught in school or consumed from the mass and social media (especially given the pervasive influence of the American Israel Lobby operating “The Holocaust Industry” – book title by American Jewish political scientist Norman Finkelstein – to give the state of Israel immunity to criticism), I invite you to take up the concise introductory book by Martin Bunton entitled, “The Palestinian Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction.”
Of course Jews are indigenous to Israel, Deacon Dom. Ashkenazi Jewish mtDNA shows a Near Eastern origin that underwent a major expansion in Europe in the last millennium. Half of all European Jews can trace back their origin to just 4 women with distinct DNA.
Being driven out of the land given to them by God doesn’t change who a people are. Their land grant is still good & they’re still Jews.
Read the books of Jewish scholars and authors Koestler, Sand, and Miserai. Don’t take hook line and sinker the Evangelical Christian Zionist (like John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel) misreading and misunderstanding of the Bible that legitimizes the Zionist policies and practices of settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid for the past 75 years. A Christian, especially Catholic and plain sense, reading and understanding of the Bible belies these Zionist claims of entitlement and return to the land based on their misuse and abuse of the Bible. The “promise” of the land to Abraham in Genesis does not mean to be fulfilled only in the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel. In Joshua that promise has been fulfilled when Abraham’s descendants entered and took possession of the Holy and Promised Land. The prophecy of “return” to the land from exile does not refer to 1948 but to the return from the Bablylonian exile in 5th century BC as expounded by prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. In Romans 8, Paul expounds that the Holy Land now refers to the whole world just as Israel is now the Church (CCC 877, LG 9, Romans 9-11). Remember there is no continuity and equivalence between the biblical Israel and the Zionist state of modern Israel.
” A Christian, especially Catholic and plain sense, reading and understanding of the Bible belies these Zionist claims of entitlement and return to the land based on their misuse and abuse of the Bible. ”
******
Nope, Deacon Dom, not for this Catholic. I believe both in sacred scripture & DNA. Those two things don’t change according to fashion or politics. The Jews were given the land of Israel by their Creator.
Read Catechism of the Catholic Church 877, Vatican II Lumen Gentium 9, and Romans 8-11.
What a synonym salad this is? When you Google “settler” it comes up via the Oxford Dictionary as one “who moves with a group of others to live in a new country or area”. The example the dictionary gives is one “fleeing religious persecution” (sounds like people who need protection; sounds like the Jewish people to me, some of who actually purchased their land in Palestine – sounds like Abraham to me). Then the Oxford experience gets confusing – a settler is also a “colonizer” (ooh, not good). But he’s also a “pioneer” (we like that, until the progressives have a go at that term), but he’s also a “colonist” (very bad again), but then he becomes a “frontiersman” (that sounds nice and rugged as does the “frontierswoman”), but in the end he is just an “immigrant” (no indication by Oxford if he is illegal or not; not that it matters to anyone anymore). Progressives started this categorical word game of good vs. bad. Let them choke on it, while the reasonable people withhold the Heimlich maneuver and try to sort out the world the progressives are messing up daily.
Reasonable people, both progressives and conservatives, consult a dictionary to get an initial understanding of words, but they consult an encyclopedia to get an initial understanding of terms or concepts. Here for your further education and concise introduction to the concept, not a synonym salad, of “settler colonialism” is the Wikipedia entry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settler_colonialism
And here from the same Wikipedia, entry on Zionism as settler colonialism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism_as_settler_colonialism
While I sometimes cite Wikipedia articles, this background is helpful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia
You are defending the indefensible, and your position is antisemitic and inappropriate. Your moral compassion isn’t working properly. You should get that checked out rather than lecturing people here.
You have precisely fallen into the clutches of Zionist propaganda aimed at suppressing open, free, and democratic discussion or criticism of the Zionist state of modern Israel, its political and military politicies and practices, especially its 75 year old and continuing settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid against the Palestinians. They have equiparated Anti-Zionism (critique of modern Israel’s state ideology and military tactics based on politics) with Anti-Semitism (racist bias, prejudice and hatred of Jews based on religion) which are not the same. What being discussed here especially my comments in this comment thread is not Anti-Semitism but Anti-Zionism. You should have the knowledge and understanding of this distinction and difference. I invite you to takeup and read the book by the American Jewish political scientist Norman Finkelstein entitled, The Holocaust Industry, which comprehensively narrates how the American Israel Lobby has successfully crafted this equiparation of Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism giving the Zionist modern state of Israel a free pass in its war crimes and human rights violations.
In reply to Dom:
You assert in your main narrative above (all quotation marks being your narrative) that it was “Eastern European Jews who migrated and grabbed the land from indigenous Palestinians” (whom you describe as “majority Muslims and minority Christians”) who “have been in the land for millennia .” And these “illegal immigrants” and “colonizers” (the Eastern European Jews who migrated to Israel) you assert “employed the practice of extermination….”
This narrative is constructed to accuse the Jewish immigrants to Israel are guilty of genocide against Palestinian Muslims.
Since the vast majority of readers are aware of actual genocide of 20th century Turkish Muslims against Armenians and 20th century Europeans against Jews, somehow it seems odd that the same historical accounts of the Jewish genocide against the Palestinian Muslims has not been reported by the same sources that recount the actual genocide against the Armenians and the Jews.
It doesn’t seem likely that this genocide you assert actually happened and escaped the world’s notice. But perhaps you can provide some facts that might defend your narrative.
Meanwhile, as your narrative also asserts that Palestinian Muslims have rights to the land because they have lived there (with the Christian minority) “for millennia,” that logic doesn’t really work to vindicate the primacy of “Palestinian Muslims” because, in the course of the history, they come last sming the 3 groups you identify, in this order: Jews (millennia before Christ, and 2 millennia after), Christians (2 millennia), and Muslims (some 1400 years ago, after the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land).
But you probably didn’t really mean to suggest that you believe Palestinian Muslims have a priority claim versus the News and Christians. You were probably really referring to the Syrians and Samaritans and other middle eastern populations that lived in Israel and the surrounding area in the millennia when the Jews first conquered and ruled in Israel, under the wars led by Joshua.
In any case, readers await any facts you can muster that the 20th century Jews committed genocide against the Palestinian Muslims.
Standing by for that…
The newly arrived migrant Eastern European Jews did a genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians shortly before and after the 1948 founding of the Zionist state of modern Israel. To this the leaders and media of the Western world then bothered by its collective guilty conscience over the newly emerging story of the Holocaust turned a blind eye, giving a free pass to the victims of genocide turning themselves into perpetrators of geneocide. The Nazi victims became ZioNazi perpetrators. In the parish where I serve, there are elder Palestinian devout and active Catholics who survived this what they call the “Nakba” (catastrophe) and have shared their eyewitness stories of this ethnic cleansing. This long suppressed story is best systematically detailed in the book by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
In response to Dom:
Your reply is, like your prior comment, devoid of any facts supporting your very grave accusation that the Jews in Israel are guilty of genocide against the Muslim Palestinian population.
In another comment you made, you appealed to “reasonable people.”
Reasonable people are deemed such because they insist that serious matters should be discussed with regard to facts.
Your failure to provide any facts supporting your charge of genocide is ample reason for reasonable people to conclude that you are unreasonable.
The next question is speculating about what would motivate you to be unreasonable about such a grave matter as the one you are holding court on here.
Whatever the reason might be, whether well-intentioned or ill-intentioned, you are undermining your own credibility.
Yes, Chris. Thank you.
I’m repeating myself again, but consider the population growth of Palestinians in Gaza each decade, not to mention those living within Israel. If that exponential growth represents genocide then the Israelis have chosen a method that brings the very opposite result.
I’m increasingly disappointed by Catholics who spread dangerous propaganda and should know better. Even if one doesn’t believe in the biblical promise of a Jewish homeland or denies Science and the distinct DNA in modern Jews, surely they can count?
It is both interesting and ironic that some of the most conservative Jews , the Hasidics , support the Palestinians and their right to a free state and are even holding public demonstration in support of Palestine in New York City. We must not overlook the fact that Israel has been trying to suffocate the Palestinians for years by denying trade and access to necessary utilities etc. This is also very immoral and they should be held accountable. The end does not justify the means for either side. There are many grey areas to consider. Just perhaps Israel made the popularity if Hamas possible through their own policies.
Jordan should be designated as the Palestinian State. All Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank ought to emigrate there if they so choose. Israel should then annex Gaza and the West Bank. Israel should allow Palestinians, if they choose, to become citizens and swear allegiance to the State of Israel.
Sadly, neither Jordan nor Egypt want the Palestinians. They rightly fear terrorists posing as refugees.
And there’s the rub, mrscracker.
Palestinians will not move out because Zionists will take over their homes. That would be ethnic cleansing.
I suggest you do a research on “Nakba.”
Jordan & Egypt don’t want the
“Palestinians” because they also want to
use them as pawns against Israel
I’m reluctant to using the term “Palestinians” since most so-called Palestinians are Arabs who have roots in other countries. Having said that, Arabs can be Israeli citizens and actually make up about 20% of the citizenship, but most Arab residents don’t apply. They need to learn Hebrew, and I believe there is a negative attitude in the Arab community toward applying. As a side issue, the Arab population has a much higher birthrate than the Jews so in a couple generations Jews would be outnumbered, and I think we all know how that ends for the Jews.
Ron:
Your argument that Palestinians are Arabs and have roots in other countries does not hold water because the Zionists themselves have their roots in Europe. They are not the pure original Israelis of the Bible. Their Jewishness have been watered down by intermarriage and decades of immersion in European culture.
So what’s the difference? Netanyahu himself looks white, acts white, talks white. He’s as white as a Polish.
Think of the analogy of an invasion of your own home where you live. Because the invaders have well armed and have the legal and moral support of local politicians, the invaders are given legal rights to claim your home as theirs and so to continue living in your own home you have to give space and swear allegiance to the invaders. Here you are the home owner Palestinians vis a vis the home invaders Israelis.
Deacon Dom
You just described Reconstruction.
🙂
It was Real Disgusting, Disturbing and Anti-Semitic how after the Hamas Attacks of
October 7th, 2023 that
Murdered 1,400 innocent Israelis
Many Christians only prayed for the people in Gaza affected by the War, No prayers for the 240
Israelis taken hostage, No Prayers for Israel or for the
1,400 Jewish Israelis Murdered. Is Christianity Returning to it’s old Anti-Semitic Ways that directly made the Nazi Holocaust
Happen
Not so Benjamin, some of Israel’s best friends are devout Christians but you’ll find a few exceptions in comment boxes for articles like this one. Don’t be discouraged.
As regards the ‘sexual perversion’ & ‘child sacrifice’ common among the Amaleks & other Canaanites, not sure why Dr. V chose to overlook the legality & widespread promotion of abortion, transgenderism, homosexuality, & other depravities, by the modern Israeli state. Strained as his analogies were, one can at least be grateful he didn’t accordingly propose that state composed, pretenses notwithstanding, by the true descendants of Amalek enthusiasms.
I am bothered by these things also. For although, as one commenter has said, the Jews are the only group which can claim a God given deed/right to the Holy Land, it is also true that scripture reports that God punished Israel for its sins by letting it be over-run by ancient pagan tyrants, with most Israelites deported to Babylon and other places and many others dispersed to the four winds. Not only Israel, but the United States as well, ought be very conscious that we face severe external threats under conditions of widespread internal sin and profound moral outrages. What woe God might allow because of these things no one can predict, for God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and His plans are often, as the Pope has said, full of surprises.
The Zionist false claim of “entitlement” and “return” to the land is precisely the case of the misuse and abuse of the Bible that is being done today by the modern state of Israel which for many of us Christians and Jews who do not know our Bible any better enable and give a free pass to the “settler colonialism,” “genocide,” and “apartheid” inflicted on the Palestinians who must not beforgotten consist of majority Muslims and minority Christians (most of whom are Catholics).
There is no continuity, equivalence, and identity between the “biblical Israel” and the “modern state of Israel.” Today’s iteration of biblical Israel is the Church, the Catholic Church (CCC 877, LG 9, Romans 9-11 i.a.)
This Zionist reading of the Bible all go against the Christian especially Catholic and plain sense reading and understanding of the Bible. The “promise” of the land to Abraham in Genesis does not mean to be fulfilled only in the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel. In Joshua that promise has been fulfilled when Abraham’s descendants entered the Holy (Promised) Land. The prophecy of “return” to the land from exile does not refer to 1948 but to the return from the Bablylonian exile in 5th century BC as expounded by prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. In Romans 8 Paul expounds that the Holy Land now refers to the whole world just as Israel is now the Church (CCC 877, LG 9, Romans 9-11).
Likewise, it is misguided and ignorant of Christians (like many American Evangelicals called Christian Zionists like for example John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel) to morally and materially support the Zionist plan to rebuild the (Third) Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus is today the Temple as John 2 and Revelation 21 clearly show. There is no more need for the Temple sacrifice of animals and grains as we now have the bloodless sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist as expounded in the letter to the Hebrews.
This essay’s author must be similarly misguided and biblically ignorant as John Hagee being the founder and director of Catholics for Israel.
Yup, Mark. Our Bible believing separated Christian brethren seem to understand this concept better than we do.
Proportionality??? You must be kidding. How can any civilized nation respond to the murder of babies,slaughter of innocent civilians at a concert and the rape and murder of women with proportion?? Answer: you don’t. War is not a game with neat sets of rules, believe it or not. Your job if attacked is to pound the enemy down so hard they never dare get up again. Are there indeed any civilians in Palestine? The members of hamas CAME from this pool of barbarians. They ELECTED them to lead their country.What does that tell you about them? Its indeed unfortunate but not unexpected that the media has become the lap dogs of the terrorists and that Biden is getting increasingly pressured by his left wing party members, which is MOST of them. Its only a matter of time until they force Israel to quit with the job half-done. Again. I cant respect the so-called free press who have sided with these neanderthals, nor the uniformed and totally ignorant college students who assert the violent , unprovoked attack by hamas and the kidnappings “never happened”.Both amazing and frightening that we have such a large part of the country devoid of both information and education.They are in fact perfect little puppets.I hope the Jews will not be lulled into allowing the hamas group to re-gain the upper hand during the current pause in hostilities in their quest to rescue more hostages, many of whom might already be dead. Meanwhile I hope they can bring home as many hostages as possible, and continue to eliminate their enemy.
Hello LJ,
I heard Douglas Murray comment that for Israel to react in an authentically “proportional” way to the pogrom of Oct. 7th the IDF would need to kidnap, sexually assault, torture, & murder the exact same number of Gazan men, women, children, & infants.
Taking after Netanyahu, Villenueve frames the Israel-Hamas conflict in the context of the Old Testament, which means that those of us who thought we have nothing to do with the war are suddenly involved in it, if we believe the Bible to be the word of God, which it is.
On the one hand, I am grateful for the explanations on why God in the OT tolerated, even urged, total war against the enemies of Israel, as reflective of Divine Justice. I’ve never quite understood Divine Justice until now, thanks to Dr. Villenueve.
On the other hand, Villenueve’s explanations leave a lot of questions on the current Israeli-Hamas conflict. Are modern day Jews the exact same people that went down the generations, pure and without blemish, as the Israel of old? Is Hamas the Israel’s old enemy as descended from the Amalekites?
What exactly is antisemitism? Does it mean any criticism against the Jews a crime? Are the Jews, being the chosen people of God, so immune to criticism that anyone, much less, Christians are forbidden to even think it?
Is modern Zionism the true heir to the Israel of the Bible, as Christian fundamentalists believe? Is Hamas, the elected government of Palestinians, the same as Amalekites? According to a blog in the Times of Israel, Hamas was created by Israel itself, to counter the socialist PLO.
I am from South East Asia and would not know antisemitism if it bit me on the face. Until I came to America, I’ve never heard of the term. I’ve met a lot of American Jews, socially and at work, and to me, they are just like white people. They look white, they act white, they talk white, they dress white, they’re culturally white. How should I distinguish them from the rest of the whites, and thus avoid antisemitism?
But being a Bible-believing Catholic, I suppose I should be more conscious about the Jews and their righteous war against their evil enemy, thanks to the article above. It seems to me Jews can never do wrong, even if they happen to be woke in the politics of abortion, euthanasia, transgenderism, climate change, reparation for the descendants of slaves, and other liberal causes that I don’t believe in.
Much as I dislike many of the gender issues that Pope Francis seemingly favors, I am grateful that he steadfastly stands neutral on the Israeli vs. Hamas war, no matter how his Jewish friends (and he has many in Argentina) try to strong-arm him to side with them. Pope Benedict lifted the excommunication of SSPX Bishop Williamson even as he condemned antisemitism. I doubt Benedict would have sided with Israel had he lived to mediate in the present war. There is a precedent on how a pope views the conflict probably the reason why Pope Francis insists on neutrality. As Pope Pius X said in 1903 to Jewish visionary Theodore Herzl regarding the Zionism:
“We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem – but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people…We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem – but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people…And so, if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we shall have churches and priests ready to baptize all of you.”
“I am from South East Asia and would not know antisemitism if it bit me on the face.”
******
It’s generally a lot more subtle & pervasive than that. We can pick it up from the culture without realizing it.
I wouldn’t know. It generally flies above my head. We, too, had roughly the equivalent of the European holocaust in South East Asia during the war, but the region apparently doesn’t care – or doesn’t have the public relations resources – to remind the world of it year after year.
The trouble with anti Semitism is that the World continues to demonstrate it, year after year. There’s no need for Jews to remind us about it.
Pretty much every ethnicity & culture historically faced persecution & even attempts at genocide but for most of us that sort of bigotry has changed over time. Not so for the Jews.
I’ve seen anti Semitism simmering under the radar for a long time-both on the Right & the Left- but even so, I was really surprised at the sort of venom that’s come to the surface since Oct. 7th.
What exactly is antisemitism, and does it have any boundaries? Are you antisemitic if you don’t agree with a Jew/or Jews on anything at all, especially politics? Are these words by Pope Pius X antisemitic?:
“We cannot give approval to this (Zionist) movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem – but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people…
And so, if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we shall have churches and priests ready to baptize all of you.”
Is the Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” antisemitic? I’ve been told that it is, because of the line, “and ransom captive Israel,” as if Israel needs ransoming.
Well written and totally agree. Am Yisrael Chai!
Thank you ; theme of ‘generational spirits ‘ is prayed for in the on line deliverance sessions of Msgr .Rossetti , the article also helped in highlighting same .
https://www.catholicexorcism.org/smcvideos
Looking up some Jewish sites, came across the interesting narrative about how Esau might have killed Nimrod , his connection to Ham and Cannan, who might have stolen the animal skin garment from Noah , made by God to clothe Adam thus the curse …
Thank God for the Truth of Immaculate Conception that undid the generational evils, as we get to celebrate same with a ‘noon hour of grace ‘on Dec 8th …
Dec 17th b’ day of Holy Father – Feast Day of St.Lazarus , St Daniel and others , esp in Orthodox Church too – https://www.oca.org/saints/all-lives/2000/12/17#:~:text=Having%20passed%20his%20life%20in,Saint%20Spyridon%20are%20the%20others).
The Precious Blood to undo evils – the role of Christians to invoke same often enough , to strike down evil kingdoms where ever , including in own hearts and lines –
thank God too that reading about all the heart break of seeing evil in own families as narrated through the O.T . is also occasion for gratitude , for the grace given in The Lord for every right choice made in every life by His grace alone …
The desire and intention to pray for that trust in The Lord for its fruit of peace is the right and responsibility of the Holy Father for which he would be rewarded , without regard to what extent same gets taken in by those who are meant to heed same ..may the sword of The Spirit working in Elisha bless many and strike the eyes that need to be open to spiritual truths and to blind eyes that see others with hatred and fear to be led to be fed with the food of Divine Will to become brothers in The Lord – to trust that with God , nothing is impossible whereas lack of the trust in Him can leave The Lord Himself amazed at its lack !
It’s complex. Zionists seem to have prefigured the worldwide refusal to allow Jewish immigration that led to Nazi Germany’s Final Solution [Germans sought ways to expel Jews including replacement to Madagascar]. The Zionist movement to Palestine especially after the War has, in the least, some justification. Insofar as Muslim presence in the area, it was Palestinian Christians, the majority populace following Rome’s destruction of Israel as an entity who were attacked, slaughtered, enslaved by Islam.
Jews say they have nowhere else to go with growing justification. Although Villeneuve’s argument of a Biblical carryover for justification appears farfetched imagination, as if parallel to Hitler’s eternal Jew there’s an eternal Amalek. The idea gives license for Israeli excesses toward Muslims.
Israel’s justification for their presence and the State of Israel, war with Hamas is supported by facts, unjust persecutions, not Biblical heritage as disclaimed by Pius X. Israelis simply have a right to survive.
“Israelis simply have a right to survive.” And so do Palestinians, including the Christians among them.
Last night, for the first time in my ignorant world, I came across the word “Nakba,” and wondered why in the context of the present conflict, nobody seems to even mention it.
Fr. M:
Thank you for your very balanced, fair and morally clear comment on this horrific atrocity and the ensuing war it invited.
It’s no wonder this religion is in steep decline. In one paragraph, he says that Netanyahu quoting Deuteronomy is not a call for genocide, and those who say that it is, are engaged in “fake news”, yet at the same time quoting a Palestinian child’s poem, and claiming that it instead calls for the genocide of an entire people. Ridiculous.
Then saying that the pope has the real answer by his quote of a Bible passage calling for a cease-fire, yet at the end of his piece, he says that Hamas must be eliminated (we must assume precludes the notion of a cease-fire…).
Too many conflicting alliances, Catholics, too many conflicting alliances.
Almost every faith community in the West has been seeing a decline in members, with the exception of those who still value and biblical teachings on marriage and family. Devout Catholics are doing well globally.
One population that has grown exponentially are the Palestinians. Compare their numbers decades ago to the population today. And compare again with the number of Jews now left in places like Syria, Egypt, or Jordan.
Israel is not carrying out genocide on Palestinans and the demographic data backs that uo.
Well Gilbert, I’m sure I share the anticipation felt by other readers as we wait to hear from you about the “steep incline” of your cult.
A person typed online earlier today December 1, 2023 that “*Why is there no international demand to release Israeli hostages, violently kidnapped from their homes?!?*
Why has the Red Cross done *NOTHING* to help Israeli hostages, held over 50 days in horrific conditions?
Why is Israel being treated differently than any other nation in such a situation?
*This is NOT a hostage exchange. Israel does not take hostages!*
This is a deal with the devil – Israel is releasing Hamas terrorist prisoners in order to get its innocent hostages back – babies, children, elderly, women and men.
*And world organizations remain silent.* “
More about the Evil nature of Hamas , https://aish.com/you-must-take-a-stand/
Deacon Dom – allow me to say that I believe your sympathy for the oppressed Palestinians is well-placed, sound, admirable and meritorious. It has to do with both justice and benignity. What the Zionists are doing now they have done before with more or less effect and extremity: marshaling everyone and everything at their disposal in the effort and pursuit of complete and commanding domination.
Some points you make more generally, I can’t support. Overall, the idea that St. Paul has the whole world as “the Holy Land” can’t work, since the Messiah has come already and the Christian witness is not a joint drive or pactum with Jews whether Israelis or Zionists or the rabbinic tradition or Hasidism, etc. I am pressing this out here because the fraternity approach now in vogue with other faiths, is arriving to to the same problems with those groups as with Judaism.
I am also thereby unraveling how mistaken are those who call themselves Christian Zionists. The Church does not attest to a brotherhood that exists among men or that is found among them or that ought to be in such modes. It is Christ Who reigns at the center and it is His Spirit that moves out from Him for the Glory of the Father, through the Church. Palestinians as with everyone else in the whole world have their fair share from the Holy Land in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Christ said Jerusalem would be trampled underfoot until the days of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The inheritance for the Gentiles is the same for the Jews; but what is blocking this is and always was the Jewish hardening. All of us must avoid it! as you see in Romans 11:19-25. The inheritance that is true for everyone is foretold in the OT and this is what the Church proclaims in Christ’s Name.
As Good News, Its various dimensions are NOT over-involved. For example, VATICAN II speaks of the natural virtues of Hindu piety or of truths among non-Catholic Christians that belong to the faith. What is indicated are areas to help the unconverted to come to faith. It does not say there must be a program for the unbaptiszd to receive communion and have it advertised. It says those things exist for sanctification where the Church stands forth for its brotherhood in Christ.
Nakba is reverse Holocaust. The Holocaust survivors have become the Nakba perpetrators. The Nazi genocide survivors of 1941-1945 have turned into the ZioNazi genocide perpetrators since 1948 and continuing. What happened to the Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba was like somebody (Palestinians) sleeping in his own house awakened at midnight by a house invader (Zionists Israelis) telling him that his ancestor owned and lived in the house thousands of years ago and so is returning to reclaim it. The next day the house invader brought in the police (UK, US, UN) who confirmed and supported the historic ownership and residency of the invader so that the invader has the right to occupy and live in the house. By this right, the police determined, the invader and the owner must share the house. The owner naturally resisted this unjust sequestration and rejected and resisted the offer of sharing since then and until now. Since 1948 this Zioist Israeli enforcement of the claim and Palestinian rejection and resistance to this house sharing has resulted in this incremental genocide called the Nakba. While the world today condemns the Holocaust, it is mostly ignorant or at most indifferent about the Nakba. This almost universal ignorance and indifference can be traced to the perceived perplexity of the house invader’s claims which is based on the misuse and abuse of the Bible. What is even deplorable is the promotion and spread of these false claims by Bible scholars and teachers like what Villenueve has done in this essay. By the misidentification and misconnection between the biblical Israel and the Zionist state of modern Israel, most give the modern Israeli state and military immunity from any moral and legal accountability in its continuing and incremental genocide. Holocaust is reversed in Nakba.
Just stop. Your posts are embarrassing at tis point and disconnected from reality. They’re also blatantly antisemitic. Who’s paying you to troll this site? Hamas, George Soros, the New York Times?
Stop confusing and equating Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism. Read above my reply to your earlier conflation and equiparation between these two which are distinct and different from each other.
If there is Holocaust denialism, there is also a flip side Nakba denialism. This denialism is oftentimes caused by ignorance of the history and geopolitics of the Palestine Israel
question, and as I’ve repeatedly pointed out in this comment thread is on the part of most Catholics and other Christians the mistake to equate and connect the biblical Israel and the Zionist state of modern Israel. The two simply have no continuity and identity. Oftentimes to hold this mistake moves one to support Israel blindly placing it above any moral or legal reproach even in the face of this ongoing and incremental genocide of Palestinians. What is worse is that because of this general ignorance and denialism concretized into our tax dollars funneled into unlimited and uncritical American moral and military support for the modern state of Israel we are complicit in this ongoing and incremental Nakba.
This discussion reminds me of the true Americans – the American Indians.
We Christians are called to create new facts not abide with limits that make no sense.
Palestinians rightly should have their own homeland. Israel rightly should yield to it -generously.
Israel’s absurdist actions are meant to distract from that and deface how it must present to our minds.
Thanks for the antisemitic perspective. We Christians are not called to endorse, support, or condone terrorism. Doing so constitutes grave sin.
Netanyahu and IDF -no different than what you claim, the very same yet worse.
Butchering civilians to get at insurgents is not Christian. It’s Bibi and his Goons.
But I notice that every Christian win, you also try to undo it and Christianity, in the name of Netanyahu butchering ….. and Hamas butchering. Doesn’t work.
Thanks for the antisemitic perspective. We Christians are not called to endorse, support, or condone terrorism from Palestinians. Doing so constitutes grave sin. People do have a right to defend & protect themselves from terrorists, however. You are defending the indefensible.
We Christians and Jews are called to raise our voices against and fight injustices. Zionism is this 75 year old and continuing injustice (settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid) inflicted on the Palestinian people. “For the Lord is a God of Justice” (Isaiah 30:18). As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the injustice.”
“We Christians?” Who is this “we,” and why do you include yourself in that category. Last time I checked, someone could not embrace hateful and antisemitic thoughts and be a true disciple. Your malice betrays you.
You’re invited.
Athanasius: If you can’t or don’t want to read the books I’ve recommended to you, watch on any of your favorite video platform including YouTube the documentary: “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
We?
When it comes to who to side with in this conflict, the moral, ethical choice is to take the side of the faction that doesn’t burn babies alive and gangrape women to death, and doesn’t then flee behind civilian human shields like cowards.
Johann , you are correct , Jewish Israelis would NEVER do any of those things to “Palestinians”
We cannot be fooled by Anti-Israel Lies and Propaganda
One might hope so Johann, but we live in an increasingly strange world. And we seem more susceptible to anti-Semitic propaganda than ever. Plus ca change…
Get yourself educated beyond October 7, 2023. This conflict rooted in injustice goes back to 1869 launching of Eastern European Jews migration to Palestine (as the land was known and called before 1948 since Roman times) leading to the 1948 founding of the Zionist state of modern Israel. What happened to the Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba (genocide) was like somebody (Palestinians) sleeping in his own house awakened at midnight by a house invader (Zionists Israelis) telling him that his ancestor owned and lived in the house thousands of years ago and so is returning to reclaim it. The next day the house invader brought in the police (UK, US, UN) who supported the claim of the invader so that the invader has the right to occupy and live in the house. By this right, the police determined, the invader and the owner must share the house and peacefully coexist. The owner naturally resisted this unjust sequestration and rejected and resisted the offer of sharing since then and until now. Meanwhile, the invader has tried to completely drive out the owner in violation of the police order of sharing or coexistence between the house invader and owner. These two parties wage these never ending atrocities (October 7, 2023 being the start of its latest iteration) for opposite reasons. Israelis to keep what it has stolen, Palestinians to get back what was stolen from them.
Deacon Dom,
I sincerely hope you are not a real Christian deacon.
Broaden your knowledge and understanding of the Palestine Israel Question. Watch on any of your favorite video platform including YouTube the documentary: “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
Are you suggesting he might be a poseur?
Deacon Dom, so you believe the Palestinians suffered some kind of wrong, real or imagined, and that gives them a special right to murder, rape, burn and pillage to act out their frustration? And that the innocent Israelis who suffered at their hands are somehow to blame for their fate? What a load of garbage. There are people in Asia and Africa (I think the Uyghurs in China as one example) who suffer just as badly as the Palestinians, if not more so, who do not behave like Orcs from Mordor, who do not indoctrinate their own people (including innocent children) with violence and hatred as Fatah and Hamas has done. Trying to excuse such medieval barbarism is moral relativism at it’s worst and it’s thoroughly un-Christian (especially un-Catholic Christian).
The fact remains, it is irrelevant why Hamas did what they did. All that matters is that they did it, doing it makes them scum, and they need to pay for what they did. End of story.
Johann & Deacon Dom, you should both read this article
http://www.cansino.com/features/israel/palestinianterror.html about “Palestinian” Arab Terrorism
If you know about the Holocaust, you should also know about Nakba. Read again all the comments I wrote in this thread. Expand your knowledge and understanding of the conflict beyond October 7, 2023 back to 1948 and earlier. Watch on your favorite video platform including YouTube the documentary: “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
No, I think I won’t. The onus is on you to prove your argument, Deacon Dom, not me, I won’t do your job for you. Asking someone to “do your research” when you fail to prove your argument is the epitome if intellectual laziness.
You should read this article
https://honestreporting.com/todays-jews-are-descendants-of-khazar-converts-viable-theory-or-junk-science/
International law Athanasius. Netanyahu is hunting Hamas and murdering civilians, butchering children. Israel’s obligation is to protect the civilians in view of their homeland and its formation and draw forth who the Palestinian statesmen can be for the establishment. This is settled international law.
Netanyahu & Co. are vetoing it in order to pursue a plan of extermination and displacement and banishment. This is why Netanyahu clings to power so long, trying to make sure the real Israeli momentum that is building to the 2-state, dies away and is forgotten -and is always in ridicule.
In addition to all the evil done in the pursuit, they hold themselves above the order of everything. It’s untenable and unsupportable. It is quite apparent to everyone that the world is against it and the world is not being anti-Semitic in refusing to follow along with them or any such program. They nickname him Butcher of Gaza.
Palestinian and Israeli and Middle East statesmen in general, of the 1990’s understood this. Then, Netanyahu, perceiving it and imagining himself the great prophet warrior, stepped in to make sure they would all fail. And unfortunately the US has been trying to make it look right. It’s wrong. May God give the US its true footing.
Desperation has led Bibi to try to engineer “October 7” in vindication. Here he has come to disgrace just as King Saul before him. He shall not have it, he himself chose his demise and laid in wait. Whether he gives up or whether he exhausts himself and his comrades at arms, the Church is not coming to ratify any of it.
Netanyahu is proceeding to bomb southern Gaza and is not even trying to meet Israel’s new humanitarian commitments. He has habituated his penchant for lip service and lip sync. One hopes that Netanyahu’s glib-gab is not copied in the US.
Replying to Athanasius, above, I posted the following in CWR December 4 12:43 pm but it has not appeared, so i will try again. It is pertinent to the developing situation and and can append the link to the AP news clip which shows an active US humanitarian concern -:
International law Athanasius. Netanyahu is hunting Hamas and murdering civilians, butchering children. Israel’s obligation is to protect the civilians in view of their homeland and its formation and draw forth who the Palestinian statesmen can be for the establishment. This is settled international law.
Netanyahu & Co. are vetoing it in order to pursue a plan of extermination and displacement and banishment. This is why Netanyahu clings to power so long, trying to make sure the real Israeli momentum that is building to the 2-state, dies away and is forgotten -and is always in ridicule.
In addition to all the evil done in the pursuit, they hold themselves above the order of everything. It’s untenable and unsupportable. It is quite apparent to everyone that the world is against it and the world is not being anti-Semitic in refusing to follow along with them or any such program. They nickname him Butcher of Gaza.
Palestinian and Israeli and Middle East statesmen in general, of the 1990’s understood this. Then, Netanyahu, perceiving it and imagining himself the great prophet warrior, stepped in to make sure they would all fail. And unfortunately the US has been trying to make it look right. It’s wrong. May God give the US its true footing.
Desperation has led Bibi to try to engineer “October 7” in vindication. Here he has come to disgrace just as King Saul before him. He shall not have it, he himself chose his demise and laid in wait. Whether he gives up or whether he exhausts himself and his comrades at arms, the Church is not coming to ratify any of it.
‘ To prevent a further major increase in civilian casualties, Blinken said he “made clear the imperative before any operations go forward in southern Gaza there’ll be a clear plan in place that puts a premium on protecting civilians, as well as sustaining and building on humanitarian assistance getting to Gaza.”
He told reporters the Israeli government had “agreed to that approach” but declined to offer specifics on how Israel would follow through. However, he suggested that Netanyahu and others understood that that ”the massive levels of civilian life and displacement scale we saw in the north not be repeated in the south.” ‘
https://apnews.com/article/blinken-netanyahu-abbas-palestinians-israel-hamas-gaza-7b31b0561ead95cea0e9b80f00a5fccc
Pope and Rabbi…“for the good of humanity”?
No one can argue that Hamas, directed by Iran, invaded Israel on Oct. 7 to start the war of human genocide and suffering. It was found that Israel intelligence knew of the Hamas plans to invade more than a year ago. That disastrous error placed the Jewish state in mortal danger. The Israeli Iron Dome was asleep. Israel has been in danger as a state since they moved enemas from Europe to occupy Palestinian land excluding the West Bank.
US support was given as part of an agreement signed by former US president Barack Obama in 2016 for an overall package of $38 billion in military aid over the decade (2017-2028). The Israel military budget $23 billion surpasses the total military spending of Egypt, IRAN, Lebanon and Jordan combined. What could have been done by powerful Israel, Arab nations and the peace-loving international nations to bring the war to an end?
Israel must surgically destroy the Hamas command and control. Cease the carpet bombing of innocent Gaza residents. US support of Israel must not include only military weapons. The Egyptian Rafah Crossing Point must be open to Palistine refugees.
We must pray that our religious and our political leaders become more involved, not just pray from their enclaves.
A Must Read article about
Hamas Evil , https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-broke-temporary-truce-in-gaza-minutes-after-it-began-senior-idf-officer-says/amp/
Context is everything. October 7, 2023 did not start it at all. The big picture must be considered here. Historically, the Palestinians did not initiate or start this cycle of violence. It started with the 1869 founding of the Zionist movement of settler colonialism among Eastern European descendants of converts to Judaism who started migrating in massive waves in the 1920s culminating in the 1948 founding of the Zionist state of modern Israel. This process expelled and exterminated the indigenous Palestinians from the land they lived in for millennia. The source and origin of this cycle of violence is Zionism. The reasons for this continuing 75 year old conflict are a contrast of opposites. Invader and anggressor Israel waging violence to keep the land and freedom they have stolen from the Palestinians. The long suffering victim Palestinians fighting by inflicting violence to get back the land and freedom stolen from them by the Zionist state of Israel.
Nope. No “context” could ever justify burning babies, gangraping women to death and then hiding behind human shields like cowards. Those are intrinsically evil acts, and the people who commit them are pure evil who need to be defeated. End of story.
Johann , we Must ask ourselves how many of those human shields used by Hamas, how many of those Human shields Voluntarily decided to become pawns for Hamas
I would not be surprised if Hamas forced their fellow Palestinians to be their human shields at gunpoint. It’s just another war crime committed by these so called “Freedom Fighters” as the Left calls them (which calls to mind the old saying, namely if fire fighters fight fire, and crime fighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight?).
This ignorant assertion about context reminds me of the Evangelicals (mostly anti-Catholics) who generally read and interpret the Bible without considering the context (that is, background history, culture, language) of the text. They end up in error and darkness. My Bible professor always reminded our deacon class about the importance of context in understanding a text – or of all of life for that matter: “A text without a context is a pretext for any prooftext.” Sadly most Americans do not have this knowledge of context about the 75 year old and continuing Zionist settler colonialism/illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing/genocide, and apartheid against the Palestinians. Without context and very limited (or no) view of larger history the Palestinian revolutionaries fighting to retake the land and life stolen from them by the Zionists are easily and erroneously demonized as terrorists.
Article about True
Christians standing with Israel
https://www.jns.org/largest-christian-zionist-group-announces-you-are-not-alone-campaign/
There are good Christians standing with and praying for Israel, Benjamin . You might not always see that reflected in comment boxes ,sadly. But we’re here praying.
I’m personally praying for all the innocents affected and for the conversion of the terrorists’ hearts.
Hamas even murdered the innocent pets of Israelis on the
October 7th, 2023 Attacks
Even innocent animals were not spared see this article https://nypost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/nypost.com/2023/10/12/hamas-terrorists-butcher-family-dog-in-bloody-rampage/amp/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17020610175962&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2023%2F10%2F12%2Fhamas-terrorists-butcher-family-dog-in-bloody-rampage%2F
Another good article Exposing Hamas Lies , https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/theyre-registering-the-dead-why-the-mainstream-media-cant-be-trusted/
True Christians hold that truth matters and ought to know, understand, and raise voices for the truth, in the spirit of following after Jesus who is the Truth. The Palestine Israel conflict did not start on October 7, 2023. Upholding the truth demands knowing its historical origins and big picture. Understanding entails knowing who initiated this cycle of violence, what was the origin of this cycle of atrocities, who was the original aggressor, who was the original victim. As you must know about the “Holocaust,” as a true Christian upholding the truth you must also know about the “Nakba.” I invite you to watch on your preferred video platform including YouTube the documentary, “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
Deacon Dom , you should read this article
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/decolonization-narrative-dangerous-and-false/675799/
Even More about the Evil Nature of Hamas and it’s Supporters
https://www.newsweek.com/hamass-western-apologists-have-become-hamas-enthusiasts-gazan-im-horrified-opinion-1849228
More about the Conflict
https://www.factsandlogic.org/why-the-media-cite-fake-death-tolls-in-the-gaza-war-and-how-it-misleads-us/
More about Hamas Evil and Wickedness
https://www.timesofisrael.com/whats-life-like-under-hamas-whispered-in-gaza-offers-unique-courageous-testimony/
More about “Palestinian” Support for Hamas , https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-palestinians-opinion-poll-wartime-views-a0baade915619cd070b5393844bc4514
See Also, https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/hamas-germany-denmark-terror-attacks-foiled-against-jewish-targets/
Benjamin, you obviously only consume the news and analyses produced by the Western especially American media which oftentimes are well funded or intimidated by the powerful Israel Lobby. Try the other view to get a full and true perspective on the ground. Try watching or reading the following three: Al Jazeera; Mondoweiss; and Middle East Eye. I invite you to read through all my contributions in this comment thread from the top down, and if you sincerely want to broaden your knowledge and deepen your understanding of this conflict, take up and read all or any of the books I mentioned along. Be open. Be enlightened.
Another Must Read
https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-terrorists-mutilated-female-soldiers-faces-breasts-and-genitals/
Hamas can and will be Defeated
https://nypost.com/2023/12/20/opinion/dont-listen-to-the-doubters-history-shows-hamas-can-be-defeated/ It is Documented in many articles online how
Hamas has vowed to repeat the October 7th, 2023 Attacks until Israel is destroyed
Hamas has also vowed to to Eliminate Christianity from the World and that Israel is just their first Target
Hamas has admitted that their ultimate goal is World Domination and the Elimination of All Non-Muslims
Hamas has no shame
https://youtu.be/u8u-bjMAIh8?si=gatyyJQwMIZ4c7om
A person typed online earlier today about the War between Israel and Hamas that
“It is and always has been a common antisemitic trope to accuse Jews of being guilty of Deicide (killing Jesus)
Pope Francis said in his Christmas Message on Monday that children dying in wars, including in Gaza, are the “little Jesuses of today” and that Israeli strikes were reaping an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians.”
Benjamin, I hear what you are saying most of the time & I’m right there with you but please don’t look for offense where none was intended.
About United Nations Hypocrisy , Double Standards and the conflict between Israel and Hamas , Please Read
https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-768952
Benjamin: It’s never too late, or for one like you, too old to learn and discover new things. You obviously have not read any of the materials I invited you to read. You resist to learn anew and choose to remain imbalanced by refusing to know other sides than your “feelings” and ceasing to search for “facts.” Know the difference between “feelings” and “facts,” and between “beliefs” (based on feelings) and the “truth” (of which the facts are evidences). I repeat my invitation for you to read any or all of the materials I cited here in this comment thread. Remember choosing to be ignorant about Zionism makes you spiritually and morally complicit in the continuing 75 year old Zionist settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid against Palestinians.
Another Must Read article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8132/disproportionality The article applies to this 2023 War started by Hamas on
October 7th, 2023
Hey Benjamin! I can see you are a wide reader. Have you tried broadening and balancing your horizons and thereby get to the whole truth of the matter? Have you read any of the materials I’ve invited you to read? Or how about just reading through the thread of my comments here from top to bottom?
I agree with the statement someone here made that I hope you are not an actual Catholic Deacon. If you are, you should acknowledge your hatred of Jews and resign your post immediately.( By the way, you know that Jesus was JEWISH, right????). The history of the entire planet has been about one nation fighting and taking the land of others. Its how humans have operated from time immemorial, and before written history.It happened in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. Just pick the time period and find a war. Thats life. And life, notoriously, isn’t fair. Get over it. Using what happened in the past, whether it was 20 years ago or 200 years ago, is not sufficient reason to continue the warfare by involving innocents who had nothing to do with the original conflict.
If you are indeed a catholic, one assumes you are familiar with the bible. Surely you must have noticed that thousands of years ago, Jews owned the land which they currently inhabit. Including a place called Jerusalem. It is almost certainly why it was selected as a resettlement area for what was left of the Jews after WWII ended. They did not just fly in from Mars and usurp the land. If you want to talk about “historical context” with the Muslims, the Jews were there FIRST. One can also ask why the palestinians, over decades, continued to war with the Jews no matter WHAT concessions the Jews gave them over the years. And the Jews gave them plenty. It was never enough. The bombings and rocket attacks would always continue. The palestinians never seemed to have the brain power to take a bird in the hand, end the fighting, and begin building up Gaza. Given its ocean-side location it would have made an excellent tourist area. Prosperity could have been their choice. But their choice was hatred. They filmed THEMSELVES killing and raping women and murdering children. The sheer barbarism and cowardliness of this attack makes the decision about who to support in this war a simple matter for anyone with a brain and a genuine education. Education and indoctrination are NOT the same thing. I do not see the distinction between Hamas and the “palestinians”. Hamas didnt spring up from nowhere. They were raised by Palestinians in that culture of hate. What can you say about a group that will hide their munitions under hospitals and schools used by their own people, and then blame their opponents for having to take out those facilities? That they lack ANY moral compass, at the very least. I am neither Jewish nor Muslim. I dont have a dog in this fight. But you reap what you have sown. It remains to be seen if the palestinians are capable of learning this lesson.
Deacon Dom
catholicworldreport.com has an article headlined
“Pope Francis: One must never dialogue with the devil”
By Matthew Santucci on
December 27, 2023
Many Christian, Jewish and other Supporters of Israel have stated Israel Must Never
Negotiate or Dialogue with Terrorists or Nations that seek it’s destruction
Many people have also said that those Terrorists, Nations and those who seek and Support Israel’s Destruction are the Devil Incarnate , Satan Incarnate
This false demonization of the Palestinians as terrorists is parallel to the erroneous demonization of Jews as Christ-killers. Both enabled hate, racism, and ethnic cleansing that lead to and enabled genocide: Nakba and Holocaust. The twist is that the 75 year old and continuing Nakba perpetrators are the Holocaust victims and descendants.
Sorry, but the facts don’t support your arguments. Who’s paying you to troll this site with this propaganda?
More Proof of Hamas Evil
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/released-hostage-mia-schem-says-she-was-held-in-gaza-hospital-operated-on-without-painkillers/
Another good article
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html
Yet Another good article
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/30/hamas-is-succeeding-at-playing-the-west-for-fools/
More Ugly Truth about Hamas
https://www.foxnews.com/world/hamas-leaders-lived-like-wealthy-celebrities-gaza-terror-reign-prior-oct-7-massacre.amp
To simply brand as “Hamas supporter” anybody not on the side of the Zionist state of Israel without knowledge and understanding of historical context at this time becomes a “Genocide (of the Palestinians) supporter.” These “Genocide supporters” mostly are blind to this 75 year old and continuing settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid against the indigenous Palestinians. People who decline to be educated about this narrative of history like Benjamin P here are supporters of the present unfolding of genocide (Nakba) of Palestinians (which include a minority of Catholics) which started in 1948. Historians in the future will ultimately judge these supporters and perpetrators of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians as morally and legally accountable for these inhuman atrocities just as as it has already done to those who inflicted the genocide against the Armenians, European Jews, Cambodians, Bosnians, and Tutsis.
Deacon Dom , have you even studied the Pro-Israel perspective, the Israeli point of view, did you know that the REAL Nakba in 1948 was when
800,000 Jews were Forcibly Expelled from Various Arab Nations, When Israel became a Nation again in 1948 . The Arab Nations Expelled their 800,000 Jewish Citizens and Never Compensated Them .
Those Arab “Palestinians” who fled Israel in 1948 were Not Forced Out by Israel, they voluntarily Fled Israel after being told by the leaders of the Arab Nations to Leave and Return later . The Conflict is complicated, with both Israel and “Palestinians” and other Arabs saying they are right , but a close examination of the Facts will show that 99.999 percent of the time Israel is Morally and Legally Superior and Correct, and the good guys in the conflict . The Hypocrisy and Double Standards against Jews and Israel is Sickening, the impossible Higher Standards placed upon Jews and Israel
Deacon Dom, do you have a reply to this article
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/01/do-muslim-lives-matter-when-killed-by-muslims/
The present day unconditional or blind Western, especially American, support of, that enables, the Zionist Israeli ethnic cleansing and pogrom of the weak powerless Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023 going all the way back to the 1948 Nakba genocide is exactly the same Western mindset and frame of heart (that is on display here as evidenced in blind pro-Zionist comments like that of Benjamin P) that enabled 20th century antisemitism, ethnic cleansing, and pogroms that lead to the Holocaust genocide of weak powerless European Jews. Ignorance. Enabling. Silence. Racism. Inaction. Moral Complicity.
Deacon Dom, Another article you should read
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-myth-of-palestinian-innocence/
A person typed online earlier today
“From Gatestone:”Unfortunately, Hamas’s bloodlust is not limited to Israel and Jews but also extends to Europe and Christians. I want to remind you that in the past, Hamas members expressed the Islamic intention to conquer Europe.” — Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, in a letter sent to about 20 European leaders warning of “a massive network of Hams operatives and the growing activism of Hamas across Europe,” December 2023.:
My comment: Whatever is happening in Europe is very very bad for the original Europeans. Their culture, religion and society is about to disappear under a waive of Arab terrorism. That will make them easy targets for Russia or China or both.”
The word “mercy” is mentioned in the headline to this article
Sadly Hamas, “Palestinians” and other enemies of Jews and Israel never show mercy, Sympathy, Empathy or Compassion , Plus
israeltoday.co.il has an article headlined
“I believe in his way,’ Palestinian official says of slain Hamas leader”
By Ryan Jones | Jan 5, 2024 About the Evil and Wickedness of
“Palestinians”
Even More about Hamas Evil and Wickedness
https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-781052
A person typed online earlier today
“Point of No Return
Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries
Former Miss Iraq pays sympathy visit to site of Hamas slaughter
By bataween on 7 January 2024
United States congressional candidate and former Miss Iraq Sarah Idan has visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities ravaged by Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023. Report in JNS News (with thanks: Edna):
Sarah Idan (left), former Miss Iraq, on a visit to the site of Kfar Aza, one of the sites ravaged by Hamas terrorists on 7 October
“I visited Kfar Aza, a place where the heart-wrenching horror of Hamas’s infiltration led to a massacre of innocent Israeli families right in their homes,” tweeted Idan, a Democrat running to represent California’s 30th congressional district in place of Adam Schiff, who is vying to enter the U.S. Senate in 2024.
“Located just a mile from Gaza, we stood witness as the Iron Dome intercepted rockets launched by Hamas. I brought my old uniform from Iraq to be mentally prepared, but I was still shocked and at a loss for words. Never in my life, not even amidst the terror of ISIS, have I seen such barbarity. What was once a vibrant community now echoes with a haunting silence of tragedy,” she continued.
By “uniform,” Idan means the camouflage pants, T-shirt reading “Fight Back” and combat boots that she wore as a translator for U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.
“I don’t care what’s your religion if your God permits you to do this in his name then your God is wrong. My mind is still traumatized by the scene, the smell of the dead bodies. Shame on those pretending the massacre didn’t happen,” she tweeted.
More than a hundred civilians were murdered and others were kidnapped from Kfar Aza when 3,000 heavily armed Hamas terrorists forced their way across the border and rampaged across the northwestern Negev, murdering around 1,200 persons in total, mostly civilians, wounding thousands more and taking some 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Idan and her family were forced to flee Iraq after she posed for a selfie with Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas in 2017 and wearing a bikini in a swimsuit competition.
Her Iraqi citizenship revoked, Idan immigrated to the United States in 2017.
On May 19, she filed her candidacy for the California seat, which includes the cities of Burbank and West Hollywood, and parts of Glendale and Pasadena”
Benjamin P: Your blind and miseducated “stand with Israel” is not with the biblical Israel which is the Catholic Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church 877, Vatican II Lumen Gentium 9, Romans 9-11 i.a.) but with the Zionist modern state of Israel. You’re standing with the state that is now charged before the International Court of Justice for genocide. The state that originated as the Zionist movement started as the organized immigration of descendants of converts to Judaism (they have no bloodlink to Abraham) mainly from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland (Take and read the book by the Israeli Jewish historian Schlomo Sand entitled, “The Invention of the Jewish People”) and founded the modern state of Israel in 1948 in the land that was historically known as Palestine and in the process displaced and disposessed the indigenous Palestinians of their land, homes and lives in what is called the Nakba (Take and read the book by the Israeli Jewish historian Ilan Pappe entitled, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”). This genocide and ethnic cleansing turned into 75 years of ongoing settler colonialism and apartheid and is on full display with the 23,000 Gazans (after three months of indiscrinate bombing) killed by Zionist Israel. Your blindness and being miseducated makes you (and a lot of similarly blind and miseducated Americans) “stand with Israel” stand for genocide which is now called Nakba 2.0. You’re a genocide supporter.
Psalm 87:2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
Psalm 2:6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.
Genesis 13:14-15 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
Deacon Dom, Countless people have Explained why Israel’s War in Gaza is NOT “Genocide” against the so-called
“Palestinians” War is Never pleasant, but it’s Not
Remotely “Genocide”
See this article
https://www.thejc.com/news/dr-denis-maceoins-letter-to-the-edinburgh-university-students-association-pf63hsy2 Do you have a reply
Deacon Dom, people have asked how is it “Genocide” in Gaza if the Population of “Palestinians” there has Quadrupled, grown by
1 Million people in the past 16 years, plus a person typed online earlier today
“*The insider view:*
Why did the #ANC regime of #SouthAfrica decide to accuse Israel of #Genocide?
Hint: It has nothing to do with #HumanRights!
Listen to this South African who reveals some unpleasant truths about the ANC regime, and judge for yourself.
Please share.
https://www.facebook.com/61553780374491/videos/367309619328985/
#FactsMatter
#FreeGazaFromHamas
#IsraelWillWinTheTerror”
Deacon Dom
The New York Daily News
nydailynews.com has an article headlined
“Genocide and the truth: A calumny against Israel”
By NEW YORK DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD
January 11, 2024 this article says
“Today, before 17 judges of the World Court sitting at the Peace Palace in The Hague, a lawyer representing South Africa will argue that Israel has been engaged in genocide during its military offensive against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
It is an an outrageous, libelous accusation, that Israel is seeking to destroy the Palestinian population, which is what the international crime of genocide is. The truth is that Hamas has the genocidal goal, to kill every Jew and which is why Israel must end Hamas’ rule over Gaza, freeing Israelis and Palestinians — Jews, Muslims and Christians — from the tyranny.
Hamas launched this war on Oct. 7, raiding Israel to murder 1,200 people and kidnap hundreds more, the vast majority of the victims civilians. That is a war crime to intentionally target civilians. Hamas also conducted an organized campaign of rape and sexual violence against Israeli women and girls. That is a war crime, and possibly a crime against humanity, in the eyes of UN investigators who, three months after the Oct. 7 attack, are finally labeling the atrocity for what it was.
The Islamist purists of Hamas swear that their holy warriors would never rape and sexually violate women and girls, that their faith forbids it. Perhaps so, but the documented evidence from the mostly dead victims is real. Where are the legal proceedings for these mass rapes? Who will bring that charge to the International Court of Justice?
The taking of hostages, as Hamas did, is a war crime. The firing of crude rockets at Israeli cities, as Hamas does every day, is a war crime. The refusal to let the Red Cross visit the hostages is a war crime committed by Hamas. The embedding of combatants in hospitals and mosques and schools, as Hamas does, is a war crime. Hamas also hides its fighters in underground tunnels, while the civilian population is left outside as the terrorists commandeer water, food, fuel and medicine for themselves.
Even the worst regimes throughout history didn’t desire that their civilian populations suffer from bombardment. Hamas wants the Palestinian casualties in Gaza to be as high as possible, to help them in their propaganda battle with Israel, like this case before the ICJ.
South Africa’s case, “garbage” as described to us by a leading expert on international human rights law, cannot be proved because there is no evidence that Israel is seeking, in the formulation of U.S. law, “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”
Since the Holocaust, the U.S. has found eight other instances of actual genocide: Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Darfur, ISIS, the Uighurs, Armenia and Burma. Each time there was a policy to achieve eradication of a targeted population. That is not the situation in Gaza, which is a terribly destructive and brutal war, with very high casualties among the Palestinian people.
Israeli commanders are obligated to abide by the laws of armed conflict to protect civilians. Still, even a failure to do so does not constitute genocide.
Hateful and hyperbolic statements by Israeli politicians towards Palestinians are not policy. There is no intention to destroy the Palestinian population and no evidence that such actions have been carried out. Like in all courts, the evidence is what counts.”
From nydailynews.com
Opinion page by Voice of the People
On January 11, 2024
A person typed :
“Off-putting protests
Brooklyn: Maybe if the pro-Palestinian protesters also condemned the Hamas atrocities, i.e. mutilating women and children, they would have more support. Instead, Americans have to listen to idiotic, hateful statements from college professors and their ilk that they were exhilarated by the Hamas savagery. Americans are fair-minded, decent people who see the leadership of the Palestinian people for what they are: terrorist murderers. They are not going to support this abomination.” Robert Weissbard
Benjamin, for all your readings about this issue you are blinded by the fact that what you erronneously think to be the “terrorism” of Hamas on October 7, 2023 is in reality a small part of the 75 year old struggle of the Palestinians in regaining the land and freedom stolen from them by the descendants of converts to Judaism from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland who migrated, settled, founded the Zionist (not biblical!) modern state of Israel in 1948 and in the process dispossed and displaced the indigenous Palestinians who have been living in the land for millennia and perpetuated this set-up by the use of the violence of terror (=terrorism), settler colonialism, and apartheid for the past 75 years. It’s the Zionists who are terrorizing all these years. The Zionists are the actual terrorists for having immorally and illegitiately grabbed the land of Palestine, founded the state of Israel, and systematically drove out the Palestinians from their land. The Zionists are the intruders and invaders using terrorism tactics to keep what they have unjustly stolen. The Zionists are the terrorists. It is right and just for the Palestinians to struggle to retake what was stolen from them.
NB: Benjamin, broaden your knowledge and comprehension of this issue. It’s not as complicated as the Zionists would want the world to believe to smokescreen its actual terrorism inflicted on the Palestinians they have displaced and dispossessed. It is simply like somebody (Palestinians) sleeping in his own house awakened at midnight by a house invader and intruder (Zionists migrants, descendants of converts to Judaism mainly from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland) telling him that his ancestor owned and lived in the house thousands of years ago and so is returning to reclaim it. The next day the house invader and intruder brought in the police (UK, US, UN) who supported the claim of the invader so that the invader was given the right to occupy and live in the house. By this right, the police determined, the invader and the owner must share the house and peacefully coexist. The owner naturally resisted this unjust sequestration and rejected the offer of sharing since then and until now. Meanwhile, the invader has tried to completely drive out the owner in violation of the police order of sharing or coexistence between the house invader and owner. These two parties wage these never ending atrocities (October 7, 2023 being the start of its latest iteration) for opposite reasons. Zionist Israelis are using the terrorism of its military might to keep what it has stolen, the Palestinians are struggling to get back the land and freedom what were stolen from them. The house invader and intruder who initiated this conflict in the first instance is the terrorist!
I truly hope you are not a real deacon Deacon Dom. One of the oldest concocted fables to discredit Jews is that they are not the real thing but imposter descendants of Khazars and other ethnic groups. That was invented so that anti semites could revere the Holy Family and the Apostles without any inconvenient connection to their relatives penned up in Europe’s ghettos.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/14/100-days-free-all-the-hostages/
Amen, Benjamin.
Some good news , a person
Typed online earlier today
“Breaking news!
The European Parliament *calls for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza – O N L Y with the release of the hostages and the dismantling of Hamas.*
BRAVO 👏
Israeli diplomacy scored an essential victory in the Parliament of the European Union: by a majority of 312 supporters against 131 opponents, the decision gives Israel the legitimacy to continue fighting.
This call is the continuation of the unmistakable voice of the European Union from the beginning of the campaign, overpowering every loud terrorist supporter.
https://www.facebook.com/61553780374491/videos/1057922268831457/
#FreeGazaFromHamas
#IsraelWillWinTheTerror
#StopTheWar
🙏🏼
*Help us increase the sympathy of the world and share our content even further*
Join here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HvvjQ5lAfLFKK3kg44yVXE.
🌍🎗️⏳”
Another Must Read article
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/mr-fafo-real-liel-leibovitz
Broaden your comprehension about the 75 year old and ongoing Palestine Israel settler colonialism, genocide and apartheid. Read these books written by Israeli Jewish historians. About the Nakba: “Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe. (Also watch Pappe these days on broadcast and social media denouncing this open genocide of Palestinians in Gaza now called Nakba 2.0). About the ethnic origins of today’s Israelis from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland: “The Invention of the Jewish People” and “The Invention of the Land of Israel” by Schlomo Sand. Or if you do not have the resources and time to read them, watch them on YouTube by searching for the relevant videos of their lectures.
More Disturbing Facts about Hamas, https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-770086
Media Bias against Israel Exposed , https://www.nationalreview.com/news/how-the-washington-post-abandoned-basic-journalistic-standards-to-cover-the-israel-hamas-war/
Deacon Dom , see this article
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/10/16/why-wont-the-jews-just-let-themselves-be-killed/amp/
The 75 year old and ongoing Nakba inflicted by the Zionist (not biblical!) Israel against the indigenous Palestinians by the immigrant Eastern European Jews by way of settler colonialism/illegal occupation, genocide/ethnic cleansing, and apartheid is now clearly seen by the world (the U.S. generally is blinded by the Israel Lobby’s intimidation and media spin) as Nakba 2.0.
South Africa has brought Israel for the crime of genocide before the International Court of Justice. South Africa pointed out four acts of genocide by the Zionists. Here below is the presentation of the first one. The transcript of the rest and the whole case is linked at the bottom.
“The first Genocidal act committed by Israel is the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of article 2a of the Genocide Convention.
As the UN Secretary General explained five weeks ago, the level of Israel’s killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza. As I stand before you today, 23,210 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the sustained attacks over the last three months, at least 70 percent of whom are believed to be women and children. Some 7,000 Palestinians are still missing, presumed dead under the rubble.
Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing where-ever they go. They are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches, and as they try to find food and water for their families.
They have been killed if they failed to evacuate in the places to which they have fled, and even while they attempted to flee along Israeli-declared safe routes.
The level of killing is so extensive that those bodies found are buried in mass graves, often unidentified.
A slide presentation of mass graves in Gaza, accompanying South Africa’s opening statement at the International Court of Justice on January 11, alleging Israeli genocide in Gaza.
In the first three weeks alone following 7 October Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week. At least 200 times, it has deployed 2,000 pound bombs in southern areas of Palestine designated as safe. These bombs have also decimated the north, including refugee camps.
Two thousand pound bombs are some of the biggest and most destructive bombs available. They are dropped by lethal fighter jets that are used to strike targets on the ground by one of the world’s most resourced armies.
Israel has killed an unparalleled and unprecedented number of civilians, with the full knowledge of how many civilian lives each bomb will take.
More than 1,800 Palestinians families in Gaza have lost multiple family members, and hundreds of multi-generational families have been wiped out with no remaining survivors – mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, cousins, often all killed together. This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life. It is inflicted deliberately. No-one is spared. Not even newborn babies.
The scale of Palestinian child killings in Gaza is such that UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children.
The devastation, we submit, is intended to, and has laid waste to, Gaza beyond any acceptable, legal, let alone, humane justification.”
https://newmatilda.com/2024/01/11/transcript-opening-statement-from-south-africa-alleging-israels-genocide-in-gaza/
Explain why Hamas broke the cease fire that was in effect on the morning of October 7th, “Deacon”.
Also, have you bothered to watch any of the videos that Hamas took during its attack on Israel?
Israeli video compilation shows the savagery and ease of Hamas’ attack
Deacon Dom , Hamas uses
Their own Gazan “civilians” as
Human Shields , many have pointed out that those “civilians” in
Gaza aren’t so Innocent
Even during this current
War in Gaza against Hamas , are
you aware of the Incredible Amount of Humanitarian Aid Israel gives to Gaza
America, Great Britain and the
Soviet Union Never gave any
“Humanitarian Aid” to
civilians in Nazi Germany
Many of those German civilians Supported Hitler and the
Murder of 6 Million Jews .
A person typed online earlier today
“One of the most offensive claims Palestinian “supporters”, Jew haters, and paid shills have been making is the claim of “genocide” on the part of Israel against the Palestinians.
While anyone with any degree of intelligence should be able to tell the difference between a genocide as defined below and casualties of war, the deliberate and repeated use of this term is meant to do a few things at once.
The term genocide was coined in 1944 and later defined by the UN Genocide Convention in 1948. The largest genocide on record was the systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazis.
By falsely claiming Israel, the Jewish majority state which includes people of all races, ethnicities and religions with equal rights, is committing genocide against the Palestinians, both vilifies Israel uniquely and unfairly and further pushes the false narrative that Israel seeks to erase Gaza from existence (ironically and precisely what Hamas seeks to do with regard to Israel). Claims of “genocide” attempt to erase the real genocide of Jews and other persecuted groups throughout history. This propaganda strategy is part of the ongoing campaign to erase or redefine Jews, their biblical and historical presence in the land of Israel, their ethnic history, their religion, and their suffering (being repeatedly expelled and exterminated from numerous countries). It is an attempt to blame the victim instead of the perpetrator in a war Gazan terrorists started.
There are good reasons for the death toll in Gaza including the fact that there is no way to distinguish between the good, kind hearted Gazans and those ready and gleefully eager to kill, mutilate, rape, abuse corpses and take and hold innocents as hostages. How do we know this? Look at any video of how large numbers of Gazans treated captured Israelis both living and deceased. And most of the terrorists don’t wear uniforms. Moreover, the measures Israel has undertaken to provide warnings to civilians and employ dangerous ground operations (resulting in loss of life to its soldiers) instead of bombing the entire region certainly shows that Israel is not committing a genocide against Palestinians but trying to avoid killing “innocents”. Trying to find the “kind hearted” Gazans is truly a needle in a haystack when you look at videos of military training camps for children, Gazan education systems, evidence of paraphernalia found in Gazan homes and interviews with Gazans who clearly align and espouse violent sentiments towards Jews in conjunction with the terrorist government they elected in 2006. Hamas may have changed its charter targeting Jews but it has not changed its goals.
When you see the term “genocide” being tossed around by Israel and Jews haters, understand why that term was selected and is being used against Israel. And if Israel is found to be inflicting genocide during this ongoing war in Gaza, we would have to similarly and retroactively apply this term to all wars with any sizable civilian death toll since the 1940s. Are we ready to bring military personnel involved in wars to trial? I don’t think so.”
Deacon Dom, see also
https://www-nydailynews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nydailynews.com/2023/11/07/the-true-history-of-the-jews-of-the-middle-east/amp/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17064718432986&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2F2023%2F11%2F07%2Fthe-true-history-of-the-jews-of-the-middle-east%2F
Another good article
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/kibbutz-nir-oz-israel-hamas-slaughter-october-7-attacks/
See Also
https://nypost.com/2023/10/07/american-woman-near-gaza-offers-firsthand-account-as-hamas-opened-fire-on-israel/
Hamas is relentless
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-03-2024-c0a63ab330a8915d684d4461edc5ec5e
A person typed online in
2012 , and it’s still true in
2024 about Israel being the good guy
“David versus Goliath—Israel versus Radical Islamists
A Question to the World
The question is, who is David and who is Goliath in this sad “story”.
According to most world media and public opinion, Israel is the Goliath!
And I ask; how is it possible? What is the explanation (other than anti-Semitism)? Why do people see Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the underdog?
First of all, let’s learn some history: there have always been constant Jewish communities in Israel, for 3000 year, so, the idea that we are invaders is simply not
true.
Now that we’ve established that we have the right to live here, let’s blame the “occupied territories”!! UPPS…..Sorry, we cannot! The Arabs attacked us also when there was no “occupied territory “(they have been attacking the Jews in this region for about 100 years)!
So how have WE become the bullies? Maybe it’s because we are the offenders? NOPE, again, NO!
1. We have been living under a constant rocket attack, daily, for 12 years! Why? Because we attacked? Again, NO! Because we left Gaza to the “Gazans” and unfortunately a terrorist group is their government.
2. Whenever there are casualties among innocent Palestinians (it doesn’t matter if killed by the Hamas or Israel) we weep! Whenever there are casualties among Israelis (by the hands of Radical Islamists) they dance on the streets and party.
3. Whenever (God forbid) fanatics on our side cut olive trees or do similar mad things against Palestinians, we put them in jail and condemn them. But whenever a terrorist throws a bomb into a bus in Tel Aviv, he is a “shahid” (a hero). And if he dies he gets his 70 something virgins in heaven.
4. Israel’s army, police, government and citizens protect people. We are fighting for our protection, for our children’s protection. Hammas, on the other hand, wants their people to die, hides behind them, hides ammunition in their houses, hospitals, schools, etc… because they know what you (world) don’t know! They know that our soldiers are humane and would never, intentionally, hurt innocents.
5. The more Palestinians die, the more Israel loses the war! Hamas knows this and you, citizen of the world, are puppets in these terrorist groups’ hands.
So please, explain to me, why are we perceived as Goliath??? The only thing we want is to live in peace with our neighbors. And what the Islamic radicals want is to see us dead!!”
Moral compasses are flawed, unbiblical, and unchristian which do not see the immorality and illegality of immigrant Eastern European descendants of convert Jews driven by Zionist ideology who grabbed and robbed the indigenous land of Palestinians 75 years ago and founded the modern state of Israel. They did this while deceiving and misleading the world through the egregious misuse and abuse of the Bible by falsely claiming that it is continuous and equivalent to the biblical Israel and have the right to the land they have stolen. Moral compasses are blinded and defective which do not see this immoral and illegal preservation of land theft by labeling the owners of the land struggling to reclaim what was stolen from them as terrorists even while inflicting on them continuing settler colonialism / illegal occupation, genocide / ethnic cleansing, and apartheid / subjugation.
barenakedislam.com has an article headlined
“ACCORDING TO MEMRI researchers, who constantly monitor Islamic sermons and statements from Muslim religious and political leaders across the U.S., they have not found a single sermon denouncing Hamas or the October 7th attacks.”
FEBRUARY 6, 2024 BY BARENAKEDISLAM
Just confirmed by this citation of yours as is the pattern of all your previous thoughtless and uncritical citations and comments. Your moral compass as indeed flawed and defective which seeing Hamas as terrorists. By your ideological blinders, you cannot and refuse to see them in the big picture of the continuing history of Zionist settler colonialism, genocide and apartheid inflicted on the Palestinians. What you perceive as terrorists are in reality indigenous people struggling to reclaim what was stolen from them by the immigrant land grabbers from Eastern Europe.
A person typed online earlier
today
“When we were led into the gas chamber, YOU said nothing.
When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing.
When we were thrown out of a country just for being Jews, YOU said nothing.
When we now defend ourselves all of a sudden, YOU have something to say.
How did we take our revenge on the Germans for their Final Solution?
How did we take revenge on the Spanish for their Inquisition?
How did we take revenge on Islam for being Dhimmis?
How did we take revenge on the lies of the Protocols of Zion?
We studied our Torah
We innovated in medicine
We innovated in defense systems
We innovated in technology
We innovated in agriculture
We made music
We wrote poetry
We made the desert bloom
We won Nobel prizes
We founded the movie industry
We financed democracy
We fulfilled the word of Hashem by becoming a light unto the
Nations of the Earth.
So World, when you criticize us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland,we the Jews of the world do exactly what you did, we ignore you.
You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down you don’t care.
Now leave us alone and go sort out you own back yard whilst we continue our 5784-year-old mission, enhancing the world we share.
–by Howard Klineberg, in the Jerusalem Post of February 2, 2015.”
Deacon Dom, you should read this
https://www-foxnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.foxnews.com/world/urban-warfare-expert-says-israeli-military-taking-unprecedented-steps-to-protect-gaza-civilians.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17082102986813&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fworld%2Furban-warfare-expert-says-israeli-military-taking-unprecedented-steps-to-protect-gaza-civilians
Good Article for the Critics of Israel
https://unherd.com/2023/10/do-israels-critics-understand-evil/
See Also
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/21/hamas-attack-october-7-conspiracy-israel/
Pro-Israel people Never do evil things like this
https://m.jpost.com/international/article-789266
Deacon Dom , do you have a response to this article
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-03-05/israel-gaza-war-genocide-media-jonah-goldberg
See Also
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/its-not-a-negotiation-its-blackmail-and-we-arent-doing-enough-for-israel/
See Also https://flashpoint.io/blog/israel-hamas-war-military-and-terrorist-groups/
Deacon Dom, you should see this
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-obstacle-to-peace/
Deacon Dom , you should read this
https://zionism-israel.com/dic/Christian_Zionism.htm
Fred Maroun typed online
Earlier today
“In his speech, US Senator Schumer said: “Hamas, and the Palestinians who support and tolerate their evil ways.
Radical right-wing Israelis in government and society.
President Abbas.
Prime Minister Netanyahu.
These are the four obstacles to peace.”
The parallel that he made between Hamas and Israel’s extreme right is disgusting. The Israeli extreme right has its faults, but it has never done anything even close to what Hamas did.
The parallel between Netanyahu and Abbas is perhaps even worse. Abbas is a longtime unrepentant antisemite who abuses his own people, funds terrorism, and has no respect for his own democracy. Netanyahu was legitimately elected, and he is leading a legitimate war.
He praised “David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak” and added “all of them sought peace with the Palestinians”. As if that was a contrast to Netanyahu. They sought peace indeed, but they did not achieve it. Does that tell him anything? Does he not understand that it’s pointless for Israel to pursue a two state solution as long as the Palestinians want everything from the river to the sea?
He said, “Before October 7, things were moving in the right direction”. Does he not understand what that means? Netanyahu was in power when things were indeed moving in the right direction. It’s not Netanyahu who disrupted the progress.
I am tired of the stupidity, of the fake support for Israel. If you support Israel then respect its democracy, respect the leadership that Israelis chose for themselves. Don’t be a bloody hypocrite.”
Let’s go back to the main point. Many in the U.S. and the West like you have views that are wrongly framed and grossly misinformed. The Palestinian-Israel question is not and never been a conflict. This is the case of land grabbing by Jewish immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Poland who through the Zionist nationalist ideology massively migrated into Palestine before and during the time they founded the modern state of Israel in 1948 and in the process displacing and dispossessing the indigenous Palestinians from the their homes and lands. For the past 75 years the modern state of Israel (which is not continuous with and never to be equated with the biblical Israel) has illegally occupied the land through settler colonialism and inflicted genocide and ethnic cleansing upon the Palestinians. The Palestinians since 1948 have been struggling to regain what was stolen from them. The Palestinians are not the terrorists here, it is the Zionist land grabbers who are using the means of terror with their military hardware (as well as the software of their misuse and abuse of the Bible) to keep what they have stolen who are the terrorists.
Deacon Dom, the “Palestinians” are Not Indigenous
Even Certain Arabs and “Palestinians” themselves have admitted that. Jews who Returned to Israel in the 19th & 20th
Century before 1948 to Establish Israel didn’t “steal”
anyone’s land. They legally purchased it at high prices from
Absentee Arab landlords. Your Information and
Arguments are all wrong, the books you listed are by
Self-hating Jews and Anti-Semites , Jew-Haters
Do you condone the Hamas Genocide of 1,400 Israeli
Citizens on October 7th, 2023
Are you on the side of Hamas ?
What about all the Incredible Great things Israel does for the
World, Jewish Israelis create Incredible Technology
Science, Computers, Medicine, Inventions and
Innovation that Benefits All Mankind, Israel sends
Search and Rescue Teams All over the World when tragic
Natural Disasters occur , it appears you have a cognitive bias against Jews and Israel
See this article https://www.thejc.com/news/world/hamas-casualty-numbers-are-statistically-impossible-says-data-science-professor-rc0tzedc
More about the Horrors of
October 7th, 2023
https://www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7143147?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17107802498341&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fshoah-foundation-oct-7-testimonies-1.7143147
About October 7th, 2023
https://time.com/6328616/israeli-medic-witness-oct-7/
A Must Read
https://www.jns.org/hamas-steals-food-from-its-citizens-yet-israel-gets-blamed/
Fred Maroun typed online yesterday
“It will soon be six months since Hamas started a war against Israel on October 7, 2023, through mass rapes, murders, and kidnappings. Yet, there is still no sign of the war ending. Why, you might ask. Let’s be honest, the answer is pretty simple. It’s because Hamas carefully prepared Gaza to be a death trap for Gazans, so to protect civilians, Israel has had to be slow, careful, and methodical, while fighting an antisemitic world public opinion at the same time.
The reason the war hasn’t ended yet is because Israel is doing exactly the opposite of what it’s accused of doing. If Israel had Hamas’ moral standards, the war would have ended on October 8.”
& also
“Biden’s political calculation that he can win by appealing to antisemites is bad for two reasons.
One is that a real leader does what’s right regardless of consequences on his or her popularity.
Two is that it will likely not work because antisemites will hate him anyway while centrists might decide to not vote.”
Benjamin: Your Zionist modern state of Israel has no legal right to exist. It is not continuous with and has no equivalence with the Biblical Israel. Except for the U.S. and few in the West it has no legal and moral support from the Rest. The Jewish immigrants from Poland, Russia and Ukraine have been misuing and abusing the Bible to falsely claim right to the land and inflict Nakba on the indigenous Palestinians by displacing and dispossessing them for the past 75 years. Your view is abetting the ongoing Nakba: genocide and ethnic cleansing; settler colonialism and illegal occupation; apartheid and subjugation. It’s the biggest monstrosity that the victims of the Nazi genocide of the Holocaust have turned into the perpetrators of the ZioNazi genocide of the Nakba. Your misinformed and malformed view is shamelessly abetting this.
See this article everyone
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13272407/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-U-S-troops-kill-aid-workers-friendly-fire-Israel-war-crime-double-standards.html
Good article about Israel
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-eternal-message-of-israel/
A very thoughtful and insightful article. Dr Villeneuve nails it! It is obvious Dr Villeneuve is a prayerful Christian who seeks God first in his work here. He is not caught up in the emotion that rules secular and worldly perspectives but lets true wisdom, that can only come from God’s Word through the Holy Spirit (who Himself is bestowed through the belief and Salvation of a personal savior, Jesus Christ). The only way to see the truth.
My only concern is in both his and Pope Francis’s appeals to God they appear to be seeking their will for a solution here. God commands us to fervently pray for what we want, but with the desire that “His will be done”. They may both be right, and may suspect what it is according to God’s Word, but should be appealing to God that His will be done in this, not theirs (and they may very well have; it’s just not clear to me in this article).
Good article by Fred Maroun
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-were-fools-to-support-the-palestinian-cause/
Extremism of Hamas Exposed
https://aijac.org.au/australia-israel-review/demented-or-just-diabolical/
“Justice will bring peace” (Isaiah 32:17).
“If you want peace, work for justice” (St. Pope Paul VI, Message, Day of Peace 1972)
Amen, amen, I say to you: There will be never be peace in Palestine-Israel until the injustice inflicted by the Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish immigrants and converts to Judaism (no bloodlink to the original twelve tribes of Israel) in the 75 year old and ongoing Zionist settler colonialism-illegal occupation, genocide-ethnic cleansing, and apartheid-oppression against the indigenous Palestinians will be acknowledged and corrected.
We may keep on praying for peace, but without understanding and fulfilling the need for justice, there will never be peace.
For goodness sakes. DNA research clearly shows a different story. Jews are equally indigenous and were given the land by God.
As Christians we shouldn’t be repeating anti semitic myths that attempt to discredit biblical and DNA history.
Everyone in the middle east wants peace except Iran and Iran is willing to shed the blood of Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike to achieve their end.
It’s starting to feel like late Weimar Germany all over again.