How many of these stories will our media see fit to print or follow up on?
Netanyahu’s speech to Christians United for Israel, affirming Jews’ biblical rights to the West Bank, reported by Alice Bach of EI (emphasis mine):
“You stand with us. You understand Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran, Hizbollah, Hamas. And I promise the Jewish people will never deny our own story. Judea and Samaria (known as the West Bank) is the homeland of the Jewish people… You are Bible believers. You know that ever since God gave the land of Israel to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets rallied to the protection of Israel. And even when a young Galilean Jew [applause breaks out], that young prophet preached peace, and reminded us that we have one common destiny.”
Ynet on an incident that, if it involved a Koran, might be big news:
MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union), a member of the Israeli parliament tore up a copy of the New Testament and threw it in the trash, an act that was apparently caught on camera.
Ben Ari and several other Knesset members received by mail on Monday a copy of the New Testament, sent by the Bible Society in Israel, an organization that distributes religious books.
…“This abominable book (the New Testament) galvanized the murder of millions of Jews during the Inquisition and during auto da fe instances,” Ben Ari said adding that “Sending the book to MK’s is a provocation. There is no doubt that this book and all it represents belongs in the garbage can of history.”
Associated Press on Hillary’s visit to Jerusalem:
A Palestinian journalist says he and three colleagues trying to cover U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s news conference walked away after being asked to drop their pants in an Israeli security check.
The Palestinian journalists were invited to Monday’s event by the U.S. consulate, which sent a staffer to guide them through security. Mohammed Abu Khdeir of the Al Quds newspaper says Israeli and foreign journalists were not asked to strip.
Foreign journalists have complained in the past about being strip-searched at events with top Israeli politicians though the practice appears to have eased.
The incident rated one line in the New York Times report on Hillary’s visit. From the Australian:
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate protested what it described as “the humiliating treatment” the journalists received at the hotel, despite being invited by the US consulate to attend the meeting.
Akiva Orr (matzpen) tells a great story about a jew who was hid in a church basement during the second world war in I think poland, he was forced to stay out of sight for months on end. After the war Orr met up with him, only now the guy was a christian monk! Orr said something like “wow, so you converted to save yourself, or did they make you?” And the guy responded – “no, the only book I had to read in that basement was the new testament, i had never read it, and when I did, Christ changed my mind.”
I bash organized religion all the time (here and elsewhere) I dont have any use for it, but the Sermon on the Mount and its radical humanist message in no way belong in the trash can of history. Say what you want about christianity, but Jesus was indeed, a righteous dude.
Interesting that two of the three are insults to Christian belief. Ben Ari is a bigoted thug, and he insulted 1.5 billion people in the world and 85% of the country his shitty little state relies upon. If I were a Christian, though I would find the thug’s activities outrageous, but I would find ‘yahoo’s description of Jesus Christ as a mere “young prophet” to be a worse. Ben Ari with the venom of the snake he clearly is, but to a Christian, Jesus was not a prophet. A prophet is a messenger from God. To Christians, Jesus was God, incarnate. To call him a prophet is to say he was less than what he was, to the Christians.
If say, NY Senator Kirsten Gilibrand tore up the Old Testament and said Jews poisoned the wells of Christians for centuries, I somehow think it would get a lot of media coverage in the United States.
And now the AJC wants him censured. And Regev has made a statement against his actions.
But does this type of behavior exhibited by Ben Ari, make the Hagees (and other Christian Zionists) of America want to contribute more money toward Israel? Or do they feel hurt?
There seems to be a blackout on the story of the attempted assassination of Hillary Clinton in Israel yesterday. You’d think the story would be reported, even if only to shoot it down, if it is false. Breaking/Confirmed: Sec Clinton Assassination Attempt in Israel (updated):
I’d like to see chief Christian Zionist Hagee and MK Michael Ben Ari locked in a stalled elevator together that was monitored by remote camera. Hagee would have in his cell phone a video of Ari’s literally trashing the New Testament as an abomination, a video he had just watched before he stepped into the elevator. Joe Lieberman could over-narrate the resulting interaction, and Phil or Adam could super over-narrative Lieberman.