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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Bet Lahem Live Festival 2014 is coming up
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Toe the United States of Israel Party Line, Obama: Hill Republicans call on Kerry to apologize, resign for reported Israel 'apartheid' remarks
A firestorm broke out among congressional Republicans Monday
over Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly saying Israel could
become an "apartheid state," with the No. 2 House leader saying he
should apologize and a senator calling on him to resign.
"Reports that Secretary Kerry has suggested Israel is becoming an apartheid state are extremely disappointing," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is Jewish, said in a statement. "The use of the word apartheid has routinely been dismissed as both offensive and inaccurate, and Secretary Kerry's use of it makes peace even harder to achieve."
The Virginia congressman also urged Kerry to "apologize to the Israeli government and people."
In a statement Monday night, Kerry defended himself, saying, "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes, so I want to be crystal clear about what I believe and what I don’t believe.
"First, Israel is a vibrant democracy and I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that without a shred of doubt.
"Second, I have been around long enough to also know the power of words to create a misimpression, even when unintentional, and if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."
Late Monday Sen. Barbara Boxer added a bipartisan note to the Kerry criticism, tweeting, "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and any linkage between Israel and apartheid is nonsensical and ridiculous."
At the same time, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, issued a statement saying, “I am disappointed with Secretary Kerry’s reported remarks...(he) knows as well as anyone that negotiating lasting peace in this region of the world is difficult but it’s not productive to express his frustration in this way."
The backlash follows a Daily Beast report claiming Kerry made the statement during a closed-door meeting Friday with "influential world leaders." He reportedly warned that if Israel doesn't make peace, the country could become "an apartheid state."
Shortly after Cantor’s call for an apology, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz called for Kerry’s resignation on the Senate floor.
"Mr. President, it is my belief that Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation,” Cruz said. “And the president should accept it.”
Kerry reportedly made the comparison after peace talks hit a wall last week, as Fatah announced a unity agreement with Hamas. Israel, which like the U.S. considers Hamas a terror group, suspended peace talks after that announcement -- although Kerry continued to voice hope that both sides could return to the negotiating table.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also slammed Kerry over the reported remarks, made ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"These comments are outrageous and disappointing," he said in a statement. "Incendiary name calling does not change the fundamental fact that Israel does not currently have a viable partner for peace. I urge Secretary Kerry and the administration to focus on pressing challenges in the Middle East such as ending the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon instead of pressuring Israel to make additional concessions to partners who have now chosen to align themselves with a terrorist group."
The State Department is not denying that Kerry made the remarks. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki, asked about them at Monday's briefing, said she would not confirm comments made during a private meeting.
While not confirming whether Kerry warned that Israel could become an apartheid state, she said: "The secretary does not believe and did not state publicly or privately that Israel is an apartheid state, and there's an important difference there."
"Israel is obviously a vibrant democracy with equal rights for all of its citizens," she said, reiterating that Kerry believes a "two-state solution is the only way to have two nations and two people living side-by-side in peace and security."
Who owns America's foreign policy here, U.S. citizens, or Israel. We don't want any confusion about it. You don't disagree with Israel's Zionist party line about Israel being a democracy even though all human rights organizations say otherwise. As do most all Palestinian Israelis having to be second-class citizens in their own homeland. Please note, our beloved Barbara Boxer's Zionist chorus line of support for Israel's democracy lie proven to be by human rights watch organizations monitoring Israel's continuing violation of U.N. resolutions meant to protect Palestinians from foreign occupation.
"Reports that Secretary Kerry has suggested Israel is becoming an apartheid state are extremely disappointing," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is Jewish, said in a statement. "The use of the word apartheid has routinely been dismissed as both offensive and inaccurate, and Secretary Kerry's use of it makes peace even harder to achieve."
The Virginia congressman also urged Kerry to "apologize to the Israeli government and people."
In a statement Monday night, Kerry defended himself, saying, "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes, so I want to be crystal clear about what I believe and what I don’t believe.
"First, Israel is a vibrant democracy and I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that without a shred of doubt.
"Second, I have been around long enough to also know the power of words to create a misimpression, even when unintentional, and if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."
Late Monday Sen. Barbara Boxer added a bipartisan note to the Kerry criticism, tweeting, "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and any linkage between Israel and apartheid is nonsensical and ridiculous."
At the same time, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, issued a statement saying, “I am disappointed with Secretary Kerry’s reported remarks...(he) knows as well as anyone that negotiating lasting peace in this region of the world is difficult but it’s not productive to express his frustration in this way."
The backlash follows a Daily Beast report claiming Kerry made the statement during a closed-door meeting Friday with "influential world leaders." He reportedly warned that if Israel doesn't make peace, the country could become "an apartheid state."
Shortly after Cantor’s call for an apology, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz called for Kerry’s resignation on the Senate floor.
"Mr. President, it is my belief that Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation,” Cruz said. “And the president should accept it.”
Kerry reportedly made the comparison after peace talks hit a wall last week, as Fatah announced a unity agreement with Hamas. Israel, which like the U.S. considers Hamas a terror group, suspended peace talks after that announcement -- although Kerry continued to voice hope that both sides could return to the negotiating table.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also slammed Kerry over the reported remarks, made ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"These comments are outrageous and disappointing," he said in a statement. "Incendiary name calling does not change the fundamental fact that Israel does not currently have a viable partner for peace. I urge Secretary Kerry and the administration to focus on pressing challenges in the Middle East such as ending the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon instead of pressuring Israel to make additional concessions to partners who have now chosen to align themselves with a terrorist group."
The State Department is not denying that Kerry made the remarks. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki, asked about them at Monday's briefing, said she would not confirm comments made during a private meeting.
While not confirming whether Kerry warned that Israel could become an apartheid state, she said: "The secretary does not believe and did not state publicly or privately that Israel is an apartheid state, and there's an important difference there."
"Israel is obviously a vibrant democracy with equal rights for all of its citizens," she said, reiterating that Kerry believes a "two-state solution is the only way to have two nations and two people living side-by-side in peace and security."
Who owns America's foreign policy here, U.S. citizens, or Israel. We don't want any confusion about it. You don't disagree with Israel's Zionist party line about Israel being a democracy even though all human rights organizations say otherwise. As do most all Palestinian Israelis having to be second-class citizens in their own homeland. Please note, our beloved Barbara Boxer's Zionist chorus line of support for Israel's democracy lie proven to be by human rights watch organizations monitoring Israel's continuing violation of U.N. resolutions meant to protect Palestinians from foreign occupation.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Fatah and Hamas "reconciliation": Mazin Qumsiyeh's Palestinian's viewpoint
People asked me about the latest "reconciliation" agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Most Palestinians here are skeptical of the sincerity of leadership in Fatah and Hamas and most still think these leaders are driven by narrow factional and personal interests than by interest of Palestine. Noticeably absent was the popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the largest secular faction after Fatah. Women leaders also complained about the exclusion of women voices. Youth were also absent as most of those politicians are my age or older. In my talks (and I give several every week to visiting delegations and local people), I emphasize that people must wake up and push politicians to do the right thing. That is how history changes: via people especially youth and women. Ofcourse, many wish that politicians show some leadership for positive change but we the people have to act.
Meanwhile, we have an ongoing slow genocide of the Palestinian people. 7.4 million are refugees/displaced people and that number keeps growing. Those of us who against all odds remain here are subjected to unspeakable restrictions and squeezed into ghettos/cantons by an apartheid regime worse than in Apartheid South Africa and the most profitable occupation in history (thanks partly to the Oslo accords). But I do see positive signs of people acting here and there regularly. So many internationals show so much solidarity because Palestine today is the lightning rod against western hypocrisy and racism in the same way that South Africa provided such a beacon in the 1980s. I am especially encouraged by young people here. We just concluded a biomedical conference in Nablus where our students excelled in giving results of their research. The volunteers I work with in nature are excellent (I spent yesterday classifying butterflies with one such volunteer for our nascent natural history museum). We work with undergraduate and graduate students on issues ranging from pollution to infertility to biodiversity to cancer epidemiology. I continue to send letters to editors and occasionally some are published. This one below is significant in that it was published 25 April in the Wall Street Journal (the most significant Journal for Western business leaders): Israel and the Palestinian Christians: As Palestinian Christians we deal with the Israeli repression daily Regarding Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor's "The Middle East War on Christians" (op-ed, April 17): For brevity, I want to address one aspect, which is the supposed protection by Israel of Christians. As Palestinian Christians we deal with the Israeli repression daily. Even with my U.S. passport I was not allowed to enter Jerusalem for Easter as most Palestinians continue to be denied their religious freedom. Israel destroyed 530 Palestinian villages and towns and created the largest refugee population on earth after World War II. Churches and mosques were equally targeted for destruction. And in its expansion in the rest of Palestine, Israel started building colonial settlements after 1967 on our occupied lands (illegal per international law). Bethlehem is now a ghetto with a wall around it. Israel has over 50 laws that discriminate against non-Jewish Israelis and hundreds to discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied areas. For those interested in information from Christians, please look up the powerful statement by all Christian denominations here called "Kairos Palestine" (www.kairospalestine.ps) instead of Mr. Prosor's attempt to divert attention and mislead readers. source http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579515892375722808 WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR HUMAN RIGHTS? http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/ 6 year old Palestinian child abducted by occupation soldiers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTxJb-HLp70 http://palsolidarity.org/ Martin Indyk and the moral crisis at heart of Obama's peace http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=692628 Elhaik genetics and the Khazars (shows that most European Jews have no genetic relationship to the Middle Eastern Jews or Arabs) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595026/ Stay human and come visit us in the Bethlehem area Mazin Qumsiyeh Professor at Bethlehem University A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home Join me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Why the New Members of the FCC Are About to Kill the Internet
The open internet may soon become a thing of the past.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal dropped something of a bombshell with leaked news that the Federal Communications Commission is planning to abandon so-called “net neutrality” regulations — rules to ensure that internet providers are prevented from discriminating based on content.
Under the new proposed system, companies such as Comcast or Verizon will be able to create a tiered Internet, in which websites will have to pay more money for faster speeds, a change that observers predict will curb free speech, stifle innovation and increase costs for consumers.
Like so many problems in American government, the policy shift may relate to the pernicious corruption of the revolving door. The FCC is stocked with staffers who have recently worked for Internet Service Providers (ISP) that stand to benefit tremendously from the defeat of net neutrality.
The backgrounds of the new FCC staff have not been reported until now.
Take Daniel Alvarez, an attorney who has long represented Comcast through the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
In 2010, Alvarez wrote a letter to the FCC on behalf of Comcast protesting net neutrality rules, arguing that regulators failed to appreciate “socially beneficial discrimination.”
The proposed rules, Alvarez wrote in the letter co-authored with a top Comcast lobbyist named Joe Waz, should be reconsidered.
Today, someone in Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters is probably smiling. Alvarez is now on the other side, working among a small group of legal advisors hired directly under Tom Wheeler, the new FCC Commissioner who began his job in November.
As soon as Wheeler came into office, he also announced the hiring of former Ambassador Philip Verveer as his senior counselor.
A records request reveals that Verveer also worked for Comcast in the last year. In addition, he was retained by two industry groups that have worked to block net neutrality, the Wireless Association (CTIA) and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
In February, Matthew DelNero was brought into the agency to work specifically on net neutrality. DelNero has previously worked as an attorney for TDS Telecom, an internet service provider that has lobbied on net neutrality, according to filings.
Around the time of Delnero’s hiring, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, a former associate general counsel at Verizon, announced a new advisor by the name of Brendan Carr.
Pai, a Republican, has criticized the open internet regulations, calling them a “problem in search of a solution.” It should be of little surprise that Carr, Pai’s new legal hand, has worked for years as an attorney to AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, and the U.S. Telecom Association, a trade group that has waged war in Washington against net neutrality since 2006.
A trail of online documents show that Carr worked specifically to monitor net neutrality regulations on behalf of some of his industry clients.
Many have expressed shock that the Obama administration would walk back one of its biggest promises. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama said that he is a strong supporter of net neutrality.
During a question and answer forum in Iowa, Obama explained, “What you’ve been seeing is some lobbying that says that the servers and the various portals through which you’re getting information over the Internet should be able to be gatekeepers and to charge different rates to different Web sites … And that I think destroys one of the best things about the internet — which is that there is this incredible equality there.”
In his first term, Obama’s administration proposed net neutrality rules, but in January of this year, a federal court tossed the regulations in a case brought by Verizon.
The decision left open the possibility of new rules, but only if the FCC were to reclassify the internet as a utility. The Wall Street Journal story with details about the FCC’s leaked plans claims the agency will not be reclassifying the web as a utility. The revised rules to be announced by the FCC will allow ISPs to “give preferential treatment to traffic from some content providers, as long as such arrangements are available on ‘commercially reasonable’ terms,” reports journalist Gautham Nagesh.
Critics have been quick to highlight the fact that chairman Wheeler, the new head of the FCC, is a former lobbyist with close ties to the telecommunications industry.
In March, telecom companies — including Comcast, Verizon, and the US Telecom Association — filled the sponsor list for a reception to toast Wheeler and other commissioners. Many of these companies have been furiously lobbying Wheeler and other FCC officials on the expected rule since the Verizon ruling.
Notably, though the FCC staff tilts heavily in the direction of telecoms, Gigi Sohn, Wheeler’s advisor on external affairs, is the former CEO of Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that supports net neutrality.
But overall, the FCC is one of many agencies that have fallen victim to regulatory capture.
Beyond campaign contributions and other more visible aspects of the influence trade in Washington, moneyed special interest groups control the regulatory process by placing their representatives into public office, while dangling lucrative salaries to those in office who are considering retirement.
The incentives, with pay often rising to seven and eight figure salaries on K Street, are enough to give large corporations effective control over the rule-making process.
Of course, ISPs have many tools for shaping policy at their disposal.
Giving cash to third party groups is another avenue for influence. Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-funded non-profit political shop, aired deceptive advertisements claiming that net neutrality is somehow a plot by bureaucrats “to takeover the Internet.”
Asian American civil rights group OCA was one of several nonprofits caught accepting telecom money while penning a letter to the FCC in opposition to net neutrality.
The revolving door, however, provides a clear and semi-legal way for businesses to directly give unlimited cash and gifts to officials who act in their favor.
One of the most famous examples of this dynamic is the case of Meredith Attwell Baker, an FCC Commissioner who left her job right after voting in favor of the Comcast merger with NBC.
Her next career move? She became a high-level lobbyist for Comcast, the company she had just blessed. Earlier this week, she announced her next gig, as president of CTIA, the primary wireless industry trade group.
She’ll have her work cut out for her in lobbying her former colleagues. CTIA has already warned the FCC from taking up any new net neutrality regulations.
Lee Fang, a San Francisco-based journalist, is an Investigative Fellow at The Nation Institute and co-founder of Republic Report.
Photo via Flickr
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Chicago doctor known for his compassion and dedication among three Americans killed in Kabul attack
(Courtesy of Lawndale Christian Health Center)
“We didn’t have a lot of people knocking on our door to come work at the health center, and he did,” said Art Jones, the founding chief executive of Lawndale Christian Health Center.
That dedication to helping people in need was what led him to spend more than a quarter of a century at Lawndale and it is what brought him to Afghanistan nearly a decade ago.
Umanos was one of the three Americans killed Thursday when an Afghan security official opened fire at an American-run Christian hospital in Kabul. He was greeting two American visitors at the gate of the hospital when the gunman walked up to them and opened fire, The Post’s Tim Craig reports from Kabul. Umanos and both visitors were killed, while two others were wounded.
“This loss is a great loss for his family, for those of us he worked with as well as for the people of Afghanistan,” Bruce Rowell, the medical director of clinical quality at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago, said during a news conference Thursday morning. ”He was a loving, caring physician who served all of his patients with the utmost respect.”
The people who work at the clinic “have lost a dear friend,” said James Brooks, a pastor and Lawndale’s chief ministry officer, at the news conference. ”Our clinic is grieving right now,” he said. “Our hearts are broken.”
Umanos “could have gone pretty much anywhere he wanted to go” after he finished his residency in Michigan, Jones said in an interview Thursday. But he wanted to find a way to have the greatest impact on people.
When Umanos initially came to Lawndale, Jones had to turn him down because the facility was operating on “a shoestring budget” and lacked the money to hire him. But Umanos was persistent and was willing to come work for the same salary he made as a resident.
Umanos was very well-liked by his patients and colleagues, said Jones, who added that Umanos was the pediatrician for Jones’s two children.
“The patients were first in his mind, and his life was sort of secondary to that,” he said.
In Afghanistan, Umanos was not isolated from violence. He had gone to a popular Lebanese restaurant in Kabul multiple times before it was attacked by Taliban insurgents in January. And a dentist he lived near had been killed a few years earlier.
“He knew the dangers,” Jones said. “But he was really drawn to serving those kids.”
But several years ago, Umanos visited a couple from the clinic that had gone to Afghanistan to help people with tuberculosis. And Umanos said that you could eventually find people to work in inner-city Chicago, “but there weren’t a lot of people willing to come work in Afghanistan,” Jones recalled.
So Umanos began spending the majority of the year in Afghanistan, coming back for a month or two to work at Lawndale and spend time with his family before returning, Jones said.
Umanos graduated from medical school at Wayne State University and had his residency at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, according to a biographical page that had been posted on Lawndale’s website.
“He was a great person, a great doctor,” Angie Schuitema, Umanos’s mother-in-law, told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s a great loss. He was doing what he wanted to do. He thanked God for allowing him to help people there.”
In addition to his work with Cure, Umanos had been the community health coordinator for Empowerment Health, a non-profit dedicated to improving the health of Afghan women and children, helping to form the group’s community healty programs.
Umanos had worked for years to develop training programs to give Afghan women better health education and skills, according to Evan A. Russell, co-founder of Empowerment Health.
“Our efforts in the community will continue on, and we remain deeply committed to the mission to which he devoted his life, but Jerry’s daily impact on this program, and on so many other people, will be missed forever,” Russell said in an e-mail to The Washington Post.
Cure International, which operates hospitals and programs in 29 countries, said no other patients or staff members were injured in Thursday’s shooting. The organization also said that Cure “remains committed to serving the Afghan people.”
This is true Christianity in action. My hat's off to Cure International staff and my condolences to the good doctor's wife and family.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Mt. Everest and the Paxman Prophesy
To climb or not --- sherpas ponder whether to move forward with the
climbing season as they offer prayers for the 13 people killed on
Everest. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
Video provided by Reuters
Newslook
A Sherpa boycott could critically disrupt the Everest climbing season, which is key to the livelihood of thousands of Nepali guides and porters. Everest climbers have long relied on Sherpas for everything from hauling gear to cooking food to high-altitude guiding.
At least 13 Sherpas were killed when a block of ice tore loose from the mountain and triggered a cascade that ripped through teams of guides hauling gear. Three Sherpas missing in Friday's avalanche are presumed dead.
Since the avalanche, the Sherpas have expressed anger that there has not been a bigger response from Nepal's government, which profits from the permit fees charged to the climbing expeditions.
Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said Sherpa guides are considering a climbing boycott to press their demands. Without the guides, it would be nearly impossible for expedition teams to continue.
The Sherpas want the minimum insurance payment for those killed on Everest to be doubled to $20,800, and a portion of the climbing fee charged by the government to be reserved for a relief fund. They also want the government to build a monument in the capital in memory of those killed in the avalanche.
Deputy Prime Minister Prakash Man Singh said on Monday that the government has been working to help the Sherpas since the rescue began. "We will do what we can, keeping with the standard practice to provide compensation," he said.
Sherpa Pasang of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association said they have handed over a list of demands to the government seeking $10,400 for the families of dead, missing and injured Sherpa guides in immediate financial aid. They also want assurance that the government will bring regulations to protect them in the future.
"The government has made no big response even after a big tragedy like this. Until they hear our pleas we will continue to put pressure," he said, adding they plan to meet top government officials later in the week.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of Nepal's capital, Katmandu, on Monday as the bodies of six f the victims were driven in open trucks decorated with Buddhist flags.
During the cremation ceremony, dozens of nuns chanted for the victims' souls to be released as the bodies were covered in pine branches. A daughter of one of the climbers fainted and was taken to the hospital.
"Right now, I can't even think of going back to the mountain," said Tashi Dorje, whose cousin was killed. "We have not just lost our family members, but it is a loss for the whole mountaineering community and the country."
The avalanche came just as climbing was to begin, with mountaineers set to begin moving above base camp and slowly acclimatizing to the altitude on the world's highest mountain. Most attempts to reach the 29,035-foot summit occur in mid-May, when weather is at its most favorable.
Tshering said there were about 400 foreign climbers from 39 expedition teams on the mountain and equal number of Sherpa guides, along with many more support staff such as cooks, cleaners and porters in the base camp.
The Tourism Ministry, which handles the mountaineering affairs, said it has not been told of any cancellations by expedition teams. Some Sherpas had already left the mountain by Monday, either joining the boycott or mourning their friends and colleagues.
The government has announced an emergency aid payment of $415 for the families of the deceased climbers, but the Sherpas are demanding better treatment.
The "Sherpa guides are heating up, emotions are running wild and demands are being made to the government to share the wealth with the Sherpa people," said a blog post by Tim and Becky Rippel. Tim Rippel, an experienced Himalayan guide and owner of the Canada-based guiding company Peak Freaks, was at base camp when the avalanche happened.
Many Sherpas are frustrated by their tiny share of the millions of dollars that flow into Nepal as a result of the climbing industry, the post said.
"Things are getting very complicated and there is a lot of tension here and it's growing," the Rippels wrote, adding of the Sherpas: "They are our family, our brothers and sisters and the muscle on Everest. We follow their lead, we are guests here."
Hundreds of people, both foreigners and Sherpas, have died trying to reach the summit, and about a quarter of the deaths occurred in avalanches, climbing officials say.
The previous worst disaster on Everest had been a fierce blizzard on May 11, 1996, that killed eight climbers, including famed mountaineer Rob Hall, and was memorialized in a book, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer.
More than 4,000 climbers have reached the top of Everest since 1953, when the mountain was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
___
I wrote this in 1996 as part of the Paxman Prophesies:
* Mt. Everest will again become the Sacred Mountain of the Goddess as Jomolunga or Samarmatha and off-limits to mountain climbers. (1996)
Sunday, April 20, 2014
HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!
Resurrection to eternal LIFE
You just can't beat it for retirement and social security benefits.
Hey, we got Pope Francis in our times and that's a brand new thing in Christiandom,
a real Christian Catholic Pope. Who would of thought..So there IS Hope for the world.
Happiest of Easter celebration to you all
Thursday, April 10, 2014
UN chief begins processing Palestinian bid to join international conventions
Haaretz
The State of Palestine will likely be added to the 10 conventions under UN auspice on May 2, exactly one month after submitting official request.
Palestinian President Abbas
Photo by AP
United Nations Secretary of General Ban Ki-moon signed
late Wednesday the official documents indicating that he had received
and begun processing the Palestinians' request to join the 10
international conventions under the auspices of the UN.
In the documents, which were distributed to all of the countries that are signatory to the particular conventions in question, the UN chief wrote that the State of Palestine would be added to the conventions on May 2 – 30 days after the official request was submitted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Western diplomats said that a similar announcement would be released in the near future by the Swiss government, sponsor of the Fourth Geneva convention, which the Palestinians have also requested to join. It is still not clear whether the government of Holland, which sponsors The Hague convention, will follow suit in publishing a statement.
Officials in Israel's Foreign Ministry said that according to conversations held in recent days with counterparts at the UN headquarters in New York and in the Swiss and Dutch foreign ministries, the processing of the Palestinian request would be carried out according to procedure and without politically motivated delays.
The UN's announcement follows Israel's decision a day earlier to impose sanctions against the Palestinian Authority in response to Abbas' request over the weekend to join the international conventions, a move that the Palestinians called a response to Israel's own failure to release prisoners in accordance within the prescribed timetable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered all government ministries on Wednesday morning to halt cooperation with Palestinian entities, with a particular emphasis on meetings between Israeli ministers and their Palestinian counterparts.
A senior Israeli official said that the ministers were updated by telephone over the course of the morning by Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mendelblit, who ordered communication stymied with Palestinian officials including ministers and director generals in response to the Palestinian unilateral actions. Only low-level field cooperation will be permitted, according to the Israeli official.
In the documents, which were distributed to all of the countries that are signatory to the particular conventions in question, the UN chief wrote that the State of Palestine would be added to the conventions on May 2 – 30 days after the official request was submitted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Western diplomats said that a similar announcement would be released in the near future by the Swiss government, sponsor of the Fourth Geneva convention, which the Palestinians have also requested to join. It is still not clear whether the government of Holland, which sponsors The Hague convention, will follow suit in publishing a statement.
Officials in Israel's Foreign Ministry said that according to conversations held in recent days with counterparts at the UN headquarters in New York and in the Swiss and Dutch foreign ministries, the processing of the Palestinian request would be carried out according to procedure and without politically motivated delays.
The UN's announcement follows Israel's decision a day earlier to impose sanctions against the Palestinian Authority in response to Abbas' request over the weekend to join the international conventions, a move that the Palestinians called a response to Israel's own failure to release prisoners in accordance within the prescribed timetable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered all government ministries on Wednesday morning to halt cooperation with Palestinian entities, with a particular emphasis on meetings between Israeli ministers and their Palestinian counterparts.
A senior Israeli official said that the ministers were updated by telephone over the course of the morning by Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mendelblit, who ordered communication stymied with Palestinian officials including ministers and director generals in response to the Palestinian unilateral actions. Only low-level field cooperation will be permitted, according to the Israeli official.
43
Saturday, April 05, 2014
The End of Evangelical Support for Israel?
April 5, 2014 by John
A mere decade ago, Christian Zionism was seen as an emerging force in American politics. As if out of nowhere, a block of fifty to one hundred million friends of Israel were poised to enter the national debate and safeguard the U.S.-Israel relationship for generations to come. Evangelical love for Israel appeared so solid that the only debate within the Jewish community was whether or not to “accept” it.
How quickly things change. The days of taking evangelical support for Israel for granted are over. As they are increasingly confronted with an evangelical-friendly, anti-Israel narrative, more and more of these Christians are turning against the Jewish state.
There is troubling precedent for such an about-face. At one time—prior to the 1967 war— the mainline Protestant denominations were among Israel’s most reliable American supporters. Israel’s opponents, therefore, targeted these denominations with mainline-friendly, anti-Israel messages. There are still many mainline Protestants who support Israel today. But to the extent the mainline denominations act corporately in connection with the Jewish state, it is to divest from it. And it is from Israel—not Iran—that they seek to divest.
In a similar fashion, Palestinian Christians and their American sympathizers are successfully promoting a narrative aimed at reaching the rising generation of evangelicals and turning them against Israel. As a result, more leaders of this generation are moving toward neutrality in the conflict while others are becoming outspoken critics of Israel. Questioning Christian support for the Jewish state is fast becoming a key way for the millennials to demonstrate their Christian compassion and political independence. In short, this population is in play.
The Shift
There is nothing new about the efforts to drive a wedge between America’s evangelicals and Israel. Many in the anti-Israel camp have been working for years to do exactly that. Anti-Israel Palestinian Christians such as Sami Awad and Naim Ateek have traveled the country telling American Christians how their “brothers and sisters in Christ” are being oppressed by Israel’s Jews. Left-leaning evangelicals such as Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, and Serge Duss have echoed this narrative in their corner of the Christian world. Duss’s sons, Brian and Matt, have worked diligently to mainstream their father’s views within the fields of Christian philanthropy and Democratic Party policy-making, respectively.Until the past couple of years, however, there was little reason to believe that these individuals were influencing Christians beyond their own narrow circles. Almost every significant evangelical leader who took a position on the issue came out squarely behind the Jewish state. A center-right evangelical world simply was not taking its political cues from these stalwarts of the left.
This situation is changing dramatically. With every passing month, more evidence is emerging that these anti-Israel Christians are succeeding in reaching beyond the evangelical left and are influencing the mainstream. In particular, they are penetrating the evangelical world at its soft underbelly: the millennial generation. These young believers (roughly ages 18 to 30) are rebelling against what they perceive as the excessive biblical literalism and political conservatism of their parents. As they strive with a renewed vigor to imitate Jesus’ stand with the oppressed and downtrodden, they want to decide for themselves which party is being oppressed in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Whoever first defines the conflict for these young people will win lifelong allies.
Of Polling and Documentaries
In October 2010, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a major survey of evangelical leaders attending the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. When asked with which side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict they sympathized, these leaders answered as follows:All Evangelicals (Global)The survey contained two bombshells. It showed that only a minority of those evangelicals polled sympathized primarily with Israel. And it demonstrated that American evangelical leaders were actually less inclined to support Israel than evangelical leaders in general.
Sympathize With Israel—34%
Sympathize with the Palestinians—11%
Sympathize with Both Equally—39%
American Evangelicals
Sympathize with Israel—30%
Sympathize with the Palestinians—13%
Sympathize with Both Sides Equally—49%
These figures may mean that evangelical support for Israel was never as universal as was commonly believed. But they may also demonstrate that years of grassroots efforts by Israel’s critics were beginning to bear fruit even before their recent intensification.
The year 2010 was one of dramatic escalation in the efforts to drive a wedge between American evangelicals and Israel using the medium of film. In the span of that one year, no less than three major documentaries were released attacking Christian support for Israel. These were hardly the first anti-Israel movies to be produced. What made these films special was that they were focused on discrediting Christian support for Israel. While First Run Features’ Waiting for Armageddon was produced and directed by a team of secular documentarians, two other films—With God on Our Side (Rooftop Productions, 2010) and Little Town of Bethlehem(EthnoGraphic Media, 2010)—were made by Christians specifically for Christians. With God on Our Side was produced by Porter Speakman, a former Youth with a Mission (YWAM) activist while Little Town of Bethlehem was funded and produced by Mart Green, chairman of the board of trustees of Oral Roberts University and heir to the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts stores fortune.
These two Christian-made films are masterpieces of deception. They feature compelling protagonists wandering earnestly through a Middle Eastern landscape in which all Arab violence, aggression, and rejectionism have been magically erased. Thus the Israeli security measures they encounter along the way—from the security fence to Israel’s ongoing presence in the West Bank—are experienced as baffling persecutions, which any decent person would condemn.
More recently, in November 2013, another anti-Israel documentary—The Stones Cry Out—was released. Like its 2010 predecessors, this documentary specifically tailors its anti-Israel message to a Christian audience. The film’s website laments: “All too often, media coverage of the conflict in Palestine has framed it as a fight between Muslims and Jews.” The not-too subtle goal of The Stones Cry Out is to reframe the conflict as a fight between Christians and Jews.
The Stones Cry Out begins with the story of Kfar Biram, a Christian Arab village on Israel’s border with Lebanon. Israel expelled the village’s residents in 1948 in order to, in the words of the film’s website, “make way for settlers in the newly created state of Israel.” The film then moves on to “the expropriation of the West Bank in 1967″ and the plight of modern Bethlehem, which is “hemmed in by the wall.” As such language repeatedly makes clear, the filmmakers did not craft a nuanced critique of Israeli policies. They produced instead a modern passion play.
In an interview about the film, Bethlehem pastor Mitri Raheb summarizes the changes taking place in the American evangelical world:
It’s not a hopeless case. The first time I went to the States in 1991, most of the people I met knew nothing about Palestine. That has changed a lot. I see among the evangelical Christian community more openness towards the Palestinians.Raheb is right about the openness. And this could be a good thing if it leads to an honest examination of the issue. Unfortunately, Raheb and his colleagues are exploiting this openness by telling a one-sided narrative of Jewish persecution of Christians that may sow the seeds of future hate.
Of Campuses and Conferences
The effort to delegitimize Israel on America’s college campuses has quickly progressed from news item to cliché. The annual Israel apartheid weeks and the repeated divestment campaigns targeting everything from university pension funds to cafeteria humus have become all too familiar. But what many observers do not realize is that the effort to demonize Israel is also being waged on America’s Christian campuses.Perhaps the most troubling example comes from Wheaton College in Illinois, commonly referred to as the “evangelical Harvard.” Some of the most prominent church leaders in America have graduated from Wheaton, including the Rev. Billy Graham, Sen. Dan Coats (Republican, Indiana), and George W. Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson.
Wheaton is also the home of Gary Burge, one of America’s most prominent anti-Israel evangelicals. Burge travels the country and the world accusing the Jewish state of the worst of crimes and engaging in a mockery of Judaism that borders on anti-Semitism. When Christians United for Israel (CUFI) announced plans to hold an event at Wheaton in January 2009, Burge went on the offensive. CUFI’s student members came under such intense pressure that they moved their event off-campus: There would be no pro-Israel event at the evangelical Harvard.
Another of America’s leading Christian schools, Oral Roberts University (ORU), has deep conservative Christian roots. Oral Roberts himself was a Pentecostal televangelist and a strong friend of Israel. Some of the leading preachers in America graduated from ORU, and its board of trustees has included pro-Israel Christians such as pastors John Hagee and Kenneth Copeland and Bishop Keith Butler.
But things may be changing at ORU. The current chair of ORU’s board of trustees is the aforementioned Mart Green. He is reported to have “saved” ORU with a $70 million cash infusion. In January 2013, ORU’s board of trustees elected Billy Wilson as the university’s new president; a few months later, Wilson was named as a speaker for 2014 at the leading anti-Israel Christian conference, “Christ at the Checkpoint.”
Bethel University in Minnesota provides a further example. While this school lacks the national reputation of Wheaton or ORU, it is likely more representative of the direction that America’s Christian colleges are taking. Bethel’s leaders are neither leading nor funding the effort to delegitimize Israel but are merely the products thereof. Like many Christian schools, Bethel emphasizes racial reconciliation and cultural openness and has accordingly developed numerous opportunities for its students to study abroad. In 2010, Bethel’s president Jay Barnes and his wife Barb visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority to explore the prospect of building a study abroad program there. During the trip, they visited Bethlehem and were exposed to the standard Christian anti-Israel narrative. Like so many of her fellow travelers, Barb Barnes apparently bought into this one-sided presentation. Shortly after her return, Barnes posted a poem on the university’s website that summarized the leading anti-Israel themes of these tours:
Incredible conflict exists in the land of Jesus’ birth/ I believe God mourns.The Barnes visit did not motivate further study ultimately yielding a more nuanced understanding. In October 2012, President Barnes hosted a “Hope for the Holy Land” evening at Bethel, a one-sided, blame-Israel speaking tour featuring Sami Awad, Lynn Hybels, and other long-standing Christian critics of Israel.
The wall is a constant reminder of many lost freedoms/ I believe God mourns.
For more than 60 years, people have lived in poverty in refugee camps/ I believe God mourns.
Apartheid has become a way of life/ I believe God mourns.
Extreme disproportional distribution of resources, such as water, exists/ I believe God mourns.
Hundreds of villages have been demolished to make room for settlements/ I believe God mourns.
Human rights violations occur daily/ I believe God mourns.
The Christian population is declining as many are leaving to avoid persecution/ I believe God mourns.
One need not be a student to be exposed to this anti-Israel narrative. In recent years, the number of Christian conferences focusing entirely or partially on criticizing Israel has grown along with the attendance at these conferences.
Since its founding in 1979, Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank has been a leading source of the anti-Israel Christian narrative. In 2010, it launched a biennial conference called “Christ at the Checkpoint.” The name of the conference along with a photo of the Israel security fence that forms its logo invoke the increasingly popular meme that Jesus was a Palestinian who would be suffering under Israeli occupation today much as he suffered under Roman occupation millennia ago.
In 2010, the conference brought 250 Christian leaders and activists to Bethlehem; in 2012, that number was more than 600 including such mainstream evangelical leaders as mega-church pastor Joel Hunter and Lynne Hybels, wife of mega-church pastor Bill Hybels, who has since become a key evangelical critic of Israel.
The days when one had to travel to Bethlehem to hear such anti-Israel voices are now over. The anti-Israel narrative of “Christ at the Checkpoint” is now being shared at major Christian conferences in the United States including those organized by Empowered21 and Catalyst.
Empowered21, the preeminent gathering of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians, provides a troubling example of this trend. Its leadership is a who’s who of Pentecostal and Charismatic luminaries from around the world, including many longstanding friends of Israel. However, the leading critic of Israel among these leaders, Mart Green, appears to be playing an outsized role in setting the conference’s agenda: Its 2012 conference in Virginia included a talk by Sami Awad and a screening of Green’s film, Little Town of Bethlehem.
Empowered21 has announced that it will hold its 2015 global congress in Jerusalem. Given the conference’s connections to Sami Awad and Mart Green, there is some skepticism whether the choice of location was intended as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish state. Only time will tell if the organization’s leadership will permit the conference to become a one-sided Israel bashing fest.
Troubling developments are also taking place at the annual Catalyst conference. First launched in 1999, Catalyst has quickly grown into the largest gathering of young evangelical leaders in America with more than 100,000 leaders having made the annual trek to Atlanta to participate in this conference since its inception. Additional Catalyst events are now being held in Florida, Texas, and California.
In the past, Catalyst studiously avoided discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 2012, however, Lynne Hybels was invited to address “Peacemaking in Israel/Palestine.” No one was asked to provide a pro-Israel perspective. As journalist Jim Fletcher observed after attending Catalyst 2012:
In dozens of random conversations, I noted that Millenials … expressed solidarity with the Palestinians and annoyance with Israel. This is a seismic shift in the American church and a serious threat to Israel’s one traditional area of support.In addition to speaking at major conferences, anti-Israel speakers such as Burge, Awad, Hybels, and Steven Sizer tour churches across the country. The flyer for a September 2013 evening with Burge provides a sense of the climate at these events. Entitled “Christian Zionism: A Problem with a Solution,” the flyer includes a string of three lies that form the core of the new Christian anti-Zionism:
Zionists in Israel have created a state that wants racial purity. Many Zionists want native-born Christians to leave Israel. Christian Zionists in America support Israel because they believe this will accelerate the second coming of Christ.
Trips to “Israel/Palestine”
A growing number of organizations are bringing an increasing number of Christian leaders, influencers, and students to visit “Israel/Palestine.” These trips are well marketed and seek out mainstream evangelicals by claiming to be both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian—or simply “pro-people”—but never anti-Israel. Yet these trips tend to focus on Palestinian suffering and to blame Israel alone for this suffering.The Telos Group, founded in 2009 and funded by George Soros, is typical of these new organizations. Run by a savvy team professing a moderate agenda, Telos promotes itself as “a leading organization of America’s emerging pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-American, pro-peace movement.” Their tours take visitors to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority where they meet with both Israelis and Palestinians. What could be more evenhanded?
Yet these tours are carefully calibrated to teach their participants that Israeli policy is the source of Israeli and Arab suffering and the only real barrier to peace. The Palestinian speakers include extreme critics of Israel such as Mitri Raheb and Archbishop Elias Chacour (both featured prominently in The Stones Cry Out). The Israeli speakers, while not as extreme, are stalwarts of the far Left who likewise blame Israel for the region’s problems. A brief visit with an Israeli right-winger—usually a settler—does more to confirm this one-sided narrative than challenge it. Telos organizes approximately fifteen of these trips every year.
Another recent arrival on the scene is the Global Immersion Project. Founded in 2011, the project seeks to “cultivate everyday peacemakers through immersion in global conflict.” But thus far, the only conflict they study is that between Israel and the Palestinians, and the only trips they make are to “Israel/Palestine.” In 2014, they have two “learning labs” scheduled in the Holy Land.
These newcomers have joined an old stalwart of the movement, the Holy Land Trust. Founded in 1998 by Palestinian Christian activist Sami Awad, the organization claims to promote nonviolent solutions to the conflict with Israel. However, Awad has stated quite clearly on his blog that nonviolence is “not a substitute for the armed struggle. This is not a method for normalization with the occupation. Our goal is to revive the popular resistance until every person is involved in dismantling the occupation.” The Holy Land Trust promotes a strongly biased version of history in which Israel alone is to blame for the absence of peace. It shares this message to those who visit on their various service projects, olive harvesting initiative, and “Palestine Summer Encounter.”
The Generational Divide
Despite these troubling inroads, it is unlikely that an older generation of evangelicals raised to support Israel will abandon it en masse. The greater threat comes from the younger generation that never developed such bonds and seems quite eager to question them. There is a real danger that these films, conferences, and campus attacks will combine to create a generational shift in attitudes toward Israel.Most of the evangelicals who dominated Christian political activism for the past few decades—men such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Francis Schaeffer—were vocal supporters of Israel. While their children may share this perspective, they tend to talk about it less. In fact, Schaeffer’s son Frank has become a vocal critic of “the largely unchallenged influence of Christian Zionism.”
Making matters worse, there is a cadre of rising young evangelical stars who are bonding on trips to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and returning to push their fellow evangelicals away from the Jewish state. This is a largely well-coiffed and fashionably dressed bunch dedicated to marketing Christianity to a skeptical generation by making it cool, compassionate, and less overtly political. Questioning support for Israel and expressing sympathy with the Palestinians is fast becoming a hallmark of this clique.
This generational divide is best highlighted by the example of Christian publisher Steven Strang and his son Cameron. Steven Strang publishes Charisma, a leading evangelical monthly with a consistently pro-Israel perspective. He has also published works by many prominent Christian authors, including pro-Israel stalwart John Hagee. Strang was, until recently, regional director for Christians United for Israel. His son Cameron publishes Relevant, a highly popular magazine among millennial evangelicals, claiming to “reach about 2,300,000 twenty- and thirty something Christians a month” through its print and online publications.
Less than a decade ago, Relevant was as pro-Israel as Charisma. In December 2005, for example, it published a powerful, pro-Israel piece called “Israel: Why You Should Care.” In 2006, Relevant interviewed the author of this article for its weekly podcast, and the interview could not have been friendlier.
Then Lynne Hybels took Cameron Strang to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories, and everything changed. During Israel’s 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Relevant published an article titled, “Is Israel Always Right?” in which the author dispensed with any balanced analysis of urban counterterror operations to conclude: “When I examine Israel’s choices like I would that of any other nation, I find myself appalled that they’re not doing more to protect the innocents [in Gaza].”
When Israel confronted Hamas again in November 2012, Relevant published an article titled, “How Should Christians Respond to the Middle East Crisis” by Jon Huckins, a co-founder of the Global Immersion Project. The article was an extended exercise in moral relativism, noting the suffering on each side without attributing blame. Huckins never once criticized Hamas, but he did take a thinly veiled swipe at Christian Zionists by blasting the “hateful stereotyping, racism, and violent response [to events in Gaza] being disseminated by Christians.”
Relevant‘s May/June 2012 cover featured Donald Miller, author of the New York Timesbestseller Blue Like Jazz (2003), which was made into a 2012 movie. In August 2008, Miller delivered the first night’s closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention. He is considered a rising star among America’s 20-something evangelicals who comprise many of his 189,000 Twitter followers. Miller visited Israel and the Palestinian territories with Strang and has since embraced the anti-Israel narrative. On November 12, 2012, Miller blogged “The Painful Truth about the Situation in Israel.” Here he repeated a number of outrageous lies about Israel he likely heard during his visit:
In September a group of journalists and I visited Israel and stood on a hill overlooking the wall separating Israel from Gaza. From our viewpoint, we could see the controversial territory where 1.6 million Palestinians have been walled in and secluded from the outside world. They are, essentially, imprisoned.
The walls erected around the West Bank and Gaza separate families from families. Many mothers will not see their children again. Millions will never return to the homes their families had occupied for hundreds of years. … Thousands of Palestinian students at American universities will never see their families again.
Israel gives most Palestinians fresh water once each week. … In Gaza, Israel also rations their food, allowing only so many calories per human being.
The Response
Freeze the frame today, and the pro-Israel side is still far ahead in the battle for the hearts and minds of America’s evangelicals. Just one pro-Israel organization, Christians United for Israel, has over 1.6 million members, chapters on more than 120 college and university campuses, and sponsors thirty-five pro-Israel events across the country every month. Anti-Israel Christians do not come close to matching CUFI’s size, activity, or influence.But the long-term trends are now coming into sufficient focus to discern a challenge. Anti-Israel Christians are on a roll. While small in number, these activists seem to have extensive funds. They are taking far more Christian leaders and influencers to Israel and the Palestinian Authority than the pro-Israel side. Through these newly-minted allies, they are reaching an ever expanding network of evangelicals in the United States.
The threat is not that these activists will turn the majority of American evangelicals into Israel haters. They do not have to. The real danger is that they will teach their fellow evangelicals a moral relativism that will neutralize them. The day that Israel is seen as the moral equivalent of Hamas is the day that the evangelical community—and by extension the political leaders it helps elect—will cease providing the Jewish state any meaningful support.
Those who reject such facile moral equivalence must take this threat seriously. They cannot let the evangelical community go the way of the mainstream Protestant leadership. They must not forget that big lies must be confronted early and often. And they dare not ignore the fact that Israel’s enemies are telling very big lies to some very influential Christians—and telling them quite well.
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About Me
- Steve Lewis
- Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.