Appearance, reality and the spoiling of the Holy Land

Appearance, reality and the spoiling of the Holy Land

MANY Catholics are under the illusion that because the Holy Land falls within that area currently encompassed by the state of Israel, that they are somehow bound by their Faith to profess fraternal loyalty to that country.

Some even hold to the notion that because of the Old Testament Covenant with the Jews (broken by the Crucifixion), that the state of Israel is a solid ally of the Christian Faith. Nothing could be further from the truth - and there is perhaps no greater distortion of truth in the world today than that which blinds Christians to the true nature of the Israeli state.

The events unfolding in Gaza (at the time of writing) are the latest in a long line of heinous calumnies and atrocities committed against the Palestinian people. The lies and distortions surrounding these events - repeated as truth ad nauseum by the Western media - are brazen in the extreme.

The latest "crisis" in the Middle East surrounded the "kidnapping" of an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, just days ago. Israel's prompt response was manifold. Firstly, they surrounded Gaza with armour and infantry, in preparation for an invasion; then they launched a bombing campaign on the territory.

They then proceeded to arrest Hamas cabinet members elected into office by the Palestinians, before invading airspace of a sovereign nation (Syria), and shutting off water and electricity supplies to 1.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza. All this for one soldier? Is this the words of Rabbi Ya'acov Perrin in action, whom in February 1994 was quoted by the New York Times as having said that "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail"?

The London Times of June 29 had the gall to say that "the fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19, kidnapped by militants, will almost certainly decide whether the Middle East is plunged into a new cycle of violence, or whether Palestinians and Israelis can finally settle their differences through negotiation." Ergo, blame the Palestinians.

MANUFACTURED

But who is really to blame for this manufactured "crisis"? The Israelis, along with a compliant Western media (including the "Irish" one) argue that the capture of an enemy Israeli soldier is nothing more than an act of terrorism and deliberate, one-sided provocation. And since 1948 Israel - which itself came into being through coercion and murder (the Stern and Irgun gangs come to mind) - has always responded to such convenient "provocations" with overwhelming force.

To find the roots of this latest, most brazen development in a programme of genocide against the Palestinians, we needn't go back as far as 1948. That said, the Irish should especially be aware of the illegality of uprooting an entire people as part of a massive land grab. On this occasion, we need only throw our minds back to a couple of weeks ago, when Israeli shell fire - despite attempts to prove otherwise - slaughtered a host of Palestinian non-combatants (including women and babies) on a beach in Gaza.

Such an atrocity - further inflamed by attempts to pin the blame on Hamas - constitutes an act of war against an entire people. In war, enemy combatants are captured. That is what allegedly happened to Corporal Gilad Shalit - that is, if the entire situation wasn't deceptively constructed as a pretext.

For some reason, it is accepted that the Israeli Defence Forces, as well as state agencies like Mossad and Shin Bet, are allowed to carry out torture, assassinations, kidnappings and a host of other heinous crimes and deceptions with impunity. But when an Israeli soldier is captured in the midst of a war, only then do such actions become illegal. It follows that the Israeli military - under the guise of "fighting terrorism" - mete out all kinds of punishments, and embark upon more criminal land grabs. And yet, Western governments and media cliques conveniently forget that this whole "crisis" started with the murder of Palestinian civilians on that beach in Gaza.

Sadly, Western thought is so paralysed that the original act perpetrated by the Israelis is either forgotten, or when examined, seems vaguely justifiable. Uniforms, American weapons, business contacts and an overwhelming influence in the international media give the Israelis an aura of antiquated statehood and respectability.

Consequently, those who deserve respectability and statehood are portrayed as a rag-tag murder gang with a fetish for blowing themselves up in crowded areas. What is a war suddenly becomes a terroristic "assault on democracy"; and what is the legitimate capture of an enemy soldier inevitably becomes a "kidnapping", warranting an outrageous Israeli response. It's a story familiar to the Irish.

WHERE IRELAND SHOULD STAND

Media spin aside, it is painfully clear that no Catholic and patriotic Irish person should hold any respect or recognition for Zionism, a movement built on a bizarre form of ethnosupremacist Communism, and one which is as anti-Christian as it is anti-Muslim. What is being inflicted on the Palestinians (many of whom are Christians) today is a magnification of what the Tans and Auxiliaries did to the Irish people between 1920 and 1921. The entire history of the state of Israel is one of land theft, genocide and persecution, not unlike Ireland's tragic tale of occupation by the Crown.

We have a government which claims that it inherits the legacy of 1916; and yet, so slavish to U.S. foreign policy, it permits the transfer of American-made attack helicopters to Israel via Shannon. And knowing the amount of international treaties and human rights conventions Israel continues to break, our Department of Foreign Affairs maintains ambassadorial relations with the Israeli government, and instead focuses on sounding off at Iran, or whoever else might be in Washington's crosshairs.

Perhaps Chaim Weizmann, one of the founders of the Zionist state, summed up the roots of the conflict best when addressing concerned Gentiles in a 1920 edition of Judische Rundschau: "We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world."

It's high time that Catholics and traditional Irish patriots recaptured the anti-war banner from the dregs of the far left, and extend their solidarity to all peoples under siege by Zionist liars and warmongerers - in whatever milieux they may lurk.

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