Newsletter #287     Friday, June 23, 2006

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• Victimhood: A Palestinian disease
  by Charles Krauthammer - TownHall.com - June 16, 2006
   This embrace of victimhood, of martyrdom, of blood and suffering, is the Palestinian disease. They are offered their own independent state. They are given all of Gaza. And they respond with rocket attacks into peaceful Israeli towns -- in pre-1967 Israel proper, mind you. Why? Because the Palestinians prefer victimhood to statehood.

• Enmity without borders
  Jerusalem Post - June 22, 2006  What does the Arab world care about most: establishing Palestine or eliminating Israel? Or do these remain, in Arab eyes, the same goal?

• What Jewish ties to Jerusalem?
  By Daniel Pipes - Jerusalem Post - June 20, 2006  By 1990, the Islamic focus on Jerusalem reached such surreal intensity that Palestinians evolved from celebrating Jerusalem to denying the city's sacred and historical importance to Jews. The Palestinian establishment - scholars, clerics, and politicians - promoted this unlikely claim by constructing a revisionist edifice made up in equal parts of fabrication, falsehood, fiction, and fraud. It erases all Jewish connections to the Land of Israel, replacing them with a specious Palestinian-Arab connection.

• The (Latest) Israeli Atrocity that Wasn't
  By David Frum - FrontPageMagazine.com - June 20, 2006  Since 2000, hoaxing has emerged as a major tool of Palestinian propaganda. A U.S. Web site, SecondDraft.org, has compiled documentary footage to reveal a startling series of faked funerals, staged gun battles, and professional weeping grandmothers. They dub the Palestinian propaganda complex, "Pallywood," and ask hard questions about the readiness--eagerness--of much of the world media to be deceived.

• Israel's self-destruction
  By Louis Rene Beres - Washington Times - June 22, 2006  Years ago, in an initial burst of strategic ingenuity, Israel decided to arm Hamas and its various Islamist fundamentalist antecedents against Fatah. Now, the leadership in Jerusalem calculates that an adversarial reversal is in order. In both cases, this leadership has missed the essential and rather obvious point: Both Hamas and Fatah are equally and fully committed to Israel's complete annihilation. Neither can ever serve Israel's security interests.

  The Mountains of Israel is an exciting and refreshing new perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict, clearly outlining how God is fulfilling His Word in modern-day Israel. Free with a $ 11.95 USD per copy Donation!  Click button at left for PayPal or visit our "Mountains" page onsite.

• Playing politics, Presbyterians repudiate God’s Word
  by Stan Goodenough - Jerusalem Newswire - June 22, 2006

  Some call it “evenhandedness;” more accurately, though, it’s “seduction.”

  After years of denying access to Israel’s Red Shield of David, the International Committee of the Red Cross Wednesday finally admitted the Jewish state’s emergency services, ensuring that, at the same time, they opened the door to the Palestinian Authority’s Red Crescent Society.

  To arrive at this “historic” milestone, the ICRC demanded that Israel adopt a “Red Crystal” in place of the Red Shield of David that is so offensive to Muslims and multitudes of other anti-Semites. Israel acquiesced.

  No such demand was, of course, placed on the Red Crescent. To the contrary, an unprecedented exception was made to allow the PA in – flouting the ICRC rule which stipulates that only recognized countries can become members.

  Odious it may be, but there really is nothing startling about all of this. Notwithstanding its “cross,” the ICRC is a secular humanitarian organization. It is going to go with the international flow, conforming to the consensus on the conflict, ensuring it remains “balanced,” “objective,” “neutral.”

  Neutral from its perspective means accepting the Arab claim to half of Israel’s historic homeland. It’s kind of like trying to resolve an irresolvable problem between two children who want the same thing by robbing one to appease the other.

  Hey, the whole world’s doing it – Anything for the sake of peace.

  As I said: There is nothing to really be surprised about here. From our point of view, little can be gained by taking the Red Cross to task.

  The Presbyterian Church of the USA, on the other hand, is an entirely different kettle of fish.

  Let’s forget about the “Presbyterian” part and just concentrate on the fact that the leadership of the PCUSA considers that denomination to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

  Where does it come from, this Church? Well, its recorded origins are in the pages of the Bible; the same Bible that introduces us to – and teaches us all about – the Almighty; the same Bible that records the origins of the Jews and the Arabs; the same Bible that stipulates that the land between the Euphrates and the River of Egypt is the sole and exclusive property of the Almighty Who, in one-sided and unbreakable covenant, set it apart for the Jews.

  The same Bible? The same God! At least that’s what “Bible-believing Christians” believe.

  The PCUSA, clearly, does not believe the Bible. Nor does it fear God.

  Which is why, during its General Assembly last week, it debated things like changing God’s gender, and welcoming those living lifestyles that are abominable to God to stand in the pulpit and preach.

  What’s to debate? By questioning the immutability of the Word of God, the PCUSA was undermining its own legitimacy.

  But wait, some said, there was some reason for optimism, reason to hope.

  Instead of reaffirming its one-sided 2004 resolution to divest from companies doing business with Israel, it voted to amend the decision.

  It is now more “balanced,” more “even-handed.”

  Bear witness, then, to the seduction of the Presbyterian Church of the USA. Playing the harlot with democracy and secular humanism, instead of staying faithful to the Word of God, it looks to the world for approval, and basks in it.

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