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.
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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.

Speaking of the dead ...

Sunday is All Hollow’s Eve; Monday is the Feast of All Saints. Although lately a lot of good Bible studies and commentaries that speak of a renewed heaven and earth have been published, still there is that time of being absent from the body and present with the Lord. As Paul stated:

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. (Phil 1:21-24)

Richard Wurmbrand, the Lutheran pastor who suffered many years in communist prisons, tells the story of several prisoners gathering for communion. Since one, who was of an Orthodox Church, insisted that the communion must be over the bones of a saint they celebrated communion over the dying body of one of the saints in that prison.

And that is often what belonging to Jesus is about-always with the Lord, always in communion with the saints, always relating to the suffering of Christ and his people. And that is also what death and heaven are about for Christians. Death and heaven, they are about Jesus. Nothing, not even death “will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 8:39)”

In Revelation the dead are called blessed. The text states, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying write ‘blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” The Holy Spirit confirms the words with the promise of rest and the redemption of not only the saints but of their work on earth. “Their deeds follow with them. (Revelation 14:13)"

The Israel/Palestine Mission Network is boycotting Caterpillar

I wrote several days ago about the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joining the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. I mentioned that although the beginning of their statement states they are first boycotting products sold in the Israeli settlements they joined the whole movement which includes an intellectual boycott of Israeli universities, publications and professors.

Now they are boycotting Caterpillar, something the 219th General Assembly did not do. On their Facebook page they are linked to a site titled End the Occupation. The page has a sub-title of “Take Action: Help Stop Delivery of CAT Bulldozers to Israel.” With their link they have written:

Israel Palestine Mission Network Please sign this petition to stop Caterpillar by clicking item #1. You can see IPMN signed as an organization in item #2.

[On that page it states]:Here’s what you can do to make sure that the United States does not allow the delivery of these Caterpillar bulldozers to Israel, and to advance our boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Caterpillar:

This is a never-ending story. It is as though the IPMN has no regard for fellow Presbyterians, General Assembly leadership, fair information to all of their readers, or even for peace in the Middle East. Why do I write the latter? Today, although the IPMN has information coming in on their news feeds on their web page that tells horrendous tales about what is happening to Israel as well as the Palestinians, on their Facebook page they have chosen to only feature what they perceive to be wrong with Israel or harmful to the Palestinians.

While it is true that since they only receive on their web page feeds from Haaretz.Com, a Jewish news paper that is to the left, and other news sources that are alternative news sources, still some actions against Israel and Jewish people do seep in. But they do not show up on the IPMN Facebook page. This onesidiness combined with failure to adhere to the guidance of the General Assembly does not make for peace anywhere and it is certainly dishonest.

Today one of the headlines in Haaretz was this, “Islamic Jihad leader: Israel must be wiped out of existence.” This one was also on the IPMN news feed, Obama: Packages containing explosives addressed to Jewish organizations in Chicago. None of this shows up on the IPMN Facebook page and undoubtedly the reason the first one, as a type, does not is because it contradicts IPMN's claims that Israel does not need to defend herself against terrorism.

The second headline, as a type, does not show up on their Facebook page because it contradicts the IPMN’s implied position that Jewish people no longer need to fear for their security. Yet everywhere in an anti-Semitic world it is very clear that the Jewish people need a Jewish state as an anchor for their security even when they do not live there.

The IPMN leaders have thrown themselves fully into the cauldron of the BDS movement. As a Presbyterian organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) they will not stop until leadership insists that they must. As I have written before, goose-stepping is blowing in the Presbyterian air.

A good day for fishing

It may be a good day for fishing where you live. I think it will be here. This is fun. If you don’t recognize the song which is in Dutch, it is “There is Power in the Blood.” (Picture by Stephen Larson)

Would you be free from the burden of sin?

There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;

Would you o’er evil a victory win?

There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

There is power, power, wonder working power

In the blood of the Lamb;

There is power, power, wonder working power

In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be free from your passion and pride?

There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;

Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide;

There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?

There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;

Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.

There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

Would you do service for Jesus your King?

There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;

Would you live daily His praises to sing?

There’s wonderful power in the blood.

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21)"

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:

The Israel/Palestine Mission Network and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement: ignoring PC(U.S.A.) policy

I am a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) but first of all I am a Christian. I belong to Jesus. That means in all things I must try to be fair and honest. That means I must love others. All others, as Jesus loved me. That means I must love the Palestinians of the Palestinian territories and those who are citizens of the State of Israel. And I must love the Jewish people of the State of Israel. And that is why I am outraged at the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And I am outraged at my denomination that will not rein in the IPMN.

The IPMN have in my and other Presbyterian names joined the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement which is a movement pushing against the whole State of Israel.

On the IPMN web site they have posted this Presbyterian Mission Network Joins BDS Movement. They begin the statement by suggesting that they will be boycotting products coming from Israeli settlements. But with the title and the end of their statement, they have, in fact, joined the whole BDS Movement which encourages not only the boycotting of products coming from Israel but also intellectual boycotts of published material and visiting professors.

The IPMN refers to The Amman Call but also to the Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth. The IPMN is a Presbyterian organization. The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted against boycotting Israel. And they did not endorse the Kairos Palestine document but instead commended it for study. This was in part because of many objections by Presbyterians and others over its call for total divestment and boycotting of Israel.

IPMN constantly flaunts its supposed right to do whatever it pleases despite the fact it is a Presbyterian organization. It posted a video about Israel by a radical Palestinian and took ten days to remove it without apology. See The Israel/Palestine Mission Network posts a film put together by those espousing radical Islamic views of Israel. UP-date.

They produced a booklet, which accused the United States media of being controlled by the Jews and Israel. It also suggested that immigrants to Israel after World War II were not linked genetically to ancient Israel. See Were Holocaust victims linked genealogically to biblical Israel?

During the 219th GA they pushed a paper which stated that Jewish organizations in the United States had burned down a church and sent a package to the Presbyterian headquarters which possibly contained a bomb. Both were lies which IPMN later suggested was accidently left in their paper. They did not apologize. See I have no words: Carol Hylkema's answer to my e-mail also see An overture filled with fury: anti-Semitism again.

Recently on their Facebook page they have been linking to articles suggesting that there should be a one state solution to the Middle East problems, but that is not Presbyterian policy. It is time for the PCUSA to unlink from the Israel/Palestine Mission Network. Then with a great sigh of relief we can all try a little harder to love the other including both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

A friend just sent me this thought and I think it is a good suggestion: "With this public declaration of the IPMN joining the Israel-targeted international BDS movement, it might also seem timely and appropriate for the PCUSA's General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) to remove the IPMN for the tax-exempt donation status that it currently enjoys with its numbered account status as a PCUSA Extra Commitment Opportunity (ECO) program budget line item under the control of the PCUSA treasurer."

Dry grass, skulls & the Lord: for Sunday

It is raining a beautiful soft rain in Sacramento tonight. All of the dry plants and weeds in the garden, burned by the hot winds of fall, are ending their short lifespan with the gentle rain that usually comes toward the end of our autumn. Their dry presence reminds me of several verses in Isaiah:

A voice says “Call out.” Then he answered what shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. (40:6-8)

I am also reminded of a purse my granddaughter, an artist, painted. I asked her why there were skulls on some of the flower stems. She answered, first, as many good artists would, that she thought skulls were beautiful. But then she said she was thinking of those verses in Isaiah about God blowing on the flowers and the death of people.

But there are amazing verses that come before these verses. They set hope before those rushing toward death. The text speaks of the good news coming to Jerusalem. The words speak of preparing the way before the coming of the Lord. This speaks of the coming incarnation of the eternal Son, Jesus Christ. It speaks of the Glory of the Lord. “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

And then the verses that follow 6-8, are full of God’s beautiful promises:

Behold the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him. Behold his reward is with him and his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, in his arms he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead the nursing ewes. (10-11)

After these two verses, like a great symphony, the text speaks to God’s glory and greatness until once again there is imagery of God blowing on humanity, but in this case rulers and judges will wither. But then, again the word turns to those that God is shepherding, and the text speaks of the Everlasting lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth who will give his people strength and power.

So the eternal God through the Son gifts the children with such a close connection to himself that there is nothing that stands between. United to Jesus we are gently led, carried and strengthened. That relationship to God is unique and totally his doing. Jesus Christ is Lord.