Posted on 06/15/2009 5:58:21 AM PDT by SJackson
The war that Israel keeps losing is the war of world opinion, the war for individual hearts and minds. Consider recent stumbles.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza should have been named "8,000 is enough!" This would have communicated a determination to stop the barrage of missiles from Hamas, using surgical precision to destroy its arsenal, but destroying all of it, not just a part. Enough was enough: 8,000 missiles launched on the nation's civilian population would no longer be tolerated.
Unfortunately the operation was dubbed, "Cast Lead." The resulting image in the English-speaking world was not helpful. Lead is a soft metal associated with poison. The implication, then, was an unprofessional plan with ambivalent determination, biased motives and toxic methods.
Which is exactly how governments and media judge "the Gaza war." Israel and her defenders respond by arguing, "Israel has the right to defend herself." This is true, but flawed. Why? Limiting Israel's self-defense to a right makes it an option. Little wonder, then, that Israel's enemies portray her as a ruthless bully. In the matter of Gaza, for example, she could have chosen to refrain.
In fact, Israel has more than a right to defend her citizens and existence. Along with every sovereign state, she has a mandate to defend against invaders, murderers, thieves, poverty and disease. And from enemies who declare war and wage it.
The Hamas unamended charter of 1988 is a declaration of war. It explicitly calls for destruction of the Jewish state of Israel through jihad - against Jews and Christians (Article 13). Any member who abandons this struggle is guilty of "high treason and cursed" (Article 32). Accordingly, any "initiatives... so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to [these] principles" (Article 13).
Even so, the United States is on the verge of engaging Hamas as entity that is on par with Israel. No, not on par: morally superior. Consider the recent image splashed across America by political cartoonist, Pat Oliphant, portraying Israel as a headless, heartless, jack-booted Nazi devouring helpless, little Gaza.
Where did that idea come from? Look at Article 20 of Hamas's 1988 charter and see who is winning the PR war.
Of course it is more than public opinion that is being lost; it is the death of common sense; it is defeat in the war for truth.
EVEN EVANGELICAL SUPPORT is eroding. A vocal minority remain effusive on Israel's behalf. But the broader community is not monolithic. Many of its members are hungry for change, not unlike the political appetite that won Barack Hussein Obama the presidency. Among evangelicals the religious equivalent is a movement led by people like Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian; Stephen Sizer, a pastor who has gained popularity by condemning "Christian Zionism"; and, of course, Jimmy Carter, who accuses Israel of committing a "holocaust." How widespread is the erosion of evangelical support for Israel? Google this: "Letter to President Bush from Evangelical Leaders." Look at those who signed it - and the organizations they represent. Their claim to "represent large numbers of evangelicals" is true.
And behind it all? A resurgence of replacement theology, an ideology that, for almost 1700 years, has been used to ignite atrocities against Jewish communities.
So what can Israel do to win its global PR war, a war for truth?
One of Judaism's greatest traits is that, while the rest of world talks, it acts. The government of Israel has beefed up media relations and lobbying efforts to Western countries. It makes a special effort to reach Christians through its Tourism Ministry and the Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus.
Religious Israeli organizations do a first-rate job in taking their case to gentiles. And a host of secular entities, most of them nonprofits, are second to none in telling the truth about Israel and exposing its enemies' lies.
But it is not enough. What else can be done? How can Israel be a more effective light that draws the nations to her?
First, recruit the world of commerce. Independent, for-profit media companies must present the broad canvas of Israeli news. Expanded investments in Israeli technologies will yield medical breakthroughs, unleash alternative energy sources and provide water and food for the world's population.
Second, aim directly to inform the potential "grassroot" supporters of the Jewish state. Bring Israel to them and they will come to Israel, both as tourists and supporters of the state.
Yes, methods include the Internet and its social networking tools. Still, there is nothing more effective than firsthand encounters.
So. Sponsor events. Send invitations to others instead of seeking invitations from others.
Deploy first-class conventions and shows and fairs, events hosted on civic platforms around the world. Get endorsements from influential people to market these events. Use them to showcase Israel, not defame it.
Begin these tours where demographic support is strong. Respect religious sensibilities. But use secular venues so that people from different backgrounds will feel comfortable and welcome. Participants with a variety of interests - business, social, political and religious - will enhance grassroot support for Israel and her people.
Most importantly, seek wisdom from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Listen for the whisper of His counsel. He alone is God of all the nations. Under the banner of His leadership, Israel will win.
The writer is director of radio broadcasting for Israel World TV.
Heck, stick with historical honesty. Palestinians, as a distinct Arab group, were only invented 40 years ago.
Israel is fighting against the Jihad every day
They are doing the world a favor (in addition to simple self preservation)
I say you owe Israel and the Jews over there
If Israel is destroyed you are next
No literally- but any Muslim destruction of Israel will accelerate Jihad worldwide
So Europe is next to be eaten via demographic Jihad
Europeans already want out of Holland and England due to the Muslims they see everywhere
Think about it if you can think long range for your children and grandchildren
Evangelicals have drifted leftward in the last few decades same as everybody else. This translates into less evangelical support for Israel but I don’t think the erosion is so big
Plus Israel continues to receive over $3 Billion a year in further aid and lots of other concessions.
Meanwhile, Israel spies on the USA constantly, and American Jews voted 78-21 for Obama. Some of the intelligence that Israel got during the Cold War was sold off to the Russians.
Plus we have Rahm Emanuel, Timmy Geithner and other prominent Jews involved in tax and financial scandals (Madoff's Ponzi scheme, Bernanke's turbo printing press) .
People add all this up, and ask "What has Israel and the Jews done for us lately?"
If this is your attitude maybe we should let Israel drift and be overwhelmed
Cut Israel loose. Throw them to the wolves
Then one day the Muslims will set off a terrorsit nuke in Tel Aviv
I'm sure you won't mind this
NEXT--- Israel will make the only reasonable response.
It will obliterate the entire Muslim world via the Sampson option
That is when life will get very interesting
“Throw them to the wolves”
Israel has a couple hundred nukes - who is going to attack Israel?
Israel has a couple hundred nukes - who is going to attack Israel?
Iran has bragged many time that it can destroy Israel by nuking Tel Aviv and can take whatever punishment Israel dishes out.
Hamas has attacked Israel
Hezbollah has attacked Israel
Are you unaware that Israel was bombarded by 8,000 rockets and missiles for years until they cleaned up Gaza in December?
Iran is developing missiles that reach Israel and they are getting nuclear weapons
Should Israel nuke Iran first and do it now?
That's what nukes are for aren't they?
That list of signers at the bottom of the letter is largely as “fine” a collection of leftist social gospel proponents as you could find. They don’t speak for true evangelicals. They are part of the thin tip of the wedge (whether knowingly or unknowingly) of the left’s infiltration of the one of the last bastions of tradition and conservatism-the church. What they did decades ago to academia and the media, they are now doing to Christianity-witness the media hype of the “rise of the Christian Left”-which is focussed not primarily on the gospel of Jesus Christ, but on a secular social gospel. This way the media can portray them as representative of evangelicals when it suits their agenda (such as presenting the “case” that evangelical support of Israel is softening), and still portray true evangelicals-the traditional conservatives-as “extremists” when that suits their agenda.
The current conservative Likud government is more than cognizant where solid support is.
Read your history. England earned the nickname "Perfidious Albion". And that was before they and France sold Checkoslovakia and Austria down the river before WWII. Nations have interests, not friends. We have (maybe had?) more interests in common with England than with other countries, and that's been true since WWI, but that doesn't mean that England doesn't continually weigh the costs of keeping the relationship.
Israel is committed to its own existence, which is required before it can worry about democracy. And if they feel they need to do something the US told them not to do, and they don't want the US to interfere, shooting up a spy ship seems a reasonable exercise of sovereignity. I'm not saying we shouldn't be upset about the USS Liberty, but we shouldn't also be asking that our supposed allies submit their life-and-death issues to our election cycles.
The interesting about the current anti-Nazi work in Germany and the Baltic nations, is that it's all targeted against non-Germans and non-Baltics. Germany won't deport Germans accused of being camp guards, but they will demand the extradition of Poles who survived the camps by acting as prison trustee. (That's not the phrase used in the camps, but I think it is the right concept). Shielding folks from corrupt courts is also a reasonable act of sovereignity. And if you shot everybody who fought for the Germans or for the Soviets, you'd have to shoot a whole generation in Eastern Europe.
The devil with world opinion and the BHO Admin. Let Bibi take out the Pals and Iran. The world will secretly thank him even as they wail.
Well-stated. Thank you!
Just to clarify ... I am not saying I agree with the signers of the document, just pointing out what I think “Joe Sixpack” might be thinking about.
I would say you are far from having warm and fuzzy feelings towards the Jewish people based on your prolific newbie posting history. You remind be of someone banded from here who was popular over at the liberty forum.
The name “Tony Campolo” (Clinton’s buddy) says it all.
Your reasons for supporting or not supporting Israel are completely irrelevant and suggest a lack of understanding of why evangelicals support Israel.
It has nothing to do with their support or nonsupport of any current policy, and everything do to do with God's promise that He will bless those that bless Israel; and curse those that curse her.
Real evangelicals know and believe this, and their support is based on that promise. It isn't waining either.
You know many women process info that way...that’s why women
are so into progressivism/liberalism!
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