While your reference to Biblical texts are accurate, your recent history does adopt false meme. Rather than recite the last hundreds years, I'll take a short cut. Look at the names of the wars since 1948: Arab v-Israeli (Israel includes Jews and Arabs), 1967 The Six Day war (aka 1967 Arab–Israeli War), 1973 The Yom Kippur War (aka the Ramadan War, the October War,[60] the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War) the present war The Hamas Israel War. Notice there is no war named the Palestinian War. Why? Because the name Palestinian was not used for this segment of the Arab population until after the Six Day War. While the Romans and others on and off use the word Palestine, it applied to varied areas of land. As used by the British, most of the Palestine is in today's Jordan. There never was a Palestine for anyone else to colonize
The Jews did not colonize anything since we never left. Saying that the Jews colonized Israel is like saying the Iroquois colonized Onondaga Reservation in Upstate New York. Remember, the Arabs started all the wars including this one for the sole purpose to exterminate all Jews from the river to the sea.
I see no mention here, and that might because it can be argued that most of you didn't know the fact's a month ago;
It's now a known-known that OCT-7 was an inside job ran by ISIS ( Israels al-cia-duh ), that dozens of Israeli's who are ISIS members were arrrested near the operation by SHIN-BET;
...
First we were told that Netanyahu didn't see this coming, then we find out that he knew one year in advance; Now we find out this week that LIKUD invested billions of USD into shorting the stock market the day before OCT-7 and made a fortune on the adv-knowledge of OCT7
...
Knowing the above, how can any of you defend the action of the IDF and their US-MIL controllers???
Lastly, they killed people at a "KIBBUTZ" which is an Israeli commune, traditional real life classic Communist leaning Jews, but good people; No people that run&own Israel who are Zionist ashkeNAZI that created Israel in the first place in 1933 when HITLER by "Havvarra Agreement" shipped 60,000 NAZI-jews armed to the teeth to terrorize the Palestine population.
That is total BS. That's like saying George Floyd's family murdered him and Derk Chauvin wasn't even there. I suppose you believe George Bush was behind 9/11.
You conflate, your reduce, you fail to see the potential ally that has been trapped behind barbed wires and the terrorists (Hamas) who rule the common man with terror. "Moral calculus." Yeah, I like that. 100% accurate.
It is so incredibly racist (and depressingly predictable now) when ppl accuse black people of having “internalized whiteness” when they don’t desire to identify with permanent victimhood. He thinks Hamas might need to take accountability for their own actions, understands obvious propaganda tactics, sees the clear symptoms of an increasingly radicalized youth, and how this dim-witted ideology is manifesting in anti-white and anti-Jew hatred all over the place? Even though his job surely made him more familiar than most with these psychological processes? He is not a “real” black guy, I guess.
I was surprised by the anger in some of these comments because this article seemed like common sense to me. I appreciated the author’s unique perspective, as I haven’t heard from a bevy of black, Muslim, ex-CIA anti-terrorism experts who served soon after 9/11. Intelligence, a moral compass, and courage to speak the truth plainly, especially when it’s not popular to do so: these are a Holy Trinity in 2023 America. Let’s appreciate the people who still haven’t sold their souls to Qatar wherever we can find them.
So do the opinions of people, citizens, and members of a faith always totally not count if their job was to work for the CIA. I understand why you think this, but that seems to be equally reductive, simplistic, stereotypical thinking.
"When everything you believe is a lie, our job at the CIA will be complete" - Casey, CIA director 1991
1st of all there is "no such thing as ex-CIA", its a thing you take an oath for life; Secondly nobody says they're CIA unless they're a liar or a traitor, so which is the OP?
My guess is he might have had a 'contractor job' at the CIA, but he certainly isn't CIA, because denial is the order of the day;
I don't think anyone that kills anyone out of hate is any religion…calling yourself Muslim or Jewish or Christian while doing the things those folks aren't allowed to do…that just makes them batshit crazy…whereever they prey…
Stop making excuses for evil…its not religiously compatible with any manmade cult
Since I am mindful of the 2000 years of pogroms and oppression of the Jews and the fact that it was the Jewish press and money that got us blacks our civil rights in the ‘60s, I am not expressing anti-Semitism here but calming you in your fear of the nation of Israel losing the moral high ground.
Israel seceded that position in the Arb-Israeli War of 1948, and I am confident that Jews like Norm Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein will agree with me.
After that violence, of the 1,300,000 Muslims, 800,000 were forced from their land and exiled to occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. In Gaza, the occupants have lived like caged animals for decades: supplied polluted water, harassed with electrical blackout, kidnapped, murdered, beaten, denied freedom of movement and their own economy. Ninety percent of their livelihood has been from charity donations. Having lived under Jim Crow in my youth, I existed with more humanity!
And as a grunt from the Vietnam War who fought in villages as well as jungles, I will be damned if such barbarous destruction of Gaza is more publicized, as you state. I know death, devastation, and the inhumanity of hell when I see it, for I have been one of the players on such a stage. And, as such, I recognize it is being applied here with a hate and cruelty that I never saw in my war!
"Notably, in scripture, Moses ultimately succeeded in liberating the Hebrews once he confronted the Egyptian oppressors guided by God rather than by a politics of identity and a blind support of his people in their recurring squabbles with the Egyptians. "
Notably, in the Torah, Moses commanded his followers to commit genocide on the people of Canaan to conquer their land. Liberation isn't particularly glorious when genocide and tyranny follow. Moses proceeded to commit genocide on the Midianites, enslave all the female virgins, and then lead his followers to the edge of Canaan where Joshua carried out the primary objective of the conquest, ultimately committing genocide and enslaving the people of Canaan. Moses and Joshua as portrayed in Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Joshua are some of the most detestable characters in all of human literature. The fact that billions of people still ostensibly revere those books goes at least some of the way to explaining the irrational bigoted murderous hatreds that are fueling some of the horrors of the war in Palestine.
Let us look into the "scripture":
Deuteronomy 20:10
"When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Per′izzites, the Hivites and the Jeb′usites, as the Lord your God has commanded; 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the Lord your God.
Numbers 31:13
"Moses, and Elea′zar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these caused the people of Israel, by the counsel of Balaam, to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Pe′or, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
Joshua 6:15
"On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted[a] to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”
The "higher morality" you seek is not reflected in those passages. One of the lowest moralities ever put to page is found in those passages.
The entire Arab world despises Palestine, and they will not intervene
The escalation of the bloody conflict in Middle East continues. Israel threatens to wipe the Gaza Strip off the face of the Earth. Will Arab countries intervene to stop Israel from the genocide? NO
I see no mention here, and that might because it can be argued that most of you didn't know the fact's a month ago;
It's now a known-known that OCT-7 was an inside job ran by ISIS ( Israels al-cia-duh ), that dozens of Israeli's who are ISIS members were arrrested near the operation by SHIN-BET;
...
First we were told that Netanyahu didn't see this coming, then we find out that he knew one year in advance; Now we find out this week that LIKUD invested billions of USD into shorting the stock market the day before OCT-7 and made a fortune on the adv-knowledge of OCT7
...
Knowing the above, how can any of you defend the action of the IDF and their US-MIL controllers???
Lastly, they killed people at a "KIBBUTZ" which is an Israeli commune, traditional real life classic Communist leaning Jews, but good people; No people that run&own Israel who are Zionist ashkeNAZI that created Israel in the first place in 1933 when HITLER by "Havvarra Agreement" shipped 60,000 NAZI-jews armed to the teeth to terrorize the Palestine population.
Amen to this, Brother! A higher morality is what we need, but higher than what or whose? God's morality is already set, has been set for millennia, and yet - as you say - there are countless ideologues just waiting to exploit religious or political causes to their own warped views. Hamas no more represent Gazans than they do Israelis, and yet here we are. I have been questioning the morality of this conflict, and how it relates to the ultimate moral standard set by the ultimate moral arbiter, God, for years. Though I side with many conservative views, finding them aligned with classically liberal views, I fear I have become persona non grata on many conservative sites. At least here on FBT I am greeted with silence rather than outright dismissal. Israel is playing right into Hamas' hands; even as Israel wins this conflict in brutal might they are losing the war of worldwide public opinion. How convenient for their champions to simply label this as anti-Semitism and feel vindicated in their Palestinian identity politics. Israel needs to pay strict heed to the morality God has set down in all the Abrahamic traditions. Nothing less is at stake than, as you rightly state, freedom and dignity.
By the way, good on you for assessing the state of the world and making such a daring and eloquent statement with your life and talents.
It was in the Bible that Yahweh supposedly commanded Moses and his followers to conquer Canaan and commit genocide. The fictional god Yahweh shows no meaningful interest in freedom and dignity, only slavery and humiliation. You should read more of the bible to get a more accurate understanding of its perverse morality. I suspect you do not support this:
Deuteronomy 20: 10 -- "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Per′izzites, the Hivites and the Jeb′usites, as the Lord your God has commanded; 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the Lord your God."
That is the morality that is leading both the Israeli government and Hamas. Yahweh does not exist. And if he did, no human should revere him. The highest morality would expect nothing less. Although, understandably in a world that is largely ruled by those who idolize him, such courage is not easy.
It seems to me we've wandered far afield, in wanting to debate which God and which of his names is real. Yahweh surely exists, as does Allah. This is God. He is God. Or is it that you think only those who profess Islam and call on the name of Allah, may He ever be praised, is worthy of spending eternity with Him?
What I believe is the God who told the Israelites to be merciful to the foreigner, the God who had prepared to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people, the God who called Abraham to be the father of all nations.
This mercy and this compassion, this unity with all, leads directly to the Christ. I cannot defend or justify the harsh things God did for His people in the Hebrew scripture. These things bother me, too.
Just as some 43 were ordered killed by Muhammed, and hundreds of others of separate tribes. I mean no disrespect, but the aspects of God that are embraced and worshipped by many have some blood on their hands. Sadly, tragically, way too many of us extol these horrific scriptural reports of divine warfare as the only quality worth embracing.
And none of this is justifiable. This is the point of Christ: a new way is now made manifest. Blood and sorrow and the sword are forevermore relics of past misdeeds.
Now there is only Love to aspire to. The Spirit is Love. Which means Israel can do better. So can I. So can you.
That, my friend - and I call you my friend because I fervently desire it - is courage.
If you cannot defend the numerous atrocities Yahweh supposedly either committed or commanded in the Bible, you should probably question the relevance of his and his followers claims of compassion in that same book. Genocide of the foreigner is not compatible with compassion to the foreigner. The latter is but a lie or a delusion.
Jesus is just a permutation of that delusion. The theology of “Christ” is not love. It is madness. A loving god would not need to torture his son or himself so that he didn’t torture his other children. A god as powerful as Yahweh supposedly is in the Bible could only blame himself for anything his creation did. Having wrath at his creation, when he knowingly imbued his creation with the nature that would result in the behavior he didn’t like, is completely crazy. Murdering or commanding the torture and enslavement of babies of his creation because their parents didn’t worship him is insane. It’s in our nature(at least mine)not to worship such a monster. Yahweh is an imaginary abomination of genocidal lunatics. Humanity should not praise it.
Remember the Yahweh of the New testament is supposedly the same character as Yahweh in the old. Imagine if a thousands year old immortal serial killer and slaver began to describe himself as the messiah of love, demanded everyone never feel anger lest he punish them, and then staged an elaborate torture of himself for a day, and claimed he was doing it as a *gift* to forgive all of humanity for being bad and deserving of torture, and that he would survive the day long torture and come back later and punish everyone who didn’t like his “gift” for aeons and reward everyone who did.
That is the character of Yahweh in Christianity. It is one of the most detestable things ever imagined by humans. When people worship Yahweh, they don’t aspire to “love”, they aspire to being rewarded by an imaginary tyrant for obedience. In this case, courage would be to simply acknowledge a tyrant when it’s clear that’s what it is. Try loving the people supposedly murdered and enslaved by Moses, and commanded by Yahweh, and not revere their murderers and rationalize their actions. If you desire to have faith in the immortality of our souls or benevolent forces engaged with the universe, believing or idolizing the Bible is unnecessary. It was literally written by people who justified enslaving virgins out of self defense.
There are much better theologies imaginable than any with Yahweh in them.
I am skeptical you have any meaningful desire to be my friend. But I’d have no aversion to extending our conversation off the internet into the world of the flesh.
First, two apologies: for assuming you are Muslim. And for the difficulty I will continue to have all this week to reply to you. I am in a remote part of Quebec right now and getting a phone signal takes some doing.
I hope you don't think this glib, but you are misunderstanding the message of Christ. It is what propels me to seek your friendship and have conversations with both Palestinian-only and Israeli-only supporters.
It is not because I am commanded to do this (although I am) ; I do all this and more because I fervently desire it. I want to bring love and compassion to all.
I have been transformed. And it leads me to go where many dare not.
I don’t doubt that you understand the Bible differently than me. But I of course think you are the one with the misunderstanding. Your transformation is irrelevant. People claim transformation by following L Ron Hubbard. And being willing to go where others “dare not” has no relevance to the truth of any motivating belief. Alice Lakwena led the Holy Spirit revolutionary group in Uganda; she believed and taught that bullets that came at her and her followers would turn into water. Alas, despite their beliefs, and her followers going where others would not go, the bullets still killed them.
Whatever you are bringing, if you are bringing it because you feel commanded or inspired to by a character who is a genocidal tyrant, it isn’t “love” and “compassion”. You can of course call it whatever you wish.
under any relevant definition of love, it is not something we ought to bring to *everyone*, nor is it possible.
You don’t love me, nor do I suspect you have any desire to.
My theory is that you are deeply disassociated, and have little insight into your own emotions or motivations or behavior right now.
But again, I’d be curious to meet you in the flesh (of Zoom at least).
You're amusing! You're also arrogant, presumptuous and rude. I will add to that: angry and afraid. And for some inexplicable reason you feel that it is appropriate to proffer a psychological diagnosis based on a few social media commentaries. So I will add to this list: unethical. Does this make you feel good somehow? Justified? Safe?
Of course I have a different interpretation than you! It is my faith tradition, and my transformation. Just because two very different people speak of a transformative power doesn't mean they are in any way similar. That is identity politics at its core.
I'll tell you what I did to write this. As I roam up here in Quebec the cell phone signal comes in and out, and I will receive emails and messages. But that doesn't mean that the signal lasts long enough for me to respond. I was so intrigued by your last commentary that I went out of my way to get to a place where I can respond. And then my battery ran out while I was typing and I lost the entire thing! But here I am doing it again. Why? Because... well, you could use a little love and compassion.
I guess I could be grateful that you have taken the time to correct me from a lifetime of misunderstanding and mislearning. I mean gee, where would I be without your tutelage? 🙃
No friend, I am sincere. In my faith, in my understanding and application of it, and in my earnest desire for the two of us to connect. I am certain that you can teach me as much as I could teach you. But first- and I feel you're going to think me glib again- you need to get out of your own way.
Now I will be unavailable for several days, maybe until the end of the week. I wish you nothing but peace, growth, productivity, and warmth. Have a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
This statement of yours “we must not let militant political ideologues seize the moment” is idealistic.
This ideal doesn’t align with the reality of the human condition. The conflict and the world reaction is an example of the challenge. Israel if you only consider that last 100 years is an occupying power. The Jews if you consider recorded history have both a historical and religiously mandated right to the region.
The Muslim religion is an occupying power based on how the Moslem religion spread in the early days.
The bottom line is that most Muslims do not agree with Western ideals including Israel’s implementation of those ideals. They cannot coexist!
The question for the region then is whether you believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state (including the West Bank and the whole of Jerusalem) or whether the area should be under Muslim control. If you believe Israel should exist then a wall is necessary around Israel to defend itself. If you believe the area should be Muslim controlled, you’re just endorsing a never ending war between the existing Jewish people and the conservative Muslims.
The Temple Mount and Al Aqsa mosque being a issue that the Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims will never agree on.
One question for you as a Muslim. Do you endorse the Koran’s goal of the world being a Muslim Caliphate. Many Conservative Muslims believe that is the goal and Jihad is a validate way to get there.
Bottom line, good fences make good neighbors. Israel including the West Bank and Jerusalem will be constantly moving toward building a wall that excludes any conservative Muslim’s in the state of Israel.
That’s the unfortunate reality. Your ideal doesn’t deal with that reality.
While your reference to Biblical texts are accurate, your recent history does adopt false meme. Rather than recite the last hundreds years, I'll take a short cut. Look at the names of the wars since 1948: Arab v-Israeli (Israel includes Jews and Arabs), 1967 The Six Day war (aka 1967 Arab–Israeli War), 1973 The Yom Kippur War (aka the Ramadan War, the October War,[60] the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War) the present war The Hamas Israel War. Notice there is no war named the Palestinian War. Why? Because the name Palestinian was not used for this segment of the Arab population until after the Six Day War. While the Romans and others on and off use the word Palestine, it applied to varied areas of land. As used by the British, most of the Palestine is in today's Jordan. There never was a Palestine for anyone else to colonize
The Jews did not colonize anything since we never left. Saying that the Jews colonized Israel is like saying the Iroquois colonized Onondaga Reservation in Upstate New York. Remember, the Arabs started all the wars including this one for the sole purpose to exterminate all Jews from the river to the sea.
I see no mention here, and that might because it can be argued that most of you didn't know the fact's a month ago;
It's now a known-known that OCT-7 was an inside job ran by ISIS ( Israels al-cia-duh ), that dozens of Israeli's who are ISIS members were arrrested near the operation by SHIN-BET;
...
First we were told that Netanyahu didn't see this coming, then we find out that he knew one year in advance; Now we find out this week that LIKUD invested billions of USD into shorting the stock market the day before OCT-7 and made a fortune on the adv-knowledge of OCT7
...
Knowing the above, how can any of you defend the action of the IDF and their US-MIL controllers???
Lastly, they killed people at a "KIBBUTZ" which is an Israeli commune, traditional real life classic Communist leaning Jews, but good people; No people that run&own Israel who are Zionist ashkeNAZI that created Israel in the first place in 1933 when HITLER by "Havvarra Agreement" shipped 60,000 NAZI-jews armed to the teeth to terrorize the Palestine population.
That is total BS. That's like saying George Floyd's family murdered him and Derk Chauvin wasn't even there. I suppose you believe George Bush was behind 9/11.
Not at all
Israel created HAMAS
ISIS destroyed the Kibbutz
IDF by helicopter killed most of the people fleeing the kibbutz on foot or car or motorcycle
...
Take your jew-shit elsewhere, Chauvin&Floyd don't have fuck all to do with this conversation
Do you believe Moses and his followers committed genocide on the Midianites and enslaved female virgins out of self-defense in the Book of Numbers?
Do you believe the followers of Moses colonized the land of Canaan and committed genocide in the Book of Joshua?
You conflate, your reduce, you fail to see the potential ally that has been trapped behind barbed wires and the terrorists (Hamas) who rule the common man with terror. "Moral calculus." Yeah, I like that. 100% accurate.
It is so incredibly racist (and depressingly predictable now) when ppl accuse black people of having “internalized whiteness” when they don’t desire to identify with permanent victimhood. He thinks Hamas might need to take accountability for their own actions, understands obvious propaganda tactics, sees the clear symptoms of an increasingly radicalized youth, and how this dim-witted ideology is manifesting in anti-white and anti-Jew hatred all over the place? Even though his job surely made him more familiar than most with these psychological processes? He is not a “real” black guy, I guess.
I was surprised by the anger in some of these comments because this article seemed like common sense to me. I appreciated the author’s unique perspective, as I haven’t heard from a bevy of black, Muslim, ex-CIA anti-terrorism experts who served soon after 9/11. Intelligence, a moral compass, and courage to speak the truth plainly, especially when it’s not popular to do so: these are a Holy Trinity in 2023 America. Let’s appreciate the people who still haven’t sold their souls to Qatar wherever we can find them.
Thank you. This was an interesting viewpoint on this topic that I haven’t yet seen.
Nothing like the opinions of an "ex"-CIA worker to go with my morning coffee. And what a prime example of Free Thought!
I feel enlightened.
So do the opinions of people, citizens, and members of a faith always totally not count if their job was to work for the CIA. I understand why you think this, but that seems to be equally reductive, simplistic, stereotypical thinking.
"When everything you believe is a lie, our job at the CIA will be complete" - Casey, CIA director 1991
1st of all there is "no such thing as ex-CIA", its a thing you take an oath for life; Secondly nobody says they're CIA unless they're a liar or a traitor, so which is the OP?
My guess is he might have had a 'contractor job' at the CIA, but he certainly isn't CIA, because denial is the order of the day;
I don't think anyone that kills anyone out of hate is any religion…calling yourself Muslim or Jewish or Christian while doing the things those folks aren't allowed to do…that just makes them batshit crazy…whereever they prey…
Stop making excuses for evil…its not religiously compatible with any manmade cult
Since I am mindful of the 2000 years of pogroms and oppression of the Jews and the fact that it was the Jewish press and money that got us blacks our civil rights in the ‘60s, I am not expressing anti-Semitism here but calming you in your fear of the nation of Israel losing the moral high ground.
Israel seceded that position in the Arb-Israeli War of 1948, and I am confident that Jews like Norm Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein will agree with me.
After that violence, of the 1,300,000 Muslims, 800,000 were forced from their land and exiled to occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. In Gaza, the occupants have lived like caged animals for decades: supplied polluted water, harassed with electrical blackout, kidnapped, murdered, beaten, denied freedom of movement and their own economy. Ninety percent of their livelihood has been from charity donations. Having lived under Jim Crow in my youth, I existed with more humanity!
And as a grunt from the Vietnam War who fought in villages as well as jungles, I will be damned if such barbarous destruction of Gaza is more publicized, as you state. I know death, devastation, and the inhumanity of hell when I see it, for I have been one of the players on such a stage. And, as such, I recognize it is being applied here with a hate and cruelty that I never saw in my war!
Those jews you just mentioned are all known compromised pedophiles that did the Epstein Island 'lolita express' package;
If your confidence racket has put pedophiles on a mantle your arguments are probably suspect;
"Notably, in scripture, Moses ultimately succeeded in liberating the Hebrews once he confronted the Egyptian oppressors guided by God rather than by a politics of identity and a blind support of his people in their recurring squabbles with the Egyptians. "
Notably, in the Torah, Moses commanded his followers to commit genocide on the people of Canaan to conquer their land. Liberation isn't particularly glorious when genocide and tyranny follow. Moses proceeded to commit genocide on the Midianites, enslave all the female virgins, and then lead his followers to the edge of Canaan where Joshua carried out the primary objective of the conquest, ultimately committing genocide and enslaving the people of Canaan. Moses and Joshua as portrayed in Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Joshua are some of the most detestable characters in all of human literature. The fact that billions of people still ostensibly revere those books goes at least some of the way to explaining the irrational bigoted murderous hatreds that are fueling some of the horrors of the war in Palestine.
Let us look into the "scripture":
Deuteronomy 20:10
"When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Per′izzites, the Hivites and the Jeb′usites, as the Lord your God has commanded; 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the Lord your God.
Numbers 31:13
"Moses, and Elea′zar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these caused the people of Israel, by the counsel of Balaam, to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Pe′or, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
Joshua 6:15
"On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted[a] to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”
The "higher morality" you seek is not reflected in those passages. One of the lowest moralities ever put to page is found in those passages.
Do you disagree?
The entire Arab world despises Palestine, and they will not intervene
The escalation of the bloody conflict in Middle East continues. Israel threatens to wipe the Gaza Strip off the face of the Earth. Will Arab countries intervene to stop Israel from the genocide? NO
https://bilbobitch.substack.com/p/the-entire-arab-world-despises-palestine
I see no mention here, and that might because it can be argued that most of you didn't know the fact's a month ago;
It's now a known-known that OCT-7 was an inside job ran by ISIS ( Israels al-cia-duh ), that dozens of Israeli's who are ISIS members were arrrested near the operation by SHIN-BET;
...
First we were told that Netanyahu didn't see this coming, then we find out that he knew one year in advance; Now we find out this week that LIKUD invested billions of USD into shorting the stock market the day before OCT-7 and made a fortune on the adv-knowledge of OCT7
...
Knowing the above, how can any of you defend the action of the IDF and their US-MIL controllers???
Lastly, they killed people at a "KIBBUTZ" which is an Israeli commune, traditional real life classic Communist leaning Jews, but good people; No people that run&own Israel who are Zionist ashkeNAZI that created Israel in the first place in 1933 when HITLER by "Havvarra Agreement" shipped 60,000 NAZI-jews armed to the teeth to terrorize the Palestine population.
Anytime I see nonsense like this it is clear you are one of those people with a 98 IQ desperately trying to stretch it to 100.
Any time you need to insert the color of your skin as an important descriptive of your rhetoric, I’m done reading.
Amen to this, Brother! A higher morality is what we need, but higher than what or whose? God's morality is already set, has been set for millennia, and yet - as you say - there are countless ideologues just waiting to exploit religious or political causes to their own warped views. Hamas no more represent Gazans than they do Israelis, and yet here we are. I have been questioning the morality of this conflict, and how it relates to the ultimate moral standard set by the ultimate moral arbiter, God, for years. Though I side with many conservative views, finding them aligned with classically liberal views, I fear I have become persona non grata on many conservative sites. At least here on FBT I am greeted with silence rather than outright dismissal. Israel is playing right into Hamas' hands; even as Israel wins this conflict in brutal might they are losing the war of worldwide public opinion. How convenient for their champions to simply label this as anti-Semitism and feel vindicated in their Palestinian identity politics. Israel needs to pay strict heed to the morality God has set down in all the Abrahamic traditions. Nothing less is at stake than, as you rightly state, freedom and dignity.
By the way, good on you for assessing the state of the world and making such a daring and eloquent statement with your life and talents.
It was in the Bible that Yahweh supposedly commanded Moses and his followers to conquer Canaan and commit genocide. The fictional god Yahweh shows no meaningful interest in freedom and dignity, only slavery and humiliation. You should read more of the bible to get a more accurate understanding of its perverse morality. I suspect you do not support this:
Deuteronomy 20: 10 -- "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Per′izzites, the Hivites and the Jeb′usites, as the Lord your God has commanded; 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the Lord your God."
That is the morality that is leading both the Israeli government and Hamas. Yahweh does not exist. And if he did, no human should revere him. The highest morality would expect nothing less. Although, understandably in a world that is largely ruled by those who idolize him, such courage is not easy.
Well...!
It seems to me we've wandered far afield, in wanting to debate which God and which of his names is real. Yahweh surely exists, as does Allah. This is God. He is God. Or is it that you think only those who profess Islam and call on the name of Allah, may He ever be praised, is worthy of spending eternity with Him?
What I believe is the God who told the Israelites to be merciful to the foreigner, the God who had prepared to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people, the God who called Abraham to be the father of all nations.
This mercy and this compassion, this unity with all, leads directly to the Christ. I cannot defend or justify the harsh things God did for His people in the Hebrew scripture. These things bother me, too.
Just as some 43 were ordered killed by Muhammed, and hundreds of others of separate tribes. I mean no disrespect, but the aspects of God that are embraced and worshipped by many have some blood on their hands. Sadly, tragically, way too many of us extol these horrific scriptural reports of divine warfare as the only quality worth embracing.
And none of this is justifiable. This is the point of Christ: a new way is now made manifest. Blood and sorrow and the sword are forevermore relics of past misdeeds.
Now there is only Love to aspire to. The Spirit is Love. Which means Israel can do better. So can I. So can you.
That, my friend - and I call you my friend because I fervently desire it - is courage.
I am not Muslim.
If you cannot defend the numerous atrocities Yahweh supposedly either committed or commanded in the Bible, you should probably question the relevance of his and his followers claims of compassion in that same book. Genocide of the foreigner is not compatible with compassion to the foreigner. The latter is but a lie or a delusion.
Jesus is just a permutation of that delusion. The theology of “Christ” is not love. It is madness. A loving god would not need to torture his son or himself so that he didn’t torture his other children. A god as powerful as Yahweh supposedly is in the Bible could only blame himself for anything his creation did. Having wrath at his creation, when he knowingly imbued his creation with the nature that would result in the behavior he didn’t like, is completely crazy. Murdering or commanding the torture and enslavement of babies of his creation because their parents didn’t worship him is insane. It’s in our nature(at least mine)not to worship such a monster. Yahweh is an imaginary abomination of genocidal lunatics. Humanity should not praise it.
Remember the Yahweh of the New testament is supposedly the same character as Yahweh in the old. Imagine if a thousands year old immortal serial killer and slaver began to describe himself as the messiah of love, demanded everyone never feel anger lest he punish them, and then staged an elaborate torture of himself for a day, and claimed he was doing it as a *gift* to forgive all of humanity for being bad and deserving of torture, and that he would survive the day long torture and come back later and punish everyone who didn’t like his “gift” for aeons and reward everyone who did.
That is the character of Yahweh in Christianity. It is one of the most detestable things ever imagined by humans. When people worship Yahweh, they don’t aspire to “love”, they aspire to being rewarded by an imaginary tyrant for obedience. In this case, courage would be to simply acknowledge a tyrant when it’s clear that’s what it is. Try loving the people supposedly murdered and enslaved by Moses, and commanded by Yahweh, and not revere their murderers and rationalize their actions. If you desire to have faith in the immortality of our souls or benevolent forces engaged with the universe, believing or idolizing the Bible is unnecessary. It was literally written by people who justified enslaving virgins out of self defense.
There are much better theologies imaginable than any with Yahweh in them.
I am skeptical you have any meaningful desire to be my friend. But I’d have no aversion to extending our conversation off the internet into the world of the flesh.
Hi,
First, two apologies: for assuming you are Muslim. And for the difficulty I will continue to have all this week to reply to you. I am in a remote part of Quebec right now and getting a phone signal takes some doing.
I hope you don't think this glib, but you are misunderstanding the message of Christ. It is what propels me to seek your friendship and have conversations with both Palestinian-only and Israeli-only supporters.
It is not because I am commanded to do this (although I am) ; I do all this and more because I fervently desire it. I want to bring love and compassion to all.
I have been transformed. And it leads me to go where many dare not.
I don’t doubt that you understand the Bible differently than me. But I of course think you are the one with the misunderstanding. Your transformation is irrelevant. People claim transformation by following L Ron Hubbard. And being willing to go where others “dare not” has no relevance to the truth of any motivating belief. Alice Lakwena led the Holy Spirit revolutionary group in Uganda; she believed and taught that bullets that came at her and her followers would turn into water. Alas, despite their beliefs, and her followers going where others would not go, the bullets still killed them.
Whatever you are bringing, if you are bringing it because you feel commanded or inspired to by a character who is a genocidal tyrant, it isn’t “love” and “compassion”. You can of course call it whatever you wish.
under any relevant definition of love, it is not something we ought to bring to *everyone*, nor is it possible.
You don’t love me, nor do I suspect you have any desire to.
My theory is that you are deeply disassociated, and have little insight into your own emotions or motivations or behavior right now.
But again, I’d be curious to meet you in the flesh (of Zoom at least).
You're amusing! You're also arrogant, presumptuous and rude. I will add to that: angry and afraid. And for some inexplicable reason you feel that it is appropriate to proffer a psychological diagnosis based on a few social media commentaries. So I will add to this list: unethical. Does this make you feel good somehow? Justified? Safe?
Of course I have a different interpretation than you! It is my faith tradition, and my transformation. Just because two very different people speak of a transformative power doesn't mean they are in any way similar. That is identity politics at its core.
I'll tell you what I did to write this. As I roam up here in Quebec the cell phone signal comes in and out, and I will receive emails and messages. But that doesn't mean that the signal lasts long enough for me to respond. I was so intrigued by your last commentary that I went out of my way to get to a place where I can respond. And then my battery ran out while I was typing and I lost the entire thing! But here I am doing it again. Why? Because... well, you could use a little love and compassion.
I guess I could be grateful that you have taken the time to correct me from a lifetime of misunderstanding and mislearning. I mean gee, where would I be without your tutelage? 🙃
No friend, I am sincere. In my faith, in my understanding and application of it, and in my earnest desire for the two of us to connect. I am certain that you can teach me as much as I could teach you. But first- and I feel you're going to think me glib again- you need to get out of your own way.
Now I will be unavailable for several days, maybe until the end of the week. I wish you nothing but peace, growth, productivity, and warmth. Have a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
Great article!
This statement of yours “we must not let militant political ideologues seize the moment” is idealistic.
This ideal doesn’t align with the reality of the human condition. The conflict and the world reaction is an example of the challenge. Israel if you only consider that last 100 years is an occupying power. The Jews if you consider recorded history have both a historical and religiously mandated right to the region.
The Muslim religion is an occupying power based on how the Moslem religion spread in the early days.
The bottom line is that most Muslims do not agree with Western ideals including Israel’s implementation of those ideals. They cannot coexist!
The question for the region then is whether you believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state (including the West Bank and the whole of Jerusalem) or whether the area should be under Muslim control. If you believe Israel should exist then a wall is necessary around Israel to defend itself. If you believe the area should be Muslim controlled, you’re just endorsing a never ending war between the existing Jewish people and the conservative Muslims.
The Temple Mount and Al Aqsa mosque being a issue that the Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims will never agree on.
One question for you as a Muslim. Do you endorse the Koran’s goal of the world being a Muslim Caliphate. Many Conservative Muslims believe that is the goal and Jihad is a validate way to get there.
Bottom line, good fences make good neighbors. Israel including the West Bank and Jerusalem will be constantly moving toward building a wall that excludes any conservative Muslim’s in the state of Israel.
That’s the unfortunate reality. Your ideal doesn’t deal with that reality.
If you still think that 9/11 was perpetrated by foreigners, then please watch this: https://open.substack.com/pub/richardgage911/p/parallels-911-and-covid-the-video
Dowud, will you please elaborate on this idea?
you don't (yet) know what genocide is...soon you will.