Monday, September 29, 2014

Alison Weir & the PC (U.S.A.): German Christians in the corner of the denomination (Update)


Who is Alison Weir, and should either the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Mission Agency or the Israel/Palestine Mission Network be pointing to her material? On their twitter page, IPMN linked to an article by Weir. The article, “Christian Evangelicals Increasingly Support Palestinian Human Rights,” is on the International Middle East Media Center page. But that site has linked to Weir’s own site, “If Americans Knew.”
In another posting I pointed out that Rev. Kate Taber, the PCUSA mission worker to Israel and Palestine had used Allison Weir as a good reference. In my posting, “Extreme anti-Semites and their connections to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (Correction),” I wrote:

“If Americans Knew was founded by Alison Weir, a sometimes writer for Veterans News Now, an organization connected to VT [Veterans Today], and also for My Catbird Seat, a sister site to Veterans Today. Her summary is "A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict." and under Zionism Weir begins:

In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and they considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine." (Italics mine.)

Weir goes on to explain the reason for so many refugees coming to the holyland during Hitler's ethnic cleansing of the Jews. ”Hitler’s rise to power, combined with Zionist activities to sabotage efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries, led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, and conflict grew." (Italics mine).

Note so far in her summary the early Zionists were extremist and they sabotaged efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries during the Holocaust. That is in the first few paragraphs. Weir goes on filling her page with many untruths and exaggerations.”


After that I went on to explain why much of the summary is false information. You can use the link above to read my explanation.

Now I see evidence of an even deeper connection to anti-Semitism on Weir’s part. On her blog she insists that young Jews are attempting to troll various social media in an attempt to feed the public propaganda. The blog posting is “Israeli "trolls" on Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc.. In the article she points to various articles meant to prove her point. One of the articles is “Israeli Students Paid $2000 Each to Troll the Internet.” It was written by a far left anti-Israel e-magazine the Electronic Intifada, however Weir chose to link to the article on a neo-Nazi site, “The Daily Stormer.”

If you go to the Stormer site and the article you will find that they have added an anti-Semitic picture. Perhaps this is what Weir wanted her readers to see. Or perhaps she hoped that while there they would peruse some of the other articles such as Jews are Our Misfortune or David Dukes’ Atomic Energy Vote Demonstrates Who Runs America.

I know it is useless to plead with the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, or with the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s World Mission leaders, but it is important that others, Presbyterians and non-Presbyterians, understand that in an enlarged corner of the denomination, the PC (U.S.A.), is a group of people who are kin to the German Christians of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

Update: In the comment section David Fischler has pointed out that Weir took down the bad link and substituted a different one. Thankfully someone is listening (reading). But consider, Weir's posting has been up since June the 9th-it has been read for almost four months. I am at this moment convinced that we need to keep a watchful eye, and keep pushing, and pushing against all of this anti-Semitism.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alison Weir is a member of that peculiar species called "Jewish anti-Semites." I assume, based on what I've read by her, that she is one of those secular types for whom far left politics is the defining characteristic of their lives, making their Jewish identity more of a hardship than a badge of honor.

I went to her blog, and evidently someone clued her in that the Daily Stormer was really not the kind of site she should associate herself with. The links are now to Israel National News and Electronic Intifada.

David Fischler
Woodbridge, VA

Viola Larson said...

Thanks for the information David. It seems that she substituted this, http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-students-get-2000-spread-state-propaganda-facebook, for the Stormer one and it doesn't work for me unless I put it in my address box. at least someone is listening.

WH said...

Alison Weir is a member of that peculiar species called "Jewish anti-Semites." I assume, based on what I've read by her, that she is one of those secular types for whom far left politics is the defining characteristic of their lives, making their Jewish identity more of a hardship than a badge of honor.

It is her coward's Stockholmish response to the terror of realizing the throngs filled with vicious hate for her. And it is terrifying, I do give her that. The "hate vertigo" is dizzying and awful. Agreeing with the nonstop accusers would almost seem a relief. The illusion beckons that the hate might then go away if one responds by being open to their, er, "criticism."

But deep inside, even she must feel what she is doing. I'm sure it's miserable.