Norman Finkelstein: GAZA--segment 1 of 5, Gaza 2020
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
U.S. Embassy Road Signs Go Up in Jerusalem & More
(Reuters) U.S. Embassy road signs went up in Jerusalem on Monday ahead of next week’s opening of the mission in accordance with President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.
Dennis Edwards: Keep your eye on this event. Many eschatology students believe Israel is an important piece in End-time prophecy. The "Holy Covenant" is believed to be some kind of peace agreement over the Jerusalem situation. Some propose that Jerusalem will become an international city. We will see how the Arabs and the rest of the world respond to the opening of the USA embassy on May 15th which is the 70th year birthday of the modern state of Israel.
Israeli Minister Says ‘Lebanon Equals Hezbollah’ After Election
(Reuters) Hezbollah’s gains in the Lebanese election on Sunday show that the state is indistinguishable from the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group and that Israel should not distinguish between them in any future war, an Israeli security cabinet minister said.
Israeli Minister Threatens Assad Over Any Iranian Attacks From Syria
(Reuters) Israel could respond to any Iranian attack on it from Syria by toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, an Israeli security cabinet minister said on Monday, hinting that Assad himself may be targeted for assassination.
Dennis Edwards: Many conservative Orthodox Jews believe that the land God promised to Abraham is rightly theirs. The boundaries of Greater Israel include the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates in Iraq. Both Lebanon and Syria would fall within Greater Israel. With this type of belief system you can better understand Israel's political and military position toward these two countries. Some Israelis believe that it is God's will for Israel to rule over the area of Greater Israel. The following link [The Oded Yinon Plan] gives more details about Israel's military plans since 1982 in respect to the future hopes of Israel. If you take time to read the link you will note that Israel has been following this very plan and as a result we see the unstable situation in the area of Israel's dreams - Greater Israel."
PM Orban Vows to Preserve Hungary’s Christian Culture
(Reuters) Viktor Orban said on Monday the main task of his new government will be to preserve Hungary’s security and Christian culture, sticking to his nationalist policy to keep out migrants and fend off what he calls foreign meddling.
Dennis Edwards: In a similar move as the election of Trump, Viktor Orban has been elected. Like the Polish who wish to maintain their Christian culture and Polish ways, the Hungarians feel the same. The very strong European agenda which includes gay-marriages, abortion, gender identity is offensive to many traditionally Christian and Bible believing cultures. Trump gained support from this group in America in spite of his lackluster speaking ability and questionable morals. The Christians knew what Hillary stood for and could not in good conscience vote for her. I believe Trump won in protest to the strongly anti-family agenda of the left. Of course in Hungary, the question of accepting refugee immigrants from the Middle East is another concern. Eastern Europeans want to hold on to their traditional culture and feel threatened by European Union policies on the family and believe accepting thousands of immigrants could further destabilize their culture which is already feeling the pains of entering into the European Union. How the European Central Bank will take to Orban, and whether or not they will give him clear sailing is another question. Watch to see how Hungary's financial situation develops.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City ‘under threat’ from settlers
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, The Guardian, 1 May 2018
Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City say their presence at the geographical heart of their faith is under threat from intimidation and aggressive property acquisition by hardline Jewish settlers.
According to church leaders, priests are being verbally abused and spat at, and property vandalised.
Tensions have risen this year in the Christian and Armenian quarters of the 1 sq km ancient walled city, which includes the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest place in Christianity where Jesus was believed to be crucified and resurrected. The Old City is also home to places of critical religious importance to Jews and Muslims.
The churches say they are facing onslaught on three fronts: a war of attrition waged by hardline settlers; unprecedented tax demands by Jerusalem city council; and a proposal to allow the expropriation of church land sold to private developers.
Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem and the most senior Christian leader in the Holy Land, told the Guardian: “Today the church faces a most severe threat at the hands of certain settler groups. The settlers are persistent in their attempts to erode the presence of the Christian community in Jerusalem.
“These radical settler groups are highly organised. Over the last years we have witnessed the desecration and vandalism of an unprecedented number of churches and holy sites and receive growing numbers of reports from priests and local worshippers who have been assaulted and attacked.
“Where the authorities are concerned, this behaviour goes largely unchecked and unpunished.”
At Mount Zion, just outside the Old City walls, undeveloped land owned by the church and often referred to as the “Greek garden” is regularly vandalised, according to Moni Shama, a church caretaker.
Trees have been uprooted, garbage left, graffiti scrawled on stones and paint thrown inside the ancient Chapel of Pentecost, he said. Three years ago, a Greek Orthodox seminary at the site was set alight.
The Greek Orthodox church, the oldest Christian presence in the Old City, is also deeply concerned about attempts to gain control of properties it owns close to Jaffa Gate, the main entrance to the Christian and Armenian quarters.
A court ruling is expected later this year on a disputed sale of the historic Imperial and Petra hotels. The church has challenged a deal made by an official under the previous patriarch, which it claims involved bribery and conspiracy and was therefore invalid. The church has already lost one case on the sale, but it is appealing.
It says the settler organisation Ateret Cohanim is behind the purchase of the strategically significant properties as part of its drive to increase the Jewish presence in the Old City. The organisation, dedicated to the “physical and spiritual redemption” of the Old City, has been frequently accused of using third parties to buy properties.
Abu Walid Dajani, whose family has managed the 45-room Imperial Hotel for almost 70 years, said the prospect of ownership changing hands from the Greek Orthodox church to Ateret Cohanim was a “nightmare”.
“If I used to wake up twice a night, now I wake up four times, thinking what if the decision goes in favour of Ateret Cohanim,” said Dajani, 74. “I will try my best to keep this hotel, but I know they want us out.”
Gabi Hani, whose restaurant Versavee is next to the hotel, said: “They [Ateret Cohanim] want to drive Christians out, for sure.
“If you have a hostile organisation sitting in your home, it is no longer your home.”
Daniel Luria of Ateret Cohanim said: “Claims or accusations by the Greek Patriarchate regarding ‘radical settlers’ targeting their priests with verbal abuse etc are absurd, unacceptable and disgraceful.”
He denied that the organisation wanted Christians to leave the Old City, and declined to comment on the issue of the Jaffa Gate sales. “Ateret Cohanim believes in coexistence with Christians and Muslims alike, living side by side without fences or borders, living in any neighbourhood of Jerusalem,” he said.
“The concept of disallowing Jews to live in certain areas is foreign and unacceptable. Christian and Muslim Arabs buy and live quietly side by side with Jews in predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods, so why couldn’t or shouldn’t Jews purchase and live in predominantly Arab neighbourhoods?”
In a separate development–but one that church leaders say is part of a pattern of targeting Christians–Jerusalem city council issued churches with a demand in February for nearly $200m (£143m) in back taxes. In protest, the church denominations closed holy sites, during which thousands of pilgrims were locked out.
The tax bill followed a decision that a tax exemption for places of worship had been wrongly applied to church-owned commercial properties. The churches say they pay taxes on purely commercial properties, such as restaurants and hotels, but many of those that the council says are liable provide educational, medical and welfare facilities for Christians and others.
The closure was lifted only after the intervention of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who set up a committee to look at the issue of church taxes. He also temporarily halted the progress of a proposed law to expropriate church lands sold to private developers.
The bill has the support of 40 members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, who say the Greek Orthodox church is selling off land at discount prices to private developers, which puts leaseholders at risk. The Greek Orthodox church owns about a third of land in the Old City and key sites around Jerusalem, including the land on which the Knesset, government offices and the Israel Museum are built.
Theophilos has in the past few months travelled to the UK, the Vatican, the US and elsewhere to seek support for Christian institutions in the heart of the Holy Land. In the UK, he met Prince Charles, government ministers and Christian leaders, including the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster and the Coptic archbishop of London.
The patriarch wants a commitment to the continuation of the status quo, an agreement which provides protection of, and access to, holy sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere, allowing Christians to live and worship in peace despite the conflicts and divisions in the area.
Pope Francis and other Christian leaders have called for the status quo to be respected.
Palestinian president says Jewish behavior caused the Holocaust, sparking condemnation
In a speech broadcast live on Palestinian TV on Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered what he called a “history lesson” in which he suggested that the Holocaust was the fault of Jews themselves
During his 90-minute remarks to the Palestinian lawmakers in Ramallah, he said European Jews’ “social function”–specifically “usury and banking and such”–was the basis for animosity toward them that led to their mass murder. Abbas claimed his views are backed by Jewish authors, whose books conclude “that animosity toward Jews was not because of their religion but because of their social activities.”
The comments quickly prompted backlash in and outside of Israel. “With utmost ignorance and brazen gall, he claimed that European Jews were persecuted and murdered not because they were Jews but because they gave loans with interest,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted. “Again, he has recited the most contemptible anti-Semitic canards.”
Abbas has long been accused of denying or undermining the Holocaust. His doctoral dissertation questioned whether the death toll of 6 million Jews might have been inflated, and he argued that Zionists and Nazis worked together to send Jews to present-day Israel. But he has at times seemed to take a different stance: In 2003, Abbas said that the Holocaust was “a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind”; in 2014, he issued a statement in which he called the Holocaust “the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era.”
Abbas’s remarks come at a time of deep tension between the Palestinians, Israel and the Trump administration: In less than two weeks, the United States will open an embassy in Jerusalem after Trump recognized the city as Israel’s capital, a move that has drawn global condemnation. Recent weekly protests by Palestinians in Gaza, which have led to deadly clashes between civilians and Israeli military forces, have increased the ill feeling.
Dennis Edwards: Get ready for the opening of the embassy on May 14th.
