This is an open letter in reply to your "open letter to the American People," as published in the USA by CNN on November 29, 2006.
May the One God, Who created all things, and Who gives whatever He wants to whomever He chooses, give His blessing to these words written for the benefit of all His people in this world -- believers and non-believer alike. As the Prophet wrote, "There is no compulsion in religion," (Qur'an 2.256 - Shakir translation), which teaches us that God desires people to come to Him by their own free choice, not by force or threats of violence.
Although I have no authority to speak for anyone other than myself, I do believe that my comments here will represent the views of many other patriotic Americans who are also seeking truth and justice. And I believe that you can benefit by hearing some ideas here, which you may not have heard before from your normal sources of information.
First, you wrote: "O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers." As a Christian, I of course believe that God has already bestowed upon humanity that perfect human being He promised, namely Jesus. And I invite you to join with me as one of Jesus' followers. As Jesus said, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32 RSV)
Next, you wrote many excellent, admirable statements, such as: "We are all inclined towards the good, and towards extending a helping hand to one another, particularly to those in need;" and "We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings;" and "We all detest darkness, deceit, lies and distortion, and seek and admire salvation, enlightenment, sincerity and honesty." I agree completely with these ideas, and I hope we can all do a better job of putting them into action.
In every case, you were very critical of the Bush administration, as I have also been in most cases. Bush's tragic misuse of power is the kind of thing that can happen in the United States when the right-wing neo-Conservative extremists gain control the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Congress ignored its Constitutional obligation to provide oversight of the President, and blindly followed the dictates of the neo-Conservative Leader, George W. Bush.
But soon we will have a new Congress, and the neo-Conservatives have lost their majority, rebuked by the American People in the recent mid-term election. Bush is now a complete "lame duck," and nobody really owes him anything. So he speaks, but his words have very little force. And if he oversteps his bounds again, the new Congress can make his life miserable with investigations and threats of impeachment and prosecution for war crimes. Even the military -- which has almost become Bush's personal army -- is required to follow the laws and the Constitution, not any illegal orders which may be given by a desperate President. Therefore, many of the most flagrant offenses of the Bush administration should soon begin to cease, now that the American People have awakened and have cut off Bush's automatic approval from his rubber-stamp Congress.
You refer to the state of Israel and its supporters as "the Zionist regime," and "the Zionists." And you charge them with many crimes, particularly against the Palestinians. In particular, you write: "In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief." You criticize the United States for its "blind and blanket support to the Zionist regime," which has "emboldened it to continue its crimes, and has prevented the UN Security Council from condemning it." And you point out that these actions, and others, have helped to cause "global resentment and hatred of America," thereby spreading terrorism, not reducing it.
Without debating these charges, please let me point out two political realities within the United States which make it impossible for anyone to seriously oppose the best interests of the state of Israel, as determined by the "Israel Lobby." (The "Israel Lobby" can be defined as "the interconnected group of individuals and organizations who actively seek to promote the political interests of the state of Israel, and who react defensively and decisively to any criticism of Israel or its policies, justified or unjustified.") Source: http://israel-lobby.info
Reality #1: Supporters of Israel have an emotional love for Israel similar to a mother's emotional love for her child: they can see no fault in the child, no matter what the child may do. This love does not respond to reason or to objective facts. Her delinquent child may rob a bank, rape five women, and burn down the schoolhouse, but the mother sees no evil in him. So it is with the supporters of Israel. This is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it. This emotional love for Israel is reinforced by the Old-Testament Bible verse where God says, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." The supporters of Israel believe that this verse applies to modern-day Israel. (Genesis 12:3 RSV)
Reality #2: Supporters of Israel have enormous influence -- far greater than their numbers would suggest -- in all of the instruments of power in the USA. In the media, in the culture, in banking, in corporate leadership, in both political parties, in all branches and agencies of government, in the Christian churches, in the universities and other schools: everywhere! This influence, coupled with their emotional love for Israel, guarantees that absolutely nothing ever happens in the USA which seriously criticizes or opposes the state of Israel. This, too, is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it.
These two realities mean that neither you nor anybody else can change U.S. policy toward Israel by criticizing Israel. It simply will not work, no matter how true or justified the criticism may be. If you speak in favor of the Palestinians, the supporters of Israel call you a terrorist. And if you speak against Israel in any way, they call you an anti-Semite. So if you want the United States to change its policies toward Israel, you must convince the supporters of Israel that it is in Israel's best interest for these policies to be changed. That is the only way.
Blessings to you and to all people. May God help us all.
Rev. Bill McGinnis is an Internet Christian minister, writer and publisher. He is Director of LoveAllPeople.org, a small private think tank in Alexandria, Virginia, and all of its related websites, including InternetChurchOfChrist.org,CommitteeForTheGoldenRule.org,CivicAmerican.com, and AmericanDemocrat.net. His agenda is to help maximize the happiness and well-being of all people. His blog is located at http://blog.myspace.com/revbillmcginnis
'Reality #1: Supporters of Israel have an emotional love for Israel similar to a mother's emotional love for her child: they can see no fault in the child, no matter what the child may do. This love does not respond to reason or to objective facts. Her delinquent child may rob a bank, rape five women, and burn down the schoolhouse, but the mother sees no evil in him. So it is with the supporters of Israel. This is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it. This emotional love for Israel is reinforced by the Old-Testament Bible verse where God says, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." The supporters of Israel believe that this verse applies to modern-day Israel. (Genesis 12:3 RSV)
Reality #2: Supporters of Israel have enormous influence -- far greater than their numbers would suggest -- in all of the instruments of power in the USA. In the media, in the culture, in banking, in corporate leadership, in both political parties, in all branches and agencies of government, in the Christian churches, in the universities and other schools: everywhere! This influence, coupled with their emotional love for Israel, guarantees that absolutely nothing ever happens in the USA which seriously criticizes or opposes the state of Israel. This, too, is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it. '
The quotes above from the article by Rev. McGinnis presumes that not only supporters of the current Israeli policies are honest and sincere in their support but also that they have nearly omnipotent powers in this country and that all the US people must consider that as a reality. I would only hope, humorously speaking that such arrangement would be available for the Irish.
In all fairness there are no 'supporters of Israel' . If tomorrow the Israeli govt becomes socialist those very people who shout for Israel from the top opf their lungs would become its bitter enemies: the Israeli lobby works for itself and only for itself. Holy Bible, sorry has nothing to do with that and they are also as far from Jewishness as China is from the US. But they are good in creating images, they are good in working hard for their profits and as such we suddenly hear that they become ' reality'. That is nonsense, sorry. The reality is, though that the US people like to be pampered and the media, especially the one controlled by some of those people had sold to the US people the pampering perception about Judeo- Christian connection and state of Israel as a shining beacon of the West. You have to give credit to them- they work hard.
But there is no such thing as spiritual love for Israel and there is no magic in the Israeli Lobby influence. They are just a bunch of crooks. Surely, Iranian President would be right in his response that if we do admit the ' realities' of the above article we are more pathetic than he originally thought.
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Mark Sashine (44 articles, 19 quicklinks, 228 diaries, 3254 comments)
on Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 8:41:37 AM
So you deny the reality of the Israel Lobby? Stick around this country for a few more years and you will see: no serious criticism of Israel anywhere in the mainstream media! Why not, when all the rest of the world is criticizing Israel constantly? Why are we so different here? Even in much of the secondary, non-corporate media in the USA, it is taboo to "bash" Israel. You can criticize almost everything else, but not Israel. Why not?
but I question the motives for their activities as you describe those. My perception is that those people are dishonest by default and they do not have any ' honest love' for Israel, rather they work for themselves. In a sort of way I am even harsher than you. But if they are dishonest, they are not some kind of an embedded reality. They can be and should be dealt with. As for criticism of Israel or lack thereof here, let me ask a question: whom do we really criticise out there except for ' Axis of Evil' or Russia? I am not even talking quality, it is pathetic. Do we even really criticise China, for instance how it should be? Do we criticise Saudi Arabia or Egypt? I mean really. As a matter of fact our media is pathetic anyway when it comes to real analysis, real opinion and real guts. But they are ready with explanations. Of course, if they criticise Israel there could be a problem. Lobby is a nice excuse ( not to say that it does not react). But dig deeper and you might find laziness, complacency, indifference and even racism on our side. So, from my point of view, funny as it sounds, Lobby is our product the same as Apple Pie.
I am here for 17 years. Long enough:)
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Mark Sashine (44 articles, 19 quicklinks, 228 diaries, 3254 comments)
on Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 2:34:01 PM
