Veterans Today: Against the Jewish people, against Christians, and against veterans

In a time when so many veterans have so many needs a web journal that seemingly provides boundless information for them is a hoax without any morality. Veterans Today is subtitled “Military Veterans and Foreign affairs Journal.” It is also listed as a web network that “is a conglomerate of online U.S. Veteran web sites providing information, news, jobs, benefits, and advocacy for U.S. Military ...” And if you go to the Network site that will seem like a reasonable statement. But if you go to the journal site, Veterans Today, the words will be contrary to what most United States military men & women expect from a helpful service site.

On the web journal there is constant diatribe against both Israel and the Jewish people. You will also find diatribes against Christians. And if you are a veteran there are articles with dishonest historical accounts that will cause you to recoil.

Veterans Today and the Jews: In an article entitled “Zimmerman does NOT represent all Jews” there is a false suggestion that the man, George Zimmerman, who recently killed an unarmed African American, is Jewish. The article sarcastically has lines such as “We cannot repeat too often that Judaism is a religion of peace. Yes, there are a small number of Jewish extremists out there who support child-murdering terrorist organizations like the State of Israel; who shoot innocent black kids down in cold blood; who call for the murder of the President of the United States; and so on and so forth.”

The author, Dr. Kevin Barrett, continuing with his sarcasm writes, “But most Jews are law-abiding citizens, not terrorists – even though parts of their Talmud do exhibit a vastly greater reverence for Jewish life than for non-Jewish life.”

VT is an organization that simply hates Jews and uses hate speech in many of their articles. They believe that the State of Israel was behind the 9-11 tragedy, that the Jews control banks, government and Media. The Chair of their board and Senior Editor, Gordon Duff, uses the old conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds have for hundreds of years controlled the world financial systems and caused most wars. In an article written in 2010 he wrote:

Federal Reserve” means “Rothschild.” “Rothschild” means poverty, hunger, ignorance and, most of all, war. This is all you really need to know. Everything else, the Pentagon, Wall Street, the corporate news, congress, the Supreme Court, the arms industry bandits are nothing but their henchmen, cowards and thieves that sold their souls for cash, the perception of power and vice.

Veterans Today and Christianity: It is clear that VT vehemently despises traditional Christianity. In an article on Coptic Christians in Egypt, Dr. Ashraf Ezzat uses the horrible persecution of Coptic Christians as well as the death of the Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, to point to alleged past evil deeds of the Christians of Egypt. Writing of the early history of the Copts in Egypt Ezzat states:

And if the valley of the Nile was blessed by the gods, one wonders what use did Christianity possibly have for the religious Egyptians? What were the chances of Christ to compete with the mighty Amun-ra or Osiris? How was a multi-faith environment to reconcile with a foreign religion whose followers exclusively believed in one humiliated god? … Well, This proved to be both the challenge and the tragedy for Ptolemaic Alexandria, the cosmopolitan city that combined the wisdom of Thoth and the capriciousness of Dionysus.

Ezzat them blames the Copts for the death of the philosopher Hypatia and the burning of the library of Alexandria.

In an article by Eileen Fleming, “The Jefferson Bible: A rational Christianity and Earth Day 2012,”, the author glories in the idea of a Bible devoid of all its miracles.[1] And one should note that this includes a Bible which has totally lost the Old Testament and this leads to some understanding of how it is that VT hates traditional Christianity.

For many of the writers at Veterans Today Christianity’s connection to the Old Testament and Judaism is, not unlike earlier Nazis, anathema. Bob Johnson in his article, “Hanukkah: A celebration of Superstition over Wisdom,” attributes the holiday to the desire of the Jewish leaders to control their people. (It is truly celebrated because God supplied oil for the lamp in the Temple.) Johnson writes:

At the time, around 200 BCE, many individual Jews were being attracted away from the fear based superstitions and ignorance of Judaism over to Hellenism which is based on nature, reason and progress.

Johnson later writes:

The irreconcilable difference between “revealed” religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and science and real natural progress is that the “revealed” religions believe wisdom comes from fear of God as Proverbs 9:10 falsely claims. The Hellenistic idea is that wisdom comes from wonder, as Socrates said.

And then, in a manipulative way, Johnson uses the Jewish scholar Leo Strauss. He asks this question:

Strauss asks us a very important question – is our allegiance with Jerusalem and religious ignorance and violence promoting superstitions or is it with Athens and free thought and free inquiry along with the science and progress they produce?

Veterans Today and veterans: With the admittance that a small number of United States service people have committed terrible crimes in war, an article, Scoundrel Media Afghan Massacre Cover-up,” that starts like this, “Viciousness defines US wars. No crime’s too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them,” is a clue about how Veterans Today really feels about veterans.

Another article, “Let your Life be a Friction to stop the Machine” posted by Debbie Menon is supposedly the history of the United States starting with the American Revolution.

It is portrayed as continuous evil controlled by a small elite concerned only with wealth & power. It is the usual kind of propaganda—take all of the evils, true or imagined, never mention goodness or victory, thereby creating a national history that is a monster. The author who is anonymous encourages total rebellion. Veterans should understand that many of the articles on VT leave the impression that US veterans of all eras in all wars were conned into fighting for a corrupt small group of elites.

Sister sites of Veterans Today. Some of the writers for VT, and there are many, have their own particular web sites and/or radio shows. But more importantly VT has sister sites with the same authors and the same articles. Here is a list of some of the more important ones:

My Catbird Seat- Administrator and Editor is Debbie Menon who also writes for VT –she lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. [*]

http://www.salem-news.com/ Tim and Bonnie King of Salem Oregon are the main staff and Tim King is also an editor for VT. Eileen Fleming writes for this site.

Intifada Palestine- Elias F. Harb is a Palestinian based in Mexico.

While all of the VT writers write for other sites these four sites, VT and the other three sites, consistently use most of the same writers.

There are also writers with their own web sites who also write for these sites. They include:

Alan Hart who writes at http://www.alanhart.net/

James Wall who writes at Wallwritings

Stephen lendman hosts The Progressive Radio News Hour on The Progressive Radio Network and blogs at Steve Lendman Blog

Veterans Today is a fraud scamming too many people. Although many of its producers and writers are progressive on social and political issues they are so tied to conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and hate speech they walk in step with the extreme far right. Their sites, articles, writers and future plans should be avoided by those who hold to decent and righteous principles.

[1] See also "Eileen Fleming & IPMN: forgetting the redemptive work of Jesus. " Fleming has responded in a comment on this post.
[*] Today is Sept. 13, 2012--I have noticed that there is no longer a link between VT and My Catbird Seat. Menon has removed any references to VT from her site and Duff any references to the Catbird site. I will leave the link there until I know the division is permanent.

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

Is this anti-Semitic? Does it matter?

If you read this statement:
 
“Netanyahu, like most other Israeli leaders, is a pathological liar who lies as often as he breathes oxygen. He knows deep in his heart that what Israel has been doing and the way it has been behaving ever since its birth 63 years ago represents the ultimate contradiction to true Christian values, the values that Jesus preached and because of which he incurred the wrath of the Jewish establishment of his time.”


Along side this statement about the horrible terrorist attack in Norway:


“Who gains and loses from every terror incident must also be asked, certainly not suspects charged, convicted and imprisoned. Geopolitical interests are central. This time Western and Israeli ones are key.”


Plus this statement about the same attacks:


“I am not in a position at present to firmly point a finger at Israel, its agents, or its sayanim -- but assembling the information together, and considering all possibilities may suggest that Anders Behring Breivik might indeed, have been a Sabbath Goy.




Within its Judaic mundane-societal context, the Sabbath Goy is simply there to accomplish some minor tasks the Jews cannot undertake during the Sabbath. But within the Zion-ised reality we tragically enough live in, the Sabbath Goy kills for the Jewish state. He may even do it voluntarily."

And that author pointing to another author (at Veterans Today) who wrote:

"Israel has two difficulties with Norway that would be handled with a “false flag” terror attack. Certainly Anders Behring, the suspect in custody could easily be managed in a number of ways, led, perhaps assisted, augmented as it were. Any intelligence agency can do such things. One probably did. Israel’s difficulties are:

Norway’s national oil company has decided to boycott Israel because of the violence in Gaza. This is a huge issue with Israel, seen as a threat to their national security and is likely to draw a violent response. A car bomb near their oil company headquarters is very much a standard warning, “government to government” as it were. Adding the slaughter of children to it is a Mossad signature."

And if you knew that all of these quotes came from various articles on the same news and opinion site except the last one would you link to one of the articles as a reliable article?


The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) did link to the one with that third quote. The article, Was the Massacre in Norway a reaction to BDS?, was written by Gilad Atzmon. And Atzmon placed the link to Veterans Today and its Senior Editor, Gordon Duff’s article, “Norway Notes – Updated: Breaking Story the second tragedy is the lies,” in his article. Atzmon is also on the staff of Veterans Today. That is where my last quote came from.


The rest of the articles came from MWC News: Media With Conscience. They use many of the same writers as Veterans Today the site that uses veteran’s news articles and helps as a front for its rabid anti-Semitism.


Now having read all of these articles and knowing that IPMN keeps linking to Veterans Today and other sites that use the same writers I have to say that I do not apologize for writing my last posting on IPMN entitled, An example of the German Christians of 1933 ..... although someone has suggested I should be defrocked (whatever that means for a ruling elder?).1 When members of IPMN keep up this kind of unfruitful contention I must repeat:


"The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PC(U.S.A.) is the American post-modern example of Germany’s 1933 German Christians. When I close my eyes and envision members I can’t help but see them in German Church attire giving the Hitler salute. I realize this is a very insulting thing to write but their lack of concern for who they link to on their Facebook page is either a case of extreme ignorance or absolute hatefulness."


And I have something more to say. To identify oneself or one’s organization as Christian and continue to uphold such awful propaganda about the Jewish people is to deny the Lord of the Church. Jesus reminded the woman at the well that “salvation is from the Jews.”


Many members of the IPMN, are, perhaps, unconsciously, some outright, holding a grudge and even hatred against the Jews. They will not be the people to help bring peace to the Middle East. They cannot, because they have lost the kind of perspective that is needed to bring the two sides together. They may speak to the church as their motto states, but the Church must stop listening to them. In humility, before Jesus Christ, we have sin to confess.


Hat tip to David Fischler at Reformed Pastor, Exploiting the Norwegian Tragedy
[1] Scroll down on the defrocked link.

Please share my anger: IPMN, James Wall & hanging Jewish people

Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, writes of Bonhoeffer’s “holy anger” over the suffering of the Jews in Germany on Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass). That was the night when most of the synagogues and Jewish businesses in Germany were destroyed and burned. I hope the anger I am feeling at the moment has at least a tiny amount of holiness.

How do you feel when you read the statement below?

This is the way the world is, and this is Israel, the remorseless, unprincipled barbaric in the most and truest sense, of nations. I think the ruthless barbaric sense of superiority and invincibility Israel is, is in the myth of their “Nation” if not their blood, for there is no such thing as an ethnic or blood Jew or “people.” These God’s chosen people? My God!

I tire of this charade, and it is time someone began calling these shenanigans, what it is, spades are spades, and naming Zionist Israelis for what they are and, not simply calling them to account, but going to their house, knocking on their door, dragging them out, holding their feet to the fire and calling them to account… at the end of a figurative rope if necessary, and virtual ropes if at all possible!

The quote is by Debbie Menon, writing on a site that is a blog connected to Veterans Today, the horribly anti-Semitic site I wrote about several days ago. The site, My Catbird Seat, has many of the same writers that Veterans Today has including VT’s Senior Editor, Gordon Duff, who pushes the theory that Israel conspired to down the twin Towers on 9-11. My Catbird Seat has a list of their contributing writers. At the bottom of the list the name James M Wall is listed.

James Wall, once the Editor and Publisher of The Christian Century and now a contributing editor, is a writer often used by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) In fact; they have several of his articles on their web page. And on their Facebook page they just recently linked to one of his article from his blog Wall Writings, “US Offers Bibi 20 F-35 Fighters, The Jordan Valley and a Free UN Pass.”

Pastor David Fischler at Reformed Pastor has just written about Wall’s article, James Wall: Sewer Dweller (UPDATED). Fischler points out that Wall in his article was using resources from Veterans Today. He also raises some great questions and suggests that The Christian Century, for the sake of their own integrity, needs to rid themselves of any connection with Wall. “He [James Wall] has inextricably linked and identified himself with them through the sites he writes for and uses as sources. He is a blot on the Christian Century, and on the mainline churches that have looked to him for journalistic wisdom.”

I believe the same question needs to be asked of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network as well as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Rarely does the IPMN miss linking to Wall’s articles if they are about the Middle East. If they realize that he is connected to such extreme groups will they disconnect from him? Will the PCUSA ever understand that they have an organization, the IPMN, with too many connections by linkage, to radical anti-Semitic groups?

The truth is, after looking at many of the posts on My Catbird Seat, I realize that their articles and links are not that much different then the ones posted at IPMN. Only those that have to do with 9-11 conspiracy theories and rabid ant-Semitism are missing form the IPMN site. Other wise the articles and authors are mostly the same. And the continuous rant about Israel and Jewish people and organizations in the United States are also the same.

I am angry. It is almost Thanksgiving, I have a review to write, pies to bake, great grandchildren to read to, but still I am angry. I will go to the mountains for dinner with my oldest son and his wife, and I will go angry. I will carry this anger with me not from hate but from love. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has called us to peace and truth. He is truth; how can we hold such dishonesty in our hearts. How can we use information and organizations that tell lies about those God chose to bless the world with his great grace, Jesus Christ? How can we in any way be connected to those who wish to use “virtual ropes” on the Jewish people? Please share my anger.

The PC (U.S.A.) slipping into the dark world of extreme anti-Semitism ... UPdate

Without a glance over their shoulder, with memories of a past that embraced Presbyterian fairness, goodness and the righteousness of Christ’s kingdom, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network is moving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) into the dark world of extreme anti-Semitism. On their Facebook page they are now featuring an article from a site titled, Veterans Today.

The site is full of radical anti-Semitic statements, even ones that blame the Jews for 9-11. For instance this from one article:

Anyone still dumb enough to pay Jewish income taxes should examine the back of his canceled check to the IRS. It will say, “Pay to the order of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.” Why do you suppose it doesn’t designate the IRS or Treasury Department? Why does your tax money go to a private, profit-making English corporation owned by Jews?

The (first) Bank of the United States lost its charter in 1811. Due to our second war with England in thirty-six years, the War of 1812, it was not possible to charter a second Bank of the United States – owned by the Bank of England! – until 1819, when another twenty-year charter was granted. In 1833, President Jackson cut
off its funds and this private British-Jewish company calling itself the Bank of the United States died six years before its charter would have expired.

People were a lot smarter or more educated in the 19th Century and they would not allow the Congress to create another private, foreign-owned central bank that would profit by lending us our own currency at interest. By 1913, however, the persistence of the Jews finally paid off when Paul Warburg of Germany bribed and manipulated American politicians to pass the Federal Reserve Act, which gave us our third and current private central bank.

Paul Warburg’s brother, Max, was Germany’s chief financial advisor to the Kaiser as well as the head of the German espionage service during World War I, while Paul was on the board of the Federal Reserve – while Germany and America were at war! Only Jews can get away with such wild criminality. (Italics Mine)

This article, JB CAMPBELL: DEFENSE AGAINST ZIONIST AGGRESSION has a warning that it is a “highly controversial document and is only posted for the information. (I guess we all need false slanderous information.) It was posted by Gordon Duff who is the Senior Editor at Veterans Today.

He also posted and wrote this GORDON DUFF: DEAR GERALDO RIVERA, 9/11 MURDER IS NOT A JOKE (3 videos), which has this:

Covering up 9/11 is key to Israel’s foreign policy. If they are blamed, America will turn on them as journalist Franklin Lamb warned this week. Rivera, an Israeli citizen, has reason to have an agenda especially since he works for Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, another Israeli citizen. Rivera? Murdoch?

Simply put, if 9/11 was an inside job, Israel was there every step of the way and so was Fox News. Now they are trying to “spin” the story, control it, make murder a joke.

The article the Israel/Palestine Mission Network highlighted is, ERIC CANTOR AND THE PROVOKING OF AMERICAN ANTI-SEMITISM : Veterans Today, is by Dr. Lawrence Davidson. It was posted by Debbie Menon who according to Veterans Today among other things, “is committed to exposing Israel Lobbies control of ‘U.S. Middle East Policy. Control’ which amounts to treason by the Zionist lobbies in America and its stooges in Congress, and that guarantees there can never be a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only catastrophe for all, in the region and the world.”

The article itself insists that Eric Cantor committed treason when “He [Cantor] made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.”

You will need to read the rest of the article to see how the author managed to come to his conclusion about treason. But I have seen this statement linked to in articles on the IPMN site several places. It is simply an opinion and it not different than other accusations against Jews in other countries particularly during the Nazi years.

That Presbyterian leaders are allowing one of their networks to link, as something worthwhile, to sites like Veterans Today speaks volumes to the lack of care, discipline and concern for Christ’s kingdom. We have lost our way, may Christ guide us back to a place of integrity.

UPdate: Another post by David Fischler on this subject with information I did not have:
IPMN: Into the Sewer
Hat-tip to David Fischler at the Reformed Pastor, see USCEIO + Veterans Today: Down the Memory Hole and USCEIO: Friend and Ally of Anti-Semites (UPDATED).