By Daphne Anson
Ah, how pristine our old friend Stephen Sizer’s passport appears to be in this 2013 checkpoint photo opportunity:
As gleaming as this token “honorary” one the peripatetic ex-vicar acquired on his travels recently:
With frequent peregrinations hither and thither in the cause of undermining Christian support for Israel it’s not surprising that the EU one is looking a tad knocked about a bit.
Our old friend has been visiting Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Ramallah, all the while treating his followers on social media to such posts as these (the first two are nods to Sandra Watfa):
which, inter alia, attracted such odious and unchallenged responses as these from his disciples:
There was also this from the so-called Peacemaker Mediators’ CEO:
That article:
‘Howard Jacobson, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Simon Schama posted an open letter in The Times in which they said they were “troubled by the tone and direction of debate about Israel and Zionism within the Labour Party”.
In the centenary year of the Balfour Declaration, in which the British government committed its support to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the trio say: “Zionism is the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. We believe that anti-Zionism, with its antisemitic characteristics, has no place in a civil society.”
In 2009, Booker Prize winner Jacobson, now 75, wrote that criticism of Israel was “a desire to word a country out of existence,” and this week he again equated criticism of Israel with the will to destroy it.
“We do not object to fair criticism of Israel governments,” the three wrote, “but this has grown to be indistinguishable from a demonisation of Zionism itself – the right of the Jewish people to a homeland, and the very existence of a Jewish state.”
They said Jewish conspiracy theories had resurfaced along with “the promotion of vicious, fictitious parallels with genocide and Nazism,” adding: “How, in such instances, is anti-Zionism distinguishable from antisemitism?”
Adding their voice to a growing debate about anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the authors also allege that anti-Zionists “claim innocence of any antisemitic intent” but “frequently borrow the libels of classical Jew-hating”.
Turning their combined attention to Labour, they say “such themes and language have become widespread in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party… so far the Labour leadership’s reaction has been derisory. It is not enough to denounce all racisms”.’
And if by this post he’s attempting to indict Israel, he’s barking up the wrong tree:
For we read:
‘Approximately 215 million Christians experience high, very high, or extreme persecution. North Korea remains the most dangerous place to be a Christian (for 14 straight years). Islamic extremism remains the global dominant driver of persecution, responsible for initiating oppression and conflict in 35 out of the 50 countries on the 2017 list. Ethnic nationalism is fast becoming a major driver of persecution. “While this took an anti-establishment form in the West, in Asia it took an anti-minorities form, fueled by dramatic religious nationalism and government insecurity. It is common—and easy—for tottering governments to gain quick support by scapegoating Christians. The total number of persecution incidents in the top 50 most dangerous countries increased, revealing the persecution of Christians worldwide as a rising trend.
The most violent: Pakistan, which rose to No. 4 on the list for a level of violence “exceeding even northern Nigeria.”
….The top 10 nations where it is most dangerous and difficult to practice the Christian faith are:
North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Eritrea’
But coming back to that passport with its Israeli stamps, here’s what our old friend has to say, along with his fellow Christian Israel-basher Jeremy Moodey, who as its (now ex-) CEO put Embrace the Middle East (formerly BibleLands) on its present anti-Israel path:
As to why these campaigners against Christian Zionism are so deplorable, read what French-born US-based Olivier Melnick wrote in 2015 here
Incidentally, on the subject of the phrase “Judeo-Christian” there is a most contentious current article by a Canadian British-based academic here
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