Read it all here.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an exclusive article for Haaretz, calls for a global boycott of Israel and urges Israelis and Palestinians to look beyond their leaders for a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land.
The past weeks have witnessed unprecedented action by members of civil society across the world against the injustice of Israel’s disproportionately brutal response to the firing of missiles from Palestine.
[…]
I asked the crowd to chant with me: “We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”
Earlier in the week, I called for the suspension of Israel from the International Union of Architects, which was meeting in South Africa.
The extraordinarily blinkered conclusion Tutu reaches is:
The pursuit of freedom for the people of Palestine from humiliation and persecution by the policies of Israel is a righteous cause. It is a cause that the people of Israel should support.
There is no mention of Hamas repeated violating ceasefires, using Gazans as human shields, having the destruction of Israel in its charter, the fact that, for propaganda, Hamas wants its citizens to die or the indoctrination of children to hate Jews. The article is reproduced on the Anglican Communion News Service; since it is sitting there without editorial comment, we must assume that the ACNS is untroubled by Tutu’s viewpoint.
Here is a different view from someone who has not succumbed to the miasma of leftist pollution that is afflicting Tutu’s neocortex:
I can’t argue with his suggestion that Palestinians look beyond their leaders for a solution, but most of the rest of it is as off the wall as usual.
Desmond Tutu must be fully aware that the problem began with Hamas and that Hamas cares nothing about the residents of Gaza and their only goal is the destruction of Israel. The only solution to this conflict is for the Palestinians to co-operate with Israel to rid itself of Hamas. That, unfortunately is not likely to happen.
The Archbishop Emeritus of Berchtesgaden,as the global voice for Christian appeasement of Islam over against Biblical-based support for Israel, will bring no dividends, either material or spiritual; either short term, and most definitely not long term + Matthew 25.
Recommended: “Messianics Respond: Christians’ Appeasement Of Islam Won’t Save Them.’ by Pastor Ron Cantor of Tiferet Yeshua,Tel Aviv;
printed at Israel Today, August 20, 2014; and at Kehila.com – always solid Biblical meat
with take-outs available.
The ongoing fighting in the Holy Land is no picnic for the people living there. In my old age, I just remember the 1947 Partition Plan. Under the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, Jerusalem was to be administered by the UN. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly accepted the partition resolution – partitioning the Holy Land into two states, a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem under international supervision. Unfortunately the Partition Plan did not happen.
On January 27, 2014 Christianity Today published an interview of a leading Israeli evangelical, Botrus Mansour, head of the 77-year-old Nazareth Baptist School by Timothy C. Morgan. I agree with Mansour that the two-state solution will keep Israel secure.
Michael,
Politics is the art of reality.
As long as Palestinians continue to cheer Israeli deaths, there can be no diplomatic solution that does not rest on Israel’s military to enforce it.
According to Baptist pastor Hanna Massad, the root of the problem is the Israeli occupation of Gaza (Christianity Today, August 22, 2014). In 1948, the state of Israel was founded, and more than 700,000 Palestinians became refugees, and 50,000 to 55,000 of them were Christian. When Massad was the Baptist pastor in Gaza, he felt that he lived in a big prison. Life there has been very difficult. Fishermen can go only three miles into the water. Unemployment is oppressive. According to Massad, “People die because they can’t get the medical treatment they need because of the siege and they’re not able to leave. They also have been affected by the problems between Egypt and Hamas. The people of Gaza need the borders to be opened” (Ibid.).
Hanna Massad, former pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church, has been coordinating Christian aid efforts from his current pastorate in Amman, Jordan. He told Timothy C. Morgan and Deann Alford of Christianity Today: “Let us try not to take sides, but to have bigger heart, to love both and pray for both and encourage both, to focus on the Kingdom of God on both sides” (Ibid.). As a follower of Jesus, I believe that our triune God is more powerful than the weapons of Hamas and Israel combined. We are not victims of any fatalistic power. Let us continue to pray for justice and peace in the Holy Land!
The root of the problem in Greater Palestine is that the Arab peoples have never been willing to accept a Jewish homeland. More Palestinians were expelled from Jordan than chose to leave from Israel. Where’s the outrage there?
Palestinians within the borders of Israel have all the rights that any other Israeli has. Find a synagogue in Gaza.There is no moral equivalency.
I believe that the Middle East remains the top trouble spot in the world. In the Old Testament times, the Jews had again and again misjudged and killed God’s messengers. God was very patient with His chosen people. Finally God allowed the Babylonians to discipline the Jews. Jerusalem was finally destroyed in A.D. 70 by a Roman general.
For thousands of years, Jews and Arabs lived in relative peace and indifference towards each other in the Middle East. It was very unfortunate that the 1947 UN Partition Plan did not happen. The Holy Land should have been divided into two states, a Jewish state and an Arab state. Don’t forget that both Arabs and Jews are descendants of Abraham. Please note that not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs.
As Christians we should continue to pray for justice and peace in the Middle East. We need to pay attention to the voices of Botrus Mansour (a leading Israeli evangelical) and Hanna Massad (a former pastor in Gaza). For more information, please read their interviews published in Christianity Today (January 27, 2014 and August 22, 2014).