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 |  Subject: What Lies Beneath  Fri Dec 05, 2014 11:28 am | |
| What Lies Beneath
Globalism - Ecumenism
Friday, December 05, 2014
Alf Cengia
Have you ever wondered what motivates people? I do. Not just on the surface but deep down - what really motivates them? My wife has heard this story a dozen times too often than she prefers. Well, here it is once again. Sorry, Honey.I once took a call from an anxious customer who'd been waiting several months for a delivery of two packs of plywood panels. I spoke to the out-of-state manufacturing plant and discovered that these packs were a by-product specialty which had only just become available.I then went to the delivery manager who reminded me that - because of interstate transport costs - the rules required that a customer must place a minimum of three packs on order for a delivery. Fair enough.So I informed the customer. His problem was that he'd only just received a large shipment, much of which was stock he didn't need. He'd only made the load up so he could get a delivery. The availability of the product had only just missed that particular load. But the delivery manager wouldn't budge - rules were rules.The customer and I put our heads together and came up with a solution. Another local customer had a delivery due and was willing to leave out two packs so that the first customer's pack could go onto their load. However, the delivery manager still wouldn't oblige. I became frustrated.After some exchanges the thin veneer of civility peeled away like dead sunburned skin. It became obvious that the problem wasn't logistical - it was personal. The "rules" were just excuses. Underneath it all the truth was he didn't like that particular customer, and later admitted as much.In what was likely motivated from frustration, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor finally told Europe what he thought of it: - Quote :
- "You, the European nations, never stood beside us, and it is no surprise that you aren't standing beside us today. There is not one Israeli who trusts your hollow promises on matters of Israel’s security. You failed us. You failed us in the 1940s. You failed us in 1973. And you are failing us again today."
When the layers of well-worn excuses are stripped away, sometimes the truth is ugly. Hiding behind the formal politics is prejudice. Europe has had an abysmal record in its treatment of Jews - not much has changed.Last weekend I followed a rabbit trail leading to a preterist website which featured one of my articles. Above that article was a link to different article which appears on the Mondoweiss website.A major function of that site is to disseminate anti-Israeli propaganda, while claiming to be driven by a "progressive Jewish perspective." Something is amiss when one can't find a single reprimand of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority or other Islamic nations. In fact Mondoweiss is one of the leading anti-Israel sites on the internet and has been noted for its anti-Semitism.A contributing writer at the site is Ben White who is an associate of anti-Israel activistStephen Sizer, and who has presented at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conferences. White has also given us his insights on the subject of the rise of anti-Semitism.The Jews have been victimized for centuries. Claims that they are now somehow contributing to it because of so-called acts of occupation or genocide are not only egregious; but people like White and Sizer are complicit by encouraging that propaganda. These people act under the guise of concern for Palestinian and Jew - what lies beneath this pretense is a fundamental bias against the latter.The title of the preterist article which was linked to Mondoweiss states that Christian Zionismis an outright heresy. It pays homage to Craig Michael Nielson's book, which purports to be a researched, "Christian response" to the Israel-Palestine issues. As one blurb for Nielson's book has it: - Quote :
- "We must stop defending the radically anti-Christian Zionist movement. It's not anti-Semitic to oppose Israel's genocide of Palestinians. It's anti-Christian to accept it. Find out how wrong we have been about Israel. Then demand that the U.S. stop funding the Palestinian Holocaust. It's the Christian thing to do." (Emphasis mine)
Much can be said regarding the shameful and factually challenged use of the term "Palestinian Holocaust" as applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Digging a little further one finds that Nielson is associated with the Palestinian Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN).At first blush PIEN's agenda appears to be to promote peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Yet a 16 page official document on their site only briefly touches upon the violence directed towards Israel. It spends most of its resources excusing that violence by blaming Israel's occupation of the land and its treatment of the Palestinians.Worse, PIEN links to Hanan Ashrawi who claims that Christians are leaving the Middle East in droves because of Israel's policies. Ashrawi is a terrorist apologist who has been called out for obfuscating the facts. As the Hudson Institute has noted, Islamic intolerance is the reason why Christians are fleeing the area.So, what are PIEN's excuses for consistently blaming Israel? Are they confused, or is there something more sinister undergirding their motives? What do you think?This brings me to Pope Francis again. As mentioned in last week's column, he chose to pray in a Turkish Mosque to "show his commitment to Christian-Muslim relations."One must applaud any commitment to peace. However, Jesus would never spend time in the temple of a religion which denies His relationship to the Father (Matt 10:33; 2 Tim 2:12; Jude 1:4). Neither should the "Vicar of Christ." Not only did the pope do nothing to promote peace, but he kowtowed to Islam and insulted Christ.Now he has stated that it's wrong to equate Islam with violence. He claims the Qur'an is a book of peace and that Islam is peaceful. Moreover he has called on "Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism to help dispel the stereotype." Of course that worked very well.One wonders if the pope is simply gullible in this courting of Islamic leaders. Has he not read the Qur'an? Does he not realize that ISIS isn't the solitary cause of Christian persecution and that even the Nazis recognized the potential of romancing Islam?And why is a prominent evangelical protestant leader courting the pope and Islam? Rick Warren has called the pope "Holy Father" and said that "he is doing all the right things." How so?What strikes me about Warren and the pope is that both men have apologists who regularly defend them against those who allegedly misinterpret their media statements. Yet both men are habitually ambiguous. Why is this so?Whatever the answers - in their stated quest for dialogue and peace, these men are either deluded about the fundamental nature of Islam, or something worse. Is there some other motive that lies beneath all this courtship? Do they know what they're doing?Time will tell.http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7943
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