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Israeli Smack-Down of Christian Political Philosophy: A Deeper Analysis of the Latest Isra
Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s own words: “Terrorism is the deliberate assault on civilians to inspire fear for political ends. Though one might quibble with this definition, for example by broadening ‘political ends’ to include ideological or religious motives, it nonetheless captures the essence of terrorism—the purposeful attack on the innocent, those who are hors de combat, outside the field of legitimate conflict. In fact, the more removed the target of the attack from any connection to the grievance enunciated by the terrorists, the greater the terror.” From “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network, 2001 Edition Chapter 1, page 8.”
Israeli Smack-Down of Christian Political Philosophy: A Deeper Analysis of the Latest Israeli Atrocities in Palestine (‘draft’)
By William Wraithwrite
*Dedicated to a once believed in American Independence against “all” forms of tyranny and now especially religious tyranny.
[Note 1: If you feel this message is important, then by all means, email, fax, print, manually mail, propagate, tweet, twitter, and publish to all that Paul Revere and Thomas Paine would gather.]
[Note 2: Many references to the American Revolution and the Minute Men of that age of rebellious resistance are now often disparaged as right-wing Tea Party hypocrisy and distortion. Even many so-called liberal / progressive people, especially those who think they are Jewish, routinely label such Patriot groups as those who advocated the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms as blind idiots when it is obvious even to these same progressives that fascism and police state are true reality.]
To start this essay we glean from a highly relevant and revealing quotation from Benjamin Netanyahu for perspective, he wrote (or some ghost writer claiming to be him wrote):
“Terrorism is the deliberate assault on civilians to inspire fear for political ends. Though one might quibble with this definition, for example by broadening ‘political ends’ to include ideological or religious motives, it nonetheless captures the essence of terrorism—the purposeful attack on the innocent, those who are hors de combat, outside the field of legitimate conflict. In fact, the more removed the target of the attack from any connection to the grievance enunciated by the terrorists, the greater the terror. What possible connection is there between the kindergarten children salvaged in an office building in Oklahoma to the purported grievances of the Patriots of Arizona? …”
This quotation by Netanyahu can be found in supposedly his “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network, 2001 Edition Chapter 1, page 8.” Likely you can find it in your public library.
The Essay:
Israeli Smack-Down of Christian Political Philosophy: A Deeper Analysis of the Latest Israeli Atrocities in Palestine
By William Wraithwrite
Almost everybody loves to hate a conspiracy theory including one suggesting it might be one with anti-Semitic themes (despite Buddha’s admonitions against excessive passions of any kind and all other guru admonishments from acceptable saints). Surely you must hate a conspiracy theory or two yourself?
So we introduce a relatively uncommon phrase as “pseudo-Semite” as in “anti-pseudo-Semitic” to suggest some people who think they are Jewish really are not (despite whatever rationalizations or acculturation they think to align themselves). This concept is important because all kinds of people do all kinds of things, or defend all kinds of actions and behaviors that other people might ascribed to Jewish people (when in fact such people are not even really Jews).
One example of this explanation are people who do not believe in the Torah (the religious literature). There is no such thing as a secular Jew.
Nevertheless there are many who will disagree and will be reading this essay just to pounce on anything that seems fallacious argument.
People buy into hype that Jewish-ness is more a “cultural” phenomenon, far more than belief in a religion, but the true essence of being Jewish is belief in the Scripture. Shlomo Sand cogently argues such in his book “The Invention of the Jewish People” that debunks this relatively modern idea.
More importantly for us and our American and Western culture, and for modernity itself, too many who do assume themselves to be Jewish are cajoled and intellectually trained to defend the so-called Jewish State—irrespective of circumstances and varying political realities. They are trained to feel if there is one thing that must reign supreme against all other of the world’s realities—it is that Jews should have some State they can call their own.
Few people are willing to challenge this supposition as ingrained in so much propaganda.
This is why we have had political writers like the late Christopher Hitchens strenuously arguing against religion in his book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” even while he often incongruously stood behind right-wing Israeli politics and policies. Ditto for political comedians like the bit-too-smug Bill Maher compared to his documentary Religuous. He is liberal on every subject but when the subject is Israel versus other interests this pseudo-Jew continues to think he has his political identity all figured out and is ready to side against all the “red neck” Caucasians (that is goyim Caucasians not Jewish) who are critical of Israel and Israel’s enormous influence in American foreign policy and American mainstream media. Bill Maher is good example of the type of hypocrisy that says “I’m am an American liberal picking on naïve rednecks but if the issue is Israel then count me in the Zionist camp that spouts Zionist propaganda and even if it denies American values. (Yet these public figures are merely two of many American Jews who consider themselves liberal and progressive as even prominent lawyers have incongruously applied different standards to different dilemmas but somehow consistently side with Israel no matter how unjust the truth of their actions—and some even go so far as to routinely engage in Zionist propaganda that does much to distort the truth (already dominating much of mainstream message) regarding what has been happening such as what routinely happens to Palestinians).
For example if a battle ensues in which Israelis attack Palestinians on a given day and Israelis suffer a much smaller number of casualties and the Palestinians suffer a far greater number of deaths and injuries the mainstream media will focus often first on Israeli casualties as if pretending something fair and balanced in proportion (and this is the least of the deceptions in American media). See Abby Martin story: ‘Human Shield’ Propaganda Used to Justify State-Sponsored Massacres for Decades’ at MediaRoots.Org (this is a website worthy of attention for real news and courageous commentary—not to mention Abby is a super bright brainchild)
The story (used to stir up hatred in Israeli citizens) of how Netanyahu’s administration, military and media deceived their own citizens, and peoples around the world, about what and when they really knew about three missing Israelis. (See Max Blumenthal interview with Scott Horton @ http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/07/20/072014-max-blumenthal/
Max Blumenthal is author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, and is a rare person willing to discuss the media’s biased coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza. (Scott’s website is a must for people who really want a clue as to what is really going on).
So the American public and many publics in the Western world of Europe are constantly fed propaganda that reinforces the message “Israel First and Foremost” as in “Nothing Ever Over-Rides Zionist Actions that are always to be thought justified and Sacrosanct”.
Such justifications come from the psychology that “…We Jews cannot trust other peoples and cultures to side with us Jews in time of need (implying of course it is usually, if not always, Jews who have been victims in history and that history has no instances of Jews oppressing other peoples) and so the constant reference feed goes to Hitler as showcase, proving that we Jews need to have an independent country and it must be in Israel—even if many of pseudo-Jews live elsewhere and yet are willing to advocate for policies that hurt most taxpayers elsewhere, by demanding wars designed primarily for Israeli interests.”
Few people are willing to discuss the double standards other Westerners are expected to abide even if they do not believe in a Zionist state and are tired of the constant implied guilt-trip that Americans and the rest of the world did not do enough in World War 2 (as if all WW2 was only about Hitler’s animosity to Jews).
The necessity of a Jewish State (which is a Theocracy and not a Democracy) is predicated on arguments that Jewish people have been, and are, persecuted and tormented almost everywhere else in the world, and Jewish culture (presumed as some cultural force) must be maintained somewhere. The great gist of the argument is based on argument on how Jews historically have been treated by other peoples and not on the worthiness of the religion itself.
There is little to nothing argued about the philosophical value of Judaism in any discussion? Why? This should be the more relevant line of reasoning and argumentation? But the constant hysteria of persecution doesn’t allow much for such an analysis.
And here is the rub. We are just supposed to take it for granted that Old Testament continues to spawn a culture that is humane and that such a religious document deserves respect (and equally so for people who espouse such believes even while they show little respect for other people or other cultures and religions).
It is just coincidence if too many so-called Jews feel righteous and proud when Israelis kill huge numbers of Palestinians, ready to constantly justify such actions, because professional propaganda machines, with a lot of money and clout, have managed to brainwash large masses to think that if any person, or group, is thought an enemy of Israel then automatically they can be labeled “terrorist” (and therefore thought not worthy of human compassion, respect or rights)? This essentially has become the mental mantra of both Israeli/ United States policy around the world as especially drummed up in the mainstream media (that all enemies of our illustrious city on the hill (no conceit here) are labeled terrorists and do not deserve and human rights respect)?
This psychology of deceit is completely dishonest, as both Israel and the United States too engage in terrorist actions—as both countries routinely kill innocent victims while giving much lip service to professional standards of warfare. This can and should be labeled evil. Equally when U.S. media coverage gives far more sympathy to Israeli actions and death tolls (and hardly ever showing video footage of the many children decimated my American weapons given to Israel) this is equally evil as deliberate distortion of truth as deceit. Plus it is censorship.
Perhaps if the religion of the Old Testament itself were to be studied under political theory and philosophy it would not as readily be viewed as deserving so much honor and reverence? But such an intellectual endeavor, or question, is seldom entertained? Why?
Albert Einstein (a person plenty Jewish people like to honor as one of their own, seemingly because he reinforces a stereotype of Jewish people being brainy, creative, humane and concerned about ethics—and yet he saw himself as an mostly an agnostic, and if he believed in any spiritual entity he mentioned a more or less Spinoza naturalist divinity) said something like: “If you apply the same strategies to the same problems you will get the same results.”
This is equally true for the Middle East dilemmas (even as we may suppose some people, for various reasons, are actually content with the chaos, the killing fields, and all the overt and cover war and secret renditions of torture due to animosities in the Middle East, because certain peoples and groups actually benefit from such reality such as arms dealers). The world needs to see the situation from new eyes and with new intellectual strategies.
It is time for far more people to study religion from a political lens—especially since religions too often, at least the three main Abrahamic religions, are very much indeed about politics.
It is time to analyze Judaism, Christianity and Islam from what they portray about how God, Yahweh, and Allah use and abuse power and authority. This is to say it is time to study the scripture, written always by human entities, claim to speak for God—and what were and are the political ramifications.
Such an argument has been tentatively made in “When God Became the Terrorist: Traces of the Authoritarian Nature of the Three Abrahamic Religions” at:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/07/511565.html (e-book)
This book focuses on the extraordinary amounts of fear, as terrorism, that have been used by religion to motivate peoples to engage war and criminal conduct (that is even while such religions propagandize about how much love, blessing and forgiveness lies in same religions).
Because what freethinking soul could really like and appreciate a Yahweh or European Christian derivative God as too often described in the Old and New Testament?
No just God would demand that his subjects love and honor him (nor would he need to). No just God would threaten people with a hell of eternal torture. No just God would claim to create all circumstances that affect all persons including their DNA and then take no responsibility for human outcomes. No just God would demand anyone be crucified to satisfy his need for vengeance.
Still the Hebrew religion of Judaism got at least one thing right—an understanding that man is inherently evil—but not necessarily deliberately and cognitively so—rather because human beings are rationalizing creatures and can and will rationalize anything. And they do. Look at political propaganda today.
Yet to think how massively the human race has been so brainwashed, over the centuries, to believe in what are, essentially, forms of tribal religions—that use fear to motivate people into religious conformity.
Our human endeavor that has in fact evolved with modernity’s training on personal right to inquiry will come to acknowledge the folly of human nature once again to our day’s very history. Progressives became progressive not much because of religious sentiment but because alternative ways were found to understand life.
One can rightly argue that the God of the Bible was a bully and doesn’t even deserve the status of even a fairy tale.
Freethinking Americans need to stand up to those extremists who want to shove their religious, rightwing delusions down everyone’s throat—including all related assumptions about who has a right to live in Levant areas in the Middle East.
It is say we must conjecture going into the 21st century that human societies, at least some, cannot even create Gods and religions that don’t reflect their own human capacity for evil and war; as it has always been humans, by using human words and explanations that created religions and the various deities they came to call Gods.) ALL RELIGIOUS LITERATURE HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY MORTAL MEN WHO CLAIMED TO SPEAK FROM A MORE SUPERNATURAL SOURCE.
Still one important bedrock raison d’etre basis for Judeo-Christianity, especially found in Old Torah Scripture (which is really a tribal heirloom of memorabilia and ‘begot’s), is a lot of argumentation that justified killing and war, as then Mosaic Occupation, and other various forms of authoritarian Divine Retribution (being some of the first forms of scripted propaganda before Nation States ever began to separate Church and State).
To listen to Netanyahu’s slick media exploits (as professional liar when not being a cartoon) and you can see the very same excuses to kill and destroy on impulse, and with equally distorted rationalization, and all form of bias with mumble-jumble words that his kind of people chooses to sleight-of-hand.
Even back in the days of Moses (not that Moses really ever existed as supposedly documented—See “Moses: A Life” by Jonathan Kirsch (a really well researched and well written book) as they then too claimed to justify human atrocity by saying it was Yahweh’s “Command” to do what would otherwise equally be labeled as terrorist tactic today.
Why then should rational people give homage and reverential respect to a document that itself is so full of hypocrisy and human killing?
Whereas, it seems, Israel’s leaders, and plenty of right-wing import-citizens (that have no real ancestral connection to the Levant), regularly applaud the use of terrorist tactics against Palestinians (even as they claim it is always their enemies who are the terrorists). Some seem to have had, for decades or centuries already, an unspoken attitude that Christians are naïve sheeple (whereas “We Jewish Caucasians (especially us Caucasian Jewish men) can act as wolves in sheep skins, while we pretend to have ancient lineages from ancient Hebrews of the Levant (when in truth the Palestinian people have more ancient DNA connection to the ancient line of King David than a great many Caucasian Jews immigrants from Europe, Russia and the United States). Thus we pseudo-pretenders of Moses’ psychology can be the Lion that too readily kills the sheep and naïve (and meanwhile we call it sacred and holy honorable).
Shakespeare simply said: “Priests pray for enemies, but Princes kill”.
Henry VI, Part Two, V.ii71.
More importantly the message, to any who care to think and feel it through, that is from these latest war crimes in Palestine of this Summer of 2014 is that Israelis assumes both most Americans and Europeans are too stupid to realize and understand the philosophical differences between the Old Testament (primarily Judaism) and the New Testament (more Christian but still a religion first conceived by some Jewish people). The first so-called Christians were all Jewish.
Yet we take time to recognize and acknowledge that research and argument has shown the New Testament has implicit and explicit anti-Semitic statements and connotations (not unusual for a book written by mere humans claiming to write divine inspiration, and equally not unusual regarding different sects of Jews having bitter and resentful animosities between themselves—as how else could this human nature have evolved). We need to remember Christianity too was a Jewish religion as started by certain sects of people with certain sensibilities, irrespective of how heretical their doctrines and practices seemed to other Jews and non-Jews (that is as their thoughts and communities evolved).
Therefore we goyim Westerners do not need to give sway to excess guilt-trips often presented as somehow non-Jews created all that New Testament anti-Semitism when more likely it sprung from internal politics in the Levant.
Still it is very important to recognize the major spiritual and philosophical message of the early Christian communities (and no matter how atheist or agnostic you personally feel yourself you can still filter out political implications) was, and still is: ALL PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD, that is you simply need to be good in heart, soul and intention”. You don’t have to be Jewish. You don’t have to be circumcised. You don’t have to abide hundreds of kosher laws, or honor classes of Rabbis who claim to be the spokespersons of God’s word, etc.
This philosophical psychology is exactly opposite to many Zionists who claim you must be Jewish to live and be a full citizen in Israel.
The killing of children in Palestine seems very much a cynical and desperate attempt at population control.
Such and attitude that one must be of this ethnicity is not true democracy—but sham democracy (just as people still criticize the American Revolution for not including blacks or Native Americans as full citizens).
Highly relevant to this moral philosophy (morality being a major aim of religions, that is, to speak to moral imperatives) claimed thence “all” people deserved respect as full citizens of humanity—and not to be shot down and butchered like dogs and insects as the Israeli military too often tends to do in what seems to be deliberate attempts to humiliate their victims very directly in war casualty, hospital and school bombings, etc., that is while people who have Christian and Muslim sentiments and capacities, living elsewhere, and sympathize with them as human equals, are also humiliated because such human values are essentially kicked to the teeth and smashed to an Iron Dome Fist.
This is not to argue Israel’s enemies never engage in atrocious acts and terrorist method—but it is clear as day what has just transpired in the Middle East and it time for humanity to see it for what it is.
And the fact the United States is very much a key player in these war crimes equally makes the United States players criminal and the U.S. news media equally culpable with their distorted Zionist bias. The average Americas too are humiliated because the U.S. Government and U.S. Congress people say and do little to nothing that has any tooth to sway over the rogue state of Israel. So then many Americans too feel humiliated, and too grow in antipathy for Israeli people and Jewish people, its governance and propaganda everywhere, including what is a fact: Zionist dominated news empires.
Justifiable anger breed resentments even as self-righteous so-called Jews argue people are being unjustifiably anti-Semitic?
Israel’s injustice and American-Jews and Christians that support this injustice is what breeds anti-Semitism more than anything—not all the mumble-jumble about redneck, white male (goyim) Tea Party hypocrites (not that there are some goyim redneck out there) but there seems to be Zionist fanatics with equal if zealous hatred in their hearts thirsting for more death and murder (as war to is murder by another name).
Israel’s message in these latest attacks in Gaza should be very clear to all people who express concern and sympathy. The real message is in deeds (not in the words of deception).
The message to the world is:
“We Israelis do not recognize other humanity as worthy of respect—if they oppose us. We can and will do whatever we want—no matter how unjust, unfair, or evil to get our way.”
“We practice “hard power” (as blow-hard George Will of the Washington Post described it recently in his consistent derriere-kissing-blessing for Zionists) and so we Israelis can and will kill, torture, and violate all laws, etc., as you Christian “sheeple” (Jesus was the Shepard to the flock of defenseless sheep against wolves of prey) can’t do a damn thing about it because we have your governments in our hands.”
“Coercion and terrorism is all we really honor and respect (can’t you see through the smoke screen of official propaganda as repetitive blatant actions should make it clear who and what we really are as we despise Christian classes and all types of liberal bleeding hearts) even while we, ourselves, constantly complain about unfair criticism and anti-Semitic sentiments around the world.”
“We hate the United Nations and its democratic process sticking its nose in our business—we readily oppose the entire world if necessary because we are the only just and worthy people of the world.”
“We can act like Mafia thugs and get a way with it and no one can do, or at least no one of importance will not choose to do, a damn thing about it. We want to make this all very clear to the rest of the world we can and will do anything to get our ethnocentric way—because we Jews matter and others peoples of the earth are second class at best.”
These are the sensible, or tactile, on-the-ground meanings of Israeli actions versus their propaganda and their disregard for any real attempt to have some kind of fair process of diplomacy (and the United States Government is just as guilty of these war crimes as are Israeli leaders). There has never been any sincerity on Israel’s part in reaching any kind of just peace.
Yet the Americans operate from a position of cowardliness because many really do not choose these course of actions as allowed with their hollow puppetry about Israel’s right to defend itself, as being intellectually feeble, as they look and are politically castrated to do anything (and so the rest of the world is made to know who runs the show—a bunch of first rate criminals in Israel with the condolence of a bunch of second rate cowards around the U.S. D.C. Beltway.
Benjamin Netanyahu, his many minions, and even those more to the right in Israel who want even more criminal violence and the stealing of Palestinian land (including the many here in the United States) are bullies, as first rate criminals that operate as consummate liars.
So below is a statement that should be read to Netanyahu, and his kind, upon them being sentenced by a Nuremberg courtroom because of his and their war crimes (because they are Netanyahu’s very own words):
“The Salient point that has to be underlined again and again is that nothing justifies terrorism, that it is evil per se—that the various real or imagined reasons proffered by the terrorists to justify their action are meaningless. In its long and unfinished march from barbarism to civilization, humanity has tried to delineate limits to conflict. It has developed laws of war which proscribe, even in wartime, the initiation of deliberate attacks on defenseless civilians. Without this limitation there is no meaning to the term “war crimes.” For if anything is allowable, then even the gassing of a million babies in Auschwitz and Dachau is also permissible. But by their uninhibited resort to violence and their repeated attacks on civilians, the terrorists brazenly cross the line between the permissible and the impermissible. By conditioning us to accept savage outrages as habitual or normal responses to undesired political circumstances, terrorism attacks the very foundation of civilization…” in “Fighting Terrorism” page 21.
The God of ancient Israel too approved of much slaughter, injustice, and cruelty, just like what has been openly demonstrated in recent weeks in Palestine in modern times. The Lion of bloodlust, hate and fear (and self-hate) destroys anything and everything to attempt to make its the last stances, through blind force, for an ancient but an authoritarian religious tribal community (as it defies modern law and sensibilities of the entire world—delusional as only religious and political fanatics could and would be).
People actually believe in the Old or New Testament then end up believing in a form of totalitarian governance, as Thee God, or the Gods of Bible (depending on which prophets’ words you take literally), that commands his subjects like a dictator and then blames his subjects of his creation.
When judicious minds actually study the Bible they see the many human and political faults in the Bible (both old and new testaments). See John Shelby Spong “The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love”.
[Note: This essay is not finished but I think it makes enough of a political point (in this draft)].
Amen
By William Wraithwrite
*Dedicated to a once believed in American Independence against “all” forms of tyranny and now especially religious tyranny.
[Note 1: If you feel this message is important, then by all means, email, fax, print, manually mail, propagate, tweet, twitter, and publish to all that Paul Revere and Thomas Paine would gather.]
[Note 2: Many references to the American Revolution and the Minute Men of that age of rebellious resistance are now often disparaged as right-wing Tea Party hypocrisy and distortion. Even many so-called liberal / progressive people, especially those who think they are Jewish, routinely label such Patriot groups as those who advocated the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms as blind idiots when it is obvious even to these same progressives that fascism and police state are true reality.]
To start this essay we glean from a highly relevant and revealing quotation from Benjamin Netanyahu for perspective, he wrote (or some ghost writer claiming to be him wrote):
“Terrorism is the deliberate assault on civilians to inspire fear for political ends. Though one might quibble with this definition, for example by broadening ‘political ends’ to include ideological or religious motives, it nonetheless captures the essence of terrorism—the purposeful attack on the innocent, those who are hors de combat, outside the field of legitimate conflict. In fact, the more removed the target of the attack from any connection to the grievance enunciated by the terrorists, the greater the terror. What possible connection is there between the kindergarten children salvaged in an office building in Oklahoma to the purported grievances of the Patriots of Arizona? …”
This quotation by Netanyahu can be found in supposedly his “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network, 2001 Edition Chapter 1, page 8.” Likely you can find it in your public library.
The Essay:
Israeli Smack-Down of Christian Political Philosophy: A Deeper Analysis of the Latest Israeli Atrocities in Palestine
By William Wraithwrite
Almost everybody loves to hate a conspiracy theory including one suggesting it might be one with anti-Semitic themes (despite Buddha’s admonitions against excessive passions of any kind and all other guru admonishments from acceptable saints). Surely you must hate a conspiracy theory or two yourself?
So we introduce a relatively uncommon phrase as “pseudo-Semite” as in “anti-pseudo-Semitic” to suggest some people who think they are Jewish really are not (despite whatever rationalizations or acculturation they think to align themselves). This concept is important because all kinds of people do all kinds of things, or defend all kinds of actions and behaviors that other people might ascribed to Jewish people (when in fact such people are not even really Jews).
One example of this explanation are people who do not believe in the Torah (the religious literature). There is no such thing as a secular Jew.
Nevertheless there are many who will disagree and will be reading this essay just to pounce on anything that seems fallacious argument.
People buy into hype that Jewish-ness is more a “cultural” phenomenon, far more than belief in a religion, but the true essence of being Jewish is belief in the Scripture. Shlomo Sand cogently argues such in his book “The Invention of the Jewish People” that debunks this relatively modern idea.
More importantly for us and our American and Western culture, and for modernity itself, too many who do assume themselves to be Jewish are cajoled and intellectually trained to defend the so-called Jewish State—irrespective of circumstances and varying political realities. They are trained to feel if there is one thing that must reign supreme against all other of the world’s realities—it is that Jews should have some State they can call their own.
Few people are willing to challenge this supposition as ingrained in so much propaganda.
This is why we have had political writers like the late Christopher Hitchens strenuously arguing against religion in his book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” even while he often incongruously stood behind right-wing Israeli politics and policies. Ditto for political comedians like the bit-too-smug Bill Maher compared to his documentary Religuous. He is liberal on every subject but when the subject is Israel versus other interests this pseudo-Jew continues to think he has his political identity all figured out and is ready to side against all the “red neck” Caucasians (that is goyim Caucasians not Jewish) who are critical of Israel and Israel’s enormous influence in American foreign policy and American mainstream media. Bill Maher is good example of the type of hypocrisy that says “I’m am an American liberal picking on naïve rednecks but if the issue is Israel then count me in the Zionist camp that spouts Zionist propaganda and even if it denies American values. (Yet these public figures are merely two of many American Jews who consider themselves liberal and progressive as even prominent lawyers have incongruously applied different standards to different dilemmas but somehow consistently side with Israel no matter how unjust the truth of their actions—and some even go so far as to routinely engage in Zionist propaganda that does much to distort the truth (already dominating much of mainstream message) regarding what has been happening such as what routinely happens to Palestinians).
For example if a battle ensues in which Israelis attack Palestinians on a given day and Israelis suffer a much smaller number of casualties and the Palestinians suffer a far greater number of deaths and injuries the mainstream media will focus often first on Israeli casualties as if pretending something fair and balanced in proportion (and this is the least of the deceptions in American media). See Abby Martin story: ‘Human Shield’ Propaganda Used to Justify State-Sponsored Massacres for Decades’ at MediaRoots.Org (this is a website worthy of attention for real news and courageous commentary—not to mention Abby is a super bright brainchild)
The story (used to stir up hatred in Israeli citizens) of how Netanyahu’s administration, military and media deceived their own citizens, and peoples around the world, about what and when they really knew about three missing Israelis. (See Max Blumenthal interview with Scott Horton @ http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/07/20/072014-max-blumenthal/
Max Blumenthal is author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, and is a rare person willing to discuss the media’s biased coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza. (Scott’s website is a must for people who really want a clue as to what is really going on).
So the American public and many publics in the Western world of Europe are constantly fed propaganda that reinforces the message “Israel First and Foremost” as in “Nothing Ever Over-Rides Zionist Actions that are always to be thought justified and Sacrosanct”.
Such justifications come from the psychology that “…We Jews cannot trust other peoples and cultures to side with us Jews in time of need (implying of course it is usually, if not always, Jews who have been victims in history and that history has no instances of Jews oppressing other peoples) and so the constant reference feed goes to Hitler as showcase, proving that we Jews need to have an independent country and it must be in Israel—even if many of pseudo-Jews live elsewhere and yet are willing to advocate for policies that hurt most taxpayers elsewhere, by demanding wars designed primarily for Israeli interests.”
Few people are willing to discuss the double standards other Westerners are expected to abide even if they do not believe in a Zionist state and are tired of the constant implied guilt-trip that Americans and the rest of the world did not do enough in World War 2 (as if all WW2 was only about Hitler’s animosity to Jews).
The necessity of a Jewish State (which is a Theocracy and not a Democracy) is predicated on arguments that Jewish people have been, and are, persecuted and tormented almost everywhere else in the world, and Jewish culture (presumed as some cultural force) must be maintained somewhere. The great gist of the argument is based on argument on how Jews historically have been treated by other peoples and not on the worthiness of the religion itself.
There is little to nothing argued about the philosophical value of Judaism in any discussion? Why? This should be the more relevant line of reasoning and argumentation? But the constant hysteria of persecution doesn’t allow much for such an analysis.
And here is the rub. We are just supposed to take it for granted that Old Testament continues to spawn a culture that is humane and that such a religious document deserves respect (and equally so for people who espouse such believes even while they show little respect for other people or other cultures and religions).
It is just coincidence if too many so-called Jews feel righteous and proud when Israelis kill huge numbers of Palestinians, ready to constantly justify such actions, because professional propaganda machines, with a lot of money and clout, have managed to brainwash large masses to think that if any person, or group, is thought an enemy of Israel then automatically they can be labeled “terrorist” (and therefore thought not worthy of human compassion, respect or rights)? This essentially has become the mental mantra of both Israeli/ United States policy around the world as especially drummed up in the mainstream media (that all enemies of our illustrious city on the hill (no conceit here) are labeled terrorists and do not deserve and human rights respect)?
This psychology of deceit is completely dishonest, as both Israel and the United States too engage in terrorist actions—as both countries routinely kill innocent victims while giving much lip service to professional standards of warfare. This can and should be labeled evil. Equally when U.S. media coverage gives far more sympathy to Israeli actions and death tolls (and hardly ever showing video footage of the many children decimated my American weapons given to Israel) this is equally evil as deliberate distortion of truth as deceit. Plus it is censorship.
Perhaps if the religion of the Old Testament itself were to be studied under political theory and philosophy it would not as readily be viewed as deserving so much honor and reverence? But such an intellectual endeavor, or question, is seldom entertained? Why?
Albert Einstein (a person plenty Jewish people like to honor as one of their own, seemingly because he reinforces a stereotype of Jewish people being brainy, creative, humane and concerned about ethics—and yet he saw himself as an mostly an agnostic, and if he believed in any spiritual entity he mentioned a more or less Spinoza naturalist divinity) said something like: “If you apply the same strategies to the same problems you will get the same results.”
This is equally true for the Middle East dilemmas (even as we may suppose some people, for various reasons, are actually content with the chaos, the killing fields, and all the overt and cover war and secret renditions of torture due to animosities in the Middle East, because certain peoples and groups actually benefit from such reality such as arms dealers). The world needs to see the situation from new eyes and with new intellectual strategies.
It is time for far more people to study religion from a political lens—especially since religions too often, at least the three main Abrahamic religions, are very much indeed about politics.
It is time to analyze Judaism, Christianity and Islam from what they portray about how God, Yahweh, and Allah use and abuse power and authority. This is to say it is time to study the scripture, written always by human entities, claim to speak for God—and what were and are the political ramifications.
Such an argument has been tentatively made in “When God Became the Terrorist: Traces of the Authoritarian Nature of the Three Abrahamic Religions” at:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/07/511565.html (e-book)
This book focuses on the extraordinary amounts of fear, as terrorism, that have been used by religion to motivate peoples to engage war and criminal conduct (that is even while such religions propagandize about how much love, blessing and forgiveness lies in same religions).
Because what freethinking soul could really like and appreciate a Yahweh or European Christian derivative God as too often described in the Old and New Testament?
No just God would demand that his subjects love and honor him (nor would he need to). No just God would threaten people with a hell of eternal torture. No just God would claim to create all circumstances that affect all persons including their DNA and then take no responsibility for human outcomes. No just God would demand anyone be crucified to satisfy his need for vengeance.
Still the Hebrew religion of Judaism got at least one thing right—an understanding that man is inherently evil—but not necessarily deliberately and cognitively so—rather because human beings are rationalizing creatures and can and will rationalize anything. And they do. Look at political propaganda today.
Yet to think how massively the human race has been so brainwashed, over the centuries, to believe in what are, essentially, forms of tribal religions—that use fear to motivate people into religious conformity.
Our human endeavor that has in fact evolved with modernity’s training on personal right to inquiry will come to acknowledge the folly of human nature once again to our day’s very history. Progressives became progressive not much because of religious sentiment but because alternative ways were found to understand life.
One can rightly argue that the God of the Bible was a bully and doesn’t even deserve the status of even a fairy tale.
Freethinking Americans need to stand up to those extremists who want to shove their religious, rightwing delusions down everyone’s throat—including all related assumptions about who has a right to live in Levant areas in the Middle East.
It is say we must conjecture going into the 21st century that human societies, at least some, cannot even create Gods and religions that don’t reflect their own human capacity for evil and war; as it has always been humans, by using human words and explanations that created religions and the various deities they came to call Gods.) ALL RELIGIOUS LITERATURE HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY MORTAL MEN WHO CLAIMED TO SPEAK FROM A MORE SUPERNATURAL SOURCE.
Still one important bedrock raison d’etre basis for Judeo-Christianity, especially found in Old Torah Scripture (which is really a tribal heirloom of memorabilia and ‘begot’s), is a lot of argumentation that justified killing and war, as then Mosaic Occupation, and other various forms of authoritarian Divine Retribution (being some of the first forms of scripted propaganda before Nation States ever began to separate Church and State).
To listen to Netanyahu’s slick media exploits (as professional liar when not being a cartoon) and you can see the very same excuses to kill and destroy on impulse, and with equally distorted rationalization, and all form of bias with mumble-jumble words that his kind of people chooses to sleight-of-hand.
Even back in the days of Moses (not that Moses really ever existed as supposedly documented—See “Moses: A Life” by Jonathan Kirsch (a really well researched and well written book) as they then too claimed to justify human atrocity by saying it was Yahweh’s “Command” to do what would otherwise equally be labeled as terrorist tactic today.
Why then should rational people give homage and reverential respect to a document that itself is so full of hypocrisy and human killing?
Whereas, it seems, Israel’s leaders, and plenty of right-wing import-citizens (that have no real ancestral connection to the Levant), regularly applaud the use of terrorist tactics against Palestinians (even as they claim it is always their enemies who are the terrorists). Some seem to have had, for decades or centuries already, an unspoken attitude that Christians are naïve sheeple (whereas “We Jewish Caucasians (especially us Caucasian Jewish men) can act as wolves in sheep skins, while we pretend to have ancient lineages from ancient Hebrews of the Levant (when in truth the Palestinian people have more ancient DNA connection to the ancient line of King David than a great many Caucasian Jews immigrants from Europe, Russia and the United States). Thus we pseudo-pretenders of Moses’ psychology can be the Lion that too readily kills the sheep and naïve (and meanwhile we call it sacred and holy honorable).
Shakespeare simply said: “Priests pray for enemies, but Princes kill”.
Henry VI, Part Two, V.ii71.
More importantly the message, to any who care to think and feel it through, that is from these latest war crimes in Palestine of this Summer of 2014 is that Israelis assumes both most Americans and Europeans are too stupid to realize and understand the philosophical differences between the Old Testament (primarily Judaism) and the New Testament (more Christian but still a religion first conceived by some Jewish people). The first so-called Christians were all Jewish.
Yet we take time to recognize and acknowledge that research and argument has shown the New Testament has implicit and explicit anti-Semitic statements and connotations (not unusual for a book written by mere humans claiming to write divine inspiration, and equally not unusual regarding different sects of Jews having bitter and resentful animosities between themselves—as how else could this human nature have evolved). We need to remember Christianity too was a Jewish religion as started by certain sects of people with certain sensibilities, irrespective of how heretical their doctrines and practices seemed to other Jews and non-Jews (that is as their thoughts and communities evolved).
Therefore we goyim Westerners do not need to give sway to excess guilt-trips often presented as somehow non-Jews created all that New Testament anti-Semitism when more likely it sprung from internal politics in the Levant.
Still it is very important to recognize the major spiritual and philosophical message of the early Christian communities (and no matter how atheist or agnostic you personally feel yourself you can still filter out political implications) was, and still is: ALL PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD, that is you simply need to be good in heart, soul and intention”. You don’t have to be Jewish. You don’t have to be circumcised. You don’t have to abide hundreds of kosher laws, or honor classes of Rabbis who claim to be the spokespersons of God’s word, etc.
This philosophical psychology is exactly opposite to many Zionists who claim you must be Jewish to live and be a full citizen in Israel.
The killing of children in Palestine seems very much a cynical and desperate attempt at population control.
Such and attitude that one must be of this ethnicity is not true democracy—but sham democracy (just as people still criticize the American Revolution for not including blacks or Native Americans as full citizens).
Highly relevant to this moral philosophy (morality being a major aim of religions, that is, to speak to moral imperatives) claimed thence “all” people deserved respect as full citizens of humanity—and not to be shot down and butchered like dogs and insects as the Israeli military too often tends to do in what seems to be deliberate attempts to humiliate their victims very directly in war casualty, hospital and school bombings, etc., that is while people who have Christian and Muslim sentiments and capacities, living elsewhere, and sympathize with them as human equals, are also humiliated because such human values are essentially kicked to the teeth and smashed to an Iron Dome Fist.
This is not to argue Israel’s enemies never engage in atrocious acts and terrorist method—but it is clear as day what has just transpired in the Middle East and it time for humanity to see it for what it is.
And the fact the United States is very much a key player in these war crimes equally makes the United States players criminal and the U.S. news media equally culpable with their distorted Zionist bias. The average Americas too are humiliated because the U.S. Government and U.S. Congress people say and do little to nothing that has any tooth to sway over the rogue state of Israel. So then many Americans too feel humiliated, and too grow in antipathy for Israeli people and Jewish people, its governance and propaganda everywhere, including what is a fact: Zionist dominated news empires.
Justifiable anger breed resentments even as self-righteous so-called Jews argue people are being unjustifiably anti-Semitic?
Israel’s injustice and American-Jews and Christians that support this injustice is what breeds anti-Semitism more than anything—not all the mumble-jumble about redneck, white male (goyim) Tea Party hypocrites (not that there are some goyim redneck out there) but there seems to be Zionist fanatics with equal if zealous hatred in their hearts thirsting for more death and murder (as war to is murder by another name).
Israel’s message in these latest attacks in Gaza should be very clear to all people who express concern and sympathy. The real message is in deeds (not in the words of deception).
The message to the world is:
“We Israelis do not recognize other humanity as worthy of respect—if they oppose us. We can and will do whatever we want—no matter how unjust, unfair, or evil to get our way.”
“We practice “hard power” (as blow-hard George Will of the Washington Post described it recently in his consistent derriere-kissing-blessing for Zionists) and so we Israelis can and will kill, torture, and violate all laws, etc., as you Christian “sheeple” (Jesus was the Shepard to the flock of defenseless sheep against wolves of prey) can’t do a damn thing about it because we have your governments in our hands.”
“Coercion and terrorism is all we really honor and respect (can’t you see through the smoke screen of official propaganda as repetitive blatant actions should make it clear who and what we really are as we despise Christian classes and all types of liberal bleeding hearts) even while we, ourselves, constantly complain about unfair criticism and anti-Semitic sentiments around the world.”
“We hate the United Nations and its democratic process sticking its nose in our business—we readily oppose the entire world if necessary because we are the only just and worthy people of the world.”
“We can act like Mafia thugs and get a way with it and no one can do, or at least no one of importance will not choose to do, a damn thing about it. We want to make this all very clear to the rest of the world we can and will do anything to get our ethnocentric way—because we Jews matter and others peoples of the earth are second class at best.”
These are the sensible, or tactile, on-the-ground meanings of Israeli actions versus their propaganda and their disregard for any real attempt to have some kind of fair process of diplomacy (and the United States Government is just as guilty of these war crimes as are Israeli leaders). There has never been any sincerity on Israel’s part in reaching any kind of just peace.
Yet the Americans operate from a position of cowardliness because many really do not choose these course of actions as allowed with their hollow puppetry about Israel’s right to defend itself, as being intellectually feeble, as they look and are politically castrated to do anything (and so the rest of the world is made to know who runs the show—a bunch of first rate criminals in Israel with the condolence of a bunch of second rate cowards around the U.S. D.C. Beltway.
Benjamin Netanyahu, his many minions, and even those more to the right in Israel who want even more criminal violence and the stealing of Palestinian land (including the many here in the United States) are bullies, as first rate criminals that operate as consummate liars.
So below is a statement that should be read to Netanyahu, and his kind, upon them being sentenced by a Nuremberg courtroom because of his and their war crimes (because they are Netanyahu’s very own words):
“The Salient point that has to be underlined again and again is that nothing justifies terrorism, that it is evil per se—that the various real or imagined reasons proffered by the terrorists to justify their action are meaningless. In its long and unfinished march from barbarism to civilization, humanity has tried to delineate limits to conflict. It has developed laws of war which proscribe, even in wartime, the initiation of deliberate attacks on defenseless civilians. Without this limitation there is no meaning to the term “war crimes.” For if anything is allowable, then even the gassing of a million babies in Auschwitz and Dachau is also permissible. But by their uninhibited resort to violence and their repeated attacks on civilians, the terrorists brazenly cross the line between the permissible and the impermissible. By conditioning us to accept savage outrages as habitual or normal responses to undesired political circumstances, terrorism attacks the very foundation of civilization…” in “Fighting Terrorism” page 21.
The God of ancient Israel too approved of much slaughter, injustice, and cruelty, just like what has been openly demonstrated in recent weeks in Palestine in modern times. The Lion of bloodlust, hate and fear (and self-hate) destroys anything and everything to attempt to make its the last stances, through blind force, for an ancient but an authoritarian religious tribal community (as it defies modern law and sensibilities of the entire world—delusional as only religious and political fanatics could and would be).
People actually believe in the Old or New Testament then end up believing in a form of totalitarian governance, as Thee God, or the Gods of Bible (depending on which prophets’ words you take literally), that commands his subjects like a dictator and then blames his subjects of his creation.
When judicious minds actually study the Bible they see the many human and political faults in the Bible (both old and new testaments). See John Shelby Spong “The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love”.
[Note: This essay is not finished but I think it makes enough of a political point (in this draft)].
Amen
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There are actually those among the "frumm" (highly observant) community who will SAY things like that. For example, some (but by no means all) of the "black hats".
But you know Bill, the proof is in the pudding, their ACTIONS when faced with similar situations (according to your definition) that are not identical. What you need to show are examples of Jews (even among the extremely observant) who sit shiva (mourn as dead) a child of theirs who marries a secular Jew (or a Reform Jew, etc.) just like they would if married a (real) non-Jew.
I think you'd have trouble with that.