Palestinian Christians in a Big News Week

If you have seen the video that has been appearing in Jewish circles of Palestinian Christy Anastas about how it is Palestinians and not Israel that is responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights against Palestinian Christians, then here are some background things you may not be aware of.

First thing you need to know is that it was the Jerusalem Institute of Justice that ‘broke the story’ of Christy as they shared the platform at a conference on Palestinian Human Rights week at Uppsala University in Sweden. 

JIJ’s Calev Myers also spoke at the Swedish Parliament addressing Palestinian Human Rights violations.

You can access many fascinating videos from JIJ time in Sweden at the JIJ channel on YouTube, including this Q&A session with Mati Shoshani moderating and Calev Myers, Christy Anastas and Eli Hazan fielding questions from the Swedish students. 

Second thing you need to know is that Christy Anastas appeared along with her mother, Claire, in a 60 Minutes segment by Bob Simon about Christians in the Holy Land in 2012.  That segment was universally denounced as dishonest and misleading by Israelis, Jews and many Christians.  During her talk at Uppsala University, Christy directly contradicts the story Bob Simon told in his 2012 smear of Israel, as CAMERA also did in 2012 here. 

CAMERA put out an alert sharing Christy Anastas backstory and the video of her talk at Uppsala University, making mention that it was the Jerusalem Institute of Justice that first put up the video but later pulled it off YouTube.  Christy shot a new intro and outro to wrap-around her talk at Uppsala, and it was re-posted to YouTube by the Emmaus Group, a Christian group in the UK that draw attention of mistreatment of Christians in Muslim-majority settings. 

Clearly Christy wanted her talk on the web despite the death threats, so I contacted Calev Myers at Jerusalem Institute of Justice to see if there was anything I didn’t know that factored in to JIJ pulling the video.  I suspected that they pulled the video out of concerns for the death threats.  Calev confirmed that the information Christy shared was correct, and that JIJ had taken the video down because of the death threats to not only Christy but also the Anastas family.

Christy has been given asylum in the UK (still not a safe place from Islamists) and her family members  still live in Bethlehem.  Pray for them. 

Christy says in the Uppsala video that she was Christian by birth but one day she read the Bible and she became a different kind of Christian.  One that recognizes, for instance, as the Times of Israel reports, “I believe God has given this land to the Jews as an everlasting covenant.”

Like many Palestinian Christians, Christy’s family rejects what Christy now believes and speaks about Israel and the source of so much of the human rights violations of Palestinians.  This is not unusual from Palestinian Christians – some of whom are fearful for their own safety but also from some who are nominally Christian (born into a Christian family but not with a living faith relationship). 

Some get incensed over anyone making that distinction, but it is a reality that is never clearer than on ground in the disputed territories where denominationally-Christian Palestinians relate more to Islamists than to the international Church of believers in Jesus. 

This is also a distinction that CAMERA noted in their 2012 article about certain Palestinian speakers of the Christ at the Checkpoint conference.  In fact, I would recommend those who are interested in the recent controversy over Messianic Jewish participation in the CATC conference in 2014, read CAMERA’s report which contains many honest quotes from Palestinian Christians about the rock & the hard place they occupy.

The facts of matter and the truth are always important for honest people of faith to lay hold of. There are many resources in this short article to educate even those who do not know what the issues are.

ALSO IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK

Pray also for "Son of Hamas" Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Did you know when Abbas claimed that Hamas would recognize Israel, it was Mosab's father, an imam who is a spiritual founder of Hamas, who said , Oh no we won't! Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist.

One of the striking things that came out of the evidence of the Holy Land trial is how at the secretly wiretapped meeting of Islamists in America in a several day gathering in 1993, is how the men grappled with how to present themselves to appeal to the U.S. public without appearing to their own followers to be caving into core principles like never abandoning the cause of destroying Israel.  

When President Abbas threw out this claim that Hamas would recognize Israel simply as a political neutralizer of Israel saying a unity PA-Hamas govt ended any hope for a peace process, it was Sheik Hassan Youseff, speaking as the SPIRITUAL authoritative voice of Hamas who said what Hamas was going to do. 

I was reading Sunday in Barry and Batya Segal’s Jerusalem News Network email about this and my eyes locked on the name Hassan Youseff quoted from a UK newspaper, The Independent.  If you will remember, this is the father of Mosab Hassan Youseff, who is known as “The Green Prince” in Israel.  His book, “Son of Hamas” about his ten years as a spy for Israel was made into a movie which won awards a few months ago at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Could father and son be any more far apart?  Mosab was not a Christian at the time he was spying for Israel, but he saw in prison that Palestinians afflicted Palestinians more than Israelis did.  When he was released from prison he became a valuable asset for Israel’s counterterrorism because he wanted to stop terror attacks.  Later Mosab’s pursuit of justice and truth led him to become a Christian as well.

This week we have a Palestinian daughter and a Palestinian son who went against everyone they hold dear in order to stand in the truth.  Their influence cannot be truly measured. This is a clear call to pray for Palestinians to love the truth and follow it to the ultimate truth who is Yeshua/Jesus.

Israel's Isolation

Israel's Isolation
by Eddie Santoro
Zion's Glory Ministries

Prophecy Fulfilled  |  Zechariah 14 declares that in the time of the Lord's return, all the nations of the earth will be gathered together to fight against Jerusalem. In Revelation 19, we see the rider on a white horse and his armies of heaven who are coming down to make war against the kings of the earth who have gathered against him. The writers of these two books, although they lived over 600 years apart were seeing the same event; the uniting of the nations of the world against Israel in the last days.

In Joel 3, the prophet declares that God "will enter into judgment against the nations concerning my inheritance, my people Israel." And what had the nations done to bring God's final judgement against them? According to the prophet, their crime was that "they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land."

Amazingly, we are living in a day when that which was prophesied long ago is being fulfilled. From the rebirth of Israel 67 years ago to the increasing hostility of the nations against it, the history of the earth is unfolding according to God's Word.

The past weeks have seen an escalation of the attacks against Israel, both in the international diplomatic arena and also on the borders of this nation.

Unprovoked Attacks  |  Over the past months there has been a significant degeneration of Israel's security situation. The usually quiet border with Syria has erupted into violent and deadly escalations as Islamic Jihadist fighters who are warring against President Assad's government have taken advantage of their newly won proximity to Israel to launch unprovoked attacks against this nation.

To our south, the Sinai, which not too long ago was a popular vacation destination for thousands of Israelis has become a launching pad for unprovoked radical Islamic attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah in Lebanon has recently carried out unprovoked attacks against Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border. Their leader, Nasrallah is threatening that this is just a prelude to the coming war that will annihilate the nation of Israel.

Hamas, our arch enemy that controls the Gaza Strip is continuing with its unprovoked missile attacks into southern Israel.

The common word in all of these situations is unprovoked. Israel has done nothing to bring the wrath of their enemies against them. From an Islamic mind set, Israel's very existence is the core issue. Finally, it is not Israel's foreign policy or supposed aggression that makes this nation the hateful target of the entire Islamic world. It is that the nation simply exists.

The United Nations Human Rights Council  |  The United Nations Human Rights Council led the diplomatic charge against Israel this past week. In their most recent session, the UNHRC passed five resolutions condemning Israel for its "occupation" of "Palestinian" lands and its treatment of Palestinians who live over the pre -1967 border. In a particularly  irrational vote, the council felt that it was important to raise concern over Israel's treatment of Syrian residents who live on the Golan Heights, while ignoring the fate of the Syrian people who live in Syria and of whom 150,000 have been killed since the civil war erupted there several years ago.

The council also felt it necessary to single out Israel by passing a resolution which mandates that every time the UNHRC meets, they MUST participate in a public discussion of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.

The passage of the resolutions condemning Israel was even more sobering when one considers that they were passed by a 46 - 1 majority and that Italy, France and Germany, the representative nations of the EU also voted in favor of the resolutions. Only the United States voted against, saying they were one sided and stating that the UNHRC was ignoring many of the world's worst human rights violations.

Growing International Isolation of Israel  |  It is impossible to separate these resolutions and the growing international BDI (Boycott and Disinvestment from Israel) from God's Word which states that in the Last Days all the nations of the earth will turn against Israel. The conflict between the Palestinians and Israel is the only item on the world's agenda that everyone seems to agree on. Resolutions against Iran and North Korea whose populations suffer far greater human rights violations were also passed but none of them received the same overwhelming support that was given to the anti-Israel resolutions.

The Peace Process  |  This one sided approach to the Israeli Palestinian conflict  empowers the Palestinians to remain intransigent in their negotiating stand.

The Palestinian position that refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, demands sovereign control over all of East Jerusalem, ignores Israel's very real security concerns and demands the "right of return" for millions of Palestinians and their descendants is a non starter for Israel.

Recently Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud al-Habbash stated their official position that Israel has no historical claim to the land it now occupies, that Solomon's temple never existed and that the entire Biblical narrative concerning Israel and the Jewish people is nothing more than a myth.

I have been in East Jerusalem many times and have seen maps of their hoped for "Palestine". On those maps, not just East Jerusalem but Tel Aviv, Haifa and all of the land of Israel have been swallowed up in their vision of the final resolution of this conflict. The truth is not hidden and although the world has chosen to ignore it, Israel can not indulge in such a luxury. History has taught us that when our enemies speak of our destruction, they mean it.

As the Word says, these last days will be the most difficult the world has every known and the center of those "birth pains" that will herald the return of Yeshua and the establishment of his Kingdom will be in Israel.

Beyond a doubt the world's people will be divided into those who love the truth and those who are serving a lie. We praise God that in these days of escalating trials that we are connected with a people like you who love the truth. May each of us stand against the wave of darkness and deception that is sweeping the earth and may we be numbered among those who stood with Israel as a deceived world turned against her.

We thank you for your prayers. We are confident that even this mountain will be thrown into the sea. The end will be good. Our God has promised! 

 

Eddie Santoro leads the Love of Yeshua (Ahavat Yeshua) congregation in Jerusalem.  Along with his wife Jackie, the Santoro's lives are given to the establishment of the local Body of Messiah in Israel and raising up a generation of Israeli believers who will spearhead the coming revival that must sweep that nation.

They help lead a community that integrates all ages, discipling, counseling, providing hospitality and equipping many for the work of ministry. Eddie and Jackie also travel internationally, sharing and teaching on Israel and the kingdom of God.

Eddie Santoro is an astute discerner of the times in Israel and the Church.

Moral Equivalence

When I was blogging in the 1990's on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the term "moral equivalence" was a major talking point. 

Wikipedia writes: "In the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the term is commonly used by defenders of Israel. They accuse of moral equivalence those who describe acts of Palestinian terrorism, such as suicide bombing against civilians, on one hand, and the retaliatory acts of the Israeli Defense Forces, on the other, as equally reprehensible." 

Personally, I believe that if you don't fight back, regardless of what the onlookers say, that is morally reprehensible.

Wikipedia also writes:  "International conflicts are sometimes viewed similarly, and interested parties periodically urge both sides to conduct a ceasefire and negotiate their differences. However these negotiations may prove difficult in that both parties in a conflict believe that they are morally superior to the other, and are unwilling to negotiate on basis of moral equivalence."

Today, we don't hear the term "moral equivalence' come up much in the talking points of the political debates between the pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli.  Perhaps because it is like playing Tic Tac Toe over and over again without any winner. People come in and do not really know what the fight is about, or who actually holds the high ground; they just know they want it to stop. Viola! The moral equivalence argument is brought to bear.  They no longer mention the phrase "moral equivalence" but they treat the conflict as such.

When we are talking about a conflict that involves God's will for the summing up of all things in Messiah Yeshua, we should not expect anything about it to controversy free.  Israel has always been the central focus of spiritual warfare and it will remain so to the very end when Yeshua must return.

I believe that because America has acted so often as if there was moral equivalence in the terrorist actions against Israel, and Israel defending itself by targeting terrorist heads and cells, that has opened the United States up to our current state.  In recent administrations, only in the Bush administration was the American policy an adamant:  Israel has the right to defend itself.

Both the Clinton administration and the Obama administration have applied the diplomatic strategy that both sides are equally at fault and must come to the table and compromise.  Both the Clinton and Obama administrations opened the door allowing terrorist organizations to fund raise and propagandize radical Islam freely in the United States. 

This was predictable from before Obama's election in 2008 - I and others did predict that Obama would set back the U.S. war on terrorism by decades.  What we did not predict is how fast and furious this administration could bring us to the brink of ruin.  That is the thing about spiritual deception once it gets rolling downhill it multiplies.

Americans have yet to come to the realization of how vulnerable this administration has made us to welcoming Islamists among us but for certain we all will come to realize it in the days ahead just as those in the UK and EU have begun to awaken to their Islamist nightmares.

The argument over who holds the high ground is not winning the day, in case anyone in Israel hasn't noticed....and I know they have because I hear the complaint all the time that Israeli is just not being effective in getting their narrative out.  The reason that is so is because all the opposition is not about effective narratives, it is about spiritual warfare.

Those who do not understand that the opposition that is risen against Israel is the spiritual strategy to destroy Israelis before Israelis can be saved will never understand the dynamics of the conflict surrounding Israel.

God is not going to allow Israel to be destroyed, but that does not mean many Israelis will not lose their lives because of natural warfare.  Israelis will never again be plucked up from Israel and exiled.  According to God's word two times is His limit.  (Amos 9:14-15, Isaiah 11:11)

So that means if we will impact the battle, we must put our resources behind the spiritual battle that revolves around God's intentions, which is what ALL the opposition in the natural is really about.

When the order came from Pharaoh to kill all the little Hebrew babies in Egypt, it wasn't because the Hebrews babies did anything, it was because of the Deliverer that would arise from among them.  The same is true when Herod ordered the slaughter of the Hebrew babes in Jesus' day, because the Messiah King was arising from among them.

Today, there are deliverers filled with the Spirit of the Messiah who are rising in Israel for the salvation of Israel and the declaration of the coming kingdom of God ruled by Israel's hope, Messiah Yeshua. 

All of the warring is about this and this is what we must contend for spiritually.