war

Israel in the realm of the undead

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Terrorism has been the blasphemous and legal rationale for government success in most of modern history.  Vigilante self-defense anywhere is not much different from annihilation attempts anywhere.  Observers in the 21st century may be unaware that the land claimed by Israelis and Palestinians was once the site of ancient Israelite genocide. The rule of law has not stabilized the progress of humanity despite millennia of opportunity. Courts of justice and the sacred halls of governance are too often the insidious agents of terror, sickness, and injustice. Those who pin their hopes of peace and success on conducting wars are most miserable and bankrupt.

January 16, 2025 is a day of ultimate evil.  After almlost two years of Israel’s slaughter, massacre and assassination of Palestinians the announcement of a deal is the epitome of absolute treachery and inhumanity.  No-one should think that Israel has done anything beside tickled the hate, anger and patriotism of a sector of Israeli society. The people who are not idealogically connected to the State of Israel want Jerusalem to be a cosmppolitan city, and they stand in the best prophetic tradition. Shedding innocent blood anywhere is a cause for the divine sword to exact its due. The cycle of making widosw and orphans continues with the gravitas of the gullible.

You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. Exodus 22:22, If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, Exodus 22:23, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. Exodus 22:24,

What has been agreed

  • Cease fire, while Israel reserves the right to have its Air force strike anywhere at any time
  • Hostage deal, which is usually an opportunity for Israel to release hundreds of not thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention
  • No two-state solution. What?

Who are the parties at the table in the January 2025 Israel-Hamas deal?

We can recognize terrorist scoundrels in government and elsewhere by what they do, and Israel’s lengthy catastrophic assault on Gaza was not a war.  Hamas virtually disappeared after the October massacre of Israeli citizens.  When Israel embarked on its war to erase Hamas, the legitimate goverment of Gaza, it could not, with a straight face, tell the world that it would not target and erase Palestinians who are innocent of violence against Israel. It could not, and it did not. What the world has seen is the razing of Gaza and the inflicting of a catastrophic medical disaster on Gazans.

  • If Hamas is decimated, decapitated, and its offensive capacity reduced, who is at the table?
  • What is the power behind the parties as they each ink a deal?

Who then is at the table? Dead Hamas operatives? Hamas allies? Wiping Hamas from the map is as evil a goal as Hamas’ attempts to wipe Israelis from the map. Did any goverment. beside South Africa, ever say that Israel is a terrorist and racist nation? Does anyone have to wonder what God’s take is, when the ancient Jewish people lived side by side for millennia with ancient Canaanites who, according to the edict for Israelite possession of Canaan, were the targets of a genocidal campaign? Israelis and their sworn enemies (like Hamas, the Iranians, and the Yemenis) are heading up the creek without paddles.

Are those people negotiating for Hamas perfectly neutral entities? Now, tell the world, which commentators and observers did not anticipate Israel reporting that Hamas is violating the deal?  Which Israeli voter did not know that one of the micro-parties in the coalition that underpins the Netanyahu regime would exploit the agreement because Hamas survives another genocidal assault in the Holy Land? “Once and for all”, and “never again” are expressions of another reality, not banners of a just and peaceful society.  An ear tingling era is dawning, and it is not a divine response to violence.  We know what that looks like. The brazen lies, thefts and destruction that have defined the devil’s career and character are rolling into high gear in the public eye with narration from the so-called legacy media.

All the heroes of Israel’s past are tapping her gently on the shoulder saying “Wake up”. Judging from the vehemence of settler policy, and the international complicity, the sleep seems to be turning to stupor. Governments like Canada and the US can try to stifle the voices of protest and opposition to Israel’s oppression. paranoia and pride, but Ezekiel’s prediction of the valley of dead bones seems more distant. This exactly why people should not be sucked into unbelief. Just when we say “impossible” God jumps in. Just when we say “peace and safety” calamity kisses us. For now, Israel, its allies and its enemies are in the zone of the undead, thriving on the flesh and blood of others.

Israel is a proverb

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The people of the Middle East never saw past the movie that evangelicals and Catholics have been packing and pushing for the last millennia.  If you want to know what good government, human nobility, and divine authority look like you will do yourself a favor by examining the Bible.  A book written long before the American Revolution, long before the Arab Emirates became a broker, and long before the United Nations rose to foster cooperation and justice.  As it turns out the nations with the most detailed set of laws are the most lawless.  The nation that gave us the wisest ruler in all of human history is the most brutish and foolish of all nations.  The people with the most amazing story of ancestry and high hopes are the people who most often trample on the ancestry and high hopes of others.  Israel’s proverb status is best understood as the reduction from substance to words, sometimes, mere words, and mere words is often the case for both Israel and its staunchest allies.  They are really just all talk, malicious programs, and trigger happy warriors, and big swords.

Missing the magical metre

3. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” 4. And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. (Revelation of John 6:3-4, NASB)

Reading the Bible leaves no doubt that all the nations have failed to climb the little hills of justice and peace.  Governments and leaders are not going to be evaluated as loyal to religious doctrine.  Only three things will make their day of reckoning tolerable: peace, righteousness and relieving oppression.

3. Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills, in righteousness. 4. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. (Psalms 72:3-4, from NASB)

Moses and the United Nations are waiting

While young Jewish men are taking over their neighbours’ lands, and the neighbours are hoping for a piece of the Arab pie, laws are flaunted, borders violated, hopes dashed and the history of annihilation comes around like clockwork.   Laws do not mean a thing outside of a person’s head, and they mean even less outside a person’s heart.  None of the evangelical think tanks and Catholic congregations for doctrine have a wholesome outcome for the world.  They all foster illegalities in the name of crisis and self defence.   Israel has always been an ungodly and unrighteous nation.  The fact that annihilation can be an Israeli policy is utterly abominable, but who can tell us who is really watching the fox in the coop?  “Nation of law” is a convenient cover, but laws are to be guides to doing better, not the same as the good old days.

Unbelief is written all over the various classes of government.  Whatever benefit people think they derive from heroic and authoritarian regimes is momentary.  All rulers, with rare exceptions, have one preoccupation.

Peter answers a taxman’s question about paying taxes. 

25. He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26. When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. (Matthew 17:25-26, NASB)

42. Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43. “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44. and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45, NASB)

The kingdom of Judah, long gone, is a story like no other.  The pipedream of Mosaic legacy pervading the planet is not even a dry joke.  Even the prophets are broken vessels, but David’s great son has not even one bone broken.  The Israeli projector does not work when the pieces of Moses’ prediction are in full evidence.

Who is a hated, hateful, terror and terrorist

‘I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. (Jeremiah 24:9, NASB)

Grabbing headlines with crime and cruelty

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Do not believe for a second that the world will ever see a credible accounting of who was killed in its war to annihilate a terrorist organization.  War is one thing the United Nations defines with precision and crimes against humanity have gone unpunished since 1948.  Jebusites, marked for extermination in the campaign to take possession of Canaan, lived to see the beating heart of the immigrant community rise with their commercial and reverent contribution.

Marked for death and dispossession

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, (Deuteronomy 7:1, NASB)

Survivors of divine decrees

Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day. (Joshua 15:63, NASB)

Prophet and king who know the truth

So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” (2 Samuel 24:18, NASB)

The truth ignored with a racist policy

Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. (Ezra 9:1, NASB)

Exemplary cities in the reliable accounts

Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. (1 Kings 7:13, NASB), then a wave of unprecedented immigration takes place.  (Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold according to all his desire), then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. (1 Kings 9:11, NASB)

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22. “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:21-22, NASB)

Contrasts in neighbourly affairs

Compare the policies in the drive International relationships today with those of 2,000 years ago, and see that decency and high marble standards are no longer the priority of the inhabitants of the land flowing with milk and honey.

17. Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, 18. who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. 19. And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all. (Luke 6:17-19, NASB)

Bombs and air strikes may impress vengeful people but they solve no problem and undoubtedly corrupt good practice.  Violent crime  and mass murder self defence were never solutions to the human problem of greed, selfishness and idolatry.  So, what else is news?   Human propensity for violence has been growing steadily since the age of Abraham.  Divine judgment is not slack, neither is divine grace for those who respond to supreme generosity

Peace through violence is unimaginable and popular

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Guess who wants peace and shows that they do?  Neither kingdom nor state, nor freedom fighter, nor terrorist.

1) And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will stream to it. 2) Many nations will come and say, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For from Zion will go forth the law, Even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3) And He will judge between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they train for war. 4) Each of them will sit under his vine And under his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid, For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

Micah 4:1-4, NASB

What really happened on October 7, 2023

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Some people, thinking that eyes do not work anymore for the rest of us, are hoping to convince us that they know what really happened on October 7th in Israel.  Go figure.  With assorted assassinations, public protests, suicide bombings, the slow erosion of democratic priorities, noses thumbed at United Nations resolutions, fifty years have proved that talk is cheap and mostly duplicitous.  Forgive me.  Escalating barbarities is not war.  Honest leaders are hard to find and peace will reign when the lies skink back into the shadows

If people only knew what peace looks like!

The shedding of innocent blood in Jerusalem is not a modern problem to be blamed on foreigners.

41) When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42) saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:41-42, NASB)

For thus says the Lord of hosts, “Cut down her trees And cast up a siege against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose midst there is only oppression.” (Jeremiah 6:6, NASB)

But your eyes and your heart are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, and on shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression and extortion. (Jeremiah 22:17, NASB)

What conversation?

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May 09, 2022.

Crazy photo op by Canadian PM is how a morning show television host describes the visit into Kyiv on May 8, but one should hear what the Ukrainian partners had to say about the value of a visit. That does not even need to be googled.  I find that getting animated about what the Canadian government should have done instead is not a conversation.  If you have been to or watched a decent church service you are sure to have seen a rare genuine conversation. Very little of what goes on in government houses and political CONferences or CONventions will pass for fundamental conversation.  Canadians talk about the weather a lot because we know that no-one is likely to think we are looking for any credit or recognition as meteorologists.  Having a digital footprint and using it to spread whatever comes to mind or what shows up in an internet search is not contribution to a conversation,  and having no expertise or professional standard as a compass, television hosts are the swiftly rising destroyers of conversation.

The converse Asian is a guy with a lot of loud talk which we suppose follows sober thinking, but we cannot say we knew how many nations would sit on the fence when borders change by force  as the Ukrainians are currently experiencing.

The PRC and a host of other nations are publicly neither pro nor con Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the early morning pundits on television are neither for NATO to join the battle against Russia as if Ukraine was a NATO member, nor are they against a veto in a democratically operated UN Security Council.

Cultural figleaf in play

War is what many want to see, including the cowardly.  If international laws have been broken then the international cops need to serve and protect.  The late US president G.H. Bush was able to gather a coalition against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in what, though effective, turned out to be another poor demonstration of collective security.  Boots on the ground against all odds was last seen in the 1940s when Britain went to Africa to reverse the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.  There has never been an international action that mirrors NATO’S article 5, and war can be fought in many ways by the international community’s agencies to end lawless ventures. It seems that starting a shooting war should not be automatic especially in the age of nuclear vulnerability. Apparently, no-one at the UN, NATO, ASEAN, the Arab League, or the Gulf Cooperation Council can do anything more than protect what is left of their pride and precarious resource influence. None of the remedies are working, despite evidence of their effectiveness over the centuries. Neither diversity nor overwhelming majorities like language or religion have brought Asia, Europe, or the Middle East the security or prosperity one expects when the focus everywhere is said to be people-based, culturally-sensitive and non-destructive. Do African, Pacific, and Asian nations need eyes on Europe, China or Japan to achieve the better dreams of the next generation? You can be sure they are all asking “What next generation?”

What is a human right when death knocks persistently

People had better start looking for the real source of their rights, and it will certainly not be a religion a culture, or a thriving and centuries-old economy. Effective communities cannot base their longevity on the extinction of any of the rights of any of the members of the communities. Employers, employees, children and elders have inalienable rights but only people have rights because they are alive. Effective combat, against tribalism, government corruption, climate change, and even external military threats does not have to include hundreds of fatalities and wanton destruction of property. Some nations do have qualms about reckless decimation of their own populations, including their heads of state.  We count ourselves fortunate that we are not living under any of the ancient or modern wisdom that wants to pass as divinely designed. The ease with which human rights can be violated means that human life is not a concern of the nation as a whole. They all seem ready and willing to murder, assassinate or neutralize their own citizens. There are not enough people who understand that governments, kings, prophets, religious leaders, and politicians are not the guarantors of our rights. These functionaries are the ones who have allowed human rights to take a second place to their need to appear in charge. Collective security is a global ideal on paper, and the current roster of accountable nations do not have the smallest bit of humanity in their national DNA.

Guess what happens when people who do not speak the dominant language or follow the cultural priorities. They kill you. They put you in a ghetto or reserve. So people should stop pretending that the mantras of our many silos are part of a conversation that is changing minds. Mothers who are educated in every way are the solution for minds that need to be changed. Mothers have shaped human character when it matters most and their influence is at risk of disappearing. Who wants uneducated women training their sons and daughters? Can we stand the disappearance of Afghanistan and any nation alike it because we trust men who think nothing of the only entity declared the mother of all living? They have to know, if they believe all the prophets, that the nobility of women puts a lie to their so-called submission to God and enlightened governance. Lies and violence get exposed every time there is informed genuine conversation.