ISRAEL vs. HAMAS
“For you, Thessalonian Christians, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffer the same things from your own countrymen as the Judeans did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved – so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them completely.”
Two comments on this first quote. Firstly, if anybody is tempted to think that St Paul was an “anti-semite,” let them read in Romans IX, 1 to 5, how St Paul loved and respected his fellow-Jews, but that did not stop him from telling the truth about them. Jews may well dismiss him as a “Jew-hater,” but that is obviously false, by the quote from Romans. And secondly, two thousand years of history are there to show how the Jews have indeed continually persecuted the Catholic Church from the Crucifixion onwards. See for instance Maurice Pinay’s 2000 years of Plot against the Church, written by a team of Catholic priests to warn every bishop at Vatican II against the danger of the Jewish influence in the Council. Alas, the warning was not sufficiently heeded. The Church largely succumbed to that influence.
But much more striking by way of proof that the Jews have not changed over 2000 years from how St Paul portrayed them above, is how they regularly “mow the lawn” in Palestine, their own expression in Hebrew for their vicious oppression of the Palestinians which we are observing once more today. Take for instance this speech of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy at the conference on “The Israel Lobby: Is it good for the US? Is it good for Israel?”, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., April 10, 2015. In summary –
Israel is living in denial. This denial is corrupting for Israeli society. Israel has surrounded itself with shields and walls – not only physical, but mental walls. Is there any example from history where a country lived on its sword forever? Israel is addicted to occupation. There is no chance of change from within Israeli society. It is too brainwashed. Israel is a lost cause. How do Israelis live with this reality? How do they live in peace with the brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank? There are 3 reasons:
1. Most, if not all, Israelis believe that they are the Chosen People. If they are Chosen, then they have the right to do whatever they want.
2. There has never been in history an occupation in which the occupier presents himself as a victim. Not only the victim but the only victim. Israel adopts a dual strategy – victimhood on the one hand and manipulation on the other. With victimhood also comes the ‘holocaust.’ Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel from 1969–1974, stated that after the ‘holocaust,’ “Jews have a right to do whatever they want.”
3. The systematic de-humanisation of the Palestinian people. If Palestinians are not human, then there is no question of human rights. Almost no Israelis will treat the Palestinians as human beings. Israel is a democracy for its Jewish citizens (as long as they think like the majority) but it is an apartheid regime in Gaza and the West Bank. This shared set of beliefs enables Israelis to live in peace with their ongoing crimes. Why would the Israelis change? What is the incentive?
In other words, says this intelligent and relatively honest Jew, there is no solution. You can only leave us to do as we like . . . . But that cannot be true. The true solution is the Catholic Faith. When souls had the Faith in the Middle Ages, Jews were more of a threat than a problem. But when souls prefer Mammon (money) before God, then God uses the Jews to scourge their backs, so that they do not all fall into Hell.
Kyrie eleison.