“Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.”

Hosea 12:1 

I remember the sinking sensation in my heart upon reading the news that the Israeli government had officially handed the village of Bethlehem over to Yassar Arafat’s bloody political front, the so-called “Palestinian Authority.”  It was in December, 1995.  My thoughts turned immediately to Herod’s massacre of the children there nearly two thousand years ago.  My stomach turned at the thought of Bethlehem once more in the hands of a mass murderer.

Immediately after that, it occurred to me that Herod failed in his attempt to assassinate the newborn King, and the sense of drowning disappeared.  Nevertheless, twelve years later, it feels like the birthplace of David and Jesus is still being held hostage, subject to abuse every day by its new terrorist landlords.

In a graphic demonstration of utmost insult and arrogance to everyone involved, the first thing that Arafat,“the father of modern terrorism,” did as the new “owner” of Bethlehem, was to turn the Greek Orthodox monastery into his personal domicile during periodic visits to the city, without prior consent of the church. The Latin patriarch, Greek Archbishop, Anglican bishop and Lutheran bishop were all Palestinian Arabs at the time and became effective propaganda mouthpieces throughout the Christian world.  As a result of unceasing persecution, according to a 1997 Israeli government report, Christians were immediately forced to behave like any oppressed minority which aims to survive within a hostile environment. They were forced to pray in secret.  Christian cemeteries were destroyed, monasteries had their telephone lines cut, and there were break-ins to convents. But, this should not have been an unexpected development.  According to the Quranic/sharia concept of “dhimmi-tude,” Jews and Christians living within Muslim occupied territories are “protected” if agreeably subject to increased taxes and a diminished status of citizenship.  During the British mandate period, Bethlehem had a Christian majority of 80%. Today, under Palestinian rule, it has a Muslim majority of 80%.

That sinking sensation returned on Friday, August 31st, when Arutz Sheva/Israel National News published the story that the Olmert Administration has agreed in writing “to hand over 6,250 square kilometers of land – the equivalent of its entire biblical and strategic heartland - to an Arab terror state."  The land involved is the equivalent of all of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

So reported Dr. Guy Bechor, a leading expert on Arab affairs, apparently based on "leaks from the Palestinian side." According to Bechor, the agreement calls for a state named “Palestine” to be established alongside Israel. Says Bechor, “Most of the Jewish communities built in Judea and Samaria over the past 40 years are to be demolished and their inhabitants expelled, according to the plan.”

Such undermining decisions by Israeli leadership may seem treasonous in light of the unsuccessful assaults on its existence since 1948, but such damaging decisions are not unprecedented in its history.
Referring directly to Israel's futile foreign relations policy, the aforementioned verse from the prophet Hosea was a prophecy delivered as Israel was seeking the aid of the Egyptian king in violation of their covenant with Assyria.  Hosea likens Israel’s dependence on treaties to pursuing “the east wind all day.”  The “east wind” refers to a pernicious thing, as it blows from the desert and is destitute of moisture necessary for vegetation. It is primarily associated with evil and wrath in the Bible. 

According to Hosea, by pursuing such treaties, ancient Israel was “multiplying lies and violence.” Already in violation of its covenantal obligations regarding idolatry, King Ahaz, by acquiescing to the malevolently inspired demands of Israel’s enemies, was behaving in an inauthentic way that was deceitful and damaging to the people in his charge.  The policy of appeasement served to incubate violence as well.  By not standing upon what they believe in, by not acting in character with who they were in the eyes of the God of Israel, Ahaz was sending conflicting political signals to Israel’s enemies, inferring weakness and passivity, which always invites eventual attack from aggressive totalitarian powers. 

Apply this prophetic estimation of Israel’s ancient foreign policy with the nation’s current diplomatic approach of “land-for-peace,” designed to permanently pacify its current totalitarian “neighbors.”  Surely, Israel has been “feeding on the wind, pursuing the east wind all day” since the signing of the infamous “Oslo Accords” in 1993.  And no doubt “lies and violence” have indeed multiplied, especially on the part of the Arafat/Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, who place high value on duplicity and treachery as this, the third, "political" stage of the PLO-planned jihad, runs its course.

In all of the years and through all of the subsequent negotiations since then, the terrorist assault on the innocent Israeli population has intensified, not declined.  It has escalated from rock throwing to homicide bombing to bombardment by Qassam rockets delivered from Gaza, of all places, land that was “given for peace” by the Sharon Administration.  Unless you define “peace” as the jihadist Palestinian Authority does—the ultimate destruction of the state of Israel—this “pursuit of the east wind” by dovish Israeli administrations has indeed been a pernicious thing, bringing no life, only more hatred from the arid hearts of both Fatah and Hamas.

Successive U.S. administrations have chosen, in tandem with dovish Leftist governments of Israel, the same path as Ahaz, systematically handing land promised to Abraham over to the pan-Arab coalition, who, bound by the religious ties of Islam, agree that the Israeli’s have no right to exist in their own ancient homeland and that all of its land belongs to the coming Islamic world caliphate.  Just this week The Washington Post and The Washington Times both published articles citing research by Palestinian Media Watch documenting the increased influence of Islam in Palestinian society.  The Times article opened with:

Here is an internationally sanctioned political entity, the Palestinian Authority, that thrives on religious hatred and actively practices the application of that hatred by targeting innocent men, women, and children to achieve its spiritual/political objectives, that hates others even within its own genocidal cause, and commits perhaps the most heinous sin of all against its own most vulnerable population: teaching its youngest school-age children the religion of hate before sending them off to commit homicide-by-suicide in the name of Allah.  All this, while regularly using its own women and children as human shields, then blaming the defenders of Israeli society for the harm that awaits them.

The only thing more contemptible than Israel’s dovish leadership participating in its own planned extinction is the fact that a geographically distant United States whispers such morally and spiritually repugnant counsel into the ear of its supposed friend and ally from such a perceived “safe” distance.

How has the United States, the nation that landed on the distant beaches of Normandy to crush the evil Nazi entity, descended to such an abysmal level of appeasement regarding the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority? 
I have my own theory, but that’s another story having to do with "feeding"on a destructive wind, best saved for another day.

By Dan Hennessy

“Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, "Thus says Ben-Hadad: 'Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.'"

And the king of Israel answered and said, "My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have are yours."

1Kings 20:1-4

Ahab, king of Israel, the son of Omri, was the seventh king of the separate kingdom of Israel, and second of his dynasty.  He reigned in Samaria for twenty-two years.

The great lesson that we learn from his life is the depth of evil that a weak man can fall into when he abandons himself to the guidance of another person whose intentions are not pure. 

At first threat from a northern thug-ocracy, Ahab was willing to give up not only his people's gold and silver, but "the best of [their] wives and children."  No matter what he does after making this unthinkable concession, a deplorable aspect of his character is established.  

Tragically, this biblical passage bears similarity to the land-for-policy advocated by a succession of Israeli Prime Ministers, to include Ehud Olmert, at the behest of the Bush Administration's Department of State.     

We read in the Bible of three campaigns which Ahab undertook against Ben Hadad II, king of Damascus, two defensive and one offensive.  Israel was victorious in the first two, but Ahab, mistakenly confident that a disguise would bring him safety in battle, was slain by a “certain man who drew a bow at a venture” (1 Kings 22:34; 2 Chronicles 18:33) while riding a chariot in the third campaign.

The historical narrative explains how the king of Israel first capitulated to a siege undertaken by Ben-Hadad II, king of Syria, by handing over to him the most precious things of Israel: silver and gold, even “the best of your wives and children.” But when Ben-Hadad comes knocking on the door again with more demands, as dictators and terrorists always do, Israel's king realizes that his enemy's intentions are total conquest. Ahab, perhaps envisioning his own eventual destruction, seeks and receives wise counsel prior to acting.  The counsel he receives from his “cabinet” of elders is brief and to the point: “Do not listen or consent.”

Ahab sends messengers declaring that this second round of demands will not be met.  Ben-Haddad, who might be viewed as a forerunner of Yassar Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, Osama ben Laden, Hassan Nasrallah, and other current leaders of the terrorist-jihadist movement, sends words through diplomatic channels that he will transform Israel to dust in the event that they refuse his “deal.” 

(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush comes to mind here, with its "offer," through diplomatic correspondence, to treat America well if it converts to Islam.  As does Yassar Arafat's speech at the United Nations in 1974, when he was first accepted as a legitimate statesman while serving as the leader of an known terrorist organization.)
 

The cabinet of elders are again summoned and Ahab's response is firm and resolute.  Ahab attacks Syria, as encouraged by a prophet, defeating the Syrian army “with a great slaughter.”

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with Ehud Barak as his Defense Minister, is ready to give away “gold and silver, wives and children” again, just as Ahab did at the first threat from Ben-Hadad.  As prime minister, the current Defense Minister tried to also do this through the July 2000 Camp David talks, offering up Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and more to the Arab cause. Ariel Sharon became part of the give-away legacy, handing Gaza over to become the terrorist base it now is. 

Yassar Arafat, the Ben-Hadad of his time, rejected the wholesale offer of Barak, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Holocaust denier who fills the slot vacated by Arafat, is making it hard for Olmert to give Israel's heart away, too, wringing the life slowly from Israel's peace-seeking soul through the so-called “negotiating” process. 

After Arafat's rejection of Ehud Barak's wholesale deal, the al-Aqsa Intifada “suddenly” erupted.  Ariel Sharon’s contribution to the give-it-away cause created a new regional base of terrorist operations in Gaza.  Does anyone recall the process that gave the Sudenland to Hitler?  Does anyone see a pattern here?  Can we not predict what will happen when Abbas/Fatah/Hamas/PA rejects the next land-for-peace-deal offered by the U.S.-led alliance? 

Another violent reaction will be orchestrated and greater demands will follow.

The truth of the matter is, as stated in the Los Angeles Times by Moshe Ya'alon, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and a fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center, “before any lasting on-the-ground movement toward peace can be achieved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, foreign emissaries, as well as some Israelis, will have to shake off some long-disproved tenets of the conventional wisdom about the dispute.”

The elders of Israel told Ahab “Do not listen or consent” to demands from the enemy poised to strike at any moment.  Once committed to a policy of no-appeasement, when the prophet was asked by the king "who will start the battle?" the prophet answered, "You will."

It is a terrifying thing to realize that Ahab, one of the most weak-minded, evil kings in the history of Israel, only appeased the terrorist-king Ben-Hadad once before protecting his own (and his people’s), interests.  Since the 1992 Oslo agreement dovish Israeli governments, encouraged by the Bush Administration, have given the Arab world reason to believe that Israel has lost its will to survive.

Perhaps Ehud Olmert should read the account of Ahab's dealings with the Syrians, beginning in the twentieth chapter of 1 Kings.  Ahab died while disguised, hiding the fact that he was a king.  Israel could die as its non-leaders diguise themselves as leaders.
 

Perhaps better yet, President Bush should read the account aloud to Condoleezza Rice and stop pushing land-for-peace demands toward a two-state solution in appeasement of the enemy, as both short- and long-term policies contribute directly to the completion of the pan-Arab effort to push Israel into the Mediterranean sea. 

To disguise oneself as an enemy of terror while promoting larger terrorist objectives is a dangerous conflict of ideas.

Like pushing an entire nation in an open-air chariot into battle.

Dear Liberal Christian,

As you move through the Holocaust Museum, biblical words also appear in the circular Hall of Remembrance, a solemn space where memorial candles can be lit and an eternal flame burns.  One is a quotation from Genesis: “And the Lord said, 'What have you done?  Listen, your brother's blood is crying out from the ground.'”

Any Christian who contemplates those words—'What have you done?'—must do some soul-searching about identity as it pertains to Israel. Soul-searching regarding both genocidal events: the past one, as in the Holocaust, and the current ongoing plan of genocide implemented by the Islamic jihadists.  If one really does their homework it is painfully easy to see that, as Professor John K. Roth has put it, “…while Christianity was not a sufficient condition for the Holocaust, nevertheless, it was a necessary condition for that disaster.” 

We must confront the fact that apart from Christianity's anti-Jewish history, the Holocaust could not have happened.  And likewise, given the hypothetical occurrence of strong, unequivocal Christian resistance and protest against Nazi genocidal policy, the Holocaust may never have gotten off the ground.  The same is true today of standing with Israel against her jihadist enemies.  Silence will embolden the enemy, resistance will weaken the enemy.

Remembering what we have done wrong, or not done right, can be hard, painful work, but it can also remind us that, as post-Holocaust Christians, we must return to our roots to remind us who we are, who we ought to be as followers of the Jewish Messiah and as citizens of the spiritual commonwealth of Israel. To do so is to become what we ought to be when at our very best.  As part of our estrangement from our own identity, we must examine our hearts as to what went wrong and how we strayed so far from who we were made by God to be.  We must "Zakar!" ... in Hebrew, that is, "Remember!"

Another biblical quotation, also in the Hall of Remembrance, says this:

"Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise." 

These are words from Deuteronomy that are inscribed above the eternal flame burning near the spot where soil from the Nazi death camps is kept.  Those words should have a deep affect upon the heart of Christians who care about righting the wrong of the past by never letting Israel's enemies visit such persecution and death upon the Jewish people again.  We are witnesses.  We are our brother’s keeper.

It's significant that the words of Isaiah appear in the entry hall to the Holocaust Museum.  And it is also significant that the words of Deuteronomy appear in the Hall of Remembrance, at the end of a visit.  We begin as witnesses and we end as witnesses, telling our children the truth about the past, and what we have done today to make tomorrow different.

Do not emulate Judas Iscariot, betraying Israel as a large part of Christendom has already done, publicly blaming her for Arab terrorism and intransigence, publicly demonizing her for defending her people from Islamic jihadist hatred.  As Jesus did nothing to deserve death, neither has Israel.  Israel is certainly not sinless, but they are not deserving of extinction as a nation, either.

Wake up, be diligent in your pursuit of truth.  Be counted among the righteous.  Refuse to listen to the ghost of the voice of Nazi propaganda as heard in liberal mass media of the West, in our schools and universities, and as preached through Liberal Christianity's distorted gospel of false peace.

Be less like Cain and more like Abel, and certainly, have nothing in common with Judas Iscariot. 

Shalom... and pray for the shalom of Jerusalem,

Dan Hennessy

Dear Liberal Christian:

Just looking at it from the outside, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C is a unique building. Once inside, it is an imposing structure. Designed by James Ingo Freed, the structure, as it says on the museum’s webpage, “is not a neutral shell.” The architecture, by a collection of abstract forms invented and drawn from memory, constantly refers visitors to the unthinkable that took place not so long ago.

Inscribed on a wall as you enter the Museum are words from the prophet Isaiah: “You are my witnesses” (Isaiah 43:10). The location of the words, like everything else genius about the design of the building, is calculated for affect. It’s as if God is speaking the words directly to you, and me, the visitor, the passerby, right from the beginning. Once you step inside, you’re changed, transformed. You are about to become a witness accountable to the past, present, and future.

As Christians, whether in a religious or spiritual or strictly cultural sense, we need to acknowledge that the Holocaust is a part—a sickening part—of Christian history. And we need to actively acknowledge that in much the same way as mid-20^th century Christians were witnesses to the rise of the Nazi’s Third Reich, we, as Christians in the 21^st century, are witnesses to the rise of “the Fourth Reich”—Islamic jihadism.

It is critical—both individually and collectively—that we not “misinterpret” the events that are occurring before our eyes today, as institutional Christianity “misinterpreted” the events leading to the Holocaust.

You are a witness as I am a witness.

We live in age of information. The Bible is available to everyone. Books are available to inform us of the past. Newspapers and magazines, though often liberally biased, inform us of present affairs. The Internet puts truth, as well as propaganda and other lies, within easy reach. It takes discernment to critically assess truth. Nevertheless, we are all witnesses accountable to the truth of the testimony we give both of past and present events. You are accountable.  I am accountable.

You need to be aware of the primary document of your faith. The document that all of our presuppositions should be validated in. In that divine document, God has publicly announced that he will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. This is found in Genesis 12:3. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. Being as simple and authoritative a divine decree as it is, I would counsel you to be careful how you represent Israel and the Jewish people to others. As the inscription of the wall attests, you are a witness. And as a witness you will be held accountable for your testimony.

We must not just think, but think critically. We are witnesses.

We need to consider the assumptions driving the words being written and said. 

If you believe the Arab-Israeli conflict is about land, you’ve been had. That's an assumption made by most people who have not done their homework thoroughly.  It’s not about land. It’s about hate.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is also not about Israel’s occupation and oppression of Arab refugees. That's an assumption promoted by the enemies of Israel and swallowed whole by a naive, liberal western mass media distribution system.  The conflict is about Arab nations exploiting their own people, leaving them hung out to dry for political purposes in the years after the war they declared against Israel in defiance of its right to exist. (You’ll find yourself “on the wrong side of the road,” like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, if you do not realize that the target of the thief in the story of the Good Samaritan is Israel, not the Arab refugees abandoned by the Arab world in 1948.)

As a witness to the ongoing effort to annihilate Israel, you’ll want to be aware that the conflict is not truthfully represented under “the law of political correctness” obeyed in the media, politicized by the Liberal Left, and, quite likely, adhered to and preached in your churches. Please realize that the “politically correct gospel” that accuses Israel of occupation and oppression instead of holding the Arab nations accountable of political treachery is a false gospel, an ideological gospel, a political gospel, not a biblical gospel. It is a propaganda tool packaged for mass consumer consumption that accuses the internationally legitimated, democratically governed, imperfect-but-peace-affirming state of Israel of being the cause of problems in the Middle East instead of placing the blame where it belongs: on the dictatorial Islamic states that sponsor terrorism, the state-sponsored Islamic schools that teach antisemitic hate to schoolchildren, the Islamic jihadist organizations that the schoolchildren ultimately join as the tools of terrorism they’ve been raised to become, and the militant mullahs who preach terrorism in their mosques in the name of Allah.

You and I are both taught that “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

As a witness, it will serve you well to realize that there is a spiritual as well as intellectual war being waged and you have been targeted for neutralization as the recipient of disinformation disseminated by a non-godly mass media information system not necessarily interested in truth.

Next: More Memory and Accountability, More Words on Walls…

In every war, good people fight on the losing side. Whether by surrender or by crushing defeat without surrender, those on the losing side suffer all the consequences that apply to the vanquished.

Not every German was a Nazi. I think it's safe to say that not all Germans who were Nazis were heart-felt believers in Nazi policy, especially the policy of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem." Nevertheless, by and large, all Germans who were citizens of the Third Reich collectively suffered the consequences of being on the losing side of World War II. Their cities were collectively bombed. That generation was forever humiliated as a collective people by the barbarity of the Holocaust committed in their own backyard by their fellow countrymen, their friends, their family members, and neighbors.

Christianity can also be said to be in a war, a spiritual war. Yet, many Christians are affiliated with institutional church organizations that inadequately teach Israel's positive, active, and ongoing role in God's biblical plan of redemption. As global events intensify in accordance with biblical prophecy, many members of churches holding to overly liberal theological views are entirely unaware of Israel’s positive strategic role in the past, present, and future of God's overall plan for mankind.

Why is this so important?  For one thing, because it's separation from our biblical roots that will cause our society to fail in its rightful and biblical support of Israel and, in turn, fail to defeat the Islamic jihadists who intend to destroy both Israel and our way of life. Even more dire, from an eternal perspective, is the critical problem that conceptual separation from the biblical roots of Christianity puts Christians in an awkward position with the God of Israel, who’s plan for His people is indeed to save them based on the irrefutable eternal fact that He loves them.

It is the organizations and bureaucracies within Christendom that hold to liberal (read: diluted) and postmodern (read: nebulous) theologies that are a real ally in the war against global Islamic jihad—on the side of the jihadists. As columnist Frank Pastore has put it: “Their [liberal Christianity’s] unwillingness to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, and good from evil leave them intellectually immobilized to resist the encroachment of false teaching and heresy, and incapable of knowing the good guys from the bad guys in the war for the free world.”

As a result, the liberal church's overly-tolerant, often supportive attitude toward radical Islamic initiatives in the Middle East (which leads to appeasement and emboldening of the enemy’s zeal to destroy everything not committed to belief in Allah and sharia law), can be interpreted, at least in a pragmatic sense, as morally equivalent to the German church’s silence toward the Third Reich—both moral failures of catastrophic magnitude.

Just as the failure to understand the Scriptures from a theological perspective that acknowledges and understands the Jewish roots of the Christian faith contributed to institutional Christendom's utter moral failure during the Holocaust, the current failure to understand the Scriptures from that same perspective leads to institutional Christianity's misguided antagonism and indifference toward Israel today in the face of the greatest threat to the Jewish people since the rise of the Third Reich.

If you are affiliated with one of those mainline church denominations that entertain thoughts of divesting, or actually divests from Israel (Prebyterian USA), or if you've been taught that “the church” is the “New Israel,” or if you are a member of a Christian organization that is any way inordinately politically aligned with the Arab/Palestinian/PLO/PA jihadist cause (especially while simultaneously harboring anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic thoughts toward Israel in your heart), I write in good faith directly to you as an individual.

This aspect of Christianity's two-thousand year old identity crisis places you in a very dangerous spiritual landscape, positioned all too close to harm’s way in light of God’s rapidly unfolding plan to rescue His people, Israel, while destroying their enemies in the process.

Can liberal institutional Christianity today be rightfully compared to liberal institutional Christianity in Germany as the darkness of the Third Reich moved onto the world stage?

Something to think about as the warm and inviting pull of liberal Christian political correctness tickles your ear...

Next:  Memory and Accountability, Words on Walls...

Having reviewed many of the fictions that comprise the Palestinian mythology, Part 3 of the letter is devoted to presenting the information that comprises the real historic record.

Concerning the information already presented, all of it is very accessible and common to many websites published by groups concerned with the truth about Israel and the on-going pan-Arab effort to “wipe Israel off the map.” Simply use any search engine employing the terms “Arab Israeli conflict myth” to examine some of the facts mentioned. A good place to start is: http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_faq_palestine.php.

Now, on to the facts in support of the actual historic record.

Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of Islam. The Jewish people held dominion over the land in question for centuries, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. For over three thousand years Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. During the twenty years that Jordan occupied Jerusalem (1948-1967), it never sought to make it its capital. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated: synagogues in the Old City were torched and tombstones from the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery were used to pace roads and build latrines (the Nazis desecrated Jewish tombstones in similar manner). Jews were denied access to places of worship at the Western Wall, Tomb of Rachel, Tomb of Joseph, and cave of the Patriarchs. Arab refugees in Israel only began identifying themselves as part of “a Palestinian people” in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

Take into thoughtful consideration the significance of the fact that Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible and is not mentioned once in the Qur’an.

The Arab world includes twenty-two separate nations. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations have initiated five wars—attempts to annihilate Israel—since 1948. Israel has had to defend itself repeatedly from each attack by an overwhelmingly larger force. Despite this fact, Israel has consistently agreed to peace partition plans brokered by the international community. The Arab world has rejected all partition plans offered by the international community, defiantly refusing to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. The PLO Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. So does the Hamas covenant, as well as the founding document of Fatah. Israel attempted to give the PLO-Fatah-Hamas-Palestinian Authority autonomous rule over most of Judea under the Oslo Agreement. Tragically, Arafat’s regime refused to accept responsibility. So has Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s “successor” (who’s Ph.D thesis was written in support of holocaust denial). Autonomy under the Palestinian Authority has supplied Israel's enemies with weapons rather than motivation to achieve true peace. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the "West Bank" land and now, Gaza as well. Out of the violent madness erupting with that latest "land-for-peace" deal, a standing army, that some sources put at 7,000 to 10,000, is forming in Gaza.

Since 1948, when a UN resolution set the State of Israel on its way, the UN has been a part of the on-going evolution of the struggle between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs with binding and non-binding resolutions, peace keeping forces, peace conferences and investigations. Unfortunately, an alliance between Arab states, third-world countries hostile to the developed world, and Cold War politics backed by the former Soviet Union, have created a UN environment that is uniquely hostile to Israel.

Of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

On the other hand, the U.N. has been totally silent on the Palestinian history of suicide bombings, lynchings, terrorist attacks, bus hijackings, cafe bombings, etc.

For one side of the argument – the Israeli side – there is documented evidence supporting the substance of the national position. For the other side – the Arab (“Palestinian”) side – there is largely myth constructed of omitted and distorted fact.

One tragic conclusion that can be drawn is that behind the headlines and mass media talk of negotiated peace is the stark reality that in the treacherous lexicon of the PLO-Fatah-Hamas-PA pseudo-government that’s been created from these false assumptions, the term “peace” has been re-defined. It is strategically employed as a synonym for the deeper Arab-Islamic objective: the destruction of Israel.

In the hands of Israel's lethal enemies, the term “peace” itself has been turned into a code word for hatred and genocidal intent.

And then, of course, there is Iran to consider—the creative source of Islamo-fascism in the seventies and the most powerful state sponsor of worldwide Islamic jihadist terrorism today—as a soon-to-be nuclear threat.

Dear fellow Christian, can’t you see that through the acceptance of lies presented as fact, and the resulting misplaced loyalties, that the world has again succeeded in creating yet another Frankenstein. A post-Auschwitz Frankenstein. Tragically, much of institutional Christianity has succeeded in passively complying once again with the lethal enemies of Israel, the United States, the free world at large, and, ironically, ultimately, Christianity itself. This should not be so.

However, unlike the hauntingly similar path that was taken by the state churches of Germany that led to the Holocaust sixty-five years ago, there is still time for Christians to wake up and do as the Bible teaches us to do: resist evil.

Next: Israel’s Biblical Position in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

We all realize that conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli crisis don't occur in a vacuum.

Consider just one example. It's considered responsible standard procedure to learn the history of antisemitism as part and parcel of any complete study of the Holocaust.  Without knowledge of the history of antisemitism, especially the two-thousand year history of Christian antisemitism, one can never truly understand what fueled the catastrophe in Europe.  Without the larger context, one would only be seeing the more immediate causes of Hitler's Final Solution, remaining blind to the roots of the antisemitism that made it possible to achieve.

Similar principles need to be applied understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Sadly, the element conspicuously absent from most one-sided pro-Palestinian diatribes against Israel is historical fact. Why?  Because an accurate reading of the historical record is the key to debunking the mythology that partisan proponents of the Arab-Palestinian dilemma base their presuppositions in.

What is being referred to when we speak of “the mythology” supporting the Arab-PLO-PA-Palestinian position in the disputed territories?

Myths such as the fictitious role of the state of Israel as a colonial movement of imperialistic Western society.  Myths such as ancient Jewish Judea and Samaria being part of some fairy-tale Arab homeland rather than the homeland of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years.  Myths that claim the Jewish people 'stole' the land from contented Arab settlers rather than point the finger at the pan-Arab community that ordered their people to flee in 1948 -- despite repeated requests from Jewish leadership that residing Arabs remain and settle in peace.  Myths such as the establishment of the state of Israel being the 'cause' of the original Arab refugees rather than tracing guilt back to the oil rich Arab nations who encouraged the creation of 'refugee camps' in the first place.  Myths that the 'alien' Jewish people suddenly immigrated into the land 'after 2000 years,' displacing ‘the Palestinian Arabs’ with the ‘new’ Jewish state, while Arabs are portrayed as being native there for millennia.  Myths that turn fledgling Jewish efforts of self-defense into 'massacres' just as the recent defensive military initiative in Jenin was fraudulently labeled a 'massacre' in April 2002.   Myths that revolve around the strategically coined term, 'Palestine,' a Roman corruption engineered as a displacement substitute for the original Hebraic terms 'Judah and Ephraim' in an historically documented effort to disassociate the land from Jewish ownership, transferring ownership in concept to Rome in 136 CE.   Myths that there is no place for 'homeless' Arab 'refugees' to live in when the nation of Jordan was delegated as the original territory (Transjordan) for a 'Palestinian state' back in 1947.  Myths that arise from the omission of historical facts concerning all previous international plans for dual statehood that Israel accepted and the Arab world systematically rejected—refusing to acknowledge Israel's right to exist.

The omission of much documented information has facilitated the myth of today—a complex system of politically loaded, mythological assertions that the world has largely bought into.  An intelligent system of mythology that can lay claim to such infamous successes as having elevated the pioneering terrorist Yassar Arafat to the stature of legitimate statesman and Nobel Prize winner as well as maintaining the pan-Arab political strategy that put over 600,000 innocent Arab refugees in harm's way in the first place. The injustices done to the Arab Palestinian refugees have only been perpetuated by the Arab world's refusal to acknowledge the Palestinian state which was already established in 1947—now known as the nation of Jordan—a year prior to Israel's claim to statehood.

But perhaps most repulsive of all the myths is the perception of the Islamic jihadist 'hero' that has been fabricated: disguising oneself as a genuine non-combatant--even as a rabbi on a busload of Jewish girls coming back from camp--then blowing yourself up alongside innocent men, women, and children.  This perception has been 'sold' to innocent children in grade school--from kindergarten on up--as a legitimate form of freedom fighting.  This is treachery, perfidy at its baseline worst, the very signature of Evil itself. 

And yet, there are many in your community who believe that Israel is the "root cause" of the conflict in the Middle East.  Let there be no mistake, you have been successfull manipulated by the genius behind the successful dissemination of these myths and more.  It could be argued that public opinion has not been so thoroughly persuaded of such enormous lies since the Propaganda Minstry of the Third Reich persuaded Christian Europe that the Jewish community there was inherently evil and deserving of liquidation.  We must resist being persuaded that evil is good and good, evil.  What we did not do as Christians then, we must do now.  We are called to resist such evil.

Do not be decieved by your leadership who may use their pulpits to persuade you against the validity of Israel's existence and the extortionist facade of land-for-peace deals.  The Islamists do not want land.  The Islamists do not want peace.  They want the annihilation of Israel.

All but alone in doing so, Winston Churchill warned of what lay ahead in 1930's Europe.  As writer David Brudnoy has put it: "We have no Churchill today, but thanks to the Internet and other means of mass communication, we know what’s coming: a combined Arab, European, and United Nations drive to delegitimize Israel and submit Jews to a 21st-century Final Solution."

Next:  Facts Behind the Myths...

I am not a scholar, nor a preacher.  I hold none of the documentation accorded those with either distinction.  But, I also don't believe that depth of insight into profound matters of consequence is relegated only to those who have obtained those things. 

This is a layman's view.  An informed laymen's view, which may provide freedoms not available to those constrained by credentialed ties to institutions. 

And so it is that I state the deeper, underlying reason for this letter: It is my sense of things that Postmodern Institutional Christianity suffers from an identity crisis of life-threatening proportion.  And that is why it has a skewed, distorted view of Israel in general and the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular.

It’s a generally acknowledged fact that in America, large-scale denominational churches tend to be more liberal than locally autonomous, non-denominational congregations. Also, that the Bible, as well as subjects like biblical prophecy, are more often exclusively taught within the non-denominational community. This letter is to those of a more Liberal predisposition, who may consider Israel to be the cause of conflict in the Middle East while seeing “the Palestinians” as, more or less, innocent victims of an oppressive “occupation.”

I write in three parts: Part 1 dealing directly with myth and fact as concerns the Arab-Israeli conflict, Part 2 dealing with reasons in support of aligning oneself, as a Christian, primarily with Israel.  Part 3 will prescribe a remedy for healing the spiritual identity crisis that I think inflicts modern Western Christianity.  More parts may be added if inspiration strikes.

I may be writing to the reader as "family," then again, I may not. A problem here is how to define "Christian"and then, how to identify individuals who fit the definition. Nevertheless, a solution can only be found in trying. We live in near-cataclysmic times, whether politically or theologically speaking. At any rate, read on, as I think that what I have to say may be instructive, whether Liberal or Conservative, even if you're not a Christian.

This has to do, afterall, with ultimate things.

In a nutshell, my reason for singling out Liberal Christians, without getting too "scriptural" and coming off like a preacher, which I am not, is that as I see it, you, as a Liberal Christian, have sat under teaching very different from that which I've received. As a result of a less intense focus on Scripture, it makes sense that your view of the Arab-Israeli conflict moved more in an overly-sympathetic direction of the so-called “Palestinian” dilemma than mine.  According to Ephesians 2, as I see it, Israel is the spiritual commonwealth of my spiritual residence, not “Christianity,” per se.  I view Abraham as my spiritual father and consider my access to, and knowledge of, the God of Israel, as being connected directly to the covenant made with Abraham. Therefore, I am blessed through Abraham and his descendants and count it as my willing obligation to stand with them in gratitude--through thick and thin--for all they have suffered to bring me to faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

From the stronghold of this great metaphysical reality that is only available through a more certain view of Scripture, my view of Israel's predicament is a much longer, over-arching, longitudinally historic view. This view envelops me within the context of “Israel” as a believer in the Jewish Messiah. To understand what I mean by this, see Ephesians 2 and Romans 9-11. I admittedly identify less with Christianity than I do Messianic Judaism, for example. I see Christianity as originally being conceived of and taught by Jesus as a form of transformational, transcultural Judaism, in only vague manner represented today in, for instance, the highly centralized, bureaucratically-driven, institutional format that much of Christianity takes today.

As a result, through the greater, faith-based lens of Scripture, I see today's so-called "Palestinian uprising" as an intrinsic element of the latest lethal attempt in a long history of antisemitic genocidal intent, to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the earth.

Therefore, in the spirit of dialogue and understanding, I share with you this letter in hope that more understanding may lead to more dialogue, more dialogue to the truth of the matter. And that Israel may gain more support from new friends who have chosen to see the light and repair their broken identity as Christians through repair of the broken spiritual sibling relationship with their elder sibling, Israel.

Next: Myths & Facts Regarding Israel’s Role in the Current Attack on Its Existence

Sixty-nine years ago, Nazi officials instigated deadly outbursts of violence throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The Germans officially explained the violence as a spontaneous outburst of public rage in response to the assassination of Ernst von Rath, a low-ranking official at the German embassy in Paris. The Nazis blamed "World Jewry" for the assassination and, ostensibly as reprisal, unleashed a massive pogrom against Jews within the Third Reich. The event came to be known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass" and effectively transfered responsibility for "solving" the "Jewish Question" to the SS. 

On December 6, 1987, in Gaza, Israeli land occupied by the PLO, an Israeli was stabbed to death while shopping. One day later, four residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza were killed in a traffic accident. Rumors that the four had been killed by Israelis as a deliberate act of revenge began to spread among the Arab population. Mass rioting broke out in Jabalya on the morning of December 9. This sparked a wave of unrest that engulfed Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and Jerusalem. False charges of Israeli atrocities and instigation from the mosques played an important role in starting the first intifada. The event signaled the successful galvanization of all militant parties—official and “unofficial”—into the on-going war against Israel that has been assigned the label “peace process.”

Since that day in Gaza, Arafat’s Palestinian Authority has played a lead role in orchestrating the prolonged program of violence against the Jewish people. When compared, the general “blueprints” for both Nazi and PLO initiations of large-scale, long-term, antisemitic violence appear very similar: First, patiently cultivate hate among the general populace via the widespread distortion of truth (for instance, both employ(ed) children’s books to teach hate). Secondly, maintain ideological support for violent activity in such a way as to cause it to appear “official” to civilian instigators while avoiding any direct causal connection with the government proper. Finally, exploit the occasion of a well-suited or staged emotional incident for the purpose of triggering and fueling “spontaneous” eruption by the general populace.

Now, simply “connect one more dot” to complete the overall pattern of hate.

Haj Amin Al Husseini, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem, had a well-documented relationship with the Third Reich, to include personal relationships with Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentrop, and Adolph Eichmann. During World War II, the mufti journeyed to Nazi Germany where he personally asked Adolf Hitler to invade British-ruled Palestine and rid it of Jews. He then spent the rest of World War II as Hitler's special guest in Berlin, advocating the extermination of Jews in radio broadcasts back to the Middle East and recruiting Balkan Muslims for infamous SS "mountain divisions" known as the Handjar (Sword), that tried to wipe out Jewish communities throughout the region. Husseini's men attended SS training courses and visited Sachsenhausen. He visited Nazi concentration camps with Heinrich Himmler, Head of SS. When the war ended, Husseini was arrested in France, but in June 1946, he escaped and made his way to asylum in Egypt.

There he made his nephew, the young Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat As Qudwa al-Husseini, then living in Cairo, his personal protégé.

The mufti eventually died in exile in 1974. His place as leader of the radical, nationalist Palestinian Arabs had already been secured by his nephew, Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat As Qudwa al-Husseini, better known to us today as “Yasser Arafat.”

The nephew of the Nazi-collaborating mufti apparently learned his lessons well. In August 2002, Arafat gave an interview in which he referred to "our hero al-Husseini" as a symbol of Palestinian Arab resistance.

And so, the now-departed Arafat’s personal quest to destroy the Jewish presence in the Middle East began as an Egyptian terrorist long before the state of Israel (or “the Palestinian people”) came into existence. On his murderous path to winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, he successfully brought terrorism to world attention, pioneering the innovation of hijacking and blowing up airplanes in the 1970's. As a direct result of his lifelong anti-Zionist campaign, hundreds of innocent men, women, and children from all over the world were slaughtered for the achievement of his political objectives.

Now, Osama bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the leaders of global Islamic terrorist groups, inspired and encouraged by the imams of the Arab world, build on the foundation built by Arafat.  And so, it can be argued, that Arafat, based upon the lesser known facts of the historical record, built on Hitler’s foundation. And Hitler, of course, built on earlier long-standing antisemitic precedent.

But that’s another true story, best saved for another day.

In the critical years leading up to the Holocaust the list of “bystanders” – those who declined to challenge the Third Reich – is long and depressing. Acts of rescue and resistance proved to be the exception, not the norm. Tragically, this defined the institutional Christian community as well. The dark threat emanating from Berlin paralyzed large church bureaucracies, inspiring the institutional religious community’s complete failure to pose any meaningful opposition to the Nazi regime. Christian individuals did indeed rise to the aid of the Jewish people, but overall, institutional Christianity behaved as most large bureaucratic institutions tend to: in their own narrowly defined “best” interests.

Turn the pages of history to now. Comparatively speaking, how is the institutional church community behaving as the 21st century “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem in the Middle East” builds in energy and ferocity?

Just yesterday (28/06/07), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said a new United Methodist Church report recommending divestment from 20 companies that do business with the State of Israel "borders on anti-Semitism."

Far from being paralyzed, major players in western Christendom have formed openly hostile policies toward Israel, actions even more disturbing than the predominantly passive policies of the Holocaust-era churches. From the World Council of Churches on down, the behavior of Leftist postmodern Christianity has transmutated since the end of WWII, from a grudging toleration of Israel into a brazen form of antagonistic anti-Zionism. Leaders of one major Protestant governing body, the Presbyterian Church USA, actually met with Hizbollah terrorist leadership before instigating punitive divestment efforts against Israel. Such campaigns of divestment only serve to demonize Israel in the eyes of the world while ignoring Islamic-jihadist intransigence, terrorism, and genocidal intent. To assert that there is a moral equivalency between the racist state policy of apartheid and Israel’s defense of its citizens is morally deplorable.

Given all that we’ve learned from the Holocaust, how could any “Christian” organization even indirectly support openly declared genocidal intentions toward Israel? How could this be possible in a post-Auschwitz world? Sixty-five years after the formalization of the Nazi “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,” mainline institutional Christianity is again behaving as a total stranger to Israel, still in the throes of its centuries-old spiritual identity crisis.

This identity crisis has something to do with either ignorance or distortion of the divinely designed and ordained relationship between believing Gentiles and the Jewish people that is clearly stated in Scripture—a sibling relationship that allows for Gentiles to be “grafted” through Messiah into “the olive tree of Israel.” Distortion of this theological imperative has resulted in centuries of antisemitic teaching to incalculable numbers of trusting church members. As a result, major segments of the institutional religious community have strayed so far from their spiritual roots that they no longer even vaguely resemble the revolutionary, non-institutional, transcultural form of messianic Judaism that Jesus observed and taught and that Paul articulated so clearly. Leftist postmodern Christendom now seems all but clinically dead to the fact that its own spiritual legitimacy has always been totally dependent upon its state of being spiritually grafted into "the commonwealth of Israel.”

Without this self-knowledge regarding its own identity, Christendom has historically behaved erratically, often violently, toward the Jewish people. In its most recent form, having passed through transmutational stages from religious anti-Judaism to racial-biological antisemitism and now, to political anti-Zionism, this ancient hatred still provides tacit approval for millions of churchgoers to behave indifferently and otherwise antagonistically toward Israel. Such a warped perception of Christianity’s biblical relationship with Israel now provides explosive fuel to the genocidal optimism of the Islamic-jihadist demagogues in Tehran and Damascus who seek to finish the work left undone by Hitler. And so it is that institutional Christianity is again behaving more like Cain than Abel toward the Jewish people.

As the people of Israel find themselves in unprecedented peril, they face existential threats without leadership willing to do what is necessary to protect them. Much to its shame, the postmodern institutional church is leading the way toward exacerbation of Israel’s peril, along with the Olmert government’s treasonous land-for peace policy and handling of the war with Hizbollah.  Couple those blunders with the Bush administration’s dual-state policy and anemic handling of the Iranian nuclear crisis, and you have the makings of a storm gathering extraordinary strength and ferocity.

One lesson that careful study of the Holocaust has clearly taught us is that institutional betrayal may influence, but does not necessarily determine, individual betrayal. Individual betrayal, just like the corresponding moral decision to oppose Nazism and rescue Jews, was, and is, a very personal choice.

Looking at faith as a form of spiritual resistance, as Islamic-jihadism moves with escalating fury through the violent working-out of their Final Solution to the Jewish Problem in the Middle East, we who call ourselves Christians have good reason to think hard, think critically, and think biblically, about our relationship with Israel.