What's in a name? Don't ask IPMN or Stephen Sizer

What's in a name? Sometimes a very good man, somtimes a bad one. And if people confuse them well ...

Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, should probably change his name. Some keep getting his name mixed up with someone else and then they think ‘aha’ this will prove that evangelicals don’t like Israel. So using Colson’s name or thinking they have linked to the evangelical Charles Colson, they produce a true anti-Semite, Charles Carlson of We Hold These Truths of Strait Gate Ministries.

Gordon Duff of Veterans Today did that. He even had a picture of Colson on his front page and then a video of Charles Carlson making horrible statements about Israel and Christian Zionists because that is Carlson’s main focus. It took me and finally someone from Charles Colson’s ministry to convince Duff that he had the wrong man. And then there is the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and their friend Stephen Sizer.

Now I don’t really know if Sizer and the IPMN are confused or if they both are purposely linking ‘again’ to a rabid anti-Semite site. But given that the small posting that Sizer has written and IPMN has linked to is about Evangelicals changing their mind about Israel, I think they may just be confused. (I hope they are.) The posting is “Is Zionism losing ground among Evangelicals?” Sizer refers to ‘Carlson’ with a large quote:

The poll results state that 73% of those polled think "God's covenant with the Jewish people" continues today, and only 22% say it does not. It should be noted here that this is a Judeo-Christian give-away, since it is based on a false premise. The Pew Forum and all Evangelicals need to understand that there never was an Old Testament covenant with "the Jewish people." Most Evangelicals, radical or moderate, fail to properly distinguish the ancient tribe of Israelites from the Jews of today, and in particular, the Jewish inhabitants of the modern secular Jewish state of Israel. This error is the result of scriptural distortion that is encouraged by the State of Israel and its lobbies in the USA, and by the Israel-friendly press.

Now if Sizer had read the whole article he would have read the beginning and the subtitle the article was placed under. The subtitle is “Pharisee Watch” and the beginning of the article states, “A recent Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders, taken by the Pew Forum for Religious and Public Life, reveals cracks in the structure of Evangelicalism, best described as Judeo-Christianity, welcome news for all those who labor for world peace and financial stability.”

Sizer should have realized that Charles Colson would not insult his fellow Evangelicals like that.

But more importantly Sizer ignored the middle section of his Carlson quote. “The Pew Forum and all Evangelicals need to understand that there never was an Old Testament covenant with "the Jewish people." Most Evangelicals, radical or moderate, fail to properly distinguish the ancient tribe of Israelites from the Jews of today, and in particular, the Jewish inhabitants of the modern secular Jewish state of Israel.”

And if he didn’t ignore it he is himself an anti-Semite.

That is the old anti-Semitic farce, that the Jewish Israeli citizens of today are not in anyway linked to the ancient Israelites.

If one looks at the books offered on Carlson’s web site there are books by Gordon Ginn a holocaust revisionist and Eustace Mullins, a well known anti-Semite.

One book by George Armstrong is summarized:

Mayer Amshel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild fortune, at the time of his death in 1812, created a trust of his estate, by will, for the elevation of the jewish race and establishment of a Jewish World Empire. The estate has been preserved and managed since his death as a unit in persuance [sic] of the provisions of his will. This 1940 classic examines the origin of the Rothschild Empire, gold, the Federal Reserve, and how the money trust twice arranged for World War.

The information in this conspiratorial book is also classic anti-Semitism.

On the site of the Anti-Defamation League under extremism in America, there is an article on the Institute for Historical Review, a now faltering group that attempts to prove the Holocaust did not happen. In the article it is mentioned that in 2004 the IHR joined with the neo-Nazi National Alliance to hold a Holocaust denial conference in Sacramento. Among the speakers was Charles Carlson.

That is the activity of a rabid anti-Semite

I started out with a funny thought. Perhaps that very godly man, Charles Colson, should change his name. I end with a different thought, a serious one. The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PCUSA should find someone else to pick out articles to link to, someone with a sense of fairness, integrity and with a desire to be an honest Christ honoring Christian. And Stephen Sizer should do a better job of researching his leads. It is too bad, but there is a growing movement of anti-Semites in the world today.[1]

[1]While sending a letter off to Mr Sizer, I discovered this new article on Veterans Today, "The Military Solution" by J. Bruce Campbell. Here is a quote to help my readers understand the growing antiSemitism in the United States:

"Again, the US military has not covered itself in glory. It is covered by Jewish slime. The US military is a disgrace and has always been a disgrace. It must be purged of its subversive agents of Judaism.

American and Israeli Jews exercise control of the US military via Freemasonry and homosexuality, both of which are rampant in the senior officer class of the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy, according to the courageous revelations of Kay Griggs, the former wife of Marine Colonel George Griggs. The colonel revealed to his wife that the senior officer class participates in the vilest forms of “male bonding,” done for the purposes of mind control and obedience to illegal orders, which include assassination.

Israel, with American Jewish permission, has threatened to unleash its weapons of mass destruction on the capitals of Europe. Reports persist here that Israel has planted nuclear weapons in American cities that will be detonated if Israel is not obeyed.

Other credible reports indicate that Israel was responsible for the Japanese nuclear disaster in retaliation for Japan’s support of the Palestinians in the UN. Also that Israel attempted to kill Germany’s president for the same reason (sabotaged helicopter) and that the Norwegian slaughter of children was for that country’s pro-Palestinian position.

This level of threatened and actual mass murder can only be thwarted by the masters of mass murder, the US military, which has been under the Jewish spell since at least 1861. There is only one way that the US military can redeem itself and rescue the world from the fruit of its sadistic behavior on behalf of Judaism. Judaism must be removed as a threat to life on this planet and prevented from ever rising again."

IPMN, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement and its many hoaxes...UPDATE...and now a correction

[2] A correction see below.

UPDATE: I just received this (Nov. 24) from Mr. Lawler at DePaul; please read the rest of the posting, if you have not, to see what it is about:

"Hello again Ms. Larson:

Here is an updated statement on the hummus issue at DePaul:

DePaul University has asked its food services vendor to reinstate the sale of Sabra hummus on its Chicago campuses. Last week, university personnel asked them to temporarily suspend the sale of Sabra hummus following a request to do so from a campus student group on political grounds. It is policy when the university receives such a request, to first forward it to its internal Fair Business Practices Committee for thorough review and consideration before taking any action. The student group’s request has now been forwarded to that committee.

The primary purpose of DePaul’s Fair Business Practices Committee is to protect the integrity of the University's mission and values with regard to DePaul's contracts and contractors. The Fair Business Practices Committee receives and examines complaints and makes recommendations to the president consistent with the University's mission and values.



EDMUND LAWLER
Communications Specialist"


Several articles about supposed successful divestment from companies doing business with Israel have been linked to on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Israel/Palestine Mission Network site. At least one of them, an important one, isn’t true and another is in the decision process. Perhaps the reading public would like to help with that decision.

The first and biggest story was that a major Dutch Pension fund had divested from Israel. That was not the case. The link was to the E-Magazine, The Electronic Intifada. The article, “Major Dutch pension fund divests from occupation” by Adri Nieuwhof and Guus Hoelen begins:

The major Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), which has investments totaling 97 billion euros, has informed The Electronic Intifada that it has divested from almost all the Israeli companies in its portfolio.

PGGM, the manager of the major Dutch pension fund PFZW, has adopted a new guideline for socially responsible investment in companies which operate in conflict zones.

In addition, PFZM has also entered into discussions with Motorola, Veolia and Alstom to raise its concerns about human rights issues. All three companies have actively supported and profited from Israel's occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip.

But a different article in the Huffington Post, “Another Israel Divestment Hoax,” by Ben S Cohen, begins:

When I read this report on the Electronic Intifada website claiming that the largest pension fund in The Netherlands had divested from the Israeli companies in its
portfolio, it struck me that the campaign to subject Israel to a regime of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS for short - had hit a milestone. No longer, I said to myself, is this a matter of campus gesture politics. The long-awaited South Africa effect is finally manifesting.

Then it occurred to me that the story might not be true. I contacted the fund's managers, the Dutch company PGGM, and they confirmed my suspicions.

Cohen goes on to explain:

Back in May, Israel's economic vibrancy secured its admission into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD,) which gathers together the world's developed countries. As a result, funds focused upon emerging markets were obliged to withdraw their investments from Israeli companies, who'd moved to the different benchmark for developed markets. Bottom line: this had absolutely nothing to do with politically-motivated divestment.

Cohen then explores some other hoaxes perpetrated by the BDS movement. And there are many: Hampshire College, Motorola hoax and like the hoax above, Harvard University. Cohen writes, "The University has not divested from Israel,’ a spokesman calmly explained. “’Israel was moved from the MSCI, our benchmark in emerging markets, to the EAFE index in May due to its successful growth. Our emerging markets holdings were rebalanced accordingly.’”

So now the minor divestment story. The IPMN linked several days ago to this story: “DePaul divests from Israeli hummus product.” This is a blog with postings by Sami Kishawi. He begins:

Today marks another win for the global boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement against corporations that profit from severe human rights violations. Chicago’s very own DePaul University just announced that their dining services will be discontinuing the sale of hummus manufactured by Sabra, an Israeli brand known for its vocal and material support of Israeli Defense Forces. The administration has temporarily suspended the sale of Sabra products and will likely move towards permanently banning the brand from campus.

And this is not different from another article not linked to by IPMN, The Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement: to end Israeli Apartheid. They begin:

Today marks another win for the global boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement against corporations that profit from severe human rights violations. Chicago’s very own DePaul University just announced that their dining services will be discontinuing the sale of hummus manufactured by Sabra, an Israeli brand known for its vocal and material support of Israeli Defense Forces. The administration has temporarily suspended the sale of Sabra products and will likely move towards permanently banning the brand from campus.

Both the blogger and the BDS group insist that, “The ultimate success of this modest divestment campaign isn’t that it resulted in the removal of a product from campus cafeteria shelves but, rather, that it has undoubtedly set the framework for future campaigns in college campuses throughout the United States.”

This statement is being handed out by some larger organization and it is only half true. Here is the statement sent to me by DePaul's Communications Specialist, Edmund Lawler:

“Hello Ms. Larson:

Here is the official statement issued by DePaul today:


DePaul University’s Dining Services has temporarily stopped the sale of Sabra hummus pending a review by the university’s Fair Business Practices Committee. The temporary suspension of the sale of the Sabra product was prompted by a request by the Students for Justice in Palestine at DePaul. The organization expressed concern that the company that makes the product has been a voice of support for the ongoing Israeli occupation. In the meantime, Chartwells, DePaul’s dining services vendor, will make hummus and serve it in the dining halls."[1]


This is not finished and hopefully, though a small matter the DePaul College will understand that most of the BDS movement is calling for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish State and will not bend to a small group of people who are seemingly returning to the early days of the 1930’s.

[1]Mr Lawler asked me to not include his information in my posting.
[2] Kishawi is the person who wrote the first announcement and he corrected his statement on the 22nd. However IPMN never connected to his correction. Now as far as I can tell no one is announcing that the boycott failed, which it did.

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).

IPMN: questions we have been avoiding?

During the early years of the Holocaust, when Jews were attempting to find safety in other countries, rejection and tragedy occurred over and over. At least two ships filled with fleeing refuges were turned aside by many countries including the United States. The ship, the St Louis, returned to Europe where “only France, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands” would receive them. As Germany conquered three of those countries the Jewish refuges fell, once again, into Nazis hands. Another ship, the Struma, loaded with Romanian Jews was refused entry into a Palestine port by the British. In the end the ship sank and only two people survived.[1] (Picture: Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis look out through the portholes of the ship while docked in the port of Havana.)

By 1947 and 48, many Europeans and Americans understood with maddening clarity the great evil of the Nazis. Using a lie that German citizens were in harms way because of the Jews the Nazis attempted to murder all Jewish people. Insisting that the Jews were the cause of all their troubles they perpetrated the Holocaust.

But still some mainline church people of the United States, who know that Jewish people, persecuted for too many years, need safety, believe the State of Israel should just disappear. Yes, they do suggest that this should happen for the safety of American citizens. They suggest that if Israel would just disappear and/or America would stop supporting her, all radical Arab terrorism would cease.

And, yes this is the position of at least some members of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)!

There is an article at the on-line magazine, The Daily Beast, entitled “Does Israel Make Us Safer” by Thaddeus Russell. The article was placed on the IPMN Facebook site by Rev. John Morgan, who was an IPMN representative in 2009. While it wasn’t IPMN who posted the article they state: “Thanks for posting this-asks questions we have been avoiding.” And Noushin Framke chair of the IPMN’s communication working group clicks that she likes the article.

The article’s main idea is that Arab terrorists have never attacked the United States or its citizens for any other reason then the fact that the United States supports Israel. The plea is that we should quit supporting Israel for the safety of the citizens of the United States.

The article starts by explaining that historically some of President Truman’s advisers tried to discourage him from helping the newly emerging Jewish State:

They argued that if the United States helped to set up an independent Jewish nation it would provoke terrorist attacks on Americans and inaugurate an endless war between Arabs and Jews. “There are 30 million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other,” Forrestal told those in the administration who favored recognizing Israel. “Why don’t you face up to the realities?”

At least the author admits that historically it was David against Goliath. The author also writes:

The history of Israel and its relationship with the U.S. is infinitely complex, but there’s one damning fact that’s ignored as often as The Question: There was not a single act of Arab terrorism against Americans before 1968, when the U.S. became the chief supplier of military equipment and economic aid to Israel. In light of this fact, it’s difficult to credibly sustain the argument that Arab terrorism is spawned by Islam’s alleged promotion of violence and antipathy toward American culture or by a “natural” Arab anti-Semitism.
.
It also suggests that no matter what policies Israel enacts to protect itself—even a withdrawal from the occupied territories or a two-state “solution”—it must be a perpetual wartime state.

But it is a sinful anti-Semitism which drives many terrorist groups. The author continues:

…some 15,000 Israelis and nearly 5,000 Americans have been killed by Arabs opposed to the existence of Israel. Not one of those Israelis would have died had they lived in New York or Los Angeles, and it is reasonable to argue that many more Americans would be alive today had the United States never given aid to Israel.

Citing the death of Senator Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan and the attack promoted by Ben Laden, Russell writes:

This evidence, these arguments, or even The Question itself will never move those who believe—for religious, political, or emotional reasons—that a Jewish state must exist in the Middle East. They will not change the minds of Israelis who would rather live in perpetual war than leave the land they say belongs to them. But they might very well convince Americans, and even some Jews, to no longer participate in what now is clearly an act of self-destruction.

And evidently the IPMN, or those communicating for the IPMN, agree with this assessment, let all the Jewish people in Israel be exiled or destroyed, and then the citizens of the United States will be safe?

Insisting that the Jews were the cause of all their troubles they perpetrated the Holocaust ….

[1] For the complete story of those who perished and those non-Jewish people who helped see “Holocaust: an end to innocence,” by Seymour Rossel. See also http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/events/holocaust04/st_louis.html and many, many other articles on the web.

Benny Morris, his book "One State, Two States" and the Israel/Palestine Mission Network

I have just finished reading Benny Morris’ book One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict. Unlike most of Morris’s books, this is a small book, only 240 pages. It covers the history of the various proposals and attitudes by both the Zionist Movement and the Palestinian Nationalists concerning the many possibilities of statehood for both Israelis and the Palestinians.

There isn’t a group or an idea that Morris misses starting around 1890. The book was published in 2009 and the history reaches into 2008 including President Clinton’s attempts to help the Palestinians and Israelis reach a peace settlement. This is a complex history of the various attempts to partition the Holy Land into two independent states. Both sides in the debacle receive fair treatment by the author. (Morris is often quoted by advocates for both Israel and Palestinians.)

Morris, a Jewish historian, is honest enough to write that the early Zionists were working toward a state that would encompass the whole of Palestine. He is a good enough historian to point out that once the Holocaust began in Germany they realized they needed to let go of their dream and settle for a partitioned Palestine.

Morris also points out that the Palestinians have never let go of their insistence that they own all of Palestine and that all Jews who did not descend from the Jewish peoples who lived there before 1917 should depart. When Palestinians refer to the occupation they mean all of the country from the Mediterranean to Jordan. And this is the reason I am writing this post. It is not a book review, although it is a very good book and I may write one later, but I kept picking up catch words from the Palestinian side that reminded me of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And occupation was one of those words.

I have never heard the IPMN clarify whether they are referring to all of Palestine or the Palestinian territories such as Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem when they write about the occupation? And since IPMN often link to articles about one state for Palestine which would of course remove any sign of a Jewish haven there, are they advocating for a one state solution?

Morris links a one state solution to the now constant refrain of apartheid. Referring, in a footnote to journalist, Sever Plutzker and his article “Who Favors a Partition Plan?”, he explains that apartheid is now the key word among activist because:

Talk of ‘apartheid’ with its stress on human rights and their absence, should lead, eventually, to ameliorating the situation of the oppressed within the geopolitical framework. Plutzker points out that this shift of emphasis corresponds to the shift among Palestinians from advocacy of a two-state solution to advocacy of one-statism; talking of ‘apartheid serves the “one state” purpose. (n 1 page 203-4.)

Another thought and reaction I had, as I read Morris’ book was that on the IPMN’s Facebook page they are always linking to awful articles on Israel but nothing truly bad about say, Hamas, or Hezbollah, etc. So my thought is do they think Hamas and other terrorist groups are legitimate?

Morris toward the end of his book, because it is a history, written in the sequence of events, writes about Hamas. He writes about their covenant.

The covenant defines the ongoing struggle as directed against “the Jews,” “they who have received the scriptures,” and defines them, in the Qur’an’s terminology, as “smitten with vileness wheresoever they are found … because they … slew the prophets,” a reference to the killing of Jesus Christ. The Hamas is deeply, essentially anti-Semitic. “Our struggle against the Jews,” states the covenant, “is very great and very serious … The Prophet … has said: ‘The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” Citing the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the Covenant charges the Jews, “with their money … took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations … With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world … they were behind the French Revolution …

There is much, much more including blaming the Jews for starting communism and World War II. So why is this kind of thinking ignored by IPMN? Now they have moved on to connect to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement while apparently failing to understand the connection between this movement and the radical outlook of Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Middle East.

This is the introduction to the Israel/Palestine Mission Network's beginning involvement with the BDS movement. They have linked to a video on their Facebook page with this statement, “The Philly BDS Coalition dances into action in a local grocery store chain to push them to deshelve Sabra and Tribe of Hummus; both brands support Israeli war crimes. This marks the launch of our campaign: http://www.phillybds.org/."

The Co-op I shop at was attempting to do the same. They did not do it, in fact, they changed their whole policy on boycotts because of the effort. Here is the video IPMN linked too in the name of Presbyterians: