Zionism

Sunday, July 23, 2006
"Truth turns ashen"
Posted in memory of the blasted and charred children of Lebanon.
Choice of Weapon
Our world has been numbered by men with bombs,
And by the women who rule them with clipped
And merciless speech. They play at destruction;
Their gods are false; they are proud and heartless.
On the spit of their tongues truth turns ashen,
As it gets done.
posted by Caryl at 10:26 AM 0 comments




Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The Zionist Face of First Things
Destroying Christianity for Israel

The journal First Things, the premier religious journal in the USA, maintains a web log to which their contributors write. It does not, however, allow for the posting of comments by readers. Perhaps the editors of that magazine are unwilling to have readers challenge the neoconservatism which now passes for Christianity according to First Things.I wish to comment on Wilfred McClay’s recently posted piece (Aug.23) in which he derides David Ray Griffin’s new book, Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, the Westminster Presbyterian Press for publishing it, the Catholic critiques of the Iraq war and American foreign policy, and everybody else who disagrees with the Bush Administration’s handling of world affairs. The enemies list is growing very long indeed, but the rhetorical skills of the neoconservative apologist seem to be growing rather dim.Indeed I was sorry to read this disparaging and in many ways incoherent piece by Wilfred McClay. He wrote an excellent essay on Ralph Waldo Emerson some years ago which showed great acumen, and I have always considered him a thoughtful writer.He begins by acknowledging his association with the Ethics and Public Policy Center of Washington, D.C., which was founded “to combat the perception that an intellectually and morally impoverished understanding of the dominant American religious traditions had rendered those traditions useless, or (as in the lamentable presidency of Jimmy Carter) worse than useless in guiding Americans’ thinking about a sensible and responsible foreign policy.”Whew. This is quite a mouthful. But what he seems to be saying is that dominant American Christianity was not quite committed to the project of Empire, and that the people at the Ethics and Public Policy Center were determined to rectify this mistake, perhaps by furthering the alliance with Zionism. But why the dig at Jimmy Carter? Mr. Carter was the last president we had who acknowledged limits to energy use – there was the famous scene where he spoke from the White House wearing a sweater, because he kept the thermostats down. Mr. Reagan tore down Mr. Carter’s solar panels upon arriving at the august office. So much for the turn to a modicum of energy realism.No doubt there were lamentable things that happened in Mr. Carter’s tenure, just as there have also been lamentable events in the presidencies before and after Mr. Carter -- but this snide disparagement of a good and decent man is wholly unwarranted.Mr. McClay then goes on to praise Mr. George Weigel “in stimulating valuable thinking about the nation-state, war, and peace that is both strategically sound and theologically informed.” Concerning this last point I must demur. Mr. Weigel claims to be a Catholic, but he evidently holds no respect for Catholic Just War teaching. Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have condemned the Iraq invasion, but apparently this effort for peace means nothing to the Country Club neo-Catholicism of George Weigel.It gets worse. Mr. McClay describes the news that Westminster Presbyterian Press is publishing David Ray Griffin’s book as “jaw-dropping.” The book itself he refers to as “a crackpot September 11 conspiracy book.”Now it is one thing to describe Mr. Griffin’s thesis in that book as shocking – which it is. But it is quite another to dismiss it in the cavalier way that Mr. McClay does. I would just like to ask Mr. McClay if he has given any thought to how Building 7 came down? It was not hit, and collapsed in a matter of seconds. Such facts – and there are many – point to a raft of troubling issues not dealt with in the “secular press” or by the government’s report. But then Mr. McClay adds insult to injury when he says that the appearance of this book “underlines the more general point that the most important intellectual and institutional expressions of the Christian faith, including Rome and Canterbury, have found almost nothing of value to say about the current Middle East crisis..."”etc. The phrase "including Rome” is linked to an article in The Weekly Standard, neoconservative magazine sans pareil. This link consists of an article by neoconservative Joseph Bottum, “The Sodano Code: The Vatican’s stale policy on the Middle East,” which is a condemnation of the Vatican’s “functional pacifism.” Bottum writes that, “The Vatican was never anti-Israeli, and it certainly never condoned or praised terrorism. But, bit by bit, Rome’s advisers and experts on the Middle East came to be those whose first impulse was to take the Arab, and particularly the Palestinian, side in any dispute….”Imagine that – taking the Arab side! What an affront, even to acknowledge that there might be two sides to the conflict. Aside from the intellectual dishonesty of the Bottum piece, and its transparently Zionist bias, I find it amazing that McClay had the temerity to link to an article in the Weekly Standard as an index to Catholic thought. If this was not sufficient, however, McClay urges us to read the right sort of people – his people – Norman Podhoritz, Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Steyn, Christopher Hitchens – all of whom are neoconservative courtiers and who are foaming at the mouth against Islam. Finally, Mr. McClay concludes his little diatribe by taking shots at those who criticize the “Christian pretensions” of George Bush et al. Now some of these critics who worry about “theocracy” and the like are, I agree, a little over the top. But notice how McClay refuses to engage their arguments, saying that, because they disagree with the neoconservative dogma, they can be “safely ignored and dispensed with.”First Things had a great moment about a decade ago. It published a brave issue about “The End of Democracy?” which ruffled a lot of feathers in the Zionist sector which supports the magazine. Mrs. Gertrude Himmelfarb, for one, resigned her membership on the Board.Since that time First Things has settled down to be a reliable echo chamber for the doctrine that Might Makes Right and There Is to be No Discussion. And since that time its editor, Father R.J. Neuhaus, has converted to Catholicism. Despite this, I find it alarming that First Things has become the premier intellectual-Christian apologist for neoconservatism. I fear that Father Neuhaus has been swept up, not into Catholicism, but into the Zionist delusion, and that he is not aware that the Zionists now have set their sights on the Catholic Church. For the true teachings of the Catholic faith – and some renegade Presbyterians – are all that is left of Christianity’s retaining wall against the Zionist annihilation of American politics.Mr. McClay will be cheering it on, but for Father Neuhaus, a good and decent man, I tremble. It would have been better if he had remained a Lutheran, than to let these wolves into the fold! Labels: Christianity, First Things, Israel, Zionism posted by Caryl at 5:41 PM 1 comments

Monday, July 31, 2006
Israel Unconverted
Words cannot express the horror I feel at the killing fields of Lebanon. And words cannot express the horror I feel at the treacherous American enablers of Israeli savagery. It is impossible to see through the darkness that has descended upon us -- on the one hand the abandonment of any pretence of “just war,” the extinction of all criteria of restraint, proportion, international law and all canons of decency. And on the other: the unleashing of sheer bloodlust accompanied by the bellowing and braying of the triumphalists like Michael Barone. He was quoted recently by the Catholic blogger Oswald Sobrino: “…What Barone points out is that the Bush administration is right to do things differently this time: no pressuring of Israel to stop military action prematurely, no rushing to engage in shuttle diplomacy that is an unmistakable signal of weakness to the Middle Eastern mentality, and no more pleas for Israel to give up land. Appeasement did not work with Hitler because Hitler would never give up his ambition of conquering all of Europe. Appeasement does not work with those now attacking Israel because they will never give up their ambition to destroy Israel. That means that the table has to be overturned. The game as played for years now favors the irrational who seek the destruction of Israel. So it's time to turn the chess board over: to create a new playing board with new facts, not to stick to the same dysfunctional constraints and parameters of the past. That's a revolutionary approach. Let's call it a "paradigm shift" so as not to alarm unduly the academic types who pontificate over foreign affairs.” That a Catholic writer should be espousing this neoconservative doctrine of destruction is ignominious and shameful. I thought the authors of the Catholic Neocon Observer Blog should be aware of Mr. Sobrino’s change of allegiance from the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gospel of Pure Revolutionary Destruction, so I sent them an e-mail about it, as follows:Hey Tom,Instead of going after Stephen Hand, who is strongly anti-war, why not address the neocon Catholic Oswald Sobrino - at this link -http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/--I think you should challenge Mr. Sobrino, who quotes the self-intoxicated Charles Krauthammer about what a great thing to bomb the Lebanese people. In fact Mr. Sobrino seems to fall over himself to ingratiate himself with the barbaricons. Plus he quotes Michael Barone, Victor Hanson, and other neocon apologists ad nauseum about how the "Arabs only want to destroy Israel" and "no negotiation is possible" and let's have a complete paradigm shift, i.e., annihilate them! It is simply unbelievable to me that a man of Mr. Sobrino's intelligence can have absolutely no feeling for the Arab point of view and no willingness to try and enter into it. And I do believe that Mr. Sobrino is a good man, who has written some good pieces on Catholic theology. But I have stopped visiting his site because of the incredible sickening neocon self-righteousness which he parades as Deep Truth. This seems to me an utter betrayal of the Catholicism he claims to profess.Regards,CJ...I copied Mr. Sobrino to this message, and received a message from him:Dear Caryl Johnston,I strongly disagree with your personal attack on me! You have slandered and libelled me to others. You have given false witness against me to others. I have never said or written anywhere that we are to annihilate Arabs.I must vigorously correct and rebuke you. Please stop the false witness for your own sake. You are damaging yourself and failing to do good for anyone. State your views vigorously, but without slander or libel or personal attack. That's my honest advice and counsel to you.I hereby give you immediate notice to cease your slanders against me. Argue your case, but don't personally attack or defame me or others. You do not serve your cause in that way.Oswald Sobrino, J.D.CatholicAnalysis.blogspot.comTo which I responded in this wise:Dear Mr. Sobrino,Thank you for writing. I have not "slandered" you or personally attacked you. In fact, I complimented the quality of your theological reflections. I expressed strong disagreement with your alliance with the neoconservatives, who are brutal apostles of "Might Makes Right" and should have no place of esteem in the hearts of Catholics.Sincerely,Caryl JohnstonTo which Mr. Sobrino responded:You are wrong. You slandered me. Desist from hysterical outbursts and get yourself to a prudent and mature confessor as soon as possible.Oswald Sobrino CatholicAnalysis.blogspot.comIsn’t it amazing that someone who fills his website with the Culture-of-Death promoters and warmongers --Charles Krauthammer, Michael Barone, Victor Davis Hanson, etc. -- about how justified Israel is in bombing Lebanon into rubble, burning and decapitating children, creating hundreds of thousands of refugees and destroying civilian life, - well, isn’t it amazing that such a man is wholly unable to process the fact that someone disagrees with him? Mr. Sobrino in his replies certainly seems to reveal the profile of the coward/bully.I am very sorry to have to say it, because I did read Mr. Sobrino’s site in the past and often appreciated it. But after Katrina struck New Orleans I began to have doubts about Mr. Sobrino – a New Orleans native – who seemed to have nothing good to say about poor Ray Nagin and seemed to be endorsing the creative destruction of our government’s handling of the crisis. Perhaps Mr. Sobrino really does believe in Barbara Bush’s statement that the poor black people in that city really did appreciate being herded like animals into stadiums with dysfunctional plumbing and no water?I think that Mr. Sobrino would benefit from reading Toynbee – if indeed it was Toynbee who pointed out that no nation has survived the extinction of its ruling elite. The ruling elite in the USA was the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who have now, for all practical purposes, have become wholly allied with the Jews. In the meantime the Protestant Church has become a laughingstock. The Jewish-Protestant alliance has been building for a long time, but certainly since the Kennedy assassination. It was a Catholic Kennedy – flawed man though he was – who was disturbed by Israel’s nuclear ambitions and sought to curb them. This didn’t play well in Israel.Is Mr. Sobrino at all aware of the Jewish preponderance in the media and the popular culture venues (Hollywood)? I think not. Did Mr. Sobrino even mention that Pope Benedict XVI has called for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon? No sign of it. Has Mr. Sobrino a thought at all for the noble tradition of Catholic just war teachings? Apparently not.So I ask: who is Mr. Sobrino pretending to be? I think Mr. Sobrino is one of these Country Club Catholics who despises the liberal cafeteria Catholics for disregarding the teachings of the Church regarding sexual morality, while he himself despises and disregards Catholic teaching about war, economy, mercy, justice, proportionality.If he hopes to ingratiate himself with the Ruling Class he will soon find out that there is no Ruling Class worthy of the name left in this country – they have all become Israelophiles and disciples of the Deuteronomic doctrine of pure destruction: “…thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eyes shall have no pity upon them… the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed… And the Lord thy God shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed…” This is the kind of thing that caused Simone Weil to reject-- with utter loathing -- her Jewish heritage. The Old Testament, she said, was a "tissue of horrors.” The Judaism of Deuteronomy shows itself to be the only religious teaching in the world committed to absolute destruction – a commitment which, it is important to add, was perceived, and strongly condemned, disavowed in the prophetic tradition of Israel: “Hear the world of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” Hosea 4:1 But modern Israel has spurned its ancient prophets. I have said it before, and I will say it again: in the havoc that Israel will unleash upon the world, there will be a remnant of the faithful Jews who will realize that Jesus Christ is the essence, justification and deliverance of Jewish history into God’s hands. Perhaps, in that late hour, their hearts will turn to conversion, and they will weep for the little children whose burned bodies lie on the hills of Lebanon, in silent testimony to the power of “Jewish vengeance.” posted by Caryl at 5:12 PM 1 comments