I must admit that it is highly disappointing and disturbing to me when a blog post topic inadvertently spins out of control and ends up including a
"blame the Jews" guest commentary that really had nothing to do with the original topic.
That is what I found when I recently revisited Professor Tracy's
Memory Hole blog. After reading it, my heart sank.
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:
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.
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.
Here is another brief excerpt from the Memory Hole blog:
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!
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.
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.
*******
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:
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.
Continue reading at
Jewish Virtual Library: Christian Zionism
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