Will “Christian” Zionism suffer a loss of following after genocide news spreads around the world
News of the Israeli genocide has impacted world opinion regarding Israel, but I am not optimistic that "Christian" Zionism will be equally influenced. Religious fanatics tend to ignore facts.
The news of the Israeli genocide has had a palpable impact on world opinion regarding Israel. The grim photos and videos and the news stories of tens of thousands of deaths and injuries of innocents, including at least 8000 children, have taken their toll on Israeli prestige and global goodwill toward this criminal state.
In that respect, the mass slaughter of civilians has had an irreversible effect. For the first time international Muslim and Arab conferences have issued stern warnings and condemnations of the inhuman crimes and outright atrocities.
Erdogan’s public utterances have been explosive. Yemen has acted by seizing Israeli owned ships. The Arab resistance has struck US-occupied bases with missiles. And this is just the beginning. The anger everywhere is boiling up.
On the other hand, I was brought up in a “Christian” Zionist home in the Bible belt and am still in touch with some of the religious leaders indoctrinated in this cult. “Christian” Zionists, while rarely referring to themselves by this name, absolutely dominate the Evangelical landscape and their behavior goes well beyond the going definition of “Christian” Zionism (found, for example, on Wikipedia).
It is part ideology but also part phobia, and it is mostly the phobia part that makes them downright dangerous, particularly for “Israel’s” neighbors, and most notably the Palestinians, who are dying like flies thanks to the superstitious fears of Evangelicals and also many Catholics.
I will try to explain.
Part of the “Christian” Zionist ideo-theology is based on the passage in Genesis in which God tells Abraham that he and his descendants will be a great people and those who bless him will be blessed while those who curse him will be cursed.
The staunchest devotees of this ideo-theology are terrified of this warning and do their best to say nice things about Israel and the Jews in general. It doesn’t matter whether they harbor distrust or dislike for Jews, they try very hard to say nice things and frown on anyone who speaks disparagingly of them. These devotees often sound forced and phony, but they are in thrall to this biblical passage and painfully aware of the punishment that awaits them should they falter in a moment of weakness. Their behavior suggests that they believe implicitly that any violation of this prohibition will cause them to be cast into outer darkness or suffer unknown future maladies, hardships or penury.
On May 30, 2010, Israeli military forces attacked a Turkish aid convoy dispatched in an effort to rescue Palestinians suffering horribly from an Israeli embargo (similar to the current one, depriving the Arabs of water and other life necessities). Nine Turkish crew members were killed in cold blood by the IDF. Hugo Chavez, in response, uttered the unfortunate but understandable public statement:
Maldito seas estado de Israel (listen here, min. 1:35)
meaning Curse you, state of Israel.
For the world’s “Christian” Zionists, including many Latin American Catholics (I read an opinion piece on this in a Latin American news site) that was an unpardonable sin.
And then a year or so later, Chavez was diagnosed with cancer, which ultimately killed him.
“Christian” Zionists – and let me again remind you that this ideo-theology is mainstream, not unusual or divergent, in modern Christendom – went ballistic, declaring that God had struck Chavez down for daring to curse Israel.
This incident reinforced the pro-Israel bias in world Christendom, and its memory reverberates today in the minds of the most devout and even many of the less devout but more susceptible. Such is the nature of the human mind.
For example, a few years ago I discovered a pro-Palestine group in FaceBook, where I found photos and videos of Israeli atrocities and crimes against Palestinians, which, thanks to the worldwide quasi-ban on such information, had never been publicized in the Western media.
To get an idea of the possible reactions to this evidence, I sent links to some of these visuals to old acquaintances of mine who were leaders in the Evangelical community. Every one of them denied the veracity of the reported crimes and misdeeds. One pastor friend said he never trusted digital evidence.
Another saw a photo of a young Palestinian boy whose eye had been blinded by a gunshot fired by an Israeli soldier. This Christian leader said it was an obvious fake but made no attempt to explain this assessment.
The Evangelical excuse-making for Jews and Israel is also expressed in more subtle ways. For example, I noticed at one point years ago that no one was stating outright that the Jews had a key role in the brutal murder of Jesus. In tandem with this gingerly approach to the actual history of the murder and the circumstances leading up to it, came a brand new theological credo. Pastors started stating that the real cause of Jesus’ death was none other than every human being, because we are all sinners and the reason God sent His Son to die on the cross was us. Our sins cause His death. Nothing else. This was a conscious effort to dismiss the role of both the Jews and the Romans. They suddenly had nothing to do with this crime committed 2000 years ago.
It was a subtle way to whitewash the perpetrators. And we see the same kind of subtle but sleazy approach to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
The genocide is not a genocide. It is a war against Hamas. And yet it is clear that none of the babies and young children slaughtered in the bombings of Gaza are Hamas. And instead of admitting that the Israeli bombings are a crime against humanity, we are constantly reminded of the fact that Hamas killed Israelis on Oct 7. And yet the estimated number of Israeli civilians killed is minuscule compared to the number of Palestinian civilians killed since then. 20,000 is the current estimate at the time of this writing, but the non-combatant Palestinians killed by Hamas, while not known, is probably less than 1,000 given that the IDF deliberately mowed down Israelis along with their captors on Oct 7. We’re comparing apples to oranges but pretending all are oranges.
And the net result is that the Israeli authorities are whitewashed today just as are the Pharisees and other Jews who sentenced Jesus to death for teaching a set of doctrines not conforming to the teachings of the corrupt Pharisees.
Nothing has changed. The war criminals of two millennia ago are the same as the war criminals of today and they’re both getting off Scott free thanks to a quirky set of doctrines taught as heaven’s own Gospel.
Thus, getting back to our title question, I do not expect – but hope to God I am wrong – that “Christian” Zionists will be much affected by the reporting of the known facts of the current Israeli genocide that has shaken the whole world, because we are dealing with a group of people who brush aside the objective facts in favor of a set of teachings based on a grotesque cherry-picking of the Bible.
After all, while “Christian” Zionists seem to believe that any criticism of the Jews will be equated by the Lord Almighty to “cursing Israel,” not only is there no biblical mandate for non-Jews and Christians to refrain from any and all criticism of Jews, but a close reading of Ezekiel 37, on which “Christian” Zionists base much of their beliefs about modern Israel, and DNA testing showing that today’s Jewry is not uniform enough to constitute a distinct ethnicity negate the “theology” of “Christian” Zionism.
I recommend to interested readers that you read my critical analysis of “Christian” Zionism, linked here.
Thus, since these people calling themselves Jews have no legitimate claim to the legacy of the land or to the protection against the curse and the legitimacy of the blessing promised by God to Abraham.
But religious fanaticism is essentially unfazed by reason, facts and logic. For example, my Christian friends, even non-church goers, have expressed the idea that perhaps God has a reason for letting these tens of thousands of innocents die – but without even venturing a guess as to what that reason might be.
But this idea of tying the atrocities to a possible will of God is nothing less than a subtle whitewashing of the Israeli crimes. And certainly, the same people who broach the subject of a divine will in the genocide atrocity against people far away of a different color speaking an unintelligible language, would never suspect a divine will if their own children’s lives were threatened. In that case, the perpetrators would be wholly responsible and their grief would not allow them to seek a divine will. They would only seek human retribution under the law.
Our perceptions are clouded by our personal interests and it behooves us to be constantly aware of this fact
Thus we can only hope and pray that “Christian” Zionism, this most dangerous of all cults, will slowly fade with the undeniable revelations of Israel’s crimes and with natural attrition over time.
But I wouldn’t bet on that happening any time soon.
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Here’s your air strike update for Dec 10, 2023
https://regnum.ru/news/3852095
Ministry of Defense report: the gathering place of Ukrainian Armed Forces commanders came under Russian attack
The Russian Armed Forces hit the gathering place of the commanders of the Katran and Omaha units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Moscow, December 10, 2023, 17:42 - IA Regnum. The Russian Armed Forces hit the gathering place of the command staff of the tactical groups "Katran" and "Omaha" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU), the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said on December 10.
The Russian Armed Forces hit the gathering place of the commanders of the Katran and Omaha units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to him, the strikes were carried out by operational-tactical and army aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of Russian military groups. In addition to the gathering place of Ukrainian commanders, the Russian Armed Forces hit a fuel storage facility for armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Ministry of Defense noted that over the past 24 hours, enemy personnel and equipment were also hit in 128 districts.
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You may not get a lot of new information from Ricky’s commentary, but you don’t need new information, you need a sane viewpoint – Something American politicians and “journalists” don’t have
The US ceasefire veto condemns tens of thousands of Palestinians to death
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Thank GOD for a pastor who worships Jesus and not Netanyahu
https://www.instagram.com/thedeenshowtv/reel/CzMDlWTOWVu/
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Seek Truth from Facts Foundation
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JEWISH TERRORISM AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL – SyrianGirlpartisan (Maram Susli). 16-min video.
December 10, 2023
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Starbucks is suing its workers union after the latter posted a pro-Palestine message on its web site.
STARBUCKS IS SUING ITS UNION AFTER “SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE!” TWEET
The coffee company says the union, Starbucks Workers United, is making people think it stands in solidarity with Palestine after the Hamas attack.
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/17/starbucks-suing-union-israel-palestine/
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At least 300 Palestinians killed since Biden admin vetoed UN ceasefire resolution – Day 64
https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?e=ebbe9c8233&u=70b9fc567465118fa0b7b6e67&id=33afb2382a
Humanitarian crisis, danger from Israeli attacks worsen; more Gazans kidnapped, stripped, & filmed; Rafah may be next target; West Bank news; Israeli PM thanks Biden for veto and weapons; over 17,000 Gazans killed, 52,000 injured
Photo of devastation after US ceasefire veto: https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/12-10-top.jpg
Just a thought on language, if there is control over language and specifically the vocabulary we can use you control our politics. If we can’t discuss our views and thoughts clearly and plainly we literally become tongue tied. There is a long tradition of making language taboo, McCarthyism comes to mind with the terror of being heard uttering the word socialism or communism and being pilloried for being unAmerican. Today the taboo language is how we describe Israel or America and its enemies. Are the enemies of the American and Israeli war machine terrorists or freedom fighters , partisans or guerrilla ?. We now have the wide use of antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel, similarly conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism . And of course “terrorism” the great unchallengeable bogie word is designed to silence us all. This has to be challenged or we will be made mute and awkward with the language we use. If we are critical of America and Israel stifling our language using their language is not going to solve the problem. Clearly expressing our views and values is paramount.So if we use the word terrorism to describe both sides we are confusing the for the issue for ourselves and those we want to teach particularly if there is a war of being waged . The words we use reveal the side we’re on. So are the Tower Busters of 9/11 terrorist or freedom fighters? is Hamas on October 7 gorilla freedom fighters or terrorists?. Is the French resistance partisans or terrorists it’s all down to which side you’re on.Be clear, be bold, use the words and language that accurately describe what you mean and feel without apology or equivocation
Don,
Thanks for sharing Seek Truth From Facts!
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