IS ISRAEL EXEMPT FROM INTERNATIONAL LAW?
By Rev. Ted Pike
7 June 10
Jewish "civil liberties" groups, especially the Anti-Defamation League, increasingly enforce their own perverted definitions of crucial moral terms such as love, hate, bias and tolerance. No one seems particularly bothered by their self-anointed right to form moral judgments for society. Today—after Israel's deadly raid on the relief flotilla—we see that the Jewish state rivals ADL in creating its own self-serving definitions.
During the raid, a 19-year-old US citizen was shot five times in the face, leg and back of the head from a range of less than 20 inches. The nine slain Turks were shot a total of 30 times. Israel and its US supporters defend all the commandoes' actions. Here are some of Israel's skewed terms, elucidated by a Daily Star interview with renowned international law expert, Marcello Kohen:
- "Armed Conflict" and "Blockade" — Israel says it is at "armed conflict" with Gaza's leadership, Hamas, and this justifies its blockade. Yet international law says a blockade is justified only in international armed conflict (IAC) between nations - not a non-international armed conflict (NIAC). Gaza is not a state but an occupied territory of Israel. Despite violations, Hamas did agree to a truce after Israel's bombardment 17 months ago. According to UN General Assembly resolution 3314, the Israeli blockade is illegal - an act of aggression and collective punishment against the people of Gaza.
- "Custody" — Israel says it has the right, as do nations at war, to intercept (possibly violently) and seize ships of other nations in international waters who might penetrate their blockade. These include ships in the flotilla registered by Turkey, Greece, and the United States. Yet if Israel's blockade is illegal, Israel's commandeering of such ships in international waters is an act of war against non-combatant nations.
- "Self-Defense" —If Israel's interception of the flotilla was illegal, then it was defenders of the flotilla, not Israel's commandos, who acted in self-defense. They were entitled to defensive, even violent resistance.
- "Terrorist Sympathizers" — Israel asserts that since some of the flotilla passengers from 40 countries have ties with Hamas, all 700 may be arrested, detained, deprived of free speech and action, and looted of belongings such as cameras and computers. By such actions, Israel says anyone in the world who strongly sympathizes with Palestinian rights has no rights under Israel's interpretation of international law.
- "Provoking" and "Violent"— Days before the flotilla was raided, Israel described its relief efforts as "violent propaganda" meant to discredit the Jewish state. Israel implies that Israel's critics are unstable and imminently lawless; they should be restricted before they actually commit violence.
Israel and its heavy-hitting public relations arm, ADL, are now engaged in a propaganda war to persuade the world that their twisted definitions jive with international law. Unfortunately, tens of millions of evangelical Christians accept such disinformation. In this, they believe a source that—in every regard—is a proven foe of Christianity itself!
The Anti-Defamation League, like the Jewish Southern Poverty Law Center and Jewish-dominated ACLU (See, ACLU Top Heavy with Jews), is the fiercest opponent of Christian and conservative values. It aggressively promotes homosexuality, abortion, and hate crimes laws and opposes every Christian effort to redeem society through political and social action.
Yet Christian/conservat
By echoing ADL/Israel disinformation, evangelicals ignore the central issue: Does Israel alone, of all other nations fighting the "War on Terror," have unique rights to transgress national boundaries and sovereignties to punish those it views as "terrorist sympathizers?
Why Israel's Special Rights?
ADL held a special emergency conference last week in Israel to consider how the Jewish state should deal with what they view as the exponential increase of anti-Semitism worldwide (www.adl.org, June 2). ADL considers practically the whole critical world to be in a desperate offensive to delegitimize Israel, encourage its enemies, and end its existence. This war, they say, can only be compared to previous Arab wars against the Jewish state. ADL director Abe Foxman says the flotilla:
is part of the latest version of the 62-year assault against Israel's very existence. The first took place during the 25 initial years of Israel's existence and it was called war —1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. The second phase was terrorism, highlighted by the suicide attacks between 2002 and 2005. Now we are in the third phase, the growing campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state, to make it a pariah among nations and ultimately end its existence. There are many ways this is happening — through the campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and, of course, the Goldstone Report. Now add the flotilla affair to that growing list, a tragedy that didn't have to happen but is yet another example of how human life is expendable in the cause of attacking the state of Israel.
Israel is more determined than ever to have rights to cross national boundaries anywhere on the planet in order to attack "terrorist" enemies. Today, perceived threats to Israel's existence include the flotilla activists. Tomorrow it could be anyone who has compassion on Palestinian suffering ("terrorist sympathizer"), says the Jews killed Christ or is strongly critical of Israel ("anti-Semite"), or questions the accuracy of the six-million figure of Jewish Holocaust dead ("Holocaust denier").
Israel has long violated national boundaries through military offensives, targeted assassinations, and kidnappings of those it wants to silence (such as nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu). But never has Israel's violation of international law been as flagrant and widely publicized as last week. If Israel admits actual piracy, as Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi (Balad) accused on the floor of Knesset, the Jewish state may have to surrender its special exemption from international law.
Israel will never do so. It rejects international investigation of the flotilla raid and insists its own investigation will be enough. Israel knows an international coalition of jurists would recognize the raid for what it was: illegal. This, more than ever, would justify critics who have for decades described Israel as a rogue nation, violating international law and UN resolutions by perpetuating illegal settlements, torture, and human rights violations. (See, Torture in Israeli Prisons).
"Israel-First" Christians Oppose Themselves
Tragically, evangelicals do not realize that in uniting with ADL/Israel they are helping break down the authority of international law. Christians could be the first victims of such loss of freedom.
As architect of hate crimes laws worldwide, ADL is in the supremely powerful position of deciding who is an "anti-Semite," "hate criminal," or even "domestic terrorist." ADL's Department of Global Anti-Semitism in the US State Department already says any Christian who publicly asserts that the Jews had Christ killed is a "classic anti-Semite" (See, U.S. State Department Says New Testament is 'Anti-Semitic'?). Called the "blood charge," this New Testament doctrine is already a hate crime under ADL's Canadian hate law; it is punishable by at least a $5,000 fine and prison, if repeated.
Orthodox rabbi Nachum Shifren describes ADL's power to define society's "hate criminals:"
'And what is the definition of 'hateful,' you ask? Simple, whatever the ADL dictates. And how, you'll ask can that possibly happen here in the land of the Free, the home of the Brave? Again, simple: just play the anti-Semitic race card, and you will have people tripping all over themselves to acquiesce to your every whim. The facts are: not one Christian today in America dare read the Bible, with its exhortation against bestiality or homosexuality, without looking over their collective shoulders to see if the ADL is monitoring… ADL is 'working' 24/7 for their new 'messianic' legislation… The 'Hate Crimes Bill,' where the ADL will be positioned to establish a massive, pervasive, and fascist bureaucracy that will monitor every single American and impose in this country Nazi Germany-styled control - the ultimate vision of the leftist ADL…. The Day of the multiculturalists is here, aided and abetted by the ADL, using 'hate speech' as the Trojan horse that will destroy our once-great America. (See, The A.D.L. vs. Faith and Freedom)
Already, ADL and its parent organization, B'nai B'rith International, have permission in many countries to seize, deport and imprison anyone who questions the veracity of the sacred six-million figure of alleged Holocaust dead. (This includes the United States.) Jewish thought police initiated deportation of Holocaust questioner Ernst Zundel from his home in Tennessee; he was imprisoned in Canada, then Germany, for a total of seven years. They seized revisionist scientist Germar Rudolph from Chicago, sending him to a similar fate in Germany where he was detained and imprisoned for four years.
Will Israel's right to go outside its national boundaries and seize "Hamas sympathizers" be severely rebuked or indulged again? If it is allowed, Israel will only be empowered to globally lengthen its "anti-terrorist" reach. Again, Rabbi Schifren confirms ADL has such persecutive global ambitions.
There is a second camp - a more sinister group, that has done more damage to the Jews and caused more murder and destruction that all of Israel's enemies combined…. It holds a vision of a One World Order, together with Marx, Trotsky, and Lenin - an evil that, to date, has claimed nearly 200 million souls. With these international bandits and mind-control wizards stand the ADL… The ADL's agenda is simple: anything that will increase their power and control is good…. In order for their to be a One World Order, man's spirit and soul must be brought low, be subjugated to the level of the beasts… In this camp we find the ADL.
Jesus said in the last days His followers will be dragged to Jewish synagogues and authorities to be condemned and imprisoned (Luke 21:12). In that day, Israel's power (as " Babylon the Great") (See, Israel: On the Way to Empire in the Mideast) to seize and deport "hateful, anti-Semitic" Christians to Israel will have been established through countless precedents. How will those precedents be carved? By doing exactly what the evangelical world now advocates: granting Israel privilege over international law!
Thus, the same evangelicals whom Jesus said will suffer Jewish persecution now stand mutely while ADL puts an "anti-Semitic," "domestic terrorist" noose around them. By joining with ADL/Israel to distract from Israel's flouting of international law, Christian/conservat
Evangelicals, you are supremely confident that you have the whole truth on the flotilla affair. Yet Jesus predicted that in the last times falsehood would be so pervasive that even the very elect, if possible, would be deceived.
Does it bother you, even a little, that you have received such enlightenment from those Jesus described as "the synagogue of Satan?" (Revelation 3:9)
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Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservat
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