For anyone who has been following Professor Tracy's research regarding the inconsistencies in the Sandy Hook school shooting, you just might be as surprised as I was at his "allowing" a blogger named James Fetzer to post what appears to be an anti-Semitic (but more accurately, turns out to be anti-Zionist) rant against the Jews. If you read the link above, you will see the letter written by a blogger who commented against the original post:
It is best to read the entire back-and-forth arguments over there, but my focus here is to address the supposed difference between someone being anti-Semitic vs. anti-Zionist.
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 12:18 AM
Subject: Reader Comment
Comment: Dear Professor Tracy,
I am writing you to protest the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel bias of James Fetzer. Without any supporting documentation or proof, he declares in his articles that Israel is responsible for the Sandy Hook massacre and previous staged events. This is highly irresponsible. How dare he!
If he has any valid argument or evidence to back up his outrageous claim, he should state it. Otherwise, he should keep his own hateful opinion to himself and stop trying to indoctrinate your readers into becoming anti-Semitic bigots.
Here is another brief excerpt from the Memory Hole blog:
In the typical "blame the Jews" and "blame Israel" mindset of liberal leftists here in America, the Arab Muslims have no blame put upon themselves for the horrible conditions for their people or the constant war against Israel situation in Gaza.
What has struck me most about your email to Professor Tracy is your complete failure to distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Is this a difference you don’t understand?
VT and I are both anti-Zionist but are not anti-Semitic. Since you are reading some of my articles, where do you find me dismissing the opinions of others or their value as human beings on the basis of their ethnic heritage or religious faith? I and others at VT are critics of the actions and policies of the State of Israel, including of course its grossly abusive treatment of the Palestinian people. That is NOT anti-Semitism.
It is not anti-Semitic to raise objections to the violation of the rights of Palestinians and repeated violations of UN mandates. A rather large and growing segment of the world’s population regards Israel as running the largest concentration camp in the world at Gaza. It bulldozed peace activist Rachel Corrie to death, and its IDF forces are known for picking off Palestinian children for sport. You abuse the word, but it properly applies to such actions by the Israeli government. They ARE filth!
When the so-called "leaders," like Hamas, would rather spend millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, to buy weapons and rockets to send into Israel to kill and maim her people along with their edict to destroy (push Israel into the sea) the Jewish state rather than buy food, create a better infrastructure, educate their populace and teach PEACE RATHER THAN HATE against Israel; how is it that the Jewish state and Christian Zionism is to be blamed for all of the Palestinian ills and the obvious plight of their people?
I did a brief search and found two opposing Christian opinions regarding Christian support for Israel and Zionism.
This first link is against Christian Zionism:
Media Monitors Network: Zionism versus the Bible
Admittedly, it would take me a lot of time to type out rebuttals to most of what the writer at Media Monitors Network says regarding his essay pitting Zionism against the Bible. I will make a guess that this was written by a leftist. For one thing, the spelling and grammatical errors are very apparent. For another thing, his misuse of Scripture is quite evident. Here is one example:
Zionists say, based on their non-literal, speculative, spiritualized interpretation of Genesis 12:3, that we are to give total, unquestioned support to some of Abraham’s children, while others of Abraham’s children are to be hated, persecuted, ethnically cleansed, bombed back into the Stone Age, maybe even nuked.I do not know of any Christian Zionists who think like that or would agree with such a barbaric "solution." Fighting against Muslim terrorists is not the same thing as what this author incorrectly presupposes in his rant. And labeling all Christian Zionists under such a ridiculous label is a LIE. So much for the author's subheading at his blog that states, "...where truth prevails."
Yes. The author is entitled to his own opinion but labeling it as truth is another subject entirely.
He goes on to write:
But in Genesis 21:13, 17-18 God also bestows His blessing on Ishmael and his descendants, saying, "For I will make him a great nation." According to the same principles of interpretation by which we have made Genesis 12:3 a command for political support of the modern nation of Israel, Genesis 21:18 must be taken as a command for political support of the modern Arab nations. (Anybody want to start up a "Christian Ishmaelist" movement to lobby for Arab national greatness?)Years ago, during the "Ismail Ax" writings discovered after the Virginia Tech murders, I wrote a blog post which included the difference in how God views Isaac vs. Ishmael.
In the Face of Evil Updates from Talk Wisdom:
If you scroll down, you will see "The TRUTH from the Bible (NKJV). I will share two excerpts of Scripture written there and a brief comment:
Gen 22:1 NOW it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
Gen 22:2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
Gen 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
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Note what God says to Abraham in Genesis 22:2 - "Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac," YOUR ONLY SON!
Note what the Bible says about Ishmael (Ismail in Arabic):
Gen 17:19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
Gen 17:20 "And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
Gen 17:21 "But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year."
Gen 17:22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
Notice that God's Covenant is established with Isaac and his descendants. Ishmael's descendants were only referred to as a "great nation."
The term "great" can mean both large and/or wonderful. We know that the Arab nation lands are hundreds of times larger than tiny Israel - which is a nation the size of New Jersey. History can determine whether or not both meanings of the word "great" apply to the Arab descendants of Ishmael.
The following essay is written in support of Christian Zionism:
Jewish Virtual Library: Christian Zionism
Excerpt:
Continue reading at Jewish Virtual Library: Christian Zionism
Christian Zionism can be defined as Christian support for the Zionist cause — the return of the Jewish people to its biblical homeland in Israel. It is a belief among some Christians that the return of Jews to Israel is in line with a biblical prophecy, and is necessary for Jesus to return to Earth as its king. These Christians are partly motivated by the writings of the Bible and the words of the prophets. However, they are also driven to support Israel because they wish to “repay the debt of gratitude to the Jewish people for providing Christ and the other fundamentals of their faith,” and to support a political ally, according to David Brog, author Standing With Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State.Christian Zionists interpret both the Torah and the New Testament as prophetic texts that describe future events of how the world will one day end with the return of Jesus from Heaven to rule on Earth. Israel and its people are central to their vision. They interpret passages from the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Isaiah as foreshadowing the coming Christian era. The New Testament Book of Revelation is read by many Christians as a prophetic text of how the world will be in the End Times.Christian support for Israel is not a recent development. Its political roots reach as far back to the 1880s, when a man named William Hechler formed a committee of Christian Zionists to help move Russian Jewish refugees to Palestine after a series of pogroms. In 1884, Hechler wrote a pamphlet called “The Restoration of Jews to Palestine According to the Prophets.” A few years later, he befriended Theodor Herzl after reading Herzl’s book The Jewish State, and joined Herzl to drum up support for Zionism. Hechler even arranged a meeting between Herzl and Kaiser Wilhelm II to discuss Herzl’s proposal to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. The two men remained close friends up until Herzl’s death in 1904.An important milestone in the history of Christian Zionism occurred in 1979, almost a century after William Hechler approached Herzl and offered to mobilize Christian support for a Jewish state: the founding of the Moral Majority. Founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority was an organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees that succeeded in mobilizing like-minded individuals to register and vote for conservative candidates. With nearly six million members, it became a powerful voting bloc during the 1980s and was credited for giving Ronald Reagan the winning edge in the 1980 elections. One of the Moral Majority’s four founding principles was “support for Israel and Jewish people everywhere.”In 1980, Falwell, who ran a television ministry that reached millions of viewers, said of Israel: “I firmly believe God has blessed America because America has blessed the Jew. If this nation wants her fields to remain white with grain, her scientific achievements to remain notable, and her freedom to remain intact, America must continue to stand with Israel.” Falwell disbanded the Moral Majority in 1989, but conservative Christians have remained vocal supporters of Israel though they lacked a strong formal structure for pro-Israel political action.Christian Zionists, through their volunteer work, political support, and financial assistance to Israel and Jewish causes, have shown that they are stalwart friends of Israel. They have donated large sums of money to support Israel, including to charities that pay the costs of bringing Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia to Israel. For example, Pastor John Hagee has raised more than $4.7 million for the United Jewish Communities. Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help poor Jews across the world move to Israel.
Hat tips to all links.
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Additional posts regarding Christian support for Israel:
Talk Wisdom: Where Do YOU Stand Regarding the Nation of Israel?
Talk Wisdom: True Friends of Israel
Talk Wisdom: Israel: Prayer, Support and Prophecy
Talk Wisdom: And the Criticism Goes On...And On...
Talk Wisdom: We Are Witnessing Biblical Prophecy
Posts
11 comments:
Hi Christine,
Thanks for blogging about what happened on James Tracy's website. I'm the person who wrote Tracy the letters complaining about Jim Fetzer's anti-Semitic propaganda.
Just so you know, James Tracy edited my letters when he posted them - and did not edit Jim Fetzer. Tracy also failed to post his own letters to me, in which he accused me of supporting censorship, feigned ignorance of Jim Fetzer's bias, and even claimed falsely that Fetzer had been quoting a third party, not expressing his own opinions.
This is so disingenuous of James Tracy! And it's all very sad to me, because I had previously defended Tracy's investigation of Sandy Hook. Now I can't help but doubt his truthfulness.
Even if, for the sake of argument, we tolerate Tracy's hair-splitting between "anti-Jewish" and "anti-Zionist", Fetzer is still anti-Jewish! As I argued to Tracy, Fetzer is not only a frequent contributor to Veterans Today, he is on their editorial board! He is responsible for all of the content on VT, which is decidedly anti-Jewish.
A perfect example is an article published in VT on February 9th called "Old Testament: A Window Into the Soul of Israel". See http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/09/old-testament-a-window-into-the-soul-of-israel/
This article begins as follows. "To better understand Israel and its arrogant aggression against Gentiles and to better defend ourselves from that aggression we need to learn how Israel’s leaders think. The best way to do that is to look at Israel’s de facto founding document, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. (Israel is much more a theocracy than a democracy as its lack of a constitution makes evident.)"
Is the author aware that the UK also lacks a written constitution? Does that make Britain a theocracy as well? And he goes on to say that the Hebrew Bible orders the Jews to rip unborn babies out of their mothers' wombs, enslave Gentiles, commit genocide and mass rape of children, and other horrendous crimes. Is this "anti-Zionism"?
I'll let you know, Christine, if there is any follow-up on this issue. A blogger at TOI (Times Of Israel) has expressed interest in telling the story there. In addition, I would like to contact the Veterans Administration about VT (Veterans Today) which, despite its fine-print disclaimers, does present itself as a service organization for veterans associated with the VA, conveying the impression that our Veterans Administration condones its extremist views.
Thanks again, Christine, and please feel free to contact me!
Pam Green
Hello Pam!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing more detail about James Tracy's editing of your letter and the additional information about Jim Fetzer. As you probably surmised from my comment at Tracy's blog, I was very upset to read about the "anti-Zionism vs. anti-Semitic" gibberish going on in that post and some of the comments there. It didn't seem to fit the usual narrative over there - regarding the inconsistencies surrounding the Sandy Hook shootings - so it caught me by surprise.
I guess no one there (except you!) liked by comment and link to this post explaining why Christians support Zionism.
Pam, I recently learned about a devout Jewish group that gave Ahmadinijad of Iran some kind of "award" back in September, 2007for his efforts in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict! If you want to read about it, here's the link:
Talk Wisdom: Banned Video! MSM Won’t Show This!
Learning about these particular Jews helped me understand why so many of them supported Obama and the leftist Democrats! Jews can be anti-Zionist too.
However, there will be a remnant of Jews who are true to the Zionist cause and will not bow to anyone who would want them to give up the land that God gave to the Israelites as an inheritance!
Christians have disagreements about some things. Jews have disagreements. But the Zionist cause should not be abandoned by born again Christians who worship Jesus Christ and love Israel!!
I'm not sure if I want to keep Tracy's blog on my blogroll. And, I think I may have Fetzer's blog on it! Need to take that off too. This is too important a subject to link to (or quibble with) the anti-Zionists who tend to blame the Jews for everything.
Thank you so much for coming over here and explaining what's going on. Please do keep me informed. I would like a link to Times of Israel and if the story is covered there, I would like to read about it.
I just watched Schindler's List on T.V. last night. The horrors of the Holocaust at that time in history cannot EVER be repeated. But there are some who I think would not hesitate to annihilate the Jews. Trouble is, Israel is the apple of God's eye and no matter how many Arab nations (along with Commie ones like Russia) gang up on Her, she will be protected and preserved due to God's everlasting Covenant. When such nations think, plan, and attack to destroy Israel in the last days; they will find out the power of God through Jesus returning to just speak a word to destroy them...it will be glorious.
Sorry if I've gotten on a tangent here, but I think it matters whether or not America stands with Israel as we approach the end times. Our nation is suffering spiritually, emotionally, morally, and financially because of our sins. And such sins have been multiplied exponentially by the terrible influence and dictatorial ways of this awful ObaMARXIST BADministration!!
I pray that God's mercy, forgiveness, and grace will save America from our woes, bring us a leader who follows God, the Constitution, and knows his or her place is to SERVE We The People - not involk tyranny and injustice against us. I pray that God will help us to restore the United States of America back to a nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!
Thanks for responding, Christine! Like you, I noticed that only one or two other readers of Tracy's blog seemed to be critical of Jim Fetzer. This is disappointing, but also revealing, don't you think? As a teacher, Tracy is supposed to be encouraging his students to develop their skills as critical thinkers. Yet, in this instance, Tracy makes no attempt to help his readers penetrate the propaganda of Fetzer's reply.
Fetzer avoids dealing with the central issue, which is that he accused Israel, or the Zionists, or Mossad, or the Jews of killing the children in Sandy Hook! Of actually committing that massacre! And I had demanded that he provide whatever evidence he had to justify this accusation. Did he do it? Of course not, because there is none! Moreover, he had also accused the Jews/Zionists/Israelis of other so-called staged events, including the original 9/11, the Benghazi murders, and the Aurora Colorado shootings, to name just three. Did he provide any proof that the Jews were linked to these tragic events? Of course not, because there is none!
Making such baseless accusations IS anti-Semitic by definition. It is not anti-Zionist. Zionism has to do with the right of Jews to reclaim their ancient homeland. Anti-Semitism has to do with inciting hatred of the Jews through slander and misrepresentation, which is exactly what Fetzer did.
This would have been a great opportunity for James Tracy to point out to his loyal following how easily propaganda can succeed. The very fact that his readers are committed to him made them excellent targets for propaganda, because they wanted to side with Tracy and therefore with his friend Jim Fetzer. The readers were already conditioned to accept Fetzer on Tracy's say-so - this is an identifiable characteristic of propaganda! For a full list of such traits, I recommend googling the IPA or Institute of Propaganda Analysis.
I would have made these comments on Tracy's blog, by the way, but did you notice how quickly he closed the comment section? He hadn't even informed me of the follow-ups to Fetzer's original "Open Letter", and by the time I discovered it, comments were no longer being accepted! This is yet another sign that James Tracy is not being ethical or fair.
So, as for keeping memoryholeblog and Fetzer's blog on your blogroll, I guess you know what my advice would be!
The Times of Israel is a very informative news site, easily accessed at www.timesofisrael.com. You might also like the conservative analysis at gatestoneinstitute.org. And for some brilliant historical analysis, you might like www.tenc.net and www.hirhome.com. As for the Islamic invasion of Europe (now known as Eurabia), have you ever gone to libertiesalliance.org or listened to Pat Cantrell on utube? He's a treat!
Thanks again, Christine, and thanks for your Christian Zionist support of Israel.
I came to your blog via your link on Dr. Tracy's blog. I am highly disappointed that you did not address the one and only relevant feature of the blog. Do the Jews that are currently in Israel have an blood ties to the original Judaea people? If there is no blood ties then how can they lay claim to a piece of land NONE of there ancestors stepped foot on? And furthermore, if this accusation is true, why would a TRUE Christian support Jews that are not really Jews? And before you call me a "leftist" or some other such non-sense I will save you some time and let you know I am highly conservative. I use evidence and facts so that tends to happen. And if the evidence isn't there that these people even are decedents from the real Jews the what is there to argue about?
One last thing. The more I look into this, I just do not see how these people have a VALID claim to this land. The Christian position just looks worse and worse. If you are competent in these matters I would love for you to enlighten me. What is their VALID claim? On what legal or ethical basis is this justified? What facts and evidence support this? ASIDE FROM THE BIBLE; make an argument for why these people are entitled to this land. I am not trying to be rude, I am just trying to figure it out. God was for facts, evidence, reason and logic. So if they have a valid claim, there should be ample outside evidence to support it.
Hi again Pam,
What college professor isn't a liberal leftist anti-Christian ideologue and bigot these days? I guess we are lucky if a few come out and admit that they are conservative. But then, they may risk losing their jobs! I have done many posts here that reveal the liberal leftist (even scarier - the Marxist leanings) views of most secular colleges. Take Harvard, for instance. We all know (according to his books) the types that Obama hung around with...including domestic terrorist turned professor - Bill Ayres. Don't get me started on that tangent!
Propaganda runs rampant these days. The Ovomit BADministration has gotten away with so much crime and evil, they must all believe their own lies! And the media of mass deception & corruption isn't doing it's job of JOURNALISM - they are lapdogs for Obummer...no matter what he does. He could kill someone in cold blood on the White House lawn and get away with it. Oh wait...he's already been responsible for killing thousands via the drone attacks! I wonder if the Nobel Peace Prize people that gave him the award before he even did anything as our fraudulent pResident are red in the face and cringe about it now.
Anyway, I appreciate the dialogue you have provided here and plan to visit the sites you have recommended.
Now I have to deal with "anonymous" who does not think that the Bible is a useful tool to answer why Zionism has to do with the right of Jews to reclaim their ancient homeland. Feel free to chime in!
Anonymous @ February 25, 2013 at 11:32:00 PM PST
Obviously, you didn't read any of the additional posts that I added at the end of this post. Obviously, you didn't read any of the links within the Jewish Virtual Library Christian Zionism post. If you did, you would see the evidence that God provides via His Holy Word IN THE BIBLE, that the Jews were given the land as an inheritance FOREVER.
Taking away such a tool as the Bible from my end of the discussion automatically takes away my answer as to exactly why Zionism gives the right of Jews to reclaim their ancient homeland.
1Ch 28:8 "Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, be careful to seek out all the commandments of the LORD your God, that you may possess this good land, and leave [it] as an inheritance for your children after you forever.
Ezr 9:12 'Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave [it] as an inheritance to your children forever.'
I could go on explaining, via Scripture, why it is the LAND of Israel that is most important as an inheritance to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (not of Ishmael - the bloodline of the Arab nations) and how there is a remnant of true Jewish believers living in Israel that sustain the promise.
Look, there are people here in America who claim to be Christians, but they don't truly follow God's Word or Jesus. But there is a remnant of born-again, Bible believing Christians here that belong to Christ forever.
In addition to the Bible verses I shared above, Bible prophecy is filled with evidence to support Zionism. In fact, the prophecy of Israel becoming a nation again on May 14, 1948 started a chain of apocalyptic events that will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ.
From the link:
One more interesting fact about Israel and the end times. . .
•Israel throughout the Bible is often referred to symbolically as “the fig tree”. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians.” (Jer 24:5) See also Hosea 9:10 with relation to Israel referred to as a “fig tree”.
•When asked about when His return would be, Jesus answered by providing several signs and using an illustration about “a fig tree” coming back to life:
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it [my return] is near, right at the door…this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (Matt 24:32 – 34)
Israel becoming a nation is considered a key fulfillment of end times Bible prophecy. No other nation in history has come back into existence after 2000 years. Since 1948, Israel has been attacked & threatened by overwhelming opposition. The world will continue to look to Israel and the Middle East with concern as the Bible says that the continued unrest will play a vital role in apocalyptic events foretold in the book of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. While the evidence that Israel is a nation is plain to see, the significance of this event in light of the end times is tremendous.
Hi Christine,
I commend your good intentions in responding to 'Anonymous' but I believe it's a futile effort. I've noticed that a frequently used tactic by Islamist 'trolls' is to demand that YOU provide facts to disprove their undocumented, fallacious, irrational, hateful and unproved opinions. They are well aware that this takes time and work to assemble. It also empowers them that YOU would try to appease them and fulfill their demands when in fact they have no intention of considering your evidence objectively.
In this particular case, this is clear from the very first statement of 'Anonymous' that "I am highly disappointed that you did not address the one and only relevant feature of the blog. Do the Jews that are currently in Israel have blood ties to the original Judaea people?" How far off-topic has this gone? The only RELEVANT issue on Tracy's blog was Jim Fetzer's accusation that the Jews/Zionists/ Israelis committed the Sandy Hook massacre and other 'staged events'. Or if Anonymous is referring to your blog, obviously he/she is trivializing all that your blog contains. So why show him or her the courtesy of responding?
Anonymous goes on to claim, anonymously, that he or she is a conservative who uses facts and evidence. Where are they? I would put the ball in his court to bring forth whatever facts he has that the Israelis are not the descendants of the biblical Jews. He says he needs extra-biblical, secular sources - so why doesn't he have them when they are indeed very plentiful and easily found?
There is DNA evidence, there is historical evidence, and there is legal contractual evidence. In abundance. And if 'Anonymous' had bothered to check out the websites I recommended to you, he would have found a lot of these sources. So, I'd say, Christine, don't waste your time on disingenuous trolls whose entire purpose is to waste your time!
Correction:
In an earlier post, I recommended "Pat Cantrell" on utube and I meant "Pat Condell". Could you edit that post for me? (In any case, I see that you already link to one of his videos.) Thanks.
Yes Pam. It often is a futile effort to converse with the anonymous trolls. However, if they at least show some semblance of respect (you wouldn't believe the hate filled comments that I have to delete), I attempt to educate them with a response. Not that I expect them to accept what I have written, but in order for those that follow my blog (or happen to come here for the first time via an Internet topic search) to see that sharing God's Word helps provide the answers that the secular world doesn't have in their arsenal of attack verbiage and endless propaganda.
Oftentimes, the "drive by" anonymous trolls don't return or respond. This proves that they aren't interested in an exchange of ideas. They are only there to spew their particular ideology and ignore any response(s) that do not agree with their particular mindset; but makes sense to most of the rest of the readers.
I don't think I can edit your previous comment in order to make the Pat Condell correction. But your recent comment does the job.
I really appreciate all of your great input here and hope that you will continue to visit and comment!
Thank you for the open invitation to visit and comment! I will definitely do so! I not only share your love of Israel but agree with your American politics too!
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