Televangelist Pat Robertson was taken to task by outraged Israelis when on 5 January he informed his “700 Club” of anti-Semitic shut-ins that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s way of punishing him for returning Gaza to the Palestinians. Pat was struck down from an all-star Christian Zionist board of directors who are in the planning stages of building an evangelical theme park by the Sea of Galilee, on land leased to them at no charge by Israel, a neat trick since the property in question is not recognised internationally as belonging to Israel and has been an obstacle to peace between Israel and Syria since the Six Day War in 1967. What better fact on the ground to create than an amusement park for American zealots to bring that discussion to an end. Although the lease is conditional upon the Christians promising they will never go forth into Israel to spread their version of the gospels and Jesus, the WORD will be broadcast live and picked-up by satellites all around the world. No word on whether it will be beamed into the homes of Israelis as well.
The distanced and humiliated Robertson fired off a letter of apology to Omri Sharon at the hospital where he was sitting vigil by his father’s bedside. Omri was also nearing sentencing for “violating campaign funding laws, perjury, and fraudulent registration of a company,” having lost a December bid to delay January’s hearings citing the upcoming election and a need to properly manage his father’s campaign. Arguments for and against jail time proceeded as scheduled on 23 January in Tel Aviv district court, where Omri “expressed deep regret for his actions,” and claimed to be “inexperienced in politics.” The decision will be announced on Valentine’s Day.
There are those who continue to believe that Omri was fed to the wolves to take the heat off his father, brother Gilad and their scandals, including the infamous Greek Island Affair, Israelis who believe the “Disengagement” itself was devised for the same reason by Dov Weisglass. They harbour an intense, fulminating hatred for these people that is no less, in fact might be more than, the extreme prejudice they cultivate for Arabs.
Ruth Matar, co-founder of the pro-settler activist group Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green), despises Sharon and family and is disgusted they’ve escaped prosecution so far. But her primary concern when writing EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL? THE SAGA OF TWO ISRAELI FAMILIES 28 July 2005, posted on the website Think-Israel, were crimes she says Sharon committed against the Jewish people leading up to and during the disengagement from the Gush Katif settlement including imprisoning without charge or trial those who are critical of the government.
This is what Matar says happened to Shmuel Cytryn in 1995, the son of two members of her group, who was jailed for two and a half months for having a “loose tongue.” His mother says that he did warn others to be aware that a certain man in their community was a Shabak (General Security Service) agent which Matar says was confirmed years later. “The man in question was Shabak agent Avishai Raviv, also known as “Champagne”.”
Fast forward to 2005. The Israeli owners of the Palm Beach Hotel in Gush Katif, who’d made the establishment “livable again” for young couples with children using money “obtained from American donors,” refused Sharon’s request to evacuate the 118 rooms so the IDF could move in. Sharon finally evicted the tenants by force, using the “near lynching” of an Arab youth as his excuse, according to Matar.
I have discussed this “near lynching” in my previous Letters from Jerusalem. It has been proven, beyond doubt, that this was an affair staged by the Israeli media. However, Shimshon Cytryn is still imprisoned under very onerous conditions, charged with “attempted murder”. He is accused of having led the “near lynching” of the Palestinian youth. (The Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2005)
The lynching story captured a few days of concern before disappearing as crimes committed against “Unpeople” do. They are tossed into history’s “expendable” dustbins where stories of settler terrorism against Palestinians have been sent for years. What will be done with reports of settlers attacking the IDF?
In the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona on Wednesday, “settlers acted with force similar to that of IDF infantry unit,” when soldiers arrived to evacuate them. By the end of the nine hour riot, more than 200 were hurt, “including 80 members of security forces,” or “171 civilians and 45 cops” according to this report. A police officer told Ynet, “I have been targeted by more rocks today than anywhere in Gaza or the West Bank.” [Video]
One 16-year-old boy was hospitalized in serious condition with head wounds, a border policeman who suffered several broken facial bones and policeman who suffered a shattered kneecap.
This was no protest demonstration. This was a cruel event, loaded with hatred.
I know what it is to be lied to by the government. But I cannot fathom how these settlers who seek sympathy for their plight remain blind to the inhumanity and injustices they deliver by bulldozer and gun to the Palestinians. And I have never more deeply regretted that my tax dollars facilitate the madness that plagues them, because I could never treat another human being as they do the Palestinians, and it is clear these settlers will never have empathy for them.
Pat Robertson’s banishment may not have been carved in stone. Pastor John C. Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, “is to launch Christians United for Israel (CUFI) at an invitation-only “Summit on Israel” next Tuesday at his Cornerstone Church.”
Think of CUFI as a Christian version of AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee],” Hagee told The Jerusalem Post. “We need to be able to respond instantly to Washington with our concerns about Israel. We must join forces to speak as one group and move as one body to [respond to] the crisis Israel will be facing in the near future.
“Every state in the Union, every congressional district” will be accounted for, Hagee says. Board members comprise an evangelical who’s who, including Jerry Falwell, Benny Hinn, Jack Hayford, George Morrison, Rod Parsley and Steven Strang. Televangelist Pat Robertson is to attend the summit, but is not on the board.
Christian Zionism and American Foreign Policy: Paving the Road to Hell in Palestine
by Lawrence Davidson
As the Zionists opened the Holy Land for settlement, the natives, the indigenous Arabs (both the Muslim majority and what American Protestants considered the “pseudo” Christian Arabs of the Greek Orthodox and Catholic “degenerate churches”), became less noticed by American and other observers except in as much as they stood in apparent opposition to redemption and modernity alike. This took the form of a process of “perceptual depopulation” that erased the demographic and cultural/religious realities of Palestine. It was a form of ethnic cleansing at the conceptual level.
I cannot recommend this film highly enough, especially to Christians who have only seen Palestine through the distorted lens of lunatics like Pat Robertson and his cretinous cabal. It will break your heart, if you have one.