B’nai Brith Canada anti-boycott video uses the End of Days to appeal to Christians welcoming the rapture.
This week the United Church of Canada will take on a targeted boycott of Israeli settlement goods at their national conference. Combatting the proposal one group, B’nai Brith Canada, tailored their hasbara to appeal to Christians longing for the End of Days. The service organization’s CEO, Frank Dimant dangled his own Armageddon-derived demise in a video, connecting support for Israel to the evangelical doctrine. “Christians should be welcoming the fulfillment of the prophecy, not negating God’s word,” said Dimant.
Today, the 41st General Council Meeting will debate a proposal from the church’s Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy, which was assembled after the publication of the 2005 Kairos Palestine document, a call from Palestinian Christians to fellow churches to boycott “products of the occupation.” Last May, the working-group published their recommendations, which included a condemnation of the settlement enterprise and also retracted an earlier statement by the church calling Israel a homeland to the Jewish people. Their findings have earned the church ire from Canada’s staunchest pro-Israel supporters
Heading up the campaign against the working group’s recommendations is the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), or Canada’s AIPAC, an advocacy group that promotes pro-Israel policy, and takes a hard stance on “the single greatest threat to regional and global security” – Iran. CIJA was founded in 2011 after the CEO Shimon Fogel quietly used an iron fist to dismember the nearly century old Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). Fogel reconstructed the congress under one Brand Israel tent, and like David Ben-Gurion before him, Fogel’s consolidation angered some longtime allies. “My sense is that there’s a lot of bad blood on this among the community,” said Andrew Cohen, Carleton University professor and nephew of the congress’ founder, Lyon, to the National Post. He continued, “Usually when an organization is launched, it’s done to trumpets and fanfare, not quietly under the cover of darkness.”
Yet only one year out of the gate Fogel Canadian AIPAC has even garnished the support of nine senators who decried the church’s report in an open letter published June 27, 2012. The letter, signed by liberals and conservatives, admonishes the church for taking a divisive stance that could threaten the relationships between Jews and gentiles. “What will be made clear to them is that the United Church has chosen sides, declaring Israel guilty and the Palestinians the only injured party,” wrote the senators.
Rev. Love at the Western Wall, 2009. (Photo: Faithful Witness)
Inside the church congregants are beginning to organize as well. A few weeks ago Reverend Andrew Love started Faithful Witness, an online petition and website that fulfills a promise the Reverend made to an Israeli family on a 2009 trip to the region. “I also met a family in Ashkelon that had had their house blown in half by a rocket launched from Gaza. The family asked me to explain why so many western churches seemed to be anti-Israel. I made a promise to them that I would try, in my own small way, to raise their voices in the United Church.”
The Faithful Witness’ petition demands:
If the General Council is really concerned about advancing the dignity of Palestinians, why not use our energy and resources in a positive way like building a school or medical clinic in the West Bank? Why not invest in Palestinian businesses? Why not support the major joint Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives that are happening in the region now?
Screen shot of from the Christian Zionist campaign, Faithful Witness.
Yet despite a sleek website design, Love’s support is abysmal with only 50 signatories, according to his blog.
The United Church of Canada holds national meetings every three years. At the last two conferences proposals from the Israel/Palestine working group did not pass. Follow the debate live on Twitter under the hashtags: #GC41 and #UCCan
h/t Sid Shniad
Ah bless…
They never go into the details regarding their interpretation of ‘God’s Word’.
The Jews get wiped out.
Eeek.
OK, not all of them. Those who don’t get wiped out will convert to Christianity.
Hmm, but that’ll mean there won’t be any Jews.
OK, I’ll revise.
Christian Zionism demands that Judaism is completely eradicated.
Nice.
The Palestinian civil society’s call for BDS was in 2005. Palestinian churches followed with Kairos Palestine in 2009.
RE: “This week the United Church of Canada will take on a targeted boycott of Israeli settlement goods at their national conference. Combatting the proposal one group, B’nai Brith Canada, tailored their hasbara to appeal to Christians longing for the End of Days. . . CEO, Frank Dimant dangled his own Armageddon-derived demise in a video, connecting support for Israel to the evangelical doctrine. “Christians should be welcoming the fulfillment of the prophecy, not negating God’s word,” said Dimant.” ~ Allison Deger
MY COMMENT: This helps to illustrate why I fear that Revisionist Zionism and Likudnik Israel (specifically by virtue of their inordinate sway over the U.S. and Canada) might very well be an “existential threat” to the values of The Enlightenment ! ! !
• ALSO SEE: ‘Israelis are helping write US laws, fund US campaigns, craft US war policy’, by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, 6/30/12
LINK – link to mondoweiss.net
• AND SEE: “America Adopts the Israel Paradigm”, by Philip Ghiraldi, Antiwar.com, 7/05/12
LINK – link to original.antiwar.com
• AND SEE: “Report: Israeli model underlies militarization of U.S. police”, By Muriel Kane, Raw Story, 12/04/11
LINK – link to rawstory.com
P.S. AND HERE’S ANOTHER THREAT TO THE VALUES OF “THE ENLIGHTENMENT”:
“US Religious Right Propelling Homophobia in African Countries”, by Common Dreams, 7/24/12
LINK – link to commondreams.org
P.P.S. A LITTLE BACKGROND: “Grace Halsell: De-bunker of Christian Zionist Doctrine”, by Stuart Littlewood, Palestine Chronicle, 8/11/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to palestinechronicle.com
P.P.P.S.
THE HOLY CITY
(Adams/Weatherly)
with Herbert Dawson – Organ
Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
Recorded: London, Oct 3, 1935
The Holy City – Richard Crooks [VIDEO, 05:00] – link to youtube.com
Good news. The United Church of Canada has affirmed the boycott of settlement products. The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs is currently coughing up a fur ball.
Good news yes but does such labeling exist that allow us to distinguish between goods from Israel versus those from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights? It seems the surest thing is to boycott anything claiming to have been made in Israel. (Too bad it is not possible to boycott US Middle East Foreign Policy which is also made in Israel.)
Another nail in the zionist coffin
The CIJA response is here: link to us1.campaign-archive2.com
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it reads as if they will be working to support dissident members and congregations to break away from the United Church.
Pam Geller could use more WASPs to join her white supremacist movement.