25 thoughts on “The Israeli War on Christmas…and Christianity – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. “I note he’s compared Israeli Jews to birds of prey and Palestinians to fish, their prey” – how exactly did you ‘note’ that?

    You are forcing so much into his words that it is impossible to take you seriously. The part about gupstein is important to read so why will you hurt your own credibility with this nonsense about Falic

  2. Professor Leibowitz’s term “judeo nazism” seems to be increasingly more appropriate. The resemblances are uncanny. The “Blut und Boden” (blood and soil) mythology, the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.

    Christian zionism is helping this process along.

    “At least one in four American Christians surveyed recently by Christianity Today magazine said that they believe it is their biblical responsibility to support the nation of Israel. … The Pew Research Center put the figure at 63 per cent among white evangelicals. Christian Zionism is pervasive within mainline American evangelical, charismatic and independent denominations including the Assemblies of God, Pentecostals and Southern Baptists, as well as many of the independent mega-churches. It is less prevalent within the historic denominations, which show a greater respect for the work of the United Nations, support for human rights, the rule of international law and empathy with the Palestinians.

    Christian Zionism as a modern theological and political movement embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism. It has become deeply detrimental to a just peace between Palestine and Israel. It propagates a worldview in which the Christian message is reduced to an ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism.

    Burgeoning Christian Zionist organizations such as the International Christian Embassy (ICEJ), Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI) wield considerable influence on Capitol Hill, claiming a support base in excess of 50 million true believers. This means there are now at least ten times as many Christian Zionists as Jewish Zionists. And their European cousins are no less active in the Zionist Hasbarafia, lobbying for Israel, attacking its critics and thwarting the peace process.”

    Mr. Gopstein is obviously an objectionable individual. But if he manages to drive a wedge between Jewish and Christian Zionism he has my blessing.

  3. Oh, and btw, his loony disciples didn’t “burn down” the school (my daughter’s school, so I should know) – they burned down one classroom. *Would* they burn down the entire school if they could? Probably. But haven’t yet.

  4. The bird loves the fish, but the creatures must remain in their element, one in the air, the other in the water.
    No birds of prey, here. Sorry.

  5. “Professor Leibowitz’s term “judeo nazism” seems to be increasingly more appropriate. The resemblances are uncanny. The “Blut und Boden” (blood and soil) mythology, the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.”

    Most ‘observant’ and even non ‘observant Jews would not use Leibowitz as a paradigm for Judaism.
    Whether or not you are Jewish I do not know but the paucity of your knowledge of Judaism is quite obvious.

    “the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.”
    Miscegenation is a major concept/commandment in the Torah and those who take the Torah seriously and live by the Torah it is not some kind of “general racism ” but the commandment of God. Thus the Jew people have survived thru all civilizations by the merit of of not practicing miscegenation. The whole DNA fad will probably fade away as with most scientific theories eventually do.
    If you are going to write about Judaism as least you should know something about it.

  6. Just this morning I read Mondoweiss article about this scumbag, and related video of him and his followers on the occasion of his daughter’s wedding. Disgusting. Even as a lapsed Catholic, I was offended by the venom pouring out of that ugly mouth.
    My question: what is the Israeli government doing to shut up this kind of xenophobe? My guess, nothing. Other than a perfuncionary
    tsk-tsk, you bad boy.

  7. italian expat:
    There’s been some talk about outlawing the racist group that Gupstein is leading. Nothing has come of it – yet. I’m still hopeful, although it’s not quite clear whether outlawing a group is better or worse in terms of the ability to track what they’re doing.

  8. @ Yosef
    “Thus the Jew people have survived thru all civilizations by the merit of of not practicing miscegenation.”

    That’s hilarious!!! How come Dutch Jews are blond then, African Jews are black, Chinese Jews are Chinese etc etc.

    Do you really think those Ashkenazi Israeli’s (who stand out so much in appearance in the Middle East that anyone can spot them as Europeans) got their light skin and light hair and eyes by ‘divine DNA intervention’?

    Seems you do not know much about Judaism’s origins and past practices.

  9. @Yosef

    Whether or not I know enough about Judaism is not to the point here. This kind of pedantry I leave to you and your fellow students of the Torah.

    What is to the point is whether it is correct to state that the Israeli fear of miscegenation is redolent of Nazism.

    I have two arguments for that:

    1 It is racist because it does not just have to do with the usual reluctance of denominations to see their members marry “outside” but with “purity of blood” notions (that you haven’t been very successful in this regard was not for lack of trying).

    2 It is not only racist but is redolent of nazism because the forces of the state are behind it: indirectly (through the prohibition of civil marriage) and directly, among other things through the cooperation of elements of the police with anti-miscegenation squads.

    “Israel’s vile anti-miscegenation squads
    Seth Freedman

    As reported in Ha’aretz, Kiryat Gat’s state-sanctioned anti-miscegenation programme’s sole aim is preventing Jewish girls from becoming romantically involved with Israeli Bedouin:
    The programme enjoys the support of the municipality and the police, and is headed by Kiryat Gat’s welfare representative, who goes to schools to warn girls of the “exploitative Arabs”. The programme uses a video entitled “Sleeping with the Enemy,” which features a local police officer and a woman from the Anti-Assimilation Department, a wing of the religious organisation Yad L’ahim, which works to prevent Jewish girls from dating Muslim men.
    Many Jews in Israel and the diaspora frown upon the idea of their children marrying out of the flock, some even going as far as cutting their children out of their wills and mourning them as though they had died should they take a non-Jewish partner for a spouse. While this is by no means restricted to the Jewish faith, the idea of such proscriptions being incorporated at state level – whether against Jews, Muslims or any other category of “undesirables” – is racism reminiscent of the dark days of segregationist America and pre-enlightened European states.
    This week, the Times carried an illustrative and disturbing feature on the Israeli phenomenon, demonstrating the unabashed bigotry of those behind the purity patrols:
    [David’s] group, which works with police, goes by several names, including Fire for Judaism, is composed of up to 45 men and funded by private donations. Members say they are fighting a ‘growing epidemic’ of Arab-Jewish dating and spend as many hours as they can on patrol.
    Similar groups have formed across the country … In Pisgat Ze’ev, the growing number of Arab-Jewish couples is seen as the result of more Jewish settlements in Arab east Jerusalem.
    ‘The problem is always with Jewish girls dating Arab men. The Arab guy comes and buys them things, treats them well. They fall for it. They can’t see what they are doing,’ says David.
    The article goes on to describe a car chase, which ensues after David spots a “problem couple” driving in a car full of Arab men. He follows them through winding mountain roads, before taking down the car’s number plate and reporting the incident to police.
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    That the police would even deign to co-operate with such poisonous and prejudiced characters and their fantasies of racial purity is indicative of the malaise gripping certain sectors of Israeli society, both at street and state level.
    Whatever the more blinkered supporters of Israel’s sectarianism say, day after day more evidence piles up attesting to the shocking reality behind Israel’s mask of being a tolerant, equitable and democratic “country of all its citizens”. The likes of the modesty patrols and the anti-miscegenation squads belong in the furthest recesses of history, yet apparently the Israeli authorities are not only happy to tolerate their presence, but to actively support their work as well.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/29/israel-jewish-arab-couples

    Professor Leibowitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM2fXTkjU2E

  10. @Arie
    1. Jews will continue intermarry (or not) based on larger social trends, including globalization, freedom of movement, etc, unrelated to the rantings of a lunatic idiot.
    2. Looking at the situation for Christians (which is the subject of the post)– the freedom of practice and social thriving is highest among for Christians in Israel in comparison to all other countries in the region, with the exception of perhaps Lebanon (which is about 35% Christian). Christians are being chased out or beheaded in Syria and Iraq, and don’t have freedom in other Arab countries.
    For example, from your favorite news source:
    http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.668174
    Yet you (and Richard) are focusing on the activities of a lunatic fringe in Israel as though it represents Israeli society or policy. Then reality for Christians in Israel is fine, ask any Christian.

    1. @ Yehuda: You’re omitting one small fact. That the status of Christianity in the West Bank is quite threatened by Israeli security forces who shut down monasteries, steal their land. Not to mention the vicious campaign by Israel against the Christian Palestinian liberation NGO, SABEEL. As non-Jews, CHristians are only marginally better off than Muslims. Jews reign supreme.

  11. Christian Palestinians are faced with the same problems as Muslim Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories, which means that things are less than fine.
    By the way, from my distance Gopstein sounds funny rather than scary, but I guess it is different when you are living close by.

  12. @Elisabeth
    Somehow the subject keeps on getting deflected to the Palestinian conflict. The accusation is about how Israeli Jews are treating Christians.
    Most of the Christians (the subject of the post) from mandate Palestine live in Israel proper.
    They are Israeli citizens, and as the article depicts, are thriving. They don’t leave, as do the Christians living under PA control.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Israel#Demographics
    I leave it to you as to why.

  13. @ Yehudah
    “Looking at the situation for Christians (which is the subject of the post)– the freedom of practice and social thriving is highest among for Christians in Israel in comparison to all other countries in the region”
    You don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re just dumping the usual hasbara. You’re telling us that Christians are less discriminated in the State of the Jews than in the Palestinian territoiries where the Christian community has an outstanding role in arts, economics, politics etc (the two female mayors of Bethlehem and Ramallah are both Christians), and no, it(s not due to the Israeli occupation.
    “The reality for Christians in Israel is fine, ask any Christian”
    Yep, I’ve done so and they (I’m talking about the Palestinian Christians, and not the Christians imported from Russia) say they’re just as discriminated as the Palestinian Muslims.
    Just ask the inhabitants of Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith who’re still waiting to go back to their villages (Iqrith was destroyed on Chrismas Day 1951 in front of the inhabitants).
    Zionist propagandists have no shame, thzy endorse the institutionnal discrimination all while boasting Israeli democracy, and when some of the Palestinian citizens of Israel do well, they even have the chutzpah to take credit (latest example Noel Kharman the teenage singer from Isfiya who made a mashup with Hello (Adele) and Kifak anta (Fairuz) ).

  14. @ Yehuda
    I didn’r see this “They don’t leave, as do the Christians living under PA control (….) I’ll leave it to you as why”
    Wouw, Zionist propagandists really have no shame ! The Christians leave the Palestinian territories because of the occupation, they’ve been particularly touched by the Apartheid Wall in the area around Bethlehem and Beit Jala (polls all say that Christians leave due to economical hardship, and many go to Jordan, there’s a huge community of West Bank Christians in Amman).
    An article by Alex Shams on Syriac Christians in Palestine, how they were expelled in 1967 to expand the Jewish Quarter in the Old City and generally on Christians in Palestine: very informative
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/syriac-christians-palestine-keep-hope-alive-amid-isis-uncertainty-766922617
    Extract: “Christians in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq have historically had slightly higher rates of emigration than Muslims. The communities tend to be more urbanised and more educated than average, and as a result more easily seek economic opportunities abroad.
    There is another major reason that encourages Christians to emigrate that is less-discussed: Western countries are generally more welcoming to Christians applying for visas than Muslims.”

    @ People who want to know about the Christians in historical Palestine (present day Israel and Palestine), the Facebook of Palestinian Christians is a must, it’s monitored by Elias Khoury, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, and have many article every day, mostly in Arabic but many in English too.
    A letter Elias Khoury wrote to the Christians of the world a while back:
    “Palestinian Christians have a message to the Christians of the World”
    – suhmatiya.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/palestinian-christians-have-a-message-to-the-christians-of-the-world/

  15. Yehuda,
    “Somehow the subject keeps on getting deflected to the Palestinian conflict. The accusation is about how Israeli Jews are treating Christians.”

    Most Christians in Israel & occupied territories ARE Palestinians. I am not talking about the western tourists who are flocking to Israel in the holiday season. Palestinans in both areas face all kinds of hardships because of Israeli policies towards them.

  16. Barbar December 23, 2015, 5:13 AM
    Israeli MKs calls Gopstein, ‘ISIS with a kippah!’
    Zionism had it’s extremist elements and, following Israel’s independence, extremist groups remain, right up till the present.
    And, yet, Israel has survived them.

    Well Barbar these your extremist “groups” have turned Israel’s Jewish part to a increasing barbarian society. It is ridiculous constantly to claim, that only a few “bad Jewish/Zionist apples” are the problem, when even we outsiders can see to what Israel has developed and towards what it is developing. A combination of Germany in 30’s and some kind Klu Klux “paradise”. And this Israel will not survive, that is certain. The sad thing is that the reverse gear in this drama has disappeared. When the two state solution in reality has become impossible, what is left?

  17. And the Palestinian Authority has promply arrested them. They are better, or at least more devoted, at protecting Christians from arson than the Israeli authorities it seems…

  18. Hi there
    Sorry to break into this serious discussion but …
    I came across this website while trying to find some information about the song “Tzena Tzena…”
    which I first heard on radio and was very moved by as a kid in London around 1950 ( ? ). I seem to remember
    it was recorded by an Israeli girl. But the only recordings I can find on Google or uTube are of very
    sanitised versions by American folk groups.
    Sorry again to break into this , but if anybody can guide me towards a more
    “authentic” recording I would be grateful.

    Regards

    Mike

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