Jewish groups celebrate outcome of Alabama case, but worry for future,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Aug. 27, 2003
"Jewish leaders praised the removal of a monument of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building but are concerned by some of the developments the case has spawned. "The result was what we wanted," said Deborah Lauter, the Anti-Defamation League´s Southeast region director. "We celebrate the rule of law prevailing." Despite the legal victory, some in the Jewish community are concerned by the amount of support Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has received in the state and in Congress. They worry that he will be portrayed as a martyr in future clashes over church-state issues. They also worry that public response to the Ten Commandments case might cause some federal judges to let other unpopular orders go unenforced. "What is symbolic about any discussion is the depths of feelings on both sides," said Marc Stern, the American Jewish Congress´ general counsel. "These two sides really don´t understand each other." Jewish groups were active while the case was in the courts, supporting efforts to force Moore to remove the monument, which he installed one night two years ago. But since a federal court ruled in their favor last year, Jewish groups have taken a less active role — waiting and watching as Moore defied the court order. State officials took action Wednesday to move the monument from the building´s rotunda to a private area, while Christian religious activists who support Moore prayed outside. "We´ve been happy to just let Judge Moore self destruct," Stern said ... The debate has highlighted the fact that not everyone shares Jewish groups´ definition of the separation of religion and state. Lauter said she repeatedly has had to explain the difference between a tablet of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse and the words "In God We Trust" on American currency. "‘In God We Trust´ is not saying, ‘This is a Christian nation,´ " she said. "The statue, with Judge Moore´s rhetoric, is saying, ‘This is a Christian nation.´ " Stern said he also has been concerned by support Moore received in Congress."

[As one JTR contributor notes: "Lenni Brenner admits: the fight against Christianity is more important to the US Jews even than preservation of Israel."]
The Congressional Jesus Freaks God and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party,
By LENNI BRENNER, CounterPunch, August 29, 2003
"Win or lose, liberalism faces its terminal crisis. Secularist organizations are deeply troubled. Secularism was invented by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the Democratic Party's founders. Library shelves sag under the weight of their warnings about mixing religion and politics. But every hypocritical Democrat's vote on behalf of Moore or "under God" was a weapon of mass deception aimed at Jefferson's great "wall of separation between Church and State." God and the 10 Commandments may be what Judaism is all about, but even the American Jewish Congress, which wants continued support of both parties for Israel, called the House votes "assaults on the rule of law." Mock pious politicians may be 'good for Israel,' but their members live here and they fear that politically 'shrewd' pandering to the Christian right today can end us up with a Christian government on some tomorrow."

Christians march in Bethlehem to protest West Bank fence,
Haaretz (Israel), (from Associated Press), August 30, 2003
"Dozens of Christians, some of them carrying candles and crosses, marched to the outskirts of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday to protest Israel's construction of a barrier along its edge with the West Bank and prayed for peace. In Bethlehem, the leaders of 13 churches, nuns and monks and local Palestinian Christians gathered at a monastery to pray for peace and called on Israel to halt construction of a fence that Israel says is meant to keep out suicide bombers. Israel has already finished construction of a first 145 kilometer (90 mile) stretch that straddles to line between Israel and the northern West Bank. Eventually Israel plans to extend the barrier - made up of a fence fitted with electronic sensors, coiled razor wire and trenches - along the entire West Bank. Zigzagging deep into the West Bank in places to include some settlements, the barrier's entire length could be over 600 kilometers long. The Palestinians have called it an Israeli attempt to grab West Bank land. In places, the barrier cuts through communities, separating Palestinian farmers from their land and isolating whole villages. Around Jerusalem, work has started on the "envelope" to fence off traditionally Arab East Jerusalem from adjacent Palestinian suburbs and the rest of the West Bank. Among the Church leaders marching to a section of the barrier on Bethlehem's outskirts were the patriarchs of the Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian and Greek Orthodox churches as well as Jerusalem's Anglican and Lutheran Evangelical bishops and Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah. "If the wall is built it will be built in the hearts of people and bloodshed will increase," Sabbah said."

[Where's the everywhere Jewish-enforced "separation of Church and state? The "separation of Synagogue and State" is, apparently, a non-issue.]
In deference to Jewish justices, Supreme Court to delay opening,
By Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sept. 4, 2003
"The only pleas Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer will be hearing the first Monday of this October are their own, for atonement. For the first time in its 28-year tradition of opening its sessions on the first Monday of October, the Supreme Court will forego arguments in deference to its two Jewish judges, who will be observing Yom Kippur. Instead, the seven other judges will convene only to admit new attorneys to the highest court’s bar and to announce which cases they have decided to hear in the new season and which they have rejected. Arguments will begin only on Tuesday. This is not the first time the court has suspended arguments for the holiday. In 1995, the court suspended arguments when Yom Kippur fell on the first Wednesday of October ... This year’s announcement said the decision was made “so that Yom Kippur may be observed.” According to a clerk of Justice Felix Frankfurter in the mid-1940s, Louis Henkin, such deference was unimaginable in the time of Frankfurter, a Jewish justice who served on the court from 1939 to 1962. Jews were just happy to be employed by the court and would never have dreamed of asking for the day off, he said. “Things have changed. Religious demands have become more open, more insistent,” said Henkin, who is Sabbath observant and lives in New York."

[What's the big deal about Jews who accept Jesus? Jews hate Christians, and Jewish Christians are considered blasphemers from collective Jewish neurosis and must be"hunted down."]
Toronto Jews Fight Jews For Jesus,
by Bill Gladstone, Baltimore Jewish Times, SEPTEMBER 08, 2003
"A battle for Jewish souls is being waged across Canada's largest city as Jewish activists here work to counter the effects of an aggressive missionary campaign launched by Jews for Jesus. The multimillion-dollar international Christian missionary group kicked off a three-week missionary campaign on Aug. 25, called Behold Your God, an intensive blitz targeting the city's 175,000 Jews. The Jesus campaign, which will last through Sept. 14, involves newspaper ads, billboards, leaflets, a telemarketing-style phone campaign and door-to-door canvassing in Jewish neighborhoods. The missionaries also are distributing free copies of a video produced by their organization that focuses on Holocaust survivors who have converted to Christianity. Jewish groups have mobilized in response. The Jewish countermissionary organization Jews for Judaism mounted a comprehensive campaign to defend against the missionaries. The group designated Saturday as a Stand Up for Judaism Shabbat, urging rabbis across southern Ontario to address the missionary problem from the pulpit. In conjunction with the Canadian Jewish Congress, the organization also held a Stand Up for Judaism community rally on Sunday. B'nai Brith Canada also launched its own "Proud to Be Jewish" campaign to warn unsuspecting Jewish community members about the missionaries. "This isn't about free speech," said the group's president, Rochelle Wilner. "Targeted missionizing — especially when done in a manner calculated to deceive the unsuspecting — is offensive to our community," she said. The name Jews for Jesus makes about as much sense as Baptists for Buddha or Catholics for Krishna, she said. The Toronto arm of the Baltimore-based Jews for Judaism has distributed nationally an eight-page brochure, "Missionary Impossible," to "help inoculate the Jewish community against the missionary threat," said Julius Ciss, executive director of Jews for Judaism in Canada and a former Jews for Jesus member. Additionally, signs telling the missionaries to get lost have been distributed to Jewish households around the city ... While Jews for Jesus hands out pink fliers urging belief in Jesus, the countermissionary group hands out blue fliers highlighting the message, "You can't believe in Jesus and still be Jewish." At the same time, the organization is sending rapid-response teams out on patrol and established a hotline for people to call if they spot the Christian missionaries working on the street. "It's a cat-and-mouse game," Ciss said. "If we don't know where they are, we have to hunt them down, and it's a big city — we have to drive around and look at all the big intersections. But half the time we do find them."

[Separation of Church and State, the Jewish banner in America? In the racist Bigot Nation of Israel, which Americans have subsidized with tens of billions of dollars, Judaism is a mandatory part of ALL school's curriculum.]
Court halts change in method of teaching Judaism in secular schools,
By ABIGAIL RADOSZKOWICZ AND DAN IZENBERG, gsnonweb.com (from Jerusalem Post), September 8, 2003
"The High Court of Justice on Sunday granted a show-cause order instructing the Education Ministry to explain why it has changed the system of teaching Judaism in non-religious schools. The new system no longer allows non-governmental organizations to teach these classes. The court heard two petitions filed by a coalition of secular and pluralistic religious groups headed by Panim for Jewish Renaissance in Israel. One petition asked that the court stop the ministry's plan to end these non-governmental groups' activities designed to strengthen secular children's Jewish identity and knowledge as mandated by the Shenhar Commission. The other called for the ministry to change the criterion for distributing funds for education to strengthen Jewish identity. The court gave the groups two weeks to correct the second petition, and called for a resumption of the hearings in October. Until now, the state has allowed non-governmental organizations, including Panim, Melitz, Meitar, the Shechter Institute, the Movement for Progressive Judaism, and the Conservative Movement, to teach programs on Judaism in secular schools. From now on, the teaching is to be done by regular teachers. The Education Ministry has argued that it has the right to change the method in which it provides Jewish education in secular schools. During Sunday's hearing, the state maintained that it is actually increasing funding for Jewish education in secular schools under to the new system. It also argued that it had asked the universities and teaching colleges to prepare their students to teach Jewish subjects."

BRIEF BEFORE SUPREME COURT CONFRONTS ACTIVISTS WHO SEEK TO JUSTIFY BIGOTRY,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties, September 11, 2003
"A brief of amici curiae has been filed before the U.S. Supreme Court by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the case of Locke v. Davey. The brief argues that it is unconstitutional for the state of Washington to disqualify a student “from an otherwise available government benefit, only because the student would use the benefit for a religious purpose.” At issue is the right of a student who won a partial scholarship to attend a college affiliated with the Assemblies of God; he was denied use of the scholarship because of the religious nature of the college. The law reflects the thinking of the Blaine Amendment, a 19th century piece of federal legislation that expressed nativist sentiments against Catholics; though that law never passed, many states incorporated Blaine amendments into their constitution and 37 still have them. Richard W. Garnett of Notre Dame Law School is responsible for the Catholic League’s contribution to this brief. The brief not only seeks to demonstrate the bigoted historical basis for the Blaine Amendment and its progeny, it seeks to challenge amici for the petitioner who even now seek to obfuscate the historical record. Perhaps most important, the brief takes aim at those who seek to legitimate religious discrimination. Catholic League president William Donohue explained what’s at stake: “It is nothing short of amazing that the American Jewish Congress would file a brief in the year 2003 that argues that some of the fears expressed by 19th century anti-Catholic bigots were real. The AJCongress brief says that anti-Catholic laws ‘were undertaken in response to positions of the Catholic Church as authoritatively enunciated by consecutive Popes in well publicized encyclicals’ prompting ‘a legitimate fear’ of Catholic domination. Our brief, not surprisingly, shows how impoverished this conception of history is. But the real travesty is that it has to be argued at all. Shame on the American Jewish Congress and its ilk for seeking to resurrect discredited and pernicious ideas about the Catholic Church.”

[Time to throw off the yoke of Jewish cultural (and inverted moral) imperialism. "Stephen Feldmans" are everywhere heralding Jewish tribalism and destroying the Christian community. Jewish ethnocentrism is to be held as sacred -- religiously or secularly. Christianity is to be considered garbage.]
On Not Permitting the Other to Be,
(Part of: The Public Square: A Continuing Survey of Religion and Public Life, by Richard John Neuhaus, First Things, January 1998
"In addition to being wrongheaded, the book is simply wrong on so many scores. That may be a good reason for ignoring it entirely, except that it represents a viewpoint that is influential far beyond the number of people who hold it. The book is Please Don’t Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State (New York University Press). I reviewed it for the Times Literary Supplement, but there is more that needs saying. Published by a reputable university press, the book is part of a series titled "Critical America," meaning "critical theory" that is sharply critical of America. Other books in the series examine racism, sexism, homophobia, and other favored multicult topics. A wild ride through history with a deconstruction-bent postmodernist at the wheel has its risks, but it is not without its rewards. Behind an apparently frivolous title, Stephen Feldman, professor of law and political science at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a serious thesis, and parts of it are true ... He fails to appreciate the extent to which it is also unfair to the Catholic and Orthodox understanding of Christianity. Neither is one inclined to question Mr. Feldman’s assertion that the separation of church and state is not entirely neutral in its consequences for different religions. The doctrine of separation does not obliterate the social reality of a country in which more than 90 percent of the people say they are Christian, 80 percent claim a church affiliation, and close to 50 percent say they go to church in any given week. It is the contention of Mr. Feldman’s very angry book that this social reality makes the separation of church and state no more than a "legal facade" for perpetuating the "hegemony" and "cultural imperialism" of Christianity in American public life. The Christian Disaster "I am Jewish." That is the very first sentence of the book, from which the author believes his argument follows. It is necessary to understand, he says, that the story of Jesus, and especially of his death, was "intentionally fabricated" by his disciples who were "motivated chiefly by political interest," their main interest being to condemn Jews and Judaism. The Jew is the "other" against which Christianity defined itself, and continues to define itself ... According to Mr. Feldman, Christianity is, in addition to being a lie, an exceedingly unattractive affair. It is a wonder that anybody has ever found it appealing, and inexplicable that it is professed by almost two billion people living today. Christianity is captive to a "dualism" that denigrates life, while Judaism affirms "the whole person" and "celebrates life." The only explanation proposed for Christianity’s appeal is that people hate Jews. Whether they become Christian because they hate Jews or hate Jews as a result of becoming Christian is not entirely clear, although the latter would seem to be the case. If they don’t know any Jews, they hate "the conceptual Jew," who is a construct of Christianity and gives birth to "unconscious anti-Semitism," which is the very worst kind."

BEWARE THE BIGOTED KIBITZERS,
By Dr. Ted Baehr, Movie Guide, July 7, 2003
"Recently, our friend Robert Knight took another friend David Horowitz to task for an article in which Horowitz said that Christians are theologically wrong for declaring that homosexuality is a sin. Knight pointed out that the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin both in the Old and New Testament, and that it was religious bigotry for Mr. Horowitz to be lecturing Christians on their theology. David may not have considered the implications of his article, but, regrettably, he reacted to Mr. Knight’s criticism with a more strenuous broadside demeaning Christian theology. Another kibitzer in the Los Angeles Times Book Review stated that Christians must remove all references to Jews in the New Testament. In a USA Today opinion piece, Rabbi Gerald Zelizer complained that Christian leaders “are too facile in generalizing their criticism about Hollywood’s portrayal of God and faith” while taking Christian comments out of context and denigrating biblical theology. He then continues by prescribing what Christians should believe. Surely this contributing writer in USA Today would be upset if Christians started criticizing Talmudic theology. Furthermore, it’s hard to believe that he would take statements by renowned Christians out of context, and then criticize them on theological grounds that he does not understand since he is not a Christian. Not only is the Bible clear that only people of faith can understand the things of God, but the matters that Rabbi Zelizer is talking about concern a movie made by Christians treating issues from a redemptive perspective. Shortly after the Rabbi’s column ran in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece by two people from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a worthy Jewish organization dedicated, in part, to helping people remember the evil slaughter of millions of Jews in the Holocaust by Hitler’s Germany in World War II. The two men cautioned Mel Gibson about the possible depiction of Jewish leaders in his new movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, THE PASSION. Apparently, these men get very upset, as we have and they should, whenever someone tries to revise the holocaust history by questioning even minor historical details about Hitler’s horrible genocidal program. But then, they contradict themselves by wanting to revise the historical record by hiding the truth about the religious leaders who were historically involved in the trials which resulted in the death of Jesus Christ. As these men say, it was Pontius Pilate who crucified Christ, but they seem to ignore the fact that it was many of the religious leaders in Jerusalem who incited the angry, bloodthirsty mob into demanding the crucifixion. Telling Christians what to think about their own faith has become the fashion in the media, but that does not make it right. In fact, it is a base form of religious bigotry and snobbish arrogance, and it exposes the raw agenda of the anti-Christian bigots who want to eliminate Jesus Christ, the New Testament, and Bible-believing Christians from the marketplace of ideas ... Now in the United States, some intolerant people of influence are effectively calling for the exclusion of all things Christian from public discourse. These revisionists want to remove all the voluminous historical evidence about Jesus Christ from schools, government, and the mass media of entertainment. For these intolerant people, all speech is acceptable, except references to Jesus Christ and the Bible, which they have strictly forbidden in their politically correct purge of all public discourse. In their attempt to revise history and erase the historical record, they are effectively crucifying Jesus Christ once more, though slightly more subtly than their counterparts who incited the mob before Pilate to yell, “Crucify Him!” To which Pilate replied that Jesus’ crucifixion was upon their heads. If we fail to remember this history, we will be doomed to repeat it. Don’t let the bigoted kibitzer take away your freedom to think about God in an orthodox, historically accurate way. If they can let Martin Scorsese defame Jesus Christ by producing THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST in the name of the First Amendment, surely they can let Mel Gibson release the kind of movie about Jesus he wants to make."

Decimation of Palestinians Christians in Occupied Territories of Palestine,
The Lieutenant, Knights and Dames of the Lieutenancy of Australia
"The Society of St Yves wishes to bring to the attention of Christians in the world that the Israeli government has begun to implement systematically policies and practices that are intended to wipe out the Christian community of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in occupied Palestine. The following steps are now being put fully into effect: Resident Aliens 1. Christians and Muslims who live in occupied Palestine are resident aliens according to Israeli legal practice ... 2. The Israelis have forbidden all new buildings and proper external renovations of Christian property in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and have thus managed to restrict the number of Christians living in the Old City. Living conditions are over-crowded, unsanitary and inadequate in most cases, as a result of these laws ... 3. The East Jerusalem Arab villages and neighbourhoods have been "spot" zoned: that is, 90% of Arab owned land is left unzoned so that it cannot legally be used, therefore of no economic value and cannot be sold ... 4. In East Jerusalem Arabs have about 3 sq. m. living space per person: in Jewish areas of both East and West Jerusalem, Jews have about 19 sq. m. living space per person ... 5. Where building can take place, Arabs have to pay now about US$30,000 for a licence and levies. Jews have their housing built with a pre-prepared infrastructure which is included in the price, and for which they receive subsidised mortgages. Also there are no land costs in Jewish building ... 6. The Israelis have built only new Jewish neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem on confiscated and expropriated Arab land sometimes using the pretext of law as a justification ... 7. These policies and practices have forced people to move out of Israeli-defined Jerusalem into the neighbouring towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem and the adjacent villages. 8. This lack of housing is now being used against the Palestinians who live in the West Bank even though they have Jerusalem identity cards, thus denying them their rights in Jerusalem ... FORCED EXPULSION AND ETHNIC CLEANSING 10. The loss of work and the attendant loss of income, together with the loss of benefits these identity cards confer, will create a situation whereby Christians are being forced to turn to their relatives abroad in order for them to find a place where they can find work, and take care of their families. 11. Such emigration is the direct result of Israeli policies and is in fact a form of expulsion, or "voluntary transfer," as Israeli politicians euphemistically call it. 12. People who have been living abroad because of the need to work there or to study, are now being denied a renewal of their Jerusalem identity cards and therefore are automatically losing their rights to Jerusalem residency with all its attendant consequences. They are being turned into exiles! LOSS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS 13. The loss of a Jerusalem identity card also means that heirs to Jerusalem property who are no longer living in Jerusalem will lose their property to the Israeli government under the guise that this is now Absentee Property according to Israeli law. This is one of the basic goals of Zionist policy. LOCAL CHRISTIANS - ALIEN RESIDENTS 14. At the same time, there are Christians who have been living in Jerusalem for many years who have been refused Jerusalem identity cards, and they live in abject terror of the Israeli authorities finding them ... DESTRUCTION OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 15. Christian schools have been severely hit by these regulations, which have seriously affected teachers and pupils living in Bethlehem or Ramallah. These schools will probably have to close down or move out of Jerusalem. And this, after more than one hundred years of operation ... 19. West Bank Christians are seriously contemplating leaving the area as they are faced with chronic unemployment and ultimate starvation. As a result of these deliberately created atrocious living conditions, we are now about to witness an enforced exodus of Christians from the Holy Land where they have been witnesses for the past 2000 years. The celebration of Jesus’ birth in the year 2000 will be in the presence of a dying remnant of Christians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Society of St. Yves maintains that the governments of Israel are creating those conditions, which inevitably lead to the death of the Palestinian Christian community in the occupied territories including East Jerusalem. Please send this message to everyone you know. Write a letter for clarification of these issues to the Israeli embassy nearest to you, in protest. Please forward their responses to us and we will give you the truth as against their prevarication. Please come to our aid and please start campaigning to prevent this exile!! Lynda Brayer, Advocate Executive Legal Director Society of St. Yves - Catholic Legal Resource and Human Rights Center Jerusalem/Bethlehem"

[Rabidly ethnocentric Jews see no ironies in their intense hatred of the universalistic Christianity, nor even their hatred of Jews who accept Christ. Someone recognizes the moral bust of the "Chosen People" jive, and leaves. Big deal. The Cleveland Jewish News reports that a Jew converting to Christianity has been subject to "rape."]
Cleveland Jews fed up with missionary antics,
By STEPHANIE GARBER, Cleveland Jewish News, Setptember 27, 2003
"While coastal cities clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, Cleveland's Jewish community is trying to clean up a different kind of mess - the one left in the wake of the missionary group, Jews for Jesus. And, as communities tend to do after a disaster, at least one rabbi suggests using the missionaries' odious tactics as a cause to unite the various branches of Judaism against a common enemy. "Especially now, before the High Holidays, Jews should join together and stand as one against these missionary groups. This, along with Israel, is one of two issues that cuts across all denominational lines," asserts Rabbi Tovia Singer of Outreach Judaism, a New-York based counter-missionary organization ... Helen Weinberger and a friend decided to visit the pastoral town of Newbury for a scenic drive and a pleasant meal. When they got to the restaurant in Newbury, Weinberger was horrified to see a poster on the door advertising a so-called Rosh Hashana service. "Not only was the spelling of Rosh Hashana atrocious, the poster listed the person who would be leading the service as a 'pastor rabbi,'" Weinberger says. "My parents' entire family was killed in the Holocaust. Not one is left. All I have are some pictures," Weinberger said when she called the CJN, terribly shaken by the missionary's bold recruiting tactic. "I wanted to tear the sign off the door, but I was afraid I'd be arrested for violating freedom of speech" ... There are about 680 of these so-called "Hebraic-roots/messianic synagogues," says Singer. "They are an offense to Judaism and a shame to Christianity as well. They use deception to propagate a bastardization of both religions." These churches, Singer explains, are intentionally designed to look Jewish. "You won't see any crosses there," he points out. More than half are Pentecostal-types, like Assemblies of God, he explains. Some have a few Jews as members, but they are mostly made up of Christians. "These groups attempt to blur the distinction between Judaism and Christianity. However, they are not just an eyesore," Singer warns. "They are extremely dangerous because they are training people how to evangelize their Jewish doctor, their Jewish accountant, their Jewish attorney." Another CJN reader, who wished to remain anonymous, called, asking the paper to alert its readers to the devastation caused by these missionary groups saying, "I lost a dearly beloved relative to conversion." "Syd's" brother was invited to a messianic concert by a gentile friend. It was the beginning of the end of his Judaism," explains Syd. While still on the board of his synagogue in Cleveland, Syd's brother began exploring Christianity, and eventually become deeply entrenched in it ... Syd's family worked with Rabbi Dan Olgin of University Heights. "He's an expert in dealing with these Christian conversions, and has helped a lot of people who have converted or who have been thinking about converting" Syd says. "He really helped our family a lot in knowing how to respond, and how to deal with my brother. Unfortunately, he was unable to help my brother because he had just gotten too deeply entrenched in it." Syd recalls talking to someone who described the conversion of Jews as "spiritual rape." "It's not a term I would have thought to use. However, if you think about it, the term is fitting because we are talking about the violation of a Jewish soul."

[The wiping out of the Christian community in the Holy Land. Note: this Jewish journalist below bends reality: divide and conquer. Israel creates the circumstances to pit Muslim against Christian. The MAIN reason for Christianity's evaporation in the Holy Land is racist, anti-Christian, anti-Muslim Jewish Israelis, and the American Jews who support them.]
Dark Days in Bethlehem. Under siege from all sides, Christians in the Holy Land have never been so beset. A report from the front,
By Joshua Hammer, NEWSWEEK, Sept. 29, 2003
"David Mansour’s ties to the Holy Land have all but unraveled. A Greek Orthodox Christian whose family has lived in Bethlehem for generations, Mansour runs the Christmas Tree Souvenir Shop on Milk Grotto Street, just around the corner from the Church of the Nativity. For years he earned a comfortable living selling olive-wood nativity scenes to religious pilgrims who flocked to Jesus’ purported birthplace at a rate of 130,000 a month. But since the start of the Aqsa intifada, tourism has vanished, and so has Mansour’s livelihood. “My last customer? I think he came into the shop three weeks ago,” he says, blowing dust off a stack of yellowing postcards. Mansour now feeds his family using ration cards distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and he cleans the basilica to avoid being evicted by his landlord, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. With his business bankrupt and his hopes for a breatkthrough in the peace process dashed, he’s preparing for what was once unthinkable. Next week, Mansour, 36, will immigrate to Italy in search of work. “I’ll send for my wife and five kids as soon as I find something,” he says. These are bleak times for the Palestinian Authority’s tiny Christian minority. Beset by high unemployment, the humiliations of Israeli occupation, the spread of radical Islam and an alleged campaign of illegal land seizures by the Muslim majority, many of them see no future in the land of their birth. Nowhere is that feeling more acute than in Bethlehem and the adjacent villages of Beit Jala and Beit Sahur, as I discovered while researching “A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place” (304 pages. Free Press). In these Biblical towns studded with grottoes, where early Christian saints dwelled, more than 1,200 Christians have fled abroad since the uprising began in September 2000. All told, the Christian population in the occupied territories has declined from 110,000 in 1948 to 50,000 today. About 30,000 of those live in the Bethlehem area. Some Christian leaders fear that the community could disappear in a generation. “We’re witnessing an emigration like the one a century ago,” says Hannah Nasser, mayor of Bethlehem, referring to the last days of the Ottoman Empire, when thousands fled to Latin America to escape being drafted into the sultan’s Army. Read an excerpt from Joshua Hammer's book “A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place.” Palestinian Christians have long occupied a precarious middle ground between Israelis and Palestinian Muslims. The influx of thousands of Muslim refugees to the Bethlehem area after the 1948 war, coupled with the low Christian birthrate and continued emigration, sapped their numbers and their clout. Israel targeted them during the occupation: after the Six Day War, Israeli authorities seized 11,000 acres of olive groves from Christian landowners in Beit Jala to build the Jewish settlement of Gilo, and later grabbed large tracts of Christian property to construct a highway linking settlements south of Bethlehem to Jerusalem. With the coming to power of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Christians began to feel threatened by their Muslim- dominated government."

[The Jewish Israeli world view in a nutshell: "Winner. Best Film Avignon/New York Film Festival 2002."]
The Synopsis [at the web site for the Israeli film Holy Land by Eitan Gorlin,
"Set in the world's holiest city during the dawn of the new century as fanatical Christians from across the globe arrive in hopes of provoking a confrontation between the many extremist Arabs and Jews, the plot of "The Holy Land" focuses on Menachem Weinbaum ("Mendy"),a young rabbinical student who is restless to learn about the bigger world. On the advice of his slightly demented teacher, Mendy visits a brothel in Tel Aviv so he can be rid of his "madness" and return tohis studies. There he meets Sasha, a nineteen-year-old Russian prostitute, whose dire situation and immense beauty captivates him. But Mendy's world really opens up when he discovers Mike's Place, a real-life magnet for the lost souls who flock to Jerusalem. A place where Arabs, Christians and Jews drink side by side, Mike's Place introduces Mendy to a gun-toting American-born settler, a shady entrepreneurial Arab and a slew of American expatriates, forever changed by the sixties, who act out biblical roles. As Mendy becomes more immersed in this culture of the millennium he begins to wonder if Mike and his band of misfits are as harmless as they seem? Or are they intent on provoking Armageddon? A story of doomed, passionate love and coming of age in troubled times --set in a world-famous place not unlike Rick's Cafe American or the Cantina in "Star Wars" -- "The Holy Land" explores the underbelly of real life in Jerusalem after the sun goes down and the tourists and Orthodox families go to sleep."

* Protest Jerry Falwell's anti-Christian war-mongering and Christian Zionism. Join PROJECT STRAIT GATE: Sunday, October 5, 2003, 3:00PM-6:30 PM, on The public sidewalks at: Falwell's Liberty University, 1971 University Blvd, Lynchburg, Virginia

[Christianity and Islam are fair game for consistent attack by the Judeocentric mass media. When was the last time you saw an equivilant trashing of Judaism (or Jewish anything) -- which has plenty to merit it -- in the mass media? The Jewish Tribal Review has assembled more than enough documentation for many, many legitimate articles critical -- in the same potential spirit of "anti-Catholic" attacks -- of Jews and Judaism.]
Corporation accused of anit-catholic bias, [sic: "anit-catholic" in original]
by KAREN MCVEIGH, The Scotsman, September 30, 2003
"One of the leading figures in the Catholic Church has issued a scathing attack on the BBC, accusing individuals and elements within it of producing biased and hostile programmes. The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Birmingham, has singled out sectors of the BBC’s news and current affairs department for its "aggressive and antagonistic" attitude towards Catholicism. The archbishop, who launched his attack at a press conference in London, was protesting on behalf of five million Catholics in England and Wales. His remarks, which have come at time when the BBC’s news coverage has been under close scrutiny at the Hutton Inquiry, were made in advance of three BBC programmes to be screened shortly: Kenyon Confronts, about child abuse allegations in the English Church; a Panorama documentary called Sex and the Holy City and a cartoon called Popetown caricaturing the Pope. The archbishop dismissed them as offensive initiatives. He said: "Certainly the Catholic community is fed up seeing a public service broadcaster using the licence fee to pay unscrupulous reporters trying to circulate old news and to broadcast programmes that are so biased and hostile. Enough is enough."

[Jews DID kill Christ, if we are to believe JEWISH religious tradition. The cat's out of the bag, in public forum. It's a few honest Jews versus the massive, totalitarian, censorial Jewish Lobby who reshape the whole of history to suit the myth of sacred Jewish innocense. Bottom line: telling the truth is controversial in the Jewish community.]
Jesus’ Death Now Debated By Jews. AJCommittee scholar cites Talmudic passage; others question views and timing in light of Gibson furor,
by Eric J. Greenberg, The Jewish Week, November 3, 2003
"The controversy over Mel Gibson’s upcoming film about the death of Jesus has spurred painful exchanges between Jews and Christians and progressive and traditional Catholics in recent days. To date, the debates have centered on the “proper” interpretation of the role of Jews in Jesus’ Crucifixion, as presented in the four New Testament Gospels. But this week, Gibson’s $25 million biblical epic, which the director insists is about love and forgiveness, has triggered a new squabble — among Jewish scholars. The texts in question are not New Testament but rather passages long censored (by Christian authorities) about Jesus from the Talmud, the encyclopedia of Jewish law and tradition considered sacred by traditional Jews. Raising the issue is an article by Steven Bayme, the American Jewish Committee’s national director of Contemporary Jewish Life, which declares that Jews must face up to the fact that the Talmudic narrative “does clearly demonstrate ... fourth century rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus.” “Jewish apologetics that ‘we could not have done it’ because of Roman sovereignty ring hollow when one examines the Talmudic account,” Bayme said. He contends that Jewish interfaith representatives are not being honest in dialogue if they ignore the explicit Talmudic references to Jesus. His article was posted on the AJCommittee’s Web site last week, then removed after a Jewish Week reporter’s inquiry. Ken Bandler, a spokesman for the AJCommittee, said the article was taken down to “avoid confusion” over whether it represented the organization’s official position. AJCommittee officials now refer to the article as “an internal document.” Some Jewish scholars and interfaith officials were upset with the article, either questioning Bayme’s scholarship or his timing — saying this was a particularly delicate time to call attention to Jews’ role in Jesus’ death — or both. But Bayme was unswayed. Citing the continuing controversy over Gibson’s “The Passion,” which has reignited concern over Christianity’s ancient charge against Jews as “Christ killers,” he wrote that it is also important “that Jews confront their own tradition and ask how Jewish sources treated the Jesus narrative.” Bayme cites a passage from the Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a, which relates the fate of a man called Jesus who is hanged on the eve of Passover for practicing sorcery and leading the people of Israel astray ... he says the passage is significant because the Talmudic text “indicates rabbinic willingness to acknowledge, at least in principle, that in a Jewish court and in a Jewish land, a real-life Jesus would indeed have been execute ... Bayme told The Jewish Week he wrote the piece for two reasons: to educate Jews and promote honest dialogue with Christians. He cited the Catholic Church’s 1965 statement that Jesus’ death “cannot be blamed upon all Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today" ... Bayme is concerned that Jews know nothing about the censored texts. “Whenever I talked about the origins of Christianity with fellow Jews, I discovered massive ignorance of Jewish narratives concerning the death of Jesus. It’s something I thought Jews ought to confront fairly,” he told The Jewish Week ... But some disagreed with Bayme’s analysis and policy suggestion. His own organization pulled the piece only a couple of days after it was posted. Rabbi David Rosen, the group’s director of interreligious affairs, said Bayme’s views were not the “official AJC position” concerning the trial of Jesus. He called the Talmudic text historically “dubious” and questioned Bayme’s connecting the text with the Gospel stories, noting the actual charge against Jesus and the nature of the court “is in conflict.” Some outside specialists also refuted Bayme’s article ... But Dr. David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary, supported Bayme’s call for honesty about Jewish texts and Jesus. “I think it’s very relevant to bring up evidence of the difficulty of our relationship with Christianity,” he said, contending that it is indeed Jesus of Nazareth in the [Talmudic] text."

[Traditional Christian conviction that "Jews killed Christ" is vehemently declared by most of modern Jewry to be erroneous, hateful, "anti-Semitic," and fraudulent. But Jewish religious tradition parallels the Christian version of religious history, placing responsibility for the death of Christ in Jewish hands. Note: the original link address to the following American Jewish Congress article is here, but the AJC apparently got cold feet and thought better of keeping this article online for "anti-Semites" to find as an authoritative source. Telling the truth isn't kosher, in the long term. The link below is thereby directed to this article's uneraseable "cached" version:]
Jesus in the Talmud,
by Steven Bayme, National Director, Contemporary Jewish Life Department, American Jewish Committee, September 24, 2003
"[Mel] Gibson's movie [The Passion], intended to tell the story of the Gospels, has alienated many Jewish leaders, who correctly worry whether the movie's graphic description of the crucifixion and its alleged overtones of a Jewish conspiracy to kill Jesus may ignite long-dormant Christian hostilities to Jews. For this reason, the account of the Gospels, and its associations with anti-Semitism, needs to be honestly confronted, including the question of the relationship of church teachings to acts of violence against Jews. Yet it is also important that Jews confront their own tradition and ask how Jewish sources treated the Jesus narrative. Pointedly, Jews did not argue that crucifixion was a Roman punishment and therefore no Jewish court could have advocated it. Consider, by contrast, the following text from the Talmud: On the eve of Passover Jesus was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of Passover. Ulla retorted: Do you suppose he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a mesith (enticer), concerning whom Scripture says, "Neither shall thou spare nor shall thou conceal him?" With Jesus, however, it was different, for he was connected with the government. (Sanhedrin 43a) This text, long censored in editions of the Talmud, is concerned primarily with due process in capital crimes. Standard process requires that punishment be delayed for forty days in order to allow extenuating evidence to be presented. However, in extreme cases, such as seducing Israel into apostasy, this requirement is waived. The case of Jesus, according to the Talmud, constituted an exception to this rule. Although one who enticed Israel into apostasy is considered an extreme case, the Jews at the time waited forty days because of the close ties of Jesus to the Roman authorities. However, once the forty days elapsed without the presentation of favorable or extenuating comment about him, they proceeded to kill him on the eve of Passover. Three themes emanate from this passage. First, the charges against Jesus relate to seduction of Israel into apostasy and the practice of sorcery. According to the Gospels, the charges against Jesus concerned his self-proclamation as a messiah. The Talmud seems to prefer the more specific charges of practicing sorcery and leading Israel into false beliefs. One twentieth-century historian, Morton Smith of Columbia University, argued on the basis of recently discovered "hidden Gospels" that the historical Jesus indeed was a first-century sorcerer (Jesus the Magician, HarperCollins, 1978). In the eyes of the Talmudic rabbis, the practice of sorcery and false prophecy constituted capital crimes specifically proscribed in Deuteronomy 18: 10-12 and 13: 2-6. Second, the Talmud is here offering a subtle commentary upon Jesus' political connections. The Gospels portray the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as going to great lengths to spare Jesus (Mark 15: 6-15). Although this passage may well have been written to appease the Roman authorities and blame the Jews, the Talmudic passage points in the same direction: The Jews waited forty days, in a departure from the usual practice, only because Jesus was close to the ruling authorities. Lastly, the passage suggests rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus. No effort is made to pin his death upon the Romans. In all likelihood, the passage in question emanates from fourth-century Babylon, then the center of Talmudic scholarship, and beyond the reach of both Rome and Christianity. Although several hundred years had elapsed since the lifetime of Jesus, and therefore this is not at all a contemporary source, the Talmudic passage indicates rabbinic willingness to acknowledge, at least in principle, that in a Jewish court and in a Jewish land, a real-life Jesus would indeed have been executed. To be sure, historians can not accept such a text uncritically. For one thing, the Talmudic text, as noted, was written some 300 years after the event it reports. Secondly, it makes no acknowledgement of intra-Jewish tensions in first century Palestine in which Jewish sects proliferated, and Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots competed for Jewish allegiances. Jesus's antipathy towards the Pharisees, of course, is well known from the Gospels, and the Talmudic rabbis, who presumably read these accounts, defined themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Pharisaic teachers. By contrast, the High Priest was, in all likelihood, a member of the Sadducee faction, which generally consisted of more aristocratic elements. What the Talmudic narrative does demonstrate is fourth century rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus. What, then, are the implications of this reading of Jesus through the eyes of rabbinic sources? First, we do require honesty on both sides in confronting history. Jewish apologetics that "we could not have done it" because of Roman sovereignty ring hollow when one examines the Talmudic account. However, the significance of Vatican II, conversely, should by no means be minimized. The Church went on record as abandoning the teaching of contempt in favor of historicizing the accounts of the Gospels and removing their applicability to Jews of later generations."

[Keister, who is apparently Jewish, puts the expected apologetic spin on the fact that this study fulfills the "stereotype" that Jews are money-oriented. Judaism has ALWAYS been money-centered. In this study we have evidence for the obvious: Jewish collective affluence is largely a factor of the exploitation of others. Jewish this-world materialism, money-obsession, and aggrandizement are keys to understanding Jewish identity and Jewish influence in the world today. When it comes to making money, Jews are NOT like Christians. The religious ideologies are worlds apart. Jews are taught by their religious faith and culture to hustle for money. Pure and simple.]
RELIGION HELPS SHAPE WEALTH OF AMERICANS, STUDY FINDS, by Jeff Grabmeier, Ohio State [University] Research News, September 16, 2003
"A new national study shows that religious affiliation plays a powerful role in how much wealth Americans accumulate, with Jews amassing the most wealth and conservative Protestants the least. Mainline Protestants and Catholics fall in between and are about average with the rest of the population in terms of overall wealth. Moreover, people who attend religious services regularly build more wealth than those who don’t, the study found. The religious beliefs children learn in their families translate into educational attainment, adult occupations, financial literacy, social connections and other factors that influence adult wealth ownership. The effect of religion is robust, even after taking into account inheritances, levels of education and other factors affecting wealth that may be associated with particular religious denominations, said Lisa Keister, author of the study and associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “Religion is an important factor in wealth accumulation, a factor that hasn’t received a lot of attention,” Keister said. “The results suggest people draw on the tools they learn from religion to develop strategies for saving, investing and spending, and those tools may be different in various faiths.” The study is published in the September issue of the journal Social Forces. Keister used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The NLSY is a nationwide survey, conducted by Ohio State for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which follows a group of people over time, visiting each participant annually or biennially. She used data on 4,950 participants collected from 1985 through 1998. Overall, the median net worth of Jewish people in the survey was $150,890, more than three times the median for the entire sample ($48,200). The median net worth for conservative Protestants (which included Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, among others) was $26,200, or about half the overall average. The median net worth of mainstream Protestants (including Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Unitarians and others) and Catholics were similar to each other and about the average for the whole sample. While some may say that the results confirm religious stereotypes, such as the contention that Jewish people are greedy and acquisitive, Keister strongly disagrees. “What I’m finding is that families have a powerful influence on how people learn to save, and religion is often an important part of family life,” Keister said. “The things children are taught in Jewish homes are very different than those that are taught in conservative Protestant homes.” But it wasn’t just religious affiliation itself that had an impact on wealth accumulation. The study found that people who regularly attended religious services tended to be more wealthy. “It seems strange – why should it matter whether you go to church in terms of building wealth?” Keister said. “But going to religious services may be another opportunity, especially for Jews, to be indoctrinated with beliefs that help build wealth. Also, it is a social network issue – a church or synagogue can be a good place to meet people with investment tips or money to loan for a new business" ... Conservative Protestants also look forward to the rewards of the afterlife and don’t promote acquiring wealth as a good for this life. Jews, on the other hand, don’t have a strong orientation to the afterlife, but encourage pursuits that will lead to wealth accumulation, such as high-income careers and investin ... In the study, she examined how religious affiliation related to some typical financial trajectories for Americans. For example, only 1 percent of Jewish people remained asset poor throughout life, compared to 15 percent of conservative Protestants. About 9 percent of mainline Protestants and 7 percent of Catholics followed this trajectory. The most common trajectory is to buy a home relatively early in life and then accumulate other assets, such as stocks and bonds, later. About 35 percent of Jews followed this path, compared to 3 percent of conservative Protestants, 22 percent of mainline Protestants and 20 percent of Catholics. Jewish people stood out in a third trajectory in which people invest early in life in high-risk, high-return assets such as stocks and bonds and build wealth quickly while putting less emphasis on homeownership. About one-third of Jews followed this path, compared to no conservative Protestants, 7 percent of mainline Protestants and 4 percent of Catholics. Keister emphasized that religion is only one among many factors that influence wealth. This research is part of a larger series of studies Keister is doing to explain why some people accumulate more wealth than others. She said that once she began studying wealth, the impact of religion stood out plainly. “Religion keeps coming up in any model you run to explain wealth,” she said. “It’s something you can’t ignore, but there’s been little effort to explain the connection between religion and wealth accumulation.”

While Most Americans Believe in God, Only 36% Attend a Religious Service Once a Month or More Often Belief and attendance vary greatly among different segments of the population,
by Humphrey Taylor, Harris Interactive, October 15, 2003
"[T] new Harris Poll finds that underneath a broad consensus, belief in God varies quite widely among different segments of the American public. And most people attend a religious service less often than once a month. These are some of the results of a survey by Harris Interactive® based on a nationwide sample of 2,306 adults surveyed online between September 16 and 23, 2003 ... Differences in the Replies of Catholics, Protestants and Jews: Protestants (90%) are more likely than Roman Catholics (79%) and much more likely than Jews (48%) to believe in God. Religious affiliation here includes many people raised as members of a religion or religious group, regardless of what they practice or believe now. Protestants (47%) are also more likely than Catholics (35%) to attend church once a month or more often. Only 16% of Jews go to synagogues once a month or more often."

Organizers welcome planned international gay fest in Jerusalem with pride,
By Ellis Shuman, Israel Insider, October 23, 2003
"The city of Jerusalem has been selected to host the 2005 InterPride international gay and lesbian parade, an event that could potentially bring hundreds of thousands of tourists to Israel. Local organizers of the event say they have their work cut out for them. Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox mayor called a recent gay parade in the city an "abomination." "An event of this magnitude has never occurred before anywhere in Israel," said Jerry Levinson, chairman of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian Center. The last InterPride celebration was held in Rome in 2000 and attracted half a million visitors. "Doing this in Jerusalem is so much more interesting and special - because of the diversity of the city, because you have Arabs and Jews together, secular and Orthodox - and that's something very special I don't think you get anywhere else, not even in Israel," said Hagai El-Ad, executive director of Jerusalem Open House. Jerusalem only started hosting gay parades two years ago. The local parades, which drew some 4,000 participants, were heavily criticized by the city council and many local residents. Former Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert withheld municipal funding for the 2002 parade, but the High Court of Justice later ordered the Jerusalem Municipality to pay organizers 40,000 shekels for the annual event, in line with the sum the city provided for other marches. A spokesman for Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky said earlier this week that the issue of permits for such a parade was a police, and not a municipal, affair. Deputy Mayor Eliezer Simhayoff (Shas) said he wasn't concerned about the planned event, Yediot Aharonot reported. "This is a fantasy that won't be realized. There are many ways to encourage tourism to Jerusalem, and this is not one of them. We don't need to bring here tourists who will only create provocations. Jerusalem is a much more unique city than Rome. It has many Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) residents and we must consider their feelings." Simhayoff said he didn't think the Jerusalem Municipality should, or would provide funding for the event."

[Tim Wise is quite the obnoxious Jewish hypocrite, and he knows no shame. Here, in trashing Christian rights, he's offended at the notion of someone telling him rhetorically to "go to Hell," and here's what he emailed to us at the Jewish Tribal Review when we suggested he engage us in an online debate about one of his earlier articles: "you are just a punk ass nazi bitch, with nothing of value to say. Start the race war you piece of shit, or shut the fuck up."]
Persecuting the Truth Claims of Christian Victimization Ring Hollow,
By TIM WISE, CounterPunch, November 8, 2003
"There are plenty of things that school children have to worry about, and being punished for expressing their religiosity is simply not among them, especially if they are in the majority, that is to say, Christian. On the other hand, to be of another faith, or purely secular is to invite regular abuse from peers and authority figures alike. Don't believe me? Well then, you can go to hell. Now tell me, how did that feel? Probably not very good, right? Well keep reading, and try and put aside how offended you may be, and should be, at the above epithet hurled your way so as to make a point, for indeed there is a point to be made here. You see, when a person says "Go to hell," as I just did, we all recognize it as a personal attack, a slur of sorts, an ad hominem invective that is wholly inappropriate to rational discourse. It is not a comment that invites discussion or debate, rather it shuts down both. It is a period at the end of the sentence, not a comma or colon leading to something more prosaic. Now try this one on for size: You are going to hell. A little more abstract, a few extra letters on the end of the word go, and stated as opinion rather than exclamation, but overall pretty similar. And to some of us, every bit as offensive. Yet "you are going to hell" is what many of us hear day in and day out, from the time we are children, if we fail to adhere to the "one true faith" proclaimed by the likes of William Boykin and most every evangelical Christian in the United States. To we who are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu, Sufi, Sikh, some combination of these or of no faith tradition at all, being told that we are going to hell is no different than being commanded to go to said place in a moment of anger. In fact, the former is more offensive than the latter precisely because it comes from a place of judgment, it involves casting aspersions not just upon our persons (which is also implicit in telling someone to go to hell) but our souls. It is to say that we are less than whole, less than precious in the eyes of the Creator of the Universe. It is to say, in short, that we are inferior peoples. And it is something that no Christian has ever been told by a single one of our number, so no, they cannot possibly relate. Christians may think they are persecuted because the law won't allow them to read Christian prayers over the school intercom, or because they can't plop a giant monument of the Ten Commandments down in a public building, but trust me, that is not persecution. It is not persecution to be given a failing grade when your class paper on Jesus as an historical figure uses only one source, the Bible, as a reference, as happened to one student a few years ago. Such a paper deserves an F, and the student who thinks a few lines from John or Matthew constitute an acceptable bibliography should put down scripture, pick up a dictionary and look up the meaning of the term research. It is not persecution to be told that you can't send a stack of Christian comic books to your son serving in the Middle East, as happened to one family recently, and as Limbaugh laments in his book ... It is not persecution when schools, seeking to be more inclusive of non-majority students, change the annual Christmas pageant or celebration to a generic holiday celebration. It may be silly, it may or may not be Constitutionally-required, but it is certainly not a form of anti-Christian repression. Persecution is having a teacher tell you that the faith of your family is illegitimate and that you are going to spend eternity in a lake of fire surrounded by demons, and being told that all of your family who have died heretofore are already there preparing a space for you. Been there, done that. Persecution is being corralled into an assembly in your public school and being forced to listen to a proselytizing representative of a Christian youth group call the students to proclaim their devotion to Jesus, and to imply that those who won't do so are lost souls. Been there, done that. Persecution is writing an eighth grade term paper in that same public school, in which you examine both sides of the school prayer issue evenhandedly, but are graded down because the title you chose, "Our Father Who Art in Homeroom?" is deemed sacrilegious by your fundamentalist teacher. Been there, done that."

[Who is responsible for this? Who, in Simpson's last sentence, is "they?"]
Christmas is just about gone!,
by Barbara Simpson, World Net Daily, November 10, 2003
"Then there's Christmas. Oh. Sorry. Not now. Now it's the holiday season. There's Santa, maybe. A decorated tree. Yes. Stockings? Yes. Gifts? Of course, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Well, not really, but you'd never know. In the public square you won't see anything concerning the true meaning of Christmas. No crosses, creche, Jesus, holy family, wise men, Bible or God. Religion has been stripped from the public face of Christmas – despite the fact that it and Thanksgiving are national holidays, the religious origins have all but been wiped out in public. In schools, children are not taught the truth of the holidays. In addition, there are no Christmas vacations, Christmas carols, Christmas pageants or displays. Everything is generic and non-religious. The supreme irony is that virtually all decorations sold are made in atheistic Communist China, likely by slave labor. The hypocrisy is clear when the "made in China" label is on nativity figures and angels. Then, there's multiculturalism. The media do special features on Ramadan and Kwanzaa and, sometimes, even Hanukkah if they want to appear ecumenical. We will be "educated" up the wazoo on these ceremonies, but you'd be hard pressed to find any mention of Gospel readings of the birth of Jesus, who He was, midnight mass or the meaning of it all. And now, we have to deal with the ABC-TV network news airing a one-hour special on a fictional theory of Jesus being married. Do you think they'd have the courage to do a one-hour special about the sex life of Muhammad? Like the drip of water wearing away rock, it's clearer than ever that the religious foundation of this country is clearly, and with intent, being subverted. We know what happens to a structure when its foundation is destroyed. That's what they want. We're too close for comfort."

[Jews hate Christianity. This attitude is as old as Christianity itself which was, from the start, considered by Jews to be a blasphemer's religion. The disestablishment of Christianity in the public sphere (and its presumed innate "anti-Semitism") has been a key to American Jewish political activism. And, of course, New York is the heart of American Jewry. The subtext of this article is that there is a legal war going on against Jewish censorial totalitarianism. Jews have been at the heart of the creation of "political correctness," which enormously benefits Judeocentrism and the political creed of Zionism. This is all part of a vast dual moral standard that favors Jews throughout popular culture.]
Birth of Jesus Denied By New York School System to Justify Ban on Christmas Nativity Displays,
Thomas Moore Law Cener, November 11, 2003
"The historical fact of the birth of Jesus was denied by the New York School system in pleadings filed with a federal court to justify their total ban on Christmas Nativity displays in New York’s public schools. New York’s legal briefs disputed the claim that the Nativity scene depicts a historical event, and that this event is the basis for the celebration of Christmas. At issue in the federal lawsuit filed last year by the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is New York’s policy on religious displays, which prohibits public school displays of Christmas Nativity scenes, while at the same time encouraging the display of the Jewish Menorah and the Islamic star and crescent during their respective holidays. Federal Judge Sifton will hear oral arguments this week on the Law Center’s motion to temporarily restrain the City from enforcing its ban on Nativity scenes. Pursuant to the policy, City schools display the Jewish Menorah and the Islamic star and crescent during Hanukkah and Ramadan, but not the Nativity scene during Christmas. One public school principal issued a memo encouraging teachers to bring to school “religious symbols” that represent the Islamic and Jewish religions. No mention of Christianity was made in this memo. At times, teachers would have students make the Jewish Menorahs that would often adorn the halls of the schools as part of the “authorized” displays. However, the students were not allowed to make and similarly display Nativity scenes. When a parent wrote to her son’s teacher to complain about this, the teacher responded by sending the parent a copy of the school’s “Holiday Displays” policy. The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of Andrea Skoros and her two children, who are both elementary school students in the New York City schools, against the City of New York and several school officials. Ms. Skoros and her children are devout Roman Catholics. Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling the case observed, “This case will decide whether public school officials can enforce a policy that shows preference for Judaism and Islam, but disfavors Christianity. Can Christianity be erased from a public school? Can “Christ” be removed from Christmas? We will soon find out.” According to the Law Center’s motion, New York’s policy promotes the Jewish and Islamic faiths while conveying the impermissible message of disapproval of Christianity in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The hearing on the motion is scheduled for Thursday, November 13, 2003, in the federal court in Brooklyn. In December 2001 and again in 2002, Catholic League president William Donohue attempted to get school officials to change their discriminatory policy, with no success. School officials dismissed requests to display the Nativity scene and instead would only allow Christmas trees, erroneously claiming that Supreme Court precedent prohibited them from including the Nativity scene as part of their holiday displays. Remarkably, schools officials permit the display of the Jewish Menorah and Islamic star and crescent, claiming that these are “secular” symbols."

[In-house problems for the Anti-Defamation League's hatred of Christianity, from an unlikley quarter. Jewish Communal Question: Should the ADL continue to nakedly assault and trample Christianity to raise more money from Jews fearful of growing "anti-Semitism?" Look carefully. The Anti-Defamation League is the modern Jewish community in microscosm: it is in the business of CREATING "anti-Semitism." Jews don't risk embarassment over their hysteria about the Mel Gibson movie. They risk being exposed as frauds and the entire accusation of "anti-Semitism" being revealed as a tool of manipulation and exploitation.]
ADL Interfaith Official Quits, Stance on Film Questioned,
By NACHA CATTAN, FORWARD,Novmeber 14, 2003
"A leading critic of Mel Gibson's controversial film about the death of Jesus has resigned from his post at the Anti-Defamation League. Eugene Korn, the ADL's director of interfaith affairs, told the Forward that his resignation last week represented a "mutual decision" resulting from his need for "a more reflective and contemplative environment." Korn's departure has some Jewish communal observers suggesting that a more diplomatic approach is needed in dealing with Gibson's upcoming film, "The Passion of Christ." Though the organization's strong rebuke of Gibson and his film was hailed by officials at several Jewish organizations, it has been criticized as counterproductive by an increasing number of communal experts. "We have to ask questions in the Jewish community about the approach taken to this film," said Elan Steinberg, the senior adviser to the World Jewish Congress. "Have we really examined the question of whether bringing greater publicity to the film, broad charges of antisemitism and perhaps disenchanting those who are our allies in many struggles should be done in such a cavalier way?" Some sources familiar with the situation say that Korn was uncomfortable with the aggressive style of the ADL's longtime national director, Abraham Foxman, on several interfaith issues, including the Gibson movie. Korn, who has been at the ADL for less than two years, declined to comment on the dynamic between himself and the group's charismatic leader, though he acknowledged a "difference in style" between himself and the ADL. He did, however, insist that he agreed with the organization's handling of "The Passion." "Personally I think the strategy is correct," Korn said. "I was one of the leaders of the strategy." The ADL did not return calls seeking comment. Some critics argued that the ADL strategy might be backfiring. "I'm not sure if we're not playing into [Gibson's] hands," said Gilbert Rosenthal, director of the National Council of Synagogues, a partnership run by the Reform and Conservative movements dedicated to interfaith dialogue. "He said he's got millions of dollars in free publicity. I'd like to see statements from the Christian community on this." At the Reform movement's biennial convention in Minneapolis last week, Hebrew Union College professor Rabbi Michael Cook warned that the Jewish community needed to abandon the strategy of loudly criticizing the movie or risk embarrassment when it hits theaters. According to Cook, who served on an interfaith panel of scholars co-convened by the ADL that drafted a critical assessment of a screenplay for the movie, Gibson is in the process of altering the film, and it will be less offensive than many have been predicting. Instead of acknowledging the degree to which he responded to his Jewish critics, Cook said, Gibson will point a derisive finger, asking what all the shouting was about. These are just the latest statements from a growing list of critics who claim that defense organizations, including the ADL, are mistakenly attempting to discredit and strong-arm Gibson. Other critics include Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president and founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews; Michael Medved, a conservative film critic and Orthodox Jew; and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, a conservative group dedicated to forging better relations between Jews and Christians. The ADL, and to a lesser extent the Simon Wiesenthal Center, have been at the forefront of the battle against Gibson's film, which they say blames Jews for the death of Jesus and could stoke antisemitism."

[The continued Jewish savaging of Christmas. The Weinstein brothers own Miramax. Michael Eisner, the head of Disney, is of course also Jewish.]
DISNEY'S NEW SANTA: DRINKS, ROBS, SWEARS AND HAS SEX,
Drudge Report, November 16, 2003
"Top DISNEY executives continue to grow more and more disillusioned by subsidiary studio MIRAMAX, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, this time over a controversial interpretation of a post-modern Santa Claus! Just weeks after releasing Quentin Tarantino's shock-samuri-slasher KILL BILL, the DISNEY family will distribute a twisted update of Miracle On 34th Street, BAD SANTA, featuring Santa Claus as you've never seen him before! MORE Santa Claus, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is shown, drinking, sexing and robbing his way through the holidays. One shock scene from the movie, set for release Thanksgiving week: Santa says to a barmaid: "I'm an eating, drinking, f**king Santa Claus!" "Prove it!" answers the barmaid. Cut to barmaid having sex with Santa in his car outside of the bar: "F**k me, Santa! F**k me, Santa!" MORE The film, recently previewed by DISNEY executives, has caused complete outrage, studio sources tell DRUDGE. "Nothing appears sacred, anymore, this is just not in the spirit of Walt Disney," a top source close to DISNEY Chief Executive Michael Eisner said this weekend from Los Angeles. Of serious concern: Santa is repeatedly shown on film, in uniform, cursing in front of children. One scene features a child at a shopping mall asking, "You are really Santa, right?" Santa responds: "No, I'm an accountant. I wear this as a f**king fashion statement!" Santa yells at the kid, several times: "Got-dammit! Are you f**ing with me?" Elsewhere, Santa Claus is shown picking up a young girl, again while in uniform, and proceeds to have sex with her in a dressing room of a plus-size clothing store at the mall! John Ritter, the store boss, eavesdropping on noise in a dressing room, "Yeah baby, yeah baby, you're not going to s**t right for a week!" Bernie Mac: "Sure, Santa f**ing someone in the ass." Santa: "I beat the s**t out of some kids today, but it was for a purpose." In the end, this new Hollywood Santa Claus tries to redeem himself.... but whether or not DISNEY believes MIRAMAX can, is yet to be seen.... "

[Michael Newdow is Jewish. Jews here strategize about the best way to keep Christianity out of the public sphere.]
Jewish Organizations Split Over Pledge Case Strategy,
By NACHA CATTAN, FORWARD, November 14, 2003
"As the legal battle against the Pledge of Allegiance heads to the Supreme Court, Jewish civil rights groups are divided in their response to the controversial case. The American Jewish Congress is planning to challenge a recent appeals court ruling that the pledge is unconstitutional. The Anti-Defamation League, on the other hand, in a reversal of its past position, has decided to protest policies that require public-school teachers to lead recitations of the pledge. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by California atheist Michael Newdow, who challenged the recitation of the words "under God" in the pledge at his daughter's public school. Both the ADL and AJCongress plan to file amicus briefs with the Supreme Court in support of their respective positions. At issue is a difference of approach over how best to achieve the same goal of church-state separation, Jewish communal officials say. While the ADL is taking on the pledge in the classroom, AJCongress worries that a victory for the anti-pledge forces could trigger a backlash in the form of a constitutional amendment that would shatter the wall between religion and government. "What divides us and the ADL is a tactical and perhaps strategic decision of what gains you more in the long run," said the general counsel of AJCongress, Marc Stern. "The risk is you get a constitutional amendment that says nothing in the Constitution bars religious expression in schools." The ADL dismissed such concerns in a memo to its leaders: "The civil rights leadership is well aware that filing this amicus brief will be unpopular. However, that has never been a reason we have chosen to file or not to file an amicus brief on an issue directly affecting our mission." ... "The ADL doesn't have a problem with the words 'under god' in the Pledge of Allegiance," the ADL's national vice chair for civil rights, Martin Karlinsky, told the Forward. "We're dealing with schoolchildren and with role models in schools who are required to lead it. The circumstances are inherently fraught with compulsion or coercion and we feel that's a violation of church-state separation." Karlinksy said that laws prohibiting anyone from being compelled to recite the pledge is not sufficient protection for children, who may feel pressured or alienated by their teachers and classmates. But ADL's position was met with protest by one of its lay leaders, Seymour Reich, the past president of B'nai Brith International: "I don't think reciting the pledge in class is a coercive situation. It's not unlike having an American flag in the classroom."

[Wiesel is a weasel -- a moral fraud who's grown rich off the "Holocaust Industry." The Jewish state IS "terrorism." And this is just another of the countless expressions of Jewish hatred of Christianity. Israel is a moral Hellhole. The Jewish Lobby shits with impunity upon all and everything. Hey, Pope. Kick back. Tell Wiesel he's a Jewish "terrorist." ]
Elie Wiesel criticizes pope's comments on Israel,
Haaretz (Israel), November 18, 2003
"Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel took issue with Pope John Paul II's criticism of a security barrier under construction by Israel, saying in a newspaper interview yesterday that the pontiff's remarks politicize terrorism. Wiesel's comments came after John Paul criticized Israel on Sunday for building a wall between itself and the Palestinian territories. "From the spiritual leader of one of the largest and most important religions in the world, I expected something very different, namely a statement condemning terror and the killing of innocents, without mixing in political considerations and, above all, without comparing these things to a work of pure self-defense," Wiesel told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "To politicize terrorism like that is wrong," Wiesel said. The pontiff, in comments during his Sunday appearance in St. Peter's Square, also condemned recent acts of terrorism. "I also renew my firm condemnation for every terrorist action carried out in these recent times in the Holy Land," John Paul said Sunday. "At the same time, I must note that unfortunately in those places, the dynamism of peace seems to have stopped. The construction of a wall between the Israeli and Palestinian people is seen by many as a new obstacle on the road toward peaceful cohabitation," the pope said. "In reality, the Holy Land doesn't need walls, but bridges." The pope has often condemned terrorism spawned by religious intolerance. He has decried the more than three years of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, although hasn't spoken much about the conflict recently. Israel says it is building the barrier, in some areas deep in the West Bank, to keep out Palestinian militants. The Palestinians fear an Israeli land grab."

[The standard Jewish trashing of the Christmas season:]
“BAD SANTA” BLACKENS DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE IMAGE,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties, November 20, 2003
“Bad Santa,” a movie distributed by the Disney subsidiary Miramax, opens November 26. Louis Giovino, the league’s director of communications, attended a screening of the movie on November 19 in New York; Miramax acceded to the league’s request for an opportunity to preview it. The following commentary, written by Catholic League president William Donohue, is based on Giovino’s report on the film:
“In a word association game, the mere mention of Santa to kids begets comments like ‘kind,’ ‘cheerful,’ and ‘loving.’ But the Santa in ‘Bad Santa’ is anything but: he is a chain-smoking, drunken, foul-mouthed, suicidal, sexual predator. He is shown soiling himself in Santa’s chair, vomiting in alleys, having sex with a woman bartender in a car, and performing anal sex on a huge woman in a dressing room. And his commentary in front of kids is replete with the ‘F-word.’ “This is a movie put out by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, directed by Terry Zwigoff and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. Michael Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, is said to be disturbed by the movie. But we don’t believe him. Miramax has produced a slew of movies that thrash Christianity, and have blackened Disney’s Snow White image. Yet he does nothing about it. While this film is not blasphemous, per se, it is nonetheless offensive. “It says something about our society that some movie reviewers welcome attacks on Christmas. For example, George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says, ‘The trailer shows this as an anti-holiday film and it could be the much-needed antidote to that good-will-to-man feeling that permeates the season.’ Thomas does not say why it is always a Christian holiday that deserves to be bashed, but it is not hard to figure out why. “The movie will be a hit with college drop-outs, toilet-humor buffs and those who think like the Weinstein brothers.”

Christmas for Jews. How Hanukkah became a major holiday,
By David Greenberg, slate.com, Dec. 16, 1998
"The holiday season is upon us. Not the "Christmas season" but the "holiday season"--a euphemism for "Christmas with Hanukkah (and, perhaps, Kwanzaa) thrown in." If you place a tree in the town square, you need a menorah as well. We festoon offices with blue and silver Hanukkah decorations alongside Christmas trimmings, and on the Sesame Street Christmas special, Big Bird wishes Mr. Hooper a Happy Hanukkah. The only meaning of the phrase "Judeo-Christian," it seems, is the fusion of these two otherwise unrelated holidays into one big seasonal spree. The problem, as any rabbi will tell you, is that Hanukkah has traditionally been a minor Jewish festival. It commemorates the successful Israelite revolt in the second century B.C. against their Syrian oppressors, and their refusal to assimilate into the prevailing Hellenistic culture. Specifically, it celebrates the miracle in which, according to lore, a day's worth of oil fueled the candelabra of the Jews' rededicated temple for eight days. Until recently, this observance paled next to the High Holy Days, Passover, even Purim. So how did it become "the Jewish Christmas"? And is this good for the Jews? ... Zionism, which gathered converts in the years before World War II, also boosted Hanukkah's stock. The holiday's emphasis on self-reliance and military strength in the face of persecution dovetailed with the themes of nationalists seeking to establish a Jewish state. The warrior-hero Judah Maccabee, leader of an ancient revolt, morphed into a proto-Zionist pioneer. At first, Zionist organizations used the holiday as an excuse to prod individuals to donate coins to the cause. In later years they packed Madison Square Garden for Hanukkah fund-raising galas, featuring such keynoters as Albert Einstein and New York Gov. Herbert Lehman ... Jews have become more integrated into American life, and Hanukkah has embedded itself in television, office parties, Hallmark stores, Barnes & Nobles, and other leading American cultural institutions. Except among the Orthodox, it has been thoroughly transformed into a major festival. Accordingly, religious leaders lament this development as another instance of the Jews' perilous assimilation--if not into a Christian society then into a secular, commercial one. Yet the recent evolution of Hanukkah represents not a capitulation to the forces of Christmas but an assertion of Jewishness amid a multicultural society. Just as Kwanzaa, created in 1966, has returned many black Americans to their African heritage, so Hanukkah has helped tether Jews to their heritage and in some cases has brought them back to the fold ... In 1998, the adherence to a modest Jewish ritual such as celebrating Hanukkah follows in the tradition of the ancient Israelites, who spurned the pressures to adopt Hellenism. Indeed, in acculturating to America while maintaining a Jewish identity, observers of Hanukkah may well be doing Judah Maccabee proud."

[Again, for the clear record: Redstone and Moonves are both Jewish. Jewish mass media savaging of Christianity is a constant. ]
Outside View: How low can cable go?,
By MARK Q. RHOADS, Interest! Alert (from UPI) November 23, 2003
"Sumner M. Redstone, the chairman and chief executive officer of the media giant Viacom, is not having a good month. True, he and CBS President Les Moonves deserve some credit for pulling a four-hour docudrama about former President Ronald and Nancy Reagan from the broadcast channel after numerous and substantive errors in the historical record were brought to their attention. But this type of entertainment format has been abused in the past and can too easily be manipulated for partisan purposes. Viacom stockholders, whether they are liberal or conservative, should insist upon further serious efforts by corporate officers to ensure adult supervision for entertainment products distributed by their media companies. That effort begins with paying much closer attention to what those companies are doing. Much of what appears on broadcast channels and basic cable stations goes well beyond the pale of acceptability. Two recent episodes of "The Man Show" on Comedy Central are extreme examples of such programming. In one, the cast and crew goes wild as a naked man urinates on audience members in the front row. Yes, this actually appeared on basic cable. A far more, in my opinion, despicable episode aired on Nov. 6, with content so offensive as to approach a slander against the Catholic church. Cast members were dressed up as caricatures of Roman Catholic bishops wearing their formal vestments and Roman Catholic nuns wearing a parody of black clerical garb transformed into nightgowns and lingerie. The bishops were shown mocking the sacraments of Penance and Baptism that 63 million Americans of the Catholic faith believe to be holy and sacred rites. The skit was not funny, it was not art and was not social commentary. In fact, it was not anything but a gratuitous mean-spirited and monstrously offensive attack on one faith to the most vicious degree imaginable. Regardless of their personal beliefs, the vast majority of decent Viacom stockholders should be ashamed to be associated with this travesty in any way whatsoever and I hope they will let senior executives feel their displeasure. Few television producers would have dared to promote a similar skit mocking the religious rites or the ordained clergy of any other faith. But on Comedy Central's "The Man Show," it is open season on the faith of 63 million Americans. To be fair, some of the original programming on Comedy Central is funny rather than offensive, but the producers of this particular Viacom product have no sense of decency at all nor any real sense of humor worthy of the name ... A responsible corporation does not pollute the environment and that should include pollution of the cultural environment in ways that degrade humanity. Viacom has a responsibility to stockholders to seek profits and to promote a return on their investment. But that does not mean Viacom has no responsibility to curb cultural pollution that is distributed on its entertainment channels whether on cable or not. These two goals are not mutually exclusive and the senior executives at Viacom can find a way to improve the company's image if they try. If they succeed, I believe millions of Americans will applaud their efforts and reward their advertisers with better numbers and with brand loyalty. Viacom should start with a public apology to 63 million people of the Roman Catholic faith for their over-the-top slander of Catholics on Comedy Central and promise the public that such incidents will not be repeated."

[So why do Jews hate this so much? A Christian minister sends out a letter looking for Jewish converts, and Jews almost want the Israeli army to intervene. If you don't like it, why not just throw the letter in the trash? No, not enough. Jewish identity is totally neurotic and insecure; it fears losing two members from the Klan to the universalistic "other." The minister, who -- in his world view is offering help to people -- is, in Jewish eyes, a kind of criminal.]
Canadian Jews Angered By Baptist Minister's Mailing,
KSAT.com (from Associated Press), November 20, 2003
"REGINA, Saskatchewan -- A Canadian Jewish group said it's deeply offended by a letter sent to people with Jewish-sounding names by a Baptist minister. The pastor of Bibleway Baptist Church in Regina, Saskatchewan, said he mailed hundreds of letters that begin, "Dear Jewish friend," inviting them to convert to Christianity so they "might get saved." The Rev. William Cicansky said he scoured phone books from Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Vancouver for names, and will probably do so again. Manuel Prutschi of the Canadian Jewish Congress said he respects the right of Christians to try to convert people, but he believes that converting Jews destroys Judaism. He said most mainstream Christian churches stopped trying to convert Jews decades ago."

[This one should be a no-brainer. If you don't want a Jesus burger, don't buy one. But the Jewish Lobby isn't satisfied with that. They don't want you to HAVE THE CHOICE.]
A&W franchise in flap over posting Scripture,
Casper Star Tribune , November 28, 2003
"An A&W Restaurant in the Colorado mountains is putting Scripture on its outdoor sign despite warnings from company attorneys and complaints from area residents. The restaurant held off on posting Bible verse for a few weeks, but franchise owners Reuben and Donna Drebenstedt say they are in a freedom-of-speech fight for the long haul. ''It wasn't very encouraging when the sign just said, ''Open,''' said Reuben Drebenstedt, who is a Jewish Messianic Christian pastor. ''We're not doing it to be obnoxious,'' he said this week. ''Anyone who knows me understands I'm not out to hurt anyone. It's my First Amendment right to post Scripture on our sign.'' On a recent day, the billboard outside the restaurant read: ''Chili cheese fries/onion rings/praise Jesus with thanks giving!/Isaiah 12:2'' Inside, there are leaflets advertising the Messianic Jewish Christian religion, a movement commonly known as ''Jews for Jesus.'' Patrons enter and exit beneath a plaque with Hebrew characters for the word ''HaShem'' or God, and the phrases ''Psalm 1'' and ''Thank You.'' Earlier this year, some people complained to A&W headquarters about the religious overtones at the restaurant. The Anti-Defamation League stepped in, saying Messianic Jewish Christians ''falsely claim that they are interested in Jewish practices when the real goal is to convert Jews to Christianity.'' The ADL asked A&W to make sure the Scripture is no longer posted. A&W All American Food Restaurants are owned by Yum! Brands Inc., which also owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. ''We originally received complaints about the religious messages,'' A&W spokeswoman Virginia Ferguson said. ''We listen to these complaints because we do not want to offend any of our customers. We are hopeful this will be resolved amicably.'' However, Reuben Drebenstedt said any discussions on the issue are between attorneys. ''They call themselves the American food place, then they say we can't advertise to Christians,'' he said. ''We'll continue (posting Scripture) and we'll continue to pay them royalties. We are a high-producing store for them.''

[Jews ARE The Grinch that Stole Christmas. They are the backbone of the "separation of Church and state' wall that creates the destruction of religion and the worship of hedonism and materialism in its vacuum. The ACLU is also famous for its Jewish membership prominence.]
Defending Christmas,
By Emily Louise Zimbrick, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, November 28, 2003
"The December holiday season used to be simple — when Americans could call it Christmas without offending anyone. A 2000 Gallup poll found that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas but that such festivities have become more problematic in recent years. The "December dilemma" over how much religious meaning can be allowed in public acknowledgement of the holiday has turned into an all-out legal battle that pits baby Jesus against an army of elves, reindeer and singing Christmas trees. Misconceptions about the "separation of church and state" complicate the issue, says a nonprofit legal organization that is fighting to keep the Christ in Christmas. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has signed up more than 700 lawyers to defend the public celebration of Christmas this year. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has led the campaign against the holiday, says ADF President Alan Sears. This year, ADF is leading the first national effort to "stand up to ACLU's censorship of Christmas," said Mr. Sears, who served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration before going into private practice. "The ACLU continues in legal terrorism by raging war against 96 percent of Americans who want to celebrate Christmas." The Gallup survey found that 90 percent of Americans are familiar with "the reason of the season" — the Christian faith's commemoration of the birth of Jesus — and three out of four Americans say there is not enough emphasis on the religious basis for the holiday. Yet there is no peace on earth or good will toward men for the Scrooges who say "bah, humbug" to Christmas. In rural Elizabeth, Colo., the Colorado ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have threatened to sue Elbert County Charter School for refusing to cut religious songs from its holiday concert. Bruce DeBoskey, regional director of the ADL, said a Jewish family expressed concern that "religion has taken dominance in the school" and that "the children felt unwelcome and unsafe." Principal Les Gray said the parents objected to "any and all Christian references in the program." "What is absolutely crystal clear is the ACLU has an agenda of radical secularization of all institutions," said Barry Arrington, legal counsel for the school. "Schools should know they don't have to buckle under the bullying of the ACLU."

[Some advice: Abandon Christianity or Islam. Find your own local Jewish psychic to follow. Buy his/her CDs. Get them autographed. Be happy on your leash.]
Psychic Show Chaos,
by Jeanne Viall, All Africa (South Africa), November 26, 2003
"Fundamentalist Christian demonstrators caused chaos at the Baxter Theatre last night as they hurled threats and anti-Semitic abuse at psychic Belinda Silbert. The men said they were from a church in Claremont, and apparently sounded American. The protesters first staged a disruption during the show after telling John Bowey, producer of Cross Over and Connect, that they wanted just to slip in for a while to see if the show was "suitable", as congregants had expressed interest in the show. "I told them it would be better to see the whole show," said Bowey, but they were insistent and he let them in. People in the audience began praying loudly, heckling and disrupting the show, a shaken Silbert said today. Then, at the end of the show three of the Christian protesters started shouting, "She's not your god", "There are only demons here" and "She calls up the dead". "They were screaming at me as I went to sign my CDs, and saying I should accept Christ. "I told them I was Jewish and that set off a stream of hate speech. "They shouted, 'You murdered Jesus' and that's when I said, 'Nobody insults me or my nation.' One was particularly aggressive. "He advanced on me, saying I was the devil incarnate and would burn in hell," Silbert said."

Announcing VDARE.COM’s War Against Christmas 2003 Competition!,
VDare
"Peter Brimelow writes: VDARE.COM officially began with an email barrage to friends on Christmas Eve, 1999. One of our first postings was a leaked memo from Clinton HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo about his department’s “Holiday Party” plans—including “Kwaanza, Native American celebration of the Winter Solstice, Channuka, Ramadan, The 3 Kings”… but no mention of you-know-what. We ran our first War Against Christmas contest, inviting readers to report the most egregious attempt to suppress Christmas, in 200 ... By now, through the miracle of the internet, VDARE.COM has posted a considerable archive on the War Against Christmas. (Click here for 2002, here for 2001, here for 2000). It all helps in crystallizing the consciousness of a culture, and of a country. Just last night, for example, a Russian-speaking reader pointed out that our photograph of the multilingual but Christmas-free Queens Post Office “Holiday Greetings Board” actually did contain a reference to Christmas, cunningly disguised in the Cyrillic alphabet. That picture went up in 2000. But it is still being studied. And its symbolism continues to sink in. Two points need to be born in mind when contemplating this Christmas Kulturkampf. It’s OFFENSIVE. Tom Fleming, the ferocious editor of Chronicles Magazine, put it best it in his powerful article “Taking the Kwannukah Out Of Christmas” (December 22, 2000), when he denounced “the insulting and Christophobic ‘Happy Holiday.’” That’s the point. “Happy Holidays” is Christophobic. It insinuates that the religion that founded America is unfit to be mentioned - even allusively, even though Christianity pervades the English language. It’s unstable. The celebration of Christmas has evolved over the years. It was suppressed in Cromwell’s England, but returned. Our archive indicates gathering resistance. Christmas will return again. Christianity is the religion, not just of the Nativity, but of the Resurrection. Please send entries, with “Christmas Competition” in the message line, to witan@vdare.com."

[Jews hate Christmas. And want to crucify it. THAT is what is "constitutionally permissible."]
ADL Offers Schools Guidance for Negotiating the 'December Dilemma',
U.S. Newswire, December 2, 2003
"Every December schools and teachers are confronted with the question of how to approach the holidays without favoring one religious faith over another or making some students feel uncomfortable because their religious background is different from others. To help negotiate the "December Dilemma", the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has provided public schools and public institutions nationwide with materials and information on how to keep public recognition of the December holidays constitutionally permissible. "By offering guidance and providing information we aim to help schools and community leaders navigate through the intricacies of handling the December holidays in a constitutionally appropriate manner," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director ... "Schools must be careful not to cross the line between teaching about religious holidays (which is permitted)," the letter sates, "and celebrating religious holidays (which is not)." Some of the matters highlighted and explained in detail by ADL include: -- The difference between practicing religion and teaching about religion -- Guidelines for holiday assemblies, concerts and other public school activities where religious themes or music may be performed -- Choosing appropriate holiday symbols to decorate school grounds -- Choosing appropriate holiday activities The League will also place special emphasis on classroom and educational issues surrounding the "December Dilemma" at its Web site http://www.adl.org/church-state. Among the many resources are non-religious materials and activities for the classroom, a detailed question-and-answer page and a printable graphic of acceptable public displays during the holidays."

[The "crime of the 21st century" is (disguised) racist, ethnocentric, pro-Israel propaganda fronts like the Simon Wiesenthal Center framing itself a moral enterprise. We need a lobbying campaign to wrench Rabbi Marvin Hier off his Judeocentric throne to condemn Israel for its many, many crimes "against humanity."]
Jewish group asks pope to lead anti-bomber campaign,
Haaretz (Israel), December 2, 2003
"A Jewish human rights group met yesterday with Pope John Paul II, launching a campaign to urge the international community to treat suicide bombing as a "crime against humanity." Calling suicide bombing "the crime of the 21st century," delegation members from the Simon Wiesenthal Center said they will begin lobbying governments for a UN resolution so that those who plan the bombings can be brought to justice. "The world turns to you, Your Holiness, to declare such acts as both crimes against God and crimes against humanity," the center's founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said in a speech to the pope. In brief remarks released by the Vatican, John Paul said, "In these difficult times let us pray that all peoples everywhere will be strengthened in their commitment to mutual understanding, reconciliation and peace." The pope did not mention the group's proposal, but Hier later told reporters: "I believe he will take it into consideration." He said the delegation sought the pope's support because of his role as a "moral force" in the world. Hier said that the use of suicide bombing, a tactic used by Palestinian militants against Israel, has now spread, cutting across national and religious lines. He noted that recent suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Iraq have killed Muslims. In his speech to the pope, Hier also raised the problem of the "proliferation" of anti-Semitism in Europe and the world, calling it a "malignancy that must be challenged."

PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL RESTORES NATIVITY SCENE,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, December 19, 2003
"Yesterday, the Catholic League issued a news release regarding the decision of Simmons Elementary School Principal Karen Davis to remove a nativity scene from the school. Parents had put the nativity scene in the suburban Philadelphia school, but Davis had it removed because she said it was promoting Christianity. However, she allowed a Jewish religious symbol to remain in the school, namely the menorah. This inspired Catholic League president Dr. William A. Donohue to contact Dr. William A. Lessa, Superintendent of Schools for the Hatboro-Horsham School District. Donohue said that unless Lessa reversed Davis’ decision, there would be a lawsuit. Dr. Lessa ordered the nativity scene to be restored last night. “To even begin to imply that the acknowledgment of a nativity is inappropriate doesn’t sound right to me,” he said. He said he would revisit the whole question of religious symbols in the school after the holidays. Catholic League president William Donohue was pleased: “Dr. Lessa did the right thing by putting back the nativity scene. He could have chosen to take out the menorah and thereby relieve the Catholic League’s objection that Simmons Elementary was guilty of religious discrimination. But instead he chose to put a Christian religious symbol alongside a Jewish religious symbol. In short, he prefers, as do we, to practice government neutrality by being tolerant. “What Dr. Lessa did is in sharp contrast to what left-wing religious bigots do: they prefer to show their neutrality by banning all religious symbols from the schools. And in doing so they do what comes natural to them—they practice intolerance. “The Catholic League takes no great joy in threatening lawsuits at Christmastime. But what we like less is to tolerate cultural pogroms every December.”

[Joseph E. Meyer III, also Jewish? We have a civil system that refuses "taxpayer subsidy of religious indoctrination" but endorses taxpayer subsidy of Judeocentrism and its Jews -Are-Victims "indoctrination" on all fronts, Jewish-inspired atheism and materialism, and the brutal state of Israel. Israel alone costs U.S. taxpayers over $3 billion a year.]
American Jewish Committee Applauds Colorado Court Decision on Vouchers,
U.S. Newswire, December 3, 2003
"The American Jewish Committee today applauded a Colorado court decision striking down the state's school voucher program. Judge Joseph E. Meyer III ruled that the voucher program violates the Colorado Constitution, which requires that local communities have control over the instruction provided in the schools they fund. By directing local school districts to provide funds with which students may attend private and parochial schools, Judge Meyer found that the program unconstitutionally "stripp(ed) all discretion from the local district." AJC had joined with a coalition of civil liberties and public education groups, including People for the American Way, the Colorado Education Association, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, in filing a brief challenging the legality of the school voucher program, known as the Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program. AJC also has asserted that the voucher program was unconstitutional because it amounted to a taxpayer subsidy of religious indoctrination."

[The Grinch Who Stole Christmas IS, WAS, and WILL BE the Jewish community, like a crazed attack dog. Jewish censorship of the Christmas season and assault on Christianity is everywhere. As 2.5% of the American population, Jewish ideology proclaims a form of "minority rights" wherein all must bend to their censorial will. Don't like Christmas? And you literally HATE "Jingle Bells?" Why not move to Israel where Jews are totally FREE in that great DEMOCRACY to run around with Jewish flags of all description sticking out of every public orifice to the detriment of ALL other ethnicities and religions and Jewish totalitarianism IS THE RULE OF THE LAND.]
School carol beef interests ACLU, religious group. Elbert holiday show irks Jewish couple,
By J. Sebastian Sinisi, Denver Post, November 24, 2003
"The Elbert County Charter School's Christmas program will go on, despite a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union asking the school to "take immediate steps to comply with the constitutional separation of church and state." A Nov. 10 letter from the Anti- Defamation League and the ACLU to Elbert Charter principal Les Gray charged that a pro-Christian climate at the school causes Jewish students to "no longer feel safe or welcome there." On Oct. 29, parents Alex and Sydney Rubin demanded that Gray take all the traditional Christmas songs - including secular songs such as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Jingle Bells" - out of the upcoming holiday program, according to Denver attorney Barry Arrington. Arrington works with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which has taken an interest in the case. The 10-year-old alliance deals with "the legal battle for religious liberty and traditional family values," according to a press release. Advertisement When Gray refused to change the program, the Rubins withdrew their two daughters from the school, which is attended by 327 students from kindergarten through eighth grade ... Arrington said the ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League are trying to bully the school into "censoring Christmas." He also charged both groups with having an "anti-religion agenda." The groups deny that. "To say we're anti-religion is so counter to what the ACLU and ADL stand for that it's ridiculous," said Bruce DeBoski, regional director for the Mountain States office of the Anti-Defamation League in Denver ... Arrington said the Rubins wanted the holiday program, scheduled for Dec. 11, to be inclusive. "I'm disturbed by the allegation that their children didn't feel safe, because it carries a veiled threat of anti-Semitism in the school," he said. The Christmas program, to be presented in the Elizabeth Middle School auditorium, will include at least two Hanukkah songs in a mix of about a dozen secular Christmas songs of the "Rudolf" and "Jingle Bells" variety, Gray said, along with six traditional religious carols. "The parents are nice people and I respect their decision," said Gray. "My beef is with big groups that throw their weight around and step on other peoples' constitutional rights."

[Where does this persecution come from? Guess who?]
Outlawing Christmas and other trends,
By ERIC LAGESON, Pahrump Valley Times (Nevada), December 8, 2003
"Merry Christmas. Teachers in California can't say these words. It is illegal. The same for singing Christmas carols and displaying nativity scenes. In essence, Christmas is being outlawed in our closest neighboring state. The ACLU, atheists and others are intent on kicking God out of all public life. I'm sure you'll remember the Ten Commandments being removed from a courthouse entrance earlier this year. What is the intent of these God haters? Examine the communist leaders of the former Soviet Union. They saw God and religion as a real threat. To them, the state must transform into a God. At life's end whom will you answer to? This socialist dogma has been infiltrating the U.S. school system for some time. In 1963, prayer was outlawed. The theory of evolution replaces creationism. Bibles cannot be brought into the classroom. Any type of Biblical message or literature has been banned. Bible clubs are harassed, persecuted or, in some cases, not allowed. Much has been made of the phrase "the separation of church and state." These words are not in the U.S. Constitution. No such provision exists. What the First Amendment says, in regards to religion, is: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The meaning is obvious. There is no Church of America as there is a Church of England. The founding fathers didn't want our government to be oppressed by any nationwide established religion. The important point to remember is the First Amendment is about freedom of religion, not about its destruction. The phrase "free exercise" is clearly understood. You, as an American, have the right to practice your religious beliefs. Where is it written that you can't worship God wherever you want? Why are public buildings exempt? The idiots intent on erasing God from our culture prey on ignorance. Many know what the First Amendment says and ignore or revise it. That's what's happening in California and what may happen in other states, including your own. The government, much like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, can be very good or very bad. Nevada is not immune from religious persecution. The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) is thinking of outlawing curbside memorials, especially where crosses mark the area of a driver's death. Why? Because some atheists (or non-Christians) are offended. If one is offended, punish everybody. Already a memorial was removed near Carson City. I'd hardly call putting a cross where somebody died as establishing a nationwide religion. The critics claim it's the "people's property." (I've given up on the fact that the government and the people are not the same thing anymore.) If it is the people's property, why can't the people use it? If the land on the side of the highway is being unused, what does it hurt to place a cross there? Why would the anti-God crowd go so far out of their way to make sure every religious symbol is banned? Curbside memorials have been banned in three states: Colorado, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Will Nevada be the fourth?"

Graham regrets Jewish slur. Billy Graham has "spent his life building bridges",
BBC (UK), March 2, 2002
"The Reverend Billy Graham has apologised for a taped conversation with former President Nixon in which he said the Jewish "stranglehold" of the media was ruining the United States and must be broken. ["This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain" -- Billy Graham to Richard Nixon] The remarks came in 500 hours of tapes Nixon had secretly recorded during the first six months of 1972 which have now been released by the US National Archives. "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon some 30 years ago," Mr Graham said in a statement released by his Texas public relations firm. Nixon had hundreds of conversations taped. "They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologise for any offence caused by the remarks," he said, adding that he had spent his life building bridges between Jews and Christians. In the taped conversation, Mr Graham said the Jewish "stranglehold" on the media "has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain". "You believe that?" Nixon replies. "Yes, sir." "Oh boy. So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it," Nixon says. "If you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something," Mr Graham replies. A lot of Jews are great friends of mine, but they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country." Later in the conversation, when Nixon raises the subject of Jewish influence in Hollywood, Mr Graham says: "A lot of Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me, because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth, but they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them." Nixon, who became friends with Mr Graham in the 1950s during his time as vice president in the Eisenhower administration, then advises: "You must not let them know."

Woman sues Jews for Jesus for wrongly claiming she converted,
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) December 12, 2003
"A Delray Beach woman sued the religious movement Jews for Jesus, claiming its members fraudulently reported that she converted to the organization's beliefs. Edith Rapp says her stepson Bruce Rapp wrote in a 2002 Jews for Jesus newsletter that he watched while she tearfully and spontaneously converted to the movement at her husband's bedside. She said the account is "completely fictitious" and invented to bolster Bruce Rapp's credentials among Jews for Jesus. "She is humiliated, shocked, appalled," said her attorney, Barry Silver. The suit was filed Thursday. Bruce Rapp said Thursday from the organization's office in New York that he was shocked that his stepmother was upset by the article. He said he's called and left several messages to set things right. Edith Rapp said she had not heard from her stepson. The suit comes as the organization begins a two-week campaign in Palm Beach County seeking to inform Jews of its belief about the divinity of Jesus Christ. A spokeswoman for Jews for Jesus international office in San Francisco said the lawsuit follows a "threatening letter" from Silver. The letter, received last week, demanded $1 million and an apology, spokeswoman Susan Perlman said. Since Monday, volunteers and staff of Jews for Jesus have been distributing gospel tracts, knocking door-to-door and calling residents. To counter, the American Jewish Committee's Palm Beach County Chapter is teaming with two synagogues and other Jewish organizations to present two programs on their opposition to Jews for Jesus.""

[Rich Palm Beach, like rich Beverly Hills, has a huge Jewish population. Jews "discriminate" on behalf of Judeocentrism when possible, as a fundamental root of Jewish identity.]
Exclusive Palm Beach, Florida Sued in Federal Court for Discrimination; Allows Jewish Menorahs, but Not Christian Nativity,
U.S. Newswire, December 15, 2003
"Refusal by the exclusive Town of Palm Beach, Florida to allow the display of Christian Nativity scenes even though they allow the Jewish Menorah to be displayed on public property has prompted a federal lawsuit by two of its residents against the Town and its officials. The lawsuit was brought by the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on behalf of Maureen Donnell and Fern deNarvaez. Donnell and deNarvaez, both residents of Palm Beach, seek an immediate temporary restraining order that would allow a nativity scene to be erected on Town property in the same manner as the two Menorah displays. The lawsuit filed Monday morning alleges that for the past two years the Town of Palm Beach has permitted the public display of Jewish Menorahs at various prominent public locations, and that Town officials have repeatedly refused to review requests to have Christian Nativity scenes displayed alongside the Menorahs. This policy and practice, the suit alleges, demonstrates hostility toward Christians, and impermissibly conveys the message of disapproval of the Christian faith. The suit also alleges that the Town has unconstitutionally deprived the plaintiffs of their right to freedom of speech and equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Constitution. As early as September of this year, Palm Beach resident Fern deNarvaez requested that the Town permit a privately financed display of a Christian Nativity scene to be displayed with the Menorahs. In addition, resident Maureen Donnell made four subsequent requests in October and November, finally requesting that the Town respond by December 1st. Town officials did not respond to these requests. In a statement issued Monday morning Donnell indicated, "It is not our intention to remove the Menorahs, but to have a Christmas Nativity scene equally displayed alongside the Menorahs to acknowledge the celebration of Christmas. The refusal to review my repeated requests is discriminatory and an insult to every Christian in this town." Plaintiff deNarvaez was equally disturbed by the Town's inaction. "The Nativity scene represents the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated by Christians around the world. I simply cannot accept this double standard being applied to the Christmas holiday." Richard Thompson, Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center that filed the lawsuit commented, "By refusing to respond to the repeated requests of its residents, the Town of Palm Beach has demonstrated a hostility towards Christianity during one of its holiest seasons. Christian residents of Palm Beach are being denied the right to express their religious message in a public forum that is open to other religious faiths, and the Thomas More Law Center has filed this lawsuit to stop this injustice. This is but another example of the national movement to remove Christ from Christmas." The Law Center filed a similar lawsuit last year against the New York City public school system whose written policy permits students to display the Jewish Menorah, and the Islamic Star and Crescent, but prohibits students from displaying Christmas Nativity scenes. A ruling on that case is expected soon ... You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at 734-827-2001 or visit our website at http://www.thomasmore.org."

[The day is coming when Bethlehem will be a Jewish garbage dump and no one will care. Who cares even now about Bethlehem's Arab Christians? No one. All that matters worldwide is kissing Jewish Butt and squirming into good graces before them. Jews kill Christmas everywhere.]
Bethlehem's lost Christmas,
by Ross Dunn, Scotland on Sunday, December 20, 2003
"Bethlehem’s mayor says this will be the town’s worst ever Christmas. ... Others have not been so strong and Zakaria has seen many of his fellow Christians move abroad. "The situation is bad," he said. "There are a lot of people leaving. For me and my family, I can’t leave. It means a lot for us that Jesus is born in Bethlehem. We are a witness to Jesus, we who are living here. It is my home." His house is only yards away from the Church of the Nativity, built over the spot which tradition holds is where Jesus was born. But although it is one of the most revered sites in Christianity, the sanctuary itself has not been immune from the conflict. The shrine came under siege last year after Palestinian militants shot their way into the church in an attempt to escape arrest from Israeli soldiers. The stand-off lasted for months and the troops only left the town’s centre, known as Manger Square, after negotiations resulted in the wanted Palestinians being deported from the area. Since the start of the intifada, there have been at least six Israeli military incursions into Bethlehem, which the town’s mayor, Hanna Nasser, calls "invasions". He said these raids by the Israeli military and closures of the West Bank has cost more than £3.5m in damage to private and public property. And tourism, the main source of revenue, is, in his words, "dead". ‘I closed the factory for six months. There was no work, no nothing’ As a result he says unemployment has soared to 65% and per capita annual income has dropped from £1,358 in 2000 to less than £266. He estimates that more than 60% of the town’s residents are living in poverty. Nasser cannot recall a worse Christmas, adding that there will be no real organised festivities because there is no budget. In past years, the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, had supplied the town with more than £50,000 for celebrations. But this year Arafat had told him there were no funds and the town would have to draw on its own resources or donations. The most Bethlehem can afford is less than £6,000, and Nasser emphasised that anyone expecting to see a big party on Christmas Eve would be disappointed. Outside the mayor’s office, unemployed tourist guides wander through Manger Square, while businesses prepare for Christmas. Some local shops have put up small Christmas trees and a few decorations to lift their spirits for the festive season. But they do this with extremely low expectations. Adding to the gloom is more evidence of a dwindling Christian presence in the town. The exodus of Christians began with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and eventually Muslims became the dominant religious group in Bethlehem. More Christians have also left the area because of the recent violence. Nasser said: "We started to lose our demography, and we are no more the majority. Now we are only 35% out of 28,000 inhabitants in the city. During the last year, some 1,500 left because they have no jobs, because they could not survive anymore. It’s a big mess for us." He said that only a political breakthrough could reverse the process. Tabash agreed: "Things will only improve if things settle down politically, otherwise people will be afraid to travel to this part of the world." But they must come, he said, in order to help the local Christian community survive. His well-stocked souvenir store serves as a symbol of the remaining Christians who stand their ground. From the front door, Tabash can see the Israeli military checkpoint, where soldiers are checking cars and pedestrians at the entrance to the town."

A very Jewish Christmas,
by Rebecca Huval, Boca Raton News, December 24, 2003
"The public world is dead on December 25th. Stores are closed, most restaurants are closed, and roughly 83 percent of Americans are busy opening presents. So where do all the Jewish people go? “I spend time with my friends and take part in their holiday traditions,” said Joanna Shaw, 19. “A lot of Jewish people eat Chinese food because Chinese people don’t celebrate Christmas,” said Shaw. ... Judaism 101, a website at www.jewfaq.org, gives a list of suggested Christmas activities for Jews. The website reports, “Jews in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas go to Atlantic City, where the casinos never close, and the hotels are very inexpensive. The casinos are practically empty on Christmas, except for Jews, Indians and Asians.” “Erev Christmas,” by an anonymous author, captures a Jew’s Christmas experience. “Twas the night before Christmas, and we, being Jews, My girlfriend and me – we had nothing to do. And while all I could do was sit there and brood, My girl saved the night and called out ‘CHINESE FOOD!’”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Politics Seen in Bethlehem Christmas Scene,
by Mark Lavie, My Way News, Dec 24, 2003
"Banners declaring "No land, No future, No Christmas trees" hung alongside a meager display of holiday lights and streamers Wednesday in Bethlehem's Manger Square, where misery from three years of violence forced politics onto the Christmas Eve scene. Like most Palestinian towns and cities, Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, has been battered by three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, leaving behind destroyed, pockmarked buildings and a battle-scarred population ... Bethlehem residents complained that with the hardships brought about by the violence and Israeli military measures, there was little to celebrate. Signs of these troubles were everywhere. Banners calling for Israel to stop building a West Bank barrier were prominent. The structure, meant to keep Palestinian attackers out of Israel, dips deep into the West Bank. Palestinians strongly oppose the barrier, saying it is an illegal seizure of land they claim for a state. The barrier - a series of concrete walls, trenches, razor wire and fences - would divide parts of Bethlehem and separate the town from nearby Jerusalem, leaving thousands bitter and angry ... The town's economy, heavily dependent on tourism, has collapsed. Workshops are closed, unemployment is high, income has dropped dramatically and poverty is becoming the norm. More concerned with present problems than biblical reminiscence, Bethlehem residents allowed Israel's security barrier to become the unofficial theme of this year's celebrations. "Don't convert Bethlehem into a ghetto" and "The wall strangles the birthplace of Jesus" read banners overlooking Manger Square. A group of Palestinians carried signs against the barrier the length of Manger Square. Christmas "gives us an opportunity to tell the world, 'we are suffering, please help us to stop this wall,'" said Hazem Azza, 24, a university student. Other political issues were also visible. Hours before procession, relatives of 26 Palestinian gunmen who were expelled after holing up in the church during a monthlong standoff with Israeli forces in May 2002 gathered to demand the return of their loved ones. A child with a Santa Claus cap held a picture of her father and a Palestinian flag. Khalil Abu Nijme, 38, whose brother Khaled was banished to Italy, sat in front of the church as Christmas carols blared over loudspeakers."

GOV. PATAKI PARDONS LENNY BRUCE,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties, December 23, 2003
"Catholic League president William Donohue reacted today to news that New York State Governor George Pataki has posthumously pardoned New York comedian Lenny Bruce: “Lenny Bruce was a talented comedian who knew how to push the envelope. His opposition to racism was commendable, and he certainly knew how to make good copy satirizing white racists. But he was also a notorious anti-Catholic bigot. When HBO released ‘Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth’ in 1999, his friend Paul Krassner correctly observed that ‘Bruce’s offense was blasphemy, not obscenity.’ Too bad no one told this to Governor Pataki. “Pataki’s comment that his posthumous pardon represents ‘a declaration of New York’s commitment to upholding the First Amendment,’ not only smacks of self-righteous grandstanding, it is insulting to Catholics who had to endure Bruce’s unrelieved hostility to their religion. ‘Amos and Andy’ were funny, too, but CBS won’t even air their reruns for fear of appearing insensitive to African Americans. In short, Pataki didn’t endear himself to Catholics with his silly pardon. That Pataki is himself Catholic is doubly embarrassing.”

[Jewish control of the music industry, here.]
Jews take credit for writing, singing Christmas songs,
by VIVI ABRAMS, Jewish San Francisco (from Atlanta Jewish Times)
"A Methodist dad wants to get into the Christmas mood. He plays a record of "The Christmas Song" and sings along to the familiar "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" refrain. Then he feels like a movie, and watches "White Christmas" with his family. Before bed, he reads his daughter the Caldecott-winning children's Christmas book, "The Polar Express." He's just had a very Jewish night. Not many people know it, but Jews have a long history of orchestrating Christmas, back to the early 1800s when French composer Adolphe Adam wrote the music for "O Holy Night." "Christmas Song" composer Mel Torme was also Jewish. Chris Van Allsburg, a convert to Judaism, wrote "The Polar Express." And "White Christmas," a film about song-and-dance men who romance women for the holidays in a Vermont ski lodge, had a Jewish star (Danny Kaye), director (Michael Curtiz) and composer (Irving Berlin). Berlin, born Israel Baline, wrote "White Christmas" for the film "Holiday Inn" in 1942 and resurrected it for the Bing Crosby film in 1954. Actor and commentator Ben Stein recently wrote an essay saying that Jews should feel no shame about having so much power in Hollywood, because it's a sign of how much they love America. He said the same about Christmas ... Nate Teibloom, editor of jewhoo.com, a Web site that identifies famous Jews, had a different reason for why Jews involve themselves in the Christmas spirit: the bottom line. "There's a huge market," he said. "Virtually every recording artist puts out a Christmas album eventually, including Jewish recording artists. It's money in the bank. [However,] some Jewish recording artists tend to shy away from doing the religious Christmas songs." One Jewish popular songwriter, who asked not to be identified, believes so many Jewish composers write Christmas songs "because it broadens the field of endeavor. "Every year for a couple of months the recordings sell all over again. It's the old profit system, not an underwriting of another faith," he said. Teibloom said Jewish songwriters dominated the popular music scene from around 1920 to 1965 ... According to jewhoo.com, Jeffery Tambor, the actor who co-starred as Mayor May Who in the recent film "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," was asked if he ever worked on a project as big and expensive as the Grinch film. He replied, "Maybe my bar mitzvah." Speaking of the Grinch, remember the original animated version soundtrack with the great line, "He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch"? Contrary to what some might think, the Grinch was not Jewish -- but the songwriter was (Albert Hague). There are even Jewish ornaments on the Christmas tree -- Hallmark features one of a miniature Larry Fine of Three Stooges fame. But songs are by far the biggest Jewish contribution to Christmas pop culture. Barbra Streisand and Kenny G. (Gorelick) have put out hugely successful Christmas albums. Other Christmas carols written or performed by Jews include: * "We Need a Little Christmas" (Jerry Herman). * "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Johnny Marks). * "The Christmas Waltz" and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" (Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne). * "Silver Bells" (Ray Evans, lyricist, and Jay Livingston, composer). *"I'm Getting' Nuttin' for Christmas" (Barry Gordon, performer). So to all the Jews walking around the mall this year and getting annoyed by all the holiday music on the sound system: Quit blaming the Christians."

Town Says 'No' to Nativity Scene, 'Yes' to Menorah,
Fox News, December 18, 2003
"The town of Palm Beach, Fla., told a federal judge Thursday that he has no authority to demand that they come up with a good reason why Jesus Christ in a manger should not be displayed next to a menorah on public property. The judge had given the town until 5 p.m. Thursday to give the reasons why town officials are saying "no" to putting up a Nativity scene next to a Jewish menorah in a popular park on public property. The judge now must respond to the town's assertion -- most likely either agreeing that he has no such authority, telling the town "tough luck" and insisting they give over their reasons or he could make a decision on the matter for the town. Two women wanted a Christ in a manger display next to the menorah but the town refused, saying the Nativity scene could only be placed in a lesser-trafficked park. The women filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination and arguing that the Supreme Court allows a balance of the two. For the past two years, for example, menorahs have been placed next to the more politically correct "secular holiday trees." One of the plaintiffs told Fox News she asked to speak before the town council to make her case but was refused. "They've discriminated against us," said Maureen Donnell. "They allow the menorahs but they have absolutely no interest in these Nativity scenes." What Donnell and her co-plaintiff want is for the the menorah and the Nativity scene to be displayed next to each other. But Palm Beach town attorney John Randolph said case law shows that when a menorah is placed next to a secular symbol -- such as a "secular holiday tree" -- it isn't considered a religious symbol."

DRUNKEN IRISH CATHOLICS DESTROY MENORAH,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties, Decembe 29, 2003
"On December 25, WCBS-TV aired a story about a menorah that was vandalized on Christmas Eve in Pearl River, New York. In the course of the story, reporter Lou Young mentioned that “the menorah shares the small park here with a nativity scene and a Christmas tree in a town that is heavily Irish Catholic.” He also said, “It is probably worth noting that there are a half-dozen bars within a hundred yards of this park. That by way of explanation, not an excuse.” He managed to also say, “Last month it was a statue of Jesus Christ in nearby Monsey that was knocked over and destroyed at St. Zita’s Convent there.” Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows: “It’s those damn drunken Irish Catholics again. Every time they get bombed, their latent anti-Semitism surfaces. That is why Lou Young’s ‘explanation’ is so valuable—it puts the blame where it belongs without directly saying so. But what Lou failed to do was to tell us who lives in Monsey. “Could anyone imagine a CBS affiliate airing a report that said, ‘The statue of Jesus Christ in Monsey that was knocked over and destroyed at St. Zita’s Convent took place in a town that is heavily Jewish’? Or one that said the town is ‘heavily African American,’ and then noted there are ‘a half-dozen crack houses within a hundred yards of the convent’? And to top it off, imagine closing the report saying, ‘That is by way of explanation, not an excuse.’ “I have faxed a letter to Dianne Doctor, News Director at WCBS, with a copy to Lew Leone, VP and GM, asking for an explanation. I don’t want any excuses, just an explanation.”

[Of course this article doesn't mention the "J" word as subtext beneath the issue at hand. Question: thanks to our Jewish-centered mass media and intensely Judeocentric anti-religious activism, why would it be that European Jewry's historical religious nemesis (Catholicism) is subject to such popular trashing today? The "hate" wars are really those of relative power: those with social and political power aren't defined as "haters" because they control the perameters of discourse. Conversely, those who are disempowered from mainstream materialist, hedonist culture are defined as "haters."
Some prejudices are more equal than others,
"The American media, usually painstaking in their efforts to offend members of no racial, religious or gender category, consistently make one major exception — the Roman Catholic Church. So argues Philip Jenkins, professor of history and religion at Penn State and an Episcopalian, in his new book The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice,
by PHILIP JENKINS, Catalyst, May 2003
"Expressions of anti-Catholic bigotry scarcely come as a surprise. Over the years, we have come to expect that media treatments of the Church, its clergy and its faithful will be negative, if not highly offensive, and Catholic organizations try to confront the worst manifestations of prejudice. When such controversies erupt, the defenders of the various shows or productions commonly invoke a free speech defense. These productions are just legitimate commentary, we hear, so offended Catholics should just lighten up, and learn not to be hyper-sensitive. Sometimes, defenders just deny that the allegedly anti-Catholic works are anything like as hostile as they initially seem to be. All these arguments, though, miss one central point, namely that similarly controversial attacks would be tolerated against literally no other group, whether that group is religious, political or ethnic. The issue should not be whether film X or art exhibit Y is deliberately intending to affront Catholics. We should rather ask whether comparable expressions would be allowed if they caused outrage or offense to any other group, whether or not that degree of offense seems reasonable or understandable to outsiders. If the answer is yes, that our society will indeed tolerate controversial or offensive presentations of other groups — of Muslims and Jews, African-Americans and Latinos, Asian-Americans and Native Americans, gays and lesbians — then Catholics should not protest that they are being singled out for unfair treatment. If, however, controversy is out of bounds for these other groups — as it assuredly is — then we certainly should not lighten up, and the Catholic League is going to be in business for a very long time to come. It is easy to illustrate the degree of public sensitivity to images or displays that affect other social or religious groups — but how many of us realize how far the law has gone in accommodating the presumed privilege against offense? Witness the legal attempts over the last two decades to regulate so-called “hate speech.” American courts have never accepted that speech should be wholly unrestricted, but since the 1980s, a variety of activists have pressed for expanded laws or codes that would limit or suppress speech directed against particular groups, against women, racial minorities and homosexuals. The most ambitious of these speech codes were implemented on college campuses. Though many such codes have been struck down by the courts, a substantial section of liberal opinion believes that stringent laws should restrict the right to criticize minorities and other interest groups. But if these provisions had been upheld in the courts, what would they have meant for recent Catholic controversies? One typical university code defines hate speech “as any verbal speech, harassment, and/or printed statements which can provoke mental and/or emotional anguish for any member of the University community.” Nothing in the code demands evidence that the offended person is a normal, average character not over-sensitive to insult. According to the speech codes, the fact of “causing anguish” is sufficient. Since the various codes placed so much emphasis on the likelihood of causing offense, rather than the intent of the act or speech involved, the codes might well have criminalized art exhibits like, oh, just to take a fantastic example, a photograph of a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine. The element of “causing offense” is central to speech codes. At the University of Michigan a proposed code would have prohibited “any behavior, verbal or physical, that stigmatizes or victimizes an individual on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, handicap, or Vietnam-era veteran status.” “Stigmatization and victimization” are defined entirely by the subjective feelings of the groups who felt threatened. In 1992, the US Supreme Court upheld a local statute that prohibited the display of a symbol that one knows or has reason to know “arouses anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender.” The implied reference is to a swastika or a burning cross, but as it is written, the criterion is that the symbol causes “anger, alarm or resentment” to some unspecified person. These were precisely the reactions of many Catholic believers who saw or read about the “Piss Christ” photograph, or the controversial displays at the Brooklyn Museum of Art ... When disputes arise, the viewpoint of the minority group must be treated as authoritative. Just imagine an even milder version of this legal principle being applied to starkly offensive images like those at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. If Native religion deserves respect and restraint on the part of commentators — as it assuredly does — why doesn’t Catholicism merit similar safeguards? Beyond the legal realm, time and again we see that media outlets exercise a powerful self-censorship that suppresses controversial or offensive images, whether or not that “offense” is intended: and again, this restraint applies to every group, except Catholics. Over the years, the film industry has learned to suppress images or themes that affect an ever-growing number of protected categories ... Any suggestion that the makers of such films should consult with Catholic authorities or interest groups would be dismissed as promoting censorship, and a grossly inappropriate religious interference with artistic self-expression. The fuss over whether a film like “Dogma” or “Stigmata” is intentionally anti-Catholic misses the point. The question is not why American studios release films that will annoy and offend Catholics, but why they do not more regularly deal with subject matter that would be equally uncomfortable or objectionable to other traditions or interest groups. If they did so, American films might be much more interesting, in addition to demonstrating a new consistency. If works of art are to offend, they should do so on an equal opportunity basis. If we have to tolerate such atrocities as “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” — recently revived as a Showtime special — then why should we not have merry satires poking fun at secular icons like Matthew Shepard or Martin Luther King? If, on the other hand, it is ugly and unacceptable even to contemplate an imaginary production of “Matthew Explains It All,” poking fun at victims of gay-bashing, then why should we put up with Sister Mary? Some consistency, please. Let me end with a suggestion. By all means, let the Catholic League continue to report offensive depictions of Catholics and their church. But to put these in perspective, always remember to record these many other controversies, in which other groups succeed in enforcing their right to be free from offense. Only then can Catholic-bashing be seen for what it is, America’s last acceptable prejudice."

A Gift From Santa’s Jewish Helpers,
by Naomi Pfefferman, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, December 26, 2003
"In the sleeper hit “Elf,” Buddy (Will Ferrell) is a lovable childlike oaf, raised by elves, who returns to New York to find his real father and spread Christmas cheer. It’s a hip, witty, charming fairy tale that, like much of Christmas cinema, was created by Jews. “Apparently I’m following in a grand tradition,” said screenwriter David Berenbaum, 33, who shares religious roots with director Jon Favreau, actors James Caan (Buddy’s dad) and Edward Asner (Santa Claus). In decades past, such movies reflected filmmakers’ longing to belong to a popular culture that excluded Jews, Favreau said. But for the “Elf” filmmakers, who grew up in more tolerant times, the outsiders’ perspective isn’t part of the mix. Instead, the writer and director drew on childhood memories of Christmastime, which included TV viewings of classics such as “It’s a Wonderful Life.” They feel “Elf” reflects their affection for a beloved American holiday, not a Christian one. Berenbaum (“The Haunted Mansion”), was raised in a Reform Philadelphia home where a menorah shared space with a Christmas tree. While Chanukah was a religious holiday, Christmas was strictly secular: “It was never about Jesus, it was about Santa Claus,” the wry, friendly writer said with Buddy-like enthusiasm ... The actor-director — previously known for edgy, independent films such as “Swingers” and “Made” — grew up in an interfaith family in New York. His Italian Catholic father attended parochial schools; his Jewish mother, Madeleine, was so inspired by a B’nai B’rith camp that she convinced her parents to keep kosher in their Bronx home ...Asner curtly dismisses those who ask why a Jewish actor is portraying Santa. “Forget the identification with Christmas,” he said of “Elf.” “The film inculcates a spirit of togetherness, which is priceless, especially during these terrible times.” Favreau and Berenbaum, too, have fielded the “Why is a nice Jewish boy making a Christmas movie” question. “Relatives ask, ‘So when’s the Chanukah film coming out,’” said Berenbaum, who did write and direct an Internet Jewish parody of the Budweiser “whassup” ads, “Shalom.” “And I’ll say, ‘Well, you know, Chanukah doesn’t have the same cinematic tradition as Christmas.’”

[Jesus is hated by the organized Jewish community, even if the Jesus champions are fellow Jews. And Jewish power is such that it can forbid local newspapers to publish ads by Jews who accept Jesus. Jews support "rights" only when it directly benefits their Klan.]
Jews for Jesus Draws Opposition in Florida,
By JULIE KAY, Forward, January 2, 2004
"A fierce religious turf battle exploded in South Florida last month, as a Christian missionary blitz drew fierce opposition from Jewish groups. As part of its "Behold Your God" campaign, several dozen Jews for Jesus activists spent two weeks in mid-December attempting to win over members of the 225,000-person Jewish community in Palm Beach County. The missionary group held rallies, speeches and religious concerts at churches throughout the county, as well as an event at Florida Atlantic University. They also used direct mail and phone calls to reach Jews with their message: "Jesus Christ, the messiah, has come." Rabbis responded with sermons warning their followers of the missionary efforts. Under pressure from Jewish groups, local newspapers refused to publish the advertisements from the missionary group, but agreed to run a warning from the Jewish Federation about the campaign. With an annual budget of $14 million, Jews for Jesus plans to hit about 65 areas with 25,000 or more Jews during the next two years. But the theological tug-of-war in South Florida represented a fight over a region considered an important stronghold by both communities. "West Palm Beach has over 225,000 Jewish people," said Stan Meyer, an organizer of the South Florida campaign, in a statement on the Jews for Jesus Web site. "Many people think that these are all retirees, but that is far from the case. In fact, West Palm and Broward are two of the fastest-growing counties in Florida." Jewish groups, which monitor the messianic organization's Web site, learned four months ago that Palm Beach County was to be the target of a conversion campaign and sprang into action. Ten days before the campaign began, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of the Palm Beaches purchased two sets of ads in local and Jewish newspapers — spending $25,000 — in an effort to head off the missionary efforts. "The message of the ads was, 'They're coming — you need to know who they are,'" said Bill Gralnick, southeast regional director of the American Jewish Committee. The American Jewish Committee also called on rabbis at every synagogue in Palm Beach County to speak about the upcoming blitz on the Friday night before it began ... "I feel that one of our main goals was to raise the level of conversation about Jesus, which we did," said missionary spokeswoman Susan Perlman. Still, Perlman complained about the refusal of local newspapers to publish her group's advertisements. She also criticized Jewish groups over what she described as their "lack of tolerance for positions other than their own," and argued that they should have been at the forefront of protesting when newspapers "deprived us of our rights." Gralnick offered no apologies, boasting that Jewish groups had successfully fended off the missionary efforts. "We rattled them and that was our design," Gralnick said. Gralnick said that messianic Jewish groups are still a threat and accused them of utilizing stealth tactics to infiltrate Jewish organizations. He said a prominent board member of one Palm Beach County Jewish organization recently revealed she had become a Jews for Jesus devotee and that her husband is now divorcing her. Gralnick declined to share any other specifics. "Between intermarriage and divorce and the low birth rate and these messianic groups, we are seeing increasing threats to Jewish communal life," Gralnick said. "We take these groups very seriously."

WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS, Three Readers Strike Back!
By Peter Brimelow, Vdare.com, January 1, 2003
"All that’s necessary for the triumph of Holiday is for VDARE.COM readers to do nothing. (Thanks, Edmund Burke!) But in fact VDARE.COM readers are doing a lot—beginning the long face-to-face, incident-by-incident process of confrontation that will ultimately result in the comeback of Christmas. A reader who modestly wishes to be called “Roach” sent us this powerful email he sent to the Harry and David direct-mail fruit service: “I was surprised to see that, when I clicked on 'Holidays' on your website, the only Holidays mentioned were Hannukah and some unnamed holiday at this time of year called 'holiday.' “I'm a Catholic. I celebrate Christmas. Ninety percent of this country celebrates Christmas. There is no reason for your website or your company to ignore this fact. There is no reason recognizing this fact should be offensive to anyone, even if they are not Christians. “I'm not offended that Jews celebrate Hannukah. I wouldn't ask them to call it their 'holiday.' I expect the same respect. “Christmas is a holy and significant celebration for Christians; it's not some random and interchangeable day, and it has a name. “Disappointed, [‘Roach’] “P.S. I couldn't find a single card that mentioned Christmas in your internet customized card department. Pathetic. “ He received this flapdoodling reply from service@harryanddavid.com “Dear [‘Roach’]: “Our apologies for any disappointment regarding the options available – we appreciate you taking the time to write and the opportunity to explain. “Ours is a diverse society. While we do not endorse any specific religious or worldly practices, we are a catalog company that mass markets to millions of customers and as such, we attempt to offer both products and card options that reflect the many tastes of our customers. As a service oriented company, our goal is simply to provide options that people across all spectrums of society would like to give and receive. For this reason, most of our gifts and card options available are geared toward more generalized gift giving and are suitable for different occasions and for which demand warrants inclusion in the selections offered through our service. “Please be assured that if repeated requests for a specific type of card are received, we would certainly consider including such an option. The greeting you yourself choose to include is always available for the celebration for Christmas, Hanukkah or any other specific holiday you participate in. “You should know we have also forwarded your comments to our Marketing Department. “Above all, […], we would like you to know that we would never knowingly discriminate against any particular segment of our society, large or small, and the items and options offered are in no way based on such. We appreciate the fact that you shared your concerns with us and hope to have the opportunity to serve you in the future. Again, our apologies for any disappointment. Sincerely, E-Commerce Customer Sales and Service Harry and David
The Khristmaskampf makes you a connoisseur of this sort of thing—just as anglers get to enjoy seeing fish wriggling on the hook. As an editor, I smell that this letter began as a bald-faced attempt to claim that commercial necessity required greetings had to be aimed at the broadest possible market – only to be clumsily rewritten by someone who realized this was incompatible with simultaneously offering the Hanukkah option. This leaves the company with no explanation at all. Note that “Roach’s” comments are to be forwarded to Harry and David’s Marketing Department."

[Endless Jewish Catholic-bashing.]
Film makes ‘Statement’ about Vichy France, but doesn’t satisfy,
By Tom Tugend, Jewish Telegrapic Agency , December 17, 2003
“The Statement” opens in 1944 with a black-and-white montage of a young French officer in the pro-Nazi Vichy militia signaling a firing squad to execute seven Jews. More than four decades later, having been sheltered by the Catholic Church in the meantime, the officer, Pierre Brossard, is on the run after a reluctant French government finally charges him with crimes against humanity. The film, shot in France with a first-rate British cast, is a satisfying political thriller. It combines a tour of scenic cathedrals and monasteries with an examination of the murky point where religion, politics, guilt and self-preservation intersect. Primarily responsible for the suspense and intensity of “The Statement,” as well as some of its shortcomings, are three masters of their crafts. They are director Norman Jewison and actor Michael Caine — both Yiddish-speaking Protestants — who talked about the film and their personal backgrounds in interviews at a Los Angeles hotel. The third is Roland Harwood, the South-African born Jewish screenwriter, who won an Oscar for “The Pianist.” As the hunted Brossard, Caine, 70, is a devout Catholic whose twin goals are to escape his pursuers and receive the church’s absolution so he can die in a state of grace ... [T]he film is not entirely satisfying. Surprisingly for a writer of Harwood’s caliber, parts of the dialogue sound stilted, especially some of the pseudo-gangster talk. One also wonders how the shaky, winded and elderly Brossard repeatedly gets the drop on young professional killers. A more serious failure in a film billed as a psychological thriller is the lack of insight into the motivations of Brossard — and of the Vichy collaborators generally. Did they hate Jews? Did they consider themselves patriots? Were they ambitious opportunists? The only explanation comes from a Catholic bishop, who excuses the collaborators because they wanted to save France from the greater scourge of communism. Finally, the Catholic Church gets a bad rap in the film. In contrast to Rolf Hochhuth’s “The Deputy” and Costa-Gravas’ “Amen,” there isn’t a single cardinal, bishop or priest in “The Statement” who doesn’t shield Nazi collaborators, gives absolution to murderers or puts the church’s reputation above human decency."

[Rabbi Lapin is one of the very, very, very few Jews who speaks honestly like this. Whenever there's an article somewhere about Christian-bashing by a Jew, it's usually him. Jews, en masse, are busy killing Christmas. They are the root behind all the totalitarian PC crap -- hiding their racist Zionism in the "minority" Thought Police pack they created -- that toxifies Christianity. Lapin is one of the extraordinarily rare Jews who has a conscience about it.]
Religious freedom: Not just for minorities,
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin, World Net Daily, January 3, 2004
"Well, 2004 has arrived, which means that dreaded "C word" is behind us. Put politely, "the holiday season" has passed. Having shopped in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle lately and having listened to talk radio in each city, I couldn't help noticing a startling double standard. Overwhelmingly, store assistants and talk-radio hosts bid farewell to Jewish guests with a cheerful "Happy Hanukkah" while others, including those identified as Christians, received the generic "Happy holidays." With each passing year, secular fundamentalism more successfully injects into American culture the notion that the word "Christmas" is deeply offensive. Well, after watching this year's repeat of the annual "hate Christianity ritual," I think we may be mistaken in allowing this assault to go unchallenged. OK, maybe referring to it as a "hate Christianity ritual" is a little over the top. But it certainly is obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while treating Christianity with contempt and disrespect. It is not that I want Judaism treated with less respect; it is just that I think that Christianity deserves just as much respect. And I say this as an Orthodox rabbi who has spent a lifetime teaching Torah and devoting myself to the long-term interests of Judaism. I don't think that America's Jewish community does itself any long-term good by denouncing every public expression of Christian faith as if it were a force-fed dose of castor oil. This anti-Christianism is not only unhealthy for all Americans; I think it is particularly destructive for Jews to be leading the extirpation of all signs of Christian fervor from the village square. Palm Beach, Fla., prohibited a Christian group from placing a depiction of Christ in the manger alongside a menorah on public property. One of the plaintiffs, Maureen Donnell, told Fox News, "They've discriminated against us. They allow the menorahs but they have absolutely no interest in these Nativity scenes." Donnell and her co-plaintiff want the menorah and the Nativity scene to be displayed next to each other. But Palm Beach officials remained unmoved. Today, Palm Beach is a city with a large Jewish population. It would be wonderful to be able to believe that Palm Beach's Jews fought as valiantly for Christian religious rights as they have had to do in the past for their own. Many Jewish parents, who remain indifferent when their children bop to rap music's obscene lyrics, recoil in horror at the same kids' exposure to Christmas carols. It is invariably a local rabbi who teams up with the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the school singing carols or the town unwary enough to allow a Nativity scene on the library lawn. A music teacher in a Washington school removed the "C word" from the lyrics in Dale Wood's "Carol from an Irish Cabin" to read: "The harsh wind blows down from the mountains and blows a white winter to me." Parent Darla Dowell, whose 7-year-old daughter sang the song, called the decision "absurd." "I think the most important thing that angers me is that they sent a message to my child that there's something wrong with Christmas and saying Christmas and celebrating it and performing it at her school with her peers," Dowell told Fox News. She couldn't understand why it's OK to exclude Christmas when her daughter was forced to sing Hanukkah tunes that included lyrics about the "mighty miracle" of Israel's ancient days. In that song, there were at least six mentions of the Jewish holiday. Although I suppose it is possible, does anyone feel confident that Mrs. Dowell will think better of Jews in 2004 than she did in 2003? How exactly does this aggressively applied double standard help to maintain the mutual respect that used to characterize the relations between American Jews and Christians? A 1989 Supreme Court decision in Allegheny County v. ACLU found a Nativity scene on the main staircase of the county courthouse to be unconstitutional. The court emphasized that the privately owned crèche, which included a banner proclaiming "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" ("Glory to God in the Highest"), was indisputably religious. In the same case, however, a five-judge majority found that a nearby display featuring an 18-foot Hanukkah menorah did not violate the Establishment Clause. In the interests of truth and friendship, it ought to be the entire Jewish community protesting the court's actions. Instead, in a bizarre inversion of truth, many of us Jews triumph at Christianity's suppression as if we had just replayed the 2-millennia-old victory of the Macabees against secularism. Holiday greeting cards also demonstrate this syndrome quite well. Don't take my word for it – step up to the greeting card racks in your local drug store and see what I mean. Virtually every Hanukkah card is tasteful, well OK, deferential at least. Similarly, every Kwanzaa card is a paper paean to this rootless, recent invention. Cards intended for blacks and Jews are respectful. No sir, you won't find too many cards taking vulgar, humorous shots at those holidays. Now check out the Christmas cards. Oh sorry, I should have said "check out the holiday cards" or "check out the winter season cards." You'll be hard pressed to even find a card that mentions the word "Christmas." It is as if the word is deemed so offensive that casual card browsers should be protected from accidental contamination. Alongside the decent cards you'd expect, you will also find tasteless Christmas cards that mock the holiday. You'll even find off-color risqué Christmas cards that you'd be embarrassed to be caught looking at. What secularism seems to be saying is, if we can't completely banish Christmas, let's at least turn it into a bad joke. New York City schools encourage their students to bring decorations that reflect Judaism and Islam, but Christian decorations are prohibited. Yes, that is right. Holiday displays of the Jewish menorah and Islam's star and crescent are allowed in some 1,200 public schools in New York City, but the crèche, or nativity display, are verboten. (The case is currently being heard in federal court in Brooklyn. The suit, which should have been brought in a spirit of brotherhood by a Jewish organization, doesn't seek to prohibit the Jewish and Muslim exhibits, but to end discrimination against Christianity.) Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Hanukkah menorahs are permitted. (They are only cultural symbols, not religious, you see.) Seattle city employees are prohibited from wishing one another a merry Christmas but permitted to say "Happy Holidays" or even "Happy Hanukkah."

[Judeocentric nihilsim rules. If Christians are allowed to be Christians, Jews can't stand it.]
ADL Calls on all Presidential Candidates to Keep Emphasis on Religion Out of Campaign,
U.S. Newswire, January 6, 2004
"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), concerned about the growing emphasis on religion in the presidential race, today called on all candidates to keep in mind that "there is a line that must be drawn when emphasis on religion in a political campaign becomes inappropriate in our religiously diverse society." "Candidates should feel comfortable explaining their religious convictions to voters," said Barbara B. Balser, ADL national chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director. "However, we feel strongly that appealing to voters on the basis of religion is contrary to the American ideal and can be inherently divisive, wrongly suggesting that a candidate's religious beliefs should be a litmus test for public office." Those remarks were part of a letter sent to President Bush and each of the nine candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, Gen. Wesley Clark, Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. John Edwards, Rep. Dick Gephardt, Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Joe Lieberman and the Rev. Al Sharpton."

Palm Beach removes all holiday displays after Nativity suit,
ABC Action News, January 14, 2004
"Sued by two women wanting to place to display a Nativity scene alongside a menorah and a Christmas tree in a Palm Beach park, the town has decided to do away with all holiday decoration. The town council voted unanimously to give a menorah back to its donor, and merchants decided to move a Christmas tree from a centrally located park. Maureen Donnell and Fern deNarvaez sued the town in federal court, arguing the town's policy of not allowing the Nativity scene violated free speech, equal protection and the establishment of religion amendments to the Constitution. Town officials had argued that the Christmas trees -- which had no angels, stars or other religious ornaments -- and the menorahs were secular symbols. But following the advice of the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which recommended the town stay out of religious activity, the council decided Tuesday to designate another park as the site for any religious or holidays to be erected at private expense. "Any decision you make is not bulletproof ..." said Town Attorney John Randolph. "Whatever you do can be challenged." Donnell said she planned to press on with her federal suit. "Just because they decided in January, no, they're not going to be home free," she said."

PROJECT STRAIT GATE,
We Hold These Truths
"Join us Sunday, January 18, 2004... On the public sidewalks at: IMMANUEL BIBLE CHURCH, 6911 Braddock Road, Springfield, VA 22151. CHRISTIAN APOSTASY ENABLES WAR: Help Hold the leaders of this high profile Judeo-Christian church accountable for war. A Senior staff member confirmed that Immanuel emphatically supported the bombings and continues to support the occupation of Iraq as well as the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel. Sr. Pastor is Michael J. Easley. Ask him! OUR PURPOSE is to ask members and attendees, as well as the staff at Immanuel, if they believe Jesus and our Founding Fathers would support serial wars, annihilation, occupation and even assassinations of those who resist. Please come, be parked and be on the street in front of the church on Braddock street for any one or all of the following starting times: 7:45AM; 8:45AM; 10:30AM; 12:00AM. You will feel rewarded. Each vigil last about 30 minutes ... Directions From the Capital Beltway (I-495):Take Exit 54, Braddock Road East, Proceed east on Braddock Road approximately 2 miles. Just beyond the intersection of Braddock and Backlick Roads, Immanuel Bible Church will be on your right. From I-395:Take Exit 2, Edsall Road West. Proceed west on Edsall Road 1 mile, then turn right onto Backlick Road at the light. At the next light turn right onto Braddock Road. Immanuel Bible Church will be on your right."

[This is ludicrous. Keep the Mossad out of the Vatican. The Jewish Shakedown is everywhere. "We're Jews. We want something." It's time the Christian world invades Israel to look for the True Cross the Jews have been hiding in a closet in the Knesset. Pope, before these Israeli rabbis come for their nice visit, nail everything down, sew your pockets, and install video cameras. Frisk them as they leave.]
Israeli chief rabbis meeting pope, hope to search for Jewish artifacts in Vatican,
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, nj.com (New Jersey) from The Associated Press, January 15, 2004
"Israel's chief rabbis, who will meet the pope Friday, said they hope to get permission to search Vatican storerooms for artifacts such as the huge golden menorah that stood in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Vatican officials confirmed the meeting would take place but declined comment on the rabbis' request. Yehuda Metzger and Shlomo Amar are to have an audience with Pope John Paul II, the first by Israel's chief rabbis in the Vatican. The pope met Israel's previous chief rabbis in the Holy Land during his visit in 2000. Amar, spiritual leader of Israel's Jews of North African origin, told Army Radio that when he received the invitation, "the truth is I asked them, I could not resist ... I asked them about the Temple vessels and the menorah." When the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D., they took huge amounts of booty home. Legend has it that religious articles from the Temple, including the menorah, were among them. The Arch of Titus in Rome depicts victorious Roman legions marching off with the seven-branch menorah in hand. Amar said the Vatican official denied the menorah was there. "My heart tells me this is not the truth, but that it is some kind of camouflage," Amar said. An aide to the rabbi said the Vatican was not likely to permit a search. The Vatican will allow the rabbis to view rare Jewish manuscripts in its possession, Amar said. He said if the rabbis were to come across "other objects," they would be happy to bring them home. The menorah was the most important symbol of the Temple after the Ark of the Covenant. The image of the biblical menorah is the symbol of the modern state of Israel. Some Orthodox Jews believe the restoration of the menorah and other holy vessels to Jerusalem would be the first step in rebuilding the Temple, whose site is now occupied by the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine of Islam."

Jewish group endorses same-sex marriage,
Interest! Alert (from UPI), January 16, 2004
"The major public policy voice of the Jewish community in greater Boston has voted overwhelmingly to back same-sex marriage. The endorsement by the Jewish Community Relations Council, an umbrella organization representing 42 Jewish groups, is part of a growing effort by liberal religious voices to counter the strong opposition to same-sex marriage voiced by the state's Catholic bishops, the Boston Globe said Friday. The bishops of the state's four Catholic dioceses planned to announce a major campaign to defeat same-sex marriage Friday. Several Jewish organizations had already endorsed same-sex marriage, including the largest Jewish denomination in the country, the Union for Reform Judaism."

[Why would Jews visit the Pope they hate except to suck something out of him? This story below has the same flavor as the Jewish doctor who kept mercilessly exploiting Beatle George Harrison on his death bed. Israeli rabbis visit the ailing Pope and try to wrench him to his knees to kiss yet more Jewish Butt. No one can "help" Jews resolve the consequences of their own arrogant beliefs and exploitive actions. Not even the Pope. When they asked the Pope to help them "combat" "anti-Semitism," he should have told them frankly: "Fine. Become Hindus."]
Israeli Rabbis Seek Pope's Help with Anti-Semitism,
by Estelle Shirbon, ABC News, January 16, 2004
"Israel's two chief rabbis met Pope John Paul Friday and asked the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to help combat anti-Semitism and terrorism. Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger said the pope, who has worked hard to mend Christian-Jewish ties during his 25-year pontificate, had shared their concerns on the issues. "Our meeting should serve as a way to combat anti-Semitism in the world and especially in Europe," Amar told a news conference in the Great Synagogue of Rome, on the banks of the River Tiber, after the papal audience. A survey published Thursday suggested anti-Semitism was on the rise in Italy, with 35 percent of those polled saying they believed Jews secretly control finance and the media. The poll was the latest to warn of anti-Semitism in Europe and follows a disputed European Union study that linked anti-Semitism to a surge of violence in the Middle East. "There is a link between anti-Semitism and terrorism (against Israel) ... The causes of terrorism are also religious," said Metzger. The rabbis said they had spoken to the 83-year-old pope for 35 minutes and had found him on good form. "He heard everything, he spoke, he was very involved in the conversation. He was very warm, very kind to us," said Metzger. The pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and hip and leg ailments, has been in frail health in past months and sometimes has difficulty speakin ... Israel and the Vatican had cold relations for decades but under Pope John Paul the two states have built ties. They signed an accord in December 1993 that opened the way for full diplomatic relations, which started in June 1994."

[Jews are arrogant beyond belief. Let the Mormons believe what they want, for God's sake! They're MORMONS! And even if they believe that throwing fairy dust on a list of deceased Jewish names helps Jews in the afterlife, what's your problem? THEY MEAN WELL AND IT DOESN'T HARM ANYBODY. They're not digging up Jewish graves. And they're not desecrating Arab tombs and slaughtering Palestinians, like your brethren in Israel. Get the Jews out of Mormon temples! If the Mormons get sued, isn't it then legitimate that we ALL sue Jews for what their Talmud says about Gentiles? I don't like it -- so where's a lawyer? Reparations! Reparations! Whiplash!]
Jewish group may sue Mormons over posthumous baptisms, [cached]
by Ian Urbina, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 4, 2004
"A Jewish group says it is considering legal action to stop the Mormon Church from posthumously baptizing many Jews, especially Holocaust victims. Under the practice, known by Mormons as vicarious baptism -- a significant rite of the church -- the dead are baptized by living church members who stand in as proxies. But in 1995, after evidence emerged that at least 380,000 names of Jewish Holocaust victims were on baptismal lists in the church's extensive archives in Salt Lake City, the church agreed to end vicarious baptism without consent from the descendants of the dead. Church officials also said the church would remove the names of Holocaust victims placed on the lists before 1995. "For the last seven years, we've had entirely cordial relations with the Mormons," said Ernest Michel, who negotiated the agreement on behalf of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, which is based in New York and claims 180,000 members. "But the agreement is clear, and they have not held up their end." Last year, Helen Radkey, an independent researcher in Salt Lake City, gave Michel evidence that the Mormon lists still included the names of at least 20,000 Jews, many of them Holocaust victims, and prominent figures such as the philosopher Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. Radkey also provided Michel with evidence that many of these Jews had been baptized after the 1995 agreement. But Mormon officials say they remain in full compliance with the 1995 agreement. "We have actually gone above and beyond," said D. Todd Christofferson, a church official. The church removed the names of Holocaust victims listed before 1995 and continues to instruct its members to avoid posthumously baptizing any Jew who is not directly related to living Mormons or whose immediate family has not given written consent, Christofferson said. But he said it was not the church's responsibility to monitor the archives to ensure that no new Jewish names appear. "We never had in mind that we would, on a continual basis, go in and ferret out the Jewish names," Christofferson said. "When the church is made aware of documented concerns, action is taken in compliance with the agreement," he said. Some Jewish genealogists agree with the Mormon interpretation of the agreement. "The wording is vague in some places, but it definitely does not obligate the Mormons to scour their own archives on an ongoing basis," said Gary Mokotoff, the publisher of Avotaynu, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy. But Michel, who said he became involved in the issue after reading about posthumous baptisms in the Jewish newspaper The Forward, contends that the agreement obliges the Mormon Church to monitor the post-1995 lists and remove the names of Jews that appear."

[Bishop Cappuci was driven out of Palestine by the Israelis for activism against the racist Jewish state.]
To the Children of the Palestinian People,
by Bishop Hilarion Cappucci, The Bishop of Jerusalem - in Exile 23.10.2000
Addameer
"In my exile, I am away from you. But this absence is only physical. In my heart, my thoughts, and my prayers, I am with you all the time. In fact, I feel much closer to you now, during these difficult moments, than I ever have before. But I wish I were able to march with you and to be ready to die for you. It would be an honor for me to die in the battlefield because I know that this is my duty in front of God and my country. The humanity of a person is glorified at its best in two things only: First, to stand in solidarity, firm and without any compromise, on the side of the oppressed, the weak and the underprivileged. Second, to stand against the oppressors no matter who they are and no matter what the cost. Any other attitude constitutes running away from our responsibility and washing our hands. To be silent is a sign of cowardice. To be silent is a form of approval. As an Arab and as the Bishop of Jerusalem, my conscience obliges me to defend my parish and my children. Enough is enough! Our patience has reached its limit. Our catastrophe has as its cause the international Zionist movement, an expansionist, imperialist movement, which has made our life miserable since its inception. Israel is its implementing agency. Our Palestinian people are living under occupation with no rights and no dignity. The Palestinian people are strangers in their own country and prisoners in their own homes. Israel has stolen our lands and has made our people homeless. Israel has stolen our rights and has disgraced our dignity. Israel has desecrated our holy sites and killed the worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The first and the second Intifada are an expression of the Palestinian will against oppression and occupation, against Israel's denial of our rights, our inalienable rights for self-determination and building a sovereign and free Palestinian state. Israel is trying to break our spirit with tanks, helicopters, rockets, and live ammunition. But while Israel attacks the unarmed heroes of the stones, these heroes will be victorious in the end, armed as they are with their will and their faith. Tens were killed and thousands injured, and Israel continues to annihilate us morally and physically. We are fighting for life. But life is not merely eating and drinking. Man does not live by bread alone."

[This is apparenty from a far-right Israeli web source, but it's still hard to know what it all means, given the fact that the American Jewish Congress stamped new Greek Orthodox Church head Ireneos to be kosher (see article farther down on this page). In any case, the Israeli government controls who heads churches in Israel. Nice package, huh? Maybe they made this "anti-Semite" "an offer he couldn't refuse?" It's Israel, remember.]
'Christ killer' priest to head up J'lem church?,
Jerusalem Newswire, January 20, 2004
"Two years after the entire Israeli security establishment opposed the selection of a virulently anti-Semitic priest as the new Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, a panel of Israeli ministers has approved his appointment to the post. According to Arutz 7 Monday, the appointment of Irineos, who regards Israel's Jews as the descendants of "Christ Killers," and who has promised to use his position to strongly support the establishment of a Palestinian state on ancient Jewish lands, was approved by a vote of 3-2. A spokesman for one of the ministers who voted against the appointment told the Jerusalem Newswire the minister did not understand why, after initially being strongly opposed on security grounds, it was "suddenly" approved. Jew hater Irineos (Greek Orthodox priests are known by only one name) is a long-time supporter of the Palestinian Arab effort to destroy Israel. His pro-Palestinian position is unsurprising given the "disgust and disrespect" he says he feels for the Jews, whom in a letter to Yasser Arafat in 2001 Irineos called "the descendants of the crucifiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, actual crucifiers of your people, Sionist [sic] Jewish conquerors of the Holy Land of Palestine" ... The Greek Orthodox Church owns chunks of land in the capital, including the land on which stand the Israeli parliament building (the Knesset), the Prime Minister's and State President's residences, and Jerusalem's Great Synagogue ... Israel's Minister of Welfare, Zevulun Orlev, and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky voted against approving Irineos' appointment. Minister Meir Shitreet, Justice Minister Tommy Lapid and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom voted in favor. Orlev's media advisor, Nahumi Dor, appeared mystified by the result of the vote when contacted by the Jerusalem Newswire Tuesday. He recalled that a year ago, the entire security establishment, including the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet), had been opposed to the appointment. But when it came to the vote last week, "suddenly they didn't have any opinion to say about it," he said. "Something has changed, but the minister doesn't know what. He asked questions but he didn't get any answers." The Israeli Cabinet has still to make the final decision on whether or not to approve Irineos' appointment, which, Arutz 7 says, will have "great political and financial repercussions."

[Please note carefully the following. There are two levels to this. In Israel, Christian church appointments are subject to Jewish review and confirmation. Think about what that means. Of course, a case could be made that the same thing happens in America -- but it's typically covert, and far more subtle. But, yeah, isn't it nice to note below the American Jewish Committee's sanctioning "applause" and hard work for who they wanted installed as Church Patriarch?
American Jewish Committee Applauds Israel's Approval of Irenios I,
U.S. Newswire, January 18, 2004
"The American Jewish Committee today applauded the Israeli government's decision to confirm the election of Irenios I as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. "Today's official announcement is important for Israeli-Greek relations, as well as for Greek-Jewish relations worldwide," said Rabbi David Rosen, international interreligious affairs director for the American Jewish Committee. The American Jewish Committee, a leader in international interreligious affairs, with strong ties to the Greek American community and to the Greek government, had played a leading role in discussions over many months with the Israeli government and Greek Orthodox Church to encourage the endorsement of Irenios I."

[The two-faced Jewish Lobby doesn't "dialogue." It demands, pushes, insists, and manipulates. And who do the rabbis below want Catholics to honor? Maimonides. Here's some of Maimonides' ideas about the laws of Judaism:
"3. One is allowed to keep a lost object of a gentile and he who returns it commits a sin because he is supporting the wicked people of the world. But if he returns  it to sanctify G-d's name, by their saying that the Jews are honest people, it is allowed an praiseworthy to return it. Where there will be a profaning of G-d's name one is forbidden to keep the lost object and must return it ...
4. In a city that has Jews and gentiles living together and half are Jews and half are gentiles, if one found a lost object he should take the lost object and announce it. If a Jew comes and gives a sign, that the object is his, he is obligated to return it to him.
5. If the majority of the city are gentiles, and one finds it in a place where most people there are Jews, he must make an announcement. But if it is in a place that is mostly gentile, the lost article belongs to the finder and even if a Jew gives a sign we do not give it to him. We say he gave up since there are mostly gentiles and they would take it for themselves. Still the right way is to return it even then to the Jew who gave the sign."  [KATZ, D., 1980, p. 211-212]
Jacob Minkin notes that “Maimonides classed the Christian in the category of idol worshippers.” [MINKIN, p. 318] And “an Israelite who worships an idol,” says Maimonides, “is regarded as an idolator in all respects ... the penalty for which is death by stoning.” [MINKIN, p. 318] Maimonides also had this to say about "idolators": "It is forbidden to show them mercy, as it was said, 'nor show no mercy unto them (Deut. 7:2) ... You [also] learn that it is forbidden to heal idolators even for a fee. But if one is afraid of them or apprehends that refusal might cause ill will, medical treatment may be given for a fee but not gratuitiously." [HARKABI, p. 157] "Maimonides exempts the Muslims from the category of idolators," says former Israeli army official Yehoshafat Harkabi, "but the Christians, by contrast, were explicitly included ... [HARKABI, p. 157] ... The classification of Christians as idolators has apparently become widespread and accepted in religious literature [today]. This is not merely a theoretical matter, since practical conclusions flow from it." [HARKABI, p. 159]
Israeli Rabbis Ask Pope to Establish Day of Dialogue With Jews In Association with Celebrations of the "Year of Maimonides",
Zenit - The World Seen from Rome, January 18, 2004
"The chief rabbis of Israel expressed to John Paul II their desire that Catholics worldwide hold a Day of Dialogue with the Jews. Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar also suggested to the Pope that he associate himself with a significant gesture to the "Year of Maimonides," the Jewish philosopher and theologian of Cordoba, Spain, who lived from 1135 to 1204. The rabbis disclosed their requests to the Holy Father during a press conference held Friday in the Hall of the Council of the Great Synagogue of Rome, following their 35-minute meeting with the Pontiff. The Day of Dialogue with the Jews has been observed in Italy for years; it was held last Saturday, on the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. On the Day of Dialogue, Jews and Catholics meet for conferences, visits to synagogues, or gatherings to get to know one another better. The rabbis expressed the wish that, on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the death of the great philosopher and theologian Moses Maimonides, the Holy See loan some of the philosopher's precious manuscripts that are kept in the Vatican Library, so that they can be exhibited in Israel. Maimonides, who formulated the "Thirteen Articles of Faith," one of the diverse creeds to which numerous Orthodox Jews still adhere to today, is acknowledged as the most important Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages ... The rabbis also asked the Pope to donate an object of Jewish worship that the Church possesses. They said they left it up to the Pope to decide which one to donate."

[Three Jews and one Catholic:]
Senator Barbara Boxer, Representative Jerrold Nadler to Introduce Legislation to Codify Reproductive Rights,
U.S. Newswire, January 21, 2004
"News Advisory: Tomorrow morning, Jan. 22, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) President Gloria Feldt and NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman, will introduce the federal Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a landmark piece of legislation designed to protect women's civil liberties and prohibit the government from interfering in the exercise of reproductive rights. The unveiling of FOCA comes as the nation marks the 31st anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's monumental 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The introduction of FOCA on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade coincides with a full schedule of activities commemorating the event. PPFA and grassroots activists will show their support for FOCA and memorialize the landmark Supreme Court decision during tomorrow morning and evening rush hours by holding signs on roadsides and at traffic intersections in cities across the nation."

The Church and Jewish Ideology,
by Joseph Sobran, (Reprinted from SOBRAN’S, May 1999, page 4)
"The prevalent Jewish myth today is not the founding myth of Abraham or Moses on Sinai, but the story of Jewish persecution. In our time the Jews are defined less by ancestry than by “anti-Semitism,” which is cited for many purposes, including the legitimation of the state of Israel. Most Zionists no longer claim that God gave the Holy Land to the Jews; instead they contend that the Jewish state is necessary as a haven for world Jewry. According to this modern myth, the Jews are in no way responsible for their own unpopularity from ancient times. What, then, is the source of such persistent hostility to this fundamentally innocent people? Why, the Catholic Church, of course! Many Jewish scholars find the seed of anti-Semitism in the Gospels of Matthew and John, where the Jews are depicted as engineering the Crucifixion, with the assistance of Romans who “know not what they do.” Some Jews have even demanded that the offending passages be deleted from the Scriptures, not realizing (or caring) that Christians regard their holy books as off-limits to human editing. Others persist in blaming Pius XII for failing to condemn Nazism more strongly for its persecution of the Jews of Europe. The Catholic Church in particular has been targeted as the historic matrix of anti-Semitism; and unfortunately, many churchmen have accepted the role of defendant against accusers who will never acquit the Church or drop the case. In recent years the Vatican has tried, as far as possible, to appease Jewish objections. The Second Vatican Council, mindful of Nazi crimes, proclaimed that today’s Jews don’t share the guilt of the Jews who conspired to murder Christ. Pope John Paul II has been especially eager to cultivate good relations with the Jews, even making an unprecedented visit to a Roman synagogue a few years ago. He has gone so far as to name Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List as one of his favorite films — though it contains scenes of nudity and simulated intercourse. In this spirit, the Vatican last year promulgated We Remember, a statement of repentance for the failures of the Church and the mass of Christians during the Holocaust (or Shoah, the Hebrew word that has become current lately). Its theme was that “erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament” have contributed to anti-Semitism; and that the Church, though never a party to persecution, should have done more to oppose the “unspeakable tragedy” of the Shoah, which “can never be forgotten.” The statement also affirmed the Church’s “very close bonds of spiritual kinship with the Jewish people” and the “Hebrew roots of [Catholic] faith.” Many Jews resented the statement’s exculpation of the Church for the Shoah itself. The document distinguished sharply between regrettable Christian attitudes toward the Jews throughout European history (it made no reference to Jewish attitudes toward Christians) and the virulent nationalist and racialist anti-Semitism that arose in the nineteenth century. Predictably, a Jewish historian has rejected this distinction. In an article in the April issue of Commentary, “The Pope, the Church, and the Jews,” Robert S. Wistrich, professor of modern Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, attacks We Remember for defending Pius XII and for minimizing the Church’s guilty role in fostering anti-Semitism through the ages. Wistrich belittles Pius’s efforts to protect Jews as not only insufficient but lacking in “moral courage.” As for the nineteenth-century anti-Semitic ideologies, they “presupposed a cultural framework that had been fashioned by centuries of medieval Christian theology, ecclesiastical policy, and popular religious myth.” This is nothing new for Commentary, which has previously carried articles blaming Christianity itself for the Holocaust. Wistrich doesn’t cite, though he might as well have, the charge of the Jewish scholar Jules Isaac that “the permanent and latent source of anti-Semitism is none other than Christian religious teaching of every description, and the traditional, tendentious interpretation of the Scriptures.” Isaac’s work and influence helped shape the Second Vatican Council’s statement about the Jews. By such reasoning as Wistrich’s, it would be easy to blame the Jews for bringing persecution on themselves. After all, they have been unpopular not only in Christian countries, but in pagan and Muslim lands. Cicero, Tacitus, Juvenal, and other Roman authors inveighed against them. They have repeatedly migrated to Christian countries and have been repeatedly expelled, for reasons that have usually had little to do with theology — though the obscene blasphemies against Christ and his mother in the Talmud, unique in religious literature, besides reflecting oddly on Jewish demands for Christian tolerance and for the cleansing of offensive passages in the Gospels, have done nothing to endear the Jews to Christians. Wistrich mentions none of this. Nor does he mention one of the principal incitements to anti-Semitism in this century: Jewish participation in Communism, with its terrifying persecution of Christians. Where is the corresponding statement of Jewish leaders repudiating and repenting the Jewish role in a cause whose crimes dwarf those of Hitler? Did major Jewish spokesmen or organizations condemn Communism as it devoured tens of millions of Christians? Did a few brave Jews in the Soviet Union and the other Communist-ruled countries act, at personal risk, to shield Christians from arbitrary arrest and murder? Even today, how many Jews condemn Franklin Roosevelt for his fondness for Stalin, as they would condemn him if he had shown the slightest partiality to Hitler? Further, might the Talmudic imprecations against Christ and Christians have helped form the Bolshevik Jews’ anti-Christian animus? Did the Talmud help form the “cultural framework” for the persecution of Christians, and for the eradication of Christian culture in America today? If so, will Jews make an effort to expunge the offending passages from the Talmud? How many rabbis speak of their “spiritual kinship” with Christianity? The answers to these questions are only too obvious. The Jews, with honorable but ineffectual exceptions, judge Christians by a standard that doesn’t seem to apply to themselves. Or rather, their single standard is “Is it good for the Jews?”

[The YMCA hopes to regrow that part of the Holy Land that Jews strip barren. The parallels between Monster Israel and the evil Mordar empire in the Lord of the Rings keep popping up. Evil destroys trees as a matter of course, celebrating newfound Wasteland, and it builds Giant Walls to protect its power-obsessed Darkness from Justice and Light. Yay YMCA!]
OLIVE TREE CAMPAIGN. Keeping Hope Alive - Replanting Olive Trees in Palestine,
YMCA
"YWCA and YMCA staff are confronted with numerous obstacles every day in their encounters with the Israeli occupation forces. Routine humiliation and oppression as part of the ongoing siege and closure prevent them from carrying out even the most basic elements of their jobs in the territories. In spite of this, however, the staff remain committed to ensuring the operation of a variety of programs - including the Olive Tree Campaign. Thousands of acres of farming land and 112,000 olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian Territories. Throughout the years of occupation, hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been systematically uprooted and destroyed. Since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000, over 112,000 olive trees have been uprooted in the Palestinian Territories for so-called security reasons. Because hope must be kept alive, the YMCA and the YWCA's Olive Tree Campaign aims to replant olive trees in places where they have been uprooted. The Campaign goal is to replant 50,000 olive trees in the Palestinian Territories with the sponsorship of YMCAs and YWCAs, as well as churches and other groups and individuals around the world. Through replanting olive trees, Palestinians will be encouraged to keep their sense of hope alive and to reaffirm their commitment to work constructively toward peace-building."

[The Jewish War on Christianity is everywhere. Is Kremble Jewish? We don't know, but Jews around him carry this crap to the fore.]
HOLLYWOOD PLAY ATTACKS GAY PRIESTS,
Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, January 29, 2004
“A Comfortable Truth: The Story of a Boy and His Priest” opened January 24 in the West Hollywood Lee Strasberg Creative Center; it runs through February 22. The play’s website says the work addresses “the controversial subject of juvenile molestation in the Church.” Written and directed by Mark Kemble, and produced by David Lee Strasberg, the play was reviewed favorably by Joel Hirschhorn in Daily Variety. Hirschhorn credits the actor who plays the boy for delivering “each church-crucifying zinger masterfully,” and takes particular note of the scene where the boy screams “eat my brains.” To demonstrate that the boy has been traumatized by the molesting priest, the kid is depicted playing in a rock group by the name “Fourth Reich Vatican Nazis.” Thus do Kemble and Strasberg take another shot at the Catholic Church. William Lobdell of the Los Angeles Times said, “The play’s set looks like a cross between a church and a bombed out train station with a few religious icons, including a busted Madonna fallen to the floor…a crucifix disguised as a piece of junk—scraps of wood and metal topped by an upside-down milk pail with the spout serving as Christ’s nose.” Here’s what Catholic League president William Donohue said about it: “When asked about his work, Mark Kemble said the play was about ‘the danger of blind faith in the leaders of any religious organization.’ But this is not true—there is no disparagement of any religion save Catholicism. Of the homosexual scandal in the Church, he says, ‘I don’t think it’s an aberration.’ Nor do I think it’s an aberration that the people responsible for this play are from Hollywood. “In a time when Catholic and Jewish elites are about to suffer cardiac arrest over Mel Gibson’s film, it is instructive to note that none has said a word about this portrayal of a gay molesting priest. Nor will they—they are too busy instructing Mel how to portray Jews in ‘The Passion.’”

Israel Ministry of Tourism to Honor Pat Robertson,
U.S. Newswire, Feberuary 4, 2004
"The Reverend Dr. Pat Robertson will be honored by the Israel Ministry of Tourism, at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) annual convention, on Sunday, Feb. 15 when he is presented with the 2003 Ambassadors Award by Benny Elon, Israel's Minister of Tourism. This year, the National Religious Broadcasters Convention will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center, in Charlotte, NC. "Dr. Robertson's passion emanates from an understanding of the land of the Bible, and a commitment to a strong State of Israel. He is a true friend of Israel. In the face of opposition and at points when Dr. Robertson stood alone, he never wavered in his convictions. We applaud and honor that spirit today," exclaimed Minister Elon. Rami Levi, Israel's Tourism Ambassador to North & South America added, "Dr. Robertson's commitment to strengthening tourism to Israel, and the number of visitors to our country is greatly welcomed. His influence over his millions of viewers and Christian Zionists is appreciated, and we look forward to working with him for years to come." This is the second year that the Israel Ministry of Tourism has presented its Ambassadors Award at the National Religious Broadcaster's Convention. Last year's recipient was Mike Evans, president and founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team (JPT). Pat Robertson is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, whose programming is broadcast across the globe. The National Religious Broadcasters represents over 1,500 faith-based member organizations. The Ambassadors Award honors extraordinary efforts in support of The State of Israel. Tourism to Israel from the United States increased 31 per cent in 2003, attributed in part to Christian tourism."

[ALL human beings have a "personal philosophy." If yours is publically Jewish, you are worshipped. If you want to herald nihilistic decadence, that's kosher too. Anything else, you're garbage.]
Professor Removed for Saying He's Catholic,
Newsmax, February 2004
"Lakeland Community College near Cleveland, Ohio, has removed a professor of moral philosophy from his classes as punishment for refusing to hide his religious identity from students. The college threatened Dr. James Tuttle, who espouses traditional Catholic beliefs, with dismissal because he made statements on his syllabi and in class that disclosed his religious faith and how that shaped his personal philosophy. "Asking a philosophy professor to divorce his deepest philosophic views from his teaching is both outrageous and absurd," said Greg Lukianoff, director of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). "To say that a philosophy professor cannot discuss religious ideas is to render him incapable of meaningful discussion of some of the greatest minds in the history of his field. Feminists are not forced to veil their feminism, and Catholic philosophers should be free to be Catholic philosophers." Dr. Tuttle's problems began in March 2003 when he received a copy of a student complaint forwarded to him by Dean James L. Brown of the Arts and Humanities Division at Lakeland. The student complained that Dr. Tuttle mentioned his Catholic beliefs too often for the student's taste and suggested that he be given "counseling for tolerance." In an effort to address this issue, Dr. Tuttle decided to add "disclaimers" to the syllabi of two of his classes informing students that the professor was "a committed Catholic Christian philosopher and theologian," so that students would know in advance about his perspective. The statement also encouraged any students who felt uncomfortable with Dr. Tuttle's views or methods to feel free to talk to him outside class. On April 21, 2003, Dr. Tuttle received a letter from Dean Brown saying that he was "more bothered by [Tuttle's] disclaimer than by anything I read in [the student]'s complaint." Dean Brown went on to suggest that Dr. Tuttle "would be happier in a sectarian classroom." In punishing Dr. Tuttle for including the disclaimer, Dean Brown stated that he would reduce Dr. Tuttle's course load for the next semester to only one class (thereby reducing his pay) and would subject him to classroom monitoring by a fellow professor before reaching a final decision on whether to actually fire him. Dr. Tuttle contacted FIRE for help, and in December FIRE wrote to Lakeland Community College President Morris W. Beverage to protest the college's punishment of Dr. Tuttle. FIRE reminded Lakeland that Dr. Tuttle's disclosure and discussion of his religious beliefs in a philosophy class were directly relevant to the topic of the class and that "such candor from an instructor should be welcomed rather than condemned." FIRE also pointed out that Lakeland's demand that Dr. Tuttle avoid commenting on his own religious beliefs ignores the pervasive historic, intellectual and cultural ties between the worlds of religion and philosophy. Reminding President Beverage that philosophers including Plato, Lao Tzu, Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas espoused theories that regarded religion and philosophy as integrated parts of one whole, FIRE asked, "Which of these thinkers would Dean Brown punish for intellectual honesty at Lakeland Community College?" Lakeland failed to respond to FIRE's request that the college cease its unfair persecution of Dr. Tuttle and that it restore him to his full class load. Instead, Dr. Tuttle was informed in December that he was being given the last pick of classes – with a selection of courses that administrators knew he did not wish to teach – despite the fact that Lakeland's traditional seniority system should have given him preference over six other instructors. Dr. Tuttle refused to accept the loss of his seniority and declined to accept Lakeland's shameful offer. FIRE is calling for Lakeland Community College to reinstate Dr. Tuttle as a philosophy instructor and will put information about Dr. Tuttle's situation in the hands of the media, the public, and local and national advocacy groups. FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, civic leaders, scholars, journalists and public intellectuals across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, and due process on our nation's campuses."

Israeli Cabinet Member Benny Elon Available for Interviews in U.S. on Gaza Plan; Elon to Present Award to Pat Robertson at NRB Feb. 10,
U.S. Newswire, February 10, 2004
"Israeli Cabinet Member and Minister of Tourism Benny Elon will be available for interviews from the United States from Feb. 11-17. He will be in New York on Feb. 11-12 and in North Carolina from Feb. 13-17 for the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) conference, at which the Ministry of Tourism will honor Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson and present him with an honorary Ambassadors Award. Elon has sparked international headlines, for his recent comments to a Christian missionary organization where he said "Go to mosques and bring the light to the Muslims. Remind all the Muslim killers that thou shall not kill. Make them good Christians and good people." He is expected to repeat that message to thousands of Christians who will be present at the (NRB)annual convention, which will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center, in Charlotte, N.C."

[JTR contributor's comment: "catholic doctrine was always to pray that jews converted, not to accept their rejection of christ in judaism." True. And the problem with the Pope's statement below is also that it is neutered to the point of talcum powder. It is a noncommittal politican speaking, one who doesn't want to offend anybody. One doesn't merely "pray" Middle East violence and suffering away. One also stands up to Evil, in this case Zionist fascism. "The Lord helps those who help themselves." Ain't it the truth?]
John Paul II's Greetings to American Jewish Committee,
VATICAN CITY, Zenit, FEB. 5, 2004
"Here are the words of greeting that John Paul II addressed today to members of the American Jewish Committee. * * * Distinguished Friends, With affection I greet you, the members of the American Jewish Committee, as you come to the Vatican. It is with gratitude that I recall your 1985 visit to mark the 20th anniversary of the conciliar declaration "Nostra Aetate," which has so significantly contributed to the strengthening of Jewish-Catholic relations. As we now approach the 40th anniversary of this historic document, there is regrettably a great need to repeat our utter condemnation of racism and anti-Semitism. Violence in the name of religion is always a desecration to religion. Countering this alarming trend requires that together we stress the importance of religious education which promotes respect and love towards others. In these days our attention remains drawn to the Holy Land which continues to be afflicted by violence and suffering. It is my fervent prayer that a just solution will be found which respects the rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Upon all of you, I invoke the gift of peace. "Shalom aleichem."

[Israel's religious bigotry is even a threat to other Jews! Imagine what it's like for Christians and Muslims!]
Lapid deplores discrimination against non-Orthodox,
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, Jerusalem Post, February 11, 2004
"The unparalleled discrimination against Conservative and Reform rabbis in Israel is an existential threat to the future of the Jewish State, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said Tuesday night. "Israel is the only country in the world where Conservative and Reform rabbis are 'class b' citizens," Lapid told a gathering of visiting Conservative rabbis in Jerusalem, "and I don't understand why you are willing to live with it." In his typically unabashed address, Lapid, who heads the staunchly secular Shinui Party, said he saw "no justification" for the fact that Conservative and Reform rabbis are discriminated against in Israel, where the Orthodox have maintained a decades-long domination of religious affairs dating back to the creation of the state. This, even though today the bulk of world Jewry is affiliated with the Reform or Conservative movements. "The discrimination in Israel against the Conservative and Reform movements pose a long-term danger to the existence of the State of Israel," Lapid said, arguing that the next generation of American Jewry will be less inclined to have a favorable opinion of a Jewish state that does not recognize their own religious leaders. Urging the relatively small number of Conservative and Reform rabbis based in Israel to take a more assertive and aggressive approach to attain equal rights in the country, Lapid, who is largely known for his outspoken opposition to - some would said hatred of the Ultra-Orthodox, asserted that Judaism must be "saved" from the Orthodox. "The young generation in Israel sees [Shas spiritual leader] Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, sees [former Shas leader] Arieh Deri, and they do not want to be a part of such Judaism," Lapid said. "These people give Judaism a bad name, and you must explain that Judaism is something else," he concluded."

Hollywood's Hatred for God,
by Matt C. Abbott, seethepassion.com (from Michigan Nesw), February 11, 2004 --"You gotta love Hollywood. Some years ago, it was the late famed-director Elia Kazan who was being vilified for "outing" actor-communists who riddled the movie industry. Today, it is famed-actor/director Mel Gibson who is being vilified for portraying the New Testament in a positive light. His movie, "The Passion of the Christ," is anti-Semitic, they say. And they - meaning the gutless, decadent wonders who run Tinsletown - have made known their opinion(s) of Gibson and his film. Said one anonymous executive: ''[Heinrich] Himmler could have cast ["The Passion of the Christ"]. Everybody looks like they're auditioning for the part of Fagin.'' Oh, and this person is identified as a Christian. Said another: ''[Gibson has] been very shrewd. He has positioned this picture very well politically. For a movie he made for next to nothing -- in Aramaic -- Gibson and his people have done a pretty good job of creating awareness...I just don't want to see [for himself] that kind of relentlessly brutal movie." (Quotes are from a Feb. 10 story in the Boston Globe, titled "Actor's film of 'Passion' is others' fury," by Michael Paulson and Ty Burr.) Ah. I wonder if this unnamed Hollywood executive refused to see "Schindler's List" because of it being "relentlessly brutal." And I wonder if he refused to see blatantly anti-Christian/Catholic films like "The Last Temptation of Christ," "Agnes of God," "Priest," "Dogma" and so on, because they malign Christianity and the Church. I don't think it would be a stretch to answer in the negative. But we know the real reason behind Hollywood's anger at Gibson. He's made a movie that glorifies God. You're not supposed to do that. If it mocks God and organized religion, that's fine. But since "The Passion of the Christ" promotes Christianity, and because it's being used as a tool for evangelization, it's a threat to the establishment. The liberal establishment, that is. Again quoting from the Globe story: "Said David Kanter, a manager and producer for the Culver City-based production company and talent agency Anonymous Content, 'People feel betrayed, because here's a nice guy who has done the time and worked really hard in the business, creating a statement that many, many people are going to find offensive'." There you have it. "Many, many people" (anti-Christian bigots?) will be offended by "The Passion of the Christ." Why? Because it dares to promote the New Testament. It dares to promote God. And, of course, Mel Gibson is a conservative."

[There are some things in this long article (this is an excerpt) of which we disagree, but its basic premise -- per Jewish defamation of Christianity -- is accurate.]
The Defamation of Christianity - Part 8027,
by Bruce Walker, Men's News Daily, February 11, 2004
"We all know that Christian anti-Semitism caused the Holocaust, right? The story goes something like this: (1) Christians, from the earliest days, were anti-Semitic; (2) Christians engaged in unprovoked persecution of Jews in the ancient and medieval world; (3) Christians encouraged massacres against Jews that desensitized Christendom to the Holocaust; (4) Men raised as Christians committed the Holocaust; (5) Christians ignored the Holocaust while it happened and denied the Holocaust after it happened. Baseball allows three strikes and “You’re out!” Football gives teams four downs to keep their drive alive. But let us be generous and give this particularly noxious defamation of Christianity five chances to be right. It is still defamation. Christians were anti-Semitic? Christianity has never been “anti-Semitic.” The first Christians were Jews. The next Christians were Semitic people, even if they were not Jews. The model of racial moral superiority adopted by the National Socialist German Workers Party resembled Judaism, not Christianity (although Nazi evil was as hostile and incompatible with the righteousness required by Judaism as with the tolerance required by Christianity.) Racism was condemned as sin in human history first by Christians. Outside Christian theology, racism was the norm. Why, then, describe the conflicts between Christians and Jews in the ancient and medieval world as “anti-Semitic”? Simple: it creates the false impression that differences between Jews and Christians sowed the seeds of Nazi racial policies. Christians engaged in unprovoked persecution Jews in the ancient and medieval world? The first three centuries of Christianity was one long religious holocaust by pagan Rome against Christians. When pagan Rome was scattering the Jewish people in the Diaspora, this vile though grand empire was torturing Christians to death. Seldom noted is that Jews, ten percent of the population of the Empire, sometimes helped persecute Christians. Constantine the Great may have been converted to Christianity on his deathbed, but he was profoundly influenced by Christianity years before, which led him to proclaim the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. This edict granted religious toleration to Jews, Christians and all faiths within the Roman Empire ... The first episode of religious genocide between these two great faiths took place in 614 A.D., when Jerusalem was captured by Persians and Jews, who together methodically tortured and exterminated more than 90,000 Christian men, women and children."

[Per the above article: Here's how Jews swarm behind the scenes to censor people. Granted, this may be small scale compared to the Jewish Lobby norm, but it's the usual METHOD. As noted below, volunteer representatives of the Jewish Lobby in academia are already trying to get the author of the above article fired. Note the Jewish censorial collusion at H-Antisemitism, which is a "discussion" forum of (mostly) narrow-minded, chauvinistic, bigoted, censorial Jewish "scholars" who are obsessed with stamping out "anti-Semitism." This is how the Censor Maniacs work all the time. Here we get a glint of the Way They Do IT, in process. Note that the guy who brags about contacting the editor of the "antisemitic website" never even read the article and acts like a regular reader of Men's News Daily.]
From: Arieh Lebowitz
Subject: "The Defamation of Christianity - Part 8027" - anti-Semitic website
"Friends: found the nasty item below, online, at http://mensnewsdaily.com -- what may be a well-trafficked website, specifically: http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/w/walker/04/walker021104.htm Anyone interested can and should get responses going, yes? Thanks. Arieh
From: Robert Michael
Subject: The antisemitic article
"I complained to the publisher and he sent a good reply. I will keep the list informed. Below are a copy of my email and his reply. Collegially, Bob Michael "I'd been warned about Walker's antisemitic page by a friend. I could not link to his page at your website. Thank God. There's enough foolishness around without MND participating. Hope you stuck Walker's page where the sun don't shine. I look forward to reading MND without Walker's crap. Sincerely, Bob Michael" Mike LaSalle, the editor, replied: "I'll look into this. If true, he's out."

[Jews get their obligatory follow-up article to the above Bruce Wilson piece about their "defamation of Christianity" (i.e., they get to hose down the fire):" http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/s/shore/2004/shore021304.htm ]

2 men arrested for posing as terror victims,
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, Jerusalem Post, Febraury 3, 2004
"Two Jewish residents of Jerusalem who disguised themselves as terror victims in order to receive monetary donations from a Christian group in the city were under arrest Tuesday, police said. Jerusalem police's fraud squad began investigating the scam around a month ago after receiving information that a number of people had arrived at the central Jerusalem offices of the organization, 'Christian Friends of Israel,' bandaged - and sometimes in wheelchairs - asking for money for medical treatment for their terror-related 'injuries.' Police then installed cameras opposite the organization's offices, which filmed a man bandaged from head-to-toe coming into the office. The man claimed that he had been injured in Thursday's suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus, and asked for monetary assistance. As soon as he left the building, the suspect took off his bandages and began counting the several thousand shekel donation he received. Police suspect that as many as 11 people may have been involved in the scam, which, in all, defrauded the organization of tens of thousands of shekels. The two men detained in the case so far, scam ringleader David Deri, 22, and Avshalom Nagar,21, were remanded in custody Tuesday for one to two days by the Jerusalem Magistrate's court, after which time they will be placed under house arrest, police said. The Christian organization exploited in the scam refused to comment Monday. Police said that more arrests are expected in the case in the coming days."

Christian Aid art show branded anti-Semitic, British Jews claim a new exhibition is anti-Israel propaganda,
By Jack Malvern, Times Online (UK), February 6, 2004
"Christian Aid has been attacked by the Board of Deputies of British Jews who claim that it has commissioned an "anti-Semitic" exhibition by a former official war artist. The Inconvenience of History by John Keane, the official artist for the Gulf War, was condemned by the board as "a propaganda display" that would be offensive to Jews. One painting, No Arabs, No Terror, shows two Jewish Boys staring at a picture of Arab children. Another, Hopeless in Gaza, recreates a photograph that became an icon of Arab suffering, in which an Arab man crouches with his child shortly before the child was shot by an Israeli soldier. There is also a portrayal of another son who was born later. Neville Nagler, the director-general of the board, wrote an open letter to John Gladwin, chairman of Christian Aid and the Bishop of Guildford, asking why the exhibition condemned Israel. Mr Nagler, who has not seen the full exhibition but a sample on Christian Aid's website, wrote: "I am dismayed that the nine pictures on Christian Aid's website all present a distinctly pro-Palestinian voice." He demanded to know if Christian Aid had any intention of displaying the "tragic aftermath of terror attacks" in Israel. "Christian Aid's support for a propaganda display of this kind is hardly consistent with its claim to ensure that its publications are balanced," he added. This is the latest clash between the board and Christian Aid after the charity produced a report last year that was highly critical of Israel's activity. A senior source on the Board of Deputies said that there were grave misgivings about Christian Aid ... Christian Aid conceded that the show, at the London Institute Gallery, emphasised the Palestinian perspective but refused to withdraw the exhibition. "It is certainly true there is an emphasis on the Palestinian point of view," a spokeswoman told The Times. "This is mainly because we were in the occupied territories. Most of our work in the region is with the Palestinian side because that is where the poverty lies."

ADL Insults Millions of Christian Victims of Communist Genocide,
SupportMelGibson.com
"Mr. Gibson was correct to put the Jewish holocaust in its proper perspective: as but one example of man's inhumanity towards man from a tragic century of death. Curiously, this well-balanced response has attracted the ire of Jewish leaders- Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center responded: "We are not engaging in competitive martyrdom, but in historical truth. To describe Jewish suffering during the Holocaust as `some of them were Jews in concentration camps' is an afterthought that feeds right into the hands of Holocaust deniers and revisionists." Abe Foxman of the ADL attacked as well: "At the very least it was ignorant, at the very most its insensitive. And you know what? He doesn't get that either. He doesn't begin to understand the difference between dying in a famine and people being cremated solely for what they are." Foxman's comments have drawn me out and it is time that some more cards be layed on the table in regards to the historical record. Jews want a monopoly on being victims; if any other suffering group of people, whether they be Christian Russians, sub-Saharan Africans, or Armenians, claims to have suffered an equivalent injustice, they are quick to defend the "unparalleled evil" of the Jewish holocaust. I happen to believe that one human life is one human life. I can think of several examples that far exceed the Jewish holocaust in depravity: The Red Chinese murdered over 50 million to secure their hold on the government against nationalist forces. The Soviet Union systemically murdered over 20 million people, including millions of Ukrainian Christians who were deliberately starved to death. In America alone, over 30 million unborn children have been murdered at the hands of abortionists. This Jewish claim of unique suffering is ridiculous, and yet another example of the "victim mentality" complex that seems to afflict them as a people. Let us consider Foxman's statement that "dying in a famine" is different than "being cremated for who they are." In a November 16, 2003 article for the Toronto Sun, Eric Margolis detailed the "forgotten" Holocaust of 1932-3 that killed over seven million Ukrainians: Stalin declared war on his own people in 1932, sending Commissars V. Molotov and Lazar Kaganovitch and NKVD secret police chief Genrikh Yagoda to crush the resistance of Ukrainian farmers to forced collectivization. Ukraine was sealed off. All food supplies and livestock were confiscated. NKVD death squads executed "anti-party elements." Furious that insufficient Ukrainians were being shot, Kaganovitch - virtually the Soviet Union's Adolf Eichmann - set a quota of 10,000 executions a week. Eighty percent of Ukrainian intellectuals were shot. During the bitter winter of 1932-33, 25,000 Ukrainians per day were being shot or died of starvation and cold. Abe Foxman claims that the millions of Christians who were deliberately starved by Stalin's government merely "died in a famine." This is like saying that Jews who were shot in the Jewish holocaust were "died due to inhaled poison." Foxman has insulted the survivors of the Ukrainian Holocaust and has insulted Christians everywhere by claiming a Jewish monopoly as victims of the evils of atheistic regimes. However, there may be a darker reason for Foxman's comment. The article goes on to mention that, "Kaganovitch, Yagoda and some other senior Communist party and NKVD officials were Jewish..." Foxman could be signaling a most hateful insult, that Gentile suffering is of no consequence compared to that of Jews, dismissing the deaths of Ukrainians as if they were a herd of cattle. When I think of all of the innocent blood that has been spilled in the name of equality and atheism in this century, I cannot help but rise up in anger at Foxman's insensitivity to the sufferings of Christians. Dare I notice that this is the same group of people that killed Christ and persecuted early Christians? Dare I notice that this group of people was primarily responsible for the wholesale slaughter of millions of Ukrainians? Dare I notice that the preferred response of this group is not respectful dialogue, but lies, propaganda, and character assassination? Dare I notice that this group continues to seek to shut off the kingdom of God by attempting to censor this movie? All Christians must at some point conclude that the assumption of mutual and reciprocal goodwill with the leadership of the Jewish community is flawed. As Christ warned, they hate us because they hated Him. May God be with Mel Gibson during this trying time and may God guide the hearts of Christians to stand up to these endless insults to their faith and religion."

Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name,
By DINITIA SMITH, New York Times, February 7, 2004
"Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the females aren't interested in them, either ... What the animal studies do show, [Marlene Zuk, a professor of biology at the University of California at Riverside and author of "Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn About Sex From Animals" (University of California Press, 2002)] observed, is that "sexuality is a lot broader term than people want to think." "You have this idea that the animal kingdom is strict, old-fashioned Roman Catholic," she said, "that they have sex just to procreate." In bonobos, she noted, "you see expressions of sex outside the period when females are fertile. Suddenly you are beginning to see that sex is not necessarily about reproduction." "Sexual expression means more than making babies," Ms. Zuk said. "Why are we surprised? People are animals."

[What is "interfaith dialogue?" Jewish victimization demands. Being a good Catholic today means protecting Jewish Power, Jewish Racism, Jewish Exploitation, and censoring what the New Testament says about Jews. And, yes, God, please give more nuclear bombs and biological weapons to the apartheid Jewish state ... ]
Rabbi Educates Students on Relations Between Christians and Jews, Legacy of Pope John Paul II,
By Moises Mendoza (The Hoya - Georgetown University), February 6, 2004
"Internationally renown rabbi David Rosen discussed Christian-Jewish relations and the legacy of Pope John Paul II, in front of a packed house of over 100 spectators at the McShain Lounge in Kennedy Hall, on Monday night. “Pope John Paul II’s teachings have enshrined his positive legacy of facilitating Catholic and Jewish understanding,” Rosen said to a mixed crowd of students, faculty and administrators. Professor Yossi Shain, the executive director of Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, emphasized the extreme importance of Rosen’s visit to the Georgetown campus in his opening remarks. “These are trying times for many of us in the world today and Rabbi Rosen discusses issues that go to the heart of relations between Jews and Catholics,” Shain said. Throughout his hour-long speech, Rosen approached current Christian-Jewish relations from an essentially positive perspective. But he did not shy away from mentioning past wrongs done to Jews by majority Christian hegemonies. “Although he was not really hostile and had no real animus towards them, Pope Pius would not recognize Jews because they had not recognized the Lord,” Rosen said. Rosen described the holocaust as being “fertilized in part by demonization and marginalization of Jews.” Yet while emphasizing past wrongs, Rosen also highlighted the positive strides which the Catholic and Jewish faiths have made together since World War II. “Angelo Roncalli, later to become Pope John XXIII, helped save thousands of Jews from the hands of Nazis,” Rosen said. With the election of Paul VI in 1963, the church began to make radical reforms in its views toward Judaism. And when Pope John Paul II came to power, perspectives changed even more, he said. “The current Pope is shaped by a fundamental gratitude to Judaism as a root of his Catholic beliefs,” Rosen said ... After the address, lecture attendees enjoyed a reception in an adjoining room and mingled with dignitaries including the Israeli Embassy’s minister for public affairs, Moshe Fox. Most guests said they were inspired by Rosen’s remarks. “Rabbi Rosen was very knowledgeable about Catholic and Jewish relations. He backed up his statements and showed how dedicated the Pope is to increasing good relations between Jews and Catholics,” student Matt Bushell (SFS ’06) said. Rosen’s visit to Georgetown was the inaugural lecture in the Fred and Lesley Israel Lecture Series. The evening was sponsored by the Fred and Lesley Israel Center and the Georgetown Government Department. The Center for Muslim-Christian understanding also supported the event."

[The continued double standard: as institutionalized. Is it not interesting that a single judge gets to play God here? Is Judge Sifton Jewish, or married to one? Catholicism is systematically being driven into the closet.]
JUDGE RULES AGAINST NATIVITY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, February 18, 2004
"U.S. District Court Judge Charles Sifton ruled against the plaintiffs today in the discrimination suit against the New York City Department of Education’s policy regarding “Holiday Displays”: the policy allows the Jewish menorah and Islamic star and crescent while banning the Christian symbol, the nativity scene. The Catholic League arranged for the Thomas More Law Center to file the suit in December 2002 on behalf of a Queens mother and her two children. Sifton ruled that the policy is not unconstitutional and does not discriminate against Christians. In his decision he wrote that the policy is secular in intent—the menorah and star and crescent have a secular dimension while the nativity scene is “purely religious.” Elsewhere he writes that the holiday displays “must be reviewed as perceived by the children, Christian children in particular, but not one hyper-sensitive Catholic child.” The Thomas More Center will appeal this decision. Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today: “The Jewish menorah represents a miracle. When last we checked, miracles were considered religious. To say that it is a secular symbol is insulting to religious Jews. And to continue to say that other religions are allowed their religious symbols for display in schools, while Christians are not, promotes one religion over another. “For the judge to say that the displays should not be viewed through the eyes of “one hyper-sensitive Catholic child” smacks of an incredible insensitivity not only to the child but to all Christians. Does the judge have an emotional barometer to measure sensitivity? This has nothing to do with constitutional law. “If the situation were reversed and the schools allowed a nativity scene and a dreidel—but not a menorah—would Judge Sifton call those Jews who would rightly protest this ‘hyper-sensitive’? If anyone is ‘hyper-sensitive’ it is the multi-cultural censors and diversity police who are offended by the mere sight of the Baby Jesus.”

FIRST PERSON: 'The Passion' & the Talmud,
By Terry Mattingly, Baptist Press News. February 17, 2004
"The ancient rabbinic text is clear about the punishment for those who twisted sacred law and misled the people of Israel. Offenders would be stoned and then hung by their hands from two pieces of wood connected to form a "T." The Talmud once included this example from the Sanhedrin: "On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth," said the passage, which was censored in the 16th century to evade the wrath of Christians. "The herald went out before him for 40 days saying, 'Jesus goes forth to be stoned, because he has practiced magic, enticed and led astray Israel. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and declare concerning him.' And they found nothing in his favor." If armies of Jewish and Christian scholars insist on arguing about Mel Gibson's explosive movie "The Passion of The Christ," it would help if they were candid and started dealing with the hard passages in Jewish texts as well as the Christian scriptures. At least, that's what David Klinghoffer thinks. The Orthodox Jewish writer -- whose forthcoming book is titled "Why the Jews Rejected Christ" -- believes these lines from the Talmud are as troubling as any included in the Christian Gospels. They are as disturbing as any image Gibson might include in his controversial epic. The Talmudic text seems clear. Jesus clashed with Jewish leaders, debating them on the meaning of their laws. They hated him. Many wanted him dead. It is possible, Klinghoffer said, to interpret these documents as saying that Jesus' fate rested entirely with the Jewish court. The use of language such as "enticed and led astray" indicated that Jesus may have been charged with leading His fellow Jews to worship false gods ... What role did the Romans play? In terms of historic fact, Klinghoffer emphasized, it's almost impossible to find definitive answers for such questions. But the purpose of the Jewish oral traditions that led to the Talmud was to convey religious belief, not necessarily historical facts. "If you really must ask, 'Who is responsible for the death of Jesus?' then you can only conclude that both the Gospels and the Talmud agree that the Jewish leaders did not have the power to execute Him," Klinghoffer said. "Did they influence the event? The religious texts suggest that they did, the historic texts suggest that they did not. It's hard to know. ... But if Gibson is an anti-Semite, then to be consistent you would have to say that so was Maimonides [the famous Jewish theologian]." Obviously, Klinghoffer is not spreading this information in order to fan the flames of hatred. His goal, he said, is to provoke Jewish leaders in cities such as New York and Los Angeles to strive harder to understand the views of traditional Protestants and Catholics. And it's time for liberal Christians to spend as much time talking with Orthodox Jews as with liberal Jews. It's time for everyone to be more honest, he said. "I don't see anything that is to be gained for Judaism by going out of our way to antagonize a Mel Gibson or to antagonize as many traditional Christians as we possibly can. I think we have been yelling 'Fire!' in a crowded theater," Klinghoffer said. "To put it another way, I don't think it's very wise for a few Jewish leaders to try to tell millions of Christians what they are supposed to believe. Would we want some Christians to try to edit our scriptures and to tell us what we should believe?"

[Kicking bigoted, hypocritical Jewish Butt. Things are getting hot. This article appears in Joeph Farah's World Net Daily, usually a bastion of Judeocentric pro-Israelism. People are getting sick of Jews telling them what their religion says. Jews hate Christianity, here.]
It's all about hating Catholics,
by Barbara Simpson, World Net Daiily, February 23, 2004
"I am furious! No, I'm livid! I've had it and I'm finally going to vent! It's a good thing I was alone when I read the latest Catholic insult by Abe Foxman. The steam from my ears and the sparks from my eyes would have been shocking! It's a good thing Abe wasn't there or more than his ears would have burned from my wrath. Abe is Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Nice title. Nice perks. It gets him nice headlines and fawning media attention. He shows up for interviews with a serious demeanor, wearing his yarmulke, and pretends to be concerned and thoughtful, fair and wise. The truth is, he's engaged in nothing more than dirty, street fighting. It's an insult to his targets and to good Jews who allow him to speak for them! In his role as "defender" of all things Jewish, Foxman gets warm media reception even though his words and actions lately have not only been out of order, they've been mightily insulting to another religion and one particular member of that group. The religion is Roman Catholicism and the man is producer-writer-actor Mel Gibson. Gibson has a new movie set to open on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday, one of the holiest days of the year for Catholics. The film is "The Passion of the Christ," a graphic and explicit portrayal of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, the last 12 hours of His life, from His trial to His death. In Catholicism, that period of time is called the "Passion" and it refers to Christ's suffering. Gibson bases the film on the four Gospels in the Bible, using the words in the original Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles. It's not a sanitized version. It's graphic and bloody, based on what is known of that form of capital punishment. Mel Gibson admits it's brutal and says that if people don't want to see violence, don't see the movie. Foxman's problem is that he thinks the movie will incite anti-Semitism. He objects that the words of the Bible are spoken in the film. He says it appears that Jews encouraged the killing of Jesus. Many in the secular media voice the same accusations, most often without having seen the film. I doubt they've read the Bible. But they don't let the absence of facts keep them from attempting to destroy something they despise. Abe Foxman's in that group Ultimately, what they despise isn't necessarily Mel Gibson or his film. They hate his religion, the Bible, the story it relates and, they especially hate the Catholic Church because it's founded on intrinsic right and wrong, good and evil. Foxman not only rails against the film, he actually met with Vatican officials this week, urging them to challenge Gibson and tell him that the film contradicts Catholic teaching. Can you imagine? He thinks he knows more about Catholicism than the Vatican! How contemptible. Talk about chutzpah! He has it in spades. He ought to be ashamed and Catholics should be angry. I'm afraid, though, they've been so busy turning the other, but wrong, cheek that they're getting kicked in the rear again and don't even know it. Interesting, isn't it? Foxman and others who are so concerned with protecting the opinion of moviegoers about Jews, are consistently silent when Catholics, their rituals or their beliefs are ridiculed and demeaned. Where were they when a crucifix submerged in urine was called art? A picture of the Virgin, smeared with elephant dung was also called art. Where were the demands for script changes in movies portraying Jesus as homosexual, or married, or promiscuous? How about books or theatricals depicting priests or nuns in the most insulting and fabricated situations that pretend to reality? Where was their outrage in artistic desecrations of the Sacrament of Communion, the invasion of Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral by condom-tossing "gay" activists, the radio stunt of a couple having sex in that same Cathedral during mass. I'm also fed up with denigration of Catholics who are shocked and offended by the excesses of Vatican 2 and prefer the traditional Latin Mass. Mel Gibson is one of them, and he practices those traditions. That's his choice and his prerogative. To hear the critics, you'd think that was heresy. It isn't, and Gibson isn't alone. There are thousands of Catholics like him, furious at the changes in their Church over which they have no apparent control. They hate the revised rituals of Catholicism that have nothing to do with the religion. The so-called reforms reflect a zealot clergy anxious to force on everyone 'Catholic-Lite' and create 'Cafeteria Catholics.' The recent scandals, diminishing vocations and smaller congregations are visible results of this attack on the Church from within, spurred on by hateful non-Catholics and fallen-away Catholics who delight in dragging down what they once believed. It disgusts me. I'm tired of it being socially acceptable to dump on Catholics and blatantly suggest how the religion should be changed. It's done without compunction yet if the same were done to Jews or Muslims or any eastern religion, it would be denounced. How about a movie joke about Islam or one with a Muslim murderer? I dare you to produce a movie about an adulterous rabbi or a slapstick Torah. Anyone for criticizing Orthodox Jews for discriminating because men and women worship separately? How about suggesting a revision of Islam because of its treatment of women, to say nothing of "non-believers," the infamous infidels. It wouldn't happen – and we all know why. Catholics, indeed Christians, are fair game. At the least, it's discriminatory. But, in and of itself, it's a sin."

[Jews hate Jesus. Palestinians love him. Behind which would Jesus stand?]
Jesus of Palestine & the 'Passion' of Israel,
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz (Israel), February 25, 2004
"Israel's Channel 10 television station screened a recent ABC interview in which ABC's Diane Sawyer asks Gibson - who has strongly condemned anti-Semitism as a "sin" - to comment on those who fear that "in a world in which horrible things have been done to the Jewish populations, simply looking at these events will once again incite people toward if not violent animosity, [then] prejudice, vindictiveness." Gibson, nodding in agreement to the first part of the sentence, then replied, in a parallel that grated on Israeli ears: "I don't think you can say that. I watched Schindler's List, and what the Germans do in that is horrible, you know. But I don't hate Germans, or want to hurt them or anything. I mean, if you go by that rationale, any story where one group of persons does something to another group of persons - you shouldn't put any of it on film." In recent years it has become axiomatic, if in many cases less than accurate, that Israel's policies have inflamed anti-Semitism in Europe, the United States and throughout the Muslim world. But when Gibson's Jesus of Palestine finally makes his way home, could the world's oldest form of anti-Semitism, the charge of Christ-killing, take the opposite route, helping to fan the flames of Palestinian anger against Israelis? When it finally reaches the Holy Land, could "The Passion of Christ" add new fuel to an already intensely volatile conflict? 'Jesus was a Palestinian' Certainly many Palestinians, even among the strongly Muslim majority, identify with Jesus. The concept of the holy rebel waging a hopeless, ultimately victorious fight to the death against authorities of overwhelming power, has been long used by Arab cartoonists and editorial writers to represent the Palestinian struggle. Gibson's "Passion" may ultimately be used by some Palestinians in marshalling anger against Israel, says Haaretz commentator Danny Rubinstein. In some respects, Palestinian identification with Jesus renders irrelevant the Gospels-driven debate over whether the Jewish establishment or the Romans bore ultimate responsibility for the death of Jesus. In the Palestinian national metaphor, with an American empire believed to be under the influence of Jewry, Jewish Israel can easily play a simultaneous dual role: that of the armor-clad iron-fisted Roman occupier, and that of the hard-line Tz'doki [Sadducee] Jewish leadership of Roman-ruled first century Judea, a territory which imperial authorities would only after Jesus's death begin to call Palestine ... Christian Palestinian clergymen, taking radical Latin American churches as a rough model, created a Palestinian Liberation Theology based in part on the figure of Jesus. "Jesus was a refugee and lived under occupation," the movement's founder Dr. Naim Ateek, a canon at St. George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, told Reuters in 1999, as the Holy Land prepared to celebrate the millenium of Jesus's birth. "If he's interpreted in this way he becomes a model for faith. So I can learn from him and how he coped with a life under occupation like me," said the U.S.-educated Ateek, who said that when he was 11 in 1948, Jewish soldiers forced his family to flee their home near Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. The figure of Jesus, known in Arabic as Issa, also resonates for Muslims as a prophet and saint in Islamic tradition."

[JTR Contributor's note: "I don't know if this is applicable, but look at the timing of this story. in fact, just last week they had the same story come out with different figures!! Just a coincidence that it hovers just before "The passion" is released and Just after? I think not. WHat is this non stop attack on the Catholic church? Why don't they come out with a figure for how many rabbis have raped little boys? (the site actually exists but i can't find the link) NEVER!" Our comment: Of course there's a direct link. The timing is also relevant to Israel's increased atrocities against the Palestinians. We're all engaged in a massive Culture War in which the Jewish Ethnocentrism seeks to weaken Christianity (and Islam) once and for all. The Jewish mass media, if it had the will to do it, could easily find tons of equivalent material about perverse rabbis, Jewish dominance of the pornography world, historical Jewish domination of international prostitution, Jewish domination of the Russian mafia, etc. but Jews are self-anointed as secularly sacred and beyond criticism. A perfectly legitimate article would be an investigatiion of Jewish dominance in SO MANY corrupt fields. But it's a taboo, in the way that Mel Gibson's positive movie about Jesus is a Jewish taboo. The Jewish Media's idea is to get Catholics, destroy Christianity as a viable force, and to intentionally AVOID investigating their OWN. Is it an actual "plot?" It doesn't matter: the result is the same. It's the result of a Jewish belief system in the continuous "attack" mode, Jewish hatred of Christianity and Catholicism, and it's all deeply internalized in the brain spores of the bigoted Jewish community. They'd say this below is "objective news." But look at it in context. It is blatant. And please note. Like all the "objective" Jewish journalists who dominate the media crucifixion of Mel Gibson, the author of this piece below is ALSO Jewish. Note also: these priests are "accused," not found guilty. But it doesn't really matter as presented, does it? The accusation is enough. And the accusation is NEWS. It's a form of slander. So over the past half century thousands of priests get accused of sex abuse. And one time -- by God knows who -- is enough to make this list. We might accuse this Jewish author of fornicating with a rabbit. (See Lubomyr Prytulak's excellent article about how this hysterical stuff has turned into a witch hunt and how innocent Archbishop Mahoney in Los Angeles made the list.)]
Study: 4,392 Priests Accused of Sex Abuse,
by Rachel Zoll, Yahoo! News, February 26, 2004
"A national, church-sanctioned study documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy found that about 4 percent of clerics have been accused of molesting minors since 1950, a diocese said Thursday. The Diocese of Yakima, Wash., said in a news release that the survey compiled by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found 4,392 of the 109,694 clergy who served over that five-decade period faced allegations of abuse."

[Racist Judeocentrism at its finest as Jews monitor in-house Tribe Networking. Who's Jewish? Who's Jewish? If a non-Jew does this, it's condemned as "anti-Semitism."]
Oscar notes relating to Our Tribe in Hollywood,
By NATE BLOOM, Cleveland Jewish News, February 27, 2004
"The Oscars were moved to an early date this year - Feb. 29. The bad news is this is a fairly thin year for Jewish Oscar nominees. The good news is that Billy Crystal is back hosting the show after a three-year hiatus. For me, 2004 will always be remembered as the year in which the (non-Jewish) Clint Eastwood issued the most surprising "Oscar-related Jewish remark" since the (non-Jewish) Bob Hope said, "Oscar time - or, as it is known in my house - Passover." Eastwood, who directed the hit "Mystic River," was interviewed just before the Oscar nominations were announced. He was asked about the possibility of nominations for his flick. He responded, "Kineahora! Kineahora!" The reporter retorted, "Pardon?" Eastwood said, "That's a Jewish expression meaning 'Don't talk about it. It's bad luck.'" Or, more literally, "May the evil eye stay away." Feature Film Nominees The evil eye kept away from "Mystic River" - it got six Oscar nominations, including best picture, director, and actor - Sean Penn. Penn, 43, is the son of the late Leo Penn, a Jewish actor and director who died in 1998. Leo's film acting career was cut off in the late '40s when he was blacklisted. He kept busy as a stage actor and TV director. He could have easily snared another Oscar nomination for "21 Grams" and he's already won the Golden Globe for "Mystic River." Sean's daughter in "Mystic River" was played by Emmy Rossum, 17, a Jewish actress. Competing with Penn for the best actor Oscar is Sir Ben Kingsley, nominated for his performance as an Iranian immigrant in "House of Sand and Fog." Kingsley may have had only one Jewish grandparent, but he has amassed a record of bravura performances as a Jewish character. His best- known Jewish character is Itzhak Stern in "Schindler's List." Sir Ben also played Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal in a 1989 TV film; the prophets Joseph and Moses in TV flicks; Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, in the 2001 ABC miniseries on Anne Frank; and gangster Meyer Lansky in "Bugsy." "House of Sand and Fog" is the first movie directed by 40-year-old Russian Jewish immigrant Vadim Perelman (he also co-wrote the film). The film's Oscar-nominated music is by James Horner, 50, a top-tier film composer. Competing with Horner in the best score category are Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, and Thomas Newman. Shore is nominated for "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." (He's also nominated for co-writing the song from the film, "Into the West.") Danny Elfman, 50, is of "Russian-Polish Jewish" background. He started as an avant-garde rock musician, playing in the band "Oingo-Boingo," with his brother, Richard Elfman. This year, he is nominated for his score for Tim Burton's "Big Fish." Thomas Newman, 48, who is nominated for his score for "Finding Nemo," is the son of legendary film composer Alfred Newman, the winner of nine musical Oscars. This is Thomas' seventh Oscar nomination. Gary Ross, 47, is nominated for best adapted screenplay for "Seabiscuit," which he also directed. The picture's producers, including Ross, are nominated for best picture. Ross grew up a horse-racing fanatic, and his not-very-religious parents gave him a trip to Santa Anita racetrack in lieu of a bar mitzvah. Cinematographer John Schwartzman is nominated for his work on "Seabiscuit." His late father, producer Jack Schwartzman, was Jewish. Competing with Gary Ross for best-adapted screenplay Oscar is Shari Springer Berman, 38. She is co-director and co-screenwriter of "American Splendor. " She shares this nomination with her husband, Robert Pulcini, her co-director and co-writer. The film was adapted from the autobiographical comic books of the same title by Harvey Pekar, a Jewish writer and retired file clerk from Cleveland. The Documentary Makers Errol Morris, 56, is nominated for best documentary for "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara." The Friedman family of Long Island is the subject of Andrew Jarecki's Oscar-nominated documentary, "Capturing the Friedmans." Jarecki's film leaves viewers unsure whether the Friedmans are really guilty of sexually molesting children. Also competing for best documentary Oscar is "My Architect," about the life of the famous and highly influential Jewish architect Louis Kahn."

[The above is the Cleveland Jewish News' fawning look at Jews in film. Now let's see what their position is about CHRISTIANS in film:]
A messianic migraine. Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is an extremely gory, troubling epic,
by: MARGI HERWALD, Cleveland Jewish News, February 27, 2004
""I'm going to like this," I thought with surprise as I watched the opening scene of the highly controversial, long-anticipated Mel Gibson opus "The Passion of the Christ." As Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane, he is tempted by a creepy, eyebrow-less woman representing Satan. It is tense, arty and incredibly engaging. From there it all goes downhill ... spiraling into an orgy of blood and pain, punctuated with troubling images and archaic stereotypes. After the first seven minutes of intrigue, I spent the last two hours of "The Passion of the Christ" either rolling or averting my eyes. "The Passion of the Christ" is in Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew with (thank goodness) English subtitles. It tells of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ (Jim Caviezel). During this period, the carpenter who claimed to be the son of God is arrested; put through a farce of a trial; beaten to a bloody pulp with fists, sticks, whips and a sort of cat-o-nine tails; dismissed by a decadently drunk, effeminate King Herod; sentenced to death due to mob pressure; taunted and tempted by the eyebrow-less Satan woman carrying a freakish-looking evil baby; beaten more as he weakly drags a wooden cross through Jerusalem to Golgotha; and nailed to the cross. Most of this in vivid, gory detail. While a crow pecks out the eyes of another condemned man who failed to accept Jesus, the would-be messiah is left to hang on his cross for quite a long while until, mercifully, he dies. This movie is rated R for a reason. The violence is unrelenting. The screen is constantly awash in blood. Gibson seems obsessed with how Jesus suffered to redeem the sins of Christians, focusing solely on that and ignoring any of the reasons why or how the man became an inspiration and a god-like figure to some - and a threat to others. In an effort to provide at least some respite from flying lumps of flesh, dislocated arms and the fountains of gore that flow from underneath a crown of thorns and the point of a spear, Gibson offers a few brief flashbacks to Jesus' life before the Passion ... [T]he one-dimensional acting and storytelling kills any excuse a cinephile has to revere this film for its art separate from its religious message. While Caviezel, Morgenstern and Bellucci are effective performers, all they are required to do is suffer, suffer, suffer, moaning and sobbing while glycerin tears cut clean rivulets down their dirt and/or blood-stained faces. They are among the Good Characters, those who see the majesty in Jesus and therefore, suffer, suffer, suffer. The Bad Characters, however, are so bad, they might as well twirl pointy, black moustaches. Evil Jews and Romans, those who do not accept or have no sympathy for Jesus, grunt and growl and point and scream. They laugh raucously as he suffers, suffers, suffers... some soldiers even exulting as his blood splashes upon them ... The Jews, however, are dark and stooped under the weight of their heavy beards and heavier semitic robes. They aren't dumb muscle like the Roman guards. They are calculating, lying outright to Romans when they first take Jesus into custody, claiming he's just a common thief. They are angry from the get-go, pushing and violently screaming at each other, at their high priest Caiphas, Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus, or whomever else is nearby. They are unrepentantly bloodthirsty. And since Gibson shows very little of Jesus' teachings, miracles and acts of kindness, and none of the socio-political upheaval his messianic claim caused, the vitriol and bloodlust of these "vicious," scraggly-bearded Jews seems completely unjustified ... Two hours after viewing "The Passion of the Christ," I went to the grocery store to buy a few items, and the strangest thing happened to me. I was intellectually convinced that the film had not bothered me as a Jew, that my negative response was to the vats and vats of movie blood that splashed across the screen as Jesus was ripped to shreds. But, as I walked through the store, I found my eyes darting suspiciously from one shopper to the other, wondering what they believed and what they took as truth. I actually wondered who in that store would blame me for the death of their Lord, if they somehow knew that I was Jewish. A woman in my row at the press screening sobbed through the whole crucifixion sequence. Viewers interviewed on the 11 p.m. news hailed the film for bringing them closer to their Lord and described it as a true story, although I personally cannot recall an eyebrow-less Satan woman with demon children in any version of the Bible or history book. I realized that what I found disturbing is moving others to religious ecstasy and tears. I'm still working on being open-minded and not being frightened by that. Two cups of coffee, three episodes of "Law & Order," and a scorching migraine later, I went to bed, my mind still troubled and fixated on "The Passion of the Christ." Is it antisemitic? Not blatantly, and in Gibson's mind, probably not intentionally. Did it make me uncomfortable? Yes. Way more than I ever expected.

[This below is really a call to boycott Christianity and the response should be a boycott of Jews. It's time for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all their influential like who are railing about "liberals" attacking Gibson's movie to call the attackers what they are: Jews. Are these censorial rabbis "liberal?" The Culture War is shaping up as world Jewish censorial hegemony versus every one else. ]
Rabbi urges Passion boycott,
The Weekend Australian, February 28, 2004
"Oneof Israel's two leading rabbis today called for a boycott of Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ, which he said was untrue, deliberately violent and encouraged anti-semitism. "I call on all Jews and non-Jews to boycott this lying, anti-educational, gratuitously violent film, which can only encourage anti-semitism by falsely accusing the Jews of killing Jesus," the head of the Ashkenazi community, Yona Metzger, said. "I hope that it will never be shown in Israel, because sin must not be rewarded." The chief rabbi was speaking the day after the head of the influential ultra-Orthodox Shas party demanded that the film be banned from being shown in Israel. Eli Yishai said it "incites hatred against the Jews and raises again accusations of ritual crime". Gibson's movie, which pulled in an estimated $US20 million ($26 million) on its opening day in the United States, depicts the last hours of Jesus Christ. Eagerly awaited by some Christian groups and strongly criticised by Jewish bodies, which fear it will feed anti-semitism, the film has stirred emotion in a way rarely equalled by a movie. Several US Jewish organisations have accused Gibson of reviving the accusation of the Jews being a deicidal people, which was retracted by the Catholic church in the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965. "This film is based on something which has not only been denied by historians but which contradicts the official doctrine of the Catholic church," Metzger said. "I hope that the present Pope, whom I met three weeks ago in Rome, will recall this clear policy," he added. "I think there is a good chance he will do so because John Paul II has shown several times how important he considers the fight against anti-semitism" ... As well as stirring criticism from Jewish groups, the film has also been attacked for its gruesome portrayal of the torture and crucifixion of Christ, which reviewers have called "sadistic", "almost pornographic" and "relentlessly savage".

[These people are fake Christians, but honorary Jewish Racists. They are toady extensions of World Jewish Headquarters.]
Christian Coalition Says Israel's Security and Terrorism Should be the Issue at the World Court,
U.S. Newsire, Febreuary 27, 2004
"Christian Coalition today condemned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for attempting to sanction Israel for erecting a 450-mile security fence to keep out terrorists, saying "Earlier this week, a Palestinian terrorist blew up a bus killing 8 innocent Israelis including 2 teenagers and wounding another 60. Israel contends that the ICJ has no jurisdiction and indeed it does not. The International Court of Justice -- as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations (whose membership is dominated by dictatorships and despots) which authorized the hearing against Israel -- has no right to intervene with the sovereignty of a nation." National President Roberta Combs said, "The International Court of Justice should be putting on trial international criminals rather than putting Israel on trial for just trying to defend itself."

[More war on traditional Catholicism.]
California's Act of Tyranny,
by Terence P. Jeffrey, Human Events, Posted Mar 3, 2004
"What if a state legislature enacted, and a state Supreme Court upheld, a law forcing family businesses operated by Orthodox Jews to remain open on the Sabbath? Surely, reasonable people--including those who don't share Jewish views on the Sabbath--would recognize this as a crass and unconstitutional act. So, too, should they regard the law upheld this week by a 6-1 decision of the California Supreme Court that orders various institutions of the Roman Catholic Church to purchase insurance that will provide artificial birth control to church employees. In their petition to the California Supreme Court in this case, lawyers for Catholic Charities of Sacramento, a branch of the local Catholic diocese, convincingly demonstrated that a law compelling state employers to provide insurance coverage for prescription birth control (if they provide their employees with any prescription drug coverage at all) was specifically aimed at forcing Catholic institutions to act in contradiction to Catholic teaching which holds that artificial birth control is wrong. When the California legislature considered this bill in 1999, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a study of health insurance practices in the state. It found that "coverage of reversible forms of contraception is available to approximately 90% of insured Californians." A law mandating this coverage largely "would codify existing practices." But Catholic institutions stood conspicuously outside the birth-control fold, and sponsors of the bill found this intolerable."

LAW OF THE LAND. University's sculpture mocks Catholics. Judge OKs 'Holier than Thou,' depicting bishop with 'phallus' miter,
World Net Daily, March 5, 2004
"A federal judge in Kansas ruled a university's prominent display of a sculpture that mocks the Catholic faith did not violate the Constitution. Washburn University's sculpture, entitled "Holier than Thou," depicts a Roman Catholic bishop with a grotesque facial expression wearing a miter that resembles a phallus. The Topeka school's Campus Beautification Committee selected the display to help fulfill its goal of having "one of the most beautiful campuses in Kansas." After refusing to act on complaints brought by numerous Catholics, including the archbishop of Kansas City, a lawsuit was filed by the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center. Archbishop James P. Keleher said the statue made "a mockery of the teaching of our faith and of the authority of our church." The university's president, Jerry Farley, defended the display as a fulfillment of the purpose of art, "to engage us intellectually and emotionally." The case against the university was brought on behalf of a veteran professor at the school, Thomas O'Connor, and a senior student, Andrew Strobl, who both are devout Catholics. The lawsuit alleged Washburn's display of the sculpture conveyed the impermissible state-sponsored message of hostility toward the Catholic faith in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause ... Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, said this decision and several others by federal judges recently demonstrate a double standard in application of the Establishment Clause. "The Ten Commandments and the Christian Nativity scene are out, but an anti-Catholic display of a bishop wearing a miter that resembles a phallus is permissible because it allegedly enhances aesthetics," he said. "Apparently, the religion clauses protect atheists but afford no comparable protection for Christians."

[He wants to be the governor of Texas? As a Jewish country western singer, Kinky Friedman was once awarded the racist Jewish Defense League's "prize for cultural contribution"; among his compositions (often performed) is "a particularly tasteless song about using a picture of Jesus for toilet paper." [CHAFETS, MEMOIRS, p. 175,  176] Mark my my words. When it is discovered that Friedman is a vehement anti-Christian bigot, he will declare "anti-Semitism."]
Kinky bid for top job in Texas. Will the Kinkster's pursuit of Dubya's hat stop in Texas? Eccentric American country singer and writer Kinky Friedman has announced he will stand for George W Bush's old job as Texas governor in 2006,
BBC (UK), March 7, 2004
"The man behind the Texas Jewboys band and such best-selling crime novels as Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned is set to run as an independent candidate. While his policies are as yet unclear, Mr Friedman has pledged to "not kiss babies [but] their mothers". Asked why he is standing, he replies: "Why the hell not?" The cigar-smoking country singer says he wants to "fight the wussification of the state of Texas". "I want to rise and shine and bring back the glory of Texas," he adds, describing himself as a "writer of fiction who tells the truth". 'Not so crazy now' Mr Friedman, 59, says he was inspired to stand for governor by the success of Arnold Schwarzenegger in California as well as the recent failed bid of Howard Dean for the Democratic Party presidential nomination ... Correspondents say it remains to be seen how far the unconventional image of the composer of They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore and author of Elvis, Jesus & Coca Cola will appeal to traditional voting lobbies in Texas such as Christian groups. But Mr Friedman says he has little fear that his electoral ambitions will ever be affected by scandal, the bane of many an American politician's career. "There are no skeletons in my closet," he says. "They are all bleaching on a beach somewhere."

[Kinky Friedman running for governor fits in nicely with the current Jewish hatred-assault on Christ and Mel Gibson, no? We present for you below the Jewish Defense League's winner of its "prize for cultural contribution." Here's what we'd get with a Jewish Texas governor: songs about using a picture of Jesus as toilet paper:]
Lasso from El Paso,
kinkyfriedman.com
Men’s Room, L.A
(Buck Fowler)
I saw a picture yesterday
In a men’s room near L.A.
Lying on the floor beside the throne.
Had I not recognized the cross
I might have failed to know the boss,
I thought, “Lord, you look neglected and alone.”
I picked it up with lovin’ care,
I wondered who had placed it there,
When l saw there was no paper on the roll.
I said, “Lord, what would you do
If you were me and I was you,
Take a chance, save your pants or your soul ?”
Then a voice said, “Kinky, it’s Jesus here, you know that I ain’t no square.
Well, I’ve got these pictures of me,
I mean statues, you know they’re everywhere.
Well, I may seem I come from Liverpool,
And then on the other hand I may come from France,
But if you don’t get off that toilet, well I’m just gonna have to dance.”
I saw a picture yesterday in a men’s room near L.A.

[JTR Contributor's comment: "Mary Ann Glendon has been chosen to lead the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican - which now makes her the highest ranking female advisor to the Pope. She is married to Edward Lev (who "yields to no one in his ethnic pride"). She is a favorite of noted fraudster Alan Deshowitz, who says of her, "If a woman could be made pope, she'd be my candidate." Dershowitz currently advises Israel on the 'peace wall'. JTR Comment: How come Jews are everywhere? How come Jews have to have a hand in the Catholic pie, as everything? How come a Catholic stance can't be taken without the (overt or covert) influence of a Jew? If pro-apartheid Israel fanatic Alan Dershowitz sanctions her, she must be 100% kosher on the issue he most cares about. "]
Harvard law professor named to Vatican post,
By Scott S. Greenberger, Boston Globe Staff, March 10, 2004
"The Vatican yesterday tapped Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard Law School professor who has been the leading legal expert for gay-marriage opponents on Beacon Hill, as the highest-ranking female adviser in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II chose Glendon to lead the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which produces research to help the church establish its social policy. Glendon, a devout Catholic and longtime adviser to the pope, has made a name for herself as an articulate antiabortion scholar, and she was the first woman to lead a delegation of the Holy See, at the United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995. "The challenge of the church is to keep abreast of changes, but not dumb down its doctrine to the spirit of the age," Glendon told the Associated Press yesterday. Glendon specializes in comparative constitutional law in America and Europe, international human rights, and bioethics. But she has written on a wide-range of social topics, blending her conservatism on abortion, gay marriage, and other issues with more liberal views in other areas ... Alan Dershowitz, Glendon's Harvard Law School colleague and a supporter of abortion rights and gay marriage, described her as "one of the most brilliant and effective and moderate voices at the law school." "If a woman could be made pope, she'd be my candidate," Dershowitz said. "She brings to bear all the best of religion and secular thinking. Whenever I get upset about religion, which happens from time to time, I think about Mary Ann Glendon and I remember the virtues of a religious perspective' ... In 1970, Glendon married Edward Lev, a labor lawyer she had known at the Chicago firm."

[Per the above article:]
PUBLIC ACTS OF CONTRITION IN THE AGE OF SPIN CONTROL,
by Mary Ann Glendon, The Vatican (Jubilee), 1997
"[T]hough the Pope himself is careful to speak of sin or error on the part of the Church's members or representatives, rather than the Church in its fullness, that important theological distinction is almost always lost in the transmission. Sometimes the distinction is deliberately obscured as in the article on the papacy and the Holocaust in the April 7 1997, New Yorker magazine. Author Jarmes Carroll begins with what at first appears to be an appreciation of John Paul II's special relationship with the Jewish people. He recounts the well-known facts: Wojtyla's bravery as a young man in Nazi-occupied Poland, his grief over the Holocaust, his denunciations of anti-Semitism, his establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, his historic visit to the Roman synagogue, his sympathy to demands for withdrawal of the convent at Auschwitz, and his sorrowful admissions that "many Christians" were responsible for Jewish suffering ... Not only is it not, enough for the Pope to admit that "many Christians" sinned against Jews - nor that he has said the Church «always acknowledges as her own her sinful sons and daughters» - Carroll even objects to the Pope's mention of acts of heroism by individual Catholics in saving Jews. As for the New Yorker, it published this one-sided attack without requiring Carroll to give so much as a hint of the case against ascribing collective guilt to the entire mystical body of Christ. Did it occur to them that they might not get the whole story from one of the corps of Catholics and ex-Catholics who specialize in sniping at the Church? Did it raise any editorial eyebrows that Carroll relied so heavily on a notoriously disgruntled theologian? On the matter of institutional responsibility, my husband, who is Jewish (and yields to no one in his ethnic pride), observes that Carroll and Kung make the same deadly move in seeking to blame the "Church", as those who blame "Germany", for the Holocaust, or "Jewry" for the death of Jesus. This is, Edward Lev rightly says, the most dangerous sort of bigotry. Carroll's (and Kung's) real target seems to be the institution of the papacy, and their point of entry the doctrine of papal infallibility. If it was "the Church" and Pius XII that erred or sinned, they suggest, the doctrine cannot stand. But surely both of them recall enough theology to know that none of the historical errors or misdeeds of which they complain falls within the scope of the infallibility doctrine."

[Older article, per Dershowitz:]
Dershowitz Advises Israel on Wall Dispute. Students debate merits of Israeli security barrier in and around West Bank,
By ANDREW C. ESENSTEN, Harvard Crimson, February 24, 2004
"Palestinians challenged the legality of Israel’s West Bank separation barrier before an international court yesterday while the Israelis, after consulting with legal experts including Harvard professor Alan M. Dershowitz, refused to participate in the hearings. The United States and several European countries joined Israel in opposing intervention by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the highest legal authority of the United Nations (U.N.)—because they claim the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case. “I advised the Israeli government not to become involved in the case at all since it’s an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ legal proceeding,” said Dershowitz, who is Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School. In December, the U.N. General Assembly asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of the barrier, which runs about 140 miles in and around the West Bank. “The General Assembly already declared the fence illegal and they’re just sending it to this court for a rubber stamp,” said Dershowitz, whose advice was solicited by Israel ... . Dershowitz, however, characterized the 15-judge panel of the ICJ as a “kangaroo court,” likening it to a southern United States court during an era of heightened racial tension. “A Mississippi court in the ’30s could do justice in a case involving a white and a white, but not involving a black and a white,” he said. “The same is true with this court. This court could do justice in a border dispute between Norway and Sweden,” he said, but not between Israelis and Palestinians. The ICJ is not fit to handle the case because its judges take orders from their governments and because no Israeli judge is allowed to serve on the panel, according to Dershowitz."

[JTR contributor's comment: "Anti-christian art that's syndicated and published by http://www.newtimes.com it's in sf weekly and papers all over the country."Our comment: The Executive Editor of New Times (all its divisions) is Michael Lacey. (Possibly Jewish? Lacey is sometimes a Jewish surname.) President and CEO: Michele Laven.]
Jesus of the Week

[Another "alternative newspaper": what common thread to you see throughout this company?]
Michael Crystal Joins Chicago Reader as Publisher and COO,
"Contact Jane Levine, Chicago, Ill.—March 11, 2004;
Michael Crystal, former publisher of the Seattle Weekly, will join the Chicago Reader as publisher and chief operating officer in April. “We go back a long way with Mike,” said Bob Roth, president of Chicago Reader, Inc. “We know him well and we’re confident that he’ll fit well with our staff and our operation. We also expect him to bring some fresh thinking to the challenges we face in the future.” Crystal succeeds Jane Levine, who will remain with the company but step aside from day-to-day operations after ten years as the Reader’s publisher and COO. Crystal will also serve as COO of Washington City Paper, the Reader’s sister publication in Washington, D.C. Crystal and Levine worked together at the Seattle Weekly when he was vice president and treasurer and she was vice president for advertising and marketing. Crystal later became publisher of the Weekly and saw the paper through two important transitions, from paid to free circulation and from independent to group ownership; during his tenure the Weekly was sold by its local owners to Stern Publishing, the predecessor of Village Voice Media. "To say I’m excited about this job would be putting it mildly,” said Crystal. “These are phenomenal papers, put out by people that I have known and respected for years. I’ll be accepting the challenge of building on their current success, and I’m gratified that I will have that opportunity."

[Here you go, folks. Separation of "Church" and State, the way Jews like it. The Jew Klux Klan (Sue Klux Klan?) has Germany in a headlock, coming and going. Jewish Identity="Give me money." Say, the German Jews for Sushi probably need a couple million dollars also. How the Hell can Jews get away with gouging the German government entirely based on their "matrilineal descent?" If that's not subsidized racism, what is? Hitler chased this genetic stuff down, now it flip-flops and born "Jews" get money for it.]
In Germany, Reform movement could sue government over aid,
By Toby Axelrod, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 12, 2004
"The German branch of Reform Judaism is threatening to sue the federal government for equal treatment, saying it’s illegal for the government to offer financial support only to the Central Council of Jews in Germany. According to an expert opinion released Thursday in advance of a lawsuit, the federal government is required to support all branches of Judaism without prejudice. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder signed a historic contract with the Central Council in January 2003 that pledges the government to support the Central Council with $3 million annually. The money is supposed to be used for all streams of Judaism that define Jewish identity according to matrilineal descent."

Christian peacemaker denied entry to Israel,
Ekklesia, March 12, 2004
"A member of Christian Peacemaker Teams member has been barred as he tried to enter Israel and forcibly returned to Amsterdam Greg Rollins. was denied entry to the country at Ben Gurion airport in the early morning hours of March 11. "I'm surprised, we have a very strong court order , it seems the Israeli security people at the airport made a mistake," said Sani Khoury, with the law firm of Kuttab and Khoury. "Our settlement is in writing and it has the force of a court order. It says that there are no restrictions on Greg's entering Israel, any past restrictions in Interior Ministry computers must be removed, previous (attempted deportation) proceedings will not be held against him - no restrictions." Rollins was the centre of a case before the Israeli High Court last year when he challenged an Israel military order barring all Israelis and internationals from Palestinian-controlled areas. The order was rarely enforced but had a chilling effect on the work of Israeli and international peace groups. Rollins was arrested while observing the detention of a large number of Palestinian men in Hebron, and the ruling on his case held that the military order was too broad and should not be enforced absent any specific illegal activity. Kuttab and Khoury have asked for a reversal of the deision not to allow him into the country, from the Israeli Interior Ministry. If Rollins is not re-admitted, they plan on a "contempt of court" procedure against the Interior Ministry. Campaigners say this case will have an important effect on the continuing ability of human rights monitors to operate in the West Bank and Gaza."

Interesting Times: Finding a seeker,
By SAUL SINGER, Jerusaalem Post, March 11, 2004
"I wanted more: I wanted life." So writes Nancy Yos in the most brilliant, moving essay I've read in a long time. "On Joining the Jews" (Commentary, March 2004) should be studied like a guidebook and framed for its beauty. Why did Yos, as a 27-year-old suburban Chicago Catholic, married to a Catholic, convert to Judaism? Her article is chock full of lessons that the Jewish people should take to heart. Israel matters. Yos first noticed Jews at 11, when she "paid attention" to the rescue at Entebbe, on the same day as America's bicentennial celebration. After that, she read Anne Frank's diary five times. She soaked up everything her sixth grade teacher taught about Hanukka ... Yos could not understand, if Jewish roots were so important to its "successor" religion, why be "liberated" from them? ... Yos began by writing to the nearest Reform synagogue, which she found in the Yellow Pages. Two letters were ignored, so she wrote to the next-nearest rabbi, who answered and shepherded her through conversion studies over the next year and a half ... But the lesson here for Reform is that converts are seeking authenticity, not PC homogeneity. They aren't repelled by Jewish distinctiveness; it's what they want."

[What is this "strong feeling" to being Jewish by a Catholic pope? It is classical Jewish racism and allegiance to the Jew Klux Klan tribal spirit. There is no such thing as a "Jewish Christian." It is a conflict of terms, of religious ideologies, and this "bishop" knows it. Such a man, honored by the Israeli Knesset, and always under political suspicion by the Palestinian people, cannot be trusted.]
'Jewish Bishop' Aims to Reconcile Two Religions. Israeli Catholic Leader, born a Jew, is on a Mission to Reclaim the Roots of Christianity, [Offline paper edition]
by Ariel Figerman and Elana Sharp, Forward, February 27, 2004, p. 3
"Late last year in one of the churches in Abu Gosh -- a tranquil Arab village 15 minutes from Jerusalem -- Jean-Baptiste Gourion was ordained a Catholic bishop. The event would have been unremarkable were it not for one important detail: Gourion was a born a Jew ... According to Gourion, he found what he was seeking when he read the works of Simone Weil, a French Jewish philosopher who had converted to Christianity beofe the war. She died at the age of 34, but impressed a whole generation with her leftist idealism. However, in her conversion proces, she attacked Judaism in such a manner that many consider her a classic example of a "Jewish antisemite" ... Like Weil, Gourion converted to Christianity. Today, almosts 50 years after his conversion, the bishop still lives on the razor's edge between the two religions. 'I consider myself a Christian Jew,' he said. 'I know many people consider this impossible, but this is a strong feeling inside me ... Many Jews see a conversion as treason.' But not only Jews view Gurion with suspicion. His ascent in the Catholic hierachy and the acclaim he has received from the Israeli government -- he was recently given an award in the Knesset for promoting interfaith dialogue -- attracted the enmity of the powerful Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, the highest Catholic authority in the Middle East ... According to the Church's normal hierarchy, Gourion should have stayed under the Patriarch's supervision, receiving his direct orders like the other three active bishops in the area, whose jurisdiction covers Jordan, the Palestinian territories and the Israeli Arab community, respectively. But the pope instead created a direct channel of communication with Gourion that permits the new bishop to act indepedently, without the need to report to the Patriarch at all times."

[Michael Newdow is Jewish. Of course. (This article discretely avoids this fact, but other articles about Newdow are posted at this web site). Killing Christ, killing The Passion, killing God, or killing Muslims, the Jewish Banner flies high.]
Atheist Calls Pledge Unconstitutional,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), March 24, 2004
"A California atheist told the Supreme Court Wednesday that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional and offensive to people who don't believe there is a God. Michael Newdow, who challenged the Pledge of Allegiance on behalf of his daughter, said the court has no choice but to keep it out of public schools. "It's indoctrinating children," he said. "The government is supposed to stay out of religion." But some justices said they were not sure if the words were intended to unite the country, or express religion. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist noted that Congress unanimously added the words "under God" in the pledge in 1954. "That doesn't sound divisive," he said. "That's only because no atheists can be elected to office," Newdow responded. Some in the audience erupted in applause in the courtroom, and were threatened with expulsion by the chief justice. The subject of Newdow's right to bring the lawsuit had dominated the beginning of arguments in the landmark case to decide if the classroom salute in public schools violates the Constitution's ban on government-established religion. Terence Cassidy, attorney for a suburban Sacramento school district where Newdow's 9-year-old daughter attends classes, noted to justices that the girl's mother opposed the lawsuit. "The ultimate decision-making authority is with the mother," he said. The mother, Sandra Banning, is a born-again Christian and supporter of the pledge. "I object to his inclusion of our daughter" in the case, she said earlier Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" show. She said she worries that her daughter will be "the child who is remembered as the little girl who changed the Pledge of Allegiance." Newdow had sued the school and won, setting up the landmark appeal before a court that has repeatedly barred school-sponsored prayer from classrooms, playing fields and school ceremonies. But justices could dodge the issue altogether if they decide that Newdow needed the mother's consent, because she has primary custody."

Israeli Cabinet Member to Visit U.S.; Benny Elon to Continue Outreach to Christian Community, and Meetings in Washington,
U.S. Newswire, March 24, 2004
"One of the leading members of the Israeli government, Cabinet Member and Minister of Tourism Benny Elon will be in the United States from March 25-30 on official government business. His trip to the U.S. will include speeches to a Christian mega-church in Denver, Colo., on Sunday, March 28, and a meeting with Doug Baker, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Service Industries and Tourism at The Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 29. Minister Elon has in recent months visited Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Atlanta and other Bible belt cities. The Minister is also scheduled to meet with a number of Jewish and Evangelical Christian leaders during his Denver visit, as Elon is regarded as one of the closest Israeli leaders to the Evangelical Christians in the U.S. Minister Elon is co-chairman of the National Union Party, which has 7 seats in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and are members of Prime Minister Sharon's ruling cabinet. A member of the Knesset (parliament) since 1996, Rabbi Elon has served as a member of the Knesset Committees on Constitution, law and Justice; Internal Affairs; Environment and the Committee on the Status of Women. "I am visiting the United States to continue to spread the message that tourism to Israel continues to grow. America's bible belt is prime recruiting ground for tourism to Israel," said Minister Elon."

[Jews treat Christians like shit. Will anyone in the world lift a finger to help the nuns, priests and others in racist, apartheid Israel? No. Some fellow Christians (Christian Zionists) would rather piss on their own kind than roil the feathers of rich Jewish bigots who dangle their Christian supporters like puppets.]
ISRAEL: Franciscans and other religious treated like illegal immigrants,
For the first time in over 50 years, Israel’s government has refused to renew visas belonging to some one hundred nuns, priests and other religious. Now the Holy Land Custodian Spokesman is appealing to Churches around the world for moral and legal support. Jerusalem, Asia News, March 24, 2004
"There has never been a crisis of the sort in the 56 years of Israel's existence as Church clergy and personnel are deprived of visas to remain in the country. The crisis affects the lives and work of hundreds of priests, nuns and other religious who now must all live under clandestine conditions. They are subject to being stopped and questioned along the road and even arrested like illegal immigrants. Only last week, March 17, two Most Holy Rosary sisters were stopped by police and two days before that a Franciscan brother was also halted in his steps by security patrols. The point is that these persons have been residing in Israel or the Occupied Territories for years. Yet requests to renew their visas or receive one for the first time now gather dust in Interior Ministry offices. The visa issue is also a humanitarian problem. Some religious urgently need to leave Israel to be near their dying parents. Yet they can’t leave the country since they run the risk of not being able to renter Israel on their return. The policy to not remit visas to Church clergy and its staff began during the previous government when Ministry of the Interior was headed by a Shas party fundamentalist. Then one year ago when a Shinui liberal secular party exponent took over the position it was hoped that things would change. However, the new interior minister and other government advocates have gone back on their promises to Church officials. The visa stalemate also raises questions over the Fundamental Agreement the Holy See struck with Israel, an international accord now in its tenth year. The agreement recognizes the lawful right of the Church to bring in its own workers and carry out activities within its Holy Land institutions. According to the estimates of some religious officials there are at least 100 “illegals”, while the number is ever increasing as visas expire every day and are not renewed. The cases especially concern those who entered the country legally but simply need to renew their legal right to stay. The situation involves not only Church personnel in Israel, but in the Occupied Territories as well since to enter areas under Palestinian control they must first pass through Israel . In the past, bureaucratic procedures were smooth and transparent: priests assigned to serve the Church in the Holy Land had their visas automatically renewed every 2-3 years. Yet Israeli authorities have kept completely silent, a reaction some define as a “rubber wall”. At first Church officials supposed delays were due to simple bureaucratic errors and slowdowns. Yet now the phenomenon is too widespread, lasted too long and has affected too many people to be understood as such. Now the Church in the Holy Land risks not having enough religious to make sanctuaries, parishes, hospital and schools function well. And all this is happening in pure silence while the Israeli government utters not one single opinion or explanation and without any proclamation of new rules and requirements. Church leaders, bishops from the Holy Land and from abroad, have all turned to Israeli authorities for help, but have received only vague promises or answers. At the beginning of 2003 government authorities promised to discuss new procedures, but still nothing has come about. Fr. David Jaeger, a Franciscan father and Holy Land Custodian spokesman, told AsiaNews: “The situation here is really amazing –Kafkian, to say the least. We are dealing with a very serious problem indeed, one which is getting worse by the day. Promises made by top ranking government officials have not been kept so far. They won’t let us know their reasons behind the new policy. There are no official channels of dialog to bring about a resolution to the situation. For some time now the Catholic Church in the Holy Land has been appealing to the solidarity of other Churches worldwide. The country’s rulers must realize that the situation now involves the entire Catholic Church across the globe.”

[Bear in mind, we are in the middle of a great Culture War, the Jews who control the mass media versus Christianity, Islam, and those who want America turned back towards a culture of morality and dignity. The Jewish timing of this, per The Passion of Christ and renewed interest in Christian and Catholic roots, is poignant. We suggest that Mr. Greenblatt do a movie about the epidemic of corrupt rabbis (including sex perverts), Jewish domination of the pornography trade, Jewish domination of turn-of-the-century prostitution racket, Jewish domination of the "Russian" mafia, and on and on. There's much to choose from.]
Showtime orders film on Catholic Church pedophilia scandal,
SFgate.com (from Associated Press), February 26, 2004
"On the eve of a national report expected to detail the extent of sex abuse within the Catholic church, Showtime ordered production of a movie on Thursday about the scandal. The movie, "Our Fathers," will be based on a book about the church scandal written by Newsweek's David France. "We have no intention of making this movie exploitative," said Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's entertainment president. "But when I read France's book, I was compelled to make this movie because the majority of the public has no idea how widespread or complex this issue is or how faithful Catholics were deceived in such epic proportions."

[Sort of like the massive "Easter Demand" for Gay Marriage?]
Over 120 Jewish Leaders Sign Passover Petition for Marriage Equality,
U.S. Newswire, March 31, 2004
"Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) announced that over 120 rabbis and Jewish leaders from all over the country have signed PFLAG's Passover Petition for Marriage Equality. At this time when Jewish families celebrate freedom from oppression, PFLAG implores fair-minded citizens across the nation to work for the freedom of gay and lesbian families from the oppressive homophobia and inequality that mark their daily lives. This effort, organized by PFLAG board member Rabbi Emeritus David Horowitz, joins the enduring message of Passover with the hope of equality for gay and lesbian families ... PFLAG'S PASSOVER STATEMENT "Passover is the Jewish community's celebration of our liberation from slavery. Each year we recall our exodus from bondage and rejoice in our freedom from oppression. We also recognize that we are not entirely free until every human being is free, free from tyranny, free from prejudice, free from discrimination, and free to pursue the fullness of life. There is now an attempt to amend the Constitution of the United States of America in such a way that it would preclude basic civil rights from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of our community. We, all leaders in the Jewish community, deplore such an attempt and instead urge the president and members of Congress to protect the freedom of all that we might all celebrate our freedom together."

[More Jewish bleeding of the American taxpayer. The Jewish Lobby schemes, schemes, schemes. Americans are scammed into a world Jewish war in defense of Israel, and now Americans must pay for the angry world reactions against the Jew Klux Klan, both in the Middle East and America. If Jews in America want to build their synagogues and community centers as warlike fortresses in wealthy Jewish ghettos, we think ISRAEL should pay for it.]
As terror fears rise, UJC idea could help garner homeland security funds,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 30, 2004
"With Jewish organizations divided over the use of federal homeland security funds to protect Jewish sites, supporters believe they have found a way to assuage concerns over church-state separation. The United Jewish Communities, which is spearheading the effort to garner federal funds for high-risk non-profit organizations, is touting a plan to give the federal dollars directly to contractors, who would perform security upgrades at Jewish and other vulnerable sites. “By having the flow of money go from the federal government to the contractor, there no longer will be church-state concerns,” said Charles Konigsberg, vice president for public policy at UJC, the umbrella organization of North American Jewish federations. But some Jewish groups concerned that the program may trample on church-state separation aren’t supporting UJC’s efforts. “It’s a gimmick to avoid the issue,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s still going to be synagogues, churches and mosques asking for money.” On Thursday, lawmakers were expected to introduce bills in both houses of Congress authorizing $100 million to upgrade security at high-risk, non-profit institutions. The legislation is expected to have bipartisan support, though it’s unclear whether there is enough money for the proposal in the national budget. Under the plan, non-profit sites would seek qualification from their states’ homeland security departments. Each state then would submit a prioritized list of sites to the Department of Homeland Security. The federal government would decide which sites to fund and would enter into contracts with security firms that would administer the work. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is sponsoring the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives with Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash.), said he would not have supported direct federal aid to religious institutions but feels the suggested mechanism is acceptable. “It’s exactly equivalent to what we do in getting a cop outside a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur,” Nadler said. The bill, to be sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), would provide some of the $1 billion that sponsors estimate is needed to secure non-profit institutions. After last year’s bombings of synagogues in Istanbul and Casablanca, Nadler said, he believes the government has an obligation to help secure U.S. sites that are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Konigsberg said he believes the new system would expedite the process because money would be given directly to those performing the work. However, some lawmakers remain concerned that using contractors would make the process more bureaucratic — and that issue may put a hitch into UJC’s plans to roll-out the program this week. Some groups also argue that the use by synagogues or day schools of federal funds, even if they come through a middle man, violates the constitutional separation of church and state."

[This article also apparently appeared in the Washington Post. Here Israel seeks to destroy Christianity in the Holy Land. Israel and the Jewish Lobby have zero respect for Islam or Christ. If they can get away with murder (of Palestinians) all the time, they can get away with anything. America has become a Jewish country. Everyone is afraid of Zionism. Jewish Power and Money and their fraudster steamroller against "hate" (of Jewish hate and racism) does whatever it wants, shitting on everyone, anyone. The Israeli government "won't negotiate" anything because the Jewish Lobby and Zionism control American foreign policy.]
Israel’s Christian Problem,
by Robert Novak, Intellivu, April 1, 2004
"There is hardly a more resolute supporter of Israel in Congress than Rep. Henry Hyde, the venerable chairman of the House International Relations Committee. That is why his March 25 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell is so important. It is a plea to deflect Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's wall around the Holy Land from its planned position blocking the Scriptural pathway of Jesus Christ. "I fear that important religious sites will become museums for commercial purposes and will no longer be maintained as places of spiritual worship shared by billions across the world," Hyde, a prominent Roman Catholic layman, told Powell. As Holy Week approached, he asked the secretary's help to "ensure that the Stations of the Cross are not cut off from each other, preventing the normal celebrations of Easter and the commemoration of the last days of Christ." That raises the question of whether the Bush administration will confront Israel on this issue. Sharon's government last year abruptly cut off negotiations with the Vatican. Catholic clergy and laity from the U.S., inspecting the deplorable conditions for Christians in the Holy Land, have found the attitude of the Israeli military and bureaucracy ranges from uncooperative to hostile. When worried Catholics first visited Hyde last year to tell him of the havoc wrought by Sharon's wall, he told them to come back with proof. A delegation headed by the Rev. Donald Rooney of Fredericksburg, Va., and the Rev. John J. Podsiadlo of Baltimore did just that in March. They returned to Hyde bearing photographs, taken despite the objections of Israeli soldiers. "If we do not turn the tide of events," Fathers Rooney and Podsiadlo wrote after they returned, "Christian charity, sacred sites and the living Christian community in the Holy Land will be destroyed." The wall, the priests said, "could forever change the Holy Land and the people who live in and visit this cherished historic land." With corroborating evidence supplied by his own staffer sent to investigate, Hyde was convinced. In his letter to Powell, he laid out the problems created by the Sharon wall. An 8-meter high concrete wall will completely enclose the last passage from Bethany to the Mount of Olives, restricting the Palm Sunday procession from Bethpage into Jerusalem. Access will be blocked to the Sisters of Emmanuel Monastery north of Bethlehem. A proposed route of the wall will separate the convent and school of the Rosary Sisters. The process also is certain to accelerate the continuing Israeli expropriation of West Bank land still held by the dwindling Christian community there. Henry Hyde is no Israeli-basher. "I would never criticize Israel for building that fence," he told me. He said he is just trying to set in motion "some negotiations" to protect the Christian holy places. The problem is that the Sharon government won't negotiate. The Vatican charges that Israel has violated the 1993 agreement between Rome and Israel guaranteeing West Bank land owned by the Catholic Church. Sharon has refused to enforce the concordat. The Rev. David Jaeger, representing the Holy See, is a native-born Israeli citizen who has been working on this problem for 27 years but has run into the Sharon wall. The Israeli government pulled out of negotiations with Father Jaeger Aug. 28. The response to me from an Israeli embassy spokesman in Washington was "no comment." This state of affairs did not appear on screens of Bush administration policymakers until it was called to Hyde's attention and the congressman wrote his letter. Colin Powell, who clearly has not been enthusiastic about the wall, can be counted on to carefully study the problem in the Holy Land. But a dilemma faces Powell, Hyde and all official U.S. supporters of Israel. The wall manifests Sharon's policy of blood and iron, with severe collateral damage. While soldiers from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) overrun church properties, the U.S. taxpayer is paying for much of the $8 billion wall. The Christian pilgrim, stopped at IDF checkpoints, sees this graffiti at many places on the barrier: "The USA is paying for this wall." That underscores U.S. responsibility for what is happening in the Holy Land."

[For Jewish bigots, Christianity is the butt of a joke:]
Fix Your Crucifix,
USA Jewish,April 4, 2004
"Now that you know the crucifix you've been carrying around your neck all these years is a distortion of real Christian history, you must be consumed by worries (not to speak of guilt). Am I a true Christian, if I've been wearing this symbol of idol worship? Will God still love me? We have an answer to both your concerns. First, yes, you have been very bad for wearing this symbol on your neck and, yes, God is very angry with you and will surely smite you. But we can help. Mail us your gold crucifix and we will fix it for you, free of charge. Our expert jewelers will snip away the bits of historical distortion and will send you back an anatomically and historically perfected crucifix, with an image of Jesus properly impaled. Hurry and be the first on tour block to wear the New Crucifix, approved by many authorities. Send no money, it's on us!"

[Jews shit on Christianity with impunity. Modern Israel exemplifies bigotry, racism, "hatred," and all the rest. We need a constellation of $50 million watchdog organizations of the Jewish Lobby (patterned after the Jewish Lobby itself) to get things back on moral track. The Israeli-sychophant Jewish Lobby seeks to destroy Christianity in the Holy Land, along with the ultimate expulsion of Muslims and the strangling of Islam.]
An Easter story in Jerusalem: Israel accused of discriminating against Catholic priests,
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem and Peter Popham in Rome, The Independent (UK), 09 April 2004
"As it has on the eve of every Easter for the best part of nine centuries, a procession of clergy wound its way yesterday afternoon behind a tall silver cross through the alleys of Jerusalem's Old City from the Latin Patriarchate for the three-hour Holy Thursday mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The scene could hardly have been more peaceful as the priests, led by a traditional detachment of guards in pantaloons of the Ottoman era, arrived for the mass close to Christ's tomb. But the mass, of particular importance in the ancient diocese's calendar because it is the one at which its priests traditionally renew their vows, took place this year against the background of simmering discontent within the Church over widespread delays in the granting of more than 100 visas by Israel to Roman Catholic clergy. Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch, head of a diocese which covers Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the first Palestinian to hold the post since it was established in 1099, warned last Monday that the delays were an issue which "concerns the survival of the churches here". He added that they threatened "complete paralysis for the church which means it is an existential question". Senior Catholics in Rome and Jerusalem said yesterday the delays breached an agreement between the Vatican and Israel in 1993 guaranteeing the rights and freedoms for the Church in the holy land. The hold-ups, which have left dozens of priests without legal status in Israel and the occupied territories, mostly apply to clergy already in the country. But they have also prevented transfers within the diocese between Jordan and Israel as well as causing hold ups and detentions at checkpoints - of priests and at least one nun - attempting to travel between the West Bank and Gaza to Israel and vice versa. The majority of the diocese's 400,000-strong congregation are Christian Palestinians. In Rome yesterday, Fr David Jaeger, the official spokesman for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, said the fundamental agreement in 1993 had not yet been enshrined into Israeli law and that in August last year Israel had pulled out of follow-up negotiations designed to reach a detailed agreement on taxation and property rights for the Roman Catholic Church in Israel. He said: "This is a treaty obligation. In the '93 treaty is assumed a solemn treaty obligations to negotiate precisely such an agreement. There is no way to explain non compliance in such an obligation." Fr Jaeger added that in 1994, the parties had already foreseen a further agreement on the detailed arrangements on the entry and sojourn in Israel of international church personnel. The further agreement on visas and residence permits has not happened, and over the past two years, there has been an increasing number of cases in which international church personnel are not having residence permits routinely renewed. He said: "It is without precedent in international relations to walk out on a treaty obligation ... This is not just a legal matter: the fundamental agreement was signed in the context of a renewed relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people and it was the Israeli delegation that insisted on this being ... the context." He also suggested that the tax exemption which the Vatican enjoys by virtue of treaties and UN resolutions in the US and Britain only have de facto status in Israel. He said that bills of municipal rates had accumulated which if ever called in by Israel, "we would be wiped out". The Patriarchate said that of 138 people waiting for visas, 54 are from Western and Asian countries, while 84 are from Arab countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority ... The hold-ups have even drawn accusations from one priest, Father Robert Fortin - denied by the government - that they flow from a desire to reinforce the Jewish character of the state by reducing the number of Christians."

[Let's switch a word or two around so we can clearly see CLEARLY what we're talking about here: "'Becoming Jewish' is the second ugliest word in the English language to a Christian. The first is gassed. The third is raped."]
Baptism controversy flares anew between Jews, Mormonsm
By: JOE BERKOFSKY, Cleveland Jewish News (from Jewish Telegraphic Agency), March 17, 2004
"For years, Jewish officials have blasted the conversions as an insulting desecration, but the controversy is flaring anew amid charges that the Mormons have broken a 1995 promise not to add Jewish Holocaust victims to their International Genealogical Index. Church officials insist they've kept to the agreement. Even among Jewish critics of the policy, there is some dispute over just what the Mormon church originally agreed to, and what it has done wrong. But all the critics agree that, as Jewish genealogist Gary Mokotoff puts it, the Mormons should take Jews off the list. "Baptism is the second ugliest word in the English language to a Jew," Mokotoff said. "The first is gassed. The third is raped." Ernest Michel, a former executive vice president of the UJA-Federation of New York and chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, hinted this week at legal action. He broached the issue with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). "We have agreed to consider all possible options, including legal options, but we would much prefer to come to an agreement with the church in what I believe is, to all of us Jews, a very crucial and emotional issue," Michel said. Clinton voiced "concern" over the issue, Michel said. ... Rabbi James Rudin, who helped broker the 1995 deal as director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said the real issue is that Jews remain on the list at all. "Whatever Mormons want to teach their fellow Mormons to do is their right," he said. "But when it crosses over to people who are not Mormons - and who are deceased and never intended to be Mormons - we have to be a voice for the voiceless."

Christians barred from Jerusalem at Easter,
Ekklesia, April 13, 2004
"Christians in the West Bank have expressed sadness and anger that Israel has stopped them from visiting the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion to celebrate Easter. Reports suggest that thousands of Christians are also now leaving the town of Christ's birth and going abroad. This year, Easter coincided with the most important Jewish holiday of Passover, and Israel enforced a complete closure of the Palestinian Territories, fearing a terrorist attack. As worshipers from Russia, Greece, India, the Philippines and elsewhere streamed steadily into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located in the walled Old City, for an estimated 25,000 Christian residents from Bethlehem, it meant another year barred from praying at the Jerusalem Church, which is built on the site where it is believed by some that Christ died and then rose again. Bethlehem Mayor, Hanna Nasser, who has presided over a city re-occupied by the Israeli army, told the ABC in Australia: "It is depressing because Bethlehem has been closed now for 60 days, complete closure, 60 days. And not a single citizen is able to get out or visit if he doesn't get a permission. And although some of them, although they had permissions, yesterday and before yesterday they turned them, they turned them from the military checkpoints." Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb said Israeli authorities again knocked back his application for permits to travel to Jerusalem for Easter. "We applied now 45 days ago for around 100 people from our members and so far we haven't got yet any permits," he said. He went on to say that the Christian community were packing up and leaving Bethlehem because of the Israeli occupation. Estimates suggest that 2,000 to 3,000 Palestinian Christians have now gone from Bethlehem to the US, Canada, or Australia. Part of the problem is what some Palestinians call the "Apartheid Wall" - a "security fence" which Israel began building in 2002. Planned to be 700 km long it has been created to separate Israel from the West Bank."

[The following article highlighting "Christian anti-Semitism" appears in the Jewish journal Tikkun, founded and edited by Michael Lerner. We have somethng Mr. Lerner should, in all fairness, highlight on Tikkun's cover page. Here's testimony from Lerner's ex-wife, Nan Fink, who tried to convert to Judaism:
When Nan Fink (who "as a girl felt inexplicably connected to the victims of the Holocaust") tried to convert to Judaism, "vicious letters and middle of the night telephone calls threatened the Conservative rabbi with whom Fink initially studied for conversion. At her local Orthodox shul no one would even speak to her. When referred to an Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem, he informed her that conversion would cost 'only $8,000, a real bargain.'" [PFEFFERMAN, Do We, p. 8] Fink notes that: "I was ... having a difficult time in the Orthodox shul, where I have been going to services with Michael and his teenage son for the last few months. I had hoped to find friends in this community, hardly anyone would speak to me. It was not my imagination. One day an anonymous letter arrived, scrawled on light blue note paper, telling me that I didn't belong at the shul. Shocked, I quickly tore the letter to shreds. This was only a preview of what would come. A few weeks later one of the women congregants beckoned me to the side of the room after the service. I had seen her before, but we hadn’t spoken. 'Nobody wants you here,' she said in a stern voice. 'People are too polite to tell you directly, but that's how they feel. You're not welcome. Do you understand?' I left the shul weeping." [PFEFFERMAN, Do We, p. 10] In Fink's conversion case, noted the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, "sometimes Fink even 'caught herself buying into the implicit racism,' musing that a particularly non-Jewish friend was 'goyishly'' bland or restrained." [PFEFFERMAN, Do We, p. 8]
More on Christian Anti-Semitism, Confessions and Retractions on the Problem of Christian Anti-Semitism,
by Norman Ravitch, Tikkun, April 12, 2004
"Almost twenty-two years ago I had published in COMMENTARY an article entitled The Problem of Christian Anti-Semitism. I was then a faculty member still interested in advancement and was willing to do almost anything to be published. My editor at COMMENTARY, Neal Kozodoy, had me go through a number of hoops before my piece was accepted and I was certainly willing to accede to his requirements. These requirements were not of course to change my conclusions but to be mindful of the largely Jewish audience I would be addressing ... After some twenty years of assimilating the research of historians of biblical studies and anti-Semitism, particularly the work of Donald Harman Akenson and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, as well as the continuing controversy about Pius XII during the Second World War, I have reappraised my panglossian conclusions of yesteryear. The most appropriate place to place these reconsiderations would be in COMMENTARY of course, but with its current stress on the unity of ultra-rightist Jews and apocalyptic Christians in the defense of Israeli Likudnik and American Bushite imperialisms that would be the last place for my doubts and deviations ... Jewish authorities who have criticized the Mel Gibson movie are simply observing what we all really know, that the Gospels reflect an anti-Jewish animosity in the generations after the Roman Jewish war when Christians and Jews were competing for religious authority in Palestine and in the Jewish diaspora ... Thus the new Christian faith and the new Rabbinic version of Judaism became competitors for the allegiance of the Jewish people and of the Gentiles attracted to Judaism. By and large the rabbis confined their hostility to Christians within their own communities but the Christians proclaimed the deficiencies of the Jews from the rooftops of every city and town in the Eastern Roman Empire. There is no way that the negative view of the Jews can be ignored when reading or filming the Gospel story. In other words, don't blame Mel Gibson unless you know his motivation; blame the text. Catholic authorities and many Protestant ones as well have attempted in the last forty years to provide guidance to their flocks about the attitude of the New Testament towards the Jews. I think they have succeeded very much in curbing the belief that being a good Christian necessitates hating Jews. But there are limits to what can be done. Christians will not, nor can they be expected to revise the New Testament. All Christians can do is to footnote anti-Jewish accusations in their bibles. And footnotes are not always read. Movies can moderate or exacerbate the problem. Franco Zefferelli movie Jesus of Nazareth managed to moderate the venom of the Gospel stories by portraying many Jewish leaders and people in a sympathetic way as it related the life and death of Jesus, but I suspect Gibson movie moves in the opposite direction ... Certainly it is easier and safer for scholars and critics to attack Mel Gibson and his movie than to target the Gospels as anything but reliable history, but in the interest of truth and peace it may become necessary finally to stand up either for or against the historicity of the Gospels and also much of a particular biblical tradition. As long as the Gospel tradition remains sacrosanct the Jews will probably remain embedded negatively in the consciousness of Christians and ex-Christians."

[Jews are all over the map trying to get rid of Christ, God, Muslims, Hamas, Mel Gibson, "anti-Semites," and on and on. Perhaps Mr. Rosenauer knows the other famous Jew on the same track at the same time -- Michael Newdow -- suing to erase God? (Newdow's case is now before the Supreme Court. He's trying to excise reference to God from the pledge of allegiance.) Jews sue, sue, sue to manipulate the legal system to get their way. This issue is really quite simple. It's supposed to be a democracy. LET PEOPLE VOTE ON IT.]
Bradenton home of Jewish family suing school board vandalized,
Florida Times-Union, Aapril 14, 2004
"Vandals splattered red paint on the home of a Jewish family embroiled in a lawsuit over prayer at Manatee County School Board meetings. Steven Rosenauer, who filed suit in federal court Feb. 2 to stop the school board from starting its meetings with prayer, told the county sheriff's office the incident occurred April 9. According to an incident report, someone threw three buckets of red paint at the Rosenauers' truck, garage door and front door of their home. The Rosenauers two months earlier had also reported receiving threatening telephone calls regarding the lawsuit. In a short statement to the Bradenton Herald, Steven Rosenauer said he believed the vandalism "was a calculated act." ... The Rosenauers sued earlier this year after requesting the school board stop opening its meetings with the Lord's Prayer. School officials were supposed to substitute a non-denominational prayer, but the Rosenauers contend there have been repeated Christian references in those prayers."

[The Jewish paradigm (from a secular or religious perspective) for viewing Christianity is alleged Jewish victimhood. Hence Jewish hatred. But, then, the Jewish paradigm for viewing ANYTHING -- including their oppression of Palestinians -- is also a claim to Jewish victimhood. And also, again, hatred -- in this case against Arabs and Islam. Modern Jewish identity focuses on neurotic rage at the non-Jewish Other, categorically blaming the goyim for Jewish moral failings.]
Is Israel Anti-Christian?,
By Genevieve Cora Fraser, Al-Jazeerah.info, April 11, 2004
"Are Anti-Christian Attitudes at the Heart of Condemnations of Gibson’s Passion of the Christ and Conflict in the Holy Land? As millions of people across the globe celebrate the Christian Easter and the Holy Week that follows many will mark observances with a trip to the box office to see Mel Gibson’s much acclaimed and derided, The Passion of the Christ as well as to the church of their choice. But today the Church of the Nativity has an empty plaza and the Voice of America reports that Israel has sparked a dispute with the Vatican and other Christian institutions by refusing to renew the visas of some members of the clergy and church volunteers. “The Vatican's representatives in the Holy Land say it is intolerable that nuns and priests have been detained after their visas expired. The Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land says at least 138 Catholic clergy have not had their visas renewed by the Israeli Government. Hundreds of others from other denominations say they are in the same position,” according to Ross Dunn reporting for the VOA. Israel has offered excuses claiming that many of them are Arabs, and are undergoing special security checks. “Israeli officials say that is the cause of the delays in processing their requests to extend their visas. But other members of the Christian clergy who are not Arabs have been similarly affected,” according to Dunn. This begs the question, “Is Israel anti-Christian?” Since the controversy over Gibson’s film arose I have been keeping tabs on what has been said. I understand that some will dismiss the film due to the violent content of the narrative; others are dismissive of the claims of any religion and so dismiss the film. But as I continued to read article after article that spoke of anti-Semitism, I decided to see for myself. Because I too detest violence I went with a friend who had already seen the film and promised to warn me prior to the most horrific scenes involving the last 12 hours of the life of Christ. I was amazed to realize I was quite comfortable with the film, in fact deeply moved and felt a renewal to a faith I long since thought I had lost. Later I tried the experiment on my 86 year old mother who also detests violence and will refuse to watch many programs on television due to their violent content. Though she closed her eyes briefly several times and squeezed my hand during the most emotional moments, she openly wept and held on until the very end. She even sat through the film credit, not wishing to leave the theater until every moment of the film was through. Later my mother thanked me for sharing one of the most remarkable movies ever made, in her opinion. Mother told me she was thankful, not only to Mel Gibson for making this powerful film, but because she had lived long enough to see it. Recently Yasser Arafat watched the film at a private screening in what remains of his partially Israeli –demolished headquarters in Ramallah with Palestinian, Muslim and Christian leaders. According to the Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi, “The president did not feel the film was anti-Semitic.” His adviser, Nabil Abu Rdainah claimed Arafat found the film “moving and historical.” Abu-Rudeina added that “the Palestinians are still daily being exposed to the kind of pain Jesus was exposed to during his crucifixion.” A similar reaction was supported by Jerusalemites’ editor Amineh Ishtay, who claimed she had never cried as much as she did while watching this movie “because I became part of the story and felt how he (Jesus Christ) was inhumanly punished at the same time that he was tortured.” While Ishay watched the film she felt herself identifying with the scenes. “It came to my mind the Palestinian suffering and the cruelty they are living everyday,” she said. “The people who know what is happening in Palestine can understand what I'm talking about. The film talks about the human condition and suffering and how Jesus happened to be a Jew and at the same time how he was tortured by them. Some people consider the movie as anti-Semitism. Especially the Jews who are really upset and it will not be seen in Israel,” Ishay stated. “The film reveals the Jews' crimes against Jesus and the kind of pain he was exposed during his crucifixion.” Perhaps The Passion of the Christ will reaffirm the attitudes Palestinians feel toward the Jewish community for allowing their unmitigated suffering since the Al Nakba of 1948, and especially now with the virtual incarceration and torture and murder of Palestinians as Israel denies them basics such as food and water. However, as much as Palestinians and those who care about the cause of Palestine might view the film as metaphorical, I suspect the average viewer will see nothing of the sort. The film has only two categories of people, Jews and Romans. There are good guy Romans and bad guy Romans and good guy Jews (such as Jesus and Mary and some members of the crowd) and bad guy Jews. Besides, the overriding message is of love and forgiveness and anyone who doesn’t get that message must have fallen asleep and missed the point of the film. But, the Jewish community continues to be in an uproar. I was most surprised by the remarks of Uri Avnery, the head of the Israeli peace movement, Gush Shalom. Though he had not viewed the film, Avnery published an open letter to President Arafat, in which he claimed Arafat’s comments hurt the Palestinian cause. (Arafat’s published comments only said it was moving and historical, nothing about Palestine.) Avnery then explained how the descriptions of the crucifixion in the four gospels may not be accurate, but worse that the content of the narrative had caused harm to thousands of Jews over the last two thousand years from “persecutions, pogroms and torture by the Spanish inquisition, large-scale expulsions, mass and individual murders, up to the Holocaust in which six million Jews perished. All these were, directly or indirectly, caused, or at least made possible, by this narrative,” Avnery stated later acknowledging that Hitler was also influenced by pagan ritual. (As a rebuttal, Christians have also been killing one another for thousands of years, and the rest of the world has been at each others throats too.) As a Christian I was stunned by Avnery’s anti-Christian attitude. What I found particularly disturbing about his comments is the inference that the Christian narrative should be dropped altogether. In other words, let’s drop Christianity as a world religion so as not to further upset the Jewish community. This particular man of peace completely misses the mark in terms of the true Christian experience which is in the transforming power of love. According to Avnery, “The writers of the gospels were bursting with hatred of the Jews. That is not surprising, either. They were Jews themselves, as were Jesus and all the people around him. But they belonged to a dissident sect, which was considered by the Jewish establishment in Jerusalem as heretical. The Christian Jews were cruelly persecuted. As usual in such fratricidal struggles, this one, too, aroused burning hatred. This hatred found its expression in the description of the crucifixion.” In the past I have read articles about the Talmud, the religious training for Rabbis, observant and reformed Jews. I have always dismissed claims that the Talmud not only supports racism and hatred, but is the source of hatred directed towards non-Jews. But I now wonder about claims such as those made in “The Truth About the Talmud” by Michael A. Hoffman II and Alan R. Critchley. They claim that according to the Talmud, “Jesus was executed by a proper rabbinical court for idolatry, inciting other Jews to idolatry, and contempt of rabbinical authority. All classical Jewish sources which mention his execution are quite happy to take responsibility for it; in the talmudic account the Romans are not even mentioned.” John Anast recently stated in “The Talmud, Racism, Hatred and Anti-Christism” that American Christians need to reexamine their relationship with organized Jewry. Anast believes that any offensive racist Talmudic teachings should be removed from texts and that Yeshiva's which teach and promote hatred and racism be closed in the United States and removed from US soil. “Organized Jewry seems to feel that certain Islamic schools need to be addressed all over the world. It is therefore only fitting that Yeshiva's and its faculty and students in the United States be made to conform to the Christian doctrine of love and mutual respect,” Anast stated. If what Anast and others claim is true, as I now am beginning to suspect, then that may explain the intractable nature of the Palestinian – Israeli conflict."