A Christian View of Israel

This looks like a useful paper from Calvin Smith for those interested in Christian theology amongst you.

Consensus

After seven weeks without publishing a piece directly about Israel, Ben White has a new article about Israel entitled ‘Peace propaganda and the Israeli consensus’.

Ben opines:

The Israeli consensus then – even before the bartering and bickering over the freeze and unauthorised ‘outposts’ – is rejectionist: no Palestinian state on the ’67 borders, with the most important, strategic land of the West Bank confiscated on the grounds that the colonisation process is too advanced to be reversed. As this becomes increasingly difficult to conceal, it is to be expected that Israel will resort to such distractions as demanding Palestinian recognition of its ‘right to exist’ as a Jewish state.

He informs us that his piece was first published on PULSE, but for some reason doesn’t provide a link.

Well, here’s a link to his piece on PULSE Media.

While you’re there, why not check out some other PULSE Media articles?

• Get Out Of My Vagina, You Filthy Zionist!
• The Matrix of Control, From Israel to the World
• What Influences US Foreign Policy on Israel?
• The Self-Righteous Amongst the Nations
• Shlomo Sand: There Are Israeli, Not ‘Jewish’ People
• Sleeping With the Enemy – Zionism and Nazism and Other Kinky Collaborations
• What Hamas Should Do 
• Israeli policy as evil stupidity: Yeshayahu Liebowitz quotes (includes this gem: “Everything Israel has done, and I emphasize everything, in the past 23 years is either evil stupidity or stupidly evil.”)
• Untermenschen
• ‘Boycott, divestment and sanctions is the obvious place to begin’
• US: Israel’s puppet government
• Who Profits from the Holocaust?

Indeed this website is an appropriate place to host Ben White articles.

Eileen Fleming responds

Further to my previous post, Eileen Fleming informs me she was not aware she was marching with white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, which is fair enough. Read her post here if you want more info. Eileen Fleming, who has Jewish family who died in the Holocaust, wants nothing to do with these guys. I think in her own mind she can still justify marching alongside Mike Piper and Fred Tobin, but it really doesn’t look good to anyone, and will only harm her cause. If you march with fascists, you can’t expect to be taken seriously by Jesus Radicals-type anarchists.

As it happens I disagree with Eileen Fleming on a fair few issues, but she maintains she was at the conference to raise funds for Vanunu, whom she clearly cares about. Anyway, here’s one of Eileen’s videos, which is also an introduction to her e-book So That Was 54:

Should you take the “Jesus Radicals” with a pinch of salt?

Please read this comment from a prominent Jesus Radicals member before proceeding with the whole article. Jesus Radicals were unaware of Fleming’s activities with Tobin and Piper.

Here it is reproduced in full:

Hi,

I am one of the main people behind the Jesus Radicals website. We do not promote, teach, endorse or in any way link up with the ideas of holocaust deniers or anti-Semitism. You are absolutely correct to point out the influence of Jacques Ellul, whose writings continue to inspire many of us. John Howard Yoder is also a major influence. His book, The Christian/Jewish Schism Revisited, which laments the early split between Jewish Christians and other Jews, is another influence.

I was not involved in organizing the 2009 conference, but I am certain that the organizers were not aware of the things you pointed out about Eileen Fleming. From what I saw of her there, she did not say anything that denied the Holocaust, but her presentation was not well received and seemed to lack the sensitivity required to talk about race, ethnicity and class. She is not really an anarchist to be honest.

Here’s the original post; my concern about Fleming is expressed in the last four paragraphs.

Barthsnotes has a post providing more information about recent events at Gloucester Cathedral. As well as discussing Israeli preacher David Silver’s religious views, as does a commenter, Bartholomew also highlights that Hebden holds to Christian anarchist beliefs.

Keith Hebden is the editor of the Christian anarchist blog A Pinch of Salt. Hebden himself interestingly links to the story reported on This is Gloucester of his arrest and subsequent release without charge. Just as I was thinking that it seems rather odd to draw attention to ones’ own arrest without providing any further comment, I read a bizarre sentence on his blog in reaction to the arrest of CPT activists in Sweden.

Hebden wrote:
 

Whatever we do in the courtroom, or upon arrest, we are generating stories – like the prophets – that go beyond the actions we perform and take on a life of their own.

Whilst I’m of the opinion that getting arrested in order to generate stories is not the best way to get one’s message across, I can accept that this is Hebden’s position. However I wonder whether this affected Hebden’s decision to interrupt the service at Gloucester Cathedral. According to one eye-witness account:

The evening meeting was a worship service held in the actual cathedral (the nave, to be precise) and it was this that Rev Hebden disrupted in the manner described. At the point he made his protest, David Silver hadn’t even been invited to take the platform!

One also wonders whether Hebden’s calls for a boycott of Israel had anything to do with his opposition to Silver, an Israeli pastor, being allowed to preach in the Gloucester Cathedral. Hebden promotes this image on his blog and on his facebook profile:

 

For those unaware of the UK Jesus Radicals, Hebden’s religious and political views are of notable interest. Hebden has previously suggested that ‘Perhaps, in Britain, the Christian symbol of the cross should be replaced by the splintered skull. Why not, if the MPs insist on reminding us daily of their privileged use of the skull-smasher?’ Hebden has also cited recent protests and violence in Nepal as evidence that ‘There’s no such thing as a complete revolution, a utopian end-point.’

Keith Hebden’s Pinch of Salt blog has published an article by blog contributor ”AdR”, accusing Israelis of ‘blackmailing’ the pope over his Nazi background, whilst drawing attention to Israeli gas companies whose global bodies profited from selling gas for gas chambers to the Nazis. This appears to me an unfair and insensitive reaction to the Israeli complaints about the Pope’s words over the Holocaust. 

Hebden himself has described the story of two women who broke into a politician’s home as ‘beautiful’, as the politician had excessive expense claims. Hebden commented:

“So why aren’t Christians doing this kind of thing? Some are but few; most of us are just looking on in awe and a certain amount of trepidation.”

Aside from the Pinch of Salt blog, Hebden is involved in the Jesus Radicals movement. Ekklesia identifies Hebden as a spokesperson of the UK branch of Jesus Radicals. Whilst the Jesus Radicals claim to be Christian anarchists following in the footsteps of Jacques Ellul, a Christian anarchist theologian and French resistance fighter, there is perhaps more here than meets the eye.

Interestingly the USA branch of Jesus Radicals hosted a conference last month in August 2009, where Eileen Fleming was invited to speak. Fleming was banned from the Daily Kos website for antisemitism. However, the Jesus Radicals‘ promotion of Eileen Fleming seems to jar with the Jesus Radicals’ interest  in Ellul and his theology, given that Ellul was awarded the title Righteous Amongst the Nations for his efforts to save Jews during World War II.

Fleming, on the other hand, has marched alongside Holocaust deniers (warning: link takes you to Far Right website of former KKK leader David Duke) Fred Tobin and Michael Collins Piper in Washington:

Perhaps though, the Jesus Radicals were unaware of Fleming’s involvement with the Far Right. Nevertheless, it certainly appears insensitive of the Jesus Radicals to the legacy of Jacques Ellul. Then again, perhaps Christian anarchist theology is moving away from Ellul?

For those new to Christian anarchist theology, Hebden provides this ‘primer’ to Christian anarchism on the UK Jesus Radicals website.

Birthday present!

Following on from my one year on birthday post, it’s great to see Stephen Sizer basically admit that he’s still an avid reader. You couldn’t ask for more!

Seismic Shock: one year on

It’s been just over a year of blogging here at Seismic Shock, so just wanted to evaluate and review how this blog’s progressed.

I started blogging under the name ‘Mordechai Ben Emet’ and eventually settled for just ‘Seismic’ to reflect the blog’s name.

My starting-point for blogging was discovering the links between Stephen Sizer and sections of the American Far Right, the anti-Zionist hard Left in the UK and hardcore Islamists in Britain and in the Middle East. You can look back over the early posts in order to see this.

I have also considered the implications of Christian theologians such as Stephen Sizer and Anthony McRoy who chastise Christian Zionists for their apocalyptic theology, whilst praising Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite his apocalyptic theology.

I’ve also blogged about Ben White, a British journalist who rose to fame recently whilst defaming Israel and praising Christian anti-Zionist theologians such as Sizer and Colin Chapman. In recent months, White has gained notoriety for recommending the work of a Holocaust denier in a polemical book against Israel, banning Zionist Jews from his meetings and facebook groups, and for being alarmed at the arrest of antisemites who plotted to blow up a synagogue in New York.

It was the Seismic Shock blog that first picked up on Ben White’s infamous quote “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are”. Seismic Shock also revealed that Garth Hewitt of the Amos Trust originally came up with the idea to re-write Christmas carols with anti-Zionist lyrics, and I also used this blog to challenge worrying examples of antisemitism which found their way into the evangelical press.

My blog has examined the Sabeel network, the anti-Zionists involved in high positions in Sabeel, the Friends of Sabeel North America’s attempts to boycott an Israeli teenage dance troupe, and the Friends of Sabeel UK’s wordplay about boycotting Israel. I’ve also criticised the anti-Zionist Swedish Christian charity Diakonia for its rhetoric and links with the Sabeel movement.

As well as looking at Christians on the anti-Zionist Left, I’ve kept a close eye on Christians pushing fascism and fascist theology, which has coincided with the BNP’s rather unconvincing 2009 turn towards Protestant Christianity, and the rise of the BNP’s vicar-stroke-politician Robert West. I’ve looked at the BNP’s links with Italian neo-fascist Catholic outfit Forza Nuova, who have been known for their intimidation of Italian Protestants. I’ve also taken a look at fascist priests in Italy Giulio Tam and Floriano Abrahamowicz, as well as Hungary’s Far Right political clergyman Lorant Hegedus Jr.

All in all, I’ve been chuffed with the success of the Seismic Shock blog. I’ve had guest posts on Harry’s Place and CIF Watch, and I’ve been linked to by Engage, Modernity, NGO Monitor, Barthsnotes, Efrafan Days, Why Don’t You?, J-News Reader (Hungary) and Warped Mirror.

I have seen arguments and research which I originally posted on Seismic Shock appear in NGO Monitor, The Jerusalem Post, Ynet News, Front Page Mag, Turkish Weekly, Haaretz, The Jewish Chronicle, The Church of England Newspaper, The British Church Newspaper and The Spectator, as well as an allusion to my research in the introduction of Calvin Smith’s book on Christian theology about Israel. I have also written articles about the BNP and Christianity which have been posted on the HOPE Not Hate NORFOLK website.

I’m deeply indebted to regular commenters such as Modernity, Zkharya, Shrewsfan, Angry Anarchist, Bratanchik, Glasspole, Luke Evans, Paul, Dooley and CZ for the ideas and support you’ve given me. Thank you. I’m not sure what’s next for this blog, but I hope to respond to developments.

As many of you are aware, the prime focus of this blog is not on promoting a specific political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as there are far more capable commenters on this most complex subject. Instead this blog is focused on the political outworkings of anti-Zionist and antisemitic theology, as well as the misuse of Christianity by fascist thugs. Hopefully one day soon, of course, there will no longer by a need for this blog.

Curate arrested and de-arrested

This is Gloucester reports a surreal story about the arrest and de-arrest of Reverend Keith Hebden following a talk at a local church by Israeli preacher David Silver.

BNP’s Newest Recruit

The Centre for Social Cohesion explains.

Israel basher replaces another at head of World Council of Churches

Read more at Philosemitism.

Meet Robert Assaly

Robert Assaly is Chair of Friends of Sabeel in Canada, and an Anglican priest. He thinks that the Israeli Defence Force is Israel’s “Golden Calf.”