http://www.presstv.ir/DetailFr/2016/09/24/486235/palestine-israel-minor-prisoners
I came across this comment at a news website which puts the whole question of what is happening in that part of the world in the simplest of terms:
I wonder if you took a poll in the United States…an honest poll….and asked every American whether they thought it would constitute a “crime” for a twelve year old kid to pick up a stone and throw it at the bulldozer of an occupying army, coming onto his family's property to bulldoze his family's home that had been in his family for 12 generations, I wonder what they would say ?
In other home demolishing news:
http://www.lastampa.it/2013/11/05/vaticaninsider/eng/world-news/israeli-authorities-demolish-house-belonging-to-latin-patriarchate-of-jerusalem-n7AmiFFftEvpEmThGXiUML/pagina.html
http://www.saltfilms.net/zababdeh/oct02/sahour.html
https://www.rt.com/news/israel-palestinian-homes-demolish-323/
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/explain-liberal-brookline/
I am far from a mideast expert, but I do find it irritating that most seem to be either Israel can do no wrong, or Palestinians can do wrong. Seems there is enough wrong to go around. In the US (at least among conservatives) they seem to be of the first variety. I find that extremely odd, since the Israeli lobby appears to support liberal democrats.
ReplyDeleteSorry -s/b "Palestinians can do no wrong"
ReplyDeleteHello C Matt:
ReplyDeleteProbably the best way to look at this is to learn who started this mess.
In 1917 (that fateful year again) the Balfour Declaration was issued which essentially declared that Jews should have their own homeland. Remember that for centuries the Christians, Muslims and Jews were getting along well in the Holy Land together. There were no beheadings, no Muslim fanaticism, no terrorist attacks on other countries, etc. But between 1917, with the help of the Americans, the Bolsheviks and other European powers, Jews were being brought into the Holy Land by the truckload and this worried primarily the Christians who could see enough into the future to know that this would mean disaster in the near future.
That near future arrived in 1947/48 when Israeli terrorists, supplied with weapons by America, swooped into the Holy Land and began an orgy of killing, expulsions, ethnic cleansings and the destruction of the homes and livelihoods of the people who lived there and could trace their lineage back at least 3,000 years. This massacre and land theft had the complete support of many world powers and it was from that time that America, once the most respected country in the Middle East, became the bitter enemy of the Muslims, and all the terror and misery had its origin then and there. The Israelis murdered British citizens and government officials who were stationed there, murdered Catholic and Orthodox clergy and virtually wiped out the Christian presence there. That is still going on today.
Of course the media keeps this all under wraps - unless it is a Palestinian (aka a person who has lived there longer than the European Jews) who retaliates with stone throwing or bombs or whatever. That is plastered over the airwaves 24/7; what is never mentioned is why they are retaliating. Even far too many Catholics, who really should know better, refuse to see the whole story.
But that's the way it is, I'm afraid. And it's a sad thing when even some liberals can see the injustice when good Catholics cannot.
Catholics are not properly informed on this because, who would we ask? I could read 1000 comments that are in direct contradiction to what you have just said. This argument can be likened to global warming, each side of a polarized battle giving very good argument as to why they are right, and the other side wrong. One could go crazy trying to figure out which it is. End result? We don't know. But what we do know is Our Lord and Savior was a Jew, and the Jewish people are "the chosen people", and it does say in Scripture, "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you".
ReplyDeletePretty good argument for not going against the Jews.
I know little about the Middle East and who is to blame. All I know is what I just wrote and impressions, that Muslims adhere to violence, extremely random violence and Jews do not, at least not publicly nor in any numerical meaningful way. Muslims do not even allow for the right of Jews to exist. How can any nation find peace next door to that?
This is a God-sized problem. No human beings can solve this.
Dear Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. Let me try as best I can to offer some answers to some of the points you raised. Before doing that, however, we must never lose sight of the fact that the only authentic interpreter of the Gospel is the Divinely-instituted organization founded by Christ himself while he lived on earth. That organization is the Catholic Church.
Here then is the words of a Pope, a Saint, regarding the zionist dream of a so-called homeland for the Jewish people. Before quoting this pope I will add that the only true homeland for the Jews is the Church. Thus, the words of Pope St Pius X, spoken to the father of zionism himself, Theodor Herzl:
‘We are unable to favor this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem — but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem, if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church, I cannot answer you otherwise. The Jews have not recognized Our Lord; therefore, we cannot recognize the Jewish people.’ “ (see: http://catholicism.org/the-zionist-and-the-saint.html)
Yes, of course, the Jews were the Chosen People, the race from which Our Lord would be born. They were chosen to be the race which would bring forth Christ. And God kept his promise: Christ was born from the Jews. That describes the "chosenness" of that people, and it is their only chosenness. Once Christ came and was rejected by his own ("his own received him not") this chosenness, if you will, passed to the gentiles while always keeping the door open to receive the Jews into his Church. Their special election is gone, discarded by themselves and it now encumbant upon us to bring these poor, unbaptized souls to the Church. Being unbaptized and rejectors of Our Lord they cannot enter Heaven.
"Christian Zionism" is not only an oxymoron but it hovers very close to blasphemy. There is nothing wrong with having sympathy for Jews but we must not allow sentimentality to cloud our perceptions either. You mentioned being unfamiliar with the situation in the Middle East. In my post I tried to offer some facts that would help in understanding. You will note that the links and videos posted are about Palestinian Christians, not Muslims. It continually amazes me that so few people know that the Christian presence in the Holy Land long predates the Muslim presence, that Christians (what's left of them) are still there after 2,000 years and that it is Christians, along with Muslims, who are being treated shamefully by the Israeli government, a government I am sorry to say of war criminals.
And, again, if you read the post, some of my previous article over the years and some comments above you will noted that all this turmoil in the Holy Land began when the Jews from Europe illegally and immorally swooped into Palestine, killing, ethnically cleansing and annihilating the historical inhabitants. This was a crime of unimaginable proportions but because the news media is, shall we say, influenced by Jewish thought it rarely if ever gets mentioned. Indeed if it is mentioned at all it is depicted as poor, tiny Israel being besieged by the entire Arab world. The truth is exactly the opposite.
I don't expect to convince you in a short comment here to abandon some misconceptions. I can only offer what information I can to help people see both sides to this tragic story. I am just one tiny blogger; I cannot counteract sophisticated, non-stop, worldwide mendacity. I can only try to ask people to seek the truth of the matter and then decide for themselves.
Thank you again for visiting the blog and for your comment. Both are much appreciated.
ap
Kathleen wrote:
ReplyDelete"I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you".
Pretty good argument for not going against the Jews.
Except the Jews did not exist at the time that promise was made. That promise was made to Abraham, a Hebrew. That is not the same as a Jew. The tribe of Judah came into being after the Exodus. It was one of two tribes that formed the southern kingdom, along with Benjamin.
I urge you, Kathleen, not to follow the lies told about who is who and those who cherry-pick a verse from the Old Testament to say the state of Israel cannot be held accountable for its crimes. Christ's very own words call the Jews (those who reject Him) children of the devil. Consider what Christ said to the Jews in the Gospel of John Chapter 8:
31Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. 32And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free?
34Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. 35Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever. 36If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 37I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father.
39They answered, and said to him: Abraham is our father. Jesus saith to them: If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. 40But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not. 41You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God.
42Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me: 43Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. 44YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. 45But if I say the truth, you believe me not. 46Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? 47He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.