Veterans Today & Joining Hands for Justice of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta-Update

Some are silent & some are talking
(See update below)
After posting my article Presbyterian 'Joining Hands for Justice in Israel & Palestine' & Veterans Today join hands! I have found there is a lot of confusion about the event I wrote about and a lot of confusion about who actually participated.

The event was a program featuring Gilad Atzmon, an extremely anti-Semitic writer and speaker as well as the author of The Wandering Who. The two sponsors were Joining Hands for Justice of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta and an extreme anti-Semitic group Veterans Today. The only group who seem to know what took place is Veterans Today.

Originally the Atlanta Presbytery group Joining Hands for Justice Palestine was a part of the Presbyterian Joining Hands program including the Hunger Program. According to an e-mail received from Alexa Smith, Joining Hands Associate of the Presbyterian Hunger Program “Joining Hands for Justice-Palestine was part of the broader JH network, but has not been so for the last 1.5 years. When the network closed in Palestine, the Atlanta’s group was no longer tied to us, but wanted to keep working on issues they care about very much.” [1]

So the organization exists backed by several Atlanta churches with Sarah Humphreys as its founder. Sarah Humphreys did not answer my e-mail.

But evidently little else is known since I am not able to get any further information on the organization or the event. When I first contacted someone at Villa International where the event was held they were confused about who had sponsored it thinking at first it was Joining Hands for Hunger, but after thinking for a few minutes they said no it was Joining Hands for Justice. They were looking for the brochure which they did not find. But the big problem here is very clear.

An organization belonging to the Greater Atlanta Presbytery joined with Veterans Today, and VT knows that it happened and  will not be silent.

Gordon Duff, Senior Editor of VT, has a rather rambling article on VT where he in fact insists that most of the Islamic terrorists are really Jews in disguise, showing a picture where supposedly a terrorist is tattooed with a Star of David. Right in the middle of his article is this:

[Editors Note: Gilad was sponsored in Atlanta Saturday night by VeteransToday and the Greater Atlanta Presbyterians. I will be posting some video highlights when I can.

We had a very mixed crowd, Christians, Jews, Muslims, young and old. The Wandering Who books were gone before I got mine. I will know better next time. If you ever get a chance to see him, you are in for a treat...Jim W. Dean]

While Gordon Duff is the Chairman of the Board and Senior Managing Editor, Jim W. Dean is a Managing Editor. Dean is the one who was listed as a contact for the Atzmon event in Atlanta. The day after the tragedy that happened in France, the killing of the soldiers and the adult and three children at a Jewish school, Dean published his own article. His attitude is cold and cruel indeed:

And the Israelis, never slow in exploiting killings anyway possible, are suggesting to French Jews that the only place they can really be safe is in Israel. They didn’t even wait until the bodies were buried. I wonder where they think the victims of Israeli state terrorism should go?

Dean goes on finally bringing in 9-11, ‘hinting’ that Israel had something to do with that tragedy. And them toward the end of his diatribe he writes:

Before the victims are cold, the political terrorists and Israel are hard at work taking advantage of the killings as best they can. There is of course a difference between them and the shooter. The shooter has fewer victims.

It is such a shame that we don’t have a reality TV game show where we can all vote on which degenerates gets water boarded on camera for an hour. It would be so wonderful to look forward to.

So although we do not know what members of the Join Hands for Justice-Palestine set up the Atzmon event with Dean from Veterans Today, and we do not know what Presbyterians attended, we do know that in the greater Atlanta Presbytery someone joined hands (in the name of justice) with those who are cold, cruel and tell lies about Jewish people.

I am hoping and praying that someone will be good and brave and stand up and tell the truth about what happened. And then I am hoping and praying that someone will apologize first to the Jewish people and then to the Presbyterians in Atlanta who must be offended by this sorry event.

Update- This is an e-mail from the Executive Presbyter  of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta-

"Viola,
It was good to talk to you today.

Regarding Joining Hands for justice. Like all partnerships within our presbytery they do not represent the presbytery nor can they speak on behalf of the presbytery. They are a group of people within constituent churches that have come together for their own sense of mission. They do not receive any funding from the presbytery. The presbytery had no part in the recent event hosting Gilad Atzmon.
Peace,
Tom Evans"

[1] It still is important to read this note from the JHJ Palestine NewsLetter-http://www.relufa.org/partners/jhnewsletter/palestine.htm

Picture by Stephen Larson