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- Jesus, who was never a Christian and the first mention of Israel in the Bible is in Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestled, struggled and then clung to the Divine being and was then renamed Israel.
The term 'Christian' was not even coined until the days of Paul, about 3 decades after Jesus walked the earth as a man.
Jesus was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up and challenged the job security of the Temple authorities by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God already LOVED them just as they were: sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under a brutal Military Occupation.
What got Jesus crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces, by teaching the subversive concept that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Military Occupation above the elite and arrogant.
The early followers and lovers of Jesus were called members of THE WAY-being THE WAY he taught one should be; Nonviolent, a Peacemaker and one who did the will of the Father.
"What does God require? He has told you o'man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord." -Micah 6:8
IMAGINE what a wonderful world it would be if only the dysfunctional family of Father Abraham actually followed the tenants of their faith paths. - Reply to this comment
- RE: GAZA, I offer what I wrote in 2005, excerpted from my first book-"KEEP HOPE ALIVE" which was inspired by a 1948 Palestinian Muslim refugee from the Galilee who made his way to the USA and into a Top Secret position in the Defense Industry during the Cold War:
...Next, she opened a press conference summary of September 6, 2005, from Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi, September 6, 2005's Palestinian National Initiative report regarding the aftermath of the "disengagement," and the bottom line was more settlers, more walls, and more corruption in the PA. He stated that 'Ninety percent of security violations in Palestine are committed by security forces and intelligence. These forces must be disciplined; the rule of law and an independent judiciary must be installed. [And] it is estimated that 30 percent of the 160,000 salaried government employees do not attend work of any kind. This kind of corruption and nepotism must be ended.'
Terese moaned when she read about the violations since the cease-fire agreement of February 8. "Christ, have mercy! Seventy-five Palestinians, including seventeen innocent children, and fourteen Israelis, including two innocent children, have been murdered. Two thousand Palestinians have been arrested; there have been 2,306 checkpoints imposed, and 8,700 acres of Palestinian land has been confiscated by the Israeli government! And how can these settlers sleep at night, after attacking Palestinians 394 times since the cease-fire agreement? I feel bad about these screwed-up settlers, but they are a cult that has been allowed to get out of control. The Israeli government enticed and encouraged them to settle in illegal land, and this is what it has come to! And the illegal settlements continue!
"And, what a farce the so-called disengagement in Gaza was.
"The Israeli government still controls all access to Gaza by land, sea, and air. Bargouthi documented that only 25 of over 150 settlements will be dismantled, and only 8,475 of over 436,000 settlers [less than 2 percent of settlers] have been evacuated. Meanwhile, in the past year, 12,800 new settlers have moved into the West Bank--50 percent more settlers than were evacuated."
"This is no withdrawal, this is BS! Until Palestinians have control of Gaza's borders and a guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank, it is not a withdrawal; it's just BS propaganda! And Gaza is less than 6 percent of the occupied territories, and that leaves 94 percent of Palestinian territories under the boot of the IDF.
"The corruption in the PA government and hot tempers from those under occupation are a powder keg that's getting ready to blow! What's it going to take to wake the world up to the fact that most of our problems with radical Islamist fundamentalist militants leads us back to the conflict in Israel and Palestine?
"All roads do indeed lead to Jerusalem. What's it going to take before the International community gets it together and insists, in unity, upon the upholding of international law as the rule we all live by? And that includes Israel and America, too, for both ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wonder, what's the point of signing on, but then not doing it?
"What's it going to take to wake up the legions of blind U.S. Christian Zionists to their indifference to the misery of their sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine? Their blind allegiance to the Israeli government has allowed our best friend in the world to become a big bully.
"What's it going to take to break through the ignorance that hard-earned U.S. tax dollars are being used to continue the occupation and apartheid wall?" -Excerpted from the chapter: "9/11/05 AND THE GULFPORT BLUES" by Eileen Fleming
I am Eileen Fleming and I approve of all of my messages.
http://wearewideawake.org/
http://www.eileenfleming.org/ - Reply to this comment
- I'm sorry that Bob Simon participates in a blood plot against Jews.
If CBS were seeking after the truth as a reliable communication should do, they would find that before the Oslo agreements Bethlehem was a prosperous Christian city. With Arafat's entry into the city, the Christians began to flee from it.
To report the truth about the state of Christians in the Holy Land, Bob Simon had to report about the status of Christians in Gaza. Where there was an ancient community of Christians. And with the arise of the Hamas organization, After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, was murdered the last Christian priest in Gaza that left in order to keep an eye on the church. He was murdered not because of the Arab conflict with Israel, but because of the nature of the Muslim rule.
To discuss, fairly, on the situation of Christians in the Holy Land, you must to comment on the issue more broadly. You should talk about the situation of Christians in Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Christians there are the original inhabitants of the land of the Euphrates and Tigris since the Babylonians.
You have to talk about the situation of Christians in Europe. You need to talk about Brussels that whole districts are empty from Christians. About Paris, Stockholm, London etc. And ask yourself how this happens when whole Christian populations leave their homes where they had lived for many generations, because Muslim populations takes up their place?
You must ask what happens to the Christian populations in Africa. Where Christians are slaughtered and churches are burned one after another. But, there are no Jews to blame them. So CBS did not report about it.
The condition of Christians in the Holy Land is affected by the existing processes in the worldwide. But finding the Jews blamed for every problem is an ancient hobby that is very difficult to abandon it.
Another thing to remind everyone. Jesus was a Jew in his soul and body. And he suffered, like many other Jews because he was a Jew. If there were no Jews in this country, the Land of Israel, Jesus could not have been born at all. - Reply to this comment
- I'm sorry that Bob Simon participates in a blood plot against Jews.
If CBS were seeking after the truth as a reliable communication should do, they would find that before the Oslo agreements Bethlehem was a prosperous Christian city. With Arafat's entry into the city, the Christians began to flee from it.
To report the truth about the state of Christians in the Holy Land, Bob Simon had to report about the status of Christians in Gaza. Where there was an ancient community of Christians. And with the arise of the Hamas organization, After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, was murdered the last Christian priest in Gaza that left in order to keep an eye on the church. He was murdered not because of the Arab conflict with Israel, but because of the nature of the Muslim rule.
To discuss, fairly, on the situation of Christians in the Holy Land, you must to comment on the issue more broadly. You should talk about the situation of Christians in Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Christians there are the original inhabitants of the land of the Euphrates and Tigris since the Babylonians.
You have to talk about the situation of Christians in Europe. You need to talk about Brussels that whole districts are empty from Christians. About Paris, Stockholm, London etc. And ask yourself how this happens when whole Christian populations leave their homes where they had lived for many generations, because Muslim populations takes up their place?
You must ask what happens to the Christian populations in Africa. Where Christians are slaughtered and churches are burned one after another. But, there are no Jews to blame them. So CBS did not report about it.
The condition of Christians in the Holy Land is affected by the existing processes in the worldwide. But finding the Jews blamed for every problem is an ancient hobby that is very difficult to abandon it.
Another thing to remind everyone. Jesus was a Jew in his soul and body. And he suffered, like many other Jews because he was a Jew. If there were no Jews in this country, the Land of Israel, Jesus could not have been born at all. - Reply to this comment
- This is probably the first time since 1948 that the plight of Christians in the Holy Land was touched by a major US News Organization. And CBS News should be commended on this. It withstood the pressure of the Israeli government to silence them. Bob Simon is a man of strong conviction and moral character to stand up to this pressure.
But let us not forget that Christians are part and parcel of the Palestinian people. Israel showed no
religous discrimination in its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. Both Christians and Muslims had to be removed.
Haifa, Yaffa, Acre, Lydda, Jerusalem and countless other Palestinian towns and villages that were bulldozed away were the homes of large numbers of Christians. The largest concentration of Palestinian Christians was historically on the Palestine coastal cities. If Israel was concerned about Christians, they could at least offer the Palestinian Christians the right to return to their homes.
Palestinian Christians, along with their Muslim brothers and sisters, are all waiting for their inalienable right to return to their homes in Palestine.
Israel needs to come to terms with their brutal Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine that started in 1948 and continues to this day. The Israeli propaganda machine which attempts to cover up the truth by first dehumanizing the Palestinians, and then demonizing them, cannot continue to withstand the power of truth. Attempting to blame Christian suffering in Palestine on Muslims is another attempt at sweeping the truth under the carpet. In this case, there are literally millions of Palestinian Christians who will be more than happy to testify about who is to blame for their suffering.
It is time for Israel to acknowledge their wrongs of the past, to apologize to the Palestinians and to seek to make amendments to correct their past wrongs.
CBS-Thank You! - Reply to this comment
- I was deeply disturbed by the lack of balance in your segment on Christians in Palestine. It left the viewer with the impression that the Christian population is declining as a result of Israeli maltreatment, yet the evidence is to the contrary: Christians may choose to live in Jerusalem, to worship in their churches, and to become full citizens of the State of Israel. Perhaps it is worth noting that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, displayed so prominently in your story, was founded by the Helen, mother of Constantine, who murdered the Jewish population of Jerusalem and initiated a policy that prevented Jews from living in the Holy City under pain of death, a policy that was continued for centuries after his death.
Lewis J. Rubin, MD
La Jolla, CA - Reply to this comment
- Dear 60 MINUTES,
When I left the following comment @ 6:46 AM EDT on April 29, 2012, there were 467 Comments; but at this moment there are 441 comments and among the missing are a few of mine; so I will TRY again and take this opportunity to add further info:
by eileenfleming April 29, 2012 6:46 AM EDT
Dear 60 MINUTES,
I sincerely meant it when I wrote "Thanking 60 MINUTES and Begging for More"
Please and thank you for your consideration in reporting the ongoing misery of Mordechai Vanunu due to SECURITY/Mossad/Shabbak's vendetta against Vanunu and Israel's WMD facility. Background info with first Vanunu video from 2005 and Israeli media report on Dimona utilizing Vanunu's photos @ http://wearewideawake.org/
May 4, 2011: The Fierce Urgency of All Thing Nuclear: A Book Review in Light of Current Events
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2057&Itemid=246
Regarding SECURITY'S/Mossad/Shabbak's vendetta: In 2004, Yossi Melman wrote for Haaretz:
"This is the secret that hasn't yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of the subsequent attempts at cover-up, whitewashing and protection of senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure. The 18-year prison term to which Vanunu was sentenced is almost exactly the same period as that in which Yehiel ***** has served as chief of internal security in the defense establishment [who has been] involved in the affair as deputy chief of security at the Defense Ministry, and also after Vanunu's abduction and arrest, as a member of an investigative commission.
"Shortly after taking office as chief of security at the Defense Ministry, ***** began to take punitive measures to hobble Vanunu. He is responsible for the harsh conditions in which Vanunu was held, which included years in solitary confinement, and the sharp limitations on the number of visitors he could have...[and has fought] a rearguard battle to prevent Vanunu from leaving Israel and to place him under supervision and restrictions that will be tantamount to house arrest. ***** has always been considered the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute. He is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel's nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses...all the hyperactivity being displayed by ***** and those who support his approach is intended only to divert attention from what has not yet been revealed: the security blunders and their cover-ups."- "BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010" by Eileen Fleming
I am Eileen Fleming for US HOUSE and I approve of all of my messages. - Reply to this comment
- We know Muslim's are goaded to hate all non-Muslim's by their own religious leaders. World-wide, Muslim's are attacking other faiths. Islam is not the religion of peace, not even among their own people. They have a long record of fighting other Muslim's, destroying villages, raping women and even little girls and killing. The word Islam leaves a bad taste in the mouth! What fine thing have they done for anyone? Muslim countries haven't even taken steps to calm Syria from massacring it's people. Muslim's themselves, are responsible for turning the world against Islam. Any people who do what they have done to others over the last thousand years, only gains converts that are evil. Only someone insane would join this faith.
- Reply to this comment
- CHICAGO, February 15, 2012— One of the bedrock principles of America is religious freedom. People have an unalienable right to openly and publicly practice their faith or not.
All are protected, accepted and respected.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote in her Newsweek article, that there is a "conspiracy of silence" over mass religious persecution of Christians in Muslim nations. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.
It is more than a conspiracy of silence. It is a conspiracy of political and media apathy. There is no political or journalistic will to continually publicize and condemn religious persecution by extremist Muslims or Islamic dictatorships.
This silence and apathy create an implied consent for religious persecution.
Over the past year there have been several reports of Christians and animists being violently persecuted in the Middle East, Africa, and other Muslim nations. Most were wire service stories, or reports from religious media outlets like Catholic News Service.
There was little follow-up or editorial outrage over what is now being called religious genocide, religious cleansing, or the next holocaust by human rights and religious groups alarmed at the fast spreading persecution.
This conspiracy of silence and political apathy is nothing new. From Hitler's rise through the early stages of World War II the treatment of Jews and others by Nazi Germany, and the eventual holocaust claiming almost 15 million lives, was largely ignored by governments, the media, and international service groups like the Red Cross. The treatment of Jews and others by the Nazi regime was well known in international circles.
No one wanted to make the baby cry in the case Adolf Hitler.
No one wants to make the baby cry in the case of intolerant, fanatic, or extremist Muslims or Islamic dictatorships.
There are intolerant extremists in every society and religion. Christianity and Judaism are no exceptions. These extremists create prejudice, fear, and hatred. Fortunately the extremists are inconsequential small fringe groups. Most people abhor them.
Yet, there is no public abhorrence of Christian persecution by Muslims, who are either the majority group or rule the theocratic dictatorships where religious persecution exists. - Reply to this comment
- The Salafi War on Christians and U.S. Indifference
Saturday, April 14th, 2012
Salafi Muslims, who adhere to the radical Saudi Wahhabi doctrine of Islam, are responsible for the majority of attacks targeting Christians in the Islamic world, Nina Shea writes in the National Review Online. But, the Obama administration has outright ignored the "religious implications of these horrific events." - Reply to this comment
