THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM - The Gospel of Arab Nationalism trumps Christianity

The four Arab heads of Christian Churches in Israel; Catholic, Lutheran, Syrian Orthodox and Episcopal have drafted and signed a statement titled 'Jerusalem Statement on Christian Zionism' that is full of some of the most mind-boggling hypocrisy imaginable.

The statement does little more than parrot the Arab position on every matter. They accuse Israel, the United States and Christian Zionists of "imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine," a statement full of redundant and senseless propagandist rhetoric.

It's full of repetitive statements accusing Christian Zionists and by extension Israel of 'militarism, occupation, colonialism, racial exclusivity, perpetual war, apartheid, empire-building' and all such good stuff. It's not clear what empire is being built exactly. Israel withdrew from Gaza and its territory which is already smaller than Rhode Island is only dwindling. But reality has never stopped Arab propaganda before and the statement is just warming up as it goes on to accuse Israel of every crime under the sun.

There's a paragraph inserted stating, "We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism," but the rest of it goes on to rant how Israel is creating Palestinian ghettos surrounded by settlements with no recognition of what the Israeli people's suffering consists of or that Israel has already withdrawn from Gaza and even Hamas admits it has only made things worse for the Palestinian arabs living there.

But discarding the usual left-wing, Arab and pro-terrorist rhetoric there are some interesting nuggets in their statement of principles.

"We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity."

This is a rather odd statement for the heads of Christian Churches to make. It's not a Christian statement but a patently nationalistic one that opposes any separate discussions of rights for Christian Arabs ; essentially the heads of the top four Christian churches in Israel just signed away their own parishioners who are being persecuted by the Arab Muslim authorities. It's not a statement being made by the heads of Christian Churches but by prominent Arabs who prioritize Arab nationalism over Christianity.

The irony is that just above the statement had said, "We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ." ...only to now proclaim their support for 'Racial Exclusivity' on the basis of a mythical Palestinian nationality and to deny a universal connection between Christians in favor of racial Arab nationalism.

They follow up that hypocrisy in their very next paragraph with, "We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others." The fantastic irony of that is that their entire statement is an Arab nationalistic creed that privileges Arabs over Jews, so much so that they're endorsing a system that privileges Muslims over Christians, their statement consists of nothing except a defense of Arab grievances against Israel with no statement at all about terrorism and the sufferings of Israelis; and yet here they are lecturing Christian Zionists on "racial exclusivity and privileging one people at the expense of another." Truly the hypocrisy is mind-boggling.

"We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace." What that commitment exactly consists of besides a charade of moral superiority is unclear. The prior Greek Orthodox Bishop who had been caught smuggling weapons to the PLO in the trunk of his car didn't sign it at least.

"This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God."

Of course by justice, rather than some objective idea what these clerics actually mean is justice as a synonym for every Arab demand there is, including ones that lead to the destruction of Israel while warning "No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear" ...in other words the terrorism will continue.

Translated from the rhetoric this is just a restatement of Arab positions, no end to the conflict without more and more Israeli concessions. Justice eventually meaning an eradication of Israel. Even as they lecture Christian Zionists on supporting Apartheid and Empire Building, in practice they are supporting the construction of another Arab state on the ruins of Israel as part of a larger strategy of Arab nationalism. In reality the empire building is their own and the accusations they level at Israel are actually true of themselves.

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:19)

Oddly enough there is no actual reconciliation to be found in their statement. Not reconciliation towards their fellow Christian 'Zionists' or towards Israel or Jews. All their document does is heap unproven accusations on Christian Zionists and on Israel, most of which they don't even bother citing any supporting evidence or examples for, backing purely nationalistic Arab demands for territory and borders without ONCE condemning or even mentioning terrorism and then smugly closing the statement with a quote on reconciliation and describing themselves as 'workers of peace' when all they're doing is restating the nationalistic demands of one people against another without any mention or acknowledgment that there might be more than one side to the story.

"Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land"

Predictably this is what happens when Christian Churches in the Middle-East wind up being arab run, they become nothing more than mouthpieces for the Arab authorities, in this case Syria, Hamas and the PLO, all of it dressed up as religion when the reality is they're betraying their own co-religionists by handing them over to Hamas authority and endorsing an Arab nationalism that was once the purview of Anti-Christian Marxists like the PLO or the PFLP and today is the purview of Anti-Christian Muslims like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.